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—Wordsworth.
Pope Innocent III gave orders concerning them as follows:
"Therefore by this present apostolical writing, we give you a strict command that, by whatever means you can, you destroy all these heresies and expel from your diocese all who are polluted with them. You shall exercise the rigor of ecclesiastical power against them and all those who have made themselves suspected by associating with them. They may not appeal from your judgments, and, if necessary, you may cause the princes and people to suppress them with the sword."—Quoted from Migne, 214, col. 71, in Thatcher and McNeal's "Source Book for Medieval History," p. 210.
As the truth spread, so also the papal church redoubled its efforts by sword and flame. The historian Lecky says:
"That the Church of Rome has shed more innocent blood than any other institution that has ever existed among mankind, will be questioned by no Protestant who has a competent knowledge of history. The memorials, indeed, of many of her persecutions are now so scanty that it is impossible to form a complete conception of the multitude of her victims, and it is quite certain that no powers of imagination can adequately realize their sufferings."—"History of the Rise and Influence of the Spirit of Rationalism in Europe," Vol. II, p. 32.
Motley, in his "Rise of the Dutch Republic" (part 3, chap. 2), tells how Philip II of Spain—who declared that he would "never consent to be the sovereign of heretics"—sent the Duke of Alva to take over the Netherlands:
"Early in the year the most sublime sentence of death was promulgated which has ever been pronounced since the creation of the world. The Roman tyrant [Nero] wished that his enemies' heads were all upon a single neck, that he might strike them off at a blow; the Inquisition assisted Philip to place the heads of all his Netherlands subjects upon a single neck for the same fell purpose. Upon February 16, 1568, a sentence of the Holy Office condemned all the inhabitants of the Netherlands to death as heretics. From this universal doom only a few persons, especially named, were excepted. A proclamation of the king, dated ten days later, confirmed this decree of the Inquisition, and ordered it to be carried into instant execution, without regard to age, sex, or condition. This is probably the most concise death warrant that was ever framed. Three millions of people, men, women, and children, were sentenced to the scaffold in three lines."
Roman Catholic writers admit that the papal church has sought to exterminate what it calls heresy, by the power of the sword.
The Western Watchman (St. Louis), Dec. 24, 1908, says:
"The church has persecuted.... Protestants were persecuted in France and Spain with the full approval of the church authorities. We have always defended the persecution of the Huguenots, and the Spanish Inquisition. Wherever and whenever there is honest Catholicity, there will be a clear distinction drawn between truth and error, and Catholicity and all forms of error. When she thinks it good to use physical force, she will use it."
Prof. Alfred Baudrillart, rector of the Catholic Institute of Paris, says:
"The Catholic Church is a respecter of conscience and of liberty.... She has, and she loudly proclaims that she has, a 'horror of blood.' Nevertheless, when confronted by heresy, she does not content herself with persuasion; arguments of an intellectual and moral order appear to her insufficient, and she has recourse to force, to corporal punishment, to torture. She creates tribunals like those of the Inquisition, she calls the laws of the state to her aid, if necessary she encourages a crusade, or a religious war, and all her 'horror of blood' practically culminates into urging the secular power to shed it, which proceeding is almost more odious—for it is less frank—than shedding it herself. Especially did she act thus in the sixteenth century with regard to Protestants. Not content to reform morally, to preach by example, to convert people by eloquent and holy missionaries, she lit in Italy, in the Low Countries, and above all in Spain, the funeral piles of the Inquisition. In France under Francis I and Henry II, in England under Mary Tudor, she tortured the heretics, whilst both in France and Germany during the second half of the sixteenth and the first half of the seventeenth century if she did not actually begin, at any rate she encouraged and actively aided, the religious wars."—"The Catholic Church, the Renaissance and Protestantism" (London, Kegan Paul, Trench, Truebner & Co., Ltd., 1908), pp. 182, 183.
She has done it—the Church of Rome has worn out the saints of the Most High. The prophet in vision saw an ecclesiastical kingly power rise among the kingdoms of the divided Roman Empire. Its look was more stout than its fellows, and the prophet heard it speaking "very great things," and saw it wearing out the saints of the Most High through the long centuries.
"Guilty!" is the clear verdict of history, against the Church of Rome on these two counts of the prophetic indictment.
"And Think to Change Times and Laws"
The power that was to speak great words against the Most High, and to wear out the saints of the Most High, was further—in its self-exalting opposition to God—to assume to lay hands upon times and laws, evidently the times and the laws of the Most High; for to say that such a power would lay hands on the laws of men, changing or setting aside human legislation, would signify less than the preceding counts. This third specification states a climax in the indictment—the self-exalting, persecuting power was to lay hands upon the very law of the Most High. It is clearly the same power that the apostle Paul said would rise to dominion after his time: "Then shall be revealed the lawless one." 2 Thess. 2:8, A.R.V.
God's Law Unchangeable
Just as the laws of a government express its character, so the law of God is a reflection of the divine character. "The law of the Lord is perfect." Ps. 19:7. "Wherefore the law is holy," said the apostle, "and the commandment holy, and just, and good." Rom. 7:12.
Jesus declared, "I delight to do Thy will, O My God: yea, Thy law is within My heart." Ps. 40:8. And He maintained the unchangeable, enduring integrity of that law: "Verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled." Matt. 5:18.
But in Daniel's prophecy is foretold the rise of this power that was to think to change the times and the laws of the Most High.
Here, again, the evidence points straight to the Church of Rome; for it is a fact that the Papacy has laid violent hands on the law of God—upon the precept, too, that deals with sacred time—and has thought to change it.
In a volume to be seen in the British Museum, dated 1545, the following comment on Dan. 7:25 is attributed to Philipp Melanchthon, the Reformer, associate of Luther (reproduced with the old English spelling):
"He changeth the tymes and lawes that any of the sixe worke dayes commanded of God will make them unholy and idle dayes when he lyste, or of their owne holy dayes abolished make worke dayes agen, or when they changed ye Saterday into Sondaye.... They have changed God's lawes and turned them into their owne tradicions to be kept above God's precepts."—"Exposition of Daniel the Prophete," Gathered out of Philipp Melanchthon, Johan Ecolampadius, etc., by George Joye, 1545, p. 119.
This is exactly what the power represented by the little horn was to assume to do. The commandment of God is plain:
"Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work: but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work.... For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it." Ex. 20:8-11.
A Change in Practice
But in general practice there has been a change—the first day is commonly observed instead of the seventh day, which the Lord declares he blessed and made holy. The Roman Catholic Church points exultingly to the fact that this change, so universally allowed today, has come about solely through church tradition without Scriptural authority. For instance, one Catholic writer says:
"You will tell me that Saturday was the Jewish Sabbath, but that the Christian Sabbath has been changed to Sunday. Changed! but by whom? Who has authority to change an express commandment of Almighty God? When God has spoken and said, Thou shalt keep holy the seventh day, who shall dare to say, Nay, thou mayest work and do all manner of worldly business on the seventh day; but thou shalt keep holy the first day in its stead? This is a most important question, which I know not how you can answer.
"You are a Protestant, and you profess to go by the Bible and the Bible only; and yet in so important a matter as the observance of one day in seven as a holy day, you go against the plain letter of the Bible, and put another day in the place of that day which the Bible has commanded. The command to keep holy the seventh day is one of the ten commandments; you believe that the other nine are still binding; who gave you authority to tamper with the fourth? If you are consistent with your own principles, if you really follow the Bible and the Bible only, you ought to be able to produce some portion of the New Testament in which this fourth commandment is expressly altered."—"Library of Christian Doctrine: Why Don't You Keep the Holy Sabbath Day?" (Burns and Oates London), p. 3.
