Editor's Note:
This booklet was originally written in 1894, when the issue of state and national Sunday laws was being agitated in the United States. While this is not an issue at the forefront today (2016), it is by no means a dead issue, and will easily come to the forefront again in the near future. Hence this history still holds much interest and instruction for us.
We have already spoken of a parallel to this line of things in our day. Let us notice this further now.
There have been in this nation for nearly fifty years now, a people, the Seventh-day Adventists, giving a special message in which God's ideas of the Sabbath are most prominently advocated, believed, and observed.
The Pharisees and the doctors of the law saw it when it began, and they have watched it ever since; and they have said,
"O, it will amount to nothing; this is just a little flurry; their preaching creates quite a stir for a little while, but as soon as they are gone, the whole thing will die out, and it will amount to nothing."
They have said that at the beginning, and all the way along; but steadily they have seen that it does not work that way. Steadily they have seen God's ideas of the Sabbath finding a place among the people, more and more, and becoming more widespread.
Although the word might be spoken in weakness, there was that about the words that were spoken, which caused them to linger with the people, and to stay in a person's heart for twenty years or more, and at last bring him to God. They saw it doing this.
And then they saw that they would have to take more active measures than that, if they were going to maintain man's ideas of the Sabbath against the Lord's, and they did it. They enforced the State Sunday laws to a greater or less extent at different times, and in different places; but that did not stop the spread of God's Sabbath. Still it went on.
Then they said,
"If we let this thing alone, and let this people alone, this will become a whole nation of Sabbath-breakers. They go into a community and preach, and they get only a few at the most, and probably none at all, to keep the Saturday; but they break up the people's keeping Sunday, and therefore they are simply making the nation a nation of Sabbath-breakers; and it must be stopped, or the nation will perish for Sabbathbreaking; the judgments of God will come upon the land, and destroy us all."
Therefore they were compelled to have the power of the nation joined to them to put under foot and crush out of exis tence, as far as lay in their power, God's idea of the Sabbath, and exalt man's.
They tried it little by little, and more and more, upon the national legislature and the national power; but large numbers of the national legislature, like Pilate of old, said at first:
"We find no fault in this; we will have nothing to do with it; attend to it yourselves; it is a controversy of your own; it is a religious matter; and if it comes up here, we will vote against it, every one of us."
Scores of them said that. Then these Pharisees and doctors of the law said to the representatives of the government,
"If you do not do what we ask of you, if you do not vote for that Sunday law, setting up Sunday here for the Sabbath of this nation, we will never vote for one of you again as long as we live, for any office under the sun."
Here is a sample of these threats. It was attached to "peti tions" sent up by Presbyterian churches in New York. It reads thus:
Resolved, That we do hereby pledge ourselves and each other, that we will from this time henceforth refuse to vote for or support for any office or position of trust, any member of Congress, either senator or representative, who shall vote for any further aid of any kind to the World's Fair except on conditions named in these resolutions. (Congressional Record, May 25, 1892, p. 5144.1)
Then too, just like Pilate at last, these legislators surren dered and said, "We will do it-we will do it." They sat down in their official seat and took jurisdiction of the case, under the threats of these Pharisees and doctors of the law. And in the doing of this, these Pharisees and doctors of the law did as certainly turn their backs upon God, and join themselves to Caesar-to earthly power-as did the Pharisees and priests and doctors of the law of old.
The gospel is the power of God unto salvation; the power of God belongs to every professor of the gospel, and he who has the power of God cannot possibly have any other. No power can be added to the power of God.
Then he who professes the gospel, and calls for any other power, denies the power of God; and when he denies the power of God, and puts his confidence in the power of man, whether man as an individual, or man assembled in governments, he puts his trust in human power instead of the power of God.
And when these people sent up their petitions and their prayers to Congress instead of to God, they turned their backs upon the Lord, upon the power that goes with the gospel, and turned their attention to man for their help, to carry out this work in which they were engaged.
And thus they got Congress-yes, they got the whole government of the United States-to take jurisdiction of the case. They took the fourth commandment as recorded in God's word, and put it in the official record of the governmental proceedings, and then deliberately changed it. They definitely and purposely put the Sabbath of the Lord, the seventh day, out of God's commandment, and put the Sunday of the papacy in its place. They said the words Sabbath day.
...may mean Saturday or Sunday; it may be one day or the other, and we declare that it is and shall be the first day of the week commonly called Sunday.
And that, they declared was the meaning of the fourth commandment.
