The Holy Scripture - english version B.indd - Sabbat

284THE PRESENT TRUTH - April, 1850.is the observance of the first day of theweek as a holy dayof rest instead of theseventh.The only weekly Sabbath of the Bibleis the seventh-day rest. The NewTestament recognizes no other. Christ{The Messiah} and his holy apostleshave not spoken of any other. Some,say they keep the first day in honor ofChrist‘s resurrection; but who has toldthem to do so? Has Jesus {Yahshua}?No, never, neither have the apostles.We defy Sunday keepers to bring theleast evidence from the word of Godfor keeping the first day of the weekas a holy-day of rest. The example ofChrist {the Messiah} and his disciples,in travelling fifteen miles on thevery day of the resurrection, and theexample of the Apostle Paul at Troas[Acts xx, 7-15,] is sufficient to showany one that they did not regard thefirst day as a day of rest; but as the firstworking day, as God set the examplewhen he made the world. Then asthere is no evidence for the first dayin the holy scriptures, we inquire, whoeffected the change.of weekly rest fromthe seventh to the first day?From the time of the apostles toConstantine the Sabbath was generallyobserved, while the first day wasregarded as a festival of no greaterimportance or authority than GoodFriday or Holy Thursday.In 321, Constantine published hisedicts enjoining the observance of thefirst day, in all cities and towns, whilethe country people were allowed towork, and at that time and after, mostof the churches observed the Sabbath;therefore Constantine did not effect theCHANGE.Dr. Chambers says - „By Constantine‘slaws, made in 321, it was decreedthat for the future the Sunday shouldbe kept a day of rest in the cities andtowns; but he allowed the countrypeople to follow their work. In 538,the council of Orleans prohibited thiscountry labor.“ Encyclop. Art. Sund.Lond. 1791.Socrates, A. D. 440, says - „Thereare various customs concerningassembling; for though all the churchesthroughout the world celebrate thesacred mysteries on the Sabbath day,yet the Alexandrians and the Romans,from an ancient tradition refuse to dothis.“ Socrates Eccl. Hist. B. 5, ch. 2l,Basel ed.St. Jerome, in a funeral oration for thelady Paula, in the early part of the fifthcentury, says -„She with all. her virgins and widowswho lived at Bethlehem in a cloisterwith her, upon the Lord‘s day, repairedduly. to the church, or house of God,which was nigh to her cell; and after herreturn from thence to her own lodgings,she herself and all her company fell towork, and every one performed theirtask, which was the making of clothesand garments for themselves and forothers, as they were appointed.“St. Chrysostom, patriarch ofConstantinople, „recommended tohis audience, after impressing uponthemselves and their families what theyhad heard on the Lord‘s day, to returnto their daily employments and trades.“Burnside on the Sabbath, p. 16. [FromSabbath Tract, No. 4.]In 538, at the very beginning ofthe „ forty and two months,“ [1260years] that the Papal beast was toblaspheme against God {YAHWEH},and „make war with the saints, and