Source Book for Bible Students
“S” Entries
Sabbath, Made for the Human Race.—If we had no other passage than this of Genesis 2:3, there would be no difficulty in deducing from it a precept for the universal observance of a Sabbath, or seventh day, to be devoted to God as holy time, by all that race for whom the earth and its nature were specially prepared. The first men must have known it. The words, “He hallowed it,” can have no meaning otherwise. They would be a blank unless in reference to some who were required to keep it holy.—“A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures,” John P. Lange, translation by Philip Schaff, Vol. I, p. 197. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1907. SBBS 458.1
Sabbath, Established at Creation, Perpetuated.—The seventh day was hallowed at the close of the creation: its sanctity was afterward marked by the withholding of the manna on that day, and the provision of a double supply on the sixth, and that previous to the giving of the law from Sinai: it was then made a part of the great epitome of religious and moral duty, which God wrote with his own finger on tables of stone; it was a part of the public political law of the only people to whom almighty God ever made himself a political Head and Ruler; its observance is connected throughout the prophetic age with the highest promises, its violations with the severest maledictions; it was among the Jews in our Lord’s time a day of solemn religious assembling, and was so observed by him.—“A Biblical and Theological Dictionary,” Richard Watson (Methodist), art. “Sabbath,” p. 829. New York: 1833. SBBS 458.2
Sabbath, Set Apart for the Human Race.—“And sanctified it.” Heb., [Hebrew word], kadash. It is by this term that positive appointment of the Sabbath as a day of rest to man is expressed. God’s sanctifying the day is equivalent to his commanding men to sanctify it. As at the close of creation the seventh day was thus set apart by the Most High for such purposes, without limitation to age or country, the observance of it is obligatory upon the whole human race, to whom, in the wisdom of Providence, it may be communicated. This further appears from the reason why God blessed and sanctified it, viz., “because that in it he had rested,” etc., which is a reason of equal force at all times and equally applying to all the posterity of Adam; and if it formed a just ground for sanctifying the first day which dawned upon the finished system of the universe, it must be equally so for sanctifying every seventh day to the end of time. The observance of the day is moreover enjoined in the decalogue, which was not abolished with the peculiar polity of the Jews, but remains unalterably binding upon Christians in every age of the world.... The sanctification of the seventh day in the present case can only be understood of its being set apart to the special worship and service of God.—“Notes, Critical and Practical, on the Book of Genesis,” George Bush (Presbyterian), Professor of Hebrew and Oriental Literature, New York City University, (2 vol. ed.) Vol. I, pp. 48, 49, note on Genesis 2:3. New York: Mark H. Newman, 1843. SBBS 458.3
Sabbath, Creator’s Example and Command.—By this is meant, 1. The day appointed of God, at the close of creation, to be observed by man as a day of rest from all secular employment, because that in it God himself had rested from his work. Genesis 2:1-3. Not that God’s rest was necessitated by fatigue (Isaiah 40:28); but he rested, that is, ceased to work, on the seventh day as an example to man; hence assigned it as a reason why men should rest on that day. Exodus 20:11; 31:17. God’s blessing and sanctifying the day, meant that he separated it from a common to a religious use, to be a perpetual memorial or sign that all who thus observed it would show themselves to be the worshipers of that God who made the world in six days and rested on the seventh. Exodus 20:8-11; 1:16, 17; Isaiah 56:6, 7. SBBS 458.4
2. The Sabbath is indispensable to man, being promotive of his highest good, physically, intellectually, socially, spiritually, and eternally. Hence its observance is connected with the best of promises, and its violation with the severest penalties. Exodus 23:12; 31:12-18; Nehemiah 13:15-22; Isaiah 56:2-7; 58:13, 14; Jeremiah 17:21-27; Ezekiel 20:12, 13; 22:26-31. Its sanctity was very distinctly marked in the gathering of the manna. Exodus 16:22-30. SBBS 459.1
3. The original law of the Sabbath was renewed and made a prominent part of the moral law, or ten commandments, given through Moses at Sinai. Exodus 20:8-11.—“Theological Compend,” Amos Binney (Methodist), pp. 169, 170. New York: The Methodist Book Concern, 1902. SBBS 459.2
Sabbath, Jewish Historian on.—Moses says, that in just six days the world, and all that is therein, was made, and that the seventh day was a rest, and a release from the labor of such operations; whence it is that we celebrate a rest from our labors on that day, and call it the Sabbath, which word denotes rest in the Hebrew tongue.—“Antiquities of the Jews,” Josephus, Whiston’s translation, book 1, chap. 1, sec. 1, p. 25. London: Milner and Company. SBBS 459.3
Sabbath, Set Apart at Creation.—When it is therefore said by the inspired historian, that God “sanctified the seventh day,” I must understand him to say, that God set it apart (from the other six days of labor), to be religiously employed by man.-“The Obligation of the Sabbath,” Rev. J. Newton Brown, p. 48. Philadelphia: A. Hart, 1853. SBBS 459.4
Sabbath, Meaning of Sanctify.—uô÷. [in piel form] To make holy, to sanctify, to hallow.... 2. To pronounce holy, to sanctify, e. g., the Sabbath (Genesis 2:3); a people (Leviticus 20:8; 21:8). Also to institute any holy thing, to appoint, e. g., a fast (Joel 1:14; 2:15); (parallel with ioái.äaöo, a festival (2 Kings 10:20).— Gesenius, “Hebrew and English Lexicon,” Edward Robinson, p. 914. Boston: Crocker and Brewster, 1854. SBBS 459.5
Sabbath, Its Observance Began at Close of Creation.—Common sense says that any commemorative institution should commence at or near the time of the event commemorated; whereas, this supposition of a mere prolepsis leaves “a great gulf,” a vast oblivious chasm of more than two thousand years, between the creation and the Sabbath by which it was commemorated. And even then, to crown the climax of absurdity, it limits that commemoration of an event, in which the whole created race are equally interested, to the smallest fraction of that race!-“The Obligation of the Sabbath,” Rev. J. Newton Brown, p. 49. Philadelphia: A. Hart, 1853. SBBS 459.6
Where is the example in Scripture of any instituted commemoration not beginning from the time of its appointment? ... Did circumcision under the Old Testament, or baptism and the Lord’s Supper under the New, remain in abeyance for centuries before they were acted upon? And shall the commemoration of the glories of creation be thought to be suspended for more than two thousand years after the occasion on which it was appointed had taken place? and especially as the reason for the celebration existed from the beginning; related to the whole race of mankind more than to the Jews, and was indeed most cogent immediately after the creation?-“The Divine Authority and Perpetual Obligation of the Lord’s Day,” Daniel Wilson, pp. 46, 47. New York: J. Leavitt, 1831.* SBBS 459.7
Sabbath, Memorial of Creation.—As a memorial of that fact [the creation of the world], he set apart the Sabbath, kept it, sanctified and blessed it, for the benefit of all.... Thus the keeping of the Sabbath makes God known, gives efficacy to his moral government.... It commemorates the work of God as Creator, Preserver, Benefactor, and Redeemer.—“The Sabbath Manual,” Rev. Justin Edwards, D. D., pp. 16, 19, 22. New York: American Tract Society. SBBS 460.1
Sabbath, Birthday of Completed World.—But after the whole world had been completed according to the perfect nature of the number six, the Father hallowed the day following, the seventh, praising it and calling it holy. For that day is a festival, not only of one city or one country, but of all the earth,-a day which alone is right to call the day of festival for all people, and the birthday of the world.—“The Works of Philo Judaus,” translated by C. D. Yonge, Vol. I, in “On the Creation of the World,” sec. 30. London: Henry C. Bohn, 1854.* SBBS 460.2
The most judicious commentators agree that Adam and Eve constantly observed the seventh day, and dedicated it in a peculiar manner to the service of the Almighty; and that the first Sabbath, which Philo (one of the most ancient writers) calls the birthday of the world, was celebrated in Paradise itself.—“An Illustrated History of the Holy Bible,” John Kitto, p. 47, note. Norwich, Conn.: Henry Bell, 1868. SBBS 460.3
Sabbath, Luther on Edenic Origin of.—Seeing the Scriptures mention the Sabbath before Adam, was not he then commanded to work six days and rest on the seventh? Doubtless so, for we hear that he should labor in Eden, and have dominion over the fishes, birds, and beasts.—“Sermons on Genesis,” Martin Luther, (Erlanger ed.) Vol. XXXIII, pp, 67, 68; quoted in “History of the Sabbath,” Andrews and Conradi, p. 27. SBBS 460.4
Sabbath, Lange on Cavil About Patriarchal Observance of.—To object that the Bible, in its few brief memoranda of their lives [of patriarchs after Noah], says nothing about their Sabbath keeping, any more than it tells us of their forms of prayer and modes of worship, is worthless argument. The Holy Scripture never anticipates cavils; it never shows distrust of its own truthfulness by providing against objections-objections we may say that it could have avoided, and most certainly would have avoided, had it been an untruthful book made either by earlier or later compilers.—“Commentary on the Holy Scriptures,” John P. Lange, “On Genesis,” p. 197. SBBS 460.5
God instituted the Sabbath at the creation of man, setting apart the seventh day for that purpose, and imposed its observance as a universal and perpetual moral obligation upon the race.—“The Day Changed and the Sabbath Preserved,” Archibald Hodges, D. D., pp. 3, 4. Philadelphia: Presbyterian Board of Publication, 1909.* SBBS 460.6
Sabbath, Historical Evidences of Universality of.—The division of time into seven days is moreover very common among all ancient nations. This seems to indicate that they all received this institution from the same source, although the religious observance of it had been gradually neglected. SBBS 460.7
From these facts I think we may conclude that the Sabbath was originally given to the whole human race, and that it was observed by the Hebrews previously to the giving of the law; and that, in early ages, this observance was probably universal.—“Elements of Moral Science,” Francis Wayland (Baptist), p. 91. Boston: Gould and Lincoln, 1873. SBBS 460.8
Sabbath, Prize Essay on Universality of.—The Sabbath was made for all men, and was designed to be a universal and perpetual blessing. It was not made for any particular class or race of men, but for man, the generic man, the whole human family.—“The Lord’s Day,” A. E. Waffle, p. 163. Philadelphia: The American Sunday School Union, 1885.* SBBS 461.1
Sabbath, Not “One Day in Seven” Only.—It is not true that the Sabbath law “fixes only the proportion of time” for rest. In every variety, and on every occasion of its enunciation, the law pertinaciously requires a particular day for its observance; and by whatever means “the date of reckoning” and the identity of this period may be discovered, it is obvious that, if once ascertained, it becomes the exclusive object of the law’s consideration, and engrosses its entire authority. It is not true that any or “every seventh day for devotional rest” will meet its requirements. Wherever the Sabbath is enjoined, with a remarkable reiteration it uniformly and expressly limits it to “the seventh day.” The command leaves no crevice for evasion.—“Obligation of the Sabbath,” W. B. Taylor, pp. 20, 21. Philadelphia, 1853.* SBBS 461.2
Sabbath, and Days of Creation Week.—There is no adequate reason for thus departing from the plain and natural sense of the record.... Nay, we ask, what has there ever been discovered in the sea or on the land that may not be explained in entire harmony with it? On the other hand, indeed, the supposition that this day (the third) was a period of unmeasured and immeasurable duration, does involve us, among other serious difficulties, in the grave one of holding that herbs, shrubs, and trees flourished and blossomed, and matured seeds and fruits in darkness, even ages before the sun had ever once shone upon the face of the earth; for the sun did not appear until the fourth period.... The fine “theories” and beautiful “visions” of mighty periods, that have been invented to relieve us of a few seeming difficulties connected with the sacred history, will be found without exception, when duly studied, to involve more numerous and vastly more serious difficulties, so far as the Bible is concerned.... By forsaking the more simple and natural interpretation of this chapter, nothing is gained, much is lost, and everything is hazarded.—“Science and the Bible,” Herbert W. Morris, pp. 81-86. Philadelphia: Ziegler & McCurdy, 1872. SBBS 461.3
Now let it be carefully noted that, according to the Scriptures, those “days” had only two divisions; viz., darkness and light, divided only by evening and morning; i. e., the part that was called “day” was all light, and that part which was called “night” was all darkness. There is no escape from this. So that, according to the most recent of all these estimates, each “day” must have consisted of about five million years of unbroken darkness, followed by about five million years of unbroken light! SBBS 461.4
Now, seeing that the trees and shrubs and grass were made on the third day, and the fowls and other living creatures on the fifth day, one naturally asks what became of these things after they were created? for it is certain that no vegetable creation could possibly live-much less animal life-through five million years of unbroken light, any more than it could survive a similar period of unbroken darkness. And yet if we accept the period theory, this is what we should have to believe took place!-“All About the Bible,” Sidney Collett, pp. 266, 267. New York: Fleming H. Revell Company. SBBS 461.5
Sabbath, A. Campbell, on the Patriarchal Rest Day.—The righteous always remembered the weeks, and regarded the conclusion of the week as holy to the Lord. Hence, even after the apostasy, which issued in the neglect of family worship, in consequence of the sons of God intremarrying with the daughters of men, and which brought a flood of water upon the world of the ungodly-we find Noah religiously counting his weeks, even while incarcerated in the ark. In the Wilderness of Sin, before the giving of the law, we also find the Jews observing the Sabbath.—“The Christian System,” Alexander Campbell, p. 135. Pittsburgh: Forrester and Campbell, 1839.* SBBS 462.1
Sabbath, Marked the Week.—“In process of time it came to pass that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord. And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock, and of the fat thereof.” It is remarkable that what is here rendered “in process of time,” is, in the Hebrew, “at the end of days;” and the inquiry is not without pertinency; at what “end of days” were those evidently customary offerings brought unto the Lord? On what occasion would these firstborn of the human race be so likely to present these their religious services unto God, as on that day which God himself had blessed and sanctified; the Sabbath, the end of the week?. Such an allusion to the Sabbath and the division of time into weeks is at least natural, and as much as could be expected in a historic sketch, which, for brevity, is wholly unparalleled among the writings of man.—“The Christian Sabbath,” Rev. John S. Stone, pp. 20, 21. New York: Alexander V. Blake, 1844.* SBBS 462.2
Sabbath, Not Newly Ordained at Sinai.—The use of “remember,” in connection with the fourth commandment, “implies that the weekly rest day was not a new institution.” It was observed before Sinai was reached. “The Sabbath was a recognized institution long before the days of Moses. Traces of its strict observance in the ancestral home of Abraham are disclosed in the Assyrian records unearthed in these later days” (H. Clay Trumbull).—Henry T. Scholl, D. D., in New York Christian Observer (Presbyterian), Dec. 24, 1913. SBBS 462.3
Sabbath, “Remember.”—This was the most ancient institution, God calls them to remember it; as if he had said, Do not forget that when I had finished my creation I instituted the Sabbath, and remember why I did so, and for what purposes.—“A Commentary and Critical Notes,” Adam Clarke, Vol. I, p. 402, note on Exodus 20:8. New York: Phillips and Hunt. SBBS 462.4
Sabbath, from Creation to Sinai.—The consecration of the Sabbath was coeval with the creation. The first Scriptural notice of it, though it is not mentioned by name, is to be found in Genesis 2:3, at the close of the record of the six days’ creation. It has been maintained by some that this is only an anticipatory reference to the fourth commandment, because there is no record of the observance of the Sabbath between the creation and the exodus. But this is just in accordance with the plan of the Scripture narrative, in which regular and ordinary events are unnoticed. There are not wanting indirect evidences of its observance, as the intervals between Noah’s sending forth the birds out of the ark, an act naturally associated with the weekly service (Genesis 8:7-12), and in the week of a wedding celebration (Genesis 29:27, 28); but when a special occasion arises, in connection with the prohibition against gathering manna on the Sabbath, the institution is mentioned as one already known (Exodus 16:22-30).—“A Dictionary of the Bible,” William Smith, p. 590, art. “Sabbath.” New York: Fleming H. Revell Company. SBBS 462.5
Sabbath, Alexander Campbell on.—The seventh day was observed from Abraham’s time, nay, from creation. The Jews identified their own history with the institution of the Sabbath day. They loved and venerated it as a patriarch usage.—“The Evidences of Christianity, a Debate Between Robert Owen and Alexander Campbell,” p. 302. St. Louis: Christian Publishing Company, 1906. SBBS 463.1
Sabbath, Did Not Originate in Wilderness.—As Ezekiel speaks of statutes and judgments given to the Israelites in the wilderness, some of which were certainly old statutes and judgments repeated and enforced, so when he says that the Sabbaths were given to the Israelites in the wilderness, he cannot be fairly accounted to assert that the Sabbaths had never been given till then. The fact indeed probably was, that they had been neglected and half forgotten during the long bondage in Egypt (slavery being unfavorable to morals), and that the observance of them was reasserted and renewed at the time of the promulgation of the law in the desert. In this sense, therefore, the prophet might well declare that on that occasion God gave the Israelites his Sabbaths.—“Undesigned Coincidences in the Old and New Testaments,” John J. Blunt, p. 27. New York: Robert Carter & Brothers. SBBS 463.2
Sabbath, Fourth Commandment Part of Moral Code.—Inasmuch as, 1st, this precept belongs to the law of the ten commandments, of which all the others are considered universally obligatory: 2nd, as the reasons given are the same as those for its original institution; and 3rd, as we find it frequently referred to in the prophets as one of the moral laws of God, we conclude that it is of unchangeable obligation.—“Elements of Moral Science,” Francis Wayland, pp. 92, 93. Boston: Gould and Lincoln, 1873. SBBS 463.3
Sabbath, Fundamental Morality of.—We claim that the command to keep the Sabbath is a part of the moral law, because it is placed in direct connection with other commands that are obviously moral. It is true that moral and positive precepts are sometimes spoken of in the same connection. This occurs in one or two condensed summaries of the commands which God had laid upon the Hebrew people. But the passage containing the decalogue is plainly not one of this kind. It is universally admitted that it is a summary of the moral law.—“The Lord’s Day” (Prize Essay), A. E. Waffle, p. 142. Philadelphia: The American Sunday-School Union, 1885.* SBBS 463.4
Sabbath, The Fourth Precept Not Misplaced.—Every other command in the decalogue is acknowledged to be of a moral nature. How happens it that the fourth should be an exception? It is not an exception. So far from being “strictly ceremonial,” it is eminently moral.—“The Obligation of the Sabbath,” Rev. J. Newton Brown, p. 14. Philadelphia: A. Hart, 1853. SBBS 463.5
Sabbath, Cannot be Ceremonial.—Of the law thus impressively given, the fourth commandment forms a part. Amid the same cloud of glory, the same thunders and lightnings, uttered by the same dread voice of the Infinite One, and graven by his finger, came forth these words as well: “Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.” It is impossible, in view of these facts, to class the Sabbath with the ceremonial institutions of Israel. By the sacred seal of the divine lip and finger, it has been raised far above those perishing rites.—“The Abiding Sabbath,” George Elliott (Prize Essay), p. 118; quoted by George Frazier Miller in “Adventism Answered,” p. 159. Brooklyn: Guide Printing and Publishing Company, 1905.* SBBS 463.6
Sabbath, Not in Ceremonial Law.—We find that two distinct codes were written out and given to the people of Israel at Mt. Sinai. The first was written by God himself, on tables of stone; and the other was taken down from his mouth, and recorded by Moses. One is called the moral law; and the other, the ceremonial, or Levitical law. The latter, it is agreed on all hands, has “vanished away.” But the fourth commandment ... is one of the ten, which were written on stone by the finger of God. The other nine are indisputably of universal and perpetual obligation. They are as strongly binding upon us as they were upon the men who beheld the fires and felt the quakings of Sinai. And how is it with the fourth, which enjoins the sanctification of the Sabbath?” If it is not equally obligatory upon all men, why was it engraved by the same divine hand, and on the same enduring tables?”-“Essays on the Sabbath,” Heman Humphrey, pp. 25, 26. New York: Jonathan Leavitt, 1829.* SBBS 464.1
Sabbath, No Part of Ceremonial System.—The weekly Sabbath is a very early institution. It was appointed and observed the very first week of time. It is no part of the law of ceremonies, which law was occasioned by the entrance of sin; for the Sabbath was established before sin had entered, and would have been obligatory on Adam and his offspring if sin had not been known among them.—“Discourses on the Sabbath,” Seth Williston, pp. 11, 12. Paris, Ky.: John Lyle, 1818.* SBBS 464.2
Sabbath, Different from the Sabbatical Feasts.—The Hebrew word for feast in the verses quoted above [Exodus 23:14-17; Deuteronomy 16:16] is Chag, and is defined in Gesenius’s Hebrew-English Lexicon as “a festival feast.” The seventh-day Sabbath is never designated by Chag. Another Hebrew word sometimes translated feast is Moed, which is defined by Gesenius as follows: “A set time, appointed season; festival day; coming together, assembly, congregation.” Edersheim makes the following remark concerning these two words: “In Hebrew two terms are employed-the one, Moed, or appointed meeting, applied to all festive seasons, including sabbaths and new moons; the other, Chag, from a root which means ‘to dance,’ or ‘to be joyous,’ applying exclusively to the three festivals of Easter [Passover], Pentecost, and Tabernacles, in which all males were made to appear before the Lord, in his sanctuary.”-“The Temple,” p. 196. London: Hodder and Stoughton. SBBS 464.3
Those ceremonial days were not to be observed until Israel should be settled in Canaan. The weekly Sabbath they were then bound to observe. They were called solemn feasts, set feasts; all of which were typical, and to be done away when Christ should finish the work of redemption. Then, Jew and Gentile, when this partition wall should be broken down, must look to the moral law and the gospel of Jesus Christ as their guide, and keep only the Sabbath given to man in Eden. They were no longer to offer up sacrifices for sin, but accept of the sacrifice Christ offered once for all.—“The Sabbath,” Harmon Kingsbury, p. 205. New York: Robert Carter, 1840.* SBBS 464.4
Sabbath, Never Associated with New Moons and Feasts.—The Sabbath appears to be regularly distinguished from sabbaths; and as sabbaths are regularly joined with new moons and other holidays of the Jews, which the Sabbath never is, it is clear to me that the Sabbath is not alluded to in any of these instances.—President Timothy Dwight; quoted by Harmon Kingsbury in “The Sabbath,” p. 195. New York: Robert Carter, 1840.* SBBS 464.5
Sabbath, Not Jewish.—In every one of these respects [opportunity for rest, commemoration of creation, opportunity of increasing holiness before the fall, means of grace after the fall.—Eds.], the Sabbath is equally important and necessary to every child of Adam. It was no more necessary to a Jew to rest after the labor of six days was ended, than to any other man. It was no more necessary to a Jew to commemorate the perfections of God, displayed in the works of creation; it was no more necessary to a Jew to obtain holiness, or to increase in it; it is no more necessary to a Jew to seek or to obtain salvation. Whatever makes either of these things interesting to a Jew in any degree, makes them in the same degree interesting to any other man. The nature of the command, therefore, teaches as plainly as the nature of a command can teach, that it is of universal application to mankind. It has, then, this great criterion of a moral precept, viz., universality of application.—“Theology Explained and Defended,” a Series of Sermons by Timothy Dwight, (4 vols.) Vol. III, Sermon 105, p. 225, 6th edition. New York: G. & C. & H. Carvill, 1829. SBBS 465.1
Sabbath, Christ’s Attitude Toward.—Much has been made of the attitude of Christ in speech and deed toward the Sabbath. Some have imagined that by words he uttered and by deeds he did he relaxed the binding nature of the old command. This view, however, is to absolutely misunderstand and misinterpret the doing and the teaching of Jesus.—“The Ten Commandments,” G. Campbell Morgan (Congregationalist), p. 50. New York: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1901. SBBS 465.2
Sabbath, Not Abrogated by Christ.—The Great Teacher never intimated that the Sabbath was a ceremonial ordinance to cease with the Mosaic ritual. It was instituted when our first parents were in Paradise; and the precept enjoining its remembrance, being a portion of the decalogue, is of perpetual obligation. Hence, instead of regarding it as a merely Jewish institution, Christ declares that it “was made for man,” or, in other words, that it was designed for the benefit of the whole human family. Instead of anticipating its extinction along with the ceremonial law, he speaks of its existence after the downfall of Jerusalem. [See Matthew 24:20.] When he announces the calamities connected with the ruin of the holy city, he instructs his followers to pray that the urgency of the catastrophe may not deprive them of the comfort of the ordinances of the sacred rest. “Pray ye,” said he, “that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the Sabbath day.”-“The Ancient Church,” W. D. Killen, pp. 188, 189. New York: Anson D. F. Randolph & Co., 1883. SBBS 465.3
Sabbath, Christ as Lord of.—It seems as if some cannot think of power in connection with the Sabbath unless as exercised in abrogation. If it be placed in Christ’s charge, they take it for granted that more or less extinction must be the consequence. They speak as if Christ’s scepter were an ax, and the only question were how much it would hew down and devastate. We maintain, on the contrary, that Christ would not be the Lord of the Sabbath to be its destroyer.—“Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature,” McClintock and Strong, art. “Sabbath, Christian,” p. 196.* SBBS 465.4
Sabbath, For Christians.—The Sabbath was appointed at the creation of the world, and sanctified, or set apart for holy purposes, “for man,” for all men, and therefore for Christians; since there was never any repeal of the original institution. To this we add, that if the moral law be the law of Christians, then is the Sabbath as explicitly enjoined upon them as upon the Jews.—“A Biblical and Theological Dictionary,” Richard Watson (Methodist), p. 829. New York: B. Waugh and T. Mason, 1832.* SBBS 465.5
Sabbath, Jewish Perversion of.—The puerility of extreme Rabbinical legalism is seen in such restrictions as these: “None should eat an egg that is laid on the Sabbath, as the hen violated the fourth commandment in doing work on the Sabbath.” When Christ with his disciples passed through the cornfields, the third rule was violated in plucking corn, as it was equivalent to threshing. Walking on the grass was also prohibited for a like reason. Even having nails in one’s shoes while walking was considered equivalent to carrying a burden. One could mark down one letter of the alphabet, without violating the conception of the law, but it was wrong to mark down two letters. The Jews were not allowed to carry a mouthful of food two steps on the Sabbath day, as it would be bearing a burden.—“Scientific Basis of Sabbath and Sunday,” Robert John Floody, p. 118. Boston: Cupples and Shoenhof, 1901. SBBS 466.1
They [the Pharisees] watched Christ, that they might discover some act for which they might condemn him as a transgressor. No crime did they oftener allege against him than that of violating the law of the Sabbath. When accused of this, he in no instance intimated that the law of the Sabbath is not of perpetual obligation. He performed no works on the Sabbath, but necessary works of mercy. These the law always admitted. Hence, in every instance in which the Pharisees accused him of this crime, he effectually silenced them by appealing to the law itself; by reminding them of their own practical interpretation of the law; or by referring them to the conduct of some one who performed necessary works of mercy on the Sabbath, but whom they never thought of accusing as a transgressor.—Zephaniah Swift Moore, D. D., in a Sermon before the Legislature of Massachusetts, 1818, p. 3.* SBBS 466.2
Sabbath, Observance of, in Early Centuries.—Down even to the fifth century the observance of the Jewish Sabbath was continued in the Christian church, but with a rigor and solemnity gradually diminishing until it was wholly discontinued.—“Ancient Christianity Exemplified,” Lyman Coleman, chap. 26, sec. 2, p. 527. Philadelphia: Lippincott, Grambo & Co., 1852. SBBS 466.3
It is certain (and little do you know of the ancient condition of the church if you know it not) that the ancient Sabbath did remain and was observed (together with the celebration of the Lord’s day) by the Christians of the East Church, above three hundred years after our Saviour’s death.—“A Learned Treatise of the Sabbath,” Edward Brerewood, p. 77, London, 1630: cited in “A Critical History of the Sabbath and the Sunday,” A. H. Lewis, D. D., pp. 130, 131. Alfred Centre (N. Y.): The American Sabbath Tract Society, 1886. SBBS 466.4
