WE quote a few declarations relative to the change of the Sabbath, from those who are not Catholics, men who are in no wise interested to say anything which would favor the seventh day, but whom love of truth impels to speak as they do.ChSa 162.1

N. Summerbell, a noted minister and author in the Christian Church, and once president of Antioch (Ohio) College, says in his History of the Christians, p. 418:ChSa 162.2

“It [the Roman Catholic Church] has reversed the fourth commandment, doing away with the Sabbath of God’s word, and instituting Sunday as a holy day!”ChSa 162.3

Alexander Campbell, in a lecture in Bethany College, 1848, said:ChSa 162.4

“Was the first day set apart by public authority in the apostolic age? No. By whom was it set apart, and when? By Constantine, who lived about the beginning of the fourth century.”ChSa 162.5

The Chicago Inter Ocean, answering the questions, “Who changed the Sabbath day, and when?” and, “Is Sunday the first day of the week?” says:ChSa 162.6

“The change of the day of worship from the Sabbath, or last day of the week, to Sunday, the first day of the week, was done by the early Christians. But the work was so gradual that it is almost impossible to determine when the one left off and the other began.ChSa 162.7

It was not until after the Reformation that the change was confirmed by any legal enactment. In the first ages after Christ it does not appear that the Christians abstained from their regular business upon that day, but they were accustomed to meet early in the day, and indulge in singing and some other religious services. It was not until the beginning of the third century that it became customary for Christians to abstain from their worldly business and occupation on that day.”ChSa 163.1

The Christian Union of June 11, 1879, answers the following questions concerning the change of the Sabbath:ChSa 163.2

“When, why, and by whom was the day of rest changed from the seventh to the first? Has the Christian Sabbath been observed since the time of the apostles? Reader.ChSa 163.3

“Answer: The Sabbath was changed from the seventh to the first day of the week, not by any positive authority, but by a gradual process. Christ was in the tomb during the seventh day. He rose upon the first. The Christians naturally observed the first day as a festal day in the early church, and as gradually the Gentile Christians came to be the vast majority of the church, they cared little or nothing about Jewish observances of any kind, and abandoned the Jewish Sabbath along with temple services and the like, and thus, by a natural process, the first day of the week came to take its place.”ChSa 163.4

We make these quotations, not for any proof that the seventh day is the Sabbath, but that the reader may see the positions which intelligent persons are taking upon this subject. The high, puritanical claims concerning the change of the Sabbath by Christ and his apostles, basing it upon the fourth commandment, and seeking to sustain it by the authority of the Bible, are being abandoned by many well informed persons. They see it cannot be maintained, for to do so they are compelled to place it upon the Catholic ground of “custom and tradition,” and the “authority of the church.” It will be noticed that the extracts already given in this pamphlet virtually place it there. It was a “gradual process;” it first began as a “festal day;” it grew tip by a “natural process;” the “Gentile Christians” “abandoned the Jewish Sabbath” when they “came to be the vast majority of the church;” and so Sunday at last came to be observed as the Sabbath day by the Catholic Church, from whence the whole Protestant world has received it.ChSa 163.5

Well, this expresses as nearly the truth in the matter as we could reasonably expect from the eminent Protestant journal from which these expressions are quoted. It well knows that Sunday has no divine authority for its sanctity; if it had, it would certainly give it. Our readers who have traced this argument through, have found therein plenty of evidence that this “natural process” of the Christian Union was never secured until emperors, popes, and councils had used their utmost authority to force the Sunday Sabbath upon the people. That men were placed under a curse, and sometimes whipped, fined, and imprisoned, yes, and the inquisition with its tortures was resorted to, and some were burned at the stake, before the “natural process” was fully consummated, and the Sunday of “pope and pagan” fully recognized as a sacred institution.ChSa 164.1

Statements by Catholic Authors

A Retrospect