Thus under these threats the Pharisees and the doctors of the law of today, got the governmental authority to do just what it did back yonder,-they got the governmental power to put the Sabbath of the Lord under foot, and as far as lies in their power, to crush it out of existence, and put man's ideas of the Sabbath in it instead.
That thing is done. Everybody on earth knows that that is past. And to day we are that far along in the record made by Jesus in his faithfulness to Sabbath-keeping.
This nation stands now where that nation stood when it rejected Jesus Christ because of his ideas of Sabbath-keeping. Back there they did it to maintain their own ideas of the Sab bath against the Lord's, and they did it to save their nation.
And these here did it far the same purpose. Three United States senators, each one in his place, said definitely that this must be done for the salvation of the nation. Two of them had more to do than any others to carry it through, and the third one not much less,-Senators Hawley of Connecticut, Colquitt of Georgia, and Frye of Maine, each of the three placed the salvation of the nation as the purpose of setting up. Sunday as the Sabbath under these threats. Senator Hawley said:
This very day and this hour, I would not for the wealth of ten expositions, have upon my shoulders the responsibility of having decided the question wrongly upon what may be a turning-point in the history of the United States. Open the Exposition on Sunday and the flood-gates are opened..I ask you to regard that which is of immeasurable importance in the salvation of a nation, the great, profound sense of religious obligation. (Congressional Record, July 12, 1892, p. 66996700)
Senator Colquitt said:
Without legislation relating to the great contests that are going on in this country, without the interference of bayonets, without calling upon the militia without the marshalling of armed forces, if there is one palliative, if there is one preventive, if there is one check, if there is one remedy that is going to cure all of these discordant elements of strife and bloodshed, it is the observance of the Sabbath day and the observance of the restraints of our home in addition. (Ibid., July 13, 1892, p. 6755)
Senator Frye said:
I believe that the salvation of this country depends upon the nearness to which it approaches the Sabbath of the early days. We have been wandering from it from time to time, getting away from it. The sooner we get back to it, the better it will be for this Republic. (Ibid., July 12, 1892, p. 6703)
Then, as the same thing has been done here and now by the like parties, for the same purpose, and by the same means, we are that far along in the account. Then what comes next? Will the rest of the account be met? Must assuredly it will; for it was all written for us.
We stand now at the point where that nation stood when Pilate surrendered and took jurisdiction of the case when he knew he had no jurisdiction. And when they stood at that point, the doom of the nation was sealed. As that which they did at that time fixed unalterably the doom of that nation for destruction, as the destruction certainly followed, so the destruction of this nation will follow as the consequence of that which has been done, as certainly as the destruction of that nation followed that which they did back there that night.
When that was done that night, and the doom of the nation was fixed, that doom did not fall at once. No; Jesus told his disciples that they should bear witness of him in Jerusalem, and in Judea, and then in Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of the earth. In Jerusalem and in Judea first, because ruin hung there; then to all the world afterward.
But to Jerusalem and Judea first, in order to save by this gospel such as would be saved from the ruin that was certain to fall. And this nation stands now where that one did then. Ruin is determined; that is fixed; it is only a question of time as to when it comes.
But behold, Jesus has a people today who are maintaining his Sabbath, and God's idea of the Sabbath as he reveals it to the world. To this people he says by the voice of the angel:
"Go you into all the world..." (Mark 16:15)
"...having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation and kindred and tongue and people." (Revelation 14:6)
This thing concerns every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, because the influence of this nation is worldwide, and that which this nation has done in this land, will lead all the other nations in the same evil way, and the ruin that falls on this, takes in all the others.
Well then, the message now is, "Go forth," as certain as it was then, "to all the world," because it is doomed. Go, bearing the everlasting gospel to save such as will be saved from the ruin that is fixed by this which has been done.
But before those disciples could go, Jesus said unto them:
"Tarry in the city of Jerusalem, until you be endued with power from on high." (Luke 24:49)
"But you shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you; and you shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the ut termost part of the earth." (Acts 1:8)
They did not go until Pentecost had endued them with the power. We are in the presence of the second Pentecost. We must be endued with the power. Will you seek for that power?
You cannot be faithful to the Sabbath of the Lord as Jesus Christ was, without his living presence which that Holy Ghost brings.
"Let this mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus." (Philippians 2:5)
Will you? Now the call is: Go to all the earth and preach this gospel to every creature, that there may be saved out of the world such as will escape the ruin that is so certain to fall, and that speedily, too. We and this nation are now standing where they were that night when they rejected Jesus Christ, and when the doom of that nation was fixed. We stand now where they stood then, and it is only a question of time as to when that ruin will certainly fall.