The seventh-day Sabbath was ... solemnized by Christ, the apostles, and primitive Christians, till the Laodicean Council did in a manner quite abolish the observation of it.... The Council of Laodicea [about a. d. 364] ... first settled the observation of the Lord’s day, and prohibited ... the keeping of the Jewish Sabbath under an anathema.—“Dissertation on the Lord’s Day,” William Prynne (1633), pp. 33, 34, 44; cited in “History of the Sabbath,” J. N. Andrews, p. 362, 3rd edition, Battle Creek, 1887. SBBS 466.5
Sabbath, in Rome, Seventh Century.—It has come to my ears that certain men of perverse spirit have sown among you some things that are wrong and opposed to the holy faith, so as to forbid any work being done on the Sabbath day. What else can I call these but preachers of Antichrist?-Pope Gregory the Great, book 13, epistle 1, par. 2; “Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers,” Vol. XIII, p. 92. New York: Christian Literature Company, 1898. SBBS 467.1
Sabbath, Held by Celtic Church, Scotland, Eleventh Century.—They worked on Sunday, but kept Saturday in a Sabbatical manner.—“History fo Scotland,” Andrew Lang, Vol. I, p. 96.* SBBS 467.2
They seem to have followed a custom of which we find traces in the early monastic church of Ireland, by which they held Saturday to be the Sabbath, on which they rested from all their labors.—“Celtic Scotland,” William F. Skene, book 2, chap. 8 (Vol. II, p. 349). Edinburgh: David Douglas, 1877. SBBS 467.3
Note.—When the Catholic Queen Margaret, of England, married Malcolm of Scotland, 1069, she set herself to turn the Celtic Church from Sabbath keeping, succeeding too well, as told by her confessor and biographer, Turgot.—Eds. SBBS 467.4
It was another custom of theirs to neglect the reverence due to the Lord’s day, by devoting themselves to every kind of worldly business upon it, just as they did upon other days. That this was contrary to the law, she [Queen Margaret] proved to them as well by reason as by authority. “Let us venerate the Lord’s day,” said she, “because of the resurrection of our Lord, which happened upon that day, and let us no longer do servile works upon it; bearing in mind that upon this day we were redeemed from the slavery of the devil. The blessed Pope Gregory affirms the same.... The arguments of the queen were unanswerable; and from this time forward those prudent men paid such respect to her earnestness that no one dared on these days either to carry any burden himself or to compel another to do so.—“Life of Queen Margaret,” Turgot, sec. 20. (British Museum Library.) SBBS 467.5
Sabbath, Twelfth and Thirteenth Century Victims of Intolerance.—We also believe that the reports about the Pasaginians rest partly upon misunderstanding; as, for example, that circumcision is said to have been practised among them. They rightfully belong to those sects who believed the Bible.—Reuter’s “Reportorium,” Vol. LVI, p. 38.* SBBS 467.6
The account of their practising circumcision is undoubtedly a slanderous story forged by their enemies, and probably arose in this way: because they observed the seventh day.—“History of the Baptist Denomination,” W. H. Erbkam, Vol. II, p. 414; cited in “History of the Sabbath,” Andrews and Conradi, p. 551, 4th edition, 1912. SBBS 467.7
Sabbath, in Abyssinia.—Because God, after he had finished the creation of the world, rested thereon; which day, as God would have it called the holy of holies; so the not celebrating thereof with great honor and devotion seems to be plainly contrary to God’s will and precept, who will suffer heaven and earth to pass away sooner than his word; and that, especially, since Christ came not to destroy the law, but to fulfil it. It is not, therefore, in imitation of the Jews, but in obedience to Christ and his holy apostles, that we observe that day.... We do observe the Lord’s Day after the manner of all other Christians in memory of Christ’s resurrection.—Reason for keeping Sabbath, given by SBBS 467.8
Abyssinian legate at the court of Lisbon (1534); quoted in “Church History of Ethiopia,” Geddes, pp. 87, 88; cited in “History of the Sabbath,” Andrews and Conradi, p. 562, 4th edition, 1912. SBBS 468.1
Note.—The Abyssinians received the Eastern form of doctrine, supposedly, by missionaries from Alexandria in the fourth century. The Sabbath had not then been discarded as the day of rest, though the Sunday festival was observed. In the seventh century the rise of the Saracen power cut Abyssinia off from the knowledge of the world. Gibbon says: “Encompassed on all sides by the enemies of their religion, the Ethiopians slept near a thousand years, forgetful of the world, by whom they were forgotten.” (Chap. 47, par. 37.) And when discovered by the Portuguese in the sixteenth century, they were found making the seventh day the day of rest, not having known of its being set fully aside in the course of apostasy. The Jesuit priests never rested until they persuaded the Abyssinian king (A. D. 1604) to submit to the Pope, and to prohibit Sabbath observance.—Eds. SBBS 468.2
Sabbath, in Pre-Reformation Norway.—The clergy from Nidaros, Oslo, Stavanger, Bergen, and Hamar, assembled with us in Bergen at this provincial council, are fully united in deciding in harmony with the laws of the holy church that Saturday keeping must under no circumstances be permitted hereafter further than the church canon commands. Therefore, we counsel all the friends of God throughout all Norway who want to be obedient towards the holy church, to let this evil of Saturday keeping alone; and the rest we forbid under penalty of severe church punishment to keep Saturday holy.—From minutes of the Catholic Provincial Council, Bergen, A. D. 1435, in “Dipl. Norveg.,” 7, 397; cited in “History of the Sabbath,” Andrews and Conradi, p. 673. 1912. SBBS 468.3
Sabbath, in Reformation Times in Sweden and Finland.—We find traces of these Jewish doctrines throughout the entire Swedish kingdom, from Finland, northern Sweden, Dalarne, Westmanland, and Neriko, down to Westergotland and Smaaland. Even King Gustavus I was obliged to issue a special letter of warning against the error so general among the laity of Finland.—“The Swedish Church after the Reformation,” Norlin, Vol. I, p. 357; cited in “History of the Sabbath,” Andrews and Conradi, p. 679. 1912. SBBS 468.4
In the archbishopric of Upsala the peasants also decided to keep Saturday instead of Sunday. In a few places they pressed the matter so urgently that their priests even agreed to grant their request by beginning to hold public services on Saturday. During the reign of King Gustaf Adolph we find this marvelous belief in many parts of Sweden.—“History of the Swedish Church,” Norlin, Vol. II, p. 256; cited by L. H. Christian, in The Review and Herald, May 5, 1904 (Washington). SBBS 468.5
Sabbath, Bishop Anjou on Idea of Swedish Sabbath Revival.—The belief in the sacredness of a certain Sabbath day could without any connection with the religious movements of earlier times very easily raise the question if it wasn’t Saturday that ought to be kept holy. The people very naturally began to think that the Sabbath law really had no binding force unless it was applied to that particular day which the Old Testament designates. The great liberty that seemed to be connected with Sunday keeping, the close application of the Old Testament which in those days was customary at the church services and Bible readings, and especially the common practice of following even in civil cases at law the law of God as given by Moses,-all these things led the people to study the commandment that demands the keeping of Saturday. One thing is certain: this belief in Saturday as the Sabbath did not generally stand alone; it was a part of the revival work of those days, and was taught in connection with a message of warning against common sins and vices.—“History of the Swedish Church,” Bishop L. A. Anjou, p. 353, footnote; cited by L. H. Christian in Review and Herald (Washington), May 5, 1904. SBBS 468.6
Sabbath, in Europe in Reformation Times.—The followers of Hans Spittelmaier [in Moravia, about 1529] received the name of “Schwertler” (sword-bearers) and Sabbatarians. Leonhard Lichtenstein [one of the princes of Lichtenstein], held to the latter party.—“Geschichte der Böhmischen Brüder,” Vol. I, p. 212; cited in “History of the Sabbath,” Andrews and Conradi, p. 641, 4th edition, 1912. SBBS 469.1
Notes.—This “History of the Sabbath” adds: “Even most prominent men, as the princes of Lichtenstein, held to the observance of the true Sabbath. When persecution finally scattered them, the seeds of truth must have been sown by them in the different portions of the Continent which they visited.... We have found them [Sabbath keepers] in Bohemia. They were also known in Silesia and Poland. Likewise they were in Holland and northern Germany.... There were at this time Sabbath keepers in France, ... ‘among whom were M. de la Roque, who wrote in defense of the Sabbath against Bossuet, Catholic bishop of Meaux.’ That Sabbatarians again appeared in England by the time of the Reformation, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth (a. d. 1533-1603), Dr. Chambers testifies in his Cyclopedia [art. “Sabbath”].”-Pages 649, 650. SBBS 469.2
In 1618 John Traske and his wife, of London, were condemned for the Sabbath of the Lord, the man being whipped, and both imprisoned. He recanted under the pressure, after a year, but Mrs. Traske, a gifted school-teacher, was given grace to hold out for sixteen years, dying in prison for the word of the Lord. SBBS 469.3
By 1661 Sabbath keepers in London had further increased. In that year John James was minister to a considerable congregation, meeting in East London, off the Whitechapel Road. As part of proceedings against dissenting sects after the restoration of the monarchy, he was arrested and condemned to death on “Tyburn Tree.” His wife knelt at the feet of King Charles II and pleaded for her husband’s life; but the king scornfully rejected the plea, and said that the man should hang. Bogue says: SBBS 469.4
“For once the king remembered his promise, and Mr. James was sent to join the noble army of martyrs.”-“History of Dissenters,” Vol. I, p. 155. SBBS 469.5
In 1683 Francis Bamfield-formerly an influential minister of the Church of England, but later pastor of a Sabbath-keeping congregation meeting in the Pinner’s Hall, London-died of hardships in Newgate prison, for the Sabbath of the Lord. An old writer says that his body was followed to burial by “a very great company of factious and schismatical people,” in other words, dissenters from the state church. SBBS 469.6
“Sabbatarian Baptists,” these English witnesses to God’s Sabbath were first called in those times, and then Seventh-day Baptists. In 1664 Stephen Mumford, of one of these London congregations, was sent over to New England. He settled in Rhode Island, where the Baptist pioneer of religious liberty, Roger Williams, had founded his colony., In 1671 the first Sabbatarian church in America was formed in Rhode Island. Evidently this movement created a stir; for the report went over to England that the Rhode Island colony did not keep the Sabbath-meaning Sunday. Roger Williams wrote to his friends in England denying the report, but calling attention to the fact that there was no Scripture for “abolishing the seventh day,” and adding: SBBS 469.7
“You know yourselves do not keep the Sabbath, that is the seventh day.”-“Letters of Roger Williams,” Vol. VI, p. 346. Narragansett Club Publications.-Eds. SBBS 469.8
Sabbath, on a Round World.— SBBS 469.9
And now to trace you round this rolling world,
An eastern and a western route you’ve twirled,
And made out nothing by the spacious travel,
But what I call a wretched, foolish cavil.
And now to make you clearly understand
That Sabbath day may be in every land,
At least those parts where mortal men reside
(And nowhere else can precepts be applied),
There was a place where first the orb of light
Appeared to rise, and westward took its flight;
SBBS 469.10
That moment, in that place the day began,
And as he in his circuit westward ran,
Or rather, as the earth did eastward spin,
To parts more westward daylight did begin.
And thus at different times, from place to place,
The day began-this clearly was the case.
And I should think a man must be a dunce
To think that day began all round at once,
So that in foreign lands it doth appear,
There was a first day there as well as here.
And if there was a first, the earth around,
As sure as fate the seventh can be found.
And thus you see it matters not a whit,
On which meridian of earth we get,
Since each distinctly had its dawn of light,
And ever since, successive day and night;
Thus while our antipodes in darkness sleep,
We here the true, primeval Sabbath keep.
SBBS 470.1
-William Stillman, 1810, quoted in The Review and Herald, February 3, 1852. SBBS 470.2
Sabbath.—See Advent, Second, 22-25; Calendar. SBBS 470.3
Sabbath, Change of, Neander on Sunday Festival.—Opposition to Judaism introduced the particular festival of Sunday very early, indeed, into the place of the Sabbath.... The festival of Sunday, like all other festivals, was always only a human ordinance, and it was far from the intentions of the apostles to establish a divine command in this respect, far from them, and from the early apostolic church, to transfer the laws of the Sabbath to Sunday. Perhaps, at the end of the second century a false application of this kind had begun to take place; for men appear by that time to have considered laboring on Sunday as a sin.—“The History of the Christian Religion and Church,” Dr. Augustus Neander, p. 186, translation by Henry John Rose, B. D. (in one volume). Philadelphia: James M. Campbell & Co., 1843. SBBS 470.4
Sabbath, Change of, Gladstone on the Sabbath “Deposed.”—The seventh day of the week has been deposed from its title to obligatory religious observance, and its prerogative has been carried over to the first, under no direct precept of Scripture, but yet with a Biblical record of facts, all supplied by St. John, which go very far indeed towards showing that among the apostles themselves, and therefore from apostolic times, the practice of divine worship on the Lord’s day has been continuously and firmly established. The Christian community took upon itself to alter the form of the Jewish ordinance, but this was with a view to giving larger effect to its spiritual purpose.—“Later Gleanings,” W. E. Gladstone, p. 342. London. SBBS 470.5
Sabbath, Change of, Alexander Campbell on.—I do not believe that the Lord’s day came in the room of the Jewish Sabbath, or that the Sabbath was changed from the seventh to the first day, for this plain reason, that where there is no testimony, there can be no faith. Now there is no testimony in all the oracles of heaven that the Sabbath was changed, or that the Lord’s day came in the room of it.... There is no divine testimony that the Sabbath was changed, or that the Lord’s day came in the room of it; therefore there can be no divine faith that the Sabbath was changed or that the Lord’s day came in the room of it.—Alexander Campbell (Candidus), in Washington (Pa.) Reporter, Oct. 8, 1821.* SBBS 470.6
Sabbath, Change of, King Charles II on Authority for.—It will not be found in Scripture where Saturday is discharged to be kept, or turned into the Sunday; wherefore it must be the church’s authority that changed the one and instituted the other; therefore my opinion is, that those who will not keep this feast [Easter] may as well return to the observation of Saturday, and refuse the weekly Sunday.—Charles II; cited in “Sabbath Laws and Sabbath Duties,” Robert Cox, F. S. A. Scot., p. 333. Edinburgh: Maclachlan and Stewart, 1853. SBBS 471.1
Sabbath, Change of, How the Sunday Institution Crept in.—The Christian church made no formal, but a gradual and almost unconscious transference of the one day to the other.—“The Voice from Sinai,” Archdeacon F. W. Farrar, p. 152.* SBBS 471.2
Bear in mind that the substitution [of the first for the seventh day] was not a coerced happening; it could not be a sudden, but only a very slow development, probably never anticipated, never even designed or put into shape by those chiefly interested, but creeping almost unconsciously into being-“A Day for Rest and Worship,” William B. Dana, p. 174. New York: Fleming H. Revell Company. SBBS 471.3
Sabbath, Change of, Eusebius on Transfer by Ecclesiastical Authority.—All things whatsoever that it was duty to do on the Sabbath, these we have transferred to the Lord’s day.—“Commentary on the Psalms,” Eusebius; cited in “Commentary on the Apocalypse,” Moses Stuart, Vol. II, p. 40. Andover: Allen, Morrill, and Wardwell, 1845. SBBS 471.4
Sabbath, Change of, Action of Council of Laodicea on (about a. d. 364).—Christians shall not Judaize and be idle on Saturday [Sabbath, original], but shall work on that day; but the Lord’s day they shall especially honor, and, as being Christians, shall, if possible, do no work on that day. If, however, they are found Judaizing, they shall be shut out from Christ.—“A. History of the Councils of the Church, from the Original Documents,” Rt. Rev. Charles Joseph Hefele, D. D., Bishop of Rottenburg, book 6, sec. 93, canon 29 (Vol. II, p. 316). Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1896. SBBS 471.5
Notes.—The translator has used the word “Saturday.” The original has, of course, “Sabbath,” as the seventh day was always called in ecclesiastical law, until modern times. SBBS 471.6
Touching the authority of the Council, or as some prefer to call it, the Synod. of Laodicea, it may be remarked that while its ecumenical character is challenged in some quarters, its acts have never been called in question, and the sixty-four articles adopted by it are today practically a part of the canon law of the Roman Catholic Church.—Eds. SBBS 471.7
Sabbath, Change of, The West Leads the Way in Setting Aside Recognition of Sabbath.—The people of Constantinople, and of several other cities, assemble together on the Sabbath, as well as on the next day; which custom is never observed at Rome, or at Alexandria.—“Ecclesiastical History,” Sozomen, from A. D. 324-440, book 7, chap. 19, p. 344. London: Henry G. Bohn, 1855. SBBS 471.8
Almost all churches throughout the world celebrate the sacred mysteries on the Sabbath of every week, yet the Christians of Alexandria and at Rome, on account of some ancient tradition, refuse to do this.—“Ecclesiastical History,” Socrates (about A. D. 493), book 5, chap. 22, p. 289. London: George Bell & Sons, 1874. SBBS 471.9
Sabbath, Change of, Spread of Sun Worship in the Third Century.—Sun worship, however, became increasingly popular at Rome in the second and third centuries a. d. The sun-god of Emesa in Syria-Deus Sol invictus Elagabalus-was exalted above the older gods of Rome by the Emperor [Macrinus, a. d. 217, taking the name Elagabalus] who, as his priest, was identified with the object of his worship; and in spite of the disgust inspired by the excesses of the boy-priest, an impulse was given to the spread of a kind of “solar pantheism,” which embraced by a process of syncretism the various Oriental religions and was made the chief worship of the state by Aurelian.—“Companion to Roman History,” H. Stuart Jones, p. 302. SBBS 472.1
It was openly asserted that the worship of the sun, under his name of Elagabalus, was to supersede all other worship.—“History of Christianity, Henry Hart Milman, book 2, chap. 8, par. 22. SBBS 472.2
Sabbath, Change of, Church Adopts Pagan Festivals.—It is not necessary to go into a subject which the diligence of Protestant writers has made familiar to most of us. The use of temples, and these dedicated to particular saints; ... holy water; asylums; holy days and seasons, use of calendars, processions, ... are all of pagan origin, and sanctified by their adoption into the church.—“Development of Christian Doctrine,” John Henry Cardinal Newman, p. 373. London: Longmans, Green, & Co., 1906. SBBS 472.3
Sabbath, Change of, The Accusation of a Fourth Century Non-Christian.—You celebrate the solemn festivals of the Gentiles, their calends and their solstices; and as to their manners, those you have retained without any alteration. Nothing distinguishes you from the pagans except that you hold your assemblies apart from them.—Faustus to St. Augustine (4th century); cited in “History of the Intellectual Development of Europe,” John William Draper, M. D., LL. D., Vol. I, chap. 10, p. 310. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1876. SBBS 472.4
Sabbath, Change of, Influence of Surrounding Paganism.—The early Christians had at first adopted the Jewish seven-day week, with its numbered week days, but by the close of the third century a. d. this began to give way to the planetary week; and in the fourth and fifth centuries the pagan designations became generally accepted in the western half of Christendom. The use of the planetary names by Christians attests the growing influence of astrological speculations introduced by converts from paganism.... During these same centuries the spread of Oriental solar worship, especially that of Mithra, in the Roman world, had already led to the substitution by pagans of dies Solis for dies Saturni, as the first day of the planetary week.... Thus gradually a pagan institution was ingrafted on Christianity.—“Rest Days,” Prof. Hutton Webster (University of Nebraska), pp. 220, 221. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1916. SBBS 472.5
Sabbath, Change of, Mingling of Pagan and Christian Ideas in Promotion of Sunday.—Sunday (dies solis, ... “day of the sun,” because dedicated to the sun), the first day of the week, was adopted by the early Christians as a day of worship. The “sun” of Latin adoration they interpreted as the “Sun of Righteousness.” ... No regulations for its observance are laid down in the New Testament, nor, indeed, is its observance even enjoined.—Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, Vol. IV, art. “Sunday,” p. 2259, 3rd edition, 1891. New York: Funk & Wagnalls. SBBS 472.6
If we may believe the biographies in the Augustine history, a more ambitious scheme of a universal religion had dawned upon the mind of the emperor [Elagabalus (201-222), son of the senator Varius Marcellus]. The Jewish, the Samaritan, even the Christian, were to be fused and recast into one great system, of which the sun was to be the central object of adoration.—“History of Christianity,” Dean Henry Hart Milman, book 2, chap. 8, par. 20. SBBS 473.1
The devotion of Constantine was more peculiarly directed to the genius of the sun, the Apollo of Greek and Roman mythology; and he was pleased to be represented with the symbols of the god of light and poetry.... The altars of Apollo were crowned with the votive offerings of Constantine; and the credulous multitude were taught to believe that the emperor was permitted to behold with mortal eyes the visible majesty of their tutelar deity.... The sun was universally celebrated as the invincible guide and protector of Constantine.—“A History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,” Edward Gibbon, chap. 20, par. 3 (Vol. II, p. 251). New York: Harper & Brothers. SBBS 473.2
Sabbath, Change of, The Ancient Sun Festival Substituted.—The first day of the week, named after the sun, and therefore an evident relic of sun worship. In French it is Dimanche, in Italian Dominica, both from Dominus, “the Lord.” Christians, with the exception of the Seventh-day Adventists, have substituted it as a day of rest and prayer in lieu of the Jewish Sabbath.—“Curiosities of Popular Customs,” Wm. S Walsh, art. “Sunday,” p. 901. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1898. SBBS 473.3
Sabbath, Change of, Dr. Hiscox’s Solemn Question and Declaration.—There was and is a commandment to keep holy the Sabbath day, but that Sabbath day was not Sunday. It will be said, however, and with some show of triumph, that the Sabbath was transferred from the seventh to the first day of the week, with all its duties, privileges, and sanctions. Earnestly desiring information on this subject, which I have studied for many years, I ask, Where can the record of such a transaction be found? Not in the New Testament, absolutely not. There is no Scriptural evidence of the change of the Sabbath institution from the seventh to the first day of the week. SBBS 473.4
I wish to say that this Sabbath question, in this aspect of it, is the gravest and most perplexing question connected with Christian institutions which at present claims attention from Christian people; and the only reason that it is not a more disturbing element in Christian thought and in religious discussions, is because the Christian world has settled down content on the conviction that somehow a transference has taken place at the beginning of Christian history.... SBBS 473.5
To me it seems unaccountable that Jesus, during three years’ intercourse with his disciples, often conversing with them upon the Sabbath question, discussing it in some of its various aspects, freeing it from its false glosses, never alluded to any transference of the day; also, that during forty days of his resurrection life, no such thing was intimated. Nor, so far as we know, did the Spirit, which was given to bring to their remembrance all things whatsoever that he had said unto them, deal with this question. Nor yet did the inspired apostles, in preaching the gospel, founding churches, counseling and instructing those founded, discuss or approach this subject. SBBS 473.6
Of course, I quite well know that Sunday did come into use in early Christian history as a religious day, as we learn from the Christian Fathers and other sources. But what a pity that it comes branded with the mark of paganism, and christened with the name of the sun god, when adopted and sanctioned by the papal apostasy, and bequeathed as a sacred legacy to Protestantism!-Dr. Edward T. Hiscox, author of “The Baptist Manual,” in a paper read before a New York Ministers’ Conference, held Nov. 13, 1893. SBBS 473.7
Note.—The New York Examiner (Baptist) of Nov. 16, 1893. tells of the interest in discussing this paper, but does not print it.—Eds. SBBS 474.1
Sabbath, Change of, Prophecy of Attempt (Daniel 7:25).—“And think to change times and laws.” Verse 25. The word rendered think (oán) means more properly to hope; and the idea here is that he hopes and trusts to be able to change times and laws. Vulgate, Putabit quod possit mutare tempora, etc. The state of mind here referred to would be that of one who would desire to produce changes in regard to the times and laws referred to, and who would hope that he would be able to effect it. If there was a strong wish to do this, and if there was a belief that in any way he could bring it about, it would meet what is implied in the use of the word here. There would be the exercise of some kind of authority in regard to existing times for festivals, or other occasions, and to existing laws, and there would be a purpose so to change them as to accomplish his own ends. SBBS 474.2
The word “times” (aéáîa) would seem to refer properly to some stated or designated time-as times appointed for festivals, etc. Gesenius, “time, specially an appointed time, season.” Ecclesiastes 3:1; Nehemiah 2:6; Esther 9:27, 31. Lengerke renders the word Fest-Zeiten,-“festival times,”-and explains it as meaning the holy times, festival days, Leviticus 23:2, 4, 37, 44. The allusion is, undoubtedly, to such periods set apart as festivals or fasts-seasons consecrated to the services of religion; and the kind of jurisdiction which the power here referred to would hope and desire to set up, would be to have control of these periods, and so to change and alter them as to accomplish his own purposes, either by abolishing those in existence, or by substituting others in their place. At all times these seasons have had a direct connection with the state and progress of religion, and he who has power over them, either to abolish existing festivals, or to substitute others in their places, or to appoint new festivals, has an important control over the whole subject of religion, and over a nation. SBBS 474.3
The word rendered laws here (ä), while it might refer to any law, would more properly designate laws pertaining to religion. See Daniel 6:6, 9, 13 [5, 8, 12]; Ezra 7:12, 21. So Lengerke explains it as referring to the laws of religion, or to religion. The kind of jurisdiction, therefore, referred to in this place, would be that which would pertain to the laws and institutions of religion; it would be a purpose to obtain the control of these; it would be a claim of right to abolish such as existed, and to institute new ones; it would be a determination to exert this power in such a way as to promote its own ends.—“Notes on the Book of Daniel,” Albert Barnes (Presbyterian), pp. 313, 314. New York: Leavitt & Allen, 1859. SBBS 474.4
Sabbath, Change of, Melanchthon on the Prophecy of Daniel 7:25.—He changeth the tymes and lawes that any of the sixe worke dayes commanded of God will make them unholy and idle dayes when he lyste, or of their owne holy dayes abolished make worke dayes agen, or when they changed ye Saterday into Sondaye.... They have changed God’s lawes and turned them into their owne tradicions to be kept above God’s precepts.—“Exposicion of Daniel the Prophete,” Gathered out of Philipp Melanchthon, Johan Ecolampadius, etc., by George Joye, 1545, p. 119. (British Museum Library.) SBBS 474.5
Sabbath, Change of, Roman Catholic Catechisms on.— SBBS 475.1
Ques.-Which is the Sabbath day? SBBS 475.2
Ans.-Saturday is the Sabbath day. SBBS 475.3
Ques.-Why do we observe Sunday instead of Saturday? SBBS 475.4
Ans.-We observe Sunday instead of Saturday because the Catholic Church, in the Council of Laodicea (a. d. 336), transferred the solemnity from Saturday to Sunday.—“The Convert’s Catechism of Catholic Doctrine,” Rev. Peter Geiermann, C. SS. R., p. 50, 2nd edition, 1910. (This work received the “apostolic blessing” of Pope Pius X, Jan. 25, 1910.) SBBS 475.5
Note.—The precise year of the holding of the Council of Laodicea is a matter of considerable doubt. Some writers place it before the Council of Nicaa (325), while the Catholic Encyclopedia suggests that it was probably subsequent to the Council of Constantinople (381). Many old writers use a. d. 364.—Eds. SBBS 475.6
Ques.-Have you any other way of proving that the church has power to institute festivals of precept? SBBS 475.7
Ans.-Had she not such power, she could not have done that in which all modern religionists agree with her,-she could not have substituted the observance of Sunday the first day of the week, for the observance of Saturday the seventh day, a change for which there is no Scriptural authority.—“A Doctrinal Catechism,” Rev. Stephen Keenan: approved by the Most Reverend John Hughes, D. D., Archbishop of New York, p. 174. New York: Edward Dunigan & Brother, 1851. SBBS 475.8
Ques.-By whom was it [the Sabbath] changed? SBBS 475.9
Ans.-By the governors of the church, the apostles, who also kept it; for St. John was in Spirit on the Lord’s day (which was Sunday). Apoc. 1: 10. SBBS 475.10
Ques.-How prove you that the church hath power to command feasts and holy days? SBBS 475.11