Every one who studies the question must recognize the fact that there is no change authorized in Scripture. As Canon Eyton, of the Church of England, says:
"There is no word, no hint, in the New Testament about abstaining from work on Sunday.... Into the rest of Sunday no divine law enters."—"The Ten Commandments" (Truebner & Co.), London.
Dr. Heylyn, of the Church of England, wrote:
"Take which you will, either the Fathers or the moderns, and we shall find no Lord's day instituted by any apostolical mandate; no Sabbath set on foot by them upon the first day of the week."—"History of the Sabbath," part 2, chap. 1.
Authorities, both Protestant and Catholic, freely acknowledge that there is no divine authority for Sunday keeping. There has been a change in practice and teaching, but with no Scriptural authority.
What the Papacy Claims
The prophecy of Daniel 7 forewarned all that the ecclesiastical power that was to rise upon the division of the Roman Empire would think to change the times and the laws of the Most High. The Papacy steps forward and claims boldly that the church has power to set aside Scripture, to institute holy times, and even to change the day made holy and commanded by the Almighty as the day of rest for His people.
In a Catholic work, "An Abridgment of the Christian Doctrine," by Dr. Henry Turberville, page 61, we read:
"Question.—By whom was the change [of the Sabbath] made?
"Answer.—By the rulers of the church, the apostles who kept the Lord's day....
"Ques.—How do you prove that the church hath power to establish feasts and holy days?
"Ans.—By the very fact of changing the Sabbath to Sunday; this change Protestants allow; and therefore they contradict themselves by keeping Sunday strictly and breaking most other feasts commanded by the same church.
"Ques.—How prove you that?
"Ans.—Because by keeping Sunday they acknowledge the church's power to ordain feasts and to command them under sin; and by not keeping the rest commanded by her, they deny that she has power."
It is the doctrine taught in the standard catechisms of the Roman Church:
"Question.—Have you any other way of proving that the church has power to institute festivals of precept?
"Answer.—Had she not such power, she could not have done that in which all modern religionists agree with her,—she could not have substituted the observance of Sunday the first day of the week, for the observance of Saturday the seventh day, a change for which there is no Scriptural authority."—Keenan's "Doctrinal Catechism," p. 174.
Thus the Papacy proclaims itself the power that has thought to change the precepts of the Most High.
On every count, the Roman Church is the counterpart of the little horn of Daniel 7. Before our eyes—in the common practice of Christendom—the commandment of God regarding sacred time is made void by the traditions of men.
The prophecy indicated that there would come a call for a reformation in this matter. Speaking of the warfare against the saints and the times and laws of the Most High, to be waged by the little-horn power, the angel said:
"They shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time." Dan. 7:25.
In other words, when the 1260 years should expire, we should expect, according to the prophecy, to see a breaking of the Papacy's persecuting power over believers, a spreading abroad of the Holy Scriptures, and a work of reformation that would lift up the truths of God's Word, and call believers to keep once again the holy time and the holy law of the Most High.
The prophecy of Daniel 7 is one of God's special messages for all men in these last days, picturing the rise and history of the Papacy, and warning all against accepting its perversions of God's truth or recognizing its attempted change in the law of the Most High. Thank God for the "sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place." We are to follow the Lord and obey him, not this power that has risen up in opposition to him.
The angel's interpretation in this chapter does not leave the apostasy triumphant:
"The judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto the end."
Then the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdoms of the Most High, "and all dominions shall serve and obey Him."
"O, how shall we stand that moment of searching, When all our sins those books reveal? When from that court, each case decided, Shall be granted no appeal?"
THE BIBLE SABBATH
"He answered and said, Every plant, which My heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up." Matt. 15:13.
The scribes had come to Jesus with the complaint, "Why do Thy disciples transgress the tradition of the elders?" Jesus answered them with another question, "Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition?"
They had thought that Christ was introducing novelties, preaching new things, contrary to established church custom and practice. He showed them that He really stood for the old and established things of God's Word, and that their own religious customs, however old, were really the novelties, without divine authority. He said,
"In vain do they worship Me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men." And finally He added the words quoted above, "Every plant, which My heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up."
Let the principles be applied to the question of Sabbath observance. Sometimes in our day those who preach the word of God regarding the abiding holiness of the seventh-day Sabbath are accused of preaching new doctrines, contrary to the traditions and customs of the church. But really, the observance of Sunday, the first day, is the innovation; the seventh-day Sabbath is of ancient foundation.
Is the Seventh-day Sabbath a Plant of Our Heavenly Father's Planting?
Which of these two institutions has our heavenly Father planted? It is possible to ascertain to a surety; for every plant of His planting, every doctrine of His truth, will be found rooted in the Holy Scriptures. 2 Tim. 3:16, 17.
The Old Testament Record
From the Beginning.—When the Creator made the earth and man upon it, He made the seventh day of the weekly cycle His holy Sabbath.
"Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.... And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it He had rested from all His work which God created and made." Gen. 2:1-3.
To sanctify is "to set apart," and so the day made holy and blessed by God was set apart for man. Then it was, as Jesus said, that "the Sabbath was made for man." Mark 2:27. Here the Sabbath institution was planted at the beginning of the world.
At the Exodus.—The people of Israel, in their bondage in Egypt, had fallen away from the knowledge of God and become corrupted by the idolatrous worship of Egypt, Hence, as the Lord called them out to be His people, He tested their loyalty to His law by observing how they regarded His holy Sabbath:
"Then said the Lord unto Moses, Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day, that I may prove them, whether they will walk in My law, or no." Ex. 16:4.
So through the forty years the Lord sent the manna for them to gather on the six working days, withholding it on the Sabbath. (This scripture shows also that the Sabbath was a part of God's law before He spoke it from Sinai.)
At Sinai.—When the time came that the Lord would speak His holy law from heaven, the eternal foundation of His moral government, the Sabbath precept was enshrined in the heart of it:
"Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work: but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it." Ex. 20:8-11.
Through Israel's History.—Sabbath keeping was the great mark of loyalty to God. When Israel fell into idolatry, they "observed times" (see 2 Kings 21:6),—doubtless such heathen festivals to the sun god and other deities as were common among the idolatrous nations. These observances of other days meant Sabbath breaking. "Neither shall ye ... observe times.... Ye shall keep My Sabbaths." Lev. 19:26-30. The Lord had promised concerning Jerusalem:
"If ye diligently hearken unto Me, saith the Lord, to bring in no burden through the gates of this city on the Sabbath day, but hallow the Sabbath day, to do no work therein; then shall there enter into the gates of this city kings and princes sitting upon the throne of David,... and this city shall remain forever." Jer. 17:24, 25.
The divine pleading was slighted, and Jerusalem's fall and the Babylonian captivity came as the result of the Israelites' disregard of God's holy day.
Thus throughout the inspired record of the Old Testament the seventh-day Sabbath appears as a plant of the heavenly Father's own planting.
The New Testament Record
The Example and Teaching of Jesus.—It was Christ's "custom" to worship on the seventh day. Luke 4:16.
Jesus, who Himself made the Sabbath at creation (John 1:3), taught that it was "made for man,"—for the human race,—and declared, "The Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath." Mark 2:27, 28. It is, therefore, "the Lord's day." Rev. 1:10.
He did on the Sabbath only that which was "lawful," or according to the law of God's holy day. Matt. 12:12.
He kept His Father's commandments throughout His earthly life. John 15:10.
And giving instruction regarding events to take place many years after His ascension, He showed that He recognized the continued existence of the Sabbath in the command, "Pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the Sabbath day." Matt. 24:20.
Among New Testament Disciples.—The women, after the crucifixion, "rested the Sabbath day according to the commandment." Luke 23:56.
Inspiration says that the apostle Paul's custom was to preach the gospel publicly Sabbath after Sabbath. Acts 13:14; 16:13; 17:1, 2; 18:4. When the Gentiles of Antioch heard the gospel preached by the apostle one Sabbath, they "besought that these words might be preached to them the next Sabbath." Acts 13:42.