As the Sabbath of the Lord-the seventh day-is the Lord's own sign of the salvation of Jesus Christ, as it is the sign of what Christ is to men, so in rejecting the Sabbath of the Lord they are rejecting Christ. As the Pharisees back yonder in re jecting Christ rejected the Sabbath of the Lord, so these down here in rejecting the Sabbath of the Lord are rejecting Christ. For the Sabbath of the Lord means Jesus Christ, and Christ means the Sabbath of the Lord.
To those back yonder he said,
" The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner." (Matthew 22:42)
"This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner. Neither is there salvation in any other; for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved." (Acts 4:11)
And to these down here he says the same thing. As their salvation was wrapped up in that which they rejected back there, so the salvation of these now is wrapped up in this which they have rejected down here.
True, the princes of this world back there did not know what they were doing, for if they had known it "they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory." But they did it. Neither did these know what they were doing. But they, too, did it.
They, back there, did not know what they were doing, when they condemned and rejected Jesus on account of the Sabbath.
These who have done this great evil in our day do not know what they have done, or what they are doing-they do not know that in condemning and rejecting the Sabbath they are also condemning and rejecting the Lord Jesus Christ.
These do not know that in this which they have done they have doomed this nation. They did not know it back yonder, either. But didn't they do it back there? Assuredly. They could not have done it any more certainly if they had known all about it from the beginning.
These now do not know what they have done; but they have done it; and they could not have done it any more cer tainly if they had intentionally and knowingly done it, and went about to do it from the beginning.
This whole account was written for the warning and in struction of men in the ages to follow. And to no age or time could it possibly be more applicable, or more pertinent, than to just this day and time in the United States.
The parallel is complete: Here the Pharisees, the scribes, and the doctors of the law have rejected God's idea of the Sabbath and have set up a man's. God's idea on this subject is clearly stated,
"The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God."
Man's idea is, and is declared,
"Sunday is and shall be the Sabbath."
And this plainly instead of the Sabbath of the Lord as the Lord himself has stated the matter.
Today also the most widely separated sects, in profession, the Protestants and the Catholics, have joined themselves together, as did the Pharisees and Herodians to get control of governmental power to make effective their purpose to put down the Lord's idea of the Sabbath and exalt a man's-even that of the "man of sin."
These, too, today, like those of old, accomplished their pur pose upon the governmental authorities by threats of political ruin, like those of old did upon Pilate.
And today, in many parts of the land, these Pharisees are persecuting those who maintain the Lord's idea of the Sab bath, as expressed in his own words just as those Pharisees back there persecuted Jesus for doing the same thing. Today these Pharisees are watching, and spying upon those who are loyal to God's idea of the Sabbath, just as those back yonder were watching Jesus and spying upon him for the same thing.
Today these Pharisees are doing all this to get the Seventhday Adventists to compromise or give up the Lord's idea of the Sabbath and adopt man's idea, which is but the idea of the man of sin, as did those Pharisees back yonder to get Jesus to do the same thing.
And having now got the governmental power on their side and under their control, they will use it as did the Pharisees of old in persecuting to the death all who will not give up God's idea of the Sabbath and adopt that of the man of sin. (Revelation 13:15).
And we are most happy to know, and to have these Phar isees find out, that there are some people today so much like Jesus, that when they are persecuted to get them to yield the Lord's Sabbath and adopt man's, they will not do it.
We are glad to know that there are today some people who are so much like Jesus, that when they are conforming strictly to God's idea of the Sabbath, and are therefore faithful Sabbath- keepers, they are yet persecuted and imprisoned as Sab bath- breakers.
And we are especially glad to know that these people are so much like Jesus that when the Pharisees of today go sneak ing and spying around them as the others did around Jesus, these see just what they are watching for, as the other Phar isees saw when they watched Jesus.
And we sincerely hope that these people shall still be so much like Jesus that they will suffer persecution to the death us did he, rather than to compromise or yield one hair's breadth of their allegiance to God's idea of the Sabbath, or to adopt to that extent man's idea of the Sabbath in the place of God's or even along with the Lord's.
For to put man's idea on an equality with the Lord's is at once to put it in the place of the Lord's. Of the Sabbath-keeping Waldenses it is written, that
The Great Controversy, p. 65:
...many, even of the true people of God became so bewildered that while they observed the Sabbath they refrained from labor also on the Sunday.
God forbid that any of the true people of God in our day should become so bewildered as this! Far better be like Jesus and die for allegiance to God's truth, than to live by compromises with the lies and abominations of the Pharisees and Herodians, backed up by the governmental power.
"Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus, who was faithful to him that appointed him."