Ans.-By the very act of changing the Sabbath into Sunday, which Protestants allow of; and therefore they fondly contradict themselves, by keeping Sunday strictly, and breaking most other feasts commanded by the same church. SBBS 475.12
Ques.-How prove you that? SBBS 475.13
Ans.-Because by keeping Sunday, they acknowledge the church’s power to ordain feasts, and to command them under sin; and by not keeping the rest [of the feasts] by her commanded, they again deny, in fact, the same power.—“An Abridgment of the Christian Doctrine” (R. C.), Rev. Henry Tuberville, D. D., p. 58. New York: Edward Dunigan and Brothers, approved 1833. SBBS 475.14
Note.—What Roman Catholic authorities mean, when they say the Catholic Church changed the day of worship, is that the hierarchy, “the rulers of the church,” beginning with the apostles and continuing on by councils and popes, established the Sunday festival. They freely admit that it is not by authority of the Scriptures; for the Catholic doctrine gives to the hierarchy the power to command and appoint in place of Christ. In this claim is involved the whole issue of the gospel and of Protestantism vs. Catholicism. The record presented (see Apostasy; Sabbath; Sunday) shows how the multiplication of rites and ceremonies began immediately after apostolic days, the spirit of the papal apostasy being already at work even in the time of the apostles. 2 Thessalonians 2:7. Thus when it is said that the Papacy or the Roman Catholic Church changed the day of worship, according to the prophecy, the change of necessity includes the earliest working of the spirit of lawlessness which was the beginning of the Papacy, and which later, in decrees of councils and by action of popes-when the church of the “falling away” was fully developed into the Roman Papacy-fully set aside the Sabbath of the Lord, and has ever maintained the Sunday festival as supreme, and as an institution solely of ecclesiastical authority. The prophecy of Daniel 7:25 describes the rise of an ecclesiastical power that would “think” to do it. The fact attested by history is that the change has come about.—Eds. SBBS 475.15
Sabbath, Change of, “Rome’s Challenge.”—The Catholic Church for over one thousand years before the existence of a Protestant, by virtue of her divine mission, changed the day from Saturday to Sunday. We say by virtue of her divine mission, because he who called himself the “Lord of the Sabbath,” endowed her with his own power to teach, “he that heareth you, heareth me;” commanded all who believe in him to hear her, under penalty of being placed with the “heathen and publican;” and promised to be with her to the end of the world. She holds her charter as teacher from him-a charter as infallible as perpetual. The Protestant world at its birth [in the Reformation of the sixteenth century] found the Christian Sabbath too strongly intrenched to run counter to its existence; it was therefore placed under the necessity of acquiescing in the arrangement, thus implying the church’s right to change the day, for over three hundred years. The Christian Sabbath is therefore to this day, the acknowledged offspring of the Catholic Church as spouse of the Holy Ghost, without a word of remonstrance from the Protestant world.—The Catholic Mirror (Baltimore), Sept. 23, 1893.* SBBS 476.1
Note.—The Mirror was the official organ of Cardinal Gibbons, and the article from which this is taken was one of a series of four, printed Sept. 2. 9, 16, and 23, 1893, under the general heading: “The Christian Sabbath: the Genuine Offspring of the Union of the Holy Spirit and the Catholic Church His Spouse. The Claims of Protestantism to Any Part Therein Proved to be Ground-less, Self-contradictory, and Suicidal.” These articles were subsequently printed by the Mirror as a tract. The Mirror was discontinued in 1908, and five years later was succeeded by the Catholic Review, which is now the organ of the archdiocese of Baltimore.—Eds. SBBS 476.2
Sabbath, Change of, Claims of Power to Change God’s Commandment.—You will tell me that Saturday was the Jewish Sabbath, but that the Christian Sabbath has been changed to Sunday. Changed! but by whom? Who has authority to change an express commandment of Almighty God? When God has spoken and said, Thou shalt keep holy the seventh day, who shall dare to say, Nay, thou mayest work and do all manner of worldly business on the seventh day; but thou shalt keep holy the first day in its stead? This is a most important question, which I know not how you can answer. SBBS 476.3
You are a Protestant, and you profess to go by the Bible and the Bible only; and yet in so important a matter as the observance of one day in seven as a holy day, you go against the plain letter of the Bible, and put another day in the place of that day which the Bible has commanded. The command to keep holy the seventh day is one of the ten commandments; you believe that the other nine are still binding; who gave you authority to tamper with the fourth? If you are consistent with your own principles, if you really follow the Bible and the Bible only, you ought to be able to produce some portion of the New Testament in which this fourth commandment is expressly altered.—“Library of Christian Doctrine: Why Don’t You Keep Holy the Sabbath Day?” pp. 3, 4. London: Burns and Oates (R. C.). SBBS 476.4
Sabbath, Change of, Used as Mark of Church Authority.—If, however, the church has had power to change the Sabbath of the Bible into Sunday and to command Sunday keeping, why should it not have also this power concerning other days, many of which are based on the Scriptures-such as Christmas, circumcision of the heart, three kings, etc. If you omit the latter, and turn from the church to the Scriptures alone, then you must keep the Sabbath with the Jews, which has been kept from the beginning of the world.—“Enchiridion,” Dr. Eck (Disputant against Luther), 1533, pp. 78, 79; cited in “History of the Sabbath,” Andrews and Conradi, p. 587, 4th edition, 1912. SBBS 476.5
Sabbath, Change of, The Change the Badge of Authority of Tradition Above Scripture.—The Council [of Trent] agreed fully with Ambrosius Pelargus, that under no condition should the Protestants be allowed to triumph by saying that the council had condemned the doctrine of the ancient church. But this practice caused untold tribulation without serving as a safeguard. For this business, to be sure, “almost divine prudence” was requisite-which was indeed awarded to the council on the sixteenth of March, 1562, by the Spanish ambassador. Really they could scarcely find their way in the many labyrinthian passages of an older and a newer comprehension of tradition, which were constantly crossing and recrossing each other. But even in this they were destined to succeed. Finally, at the last opening on the eighteenth of January, 1562, their last scruple was set aside; the Archbishop of Reggio made a speech in which he openly declared that tradition stood above Scripture. The authority of the church could therefore not be bound to the authority of the Scriptures, because the church had changed Sabbath into Sunday, not by the command of Christ, but by its own authority. With this, to be sure, the last illusion was destroyed, and it was declared that tradition does not signify antiquity, but continual inspiration.—“Canon and Tradition,” Dr. H. J. Holtzman, p. 263; cited in “History of the Sabbath,” Andrews and Conradi, p. 589, 4th edition, 1912. SBBS 477.1
Sabbath, Change of, Sunday Observance Held Forth as Homage to Papal Authority.—It was the Catholic Church which, by the authority of Jesus Christ, has transferred this rest to the Sunday in remembrance of the resurrection of our Lord. Thus the observance of Sunday by the Protestants is an homage they pay, in spite of themselves, to the authority of the [Catholic] church.—“Plain Talk About the Protestantism of Today,” by Mgr. Segur, p. 213. Boston: Thomas B. Noonan & Co., 1868. Imprimatur, Joannes Josephus. SBBS 477.2
Sabbath, Change of, Corruption of Doctrine and Practice in Early Centuries.—See Apostasy, the Great. SBBS 477.3
Sabbath, Change of, Uniting of Pagan and Christian.—See Sunday; Sunday Laws. SBBS 477.4
Sabbath Reform.—See Advent, Second, 22-26. SBBS 477.5
Sacraments.—The name “sacrament” is given to seven sacred Christian rites in the Roman Catholic and Eastern churches, and to two, baptism and the Lord’s Supper, in the Protestant churches. The Greek word mysterion, “mystery,” used in the Eastern Church to designate these rites, is taken from the New Testament, and contains a reference to the hidden virtue behind the outward symbol. The Latin word sacramentum means something that is consecrated, more particularly an oath, especially a military oath of allegiance to the standard; and also the sum of money deposited in court by the plaintiff and defendant previous to the trial of a case, and kept in some sacred place. The term was applied to Christian rites in the time of Tertullian, but cannot be traced further back by any distinct testimony. Jerome translated the Greek word mysterion by sacramentum (Ephesians 1:9; 3:3, 9; 5:32; 1 Timothy 3:16; Revelation 1:20), and from the Vulgate the word “sacrament” passed into the Reims Version in Ephesians 5:32, where marriage is spoken of, and the translation is, “This is a great sacrament.” In other cases the Reims Version retains the word “mystery.” SBBS 477.6
The doctrine of the sacraments was not fully developed till the Middle Ages, and the Schoolmen did for it what the church Fathers did for the doctrines of the Trinity and for Christology. With the exception of Augustine, none of the Fathers gave more than passing attention to the definition and doctrine of sacraments; but the Eastern Church held that there were two sacraments, baptism and the eucharist, although later the number seven was accepted.... SBBS 478.1
The first blow against the sacramental system of the medieval church was given by Luther in his “Babylonish Captivity,” in which he declared the rights and liberties of the Christian believer to be fettered by the traditions of men. He rejected all the sacraments except baptism and the Lord’s Supper, and was followed in this by all the Reformers of the continent and Great Britain. All the Protestant confessions demand active faith as a condition of the efficacy of the sacrament. Faith apprehends and appropriates the spiritual benefits accruing from them.—The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, Vol. X, art. “Sacrament,” pp. 141-143. New York: Funk and Wagnalls Company. SBBS 478.2
Sacraments, Canons on the.—Canon I. If any one saith that the sacraments of the new law were not all instituted by Jesus Christ our Lord; or that they are more or less than seven, to wit: Baptism, confirmation, the eucharist, penance, extreme unction, order, and matrimony; or even that any one of these seven is not truly and properly a sacrament; let him be anathema. SBBS 478.3
Canon IV. If any one saith that the sacraments of the new law are not necessary unto salvation, but superfluous; and that without them, or without the desire thereof, men obtain of God through faith alone the grace of justification; though all (the sacraments) are not indeed necessary for every individual; let him be anathema. SBBS 478.4
Canon VI. If any one saith that the sacraments of the new law do net contain the grace which they signify; or that they do not confer that grace on those who do not place an obstacle thereunto; as though they were merely outward signs of grace or justice received through faith, and certain marks of the Christian profession, whereby believers are distinguished amongst men from unbelievers; let him be anathema. SBBS 478.5
Canon VIII. If any one saith that by the said sacraments of the new law grace is not conferred through the act performed, but that faith alone in the divine promise suffices for the obtaining of grace; let him be anathema. SBBS 478.6
Canon IX. If any one saith that in the three sacraments, baptism, to wit, confirmation, and order, there is not imprinted in the soul a character, that is, a certain spiritual and indelible sign, on account of which they cannot be repeated; let him be anathema. SBBS 478.7
Canon XI. If any one saith that in ministers, when they effect and confer the sacraments, there is not required the intention at least of doing what the church does; let him be anathema. SBBS 478.8
Canon XII. If any one saith that a minister, being in mortal sin,-if so be that he observe all the essentials which belong to the effecting or conferring of the sacrament,-neither effects nor confers the sacrament; let him be anathema.—“Dogmatic Canons and Decrees,” pp. 59-62. New York: The Devin-Adair Company, 1912. SBBS 478.9
Sacraments, Definition of.—That the sacraments are amongst the means of obtaining salvation and righteousness no one can doubt. But although there are many ways that may seem apt and appropriate to explain this matter, none points it out more plainly and clearly than the definition given by St. Augustine, which all scholastic doctors have since followed: “A sacrament,” says he, “is a sign of a sacred thing;” or, as has been said in other words, but to the same purport: “A sacrament is a visible sign of an invisible grace, instituted for our justification.”-“Catechism of the Council of Trent,” J. Donovan, D. D. (R. C.), p. 127. Dublin: James Duffy, Sons & Co. SBBS 478.10
Sacraments, Number of.—The sacraments, then, of the Catholic Church are seven, as is proved from the Scriptures, is handed down to us by the tradition of the Fathers, and is testified by the authority of councils. SBBS 479.1
But why they are neither more nor less in number may be shown, with some probability, even from the analogy that exists between natural and spiritual life. In order to live, to preserve life, and to contribute to his own and to the public good, these seven things seem necessary to man-namely, to be born, to grow, to be nurtured, to be cured when sick, to be strengthened when weak; next, as regards the commonwealth, that magistrates, by whose authority and power it may be governed, be never wanting; and, finally, to perpetuate himself and his species by the propagation of legitimate offspring. SBBS 479.2
Analogous, then, as all those things obviously are to that life by which the soul lives to God, from them will be easily inferred the number of the sacraments. For the first is baptism, the gate, as it were. to all the rest, by which we are born again to Christ. The next is confirmation, by virtue of which we grow up, and are strengthened in divine grace; for, as St. Augustine bears witness: “To the apostles, who had been already baptized, the Lord said: ‘Stay you in the city till you be endued with power from on high.’” The third is the eucharist, by which, as by a truly celestial food, our spirit is nurtured and sustained; for of it the Saviour has said: “My flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.” John 6:56 [55]. Penance follows in the fourth place, by the aid of which lost health is restored, after we have received the wounds of sin. The fifth is extreme unction, by which the remains of sin are removed, and the energies of the soul are invigorated; for, speaking of this sacrament, St. James has testified thus: “If he be in sins, they shall be forgiven him.” James 5:15. Order follows, by which power is given to exercise perpetually in the church the public ministry of the sacraments, and to perform all the sacred functions. Lastly, is added matrimony, that, by the legitimate and holy union of man and woman, children may be procreated, and religiously brought up to the worship of God, and the conservation of the human race. Ephesians 5:31, sq.—Id., pp. 135, 136. SBBS 479.3
Sacraments, Efficacy of.—A sacrament is defined, by the catechism of the Council of Trent, to be an outward sign, which, in virtue of the divine ordinance, not only typifies, but works, the supersensual; to wit, holiness and justice.—“Symbolism,” John Adam Moehler, D. D. (R. C.), p. 202. London: Thomas Baker, 1906. SBBS 479.4
As regards the mode in which the sacraments confer on us sanctifying grace, the Catholic Church teaches that they work in us, by means of their character, as an institution prepared by Christ for our salvation (ex opere operato, scilicet a Christo, in place of quod operatus est Christus), that is to say, the sacraments convey a divine power, merited for us by Christ, which cannot be produced by any human disposition, by any spiritual effort or condition; but is absolutely, for Christ’s sake, conferred by God through their means.—Id., p. 203. SBBS 479.5
Sacraments, Reformers’ Views of the.—Different as the views of the Reformers at this time still were in regard to the import of the sacraments, and especially of the Lord’s Supper, the leaders of the Reformation, consistently with their doctrine concerning the Word of God and faith, agreed in maintaining that a mere outward participation in the sacraments was in itself insufficient for salvation; they opposed the doctrine of the opus operatum, and insisted, in this connection as in others, upon the requisiteness of a living faith. In rejecting the sacrifice of the mass as a repetition of Christ’s sacrifice, and in abolishing masses for departed souls, the Reformers acted in harmony, under the influence both of the Scriptural principle, which is ignorant of such sacrificial transactions under the new covenant, and of the material principle of reform, which beholds in the death of Jesus a perfect sacrifice, and regards the forgiveness of sins as dependent on faith in that one offering.—“History of the Reformation in Germany and Switzerland Chiefly,” Dr. K. R. Hagenbach, Vol. II, p. 149. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1879. SBBS 480.1
Sacred Books, of the East.—See Bible, 92, 93. SBBS 480.2
Safe-Conducts.—See Heretics, 205. SBBS 480.3
Saints and Images, Decree of Trent Concerning.—The Holy Synod enjoins on all bishops and others who sustain the office and charge of teaching that, agreeably to the usage of the catholic and apostolic church, received from the primitive times of the Christian religion, and agreeably to the consent of the holy Fathers, and to the decrees of sacred councils, they especially instruct the faithful diligently concerning the intercession and invocation of saints; the honor (paid) to relics; and the legitimate use of images; teaching them that the saints, who reign together with Christ, offer up their own prayers to God for men; that it is good and useful suppliantly to invoke them, and to have recourse to their prayers, aid, and help for obtaining benefits from God, through his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who is our alone Redeemer and Saviour.... Also that the holy bodies of holy martyrs, and of others now living with Christ, which bodies were the living members of Christ and the temple of the Holy Ghost, and which are by him to be raised unto eternal life and to be glorified, are to be venerated by the faithful, through which (bodies) many benefits are bestowed by God on men.... Moreover, that the images of Christ, of the Virgin Mother of God, and of the other saints are to be had and to be retained particularly in temples, and that due honor and veneration are to be given them; not that any divinity or virtue is believed to be in them, on account of which they are to be worshiped; or that anything is to be asked of them; or that trust is to be reposed in images, as was of old done by the Gentiles who placed their hope in idols; but because the honor which is shown them is referred to the prototypes which those images represent; in such wise that by the images which we kiss, and before which we uncover the head, and prostrate ourselves, we adore Christ; and we venerate the saints whose similitude they bear; as, by the decrees of councils, and especially the second Synod of Nicaa, has been defined against the opponents of images.—“Dogmatic Canons and Decrees,” pp. 167-169. New York: The Devin-Adair Company, 1912. SBBS 480.4
Saints, Worship of.—By the rod of persecution the Christians were in some degree kept in the right path: but in the times of Constantine, when public persecution had ceased, worldliness and superstition openly took the lead. The effusion of the Spirit was small, and the standard of piety became proportionally low. Then priestly power and monkery asserted their sway, and Mariolatry began to come into prominence. And, while glorying in the faith of their martyred predecessors, the early Christians soon passed from venerating their memories to worshiping their bones. Then, as Jortin remarks: “Itinerant monks, as peddlers, hawked their relics about the country, and their graves became the haunts of superstition. The Fathers of those times-Athanasius, Gregory Nazienzen, and others, but particularly Chrysostom with his popular eloquence-contributed to the utmost of their power to encourage the superstitious invocation of saints, the love of monkery, and the belief in miracles wrought by monks and relics. Some of these Fathers were valuable men; but this was the disease of their age, and they were not free from it. In the fourth century they usually introduced an irregular worship of saints on the following plea: ‘Why should not we Christians show the same regard to our saints as the pagans do to their heroes?’ The transition from lawful to unlawful veneration was easily made. As the pagans from honoring their heroes went on to deify them, so it was easy to see that, unless restrained, the Christians would conduct themselves in much the same manner towards their saints. And the Fathers gave the evil encouragement by their many indiscretions. Praying at the tombs of the martyrs was one of those fooleries which the Fathers should have restrained. What an idea did it give of the Almighty to weak Christians! As if he would show more favor to their petition because it was offered at a place where a good man lay buried!”-“Remarks on Ecclesiastical History,” Vol. III, pp. 7-17; quoted in “Rome: Pagan and Papal,” Mourant Brock, M. A., pp. 15, 16. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1883. SBBS 480.5
Saints, Worship of, a Modern Teaching.—It may be just remarked here, as showing how modern this sort of thing is, that the most popular of all devotions to the Blessed Virgin, the Angelus, does not appear to have been used at all till Pope John XXII instituted it in 1316; while its latter clause, “Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and in the hour of our death,” cannot be found earlier than 1507, and was first sanctioned for general use by a bull of Pius V, July 7, 1568: while the use of the Ave Maria before sermons is due to St. Vincent Ferrer (1419).—“Plain Reasons Against Joining the Church of Rome,” Richard Frederick Littledale, LL. D., D. C. L., p. 33. London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1905. SBBS 481.1
Saints, Worship of, Refused.—We have only four examples in the New Testament of acts of reverence being done to saints, and all in these cases they were promptly rejected and forbidden, showing that they were offensive to the saints, as savoring of disloyalty to that God whom they love and serve. SBBS 481.2
“And as Peter was coming in, Cornelius met him, and fell down at his feet, and worshiped him. But Peter took him up, saying, Stand up; I myself also am a man.” Acts 10:25, 26. SBBS 481.3
“Then the priest of Jupiter ... would have done sacrifice with the people; which when the apostles, Barnabas and Paul, heard of, they rent their clothes, and ran in among the people, crying out, and saying. Sirs, why do ye these things? We also are men of like passions with you, and preach unto you that ye should turn from these vanities to serve the living God.” Acts 14:13-15. SBBS 481.4
“And I [John] fell at his [the angel’s] feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See thou do it not; I am thy fellow servant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God.” Revelation 19:10. SBBS 481.5
“I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel which showed me these things. Then saith he unto me, See thou do it not, for I am thy fellow servant: ... worship God.” Revelation 22:8, 9.—“Plain Reasons Against Joining the Church of Rome,” Richard Frederick Littledale, LL. D., D. C. L., p. 29. London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1905. SBBS 482.1
Saints, Worship of, a Profane Spectacle.—If, in the beginning of the fifth century, Tertullian or Lactantius had been suddenly raised from the dead, to assist at the festival of some popular saint or martyr, they would have gazed with astonishment and indignation on the profane spectacle which had succeeded to the pure and spiritual worship of a Christian congregation. As soon as the doors of the church were thrown open, they must have been offended with the smoke of incense, the perfume of flowers, and the glare of lamps and tapers, which diffused, at noonday, a gaudy, superfluous, and, in their opinion, a sacrilegious light. If they had approached the balustrade of the altar, they would have had to make their way through the prostrate crowd, consisting for the most part of strangers and pilgrims, who resorted to the city on the vigil of the feast; and who already felt the strong intoxication of fanaticism, and perhaps of wine. Their devout kisses were imprinted on the walls and pavement of the sacred edifice; and their fervent prayers were directed, whatever might be the language of their church, to the bones, the blood, or the ashes of the saint.... Whenever they undertook any distant or dangerous journey, they requested that the holy martyrs would be their guides and protectors on the road; and if they returned without having experienced any misfortune, they again hastened to the tombs of the martyrs to celebrate, with grateful thanksgivings, their obligations to the memory and relics of those heavenly patrons. The walls were hung round with symbols of the favors they had received: eyes, and hands, and feet of gold and silver; and edifying pictures, which could not long escape the abuse of indiscreet or idolatrous devotion, represented the image, the attributes, and the miracles of the tutelar saint.—“Rome: Pagan and Papal,” Mourant Brock, M. A., p. 21. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1883. SBBS 482.2
Saints, Effect of Worship of.—That the exclusive worship of saints, under the guidance of an artful, though illiterate priesthood, degraded the understanding and begot a stupid credulity and fanaticism, is sufficiently evident. But it was also so managed as to loosen the bonds of religion and pervert the standard of morality.... This mon strous superstition grew to its height in the twelfth century.—“History of Europe During the Middle Ages,” Henry Hallam, Vol. III, pp. 31, 32. New York: The Colonial Press, 1900. SBBS 482.3
St. Bartholomew.—See Massacre of St. Bartholomew; Papal Supremacy, 364; Persecution, 374. SBBS 482.4
Samaritans, Origin of.—See Ten Tribes. SBBS 482.5
Sanctuary.—See Advent, Second, 17, 21, 22; Priesthood, 393. SBBS 482.6
Saracens.—See Seven Trumpets, 507-513. SBBS 482.7
Sardican Canon.—See Forgeries, 171. SBBS 482.8
Sargon II.—See Ten Tribes, 557. SBBS 482.9
Satan.—See Azazel. SBBS 483.1
Saxons.—See Rome, 438, 441, 442. SBBS 483.2
Schism, The Great, Protestant View of.—Only once after this period [twelfth century] did a papal schism occur in the Roman Church, and it agitated and shattered the church as no other. Because of its long duration (1378-1429), it was styled the “Great Papal Schism.” After the death of Gregory XI, 1378, who had restored the papal residence to Rome, the sixteen cardinals then present in Rome elected, April 8, Archbishop Bartholomew of Bari as Pope Urban VI. However, he had embittered some of the cardinals through gross harshness and indiscriminate censure of prevalent abuses in the college of cardinals and in the Curia. Therefore a quota of cardinals, thirteen in number, who had betaken themselves to Avignon, elected, September 20, Cardinal Robert of Geneva as Pope Clement VII, affirming that the election of Urban VI was invalid on account of the coercion brought to bear against them by the population of Rome. In Italy, nevertheless, public sentiment continued overwhelmingly in favor of Urban VI, while Germany, England, Denmark, and Sweden also sided with him. On the other hand, Clement VII soon became acknowledged by France; and after he had transferred his residence to Avignon, French influence also contrived to draw Scotland, Savoy, and later Castile, Aragon, and Navarre to his cause. Thus two popes were arrayed one against the other. Each had his own college of cardinals, thus affording a protraction of the schism by means of new papal elections. Urban VI was followed by Boniface IX (1389-1404); Innocent VIII (1404-06); and Gregory XII (1406-15). After Clement VII, in 1394, came Benedict XIII. SBBS 483.3
The Papacy having shown itself incapable of abating the schism, the only expedient was the convening of a general council. This assembled at Pisa, in 1408, and the delegates sat from the start in common accord. Though the council deposed both Gregory XII and Benedict XIII, and elected in their place Alexander V, who was succeeded in 1410 by John XXIII, this procedure failed to stop the schism. The two former popes asserted themselves so that the church now had three popes. The futility of the Council of Pisa led to the convocation of the Council of Constance (1414-18). In 1415 this declared that, as representative organ of the ecumenical church, it possessed the supreme ecclesiastical authority, and every one, even the Pope, must yield obedience. In the same year, accordingly, it deposed John XXIII, and again declared Benedict XIII as a schismatic to have forfeited his right to the papal see. With the election of Martin V, which took place Nov. 11, 1417, by action of the duly appointed conciliar deputation, the schism was practically terminated, though not absolutely ended until 1429; for Benedict XIII, though almost wholly forsaken, defied the sentence of deposition as long as he lived (d. 1424); and Canon Agidius Munoz of Barcelona, whom the few cardinals that lingered with Benedict elected as Clement VIII, did not relinquish his dignity until five years after.—The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, Vol. X, art. “Schism,” pp. 238, 239. SBBS 483.4
Schism, The Great, Roman Catholic View of.—The Western Schism was only a temporary misunderstanding, even though it compelled the church for forty years to seek its true head; it was fed by politics and passions, and was terminated by the assembling of the Councils of Pisa and Constance.—The Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. XIII, art. “Schism,” p. 539. SBBS 483.5
