HISTORY OF THE SABBATH by John Nevins Andrews

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Oct 22, 1861

HISTORY OF THE SABBATH.

By John Nevins Andrews

"HISTORY of the Sabbath and First Day of the Week, Showing the Bible Record of the Sabbath, also the Manner in Which It Has Been Supplicated by the Heathen Festival of the Sun," is the title of a work of 340 pp. just issued by the Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association.

This work is the result of Elder J. N. Andrews' studious and arduous researches upon the subject, as he has had opportunity, for the last ten years. The work is in two parts. The first gives the Bible history of the institution. It shows the Sabbath instituted in Eden, answers the popular objections, and refutes the claims of Sunday-keeping to Divine authority. Part second is a thorough and candid presentation of secular history bearing on the subject, showing up the fallacy and deception of the popular quotations from the fathers and some warped historians to sustain the first day of the week as the Christian Sabbath. As a more minute description of the work we give the preface, as follows:

"When the claims of the Bible Sabbath are brought to bear upon the consciences of men, various excuses are framed with which to evade their force. Some affirm that the Sabbath of the Lord is a Jewish institution with which Christians have no concern; others affirm that Sunday is the true seventh day; others that one day in seven is all that is essential to the proper observance of the commandment; another class affirm that no one can tell what day is the true seventh day; and a still more numerous class profess to believe that Sunday has, by Divine authority, obtained the place of the ancient Sabbath. And it is not unfrequently that persons are met with, who, in one conversation, attempt to maintain all these positions.

"It is believed that nothing can present so direct a refutation of these discordant and unscriptural positions as a plain narrative of facts relative to the Sabbath of the Lord and the heathen festival of the sun.

"To correct these errors is one object of the present work; a more important object in view is to set forth in a clear light the character and the claims of the ancient Sabbath. The institution of the Sabbath for the human family while the race was yet unfallen attests alike the sacredness of the institution and the unfounded nature of that theory which represents it as designed only for the Hebrew people. The complete apostasy of the human race with the single exception of the family of Abraham, fully explains the Law-giver's choice of that people as the depositaries for ages of his Sabbath and his law. At the close of the Mosaic dispensation, the action of the Lord of the Sabbath is scrutinized with peculiar care. It is there shown that while he vindicated the Sabbath as a merciful institution, he did not weaken, abrogate, or change it. The question of the obligation of the Gentiles to observe the Sabbath and the whole moral law is carefully considered; and the claims of the first day of the week as a Divine institution are shown to be without any foundation. The means by which that festival obtained a foothold in the church, and the nature of the testimonies by which it is now defended are carefully examined.

"Whoever will trace the persistent efforts for ages, of kings, emperors, popes and councils, to establish Sunday in place of the day Divinely sanctified, may find ample proof that these two days are not identical; that Sunday is not the true seventh day; and that the reckoning of the days of the week has never been a matter of doubt.

"It will also be seen that the seventh-part-of-time theory was invented soon after the Reformation of the sixteenth century, by men who professed to follow the Bible, in order to justify themselves in retaining the venerable day of the sun, instead of returning to the observance of the ancient Sabbath.

"It is shown also that the Sabbath was observed by the primitive church, and that the people of God when they fled into the wilderness before the papal power, did there sacredly preserve that ancient institution; and that in all ages of our world's history a remnant at least have retained the Sabbath of the Lord.

"The only seventh-day historians quoted in this work are Mr. Maxon and Mr. Utter; and these are quoted near the conclusion of the work, and on matters that are not in dispute. The reader has therefore the best possible guaranty that the testimonies quoted in this work were not written in the interest of the Bible Sabbath.

"To the fear, so often expressed, that the discussion of this subject will do hurt, and that it would be better to induce men to keep Sunday well than to show them that they are not observing the true Sabbath, we have only to cite in reply the words of inspiration: 'In vain do ye worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.' J. N. A."