Throughout the New Testament, written years after Christ's ascension, the Holy Spirit, speaking of the seventh day, calls it "the Sabbath" upwards of fifty times. "Sabbath" means rest; therefore when the Holy Spirit, in the Christian age, calls the seventh day the rest day, it must infallibly be the day of rest for Christians, the Christian Sabbath.
In the Levitical or sacrificial ordinances of the sanctuary services there were annual sabbaths and feasts, associated with meats and drinks and ceremonial observances. But in appointing these the Lord specifically distinguished between them and the one and only weekly Sabbath, which was from the beginning. "These are the feasts of the Lord," He said, "beside the Sabbaths of the Lord." Lev. 23:37, 38.
The annual festivals and sabbaths, like all the ordinances of the Levitical service, were shadows of things to come, and found their fulfilment in the great sacrifice of Calvary. Col. 2:16, 17.
But the Sabbath of the Lord was made blessed and holy by God at the creation, before sin had entered the world, before any sacrificial or shadowy service was instituted to point to a coming Redeemer. It is a fundamental and primary institution, a part of the moral order of God's government for man, the same as the obligations set forth in each of the other commandments.
And Inspiration declares the eternal perpetuity of the blessed Sabbath day in the future home of the saved, when the prophet describes the felicity of the redeemed, as from month to month, and "from one Sabbath to another," all flesh shall come to worship before the Lord. Isa. 66:23.
Thus we find the seventh-day Sabbath a plant of the heavenly Father's planting, rooted deep in all Holy Scripture, and abiding eternally in the world to come.
Is the First-day Rest an Institution of God's Planting?
In the beginning, the first day was employed by God in the work of creation. Gen. 1:1-5.
Throughout all the Old Testament history it was one of "the six working days." Eze. 46:1.
It was the day of Christ's resurrection; but Inspiration says specifically that "the Sabbath was past" when that "first day of the week" came. Mark 16:1, 2. Inspiration called this first day merely by the ordinary secular name in common business use, with never a suggestion of attaching any sacredness to the day. For some of the disciples it was a day of journeying, in which the risen Christ joined them. Luke 24:13-29. Later He appeared to the other disciples in Jerusalem, gathered not in meeting, but at supper in their common dwelling house. Mark 16:14.
The only religious meeting recorded as occurring on the first day of the week was that held at Troas. (See Acts 20:6-13.) The context shows that it was an evening meeting, after the Sabbath,—Saturday night, as we would call it, for the Bible reckoning is from evening to evening. It was the last time the believers were ever to see the apostle's face, and as they lingered after the close of the Sabbath, he held an all-night farewell meeting, breaking bread with the believers, and leaving at daybreak Sunday morning for the eighteen- or twenty-mile journey afoot, across country to Assos. And while he spent the first day traveling afoot, his companions were journeying by boat.
Conybeare and Howson (of the Church of England), in that standard work, "Life and Epistles of St. Paul," tell the plain fact of the inspired record, save that manifestly they should not have applied the title "Jewish" to God's Sabbath; for it was not the Sabbath of the Jews, but "the Sabbath of the Lord thy God:"
"It was the evening which succeeded the Jewish Sabbath. On the Sunday morning the vessel was about to sail."—Chapter 20, p. 520.
Describing the road between Troas and Assos, they add:
"Strength and peace were surely sought and obtained by the apostle from the Redeemer as he pursued his lonely road that Sunday afternoon in spring among the oak woods and the streams of Ida."—Id., p. 522.
Once again the "first day of the week" is mentioned, in 1 Cor. 16:2. But that scripture says no word of any sacredness of the day or of any religious observance of it. The apostle was gathering a fund for the poor at Jerusalem, and asked every believer to "lay by" something every first day of the week, so that the money would be ready when he came. As Dean Stanley (Church of England) comments:
"There is nothing to prove public assemblies, inasmuch as the phrase [Greek: par heauto] ('by himself, at his own house') implies that the collection was to be made individually and in private."
And Neander's Church History says:
"All mentioned here is easily explained, if one simply thinks of the ordinary beginning of the week in secular life."—Vol. I, p. 339 (German ed.).
To meet the emergency of need in Judea, these believers were asked to look over their business affairs at the beginning of each week, until Paul should come, laying aside a gift as God had prospered them.
No Sunday Sacredness in the New Testament
This is the record—not one suggestion in all the New Testament of Sunday sacredness, to say nothing of precept or commandment of the Lord. The late R.W. Dale, D.D., a leading Congregationalist of England, wrote:
"It is quite clear that, however rigidly or devotedly we may spend Sunday, we are not keeping the Sabbath.... The Sabbath was founded on a specific, divine command. We can plead no such command for the observance of Sunday.... There is not a single line in the New Testament to suggest that we incur any penalty by violating the supposed sanctity of Sunday."—"The Ten Commandments," pp. 106, 107.
That religious classic, Smith and Cheetham's "Dictionary of Christian Antiquities," says that the "notion of a formal substitution" of the first day for the seventh,
"and the transference to it, perhaps in a spiritualized form, of the Sabbatical obligation established by the promulgation of the fourth commandment, has no basis whatever, either in Holy Scripture or in Christian antiquity."—Article "Sabbath."
Dr. E.F. Hiscox, author of "The Baptist Manual," says:
"There was and is a commandment to 'keep holy the Sabbath day,' but that Sabbath was not Sunday. It will, however, be readily said, and with some show of triumph, that the Sabbath was transferred from the seventh to the first day of the week.... Where can the record of such a transaction be found? Not in the New Testament—absolutely not."—The New York Examiner, Nov. 16, 1893.
Such declarations by well-known scholars might be multiplied, but it is not necessary. The record is open—any one may see it. There is not a word in the Holy Scripture of any first-day sacredness. The Sunday institution is not a plant of our heavenly Father's planting.
How the Change Came About
There has been no change of the Sabbath by divine authority. Men may choose to rest on any other day, but that cannot make such a day God's rest day, His holy Sabbath. One cannot change one's birthday by celebrating another day as such. It is a fact of history that on a certain day of the month one was born. That fact cannot be changed by choosing to celebrate another day as the birthday. Just so it is a fact of divine history that God rested on a given day of the week, and on no other. That made the seventh day His rest day.
It is different from other days in character also, for He blessed it and made it holy. To deny the difference between common days and the holy day is to say that when the great Creator blesses and makes holy, it is a vain performance. That cannot be. It would take away all hope of holiness or salvation for men. The blessing is upon the day, as every soul finds who keeps it by faith.
When men choose to set apart another day than that blessed and sanctified of God, it is plainly a setting up of the humanly appointed time against the divinely appointed time. It is exalting man's sabbath against God's Sabbath. It is man exalting himself "above all that is called God." 2 Thess. 2:4.
This was what made the Roman Papacy. The apostle Paul wrote that in his day the spirit of lawlessness was already working. He said it would lead to a "falling away" from the truth of God, and the full exaltation of the man of sin. 2 Thessalonians 2. The falling away came. As Dr. Killen (Presbyterian), of Ireland, says in the preface to his "Ancient Church:"
"In the interval between the days of the apostles and the conversion of Constantine, the Christian commonwealth changed its aspect.... Rites and ceremonies, of which neither Paul nor Peter ever heard, crept into use, and then claimed the rank of divine institutions."
In his "Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine," Cardinal Newman (Roman Catholic) tells how rites and ceremonies were borrowed from paganism:
"Confiding then in the power of Christianity to resist the infection of evil, and to transmute the very instruments and appendages of demon worship to an evangelical use,... the rulers of the church from early times were prepared, should the occasion arise, to adopt, or imitate, or sanction the existing rites and customs of the populace, as well as the philosophy of the educated class."—Pages 371, 372.