Schism, The Great, Effects of.—But, at any rate, this much can be said in palliation, that all these disputes were settled somehow; and, right or wrong, one pope always obtained final recognition, except in the schism of 1046, when three rival popes were all set aside, and a new one, Clement II, appointed. Not so when we come to the “Great Schism,” which broke out in 1378, after the death of Gregory XI, and lasted till 1409, or rather till 1417. It is needless to go into the details of this prolonged strife, and it will be enough to say that during its continuance there were two (and sometimes three) rival lines of pontiffs kept up, severally followed by whole nations on entirely political, not theological, grounds, and that no one can say now which claimant at any time was the true Pope; while canonized saints were found on opposite sides of the question, St. Catharine of Siena, for instance, holding to the Italian succession, and St. Vincent Ferrer to the competing line; so that St. Antoninus of Florence has remarked that persons illustrious for miracles took opposite sides in the controversy, and that the question cannot be settled now. Since this “Great Schism,” whose lessons were severe, only one anti-pope, Felix V, is on record.—“Plain Reasons Against Joining the Church of Rome,” Richard Frederick Littledale, LL. D., D. C. L., pp. 194, 195. London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1905. SBBS 484.1
Schism, The Great, Consequences of.—Hardly had the first storm which assailed the Papacy during the long residence of the popes at Avignon [1309-1378], depriving it of its political supremacy, passed away, when a new storm broke over its head, depriving it of still more of its greatness, and nearly obliterating its existence altogether. This time the storm was not occasioned by a residence in a foreign country, which brought the popes into political dependence on a foreign sovereign; but it was a storm gathered in a purely ecclesiastical atmosphere, and hence inflicting damage on another side of the Papacy-the ecclesiastical independence of the popes. It was, in short, no other event than that known as the Great Schism of the West [1378-1417]. Of that event the disastrous effects were far-reaching and widespread. The shock which the Schism itself produced on the minds of the clergy and the laity was but small part of the result; and most momentous were its after-consequences. For that Schism called into being those independent councils of the West, which rudely assailed the Sovereign Pontiff; during that Schism, too, those abuses became rife which called forth on a large scale, though not for the first time, the demand for reform, and thus hastened on the event which involved the Papacy in ruin.—“The See of Rome in the Middle Ages,” Rev. Oswald J. Reichel, B. C. L., M. A., pp. 439, 440. London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1870. SBBS 484.2
Schoolmen.—See Sacraments, 478. SBBS 484.3
Scriptures, Roman Catholic Claims Concerning.—Roman Catholics hold that the church is older than the Holy Scriptures, that these proceed from her, and that Protestantism arbitrarily reverses this relation. They teach that the canon of Scripture itself was collected and fixed by the church, and that therefore the interpretation of the written Word of God remains the express prerogative of the church, with the help of tradition.—“Modernism and the Reformation,” John Benjamin Rust, Ph. D., D. D., pp. 44, 45. New York: Fleming H. Revell Company. SBBS 484.4
Scriptures, Roman Catholic Writers on the.—In order to make us believe that if we would believe anything, we must believe in the SBBS 484.5
Pope, your Romish doctors strain every nerve to persuade us that Scripture is imperfect, uncertain, ambiguous, and unintelligible: and that in many cases the reading of it is unnecessary and unprofitable, if not dangerous. For example, “Scripture is insufficient,” says Stapleton; Scripture is a “dead judge,” says Melchior Canus. Ludovicus, a canon of the Lateran, in a speech at the Council of Trent, “Scripture is only lifeless ink:” and Pighius, in his third book of Controversies, calls it a mute judge, a “nose of wax, which allows itself to be pulled this way and that, and to be molded into any form you please;” and the Church of Rome, so far from regarding the reading of Scripture as necessary, has declared in her last council, “that if any one presumes to read or possess the Bible without a license, he cannot receive absolution.”-“Letters to M. Gondon,” Chr. Wordsworth, D. D., p 81. London: Francis & John Rivington, 1848. SBBS 485.1
Scriptures, Knowledge of, Not Encouraged by Rome.—It cannot be claimed for the medieval church that she ever encouraged a knowledge of the vernacular Scriptures even for her priests. The utmost she did was to tolerate a knowledge of the psalter, of service books, and in the fifteenth century, of the Plenaria, which were made up of paragraphs from the Gospels and Epistles along with legends and popular tales. Increasingly, too, as Romanism developed on the lines it still follows, and sacerdotalism was casting its baleful shadow all over Europe, a knowledge of the vernacular Scriptures was regarded with suspicion by the ecclesiastical authorities. As mutterings of dissatisfaction began to be heard among the awakening nations, the influence of the Bible was rightly felt to be hostile at once to the oppressor and the priest.—“The Arrested Reformation,” William Muir, M. A., B. D., B. L., pp. 37, 38. London: Morgan and Scott, 1912. SBBS 485.2
Scriptures.—See Bible; Canon; Daniel; Revelation, Book of; Two Witnesses. SBBS 485.3
Second Advent.—See Advent, Second. SBBS 485.4
Seneca.—See Advent, First, 5. SBBS 485.5
Separatists.—See Religious Liberty, 413. SBBS 485.6
Septuagint.—See Bible, Versions, 89, 90. SBBS 485.7
Sermon on the Mount.—See Law of God, 283. SBBS 485.8
Servetus, Calvin’s Responsibility for the Burning of.—Calvin’s influence in Geneva amounted to less during the trial of Servetus than at any other time, and it is therefore absolutely unhistorical to represent Calvin as the chief figure in the proceedings against the Spaniard. After the arrest and arraignment of Servetus, the process took its course according to law, and Calvin was simply an important witness and instrument in the case. After the trial had ended Calvin did everything in his power to effect a commutation of the horrible sentence, but without avail, for neither Servetus nor the city authorities would yield a single step. Stähelin says it may sound paradoxical, but is nevertheless true, that Rome is responsible also for the Protestant stakes and scaffolds, because for centuries it inculcated principles and practices among Christians, in relation to heresy, which emanated from a world view whose sole object was dominion, unity, uniformity, conformity, and ownership of conscience. SBBS 485.9
The Reformers could not at once free themselves from the aims and influence of ecclesiastical power under which they grew up, and which controlled them to an amazing degree, in spite of all the light they had attained through the new learning and from the Scriptures. To us the thought that any one should be burned to death for opinion’s sake is horrifying, and our sense of justice and freedom is outraged by the crime itself. It is to be deplored that Servetus died through such causes, under such circumstances, and in the midst of such surroundings. It is impossible to change men’s minds, ideas, or opinions by mutilations and burnings. A man may be frightened into a recantation by the horror of such a punishment, but he cannot thus be forced to erase his mental impressions, and alter an inwrought temperament or disposition. By the threatened torture he is merely terrorized into telling a lie, into being untrue to himself, however mistaken, at bottom, he may be in his fancies and contentions. SBBS 486.1
Both Catholics and Protestants looked upon Servetus as we look upon the anarchist. There existed a confused overlapping and intermingling of the functions of church and state, which men since then, in the onward march of liberty, have cleared away. The Greeks poisoned Socrates, the philosopher of the conscience, because they imagined that he corrupted the youth of Athens. Brutus and his friends slew Julius Casar, the idol of the populace, because he was ambitious. Jews and Romans crucified Jesus of Nazareth, the Saviour of the world, because he made himself equal with God and founded a new kingdom. The emperors hurled the early followers of Jesus to the lions in the arena, and tortured them to death by thousands, because in that kingdom they found eternal life. The Roman Catholics and the emperor Sigismund, by an act of the Council of Constance, burned John Huss and Jerome of Prague because they tried to purify the church. For similar reasons blood flowed in Paris on St. Bartholomew’s night, the fires were lighted on Smithfield Common, and Philip II declared war against the Netherlands. And finally Servetus suffered death at the stake in Protestant Geneva because he blasphemed the holy Trinity and befriended the seditious Libertines. But men ought to cease to make a mockery of historic fact by blaming this terrible deed solely and alone upon the Genevan Reformer, John Calvin, who imperiled his own life to defend the eternal Sonship of Jesus.—“Modernism and the Reformation,” John Benjamin Rust, Ph. D., D. D., pp. 139-141. New York: Fleming H Revell Company. SBBS 486.2
Be the matter twisted and turned as it may, the burning of Servetus will ever remain a dark spot on the history of the Reformation, and in the life of Calvin. We must not, however, charge on Calvin the whole odium of an act in which he was supported by the age in which he lived, or at least by a large proportion of its representative men. How many Anabaptists were beheaded and drowned in the age of the Reformation, whom no one ever thinks of mentioning! Why is it that the execution of Servetus alone is always harped upon as a misdeed of Calvin’s? Possibly, because the horrible manner of his death serves, more than any other, to recall the horrors of the Inquisition, and the executions of Huss and Savonarola. And moreover, Calvin’s personal participation in the details of the process appears in a manner so conspicuous as to enable us to understand how the antipathy of later generations to such bloody judgments upon heretics became connected, more closely than is consistent with justice, with a previously existent antipathy to the harsh and awe-inspiring character of the Genevese Reformer.—“History of the Reformation in Germany and Switzerland Chiefly,” Dr. K. R. Hagenbach, Vol. II, p. 340. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1879. SBBS 486.3
Seven Churches, Christ the Only Priest.—Nor was it of unimportant use to note the representation of Jesus Christ here given, as the priest of the churches, and the designation of their ecclesiastical presidents or bishops simply as angels, a term borrowed not from the temple, but the synagogue: in token, thus early, that the offices of the Levitical priests were to be regarded as fulfilled by Christ; and that the functions of the Christian bishop, or minister in the church, were those of leading the devotions, and directing and animating the faith of the flock; not functions sacrificial or mediatorial, as with the Levitical priests of old.—“Hora Apocalyptica,” Rev. E. B. Elliott, A. M., Vol. I, Introduction, chap. 2, pp. 75, 76, 3rd edition. London: Seeley, Burnside, and Seeley, 1847. SBBS 487.1
Seven Churches, Successive Periods.—Under this emblematical representation of the seven churches of Asia, the Holy Spirit has delineated seven different states of the Christian church, which would appear in succession, extending to the coming of our Lord, and the consummation of all things.—Vitringa, in commentary published in 1705; cited in “The Comprehensive Commentary,” edited by Rev. William Jenks, on Revelation 2:1. Brattleboro, Vermont, 1838. SBBS 487.2
Seven Churches, Early View of.—Let us proceed to that of Cocceius [1603-69]. SBBS 487.3
According to this later author, the church of Ephesus is the apostolical church, 1. e., that wherein the apostles preached. So that this period must be extended to the death of St. John.... SBBS 487.4
The church of Smyrna signifies the church suffering in all places, and especially that of the three first ages. The persecution of ten days, according to this, must signify the ten persecutions which the church suffered during those three ages under the pagan emperors. This doth not fall out ill; but I fear it was chance that made this hit.... SBBS 487.5
The epistle to the church of Pergamus is the third, and according to Cocceius, ‘tis the church from Constantine’s time to the birth of Antichrist.... SBBS 487.6
The church of Thyatira is the fourth, and signifies, according to Cocceius, the church under the reign of Antichrist. Jezebel that appears in this epistle is the antichristian church. They that suffer Jezebel the prophetess are the elect mingled among the antichristian idolaters.... This falls out pretty well, but ‘tis by mere chance; for how can that magnificent eulogy be applied to this period of the antichristian church, “I know thy works, and thy charity, and thy patience, and that thy last works are more than the first”? Never was the church so void of saints and of good works as in this sad period. SBBS 487.7
Sardis is the fifth church and the fifth period, and according to Cocceius as well as to Forbes ‘tis the reformed church. But I say hereto as I said before on occasion of Forbes, why should we say of our Reformation, “Thou hast a name to live, and behold thou art dead; strengthen the things which remain and are ready to die”? SBBS 487.8
Philadelphia signifies brotherly love; this is the sixtn church which carries in its name the character of a church yet to come, wherein love and charity shall reign, but among a very small number of people.... SBBS 487.9
Laodicea signifies the church that shall immediately precede the time wherein God shall pass that judgment spoken of in the eleventh chapter, verse 18, i. e., when the reign of Jesus Christ shall come to be established on the earth.—“The Accomplishment of the Scriptural Prophecies,” Peter Jurieu, Part 1, chap. 1, pp. 11-14. London: 1687. SBBS 487.10
Commencing this most important revelation by describing the things “which are,” appears to be done for the purpose of holding up a glass or mirror for the church to view itself to the end of time. In the seven addresses, therefore, which follow, are described the various states in which, at one time or other, in one place or other, the church has ever appeared from that time to this.—“An Historical Exposition of the Prophecies of the Revelation of St. John,” Matthew Habershon, pp. 7, 8. London: James Nisbet & Co., 1841. SBBS 487.11
Note.—The seven churches cover the entire time between the first and the second advent of our Lord. Conditions in the actual church at Ephesus, where Paul labored and tradition says John lived, were representative of the apostolic age, say to about 100 a. d.: Smyrna, the time of the pagan persecution, to about 312 to 323, the times of the emperor Constantine, who professed Christianity; Pergamos, the time of the “conversion” of the empire, to the establishing of the Papacy, in the days of 533 to 538; Thyatira, the time of papal supremacy, during the long Dark Ages, and to a limited extent to the end; Sardis, the period following the papal supremacy, 1798 to 1833; Philadelphia, from the rise of the advent movement to 1844; and Laodicea, from the opening of the judgment hour in 1844 to the end. These conditions do not always begin and end abruptly by definite dates; they telescope or overlap, one blending into another.—Eds. SBBS 488.1
Seven Churches, First Period, Character of Early Church.—The Christians are not separated from other men by earthly abode, by language, or by customs. They dwell nowhere in cities by themselves; they do not use a different language, or affect a singular mode of life. They dwell in the cities of the Greeks, and of the barbarians, each as his lot has been cast; and while they conform to the usages of the country, in respect to dress, food, and other things pertaining to the outward life, they yet show a peculiarity of conduct wonderful and striking to all. They obey the existing laws, and conquer the laws by their own living.—“Letter to Digonet,” early second century; cited in “General History of the Christian Religion and Church,” Dr. Augustus Neander (translation by Joseph Torrey), Vol. 1, sec. 1, p. 69. Boston: Crocker and Brewster, 1854. SBBS 488.2
The distinguished virtues of the Christians must have shone forth the more brightly, as contrasted with the prevailing vices; their severity of morals, sometimes even carried to excess, as opposed to the general deprivation of the age; their hearty fraternal love, in contrast with that predominant selfishness which separated man from man, and rendered each distrustful of the other, insomuch that men could not comprehend the nature of Christian fellowship, nor sufficiently wonder at its fruits. “See,” was the common remark, “how they love one another.”-“General History of the Christian Religion and Church,” Dr. Augustus Neander (Torrey’s translation), Vol. I, sec. 1, p. 76. Boston: Crocker and Brewster, 1854. SBBS 488.3
Seven Churches, Smyrna; The Period of Early Persecution.—During the apostolic period, indeed, it would seem as if the providence of God interposed to preserve the church from a general persecution, in order that its foundations might be well laid throughout the world, before the violence of the heathen Roman Empire should be let loose against it.... But with the new period of the history of the church, commenced a new era in its tribulations.—“Seven Ages of the Church,” Rev. Henry Cotterill, A. M., Theological Tutor in Brighton College, pp. 56, 57. London, 1849. SBBS 488.4
Seven Churches, Smyrna; The “Ten Days” of Tribulation, by a Contemporary.—During the whole ten years of the persecution, there was no cessation of plots and civil wars among the persecutors themselves.... Such was the state of things throughout the whole period of the persecution. This, by the goodness of God, had entirely ceased in the tenth year, although it had already begun to relax after the eighth.... But this was not done by any mere human agency, nor was it, as might perhaps be supposed, by the compassion or the humanity of our rulers. For, so far from this, they were daily devising more and severer measures against us from the beginning of the persecution until then, constantly inventing new tortures from time to time by an increasing variety of machinery and instruments for this purpose. But the evident superintendence of divine Providence, on the one hand, being reconciled to his people, and on the other, assailing the author [Galerius] of these miseries, exhibited his anger against him as the ringleader in the horrors of the whole persecution.... Hence he was visited by a judgment sent from God, which beginning in his flesh proceeded to his very soul.—“Ecclesiastical History,” Eusebius, book 8. chaps. 15, 16, pp. 325, 326 (translation by Rev. C. F. Crusé). London George Bell and Sons, 1889. SBBS 488.5
It was not till a. d. 311, eight years after the commencement of the general persecution, ten years after the first measure against the Christians, that the Eastern persecution ceased. Galerius, the arch-enemy of the Christians, was struck down by a fearful disease. His body became a mass of loathsome, mortifying, and fetid sores-a living corpse, devoured by countless worms, and exhaling the odor of the charnel-house. He who had shed so much innocent blood. shrank himself from a Roman death. In his extreme anguish he annealed in turn to physician after physician, and to temple after temple. At last he relented towards the Christians. He issued a proclamation restoring them to liberty, permitting them to rebuild their churches, and asking their prayers for his recovery.—“History of European Morals,” William E. H. Lecky, M. A., chap. 3, 3rd par. from the end (Vol. I. p. 491). London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1869. SBBS 489.1
Seven Churches, Revocation Edict by Galerius.—When a decree of this kind was issued by us, that they [Christians] should return again to the established usages of their forefathers, vast numbers were subjected to danger, many, when threatened, endured various kinds of death. But though we saw the great mass still persevering in their folly, and that they neither gave the honor that was due to the immortal gods, nor heeded that of the Christians, still having a regard to our clemency and our invariable practice, according to which we are wont to grant pardon to all, we most cheerfully have resolved to extend our indulgence in this matter also: that there may be Christians again, and that they may restore their houses in which they are accustomed to assemble, so that nothing be done by them contrary to their profession. In another epistle we shall point out to the judges what they will be required to observe, whence, according to this condescension of ours, they are obligated to implore their God for our safety, as well as that of the people and their own.—Decree of Galerius, in “Ecclesiastical History,” Eusebius, book 8, chap. 17, p. 328 (translation by Rev. C. F. Crusé). London: George Bell and Sons, 1889. SBBS 489.2
Seven Churches, Smyrna; A Catholic Writer on.—Smyrna stands for the second, or martyrs’ age of the church, which extended from Nero’s persecution to the edict of Milan, a. d. 313.—“The Apocalypse of St. John,” J. J. L. Ratton, p. 145. London: Washbourne, 1912. SBBS 489.3
Note.—Baalam’s counsel to Balak was that Israel should be persuaded to coin in the idolatrous practices: and so was Israel corrupted by the surrounding heathenism. Numbers 22 to 25; 31:13-16.—Eds. SBBS 489.4
Seven Churches, Pergamos; Satan’s Seat as to Period: Of Compromise with Paganism.—Such was the tendency of the times [fourth century] to adulterate Christianity with the spirit of paganism, partly to conciliate the prejudices of worldly converts, partly in the hope of securing its more rapid spread. There is a solemnity in the truthful accusation which Faustus makes to Augustine: “You have substituted your agapa for the sacrifices of the pagans; for their idols your martyrs, whom you serve with the very same honors. You appease the shades of the dead with wine and feasts; you celebrate the solemn festivals of the Gentiles, their calends and their solstices; and as to their manners, those you have retained without any alteration. Nothing distinguishes you from the pagans, except that you hold your assemblies apart from them.”-“History of the Intellectual Development of Europe,” John William Draper. M. D., LL. D., Vol. I, chap. 10, pp. 309, 310. New York: Harper & Brothers. SBBS 489.5
Seven Churches, Pergamos; Gibbon on Corruption of Christianity.—The sublime and simple theology of the primitive Christians was gradually corrupted; and the monarchy of heaven, already clouded by metaphysical subtleties, was degraded by the introduction of a popular mythology, which tended to restore the reign of polytheism.... SBBS 490.1
The Christians frequented the tombs of the martyrs, in the hope of obtaining, from their powerful intercession, every sort of spiritual, but more especially of temporal, blessings.... Edifying pictures, which could not long escape the abuse of indiscreet or idolatrous devotion, represented the image, the attributes, and the miracles of the tutelar saint.... The most respectable bishops had persuaded themselves that the ignorant rustics would more cheerfully renounce the superstitions of paganism if they found some resemblance, some compensation, in the bosom of Christianity. The religion of Constantine achieved, in less than a century, the final conquest of the Roman Empire: but the victors themselves were insensibly subdued by the arts of their vanquished rivals.—“The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,” Edward Gibbon, chap. 28, pars. 3, 4 (Vol. III, pp. 161-163). New York: Harper & Brothers. SBBS 490.2
Seven Churches, Pergamos; Repeating Israel’s Sin.—Paganism could not overcome the church as an enemy: the danger now arises from its friendship. The experiment is now tried, whether, by an alliance with Christianity, under the plea of attachment to Christian doctrines and practices, and of a desire to conciliate the heathen world, this new Israel, which cannot be crushed, may be gradually corrupted. The successful result of this attempt may be seen to the present day, in the virtual paganism of a large majority of the professedly Christian world, in which every abomination which the early church resisted unto blood, may be found disguised under Christian titles.... The martyr worship of the Nicene church was in all respects the counterpart of the “offerings of the dead” in the worship of Baalpeor.—“Seven Ages of the Church,” Rev. Henry Cotterill, A. M. (Theological Tutor, Brighton College), pp. 89-91. London, 1849. SBBS 490.3
Seven Churches, Pergamos; Appropriateness of City as Representing Satan’s Seat.—And this [in Crete] is a shrine of Asclepius, and just as the whole of Asia flocks to Pergamum, so the whole of Crete flocked to this shrine.—“Life of Apollonius,” Philostratus, book 4, chap. 34; Loeb’s Classical Library, Vol. I, p. 429. SBBS 490.4
Another form of the sun divinity, or Teitan, at Rome, was the Epidaurian snake, worshiped under the name of Asculapius [Asclepius], that is, “the man-instructing serpent.” Here, then, in Rome was Teitan, or Satan, identified with the “serpent that taught mankind,” that opened their eyes (when, of course, they were blind), and gave them “the knowledge of good and evil.” In Pergamos, and in all Asia Minor, from which directly Rome derived its knowledge of the Mysteries, the case was the same. In Pergamos, especially, where pre-eminently “Satan’s seat was,” the sun divinity, as is well known, was worshiped under the form of a serpent and under the name of Asculapius, “the man-instructing serpent.” According to the fundamental doctrine of the Mysteries, as brought from Pergamos to Rome, the sun was the one only god.—“The Two Babylons,” Rev. Alexander Hislop, pp. 278, 279. London: S. W. Partridge & Co., 1907. SBBS 490.5
Seven Churches, Pergamos; City Itself a Center of Idolatry and Intolerance.—Since the deified Augustus had not opposed the founding at Pergamos of a temple to himself and the city of Rome; 1, with whom all his actions and sayings have the force of laws, have followed an example already approved.—Tiberius (accepting proposition of Spain to erect temple to himself), “Annals,” Tacitus, book 4, par. 37 (Vol. I, p. 179). SBBS 491.1
Note.—Pergamos was the originator in the West of the deification and worship of the emperor. It was refusal of the demand that they offer incense before the statue of the emperor that had sent many Christians to death. And. let us recall that this Pergamos period of the church was also the age that saw the exaltation of the Bishop of Rome, who sat on the seat of the Casars, to be supreme in the professed church, sitting as God in the temple of God.—Eds. SBBS 491.2
Seven Churches, Pergamos; Catholic Writer on.—The third stage of the church, called Pergamos, extended from the edict of Milan, a. d. 313, to the fall of the Roman Empire in the beginning of the sixth century.—“The Apocalypse of St. John,” J. J. L. Ratton, p. 149. London: Washbourne, 1912. SBBS 491.3
Seven Churches, Pergamos: Doctrine of Balaam.—See Apostasy; Babylon. SBBS 491.4
Seven Churches, Thyatira; Early English Expositor on.—This state of the corruption of the church of Christ, by the popish doctrines of the Church of Rome, and the Pope’s tyrannizing over the consciences of men, most plainly mark this era of the church, which began at the time when the Pope was declared supreme over all other bishops, and lasted till his power and reign met with a check at the Reformation, when began the Sardian church-state, which still continues.—“Letter upon the Downfall of Antichrist,” Rev. A. Maddock. London, 1779. (Bound with “Fleming’s Tracts,” British Museum Library.) SBBS 491.5
Seven Churches, Thyatira; Catholic Writer on.—Thyatira, the fourth age of the church, began when the downfall of pagan Rome was accomplished and the devil was chained up for a thousand years.... The body of the church, freed from the tonic of persecution, fell away from its high calling and embraced luxury. This message reveals the interior condition of the church of the Middle Ages, which extended from the sixth to the sixteenth century. [p. 155] ... SBBS 491.6
If we apply this letter to the fourth, or millennial, age of the church, which lasted about a thousand years, it may be said to coincide with it from the historic point of view in a remarkable manner. This period has been called by the church “the age of faith,” and by the world “the Dark Ages.” What the world calls “dark” from a spiritual point of view, generally means “light.” But both the church and the world speak of this period as “the Middle Ages.” In this it may be that we have built better than we knew; for Thyatira is the middle church of the seven, and consequently stands as the symbol of the church of “the Middle Ages.” [p. 158] ... SBBS 491.7
The material prosperity of the church culminated in the Middle Ages. Its revenues from lands and property of all kinds, from endowments and bequests, increased enormously. It became one of the richest institutions of the world. In the train of wealth came luxury, and in the lap of luxury lay vice. “Then the concupiscence of the flesh, and of the eyes, and the pride of life, extended to the clergy of the church. These, secure of the indulgence of a corrupt age and thinking it safe to do so, gave themselves up to voluptuous living, and fell into presumption, as ordinarily happens in such cases. But these were the vices of Jezebel, the wife of Achab.” (Holzhauser, Vol. I, p. 145.) SBBS 492.1
Many of the Popes struggled in vain against the evils which afflicted the church.... The church makes no claim to impeccability, or sinlessness, either as to its head, the Pope, or as to its members individually. It is in this book revealed that many of the hierarchy would fall into gross sins in the Middle Ages. History tells us that they did so.”—“The Apocalypse of St. John,” J. J. L. Ratton, pp. 155-159. (“Imprimatur Edm. Can. Surmont Vicarius Gen.”) London: Washbourne, 1912. SBBS 492.2
Note.—How true it is, as Wylie says: “The noon of the Papacy was the midnight of the world.”-“The History of Protestantism,” chap. 4. SBBS 492.3
This Catholic author (Ratton) fails to note that this epistle was not addressed to the great ruling body represented by Jezebel and her ways, but to the church of believers suffering under this period-“the rest in Thyatira,” the remnant who kept the light of faith burning through the Dark Ages.—Eds. SBBS 492.4
Seven Churches, Sardis; Reformation Times and Later.—This fifth great scene in the Christian drama has been faithfully exhibited on the stage of time; and it will be readily identified, in what is emphatically called the Reformation, and the consequences that flowed from it in that and the succeeding ages.—“An Historical Exposition of the Prophecies of the Revelation of St. John,” Matthew Habershon, p. 79. London: James Nisbet & Co., 1841. SBBS 492.5
