An Extract from History

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The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Apr 11, 1865

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 25, No. 19.

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An Extract from History.

"Passing from inspired history to that which is uninspired, we find frequent notices of Sabbath-keepers during the first six centuries of the church. Mosheim mentions persons of this class in the second century; and Robinson says, that there were at Rome about that time a large number of churches observing the seventh day. Indeed, the notion that a change had been introduced as to the day on which the Sabbath should be observed, seems not then to have been entertained. In process of time, however, a custom arose of celebrating the resurrection of Christ by a religious meeting on the first day of the week.
No historical record, sacred or profane, has informed us of the first celebration of this day; nor is there any certain evidence that it was at first observed weekly. It seems to have been introduced as a voluntary festival to commemorate the resurrection, just as the sixth-day was observed to commemorate the crucifixion, and the fifth-day to commemorate the ascension. Though not regarded as the Sabbath."—Benedict's History of the Baptist Denomination, p. 919.