Thus along with other adaptations came "the venerable day of the sun" (Sunday). It was by gradual process that it supplanted the Sabbath. Sir William Domville wrote:
"Centuries of the Christian era passed away before Sunday was observed by the Christian church as a Sabbath. History does not furnish us with a single proof or indication that it was at any time so observed previous to the Sabbatical edict of Constantine in A.D. 321."—"Examination of Six Texts," p. 291.
This law of Constantine's was as follows:
"On the venerable day of the sun let the magistrates and people residing in cities rest, and let all workshops be closed. In the country, however, persons engaged in agriculture may freely and lawfully continue their pursuits; because it often happens that another day is not so suitable for grain sowing or for vine planting; lest by neglecting the proper moment for such operations, the bounty of heaven should be lost. (Given the 7th day of March, Crispus and Constantine being consuls each of them for the second time.)"—Schaff, "History of the Christian Church," Vol. III, chap. 5, sec. 75.
Commenting on this law, Prof. Hutton Webster, of the University of Nebraska, says:
"This legislation by Constantine probably bore no relation to Christianity; it appears, on the contrary, that the emperor, in his capacity of Pontifex Maximus, was only adding the day of the sun, the worship of which was then firmly established in the Roman Empire, to the other ferial days of the sacred calendar."
"What began, however, as a pagan ordinance, ended as a Christian regulation; and a long series of imperial decrees, during the fourth, fifth, and sixth centuries, enjoined with increasing stringency abstinence from labor on Sunday."—"Rest Days," pp. 122, 270.
Dean Stanley (Church of England) writes:
"The retention of the old pagan name Dies Solis, or Sunday, for the weekly Christian festival, is, in a great measure, owing to the union of pagan and Christian sentiment with which the first day of the week was recommended by Constantine to his subjects, pagan and Christian alike, as the 'venerable day of the sun.'"—"History of the Eastern Church," lecture 6, par. 15.
Thus the Sunday institution comes in, marked by its pagan origin, and adapted to ecclesiastical purposes by the church of the "falling away" that grew into the Roman Papacy. To quote again from the Baptist author, Dr. Hiscox:
"Of course, I quite well know that Sunday did come into use in early Christian history as a religious day, as we learn from the Christian Fathers and other sources. But what a pity that it comes branded with the mark of paganism, and christened with the name of the sun god, when adopted and sanctioned by the papal apostasy, and bequeathed as a sacred legacy to Protestantism."—New York Examiner, Nov. 16, 1893.
No wonder that with the coming of the latter days, and the proclamation of the message of preparation for Christ's second coming, there should come a call to Christians to follow Christ and Holy Scripture in keeping God's holy Sabbath.
Again the voice of Jesus is heard in protest against traditions that make void the commandment of God.
"Every plant," He says, "which My heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up." Matt. 15:13.
Made for Man
The God that made the earth, And all the worlds on high, Who gave all creatures birth, In earth, and sea, and sky, After six days in work employed, Upon the seventh a rest enjoyed.
The Sabbath day was blessed, Hallowed, and sanctified; It was Jehovah's rest, And so it must abide; 'Twas set apart before the fall, 'Twas made for man, 'twas made for all.
And when from Sinai's mount, Amidst the fire and smoke, Jehovah did recount, And all His precepts spoke, He claimed the rest day as His own, And wrote it with His law on stone.
The Son of God appeared With tidings of great joy; God's precepts He revered, He came not to destroy; None of the law was set aside, But every tittle ratified.
Our Saviour did not die To render null and void The law of the Most High, Which cannot be destroyed; But, bruised for us, our stripes He bore,— We'll go in peace and sin no more.
—R.F. Cottrell.
GLIMPSES OF SABBATH KEEPING AFTER NEW TESTAMENT TIMES
Not at once did the innovation of Sunday observance set aside the Sabbath of the Lord in the practice of even the general church. And through history, when the general church had fallen away, we catch glimpses here and there of faithful witnesses to God's holy Sabbath truth.
First Centuries
An old English writer, Professor Brerewood, of Gresham College, London, put in shortest phrase what many writers say:
"They know little who do not know that the ancient Sabbath did remain and was observed by the Eastern churches three hundred years after our Saviour's passion."—"Treatise on the Sabbath," p. 77.
Fourth Century
Canon 29, of the Council of Laodicea (A.D. 364), shows that the ecclesiastical system was laboring to put an end to Sabbath keeping:
"Christians shall not Judaize and be idle on Saturday [the Sabbath], but shall work on that day; but the Lord's day [as they called Sunday] they shall especially honor, and, as being Christians, shall, if possible, do no work on that day. If, however, they be found Judaizing, they shall be shut out from Christ."—Hefele, "History of the Councils of the Church," Vol. II, book 6, sec. 93, canon 29.
Fifth Century
Sozomen's Ecclesiastical History shows Rome evidently leading in the effort to abolish any recognition whatever of the Sabbath:
"The people of Constantinople, and of several other cities, assemble together on the Sabbath, as well as on the next day; which custom is never observed at Rome, or at Alexandria."—Book 7, chap. 19.
Seventh Century
There were true Sabbath keepers in Rome itself, teaching the truth of God among the people, and bringing upon themselves the denunciation of Pope Gregory the Great, who wrote "to his most beloved sons the Roman citizens:"
"It has come to my ears that certain men of perverse spirit have sown among you some things that are wrong and opposed to the holy faith, so as to forbid any work being done on the Sabbath day. What else can I call these but preachers of Antichrist?"—"History of the Councils" (Labbe and Cossart), Vol. V, col. 1511; see also "Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers," Vol. XIII, book 13, epistle 1.
Eleventh Century
The Pope's legates at Constantinople (A.D. 1054) were called to discuss with Nicetas, "one of the most learned men at that time in the East," says Bower, whose position was "that the Sabbath ought to be kept holy, and that priests should be allowed to marry."—"History of the Popes," Vol. II, p. 358.
The people of north Scotland, the ancient Culdee church founded by Columba and his followers, far removed from direct papal influence, was still keeping the seventh-day Sabbath in the eleventh century. Of this church Andrew Lang says in his "History of Scotland:"
"They worked on Sunday, but kept Saturday in a Sabbatical manner."—Volume I, p. 96.
Skene, in his classic work, "Celtic Scotland," says of these Sabbath keepers:
"They seemed to have followed a custom of which we find traces in the early monastic church of Ireland, by which they held Saturday to be the Sabbath, on which they rested from all their labors."—Book 2, chap. 8.
Margaret, of England, married Malcolm the Great, the Scottish king, in 1069. An ardent Catholic, Queen Margaret at once set about Romanizing the Celtic church. She called in the church leaders, and held long discussions with them. At last, with the help and authority of her royal husband, and quoting the instructions of "the blessed Pope Gregory," she succeeded in turning the ancient Culdee church in Scotland away from the Sabbath. (See "Life of St. Margaret," by Turgot, her confessor.)
Twelfth to Fourteenth Century
Among the numerous sects of southern Europe and the Alpine valleys, that were pursued and persecuted by Rome, were at least some who saw and obeyed the Sabbath truth. Thus, of one of these bodies, the historian Goldastus says:
"They were called Insabbatati, not because they were circumcised, but because they kept the Sabbath according to the Jewish law."—"Deutsche Biographie," Vol. IX, art. "Goldast.," p. 327.
Fifteenth Century
Sabbath keepers in Norway drew the condemnation of a church council held in 1435:
"The archbishop and the clergy assembled in this provincial council at Bergen do decide that the keeping of Saturday must never be permitted to exist, except as granted in the church law."—Keyser's "Norske Kirkes Historie," Vol. II, p. 488.