Seven Churches, Sardis; Reformation to be Continuous.—I charge you before God and his blessed angels, that you follow me no farther than you have seen me follow the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord has more truth yet to break forth out of his Holy Word. I cannot sufficiently bewail the condition of the reformed churches, who have come to a period in religion, and will go at present no farther than the instruments of their reformation. Luther and Calvin were great and shining lights in their times, yet they penetrated not into the whole counsel of God. I beseech you, remember it-‘tis an article of your church covenant-that you be ready to receive whatever truth shall be made known to you from the written Word of God.—John Robinson, pastor at Leyden, Holland, in Farewell to Pilgrims sailing for New World, July, 1620; cited in “A History of the United States,” George Bancroft, Vol. I, chap. 8, pp. 306, 307. Boston: Little, Brown & Co., SBBS 492.6
Although the Reformation began well and threatened to sweep Romanism to the sea, winning seemingly the favor and overwatching providence of the Lord, it came, nevertheless, to a sudden and mysterious halt, failing to complete its work in the very countries where it began. Some of the “things which remain” in Protestantism “are ready to die,” and the exhortation to Sardis to be “watchful and strengthen” them was never more pertinent and appropriate than now. SBBS 492.7
The forecast of Sardis and the history of Protestantism fit each other like hand and glove. With the page of history closed and the facts of Protestantism ignored, the prophecy remains as the declaration of the continued failure and departure of the professing church.—“The Coming of Christ, Pre-Millennial and Imminent,” I. M. Haldeman (Baptist), p. 101. New York: Charles 100. Cook, 1906. SBBS 493.1
Seven Churches, Sardis; Catholic Writer on.—As a symbol of the fifth age of the church, it [Sardis] extended from the Council of Trent to the first half of the nineteenth century, a period of about 280 years. During the greater part of this time the church suffered persecution in one direction or another. SBBS 493.2
The Sardian age is commonly known as the Reformation period.—“The Apocalypse of St. John,” J. J. L. Ratton, p. 166. London: Washbourne, 1912. SBBS 493.3
Seven Churches, Sardis; Condition Recognized in Period Itself.—If it should be asked, What time it is with us now? whereabout we are? and what is yet to come out of the night? as a faithful watchman, I will give you the best account I can. I take it, we are in the Sardian church state, in the last part of it, which brought on the Reformation, and represents that. We are in the decline of that state, and there are many things said of that church which agree with us, as that we have a name that we live, and are dead, etc. It is a sort of twilight with us, between clear and dark, between day and night.—Sermon by Dr. Thomas H. Gill, 1748, “Second Advent Library, No. 1,” p. 209, Jan. 1, 1842. SBBS 493.4
The epistle to the church of Sardis is so strongly characteristic of the reformed churches at this day, that little more need be done than to read that epistle to see our own likeness. [Revelation 3:1.] ... We have the name of a purely reformed church, who protests against the errors of popery, doctrinal and practical; but are we not dead as to faith and good works? ... As the downfall of the Pope and the Turk is an event wherein all Christians are greatly interested, so it is what all earnestly desire should be speedily accomplished. The near approach of that happy time is a pleasing prospect. It cannot be far off.... SBBS 493.5
Before the fall of Antichrist there will be, it is reasonable to believe, ... a removing of our candlestick towards the close of the Sardian church-state; a setting of it up, in all probability, in America, which will form the commencement of the Philadelphia church-state. These events will be brought about gradually; therefore will, in all probability, take up some years to complete them.—“Letter upon the Down-fall of Antichrist,” Rev. A. Maddock (1777). London, 1779. (Bound with “Fleming’s Tracts,” British Museum Library.) SBBS 493.6
Note.—As the end of the long period of papal supremacy was drawing near, the dead formalism of that time was stirred by the great revival of the eighteenth century, under Wesley and his Methodist associates, and Whitefield and others, growing into the general evangelical and missionary awakening as the time of the end came, with the revival of interest in prophetic study that prepared the way for the advent movement. (See Increase of Knowledge; Advent Movement of 1844.) Britain and Europe were the scenes of this wonderful rebirth of missionary activity; but as the flame caught in the West, the New World, with its mixture of all nations and tongues, was evidently to be the providential base for the development of the definite advent movement, for which the great awakening of the time of the end was a preparation. This forecast, of 1777, from a view of the prophecies, seems a remarkable one, and shows how truly the book of prophecy was being unsealed as the time referred to in Daniel 12:4 came.—Eds. SBBS 493.7
Seven Churches, Philadelphia; As Seen Shaping by Observer in Britain, 1777.—A general stupor and carelessness concerning the things of God, the great and foundation truths of the gospel, and our own souls, have seized upon Protestants in general; we have lately fallen in love with, or, at least, have ceased to hate, popish tenets.... These signs declare the times. They show the Sardinian church-state to be drawing toward its period. The light of our candlestick is extinguishing, and America seems to be the happy land where God will set it up chiefly in the next church-state. This was the opinion of the divine Herbert, among others, who about one hundred and fifty years ago, could sing, in his “Church Militant,“ SBBS 493.8
“Religion stands on tiptoe in our land,
Ready to pass to the American strand.”
SBBS 494.1
It was our Lord’s command that the gospel should be first preached at Jerusalem. From thence it spread; and the sound thereof went out into all parts of the known world, but especially westward of Jerusalem churches were established, as all the particular epistles of the New Testament testify, the churches to which they were written all lying to the west. The course of the gospel was from Jerusalem to Greece, from thence to Italy, France, Great Britain, Germany, and all over Europe; Egypt, Abyssinia, and if not all, yet the greatest part of Africa, have heard the joyful sound. It therefore seems to be very probable at the least, and the present appearance of things corroborates the opinion, that from Great Britain the gospel will proceed to America, and the candlestick of the Philadelphian church be set up and spread there.... It is very probable, the gospel continuing his course still further towards the west, ... that the candlestick of the next church-state will be set up, and the chief seat of the Philadelphian church, be in that country, as the chief seat of the Sardinian church is in Britain.—“Letter upon the Downfall of Antichrist,” Rev. A. Maddock, of Creaton, Guilsborough, Northamptonshire, England, Oct. 4, 1777, to the Rev. Mr. M. Browne. (Bound with “Fleming’s Tracts,” British Museum Library.) SBBS 494.2
Seven Churches, Philadelphia.—See Advent Movement of 1844. SBBS 494.3
Seven Churches, Thyatira; Age of Papal Supremacy and Persecution.—See Papacy; Papal Supremacy; Persecution; Reformation. SBBS 494.4
Seven Churches, Laodicea; Christ the Lord of Creation.—[Greek word, transliterated “arche”] is often used for pre-eminence, princedom, and also (very naturally) for rulers, princes. Luke 20:20; 12:11; Titus 3:1; Ephesians 1:21; 3:10; 6:12; Colossians 2:10, 15; 1 Corinthians 15:24; Romans 8:38; Colossians 1:16.... Why, then, when we have the [Greek words, transliterated “archon ton basileon”] [“ruler of the kings”] before us of 1: 5 where such a sense is certain, should we hesitate to give the like sense here, viz., Head or Lord of the creation of God?-“A Commentary on the Apocalypse,” Moses Stuart, Vol. II, pp. 99, 100. Andover: Allen, Morrill, and Wardwell, 1845. SBBS 494.5
Note.—The appeal of Christ to his people in the Laodicean period, the last church, in the name of the Lord of creation, is parallel with the call of the last message of reform in Revelation 14, for men to give glory to him as Creator, “and worship him that made heaven, and earth.” The time of the last church is the judgment hour, and the message for the hour is to prepare men to meet the judgment. To give this message and to meet the test of the judgment, the experience called for by the True Witness is essential,-a turning from formalism and self-righteousness, partaking of Christ’s righteousness, with the blessed assurance of overcoming grace and the overcomer’s reward.—Eds. SBBS 494.6
Seven Seals, First Period, The Apostolic Age.—The commencement of the time occupied by this seal, may be dated from our Saviour’s ascension, when he gave his final commission to the disciples to go forth with his doctrines and heavenly proclamation to the world. The duration of this period cannot be so precisely ascertained, because the change in the church, from original purity to corrupt doctrine, worship, and morals. was gradual.—“Annotations on the Apocalypse,” Archdeacon J. C. Woodhouse, D. D., p. 125. London, 1828. SBBS 494.7
Note.—The seven seals naturally suggest a line of prophecy covering the same general period as that of the seven churches, bringing out a different phase of history. The series of the seven churches gives a view of the church of Christ in the midst of apostasy and through the experiences of the centuries, to the end. The series of the seven seals gives a view of the falling away, and the history of the apostate church in alliance with the world, to the close of papal supremacy, while the sixth in the series of the seven churches brings us to the advent movement of 1843-44. The sixth seal, by an abrupt change from symbolic to literal prophecy, deals with the signs of the second advent and the scenes of the end. Thus there is a distinct parallel in the idea of the approaching advent in the sixth period of each series, while the seventh in each touches eternity.—Eds. SBBS 495.1
The white color of the horse indicates that the conquests of his rider are holy and pure, and are therefore such as cannot be attributed to any earthly warrior. White is everywhere used as a symbol of holiness. Thus in Daniel 11:35, “to purge and make white,” and in Revelation 3:4, “th ey shall walk with me in white, for they are worthy.” The rider on the white horse has a bow, the well-known instrument for discharging arrows; and from Psalm 45:5, we learn that wounds inflicted by arrows are emblematical of the conquests of Messiah. The crown, [Greek word, transliterated “stephanos”] also, with which this rider is invested, is nowhere in this book used as the hieroglyphical mark of kingly authority upon earth, but uniformly the diadem, [Greek word, transliterated “diadema”].... SBBS 495.2
The rider on the white horse being therefore without the diadem, is certainly not what many have supposed him to be, an emperor of Rome; and being invested with the crown, is no less certainly the symbol of a spiritual or heavenly warrior, and the whole complex hieroglyphic denotes the host of the lord, i. e., his church militant, shining with its primitive purity and going forth in a career of victory.—“A Dissertation on the Seals and Trumpets of the Apocalypse,” William Cuninghame, pp. 3, 4, 4th edition. London: Thomas Cadell, 1843. SBBS 495.3
Seven Seals, Second Period, Age of Apostasy.—When the Roman Empire became Christian; when a Christian emperor bore the sword [a. d. 323 onward], (with which, in the imagery of this seal the Christian power seems invested); when, relieved from the terrors of pagan persecution, the Christians became possessed of civil influence, their animosities increased. Worldly prosperity is corruption; and instead of those halcyon days of peace and happiness which the church promised to itself from the acquisition of power, a period succeeded from which history is seen to date its degeneracy and corruption. This degeneracy was at this time manifested in the mutual enmities and feuds of Christians, which were so notorious in the fourth century.... It is a change powerfully expressed by fire color succeeding to white.—“Annotations on the Apocalypse,” J. C. Woodhouse, D. D., p. 128. London, 1828. SBBS 495.4
Note.—It will be noted that writers often use the terms “church” and “Christian” without discriminating between profession and possession. The seven seals give the history of the church of the apostasy; while we should remember that all along there were genuine believers maintaining the continuity of the church of Christ.—Eds. SBBS 495.5
The fiery color of the second horse (the symbol of the body of the visible church), when joined to the description of the office of his rider (denoting the rulers of the church), and of the dreadful weapon with which he was armed, indicate to us that, after the first and purest age of Christianity, the spirit of love and peace should recede from the visible church, and be succeeded by a spirit of discord, of dissension and controversy, a fierce and fiery zeal, instigating Christians to destroy one another. The ecclesiastical history of the fourth and fifth centuries, sufficiently evinces that such a change did take place.—“A Dissertation on the Seals and Trumpets of the Apocalypse,” William Cuninghame, p. 5, 4th edition. London: Thomas Cadell, 1843. SBBS 495.6
Seven Seals, Second Period, as Gibbon Records It.—The simple narrative of the intestine divisions which distracted the peace and dishonored the triumph of the church, will confirm the remark of a pagan historian, and justify the complaint of a venerable bishop. The experience of Ammianus had convinced him that the enmity of the Christians towards each other, surpassed the fury of savage beasts against man; and Gregory Nazianzen most pathetically laments that the kingdom of heaven was converted, by discord, into the image of chaos, of a nocturnal tempest, and of hell itself.—“The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,” Edward Gibbon, chap. 21, par. 40; (Vol. II, p. 363). New York: Harper & Brothers. SBBS 496.1
Seven Seals, Second Period.—See Apostasy. SBBS 496.2
Seven Seals, Third Period, to Time of Papal Supremacy.—As the stream of Christianity flowed further from its pure fountain, it became more and more corrupt; as centuries advanced, ignorance and superstition increased; and unauthorized mortifications and penances, rigorous fastings, vows of celibacy, monkish retirement and austerities, stylitism, the jargon and repetition of prayers not understood, tales of purgatory, pious frauds and the worship of saints, relics, and images, took the place of pure and simple Christianity: till at length, the book of God being laid aside for legendary tales, and “the traditions of men,” all these corruptions were collected into a regular system of superstitious oppression, well known by the name of the papal yoke.—“Annotations on the Apocalypse,” J. C. Woodhouse, D. D., p. 133. London, 1828. SBBS 496.3
Note.—Archdeacon Woodhouse instead of “balance” (verse 5) prefers “yoke,” the primary meaning of the word “lugos,” as used of servitude under rules in 1 Timothy 6:1; Acts 15:10; Galatians 5:1. When the word is used for “balance,” he argues, this secondary meaning is shown by some expression joined. Other writers, however, consider the reference to the measures of wheat and barley as being such a joined expression, and prefer giving to the word here its secondary sense of “balance.”-Eds. SBBS 496.4
The black color of the horse, the yoke with which his rider was armed, the proclamation from the midst of the living creatures, that a chanix of wheat should be sold for a penny, and three chanices of barley for a penny, and the command not to hurt the oil and wine, unite in pointing out to us a period when the grossest darkness and ignorance should overspread the visible church; when a burthensome yoke of rites and ceremonies, and likewise of unscriptural articles of faith, should be imposed upon the necks and consciences of men; when there should be a great want and a famine of the preaching of the true gospel in the church: but when, notwithstanding this complicated train of evils, the consolations of the Spirit, his enlightening influences compared to oil, and his gladdening and comforting influences likened to wine, should not be withheld from those who, in the midst of surrounding darkness and superstition, truly set their hearts to seek God. SBBS 496.5
This prophecy was accomplished in the rise and prevalence of the papal power. Even as early as the fifth century, ignorance and superstition had made much progress in obscuring the pure light of the gospel; and these evils gradually increased till they ended in almost banishing that light from the Christian world.—“A Dissertation on the Seals and Trumpets of the Apocalypse,” William Cuninghame, pp. 8, 9, 4th edition. London: Thomas Cadell. 1843. SBBS 496.6
Seven Seals, Fourth Period, of Papal Supremacy.—The Christian religion, which had begun its benign progress in white array, and under the guidance of apostolical teachers, is now not only so changed in color and appearance as to be scarcely discernible as the same; but is under the direction of deadly and infernal agents, who delight to destroy in her all that remains of primitive purity.... Ignorance became blind submission, and priestcraft advanced into civil tyranny. Thus, under the fourth seal, “the mystery of iniquity” was completed. It was then that the harsh usurpation, which we call the papal tyranny, was extended over the lives and consciences of Christians. To profess religion in its purity became a crime. Bloody tribunals were erected, and severe and deathly laws enacted against those who departed from the standard of doctrine established by the corrupt rulers. Armies were raised to enforce obedience to their orders; and entire nations of Christians, under the imputed name of heretics, were subjugated, or extirpated by the sword.—“Annotations on the Apocalypse,” J. C. Woodhouse, D. D., pp. 140, 141. London, 1828. SBBS 497.1
The pale livid green color of this horse is emblematical of a state of things even more dreadful than that of the preceding seal. The character of his rider corresponds with this idea; his name is called Death, the king of terrors. He is followed by Hell.... SBBS 497.2
The whole assemblage of figures constitutes an hieroglyphical representation, of the most horrible and terrific nature, and points out to us a period when the rulers of the visible church should seem to lose the character of men, and to asume that of malignant demons and savage beasts, and of Death himself; and should extirpate, by fire and sword, all who dared to prefer death to the sacrifice of a good conscience. This seal evidently represents the state of the church during those ages when the flames of persecution were kindled by the papal power.—“A Dissertation on the Seals and Trumpets of the Apocalypse,” William Cuninghame, p. 10, 4th edition. London: Thomas Cadell, 1843. SBBS 497.3
Seven Seals, Fourth Period, as Erasmus Drew the Picture.—Further, when the Christian church has been all along first planted, then confirmed, and since established by the blood of her martyrs, as if Christ, her head, would be wanting in the same methods still of protecting her, they invert the order, and propagate their religion now by arms and violence, which was wont formerly to be done only with patience and sufferings. And though war be so brutish, as that it becomes beasts rather than men; so extravagant, that the poets feigned it an effect of the furies; so licentious, that it stops the course of all justice and honesty; so desperate, that it is best waged by ruffians and banditti; and so unchristian, that it is contrary to the express commands of the gospel; yet maugre all this, peace is too quiet, too inactive, and they must be engaged in the boisterousness of war.—“Praise of Folly,” Erasmus, English translation, p. 173. Published by Brentano, Paris, London, Washington, Chicago, 1900. SBBS 497.4
Seven Seals, Fifth Period, Reformation Times.—The whole of this imagery is explanatory of the nature of the slaughter perpetrated under the former seals, and particularly the fourth; and it shows that the church of Christ was the peculiar object, against which Death and Hades in that seal had directed their dreadful weapons of destruction. [p. 13] ... SBBS 497.5
The white robes given to these saints may be an emblem of that improved condition of the church on earth which was the consequence of the Reformation, when the Protestants in a considerable part of Europe obtained not only a complete toleration, but were acknowledged as a religious body; and in England, Scotland, and other countries, gained even a more signal victory over the Romish Church. But yet it is intimated that this state, however improved, was one of hope and expectation, rather than of joy. The cause of the church was yet unavenged. The promises of her future glory remained unaccomplished. It was therefore necessary that the servants of God should arm themselves with the faith and patience of the saints during the remaining period of trial allotted to them, before the triumphant reign of their Lord.—“A Dissertation on the Seals and Trumpets of the Apocalypse,” William Cuninghame, pp. 13, 15, 4th edition. London: Thomas Cadell, 1843. SBBS 498.1
Note.—The author of “Thoughts on Daniel and the Revelation” says: SBBS 498.2
“The sixth chapter closed with the events of the sixth seal, and the eighth commences with the opening of the seventh seal; hence the seventh chapter stands parenthetically between the sixth and seventh seals, from which it appears that the sealing work of that chapter belongs to the sixth seal. SBBS 498.3
“Silence in Heaven.-Concerning the cause of this silence, only conjecture can be offered,-a conjecture, however, which is supported by the events of the sixth seal. That seal does not bring us to the second advent, although it embraces events that transpire in close connection therewith. It introduces the fearful commotions of the elements, described as the rolling of the heavens together as a scroll, caused by the voice of God, the breaking up of the surface of the earth, and the confession on the part of the wicked that the great day of God’s wrath is come. They are doubtless in momentary expectation of seeing the King appear in, to them, unendurable glory. But the seal stops just short of that event. The personal appearing of Christ must therefore be allotted to the next seal. But when the Lord appears, he comes with all the holy angels with him. Matthew 25:31. And when all the heavenly harpers leave the courts above to come down with their divine Lord, as he descends to gather the fruit of his redeeming work, will not there be silence in heaven? SBBS 498.4
“The length of this period of silence, if we consider it prophetic time, would be about seven days.”-On chap. 8, “The Seven Trumpets.”-Eds. SBBS 498.5
If John Huss, or good Jerome of Prague, or John Wickliff before them both, or William Brute, Thorpe, Swinderby, or the Lord Cobham; if Zisca with all the company of the Bohemians; if the Earl Reimond, with all the Toulousians; if the Waldois, or the Albigenses, with infinite others, had either been in these our times now, or else had seen then this ruin of the Pope, and revealing of Antichrist, which the Lord now hath dispensed unto us, what joy and triumph would they have made! Wherefore, now, beholding that thing which they so long time have wished for, let us not think the benefit to be small, but render therefore most humble thanks to the Lord our God, who by his mighty power, and the brightness of his Word, hath revealed this great enemy of his so manifestly to the eyes of all men, who before was hid in the church so colorably, that almost few Christians could espy him.—“Acts and Monuments,” John Foxe, Vol. IV, book 7, p. 555, 556. SBBS 498.6
Note.—It was in 1506 that John Foxe sounded this note of joy for deliverance, and of longing that the martyrs of Jesus might have foreseen the cutting short of papal power. His truly monumental work, preserving the memory of those witnesses of the period of papal supremacy, well stands, with many others, as a comment on the prophecy that the tribute of the white robes of honor should be given to those who had been slain for the truth.—Eds. SBBS 498.7
Seven Seals, Sixth Period.—See Dark Day; Earthquakes; Falling Stars. SBBS 498.8
Seven Seals, Seventh Period.—See Advent, Second. SBBS 499.1
Seventh-day Adventists.—See Advent, Second, 22-26; Sabbath, Change of, 473. SBBS 499.2
Seventh-day Baptists.—See Advent, Second, 23; Sabbath, 469. SBBS 499.3
Seventh-day Sabbath.—See Sabbath. SBBS 499.4
Seven Trumpets, Meaning of Symbols (Revelation 8:3-5).—After “the smoke of the incense had ascended with the prayers of the saints, from the hand of the angel before God,” the angel took the censer, and filled it with fire. In Psalm 18:8, the wrath of God is compared to fire; and the effects of his wrath, which are war, famine, and other scourges, are described under the same simile. And thus it is explained by Sir Isaac Newton, who says, “burning anything with fire is put for the consuming thereof by war.” Such a fire was cast upon “the earth,” the Roman world, the territorial platform of prophecy; “and there were voices, and thunderings, and lightnings,” wars and hostile invasions; “and an earthquake,” or a complete overturning of the established order of things. So complete indeed was the change effected by the first four trumpets alone, that new forms of government, new manners, new laws, new dresses, new languages, new names of men and countries, were everywhere throughout the Western Empire introduced.—“An Historical Exposition of the Prophecies of the Revelation of St. John,” Matthew Habershon, pp. 121, 122. London: James Nisbet & Co., 1841. SBBS 499.5
Seven Trumpets, The First Four; Events of Western Rome’s Downfall Summarized.—At this point in writing [notes on Revelation 8:7], I looked on a chart in history, composed with no reference to this prophecy, and found a singular and unexpected prominence given to four such events extending from the first invasion of the Goths and Vandals at the beginning of the fifth century, to the fall of the Western Empire, a. d. 476. The first was the invasion of Alaric, king of the Goths, a. d. 410; a second was the invasion of Attila, king of the Huns, “scourge of God,” a. d. 447; a third was the sack of Rome by Genseric, king of the Vandals, a. d. 455; and the fourth, resulting in the final conquest of Rome, was that of Odoacer, king of the Heruli, who assumed the title of King of Italy, a. d. 476. We shall see, however, on a closer examination, that although two of these-Attila and Genseric-were, during a part of their career, contemporary, yet the most prominent place is due to Genseric in the events that attended the downfall of the empire, and that the second trumpet probably related to him; the third to Attila. These were, beyond doubt, four great periods or events attending the fall of the Roman Empire.—“Notes on the Book of Revelation,” Albert Barnes (Presbyterian), p. 224. New York: Harper & Brothers. SBBS 499.6
Seven Trumpets, on the “Third Part” of the Empire.—These three parts of the Roman Empire [speaking of early imperial time] the really Roman, the Greek, and the Oriental.—“Historical Geography of Europe,” E. A. Freeman, p. 72. SBBS 499.7
In the time of Constantine, the Roman Empire was divided into three great sections: to Constantine was assigned Gaul, Spain, Britain, Italy, Africa; to Licinius, the Illyrian Prafecture; to Maximin, the Asiatic Provinces and Egypt.—“Apocalyptic Sketches,” Cumming, Vol. II, p. 63. SBBS 499.8
Each one included its third of the Mediterranean or Roman sea, as well as its third of the land: and each one also its own characteristic stream of the three great frontier rivers, the Rhine, Danube, and Euphrates.—“Hora Apocalyptica,” Rev. E. B. Elliott, A. M., Vol. I, p. 342. London: Seeley, Burnside, and Seeley, 1847. SBBS 500.1
Note.—The division of Constantine’s time is usually adhered to by students. the blows under the trumpets falling first upon the western third, then, under the Saracens, and especially the Turks, upon the Eastern third part. The middle third, according to this division, may be counted as having suffered with the others, the blows that overturned the empire being really dealt in the West and in the East of which Rome and Constantinople were the capitals. SBBS 500.2
It may be remarked that there was another threefold division sometimes reckoned, from ancient times referred to by Jordanes, who wrote about 551, in the closing days of the fourth trumpet. Speaking of the uprooting of the Vandals, he says: “Thus after a century Africa, which in the division of the earth’s surface is regarded as the third part of the world, was delivered from the yoke of the Vandals.”-“The Origin and Deeds of the Goths,” chap. 33. SBBS 500.3
Habershon takes this geographical division in his comments on the “third part” in the first four trumpets: SBBS 500.4
“It here refers altogether to the western part of the empire; as being that of the greatest extent, that of which the city of Rome itself was the capital, and that which alone answers to the symbols. The other two portions of it were that of the East, of which Constantinople, called by many ‘New Rome,’ was the capital; and that of the South, of which the metropolis was Carthage, called by contemporary writers ‘the Rome of the African world.’ This was the most remarkable and eminent division of the universal and extensive Roman Empire, and one that was recognized even in St. John’s days.”-“Historical Exposition of the Prophecies of the Revelation of St. John,” pp. 124, 125. SBBS 500.5
It is suggestive to note again in this division how while the blows fell upon the western and eastern thirds, the southern third was also broken off and separated by the Vandal invasion.—Eds. SBBS 500.6
Seven Trumpets, The First; Out of the North.—The first trumpet, we see, brings a terrible storm from the north, the region of hail; and the nature of the storm shows the nature of the judgment. Hail and fire, mingled with blood, can certainly denote nothing but such irruptions from the north as should cause terrible blood-shedding and slaughter; and this confined to the third part of the earth, with its contents, the trees and grass, i. e., on the continent part of Europe, in contradistinction from the maritime parts, and from those abounding with rivers and waters.—“Essay on the Revelation,” William Whiston, M. A. (Sir Isaac Newton’s successor in Mathematics at Cambridge University), 2nd edition, p. 176. London, 1744. SBBS 500.7
Seven Trumpets, The First; Like Hail and Fire.—Philostorgius, who lived in and wrote of these times, saith that “the sword of the barbarians destroyed the greatest multitude of men; and among other calamities dry heats with flashes of flame and whirlwinds of fire occasioned various and intolerable terrors; yea, and hail, greater than could be held in a man’s hand, fell down in several places, weighing as much as eight pounds.” (Philostorgii Hist. Eccles., lib. 11, cap. 7.) Well therefore might the prophet compare these incursions of the barbarians to “hail and fire mingled with blood.” Claudian, in like manner, compares them to a storm of hail in his poem on this very war: SBBS 500.8
“Where’er the furies drive, the scattered host
Rush through dark paths and labyrinths unknown;
Like showering hail, or pestilential breath.”
