HISTORY
OF
THE SABBATH
AND
FIRST DAY OF THE WEEK.
BY J. N. ANDREWS.
SECOND EDITION—ENLARGED.
STEAM PRESS
OF THE SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTIST PUBLISHING ASSOCIATION,
BATTLE CREEK, MICH.:
1873.
The history of the Sabbath embraces the period of 6000years. The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord. Theacts which constituted it such were, first, the example of theCreator; secondly, his placing his blessing upon the day;and thirdly, the sanctification or divine appointment of theday to a holy use. The Sabbath, therefore, dates from thebeginning of our world’s history. The first who Sabbatizedon the seventh day is God the Creator; and the first seventhday of time is the day which he thus honored. The highestof all possible honors does, therefore, pertain to the seventhday. Nor is this honor confined to the first seventh day oftime; for so soon as God had rested upon that day, he appointedthe seventh day to a holy use, that man might hallowit in memory of his Creator.
This divine appointment grows out of the nature and fitnessof things, and must have been made directly to Adam,for himself and wife were then the only beings who had thedays of the week to use. As it was addressed to Adam whileyet in his uprightness, it must have been given to him as thehead of the human family. The fourth commandment basesall its authority upon this original mandate of the Creator,and must, therefore, be in substance what God commandedto Adam and Eve as the representatives of mankind.
The patriarchs could not possibly have been ignorant ofthe facts and the obligation which the fourth commandmentshows to have originated in the beginning, for Adam waspresent with them for a period equal to more than half theChristian dispensation. Those, therefore, who walked withGod in the observance of his commandments did certainlyhallow his Sabbath.
The observers of the seventh day must therefore includethe ancient godly patriarchs, and none will deny that theyinclude also the prophets and the apostles. Indeed, the entirechurch of God embraced within the records of inspirationwere Sabbath-keepers. To this number must be addedthe Son of God.
What a history, therefore, has the Sabbath of the Lord!It was instituted in Paradise, honored by several miracleseach week for the space of forty years, proclaimed by thegreat Law-giver from Sinai, observed by the Creator, the patriarchs,the prophets, the apostles, and the Son of God!It constitutes the very heart of the law of God, and so longas that law endures, so long shall the authority of this sacredinstitution stand fast.
Such being the record of the seventh day, it may well beasked, How came it to pass that this day has been abased tothe dust, and another day elevated to its sacred honors?The Scriptures nowhere attribute this work to the Son ofGod. They do, however, predict the great apostasy in theChristian church, and that the little horn, or man of sin, thelawless one, should think to change times and laws.
It is the object of the present volume to show, 1. The Biblerecord of the Sabbath; 2. The record of the Sabbath insecular history; 3. The record of the Sunday festival, andof the several steps by which it has usurped the pl