Sixteenth Century
With the setting free of the Word of God by the Reformation, and the protest against the doctrine of papal tradition, multitudes saw that the Sunday institution was not of divine origin; while not a few went farther, recognizing the claims of God's Sabbath. Moravia was a refuge, in those early Reformation days, for many believers in the Reformed doctrines, and among these were Sabbath-keeping Christians:
"Even most prominent men, as the princes of Lichtenstein, held to the observance of the true Sabbath. When persecution finally scattered them, the seeds of truth must have been sown by them in the different portions of the Continent which they visited.... We have found them [Sabbath keepers] in Bohemia. They were also known in Silesia and Poland. Likewise they were in Holland and northern Germany.... There were at this time Sabbath keepers in France,... 'among whom were M. de la Roque, who wrote in defense of the Sabbath against Bossuet, Catholic bishop of Meaux.' That Sabbatarians again appeared in England by the time of the Reformation, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth (A.D. 1533-1603), Dr. Chambers testifies in his Cyclopedia [art. 'Sabbath']."—Andrews and Conradi, "History of the Sabbath," pp. 649, 650.
In this century also, Sabbath keepers appeared in Norway, Sweden, and Finland. In 1554 King Gustavus Vasa, of Sweden, addressed a letter of remonstrance "to the common people in Finland," because so many were turning to keep the seventh day.
Seventeenth Century
There was much discussion in England over the authority for Sunday observance. When other church festivals were ignored, as Easter, King Charles I wanted to know why Sunday should be kept. He wrote:
"It will not be found in Scripture where Saturday is discharged to be kept, or turned into the Sunday; wherefore it must be the church's authority that changed the one and instituted the other; therefore my opinion is that those who will not keep this feast [Easter] may as well return to the observation of Saturday, and refuse the weekly Sunday."—Cox, "Sabbath Laws," p. 333.
It was during this time that the idea first obtained of enforcing Sunday obligation by the fourth commandment and calling it the Sabbath. It was argued that any "one day in seven" was what the commandment meant. Of this argument, John Milton, the statesman-poet, wrote:
"It is impossible to extort such a sense from the words of the commandment; seeing that the reason for which the command itself was originally given, namely, as a memorial of God's having rested from the creation of the world, cannot be transferred from the seventh day to the first; nor can any new motive be substituted in its place, whether the resurrection of our Lord or any other, without the sanction of a divine commandment."—"Prose Works" (Bohn), pp. 70, 71.
Again Milton wrote, in a manuscript which his publishers at the time feared to print:
"If we under the gospel are to regulate the time of our public worship by the prescriptions of the decalogue, it will surely be far safer to observe the seventh day, according to the express commandment of God, than on the authority of mere human conjecture to adopt the first."—Cox, "Sabbath Literature," Vol. II, p. 54.
While kings and poets and ecclesiastics discussed, here and there believers began to follow the plain Word of God and Christ's example in Sabbath keeping.
"Loved Not Their Lives unto the Death"
In 1618 John Traske and his wife, of London, were condemned for keeping the Sabbath of the Lord, the man being whipped from Westminster to the old Fleet Prison, near Ludgate Circus. Both were imprisoned. Mr. Traske recanted under the pressure, after a year, but Mrs. Traske, a gifted school-teacher, was given grace to hold out for sixteen years,—for a time in Maiden Lane prison, and then in the Gate House, by Westminster,—dying in prison for the word of the Lord. An estimable woman she was, says one old chronicler, save for this "whimsy" of hers, that she would keep the seventh day. All that she asked of men, on her prison deathbed, was that she might be buried "in the fields."
By 1661 Sabbath keepers in London had further increased. In that year John James was minister to a considerable congregation, meeting in East London, off the Whitechapel Road. As part of the stern proceedings against dissenting sects after the restoration of the monarchy, he was arrested and condemned to death on "Tyburn Tree." His wife knelt at the feet of King Charles II as he came out of St. James's Palace one day, and pleaded for her husband's life; but the king scornfully rejected her plea, and said that the man should hang. Bogue says:
"For once the king remembered his promise, and Mr. James was sent to join the noble army of martyrs."—"History of Dissenters," Vol. I, p. 155.
Nothing daunted, the number of Sabbath keepers increased. In a letter by Edward Stennet (between 1668 and 1670), it is stated.
"Here in England are about nine or ten churches that keep the Sabbath, besides many scattered disciples, who have been eminently preserved in this tottering day, when many once eminent churches have been shattered in pieces."—Cox, "Sabbath Literature," Vol. I, p. 268.
Francis Bampfield was formerly an influential minister of the Church of England, and prebendary of Exeter Cathedral, but later pastor of a Sabbath-keeping congregation meeting in the Pinners Hall, off Broad Street, near the Bank of England. Calamy said of him:
"He was one of the most celebrated preachers in the west of England, and extremely admired by his hearers, till he fell into the Sabbatarian notion, of which he was a zealous asserter."—"Non-Conformist Memorial," Vol. II, p. 152.
He was arrested while in the pulpit preaching, and in 1683 died of hardships in Newgate prison, for the Sabbath of the Lord. An old writer says that his body was followed to burial by "a very great company of factious and schismatical people;" in other words, dissenters from the state church.
Thomas Bampfield, his brother, Speaker of the House of Parliament at one time, under Cromwell, published a book in defense of the Sabbath of the Lord. In fact, many published the truth in this manner, and doctors of divinity and even bishops wrote replies.
"Sabbatarian Baptists," these English witnesses to God's Sabbath were first called in those times, and then "Seventh Day Baptists." In 1664 Stephen Mumford, from one of these London congregations, was sent over to New England. He settled in Rhode Island, where the Baptist pioneer of religious liberty, Roger Williams, had founded his colony. In 1671 the first Sabbatarian church in America was formed in Rhode Island. Evidently this movement created a stir; for the report went over to England that the Rhode Island colony did not keep the "Sabbath"—meaning Sunday. Roger Williams wrote to his friends in England denying the report, but calling attention to the fact that there was no Scripture for "abolishing the seventh day," and adding:
"You know yourselves do not keep the Sabbath, that is the seventh day."—"Letters of Roger Williams," Vol. VI, p. 346 (Narragansett Club Publications).
Through the following century numbers of Seventh Day Baptist churches were founded in America.[F]
Sabbath keepers were springing up also on the continent of Europe, in Bohemia, Moravia, Transylvania, and Russia, where here and there Bible believers saw that tradition had made void one of the commandments of God. Then, as the events at the end of the long period of papal supremacy had moved Bible students to the earnest study of the prophecies, and as the predicted signs of the near approach of Christ's coming began to appear, there arose the great advent awakening in the earlier decades of the nineteenth century.
The prophecies regarding the work of the Papacy in seeking to change the law of God began to be understood, and it was seen that the last message of the everlasting gospel was a call to turn from human traditions to the New Testament standard—"the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus." Rev. 14:12. Then began the great movement for Sabbath reform and the proclamation of Christ's second coming, which has given rise to the Seventh-day Adventist people, with a work spreading through all lands, leading thousands every year to keep the Lord's blessed Sabbath day.
Soon Christ is to be revealed in righteousness and judgment. One burden of God's message for the last days is:
"Thus saith the Lord, Keep ye judgment, and do justice: for My salvation is near to come, and My righteousness to be revealed. Blessed is the man that doeth this, and the son of man that layeth hold on it; that keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it, and keepeth his hand from doing any evil." Isa. 56:1, 2.
Through all the dark centuries, the Lord had somewhere a little remnant keeping the light of the Sabbath truth glowing. They, too, overcame by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony, loving not their lives unto the death. Now, with the clear light shining from the open Book, it is for Christians everywhere to turn from tradition to the way of God's commandments and the example of Jesus Christ.