SBBS 500.9
-“Dissertations on the Prophecies,” Thomas Newton, D. D. (1754), pp. 536, 537. London: William Tegg & Co., 1849. SBBS 500.10
Note.—How remarkably the picture drawn by the pen of Gibbon corresponds to the picture of the prophecy,-“hail,” “fire,” “blood,” desolation of fertile lands-is shown by the following phrases from the “History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire” (Harper’s 6 vol. ed.): SBBS 500.11
Chapter 26: “He [Valens, a. d. 375] was informed that the North was agitated by a furious tempest.”-Page 30, par. 13. SBBS 501.1
“A formidable tempest of the barbarians of Germany seemed ready to burst over the provinces of Gaul.”-Page 57, par. 26. SBBS 501.2
Chapter 30: “The Gothic nation [a. d. 395] was in arms.... Deserted their farms at the first sound of the trumpet.”-Page 190, par. 1. SBBS 501.3
“Flaming villages.... The deep and bloody traces of the march of the Goths.”-Page 192, par. 2. SBBS 501.4
“His trees, his old contemporary trees [said Claudian, the poet of Verona. Italy], must blaze in the conflagration of the whole country.”-Page 200, par. 5. SBBS 501.5
“The dark cloud, which was collected along the coast of the Baltic, burst in thunder upon the banks of the Upper Danube.”-Page 216, par. 15. SBBS 501.6
“This scene of peace and plenty was suddenly changed into a desert; and the prospect of the smoking ruins could alone distinguish the solitude of nature from the desolation of man.... The consuming flames of war spread from the banks of the Rhine over the greatest part of the seventeen provinces of Gaul. That rich and extensive country, as far as the ocean, the Alps, and the Pyrenees, was delivered to the barbarians.”-Pages 223, 224, par. 19.-Eds. SBBS 501.7
The north poured down from it her flood of warriors. From the extremity of Scandinavia to the frontiers of China, nation after nation appeared, the new pressing upon the older-settled, crushing it, and marking its onward passage with blood and devastation. The calamities which afflicted the human race at that period exceed, in extent of desolation, in number of victims, in intensity of suffering, all that has ever been presented to our affrighted imagination. We dare not calculate the millions upon millions of human beings who perished before the downfall of the Roman Empire was accomplished.—“The Fall of the Roman Empire,” De Sismondi, Vol. I, chap. 1, p. 18. SBBS 501.8
Seven Trumpets, The First; Elliott on.—And then the first trumpet sounded. His [Alaric’s] course was to Italy. As he told an Italian monk afterwards, “he felt a secret and preternatural impulse, which directed, and even impelled, his march to the gates of Rome.” As his trumpet sounded and his march advanced, terrible omens and prognostications, we read, preceded him. “The Christians,” says Gibbon, “derived comfort from the powerful intercession of the saints and martyrs.” So he notes again the very cause, prefigured in the Apocalypse, of the coming judgments. Thrice, in fulfilment of his destiny, he descended from the Alps on the Italian plains; marking his course each step, as the awe-struck historians of the times tell us, in country and in town, with ravage, conflagration, and blood; till the gates of Rome itself were opened to the conqueror, and the Gothic fires blazed around the capitol. SBBS 501.9
In the meantime other destroyers, of a kindred race and origin, had extended their ravages to the trans-rhenane provinces. Between Alaric’s first and second invasions of Italy, Rhadagaisus, from the far north of Germany, with a host of Vandals, Suevi, and Burgundians, burst, “like a dark thundercloud from the Baltic,” as Gibbon graphically describes it, on the Rhatian and Italian valleys. With slaughter and difficulty they were repulsed by the Roman general from near Florence. But it was only to bend the course of the vast remnant westward; and overwhelm the provinces, till then flourishing and fertile, of Gaul and Spain.... SBBS 501.10
“The consuming flames of war,” says Gibbon, “spread from the banks of the Rhine over the greatest part of the seventeen provinces of Gaul. The scene of peace and plenty was suddenly changed into a desert.” ... A similar description is given of the desolation of Spain. And the desolators entered, never to retire. “This passage of the Rhine,” he adds, “by the Suevi, Vandals, and Burgundians, who never afterwards retreated, may be considered as the fall of the Roman Empire in the countries beyond the Alps.... SBBS 501.11
The era of Alaric and Rhadagaisus,-that is, of the first trumpet,-is to be considered as chiefly embracing some ten or twelve years, from a. d. 400 to about a. d. 410; though, as the ravages of the provinces were not then discontinued, we may perhaps consider the vision before us to embrace a period somewhat longer. In that latter year the Vandals had extended their conquests to the straits of Gades; and Alaric, having accomplished his destiny, and reached in his desolating course the southernmost coast of Italy,-while meditating still further conquests, which were intended, however, for another hand and another trumpet,-was arrested suddenly by the hand of death.—“Hora Apocalyptica,” Rev. E. B. Elliott, A. M., Vol. I, pp. 351-353. London: Seeley, Burnside, and Seeley, 1847. SBBS 502.1
Seven Trumpets, The First; Elliott’s Helpful Footnote.—The chronological intermingling of the invasions of Italy by Alaric and Rhadagaisus will appear from the following tabular sketch: SBBS 502.2
| A. D. | ||
| 396 | Alaric’s invasion of Greece. | |
| 400-403 | His first invasion of Italy (Gibbon, V. 190). | |
| 406 | Rhadagaisus with 300,000 Vandals from the Baltic, marching by way of the Upper Danube, invades Italy. | |
| Defeated and killed under the walls of Florence, the remains of his army retire from Italy, and cross the Rhine into France. | ||
| 408 | Alaric’s first siege of Rome. |
-Id., p. 352, footnote 1.
Seven Trumpets, The First; Recognized as a Judgment.—All persons of sense were aware that the calamities which this siege [of Rome, by Alaric] entailed upon the Romans were indications of divine wrath, sent to chastise them for their luxury, their debauchery, and their manifold acts of injustice towards each other, as well as towards strangers. It is said that when Alaric was marching against Rome, a monk of Italy besought him to spare the city, and not to become the author of so many calamities. Alaric, in reply, assured him that he did not feel disposed to commence the siege, but found himself compelled by some hidden and irresistible impulse to accomplish the enterprise.—“The Ecclesiastical History of Sozoman,” book 9, chap. 6, p. 413 (Bohn’s Classical Library). London: Henry G. Bohn, 1855. SBBS 502.3
The Roman world is falling: yet we hold up our heads instead of bowing them.—Jerome (at Bethlehem), Epistles, Letter 60, “To Heliodorus;” cited in “Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers,” Vol. VI, p. 130. SBBS 502.4
Seven Trumpets, First.—See Rome, Its Barbarian Invaders, Goths, 444-450. SBBS 502.5
Seven Trumpets, The Second; The Burning Mountain Cast into the Sea.—To the Vandal Genseric was allotted the conquest of the maritime provinces of Africa, and the islands: all in short that belonged to the Western Empire in the Mediterranean; and which Alaric (as just alluded to) was prevented attempting by death. It belonged, I say, to Genseric; “a name,” observes Gibbon, “which, in the destruction of the Roman Empire, has deserved an equal rank with the names of Alaric and Attila.” It was in the year 429 that he entered on it. In the course of the eighteen years preceding, no new invasion had broken on the Western Empire.... Africa, the granary of Rome and Italy, had continued to flourish intact, as before. But now its time was come. SBBS 502.6
Invited, under the influence of temporary infatuation, by Count Boniface, governor of the province, Genseric, in the year above mentioned, transported thither his Vandals from Spain across the Afric sea: ... Then was Hippo taken and burnt; and then in 439 Carthage. With the capture of which, resistance ended. The whole province was subjected to the Vandals, and finally severed from the Western Empire. SBBS 503.1
Thus a part of the prefigurations of the second trumpet had been fulfilled. But its ships, and the insular provinces of Sicily and Sardinia, still remained to the Western Empire; of the destruction of which the prophecy seemed to speak also. For it said, “The third part of the creatures which were in the sea, and had life, died; and the third part of ships was destroyed.” Was this too fulfilled by Genseric? Mark what followed after the capture of Carthage. Finding himself shut in to the south by the desert, Genseric, we are told, cast his eyes to the sea, and determined to create a naval power. And then “the fleets [the Vandal fleets] that issued from the port of Carthage again claimed the empire of the Mediterranean. Sicily was conquered by them, and Sardinia, and the other Western isles; all that was in the third part of the sea.... SBBS 503.2
Twice, on occasion alike memorable, the Roman navies, with vast preparations, were collected to destroy the Vandal power. But suddenly and most disastrously, in the harbors of Carthagena and Bona, when the eyes of the Romans were fixed on them with hopes raised to the highest, they were utterly destroyed; in the latter case by fire-ships driven among them in the obscurity of night. So that the remainder of the prediction was fulfilled also. The fire of the Vandal volcano might not spend itself, until not only what was habitable in the Western sea was destroyed, but “the third part of the ships” also; those that navigated the sea-third of the Western Empire.—“ Hora Apocalyptica,” Rev. E. B. Elliott, A. M., Vol. I, pp. 353-356, 3rd edition. London: Seeley, Burnside, and Seeley, 1847. SBBS 503.3
Seven Trumpets, The Second; but One Barbarian Sea Power.—The Vandals were unique among the German nations by the fact that they maintained a fleet.—“History of the Later Roman Empire,” J. B. Bury, Vol. I, p. 162. SBBS 503.4
Note.—Again mark how Gibbon’s pen describes the transfer of the attacks upon Western Rome from the land portions to the maritime parts. (“Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,” Vol. III of Harper’s 6 vol. ed.): SBBS 503.5
Chapter 36: “The loss or desolation of the provinces, from the ocean to the Alps. impaired the glory and greatness of Rome: her internal prosperity was irretrievably destroyed by the separation of Africa.... After an interval of six centuries, the fleets that issued from the port of Carthage again claimed the empire of the Mediterranean.”-Page 459, par. 1. SBBS 503.6
“Genseric boldly advanced from the port of Ostia to the gates of the defenseless city [Rome].... The pillage lasted fourteen days and nights; and all that yet remained of public or private wealth, of sacred or profane treasure, was diligently transported to the vessels of Genseric.”-Page 463, par. 4. SBBS 503.7
“The Vandals repeatedly visited the coasts of Spain, Liguria, Tuscany, Campania. Lucania, Bruttium, Apulia. Calabria, Venetia, Dalmatia, Epirus, Greece, and Sicily: they were tempted to subdue the island of Sardinia, so advantageously placed in the center of the Mediterranean; and their arms spread desolation, or terror, from the Columns of Hercules to the mouth of the Nile.”-Page 486, par. 15. SBBS 503.8
“After the failure of this great expedition [Rome’s attempt by fleet to destroy the Vandal power. a. d. 468.—Eds.]. Genseric again became the tyrant of the sea: the coasts of Italy. Greece, and Asia, were again exposed to his revenge and avarice: Tripoli and Sardinia returned to his obedience: he added Sicily to the number of his provinces: and before he died, in the fulness of years and of glory, he beheld the final extinction of the Empire of the West.”-Pages 497, 498, par. 21. SBBS 503.9
When Genseric carried away the spoils of Rome in his ships, he took the golden candlestick and other treasures from the temple at Jerusalem, which Titus had carried off to grace his triumph.—Eds. SBBS 504.1
Seven Trumpets, The Second; Genseric Accounting Himself as Agent of Wrath.—Now that the fleets, the arsenal, the docks of Carthage were all their own, now that its harbor-one of the finest in the Old World-reflected everywhere the Vandal flag, they became under Gaiseric’s guidance the first naval power on the Mediterranean.... At length the work [of ravaging the coasts] became almost monotonous, and the choice of a victim hard. Once when the fleet had weighed anchor and was sailing forth from the broad harbor of Carthage, the helmsman turned to the king and asked for what port he should steer. “For the men with whom God is angry,” answered the Vandal king, and left the winds and the waters to settle the question who were the proper objects of the wrath of Heaven.—“The Dynasty of Theodosius,” Thomas Hodgkin, pp. 219, 220. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1889. SBBS 504.2
Seven Trumpets, The Second; Vandals Sweep the Mediterranean.—This great city [Carthage] the Rome of the African world (as a contemporary calls it), opened its gates to the Vandals on the 9th of October, 439.... After a sea of blood had been shed, every kind of property was pillaged.... The loss of Africa was, perhaps, one of the greatest calamities which could have overtaken the Western Empire.—“The Fall of the Roman Empire,” J. C. L. DeSismondi, Vol. I, chap. 7, pp. 155, 156. SBBS 504.3
Seven Trumpets, Second.—See Rome, Its Barbarian Invaders, Vandals, 456, 457. SBBS 504.4
Seven Trumpets, The Third; “There Fell a Great Star ... Burning.”—But after a short space of time, as Orosius relates, the race of the Huns, fiercer than ferocity itself, flamed forth.—“The Origin and Deeds of the Goths,” Jordanes, chap. 24, p. 38, Mierow’s translation, Princeton, 1908. SBBS 504.5
Seven Trumpets, The Third; Attila’s Invasion of the Rivers.—About a. d. 450, in fulfilment of a treaty with Genseric, he [Attila] moved against the Western provinces along the Upper Danube; reached and crossed the Rhine at Basle, and thence tracing the same great frontier stream of the West down to Belgium, made its valley one scene of desolation and woe.... He was repulsed in the tremendous battle of Châlons. And whither then, when thus forced to retrace his steps, did he direct them? Whither but to fall on another destined scene of ravage, “the European fountains of waters,” in the Alpine heights and Alpine valleys of Italy.... SBBS 504.6
But what further of his course of devastation? Surely, with Italy all defenseless before him, one might have expected that, like his predecessor Alaric, it would have continued on to Rome and the far coast of Bruttium. Instead of this, behold an embassy from the Western emperor Valentinian, accompanied by the venerable Romish bishop Leo the First, was successful at this point in deprecating his wrath: and having granted them peace, and leaving bands only of Heruli and Ostrogoths in the Tyrolese country intermediate, he repassed the Alps, and retired. SBBS 504.7
Wherefore a result, humanly speaking, so unlikely? Methinks we may see the reason. The prediction had expressly marked the term of Attila’s desolating progress,-“the third of the rivers, and the fountains of waters.” Already Attila had made bitter, besides the surplusage of more Eastern scenes, the river line of the upper Danube and Rhine, and the Alpine fountains of waters. Many had died, and still continued to die, that drank of the waters, through famine, disease, and pestilence. This being done, his course was to end. “Thus far shalt thou go, and no further.” SBBS 504.8
Returned from Italy, he recrossed the Danube; reached the royal village between it and the Teiss; and there, the very next year, was suddenly cut off by apoplexy. This occurred a. d. 453. So the meteor was extinct; the empire and power of the Huns broken. The woe of the third trumpet had passed away.—“Hora Apocalyptica,” Rev. E. B. Elliott, A. M., Vol. I, pp. 357, 358. London: Seeley, Burnside, and Seeley, 1847. SBBS 505.1
Seven Trumpets, The Third; Meteoric Career of Attila.—When in wrath he was like an embodied volcano, his eyes becoming like points or fire. No one in all history has imbued millions of mankind with such an amount of terror as this hideous little Tartar.—“East and West Through Fifteen Centuries,” C. F. Young, Vol. II, p. 85.* SBBS 505.2
His vast empire thereupon [at his death] broke up, his numerous sons fighting together over it; and in these contests, happily for Europe, the Huns exterminated themselves.—Id., p. 116.* SBBS 505.3
The rise of the great Hunnic power, which threatened European civilization in the fifth century, was as sudden and rapid as its fall.—“History of the Later Roman Empire,” J. B. Bury,. Vol. I, chap. 7, p. 161. SBBS 505.4
Seven Trumpets, The Third; Bitterness of Attila’s Visitation.—Being styled “Metus Orbis,” and Flagellum Dei; the Scourge of God and Terror of Men.—“Essay on the Revelation,” William Whiston, p. 184. Cambridge: B. Tooke, 1706. SBBS 505.5
This invasion is the most celebrated in our people’s discourses, of all those which the barbarians have made upon us; and is the most talked of among the vulgar....“And now all the countries which were within the Appennine Mountains and the Alps were full of flight, of depopulation, of slaughter, of slavery, of burning, and despair.”-Sigonius (a contemporary); cited in “Essay on the Revelation.” William Whiston, p. 184. Cambridge: B. Tooke, 1706. SBBS 505.6
Seven Trumpets, The Third; Attila Recognized as Agent of Vengeance.—It was during the retreat from Orleans that a Christian hermit is reported to have approached the Hunnish king and said to him, “Thou art the Scourge of God for the chastisement of Christians.” Attila instantly assumed this new title of terror, which thenceforth became the appellation by which he was most widely and most fearfully known.—“Decisive Battles of the World,” Sir Edward S. Creasy, “Châlons,” chap. 6, p. 162. New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1898. SBBS 505.7
Not merely the degenerate Romans, but the bold and hardy warriors of Germany and Scandinavia, were appalled at the numbers, the ferocity, the ghastly appearance, and the lightning-like rapidity of the Huns.... His own warriors believed him [Attila] to be the inspired favorite of their deities, and followed him with fanatic zeal. His enemies looked on him as the preappointed minister of Heaven’s wrath against themselves.—Id., p. 7. SBBS 505.8
Seven Trumpets, Third.—See Rome, Its Barbarian Invaders, Huns, 452. SBBS 505.9
Seven Trumpets, The Fourth; The Light of Empire Extinguished in the West.—Some twenty years or more from the death of Attila, and much less from that of Genseric, ... Odoacer, chief of the Heruli,-a barbarian remnant of the host of Attila, left on the Alpine frontiers of Italy,-interposed with his command that the name and the office of Roman Emperor of the West should be abolished. The authorities bowed in submission to him. The last phantom of an emperor, whose name Romulus Augustus was singularly calculated to bring in contrast before the reflective mind the past glories of Rome and its present degradation, abdicated: and the senate sent away the imperial insignia to Constantinople; professing to the emperor of the East that one emperor was sufficient for the whole of the empire. Thus of the Roman imperial sun that third which appertained to the Western Empire was eclipsed, and shone no more.... Thus in the West “the extinction of the empire” had taken place; the night had fallen. SBBS 506.1
Notwithstanding this, however, it must be borne in mind that the authority of the Roman name had not yet entirely ceased. The senate of Rome continued to assemble, as usual. The consuls were appointed yearly, one by the Eastern emperor, one by Italy and Rome.... The moon and the stars might seem still to shine on the west, with a dim reflected light. In the course of events, however, which rapidly followed one on the other in the next half century, these too were extinguished.... The Roman senate was dissolved, the consulship abrogated; ... the statement of Jerome,-a statement couched under the very apocalyptic figure of the text, but prematurely pronounced on the first taking of Rome by Alaric,-might be considered as at length accomplished; “Clarissimum terrarum lumen extinctum est” (“The world’s glorious sun has been extinguished”): or, as the modern poet has expressed it, still under the same apocalyptic imagery, SBBS 506.2
“She saw her glories star by star expire;” SBBS 506.3
till not even one star remained, to glimmer on the vacant and dark night.—“Hora Apocalyptica,” Rev. E. B. Elliott, A. M., Vol. I, pp. 358-361. London: Seeley, Burnside, and Seeley, 1847. SBBS 506.4
Seven Trumpets, The Fourth; Gibbon on the Extinction of the Imperial Office.—The submissive people of Italy was prepared to obey, without a murmur, the authority which he [Odoacer] should condescend to exercise as the vicegerent of the Emperor of the West. But Odoacer had resolved to abolish that useless and expensive office; and such is the weight of antique prejudice that it required some boldness and penetration to discover the extreme facility of the enterprise. The unfortunate Augustulus [the emperor] was made the instrument of his own disgrace: he signified his resignation to the senate; and that assembly, in their last act of obedience to a Roman prince, still affected the spirit of freedom and the forms of the constitution. An epistle was addressed, by their unanimous decree, to the emperor Zeno, the son-in-law and successor of Leo, who had lately been restored, after a short rebellion, to the Byzantine throne. They solemnly “disclaim the necessity, or even the wish, of continuing any longer the imperial succession in Italy; since, in their opinion, the majesty of a sole monarch is sufficient to pervade and protect, at the same time, both the East and the West. In their own name, and in the name of the people, they consent that the seat of universal empire shall be transferred from Rome to Constantinople; and they basely renounce the right of choosing their master, the only vestige that yet remained of the authority which had given laws to the world. The republic (they repeat that name without a blush) might safely confide in the civil and military virtues of Odoacer; and they humbly request that the emperor would invest him with the title of Patrician, and the administration of the diocese of Italy.”-“The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,” Edward Gibbon, chap. 36, par. 30 (Vol. III, p. 512). New York: Harper & Brothers. SBBS 506.5
Seven Trumpets, The Fourth; Early Expositor on.—The sun shone at Rome as long as the consular dignity and the kingdom was possessed of authority over other cities and provinces. The moon and the stars shone there as long as the ancient power of the senate, and of the other magistrates remained. But these being all taken away (which was done by this trumpet), what was there but darkness, and a universal failure of light, both diurnal and nocturnal? Namely, what belonged to that city, to which a third part of the light of heaven was attributed?-“Clavis Apocalyptica,” Joseph Mede (1627), Cooper’s translation, p. 171. London. SBBS 507.1
Seven Trumpets, The Fourth; The Consulship Abolished.—The first magistrates of the republic [the consuls] had been chosen by the people, to exercise, in the senate and in the camp, the powers of peace and war, which were afterwards translated to the emperors. But the tradition of ancient dignity was long revered by the Romans and barbarians. A Gothic historian applauds the consulship of Theodoric [a. d. 493-526] as the height of all temporal glory and greatness; the king of Italy himself congratulated those annual favorites of fortune who, without the cares, enjoyed the splendor of the throne.... SBBS 507.2
The succession of consuls finally ceased in the thirteenth year of Justinian [a. d. 541], whose despotic temper might be gratified by the silent extinction of a title which admonished the Romans of their ancient freedom.—“The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,” Edward Gibbon, chap. 40, par. 30 (Vol. IV, pp. 110, 111). New York: Harper & Brothers. SBBS 507.3
Seven Trumpets, The Fourth; The August Senate Extinguished.—That senate of which he who declared that it was composed of kings, alone formed a true idea.—“History of Rome,” Livy, book 9, chap. 17; Everyman’s Library, Vol. II, p. 181. SBBS 507.4
After a period of thirteen centuries [in the time of Justinian, about 553] the institution of Romulus [the senate] expired; and if the nobles of Rome still assumed the title of senators, few subsequent traces, can be discovered of a public council or constitutional order. Ascend six hundred years, and contemplate the kings of the earth soliciting an audience, as the slaves or freedmen of the Roman senate!-“The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,” Edward Gibbon, chap. 43, par. 17 (Vol. IV, p. 273). New York: Harper & Brothers. SBBS 507.5
Where is the senate? Where are the people? ... All the glory of earthly dignity has expired from the city.—Pope Gregory the Great [A. D. 540-604], Homilies on Ezekiel (2:6, sec. 22); cited in “Life of Gregory the Great,” Frederick Homes Dudden, Vol. I, p. 185. SBBS 507.6
Seven Trumpets, Fourth.—See Rome, Its Barbarian Invaders, Goths, 444-450; Heruli, 450-452. SBBS 507.7
Seven Trumpets, Old Expositor on the Fifth and Sixth.—As to the two following trumpets, they so evidently refer to the Saracens and Turks, that there are scarcely two opinions on the subject.—“Signs of the Times: Overthrow of the Papal Tyranny in France,” J. Bicheno, p. 162. London, 1799. SBBS 507.8
Seven Trumpets, The Fifth; Symbolism Arabian.—The locust form indicated their swarming in numbers numberless; their being in their migratory progress rapid, far-ranging, and irresistible.... The horselike appearance seemed to imply that they would be hordes of cavalry; the likeness to the lion, that they would be savage destroyers of life; and to the scorpion, that of those in Christendom, whose lives they spared, they would be the tormentors, even as with a scorpion’s poison sting.... SBBS 508.1
