Greenbrier independent. [volume] (Lewisburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1980, 1921-06-24
TIE ORIGIN or SUNDAY AND SUNDAY
LAWS.

\ Wise man has said that The
, force of the people i exhausted in
indefinitely prolonging things long
since dead: III governing mankind
! b\ rmbaiming old tyrannir> of
! Faith: restoring old dilapidatcd dog
mas: rcgilding faded and worm
eaten >hrinc>: whitening and roug-
Ing ancient and barren >upcr>li-
tons: saving society by multiply
ing parasites. and taking the dead
corpse Of the Past mouth with the
living Present.
! \eandcrthal man. Palaeolithic
man or \cOlithic man roamcd this
earth long ages. perhaps five hum
drcd thousand years. And con-
trarN 10 the common belief they
are still here. Stop the processes
Of scientific education for ten years
and you see the Stone Age begin to
creep over this country like nox-
lOuS weeds over an uncultivatcd
field. The honest farmer must war
forever with the blight and the
scab. with bugs and rust and
weeds, crows and other varmintS.
And if he ever lays Off season
they have him. The everlasting
warfare with ignorance and super
stition diScourases people and they
quit the struggle. They let the
weeds take the corn and then VIC
have starvation and catastrophe.
Away back in old Cro-Magnon
days about five hundred thousand
years ago, more or less. men began
to rc8ads The sun and moon as
dcitics. They observed that the
moon changed her face every seven
days and it is significant that in
tn older paris Of the Hebrew Scrip
lures the new moon and the Sab
bath are almost invariably mention
ed together. The full moon as we'll
as the new moon had Il religious
significance among the ancient He
brcwS. The Sabbath day doubtless
originating from the changes of the
moon is older than human history.
1t is thousands Of years older than
abraham and is neither particular
~ Hebrew nor Christian.
But we are here concerned not
with the Jewish Sabbath but with
the origin of Sunday. There is
nothing in the teaching Of Jesus
Christ that will warrant the belief
that he ever commanded or expect
ed that his followers should OBJ
serve Or worship any such dGy as
Sunday. iIc himself was accused
of the awful crime Of Sabbath break
ing and our present Sunday is
neither Jewish nor Christian i'm
origin. II is the Mithraic Sunday
Of Pagan Rome. Ii is Il beautiful
custom. Good people should and
can profiiably observe il. but to
make Sunday observance a matter
of law. to make the non obscr-
vance Of Sunday IL Grim" is pure
folly and superstition. Our Sun
day originated in this way:
When the worship Of the Sun
God became The religion Of the
Roman Empire. being Introduced
from Syria in the year 222 \. d..
the Christians Immediately sub
Siitlied their own God as the
"ruc sun" On December the 18th
they celebrated. not the nativity
of the sun invinciblc" of Mithra
but the nativity Of the Lord" and
in this sense they were able to
keep he day of the sun god Sun
day" as a general festival. In This
way the Christian could reconcile
his conscience with the day OF wor-
ship of the Sun God which would
otherwise have been TO him an
abMninalion. In about one hun
drcd years thereafter in 32l Con-
| Stantinc the Great. an ardent WOr-
shipper of the Sun God established
christianity as the religion OF the
Roman Empire and as Il purely
political move he threw sop to The
sun worShippcrs by enacting law
that all courts Of justice. inhabit-
ants Of towns and workers were to
rest on Sunday Venerable die
SoliS,) the day sacred to the sun
god but like our West Virginia
Statute that excerpts certain classes.
ConStantinr'S law excepted the farm
crS. The horny handed son Of toll
did moi have to observe Sunday
under ConStlntinc'S law more for
the reason that The Pagan Roman
Farmer was not as YET either Sun
NOrShippcr or Christian. Constan-
lines politics made christianity the
State religion with the Sun WorSh-
ippcrS plan in ihc pIatform-d Brv-
ante platform Of Democracy and
PatCrnaliSIn. The first writer in all
human history vino mentions Sun
day as The Lords day is dustin
Martyr, Christian, who lived in
the third century and he knowing
me heather origin. mentioned it
only 10 condemn il. Says Justin
Martyr. "lOu. because YOU arc Idle
Tor one day. SUPPOSE Won are pjnuS.