FOOTNOTES:
[F] In connection with this topic of Sabbath observance in colonial America, it is of interest to note that Count Zinzendorf, the leader of the Moravian missionary movement, was a believer in the sanctity of the Sabbath of God's appointment. In his life, by Bishop Spangenberg, it is stated that the Sabbath question was discussed by Zinzendorf with the Moravians, on his visit to Pennsylvania in 1741. The record states:—
"As a special circumstance it is to be remarked that he determined, with the church in Bethlehem, to celebrate the seventh day as a rest day. The matter was previously fully gone over in the church council, with consideration of all the reasons for and against it, when the unanimous agreement was reached to observe the day Sabbatically.... The Count had already long held the seventh day of the week in special honor."—Zinzendorfs "Leben," band 5, pp. 1421, 1422.
The Bethlehem congregation evidently did not follow the practice long. "But as for himself," says Spangenberg, "with his house, he adhered firmly to this aforementioned practice until his end."—Id., p. 1437.
THE LAW OF GOD
I
Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
II
Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything: that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; and showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.
III
Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.
IV
Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work: but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it.
V
Honor thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.
VI
Thou shalt not kill.
VII
Thou shalt not commit adultery.
VIII
Thou shalt not steal.
IX
Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.
X
Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbor's.
THE LAW OF GOD
It is a common saying, "The majesty of the law." It means that the character and genius of a government are embodied and expressed in its laws. The words of Inspiration declare to us the majesty of the law of the Most High.
The Character of God's Law
The infinite perfection of the divine character is reflected in it.
"The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul." Ps. 19:7.
As God is holiness and justice and goodness, so also is His law.
"Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good." Rom. 7:12.
Its Office
The law of God gives knowledge of the righteousness of its great Author.
"Hearken unto Me, ye that know righteousness, the people in whose heart is My law." Isa. 51:7.
It marks every departure from righteousness as sin.
"Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law." 1 John 3:4.
It is not a code merely for the regulation of outward conduct. It is the moral law—the primal standard of righteousness established by the Creator for His creatures. There is not an impulse of the inmost soul that is not reached by it. It is the word which, living and powerful, is "sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." Heb. 4:12.
Face to face with this holy law, we hear in it the voice of God saying, "Be ye holy; for I am holy." Every soul must confess its guilt before the searching power of God's law. All things are naked and open to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. "Guilty!" we confess. Left alone with our guilt, there could be no ray of hope.
"The threatenings of the broken law Impress the soul with dread; If God His sword of vengeance draw, It strikes the spirit dead."
Thank God, we are not left alone; help is laid upon One mighty to save.
"But Thine illustrious sacrifice Hath answered these demands, And peace and pardon from the skies Are offered by Thy hands."
God's Law from the Beginning
The law of God existed from the beginning. When Adam sinned, he transgressed this holy law; for "sin is the transgression of the law." God's law was not committed to writing until the days of Moses, when the Lord began to make His written revelations to the children of men. But from Adam to Moses the precepts of the law of God were teaching righteousness and convicting of sin.
"Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned: (for until the law [the giving of it at Sinai] sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses.)" Rom. 5:12-14.
The declaration of this scripture is: Without the law there can be no sin. But sin and death were from Adam to Moses, in whose day the law was spoken on Sinai; therefore the law of God was in force from the beginning. Its precepts were witnessed to by every preacher of righteousness raised up by God in the days before the deluge and in the patriarchal age following. Of Abraham the Lord says,
"Abraham obeyed My voice, and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws." Gen. 26:5.
The Lord called His people out of Egypt, that they might keep his law. His message to Pharaoh was, "Let my people go, that they may serve Me." Ex. 9:1. He delivered them from bondage by His mighty arm, and cleft the Red Sea to lead them forth to obedience, as the psalmist said,
"He brought forth His people with joy, and His chosen with gladness:... that they might observe His statutes, and keep His laws." Ps. 105:43-45.
In Egyptian bondage the children of Abraham must have lost much of the purity of God's truth; yet the Lord held them under obligation to know His law—the Sabbath precept particularly—before they came to Sinai, or ever He had proclaimed the law in their hearing. He tested them in the matter by the giving of the manna, as He said,
"That I may prove them, whether they will walk in My law, or no." Ex. 16:4.
From the beginning, God's holy law demanded the loyal obedience of every human being.
Proclaimed Anew at Sinai
The Lord had delivered the people of Israel from Egyptian bondage that they might serve Him and make His ways known to the nations. This was according to the promise made to Abraham. To them was committed the written revelation of God, and through them was to come in the fulness of time the promised Messiah.
While the Lord at this time "made known His ways unto Moses," and there was begun the written revelation which grew into "the volume of the book," the Holy Scriptures, one portion of revelation was not left for the prophet of God to speak or for the inspired pen to write. The Lord proclaimed His holy law with His own voice, and gave to men a copy "written with the finger of God." Moses said of this:
"The Lord spake unto you out of the midst of the fire: ye heard the voice of the words, but saw no similitude; only ye heard a voice. And He declared unto you His covenant, which He commanded you to perform, even ten commandments; and He wrote them upon two tables of stone." Deut. 4:12, 13.
This display of majesty and glory indescribable was designed to teach how sacred and holy is the law, and to cause men to fear to transgress its precepts. Ex. 20:20.
It was not for themselves alone that the law was committed to Israel. They were to teach the truth to others. As the New Testament says, it was greatly to their advantage that "unto them were committed the oracles of God." Rom. 3:2. But they "received the lively oracles to give unto us." Through obedience to the divine law, they were to be a light to the nations.
"Keep therefore and do them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations, which shall hear all these statutes, and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people. For what nation is there so great, who hath God so nigh unto them?" Deut. 4:6, 7.
An interesting comment upon these words is supplied by a speech of Phalerius, librarian to Ptolemy Philadelphus, king of Egypt. Urging the king by all means to secure copies of the sacred books of the Jews for his great library in Alexandria, Phalerius said:
"Now it is necessary that thou shouldst have accurate copies of them. And indeed this legislation is full of hidden wisdom, and entirely blameless, as being the legislation of God; for which cause it is, as Hecateus of Abdera says, that the poets and historians make no mention of it, nor of those men who lead their lives according to it, since it is a holy law, and ought not to be published by profane mouths."—Josephus, "Antiquities," book 12, chap. 2, sec. 4.
Unfaithful as the Jewish people oftentimes were, yet through their testimony and the dealings of God with them, the fame of the living oracles was spread abroad among the ancient nations.
One God—One Moral Standard
"There is one Lawgiver." James 4:12. He is ever the same, and His law is the standard of righteousness for all mankind. There was not one moral standard before Christ and another after. Christ's death upon the cross because man had broken the law, is the divine testimony to all the universe that God's law can never be set aside nor its force suspended. Jesus opened His public teaching with the declaration:
"Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven." Matt. 5:17-19.
The moral law of ten commandments is one code, every precept equally sacred and equally binding:
"Whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. For He that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law. So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty." James 2:10-12.
The law of God still speaks with all the force of that voice from Sinai, and it speaks to every soul on earth:
"Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God." Rom. 3:19.
Thus the law of God convicts all men of sin, and would drive every one to Christ for pardon and for the divine gift of the grace and power of obedience.
The ceremonial law—the precepts and ordinances commanded for the sacrificial system—ceased with the sacrifice of Calvary, as all these ceremonial observances pointed forward to the cross. There can be no confounding of the moral law and the ceremonial law. The ceremonial law of types and shadows showed in itself that a primary or higher law—the moral law—had been violated, making necessary a divine sacrifice if transgressors were to be saved from death and restored to obedience.
The Standard in the Judgment
The law of God's moral government, which is the rule of life for every creature, must necessarily be the standard in the great judgment day. The Scripture states the sum of all human obligation and responsibility in the words:
"Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep His commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil." Eccl. 12:13, 14.