The locust, the ground work of the symbol, is peculiarly Arabic. So the sacred history of ancient times informs us. “It was the east wind,” it says, “which brought the locusts” on Egypt. Exodus 10:13.... And indeed the locust simile is one used in other and earlier scriptures, with its usual appropriateness, to designate the numbers and character of an invading Arab horde. Judges 6:5. Again, as of the locust, so of the scorpion, the native locality was by the Jews considered the Arabian desert. Witness Moses’ own words to the Israelites, on emerging from it, after forty years’ wandering: “that great and terrible wilderness wherein were fiery serpents and scorpions.” And who knows not, if facts so notorious be worth mentioning, that it is Arabia, still Arabia, that is regarded by naturalists as the original country of the horse; and that its wildernesses are the haunts also of the lion? The zoology of the hieroglyphic is all Arabian.—“Hora Apocalyptica,” Rev. E. B. Elliott. A. M., Vol. I, pp. 407-409, 3rd edition. London: Seeley, Burnside, and Seeley, 1847. SBBS 508.2
Seven Trumpets, The Fifth; As Historians Describe the Saracens.—Onward and still onward, like swarms from the hive, or flights of locusts darkening the land, tribe after tribe issued forth, and hastening northward, spread in great masses to the east and to the west.—“The Caliphate,” Sir William Muir, p. 44. London: Religious Tract Society, 1892. SBBS 508.3
The Persian Empire soon attracted the arms of “these locusts,” as the swarms of hungry Saracens were not inaptly called.—“The Ottoman Empire,” Edward Upham, Vol. I, p. 40. Edinburgh: Constable & Co., 1829. SBBS 508.4
Seven Trumpets, The Fifth; The First Caliph of the Saracens.—He [Mahomet] was like a star that fell from heaven (Revelation 9:1), a bright and illustrious prince, as if heaven-endowed, but fallen. Would anything better characterize the genius, the power, and the splendid but perverted talent of Mohammed? Mohammed was, moreover, by birth, of the princely house of the Koreish, governors of Mecca, and to no one could the term be more appropriate than to one of that family. He was a king. That is, there was to be one monarch-one ruling spirit to which all these hosts were subject. And never was anything more appropriate than this title as applied to the leader of the Arabic hosts.—“Notes on the Book of Revelation,” Albert Barnes (Presbyterian), on Revelation 9, p. 253. New York: Harper & Brothers. SBBS 508.5
Seven Trumpets, The Fifth; Mahomet, Founder of Mohammedanism.—Mohammed, “The Praised,” ... was born at Mecca Aug. 20, 570, and died at Medina June 8, 632.... In 609, in consequence of a vision in which Gabriel commanded him (though illiterate) to read what appears in the Koran as Surah xcvi. 1-5, he began to preach. SBBS 508.6
His earliest labors were in his family and among his intimates. Hadijah [his wife] was his first convert. Ali and Zaid, his adopted children, were next, and then his friend Abu Bekr. Three years of preaching gained him about fifty followers, and then (612) he began to teach in public, using a house opposite the Kaaba. His points were three: (1) The oneness and absoluteness of Allah who (2) revealed his will to men (3) by chosen men who were prophets.... By this time he had abandoned idolatry in consequence of his first principle..... SBBS 508.7
The rancorous opposition of Meccans continuing and extending even to the point of banning him and his supporters, he exiled himself, and in the Hejira, “Flight,” to Medina he took the step which made the Mohammedan era, June 16, 622 a. d. This was the turning-point in his career, the beginning of success.... SBBS 509.1
Citizenship was made dependent not on family but on faith, preparing the way for a united Arabia and a world religion. For the triumph of the faith the bonds of kinship had to yield if they stood in its way-Mohammed did not blanch at fratricidal war. The idolater, even though a brother, was doomed unless he gave up this practice, and to the believer belonged the idolater’s goods. In this last was manifested Mohammed’s shrewdness, making capital of the Arab’s lust for plunder.... In self-interest Arabs flocked to him, and he was soon ready to march upon Mecca, which he had already fixed upon as the center of the faith.... Before the prophet’s death all Arabia was at his feet; Christians and Jewish tribes were permitted to exist, but only upon condition of paying a heavy tribute.—The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia, Vol. VII, art. “Mohammed,” pp. 436-438. New York: Funk and Wagnalls Company. SBBS 509.2
Seven Trumpets, The Fifth; Out of the Pit.—The observer could scarce be mistaken in interpreting this smoke from the pit of the abyss as an emanation from the pit of hell; i. e., as some system of error and false religion thence originating: originating, it would seem, all on a sudden; and of which the effect would be, almost instantaneously, to darken the moral atmosphere, and dim the imperial sun in the firmamental heaven.... Who knows not the fact that it was after embracing Islamism that the Saracen cavalry hordes burst forth in fury on Roman Christendom; and yet more, that they were imbued from this very source with the qualities that the symbols in the vision indicated? For there is indeed a perfect fitness in the representation of the symbolic locusts as issuing forth, all formed in character, out of the smoke from the pit of the abyss. It was the religion of Mahomet in fact, that made the Arabs what they were. It was this that for the first time united them in one, in numbers countless as the locusts; this that gave them the locustlike impulse to speed forth as its propagandists over the world; this which imparted to them, as to lions of the desert, the irresistible destroying fury of fanaticism; this, further, which ... had already prepared in them a scorpion-like venom of contempt and hatred wherewith to torment the subject Christian.—“Hora Apocalyptica,” Rev. E. B. Elliott, A. M., Vol. I, pp. 415-417, 3rd edition. London: Seeley. Burnside, and Seeley, 1847. SBBS 509.3
So great was the terror which this new power of Lell had already struck into the world.—“Philosophy of History,” Friedrich von Schlegel, Vol. II, Lecture 12, p. 110. SBBS 509.4
Note.—The historian comments on the evasive replies, rather than defiance, with which Emperor Heraclius, and Chosroes, of Persia, met Mahomet’s summons to acknowledge him.—Eds. SBBS 509.5
Seven Trumpets, The Fifth; The Supernatural Element.—Even though it be admitted that Mahomet laid the foundations of his laws in the strongest principles of human nature, and prepared the fabric of his empire with the profoundest wisdom, still there can be no doubt that no human intelligence could, during his lifetime, have foreseen, and no combinations on the part of one individual could have insured, the extraordinary success of his followers.—“History of Greece,” George Finlay, Vol. I, p. 356. SBBS 509.6
Seven Trumpets, The Fifth; Old Expositors on the Scorpion Sting.—That is, they had not only the power proper to locusts of eating up and depopulating the countries through which they passed, but, what was a kind of prodigy, they had tails like scorpions, with the stroke of which likewise they diffused poison. Wonderful! A locust scorpion. But the nature of the evil which it implies, the symbol of a serpentine species seems to point out; for the scorpion is of the serpent kind.... The tail, therefore, of a scorpion, with the sting, denotes the propagation of that diabolical false prophecy of Mohammed, with its whole apparatus, on which the Arabian locusts relying, not less than on warlike force, inflicted hurt, alas! wherever they went. Nay, this train of foulest errors, the Saracens first, from the creation of man, drew after them; and, I believe, no nation before them, relying on a similar imposture, in religion, and under the pretext of destroying the worship of idols, ever contended for the empire of the world.—“Clavis Apocalyptica,” Joseph Mede (1627), translation by R. B. Cooper, p. 176. London. SBBS 510.1
These locusts had tails like scorpions, and stings in their tails. All the world knows that the tail and the sting in the serpent [scorpion] is the seat of venom and poison. And poison is the emblem of false doctrine. Which signifies not only that the Arabians should carry desolation and death everywhere, but also the venom of a detestable religion. Therefore ‘tis the devil is called a serpent and a dragon, by reason of the poison of false religions that he spreads.—“Accomplishment of the Scripture Prophecies,” Peter Jurieu, part 1, chap. 7, p. 70. London, 1687. SBBS 510.2
Seven Trumpets, The Fifth; Their Leadership.—The King of these locusts was the angel of the bottomless pit, being chief governor as well in religious as civil affairs, such as was the caliph of the Saracens. Swarms of locusts often arise in Arabia Felix, and from thence infest the neighboring nations: and so are a very fit type of the numerous armies of Arabians invading the Romans.—“Observations upon the Prophecies of Daniel and the Apocalypse of St. John,” Sir Isaac Newton, part 2, chap. 3, p. 304. London, 1733. SBBS 510.3
Since the locusts are at once secular conquerors and the propagators of a false religion, their king must stand to them in the double relation of a temporal and spiritual chief. Such, accordingly, was Mohammed and the caliphs his successors.... The twofold idea was aptly expressed by his single official denomination, “The Commander of the Faithful.”-“The Sacred Calendar of Prophecy,” G. S. Faber, book 4, chap. 7. London, 1844. SBBS 510.4
Seven Trumpets, The Fifth; Appearance of the Invading Warriors.—So Pliny, St. John’s contemporary at the close of the first century, speaks of the Arabs as wearing the turban, having the hair long and uncut, with the moustache on the upper lip, or the beard; 31 that “venerable sign of manhood,” as Gibbon, in Arab phraseology, calls it. So Solinus describes them in the third century; 32 so Ammianus Marcel- linus in the fourth, 33 so Claudian, Theodore of Mopsuesta, and Jerome in the fifth.... In regard to the turban crown, it happens most singularly that Ezekiel 23:42 describes the turbans of the Sabaans or Keturite Arabs under this very appellation; “Sabaans from the wilderness, which put beautiful crowns upon their heads.” ... The Saracen policy was the wearing of defensive armor. The breastplate of iron was a feature of description literally answering, like the three others, to the Arab warriors of the sixth or seventh century.—“Hora Apocalyptica,” Rev. E. B. Elliott, A. M., Vol. I, pp. 411-413, 3rd edition. London: Seeley, Burnside, and Seeley, 1847. SBBS 510.5
Seven Trumpets, The Fifth; Instructions as Saracens Poured Out of Arabia.—When you fight the battles of the Lord, acquit you like men, without turning your backs; but let not your victory be stained with the blood of women or children. Destroy no palm trees, nor burn any fields of corn. Cut down no fruit trees, nor do any mischief to cattle, only such as you kill to eat. When you make any covenant or article, stand to it, and be as good as your word. As you go on, you will find some religious persons who live retired in monasteries, and propose to themselves to serve God that way: let them alone, and neither kill them nor destroy their monasteries. And you will find another sort of people, that belong to the synagogue of Satan, who have shaven crowns; be sure you cleave their skulls, and give them no quarter till they either turn Mahometans or pay “tribute.”-Abu-bekr, caliph, to Saracen armies; cited in “The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,” Edward Gibbon, chap. 51, par. 10 (Vol. V, pp. 189, 190). New York: Harper & Brothers. SBBS 511.1
Seven Trumpets, The Fifth; To Torment, Not to Kill.—Not that it could be supposed that the Saracens would not “kill” many thousands in their incursions. On the contrary, their angel hath the name of “the destroyer.” Revelation 9:11. They might “kill” them as individuals, but still they should not “kill” them as a political body, as a state or empire. They might greatly harass and “torment” both the Greek and the Latin churches, but they should not utterly extirpate the one or the other. They besieged Constantinople, and even plundered Rome: but they could not make themselves masters of either of those capital cities. The Greek Empire suffered most from them, as it lay nearest to them.—“Dissertations on the Prophecies,” Thomas Newton, D. D. (1754), p. 544. London: William Tegg & Co., 1849. SBBS 511.2
Seven Trumpets, The Fifth; Gibbon on the Mystery of Limitation of Power.—When the Arabs first issued from the desert, they must have been surprised at the ease and rapidity of their own success. But when they advanced in the career of victory to the banks of the Indus and the summit of the Pyrenees; when they had repeatedly tried the edge of their scimeters and the energy of their faith, they might be equally astonished that any nation could resist their invincible arms; that any boundary should confine the dominion of the successor of the prophet. The confidence of soldiers and fanatics may indeed be excused, since the calm historian of the present hour, who strives to follow the rapid course of the Saracens, must study to explain by what means the church and state were saved from this impending, and, as it should seem, from this inevitable, danger.—“The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,” Edward Gibbon, chap. 52, par. 1 (Vol. V. p. 273). New York: Harper & Brothers. SBBS 511.3
Note.—The historian “must study to explain,” says Gibbon, how it was that the swift progress of the Saracens did not extinguish the Eastern Empire. But the prophecy had declared that the “locusts” would torment, but not kill.—Eds. SBBS 512.1
Seven Trumpets, The Fifth; No Mention of “Third Part.”—What a vast tract of land! How many crowns are here! Whence it is worthy of observation, that no mention is here made, as under the other trumpets, of the trient, or third part; since the plague fell not less beyond the bounds of the Roman Empire, than within it; stretching even to the extremest parts of India.—“Clavis Apocalyptica,” Joseph Mede (1627), translation by R. B. Cooper, p. 181. SBBS 512.2
Seven Trumpets, The Fifth; Why the Saracens are Indicated.—1. Because they came from the East, as the locusts did. 2. Because of their vast numbers, and their wandering state and condition, living in tents, and roaming from place to place. Nahum 3:15, 16. 3. Because they are expressly likened unto grasshoppers or locusts. Judges 7:3-5. 4. From the suddenness of their invasions, and the prodigious swiftness of their conquests, and the great havoc and ravages made by them. 5. Because they at this time embodied in their national characters and tempers, which Gibbon described to be “armed against mankind, and doubly inflamed by the domestic license of rapine, murder, and revenge,” the doctrines of the Koran.—“An Historical Exposition of the Prophecies of the Revelation of St. John,” Matthew Habershon, chap. 8, pp. 153, 154. London: James Nisbet & Co., 1841. SBBS 512.3
Seven Trumpets, From Saracen to Turk.—With the rise of the Abbassides, the aspect of Western Asia alters. The seat of government is removed from Syria to Irak [to Bagdad, founded a. d. 672], the Syrians lose the monopoly of influence and power they had hitherto possessed; and the tide of power is diverted from the West to the East. But the unity of the Caliphate was gone forever.... SBBS 512.4
“The reign of the first Abbassides,” says a distinguished French scholar and historian, “was the era of the greatest splendor of the Eastern Saracens. The age of conquest had passed; that of civilization had commenced.”-“History of the Saracens,” Ameer Ali, p. 208. SBBS 512.5
Before long the Caliphs drew their bodyguard entirely from the Turks about the Oxus.... These began to overshadow the noble Arab chieftains; and so we soon find the imperial forces officered almost entirely by Turcomans.—“The Caliphate,” Sir William Muir, p. 432. SBBS 512.6
The blow which seemed the most crushing of all, the overthrow of the caliphate by the Moguls [1258], was part of a chain of events which brought on the stage a Mohammedan power more terrible than all that had gone before it. We have now come to the time of the first appearance of the Ottoman Turks.—“Ottoman Power,” E. A. Freeman, p. 98. SBBS 512.7
In a. d. 1281, Ortogrul took the famous city of Kutahi from the Greek emperor; in 1357 Orchan crossed over to Europe; in 1453 Mahomet II took Constantinople, and thus began the downfall of the Eastern Empire, the rest of which followed the fate of the capital.—“A New Analysis of Chronology and Geography,” Rev. William Hales, Vol. III, p. 617. SBBS 512.8
Seven Trumpets, The Sixth; The Next Blow at the Eastern Empire.—If the first woe trumpet referred to the Saracens, then it would be natural that the rise and progress of the Turkish power should be symbolized, as the next great fact in history; and as that under which the empire fell.... The Turkish power rose immediately after the power of the Saracens had reached its height, and identified itself with the Mohammedan religion, and was, in fact, the next great power that affected the Roman Empire, the welfare of the church, and the history of the world.—“Notes on the Book of Revelation,” Albert Barnes (Presbyterian), on Revelation 9, p. 263. New York: Harper & Brothers. SBBS 512.9
Seven Trumpets, The Sixth; Foxe on this Prophecy.—Among all the prophecies both of the Old Testament and of the New, there is none that painteth out the antichristian kingdom of the Turks better than doth the Revelation of St. John, whose words let us weigh and consider. Apocalypse 9.... By loosing the angels who had rule of the great river Euphrates, is signified the letting out of the east kings, that is, the Turks, out of Scythia, Tartary, Persia, and Arabia, by whom the third part of Christendom shall be destroyed, as we see it this day hath come to pass.—Written in 1566, with Turks at gates of Central Europe, “Acts and Monuments,” John Foxe, Vol. IV, book 6, p. 102. SBBS 513.1
Note.—Foxe is said to have been the first writer to recognize the Turks in this prophecy.—Eds. SBBS 513.2
Seven Trumpets, The Sixth; Loosing of the Turkish Hordes.—The reign of Othman is contemporaneous with one of the great periods of immigration from Central Asia. The numbers of the Turks were yearly augmented by such hordes that the Greek writers continually use metaphors derived from the torrent, from floods and inundations, to describe their overwhelming force.—“The Destruction of the Greek Empire,” Sir Edwin Pears, p. 62. SBBS 513.3
Seven Trumpets, The Sixth; Still the Poison Sting.—The capture of Bagdad [Tartars under Genghis Khan, 1227, swept over the Saracen empire] entirely annihilated the Saracen name-the cloud from the desert was blown back into its pristine insignificance-the bubble of fame had collapsed. The name had been banished forever; but the faith remained.... Thus the valor of the early Saracens is now remembered only in history; whereas the religion which they enforced prevails.—“Islamism,” F. A. Neale, Vol. I, chap. 31, p. 340. SBBS 513.4
He [Bajazed, 1389-1403] was an irreconcilable enemy of the Christian name and a passionate follower of Mahomet. During the reign of his predecessor, the struggle between the empire and the Turks had taken a theological character, and it is beyond reasonable doubt that religious animosity of a kind which had not shown itself among the first armies of the Turks had now diffused its baneful influence among the Ottoman armies.—“The Destruction of the Greek Empire,” Sir Edwin Pears, p. 132. SBBS 513.5
Seven Trumpets, The Sixth; The Myriads of Horsemen.—Myrriads of myriads: a numeral phrase indefinite, but according to its natural and not infrequent use in Scripture 34 expressive of large numbers; ... so that it is not without his usual propriety of language that Gibbon speaks of “the myriads of the (Seljukian) Turkish horse over-spreading the Greek frontier from the Taurus to Erzeroum.”-“Hora Apocalyptica,” Rev. E. B. Elliott, A. M., Vol. I, pp. 478, 479. London: Seeley, Burnside, and Seeley, 1847. SBBS 513.6
I well remember that living in the University of Ireland, a gentleman that newly came from Scandrown or Alexandretta told me he saw the Turkish army march by to recover Badget or Babylon, and that the army was above a week marching by, consisting of fifteen hundred thousand men, with which he recovered Bagdet from the Persian.—“An Exposition, or Comments upon the Revelation, out of Most Learned Authors” (Bullinger, Francis, Junius, Brightman, etc.), Hezekiah Holland, p. 65. London (Dedicatory Preface, “Vicarage, 1650”). SBBS 514.1
Seven Trumpets, The Sixth; Old Expositors on the Smoke and Fire as Weapons.—Brightman [1600] applyes this to the Turks’ guns, out of which come fire, smoake.—“An Exposition, or Comments upon the Revelation, out of Most Learned Authors,” Hezekiah Holland, p. 66. London, 1650. SBBS 514.2
I understand it literally of that new (and previous to this trumpet) unheard-of arms, which those Euphratean enemies made use of, immediately after they had been set loose. I understand it of cannon vomiting fire, smoke, and sulphur. For gunpowder is ignivomous, with hyacinthine smoke, and sulphurous matter.—“Clavis Apocalyptica,” Josepn Mede (1627), translation by R. B. Cooper, p. 204. London. SBBS 514.3
This fire, this smoke, and this brimstone seem to be a description of gunpowder and its effects. And this may well signify that the Turks should make their principal desolations in the empire of the fourth mon archy, after the invention of canons and firearms, whence come forth lightnings, flames, sulphur, and smoke; which indeed did come to pass. SBBS 514.4
These horses that vomit up flame and smoke have also tails like unto serpents, with which they do hurt, viz., in spreading their poison. And this is common to them with the locusts of the fifth trumpet. ‘Tis the venom of the wicked religion of Mahomet, which the Turks have established, and spread in all places where they have established their dominion.—“The Accomplishment of the Scripture Prophecies,” Peter Jurieu, part 1, chap. 7, p. 75. London, 1687. SBBS 514.5
Seven Trumpets, The Sixth; An Arab Writer Describes the Use of Artillery at Constantinople.—At length the Moslems placed their cannon in an effectual position, and threw up their intrenchments. The gates and ramparts of Constantinople were pierced in a thousand places. The flames which issued from the mouths of these instruments of warfare, of brazen bodies and fiery jaws, cast grief and dismay among the miscreants. The smoke which spread itself in the air, and ascended towards the heavens, rendered the brightness of day somber as night: and the face of the world soon became as dark as the black fortune of the unhappy infidels.—“Tadg al Tavarikh” (Diadem of Histories), Saadeddin; cited from David’s “Grammar of the Turkish Language,” in “The Signs of the Times,” Alexander Keith, Vol. I, p. 386. SBBS 514.6
Seven Trumpets, The Sixth; The Smoke and Fire.—It was to “the fire and the smoke and the sulphur,” to the artillery and firearms of Mahomet, that the killing of the third part of men, i. e., the capture of Constantinople, and by consequence the destruction of the Greek Empire, was owing....” Canst thou cast a cannon,” was his question to the founder of cannon that deserted to him, “of size sufficient to batter down the wall of Constantinople?” Then the foundry was established at Adrianople, the cannon cast, the artillery prepared, and the siege began. SBBS 514.7
It well deserves remark, how Gibbon, always the unconscious commentator on the Apocalyptic prophecy, puts this new instrumentality of war into the foreground of his picture, in his eloquent and striking narrative of the final catastrophe of the Greek Empire.—“Hora Apocalyptica,” Rev. E. B. Elliott, A. M., Vol. I, pp. 483, 484. London: Seeley, Burnside, and Seeley, 1847. SBBS 515.1
The exact idea, whether that was intended or not, would be conveyed by the discharge of musketry or artillery. The fire, the smoke, and the sulphurous smell of such a discharge would correspond precisely with this language.... One thing is certain, that this is not language which would be employed to describe the onset of ancient cavalry in the mode of warfare which prevailed then. No one describing a charge of cavalry among the Persians, the Greeks, or the Romans, when the only armor was the sword and the spear, would think of saying that there seemed to be emitted from the horses’ mouths fire, and smoke, and brimstone.—“Notes on the Book of Revelation,” Albert Barnes, on Revelation 9:17, p. 259. New York: Harper & Brothers. SBBS 515.2
Seven Trumpets, The Sixth; The Horse-Tail Banners.—It seems that in the times of their early warlike career the principal standard was once lost, in the progress of battle; and the Turkman commander, in its default, cutting off his horse’s tail, lifted it on a pole, made it the rallying ensign, and so won the victory. Hence the introduction and permanent adoption among the Turks throughout their empire of this singular ensign; among the Turks alone, if I mistake not, of all the nations that have ever risen up on this world’s theater: and this as that which was thenceforward,-from the vizier to the governors of provinces and districts,-to constitute their badge, mark their rank, and give them name and title. For it is the ensign of one, two, or three horse tails that marks distinctively the dignity and power of the Turkish pasha.—“Hora Apocalyptica,” Rev. E. B. Elliott, A. M., Vol. I, p. 486. London: Seeley, Burnside, and Seeley, 1847. SBBS 515.3
Seven Trumpets, The Sixth; The Eastern “Third Part” Now to Fall.—The Western Empire had already been exhibited, in the first four trumpets, under the figure of a symbolical universe, and its subversion by the Gothic arms was denoted by the destruction of a third part of that universe. The Eastern Empire is now placed before us as a political community, under the generic appellation of “the men;” and its overthrow is in a similar manner signified by the slaughter of a third part of “the men.”-“A Dissertation on the Seals and Trumpets of the Apocalypse,” William Cuninghame, chap. 7, p. 83. London: Thomas Cadell, 1843. SBBS 515.4
