The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1865-11-02
THE sABBATARIAN AR6UaIENT.

THE sABBATAIEIAN ARGUmENT.
The Future of the sabbath and the
Sunday In America. '5i'-
Corre,p ndellee Of the Springfield Republioan.
+ Practically and theologically this
question. Is full of interest, The ilAces-
stty of a weekly rest-day and the char
acter OF Its observance is generally con-
ceded, but it is n remarkable fact that.
thus Tar in the history of the church,
whatever discussion has arisen has
been mainly concerning Sabbath or
t3l0 Sabbath rather than the Sabbath.
Let us glnnce at the past and present of
the question and so Judge of the future,
remembering that in our brief space We
can do scarcely more than speak in
general and in outline, holding ourself
responsible for each statement.
= Tho popular opinion concerning the
authority, time and manner Of the
change from the Sabbath to the Sunday
is tull of error, In the half-dozen pas
sages in the New Testament where re-
ference is made to the first of the week,
no reference is ever made to it as a
Sabbath, or even as a commemorative
| festival. The history given in the book
of Acts has abundant proof of the obs
servance of the Sabbath for many wears
after Christ. Thetern Sabbath is new
er applied TO any day but the seventh,
! for more thnn one thousand wears after
Christ. In secular history there is no
evidence of any observance of the Sun
day earlier than about the middle of
the second century. 1t then began to
be sort of festival in common with the
| Wednesday and Friday, the three COM
lnelnorating the passion and resurrec-
tton,. made such by custom of the
church, and without claim to divine
authority. During the third century,
opposition to Judaism and loose ideas
concerning the nature OF tho law and
! its abrogation, led TO the adoption of
tho mo Sabbath" theory by tho leading
men Of the western church. Some OF
them went SO far as to oppose the feSti-
val Observance of the dOminical day,
as 1T was beginning to be called. The
tendency to festival days, however, in
creased: and soon CAME the introdno-
ton, of those cOmmemoratingt the nscen-
sion, tho Pentecost, the birth of Christ,
the saints days, &c. BY the close Of
this century the Sabbath was stigmatiz-
ed a RJewish and odious, AMI In the
churches in and about Rome was made
ttlst, and thus distasteful. 1t was.
however, observed for some time after
i'll this partOf the church, and in the cas-
tern church was prominent even down
to the sixth and eighth centuries, while
III Abyssinia and Armenia it has contin-
time. $50 ,i'ETs=- - :, .'--'>'S
The opening of the fourth century.
and the assumption of the control OF
the church by Constantine the Great,
brought in this, as in many other res
poets, great changes into the church.
He was born and educated a heather.
His whole life shows him to havo been
selfish, cruel, treacherous, ,unScrupulous
and proud, loving to be compared to
Apollo, the god of the sun, his patron
deity: He never avowed himself, in
any null degree, n Christian, even in
theory, until two or three years after
the passage of his Sunday edict, and
did not submit to baptism until on his
death bed, many years after, if .EliF
The first Sabbattic character ever
given to the Sunday was by his edict of
the 7th of March, 4. d. 32ls in which he
ordered that the 'tvenerabie day Of the
sun" should be honored by closing Of
the courts of Justice and the cessation
OF general labor in the cities, but giving
free scope to all agricultural labor.
similar laws were common concerning
many of the heathen festivals. On the
dny following he passed another purely
heathen edict relative to the consulting
OF the soothsayers in case of public ca
.lamity. This :svenerable day of the
sun, being identical with the resurec-
ton festival, and this law being enforced
gradually upon all classes, the Sunday
came In time into q prominence over the
other weekly festivals, and, by virtue
of a civil and ecclesiastical law, grew
to be SORT of Sabbath, although agri-
cultural labor, and many kinds of pub
lie amusements wero not Suppressed
until the 18th and 18th centuries in
many parts of Europe; and then only
by the most incredible fllsehoods con-
corning alleged miracles and tile arm
of the law. In all this time it was
never claimed us Sabbath other than
by church appointment, and COnstan-
tines edict makes no sort of mention
of the day us a Christian institutions or
as relating to the church, or connected
with the resurrection, or in any Vyav
other than the heathen E'day of the sun. u
(For a fuller account of Constantine,
and this and other heathen festivals,
see Andrews History of the Sabbath,
DIR. SChaff in the Continental Monthly.
for August, 1864, Sankey's History Of
the Eastern Church, Bingham's Anti
quities. LEc.)
In the reformation tho doctrine that
there was no Sabbath by divine appoint
ment was prominent, and the oppo-
site idea that none was needed except
on grounds of convenience or policy
was taught by all the leading men. SEQ
the Augsburg confession, Cnlyin's in
stitutes, Bullinger's sermons, the works
of Firth and tIyndnle and others. No
doctrine Is moro clearly set forth by
these men than this, that there is no.
sacred time under the gospel.
nthe second wave.o of the reformation,
which arose out of the political and &c
6lesiastical agitntions in England, and
during which puritanism. came to the
surface, is found the first ideas OF n sn-
cred Sabbath In the Protestant church,
and it is only where the footprints of
puritanism are found in Europe, that
there has ever been, or is now, even any
theoretical, much less practical recog-
milton of IA Sabbath claiming silcred-
ness by virtue of the fourth command
ment. 1t came about In this way
Among the many things which the par
liamentary party sought to reform was
the manner of observing the so-called
Lords Day. Discarding MS they did the
authority of the church, somethingwas
requisite to show cause why The Sunday
should be more strictly Observed, or
even observed at all. The true idea of
n Sabbath was in sOIno degree recog-
nized, and in 1885 Nicholas Bound, d.
D.. of Norton, in Suffolk, put forth the
first work advocating a Sabbath as
Ttaught.in the DecalOgue and founded
upon Gods example mt creation. Argu-
ing we'll and truthfully the doctrine of
the Sabbath, he then by a sort of slip
shod logic applied the argument TO the
Sunday. This became the doctrines of
the puritans and WINS most rigidly en-
forced by the parli party while
1t retained the civil power, the day be-
ing made outwardly sacred in obser-
vance by the greatest care on the part of
the civil officers, all infringement OF
statute laws being punished by fine or
imprisonmenk When the royal or
church party regained control of the
government these restrictions were re-
n.