Every son and daughter of Adam's lost race is judgment bound, to answer before the bar of God the demands of the perfect law. Divine justice cannot abate one jot or tittle of the requirements of the holy law, nor by any means clear the guilty. But divine mercy has provided the way by which God can "be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus."
JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH
"How should man be just [righteous] with God?" asked the patriarch Job. It has been the vital question ever since Adam sinned, and lost his righteousness and forfeited his life. The answer of Scripture is:—
"Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." Rom 5:1 "By grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast." Eph. 2:8, 9.
In the beginning, life and righteousness were the gift of God to man. Only the Creator could bestow the gift at the first; when lost, only creative power can restore it.
Man Cannot Justify Himself
The law of God declares all men sinners. Not only did Adam's posterity inherit of necessity a sinful nature, but every soul of man has wrought sin as the fruit of that nature.
"As by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." Rom. 5:12.
"There is no difference," Jew or Gentile, bond or free, they are in the same lost condition; "for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." Rom. 10:12; 3:23.
The sinner finds himself a transgressor, condemned to death by a holy law. He turns to it with the thought, "I will do what it says, and become righteous and win life." But he cannot undo the fact that he has sinned. A holy law can only cry, "Guilty! guilty!" to one who has transgressed it. The law declares righteousness; it cannot give it. As the Scripture says:
"We know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin." Rom. 3:19, 20.
The guilt exists. No deeds that man can do can undo it or cover it from a righteous law. Not only that, but as soon as the law declares what righteousness is, the sinner finds that its demands are altogether beyond the power of his flesh to meet. It calls for a kind of work that fallen human nature cannot so much as approach. Paul cried out, when struggling under conviction, "We know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin." Rom. 7:14.
The carnal cannot bring forth the spiritual. But the law demands a spiritual work of righteousness. It is impossible for the carnal mind to undertake it. The Scripture says:
"The carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God." Rom. 8:7, 8.
But the awakened sinner is yet in the flesh. He finds the law thundering his guilt and condemning him to death. He cannot wash away the past, nor hide it; he cannot obey God's law with a carnal mind, and that is all the mind he has. He is lost, and helpless of himself, but longs for a way of escape. Paul's cry in the same position is the cry of the despairing heart that has not found the Saviour, "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" Rom. 7:24. Thank God, there is an answer to that cry, for every sinner.
"Plunged in a gulf of dark despair, We wretched sinners lay, Without one cheering beam of hope, Or spark of glimmering day.
"With pitying eyes the Prince of grace Beheld our helpless grief: He saw, and, O amazing love! He came to our relief."
The Free Gift of Christ
Following that despairing cry of human helplessness, "Who shall deliver me?" there came the believer's shout of praise, "I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord." He is the deliverer; for He "gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us." Rom. 7:25; Gal. 1:4.
The way of escape and salvation is the gift of God's love. "God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." John 3:16.
No sinner has need to plead that God may be willing to forgive him; the Lord's infinite love that gave His Son to die, is pleading with the sinner to believe and accept salvation.
In order to be the sinner's Saviour, the divine Son of God must take man's place before the broken law. He came in human flesh, with all its weakness. "I can of Mine own self," He said, "do nothing." He trusted the Father, and lived a life of perfect righteousness in human flesh. He who knew no sin, bore man's sin in His body on the cross. "The Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all." For man's sin He died, "that He by the grace of God should taste death for every man." In Him was met the penalty of the law. But it was a sinless sacrifice. He "through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God." Heb. 9:14. Therefore death could not hold Him. He rose in the power of an endless life to be man's advocate and priest and savior, ministering His grace and righteousness and life to every one who will receive them.
The righteousness that He wrought out for man in human flesh He longs to put into every human heart. As in His own flesh in Judea He walked and lived the life of righteousness, so now, by the Holy Spirit, He walks in human lives today. That means forgiveness, and deliverance from the power of the flesh, and a new life of power, and righteousness and justification wrought within by the divine indwelling Saviour. How may we receive Him with all this great salvation?—By faith; by believing His promises; "that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith." Eph. 3:17.
Christ in all His fulness abiding within,—this is the wonder and mystery of the gospel, "which is Christ in you, the hope of glory." It means an ever-present, ever-living Saviour, able to save to the uttermost.
What abundance of grace is received with His indwelling presence!
Forgiveness.—"If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." 1 John 1:9.
Deliverance from the Flesh.—The cleansing by Christ's indwelling power means that the old life of self is subdued. "Our old man is crucified with Him." Rom. 6:6. "Ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you.... And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness." Rom. 8:9, 10.
A New Heart.—"A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you." Eze. 36:26.
A New Life.—"Be renewed in the spirit of your mind; and that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness." Eph. 4:23, 24. It is in blessed fact Christ Jesus living the life in the believer by faith, as the apostle Paul says:
"I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me." Gal. 2:20.
Righteousness and Justification.—"This is His name whereby He shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS." Jer. 23:6. Well does the King James Version print the blessed name in capital letters. It is the great name of salvation to every believer. By faith we receive Him, and by faith His righteousness is imputed unto us. His life of obedience covers all the believer's surrendered life, past and continuous, and in God's sight the life of the believer in Jesus is justified from all sin. It is the triumph of Him who was not only "delivered for our offenses," but was also "raised again for our justification:"
"Therefore as by the offense of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous." Rom. 5:18, 19.
Christ died and rose again to bring this experience to sinners who have struggled helplessly under condemnation. As Christ Jesus with all His righteousness is received by faith, "there is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." Rom. 8:1.
Praise the Lord! It is all of Christ, and not of any works that we have done. Therefore it is as sure as the oath and promise of God. We can lose the experience only as we let Christ go out of the life by unbelief. God forbid that we should do this; and help us to be quick to repent and again lay hold of Him by faith if ever we find we have let Him go and have lost the covering of His righteousness.
"Jesus, Thy blood and righteousness My beauty are, my glorious dress; 'Mid hosts of sin, in these arrayed, My soul shall never be afraid."
Christ's righteousness is, of necessity, the righteousness demanded by the law of God. He lives that law in the believer. This is what justification is. "Not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified." Rom. 2:13. Justification by faith makes the man a doer of the law by faith, Christ living every one of its sacred precepts in the believer's life. This is what He died to accomplish, to bring the righteousness of the law to the sinner who could never attain to it himself.
"What the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." Rom. 8:3, 4.
Christ writes God's law in the new heart: "I will put My laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts." Heb. 8:10. It is the rule of His own righteousness. For before He came into the world to work out perfect righteousness for us in human flesh, He said, through the psalmist, "I delight to do Thy will, O My God: yea, Thy law is within My heart." Ps. 40:8.
It is a perfect righteousness and a full salvation that Christ brings into every believer's heart. In Him all fulness dwells, "and ye are complete in Him."
The wondrous plan of salvation is so deep that only "in the ages to come" will God be able to "show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus." Eph. 2:7. But thank God, even here below sinners saved by grace may "know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge."
"The wonders of redeeming love Our highest thoughts exceed; The Son of God comes from above, For sinful man to bleed.
"He knows the frailties of our frame, For He has borne our grief; Our great High Priest once felt the same, And He can send relief.
"His love will not be satisfied Till He in glory see The faithful ones for whom He died From sin forever free."
—R.F. Cottrell.
BAPTISM
THE MEMORIAL OF THE RESURRECTION
Baptism is the divinely appointed memorial of the resurrection of Christ. The great fact of the gospel is that "Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures; and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures" (1 Cor. 15:3, 4), to be our great High Priest and Saviour.
Baptism is a profession of faith in the Saviour, who went into the grave for us, and rose again to life. It is the great object-lesson to teach the truth that the sinner must die to sin and the world, and have a resurrection by the power of divine grace to a new life of obedience. The ordinance is the sign of an actual experience, the means by which the believer confesses the work of grace in the soul.
The Scriptures teach the essential conditions necessary to baptism:
"Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved." Mark 16:15, 16.
"What doth hinder me to be baptized? And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest." Acts 8:36, 37.
"Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins." Acts 2:38.
Thus it is seen that instruction in the gospel, belief in Christ, and repentance are conditions to precede baptism.
Baptism for Believers
The experience of which baptism is the sign is thus stated:
"We are buried with Him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life." Rom. 6:4.
"As many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ." Gal. 3:27.
"Buried with Him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with Him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised Him from the dead." Col. 2:12.
In this ordinance, commanded of God, the believer is following the example of Christ, who, when baptized by John in Jordan, said, "Thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness."
"Thus through the emblematic grave The glorious suffering Saviour trod; Thou art our Pattern, through the wave We follow Thee, blest Son of God."
The Form of Baptism
The Scriptural form of baptism is shown in these texts:
"Jesus, when He was baptized, went up straightway out of the water." Matt. 3:16.
"They went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch; and he baptized him." Acts 8:38.
"Buried with Him by baptism.... For if we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection." Rom. 6:4, 5.
While the outward form of a religious service, without the spirit and the experience which the form professes, must ever be unacceptable to God, yet when the Lord prescribes a form, it is imperative that His instruction should be followed. The form of the ordinance as commanded by God emphasizes the divine meaning of the service.
Scriptural baptism is a burial "in the likeness" of Christ's burial, as the lifting up of the believer from the watery grave is a likeness of the resurrection of Christ. Of the meaning of the word "baptism," Luther wrote:
"Baptism is a Greek word; in Latin it can be translated immersion, as when we plunge something into water that it may be completely covered with water."—Opera Lutheri, De Sac. Bap. 1, p. 319 (Baptist Encyclopedia, art. "Baptism").
Calvin, after arguing that the form is an indifferent matter, says:
"The very word 'baptize,' however, signifies to immerse; and it is certain that immersion was observed by the ancient church."—"Institutes," lib. 4, cap. 15 (Baptist Encyclopedia, art. "Baptism").
Of the practice in primitive times, Neander, the church historian, says:
"In respect to the manner of baptizing, in conformity with the original institution and the original import of the symbol, it was generally administered by immersion."—"History of the Christian Church," Torrey's translation (London edition), Vol. I, p. 429.
The perversion of the ordinance into sprinkling, and that in infancy, takes away the divinely ordained object-lesson; and in the case of the infant must of necessity substitute mere ceremonialism for experience, for the child of unaccountable years can have had no experience of believing and repenting, which are the necessary conditions to fulfil the meaning of baptism. The change in the ordinance, like most of the changes that came about in the days of the "falling away" from the primitive faith and practice, was by gradual process.
Dean Stanley, in his "Christian Institutions," page 24, says that it is not till the third century that "we find one case of the baptism of infants." Of the change from immersion to sprinkling, he says:
"What is the justification of this almost universal departure from the primitive usage? There may have been many reasons, some bad, some good. One, no doubt, was the superstitious feeling already mentioned which regarded baptism as a charm, indispensable to salvation, and which insisted on imparting it to every human being who could be touched with water, however unconscious."
The common practice as late as the twelfth century is thus described by a Roman Catholic cardinal of that time, named Pullus:
"Whilst the candidate for baptism in water is immersed, the death of Christ is suggested; whilst immersed and covered with water, the burial of Christ is shown forth; whilst he is raised from the waters, the resurrection of Christ is proclaimed."—Patrol. Lat., Vol. CXXX, p. 315 (Baptist Encyclopedia, art. "Baptism").
Dean Stanley, of Westminster, one of the first scholars of the Church of England, wrote:
"For the first thirteen centuries the almost universal practice of baptism was that of which we read in the New Testament, and which is the very meaning of the word 'baptize,'—that those who were baptized were plunged, submerged, immersed into the water. That practice is still, as we have seen, continued in Eastern churches. In the Western church it still lingers among Roman Catholics in the solitary instance of the Cathedral of Milan; among Protestants in the numerous sects of the Baptists. It lasted long into the Middle Ages.... But since the beginning of the seventeenth century, the practice has become exceedingly rare. With the few exceptions just mentioned, the whole of the Western churches have now substituted for the ancient bath the ceremony of letting fall a few drops of water on the face. The reason of the change is obvious. The practice of immersion, though peculiarly suitable to the Southern and Eastern countries for which it was designed, was not found seasonable in the countries of the North and West. Not by any decree of council or parliament, but by the general sentiment of Christian liberty, this remarkable change was effected. Beginning in the thirteenth century, it has gradually driven the ancient catholic usage out of the whole of Europe."—"Christian Institutions," pp. 21, 22.
The facts are undeniable, and emphasize the importance of reformation and return in practice to the plain instructions of the Word of God. As the record shows, it was not the spirit of the New Testament church that made this change in the divine ordinance; rather it is the spirit of the church of the "falling away," against which the Lord warns all believers, "because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant."
The Path He Trod
Our Saviour bowed beneath the wave, And meekly sought a watery grave; Come, see the sacred path He trod— A path well pleasing to our God.
His voice we hear, His footsteps trace. And hither come to seek His face, To do His will, to feel His love, And join our songs with those above.
—Adoniram Judson.
THE PROPHECY OF DANIEL 8
A HISTORIC OUTLINE AND A VITAL QUESTION
Another view of the history of empires and kingdoms was brought before the prophet Daniel in the vision of the eighth chapter. In this vision a great prophetic period is given, the end of which reaches to the latter days, touching events of our own times that are of direct interest and importance to every one today.
The vision was given in the third year of Belshazzar, the last king of Babylon. Again, as in moving panorama, there passed before the prophet's vision the scenes of history. Earthly kingdoms were represented under the symbols of beasts.
We shall find the prophecy and the history corresponding in every detail, revealing the overruling hand of God, who knows the end from the beginning, and whose living Word of truth bears its witness through all the ages.
"Truth never dies. The ages come and go; The mountains wear away; the seas retire; Destruction lays earth's mighty cities low, And empires, states, and dynasties expire; But caught and handed onward by the wise, Truth never dies."
The opening scene of this vision, given by the river Ulai, in Persia, is thus described:
Prophecy.—"Then I lifted up mine eyes, and saw, and, behold, there stood before the river a ram which had two horns: and the two horns were high; but one was higher than the other, and the higher came up last. I saw the ram pushing westward, and northward, and southward; so that no beast might stand before him, neither was there any that could deliver out of his hand; but he did according to his will, and became great." Verses 3, 4.
In the angel's interpretation of the vision Daniel was told: "The ram which thou sawest having two horns are the kings of Media and Persia." Verse 20. "The higher came up last."
The two horns represented the dual character of the empire: first the Medes in ascendancy, then the Persians rising to yet greater power. "So that no beast might stand before him," says the prophecy.
History.—Xenophon says of Cyrus the Persian:
"He was able to extend the fear of himself over so great a part of the world that he astonished all, and no one attempted anything against him."—"The Cyropaedia," book 1, chap. 1.
The line of Medo-Persian conquest was "westward, and northward, and southward," just as the prophet saw the ram pushing its way. As one pen wrote in the days of Persia's supremacy:
"He [Darius] showed the world arms glory-crowned." "Towns untold before him fell." "Burgs over sea ... heard from his lips their fate."
—"The Persians," by AEschylus.
But the ram pushing westward stirred up an antagonist that was eventually to overcome him. The prophet continues:
Prophecy.—"As I was considering, behold, a he goat came from the west on the face of the whole earth, and touched not the ground: and the goat had a notable horn between his eyes. And he came to the ram that had two horns,... and ran unto him in the fury of his power.... And there was no power in the ram to stand before him, but he cast him down to the ground, and stamped upon him: and there was none that could deliver the ram out of his hand." Verses 5-7. |
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