Seven Trumpets, The Sixth; This Time to Kill.—The locusts of the foregoing trumpet were sent, not to kill men, but to torment them for five months; because the Saracens and Arabians did only gnaw off the edges of the Roman Empire, and did not penetrate into its entrails. But the Turks pierced even into the very heart of the fourth monarchy, and laid it desolate; and they have established their empire in one of its capital cities, viz., Constantinople. They are sent to kill the men of this third part of the world.... To kill signifies also a total destruction: so that the prophecy seems to signify that the Turks are sent of God entirely to destroy the Roman Empire.—“The Accomplishment of the Scripture Prophecies,” Peter Jurieu, part 1, chap. 7, pp. 73, 74. London, 1687. SBBS 515.5
Seven Trumpets, The Sixth; Last Emperors of the East.—In the year 1381 he [John V or VI] concluded a treaty with Sultan Murad, acknowledging himself a vassal and tributary of the Ottoman Empire. Murad continued to pursue his career of conquest in Europe without troubling the despicable fragments of the imperial government, which still mock the researches of the historian under the proud title of the Roman Empire.—“History of Greece,” George Finlay, Vol. III, p. 467. SBBS 516.1
Best remembered among the tribulations of John is the siege of Philadelphia.... Murad, wishing to subdue it, compelled John V and his son Manuel to march in person against the last Christian stronghold in Asia. The emperor submitted to the degradation, and Philadelphia surrendered when it saw the imperial banner hoisted among the horsetails of the Turkish pashas above the camp of the besiegers. The humiliation of the empire could go no further.—“The Story of the Byzantine Empire,” C. W. C. Oman, M. A., F. S A., pp. 330, 331. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1892. SBBS 516.2
He [John VI or VII, 1425-1448] never forgot that he was a vassal of the Ottoman Empire.—“History of Greece,” George Finlay, Vol. III, p. 496. SBBS 516.3
Note.—The death of John VI “took place on the last day of October, 1448” (“Destruction of the Greek Empire,” Pears, p. 178). Constantine, his older brother, was in Sparta, Greece, at the time. As he had recently been in conflict with the Sultan, it was a question whether he would be an acceptable candidate for the throne. Some favored Demetrius, the younger brother. The sultan (Mohammed II) signified his willingness, however, that Constantine should take the throne, which he did, being crowned at Sparta, Jan. 10, 1449. SBBS 516.4
“The arguments of the Prince Demetrius’s partisans were based not so much on personal as on public grounds-the political interest of the state. At last a compromise was made: an embassy was to be sent at once to the sultan to ask him. Would he acknowledge Despot Constantine as emperor or not? This course was perhaps the only one to prevent civil war, or eventually an attack on the part of the Turks, but it shows more than anything else the growing weakness of the empire, and the failing sense of dignity.”-Constantine, “Last Emperor of the Greeks,” by Chedomil Mijatovich, p. 84; cited in “The Eastern Question,” p. 26. England: The International Tract Society, Stanborough Park, Watford, Herts.-Eds. SBBS 516.5
Seven Trumpets, The Sixth; The Last Blow at Hand.—The Roman world [a. d. 1395-1402] was now contracted to a corner of Thrace, between the Propontis and the Black Sea, about fifty miles in length and thirty in breadth.—“The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,” Edward Gibbon, chap. 64, par. 20 (Vol. VI, p. 242). New York: Harper and Brothers. SBBS 516.6
Every province was in turn subdued, every city opened her gates to the conqueror; the limbs were lopped off one by one; but the pulse still beat at the heart, and the majesty of the Roman name was ultimately confined to the walls of Constantinople. Before Mahomet II planted his cannon against them, he had completed every smaller conquest and deprived the expiring empire of every hope of succor or delay.—“History of Europe During the Middle Ages,” Henry Hallam, Vol. II, book 6, p. 69, revised edition. London: The Colonial Press, 1900. SBBS 516.7
Seven Trumpets, The Sixth; The Eastern Empire Fallen at Last.—The Ottoman artillery thundered on all sides; and the camp and city, the Greeks and the Turks, were involved in a cloud of smoke which could only be dispelled by the final deliverance or destruction of the Roman Empire.... SBBS 516.8
The immediate loss of Constantinople may be ascribed to the bullet, or arrow, which pierced the gauntlet of John Justiniani. The sight of his blood, and the exquisite pain, appalled the courage of the chief, whose arms and counsels were the firmest rampart of the city. As he withdrew from his station in quest of a surgeon, his flight was perceived and stopped by the indefatigable emperor. “Your wound,” exclaimed Palaologus, “is slight; the danger is pressing: your presence is necessary; and whither will you retire?” “I will retire,” said the trembling Genoese, “by the same road which God has opened to the Turks;” and at these words he hastily passed through one of the breaches of the inner wall.... His example was imitated by the greatest part of the Latin auxiliaries, and the defense began to slacken.... The victorious Turks rushed through the breaches of the inner wall.... In the first heat of the pursuit, about two thousand Christians were put to the sword.... It was thus, after a siege of fifty-three days, that Constantinople, which had defied the power of Chosroes, the Chagan, and the caliphs, was irretrievably subdued by the arms of Mahomet the Second [a. d. 1453].—“The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,” Edward Gibbon, chap. 68, pars. 17, 18 (Vol. VI, pp. 400-403). New York: Harper & Brothers. SBBS 516.9
With the fall of Constantinople was extinguished forever the last vestige of the majesty of Rome.—Lord John Russell; cited in “Turkey and the Balkan States,” Esther Singleton, p. 10. New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1908. SBBS 517.1
All Europe and Asia knew the end was come of the longest tale of empire that Christendom has yet seen.—“The Story of the Byzantine Empire,” C. W. C. Oman, M. A., F. S. A., p. 350. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1892. SBBS 517.2
The age-long fight which the imperial East had waged over barbarism was over. The city of the Casars and the church was in the hands of the infidel.—“Constantinople,” W. H. Hutton, p. 150. SBBS 517.3
For the Turks Byzantium and its lord had long been the center of the universe and the zenith of human grandeur. They felt that, in conquering it, they and their sovereign had for practical purposes become masters of the world.—“Turkey in Europe,” Sir Charles W. Eliot, p. 115. SBBS 517.4
As being a continuation of the Roman Empire whose capital was New Rome, the empire is correctly called Roman, and the name has the advantage of always keeping in view the continuity of Roman history. It was the Eastern Roman Empire which declined and fell in 1453.—“The Destruction of the Greek Empire,” Sir Edwin Pears, Preface. SBBS 517.5
Seven Trumpets, The Sixth; Images to the Last.—The sacred eikons and relics were brought from the churches, were taken to the neighborhoods where the walls were most injured, and paraded with the procession in the hope-to people of northern climes and the present century inexplicable and almost unthinkable-that their display would avert the threatening danger.—Id., p. 362. SBBS 517.6
Note.—This was the last idolatrous procession in Constantinople before its fall; and as the prophecy says (Revelation 9:20), the survivors, whether in East or West, failed to recognize the judgment upon the idols or images and all the works of men’s hands.—Eds. SBBS 517.7
Seven Trumpets, The Sixth; As the Scourge of Idolatry.—I promise to the only God, Creator of all things, by my vow and my oath, that I will not give sleep to my eyes, that I will not eat any choice viands, that I will not seek out that which is pleasant, nor touch that which is beautiful, that I will not turn my face from the west to the east, till I overthrow and tread under the feet of my horses the gods of the nations; these gods of wood, of brass, of silver, and of gold, or of painting, which the disciples of Christ have made with their hands.—Vow of Mahomet II, published in all the mosques, March 11, 1470; cited in “The Two Later Visions of Daniel,” Rev. T. R. Birks, M. A., p. 319. London: Seeley, Burnside, and Seeley, 1846. SBBS 517.8
Seven Trumpets, Agreement as to Sixth.—It may indeed be said that there is no one part of the Revelation in which there exists so unanimous an agreement as that the Turks were the second woe. It is a point which even the Polish interpreter, Dr. Wamsley, admits; it is likewise a fact, that in the whole range of political speculation, there is no subject on which there exists so unanimous an opinion, as that the empire which they founded on the ruins of the Eastern Roman Empire, is now on the point of extinction! Must therefore the third woe not soon follow? Will not God indeed be as good as his word; and will not the event of Constantinople falling out of the hands of its present possessors, be the certain signal of the almost immediate approach, to say the least, of as great calamities coming upon the nations of the earth, as were brought about by the Saracens or the Turks?-“An Historical Exposition of the Prophecies of the Revelation of St. John,” Matthew Habershon, p. 297. London: James Nisbet & Co., 1841. SBBS 518.1
Seventy Weeks, “Determined”—“Cut Off.”-“Are determined.” The word here used, word], from word]í, occurs nowhere else in the Scriptures. It properly means, according to Gesenius, to cut off, to divide; and hence, to determine, to destine, to appoint.—“Notes on the Book of Daniel,” Albert Barnes (Presbyterian), on Daniel 9:24, p. 372. New York: Leavitt and Allen, 1859. SBBS 518.2
Note.—As the angel came to explain “the vision”-naturally the vision of the preceding chapter, of which the time period was the portion left unexplained-the only possible inference is that the period from which this 490 years was to be “cut off,” was the 2300 years of “the vision.” Daniel 8:14. The two periods therefore begin together. Probably the failure in the past to connect the visions of these two chapters, was due to a faulty chronology, according to which the visions were separated by a period of fifteen years. It is now thought that the latter was given only a few months after the former.—Eds. SBBS 518.3
Seventy Weeks, The Famous French Bishop of Meaux on Period.—In the reign of Cyaxeres, Daniel, already honored under the preceding reigns with several heavenly visions, wherein he saw in manifest figures so many kings and empires pass before him, learned by a new revelation those seventy famous weeks, in which the times of Christ and the destiny of the Jewish people are unfolded. It was weeks of years, so that they contained 490.—“Universal History,” Jacques B. Bossuet (1627-1704), p. 39. SBBS 518.4
Seventy Weeks, Artaxerxes’ Commission to Ezra.—In the same year, and seventh of his reign, b. c. 457, he issued a decree, empowering Ezra, the Scribe of the Law of the God of heaven, to go to Judea, with full powers to preside there in all ecclesiastical and civil concerns; to restore and enforce the law of Moses, to appoint magistrates and judges throughout the land, and to punish all transgressors of the law with confiscation of goods, banishment, or death. Ezra 7:12-26.—“A New Analysis of Chronology and Geography,” Rev. William Hales, D. D., Vol. IV, p. 186. London: C. J. G. & F. Rivington, 1830, SBBS 518.5
The only decree which was capable of any wider application than the temple merely, and the text of which is preserved to us in the historic records of Scripture, is the edict which was given to Ezra in the seventh year of Artaxerxes, or b. c. 457. This decree in its express terms provided not only for the embellishment of the temple, which had been completed since the sixth year of Darius, but also for the political organization and government of the nation.... To it are to be referred not only all the reconstructive operations of Ezra, but those also of Nehemiah, who was furnished with subsequent authority by the same king in the spirit of his former decree. As far, therefore, as the sacred history of the Jews enables us to determine when the commandment went forth to restore and to build Jerusalem, there seems little doubt that we must refer it to the decree of the seventh year of Artaxerxes. of which the original Aramaic text is preserved to us in the book of Ezra.—“Old Testament Prophecy,” Rev. Stanley Leathes, D. D., pp. 219, 220. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1880. SBBS 519.1
Seventy Weeks, The Commandment of Artaxerxes’ Seventh Year.—It was, in fact, as Sir Isaac Newton, Pusey, Birks, and other high authorities have pointed out, a decree which was practically the restoration of the Jewish polity, and which involved the restoration of its metropolis. It seems evident that Ezra so regarded it, and we could wish no better authority, for in his prayer, recorded in Ezra 9:9, he thus expresses himself: “God hath not forsaken us in our bondage, but hath extended mercy to us in the sight of the king of Persia, to give us a reviving, to set up the house of our God, and to repair the ruins thereof, and to give us a wall [marg., fence] in Judah and Jerusalem.” Moreover, this accounts for the disappointment of Nehemiah when, some thirteen years afterwards, he learned, by inquiring from some Jews who had recently come from Jerusalem, that these hopes of the restoration of the capital had not yet been fulfilled, and that the walls and gates had not yet been repaired. This led to his being sent by Artaxerxes as a second special commissioner, to carry out more fully and completely that work of national “reviving” which had been initiated by Ezra. Wordsworth remarks that Nehemiah does not ask for a commission to build the city; he assumes that this had previously been given: and, as it remained unexecuted, he asks that he may go and execute it.—“Daniel and the Revelation,” Rev. Joseph Tanner, B. A. (Church of England), p. 38. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1898. SBBS 519.2
Seventy Weeks, Chronology of First Seven Weeks.—Ezra came to Jerusalem b. c. 457; he labored in restoring the Jewish polity, within and without, for thirteen years before Nehemiah was sent by Artaxerxes, b. c. 444. Nehemiah, as governor, labored together with Ezra for twelve years.... Then he returned to the king, and after an undefined time, “at the end of days” (Nehemiah 13:6), he says, “obtained I leave of the king, and came to Jerusalem.” The interval probably was not short.... The mention of Eliashib’s son, Joiada, being high priest then, in place of his deceased father, fixes this second visit probably in the reign of Darius Nothus, in whose eleventh year Eliashib is said to have died (Chron. Alex., Olymp. 78, pp. 162, 163).... Now from the seventh year of Artaxerxes to the eleventh year of Darius Nothus are 45 years. But it was in the period of the high priesthood of Joiada, not precisely in the very first year, that this reform took place. We have anyhow for the period of the two great restorers of the Jewish polity, Ezra and Nehemiah conjointly, a time somewhat exceeding forty-five years; so that we know that the restoration was completed in the latter part of the seventh week of years, and it is probable that it was not closed until the end of it.—“Daniel the Prophet,” Rev. E. B. Pusey, D. D., Lecture 4, pp. 174, 175. Oxford: James Parker & Co., 1868. SBBS 519.3
Seventy Weeks, The Second Period of Sixty-two Weeks.—From these seven weeks, or forty-nine years, reckoning sixty-two weeks, or four hundred and thirty-four years more (which is the term of the second period), this will lead us down to the coming of Christ the Messiah, who is here in the prophecy predicted to come at the end of the said sixty-two weeks. For the words of the prophecy are, “From the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince, shall be seven weeks and threescore and two weeks;” that is, there shall be seven weeks for the completing and finishing of the work for which that commandment or decree was granted, and from thence sixty-two weeks more to the coming of Christ the Messiah here intended, that is, to the time of his first appearance on the ministry of the gospel.—“An Historical Connection of the Old and New Testaments,” Humphrey Prideaux, D. D., revised, (2 vol. edition) Vol. I, p. 256. London: William Tegg & Co., 1858. SBBS 520.1
Seventy Weeks, Prophecy and History Correspond.—This rebuilding of the city and reorganization of the polity, begun by Ezra and carried on and perfected by Nehemiah, corresponds with the words in Daniel, “From the going forth of a commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem.” SBBS 520.2
The term also corresponds. Unto “Messiah the Prince,” shall be “seven weeks and threescore and two weeks,” i. e., the first 483 years of the period, the last seven being parted off. But 483 years from the beginning of b. c. 457 were completed at the beginning of 27 a. d., which (since the nativity was four years earlier than our era) would coincide with his baptism, “being about 30 years of age,” when the descent of the Holy Ghost upon him manifested him to be the anointed with the Holy Ghost, the Christ.—“Daniel the Prophet,” Rev. E. B. Pusey, D. D. (Church of England), 2nd edition, Lecture 4, p. 172. Oxford: James Parker & Co., 1868. SBBS 520.3
Seventy Weeks, “The Anointed”—“The Prince.”-Christ did come forth at the time of his baptism in just this twofold character. John the Baptist-the herald who went before the King-thus speaks, in a manner exactly corresponding to this prophecy in Daniel: “The kingdom of heaven is at hand [i. e., in the sense of the king presenting himself to the nation for acceptance].... There cometh One mightier than I after me.” Then follows the scene of Christ’s baptism, and his official anointing by the Holy Ghost visibly descending upon him. Anointing was the rite appointed for the official inauguration of priests and kings. Thus Aaron and his descendants were anointed as high priests. Similarly Saul and David were anointed as kings by having oil poured over their heads, and were afterwards spoken of as “the Lord’s anointed.” Hence it is evident that the descent of the Holy Ghost upon Christ, when he entered upon his public career at his baptism by John, constituted the official anointing of him who was both Priest and King in one person.—“Daniel and the Revelation,” Rev. Joseph Tanner, B. A. (Church of England), p. 40. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1898. SBBS 520.4
Seventy Weeks, Date of John the Baptist’s Appearance.—The fifteenth year, therefore, of the reign of Tiberius [Luke 3:1], in which John the Baptist began to preach, must be reckoned from that time when he began to reign jointly with Augustus.... And this happened, as the most learned Archbishop Usher observes, in the year of the Julian period 4725 [a. d. 12]; and the fifteenth year from thence brings us to the year of the Julian period 4739 [a. d. 26], in which (as is above noted) the word of God came to John the Baptist, and the preaching of the gospel first began. And then it was that Christ, by this his forerunner, manifested his coming, and made his first appearance in that great work of our salvation on which he was sent. And from the seventh year of Artaxerxes Longimanus, when the commandment went forth from that king for the restoring of the church and state of the Jews, to this time, were just seven weeks and sixty-two weeks, that is, sixty-nine weeks, or four hundred and eighty-three years in all, exactly as this prophecy predicted.—“An Historical Connection of the Old and New Testaments,” Humphrey Prideaux, D. D., revised, (2 vol. edition) Vol. I, p. 257. London: William Tegg & Co., 1858. SBBS 520.5
Note.—Accurately, the fifteenth year of Tiberius was at the earliest, from the latter part of a. d. 26 to the latter part of a. d. 27, in which came John the Baptist.—Eds. SBBS 521.1
Seventy Weeks, Roman Historians on Tiberius’s First Year.—Augustus, because he was growing old, wrote a letter commending Germanicus to the senate and the latter to Tiberius.—Under “A. U. 765, A. D. 12,” marginal dates, “History of Rome,” Cassius Dion (wrote A. D. 210-229), book 56, chap. 26, translation by Herbert Baldwin Foster. Troy, N. Y.: Pafraet’s Book Company, 1905. SBBS 521.2
Note.—The less is blessed of the greater; so Germanicus was commended to the senate, but the senate to Tiberius, suggesting that Tiberius was recognized as having imperial authority in a. d. 12.—Eds. SBBS 521.3
At the desire of Augustus there was a law passed by the senate and people of Rome, that Tiberius might have equal power with him in all the provinces and armies.—Velleius Paterculus (who lived under Augustus and Tiberius), lib. 2, cap. 121; cited in Lardner’s Works, Vol. I, p. 374. SBBS 521.4
There was a law made that Tiberius should govern the provinces jointly with Augustus, and make the census with him.—“The Lives of the Twelve Casars,” C. Suetonius Tranquillus, “Tiberius,” chap. 21. SBBS 521.5
Tiberius Nero was the only survivor of his [Augustus’s] stepsons. On him every honor was accumulated (to that quarter all things inclined); he was by Augustus adopted for his son, assumed colleague in the empire, partner in the tribunitian authority, and presented to the several armies; not from the secret machinations of his mother, as heretofore, but at her open suit. For over Augustus, now very aged, she had obtained such absolute sway that he banished into the isle of Planasia his only surviving grandson, Agrippa Posthumus.—“The Works of Tacitus,” Vol. I, “The Annals,” book 1, chap. 3, pp. 3, 4. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1863. SBBS 521.6
Seventy Weeks, The Witness of the Coins of Tiberius.—From the evidence of coins struck at this date it is shown that it was customary to regard Tiberius’s reign as beginning a. d. 12, or a. u. c. 765.—A Dictionary of the Bible, James Hastings, M. A., D. D., art. “Tiberius,” Vol. IV,, p. 760. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1902. SBBS 521.7
There are coins from Antioch in Syria of the date a. u. 765, with the head of Tiberius and the inscription, [Greek word, transliterated “Sebastos”] (Augustus).—“History of the Christian Church,” Philip Schaff, Vol. I, p. 120, footnote. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1891. SBBS 521.8
Note.—The events of a. d. 12 are so full that some authorities fix upon a. d. 13 as the year in which Tiberius was made imperial colleague. But the history and the dated coins are proofs that a. d. 12 is the year, though evidently the latter part. The first year of Tiberius would therefore be from the latter part of a. d. 12 to the latter part of a. d. 13; and his fifteenth year would be from the latter part of a. d. 26 to the latter part of a. d. 27.—Eds. SBBS 522.1
Seventy Weeks, Recognition of Tiberius (a. d. 12), Shown Otherwise.—While a young soldier in the camp, he [Tiberius] was so remarkable for his excessive inclination to wine, that, for Tiberias, they called him Biberius; for Claudius, Caldius; and for Nero, Mero. And after he succeeded to the empire, and was invested with the office of reforming the morality of the people, he spent a whole night and two days together in feasting and drinking with Pomponius Flaccus and Lucius Piso; to one of whom he immediately gave the province of Syria, and to the other the prafecture of the city.—“The Lives of the Twelve Casars,” C. Suetonius Tranquillus, “Tiberius,” chap. 42, translation by Alexander Thomson, M. D., revised and corrected by T. Forester, Esq., A. M. London: Henry G. Bohn, 1855. SBBS 522.2
About the same time [consulate of Domitius and Camillus, a. d. 32] died Lucius Piso, the Pontiff.... Messala Corvinus was the first invested with this authority, and in a few days dismissed, as a man incompetent to discharge it. It was then filled by Taurus Statilius, who, though very aged, sustained it with signal honor. After him, Piso held it for twenty years, with equal credit; so that he was distinguished with a public funeral, by a decree of the senate.—“The Works of Tacitus,” Vol. I, “The Annals,” book 6, chaps. 10, 11, pp. 219, 220. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1863. SBBS 522.3
Note.—Lardner (“Works,” Vol. I, p. 376) shows that the consulate of Camillus and Domitius was the year a. u. 785, or a. d. 32. Piso was appointed by Tiberius when “prince,” and died in a. d. 32, after twenty years in office. Therefore his appointment (32 less 20) was in a. d. 12, showing that Tiberius was then recognized as “prince,” of royal honor.—Eds. SBBS 522.4
Seventy Weeks, “Pilate Being Governor of Judea” (Luke 3:1).—The Samaritan senate sent an embassy to Vitellius, a man that had been consul, and who was now president of Syria, and accused Pilate of the murder of those that were killed; for that they did not go to Tirathaba in order to revolt from the Romans, but to escape the violence of Pilate. So Vitellius sent Marcellus, a friend of his, to take care of the affairs of Judea, and ordered Pilate to go to Rome, to answer before the emperor to the accusations of the Jews. So Pilate, when he had tarried ten years in Judea, made haste to Rome, and this in obedience to the orders of Vitellius, which he durst not contradict; but before he could get to Rome, Tiberius was dead.—“Antiquities of the Jews,” Josephus, book 18, chap. 4, par. 2. SBBS 522.5
Tiberius died March 26 [16], a. d. 37; and Pilate might be out of his office a month or six weeks before, suppose it was February; from thence we must count ten years backward for the beginning of Pilate’s government, which will therefore fall into February, a. d. 27.—“Short View of the Harmony of the Four Evangelists,” William Whiston, M. A., p. 139; cited in Lardner’s “Works,” Vol. I, p. 393. SBBS 522.6
The mission of the Baptist in the 15th year of Tiberius, calculated from a. d. 11, will fall in a. d. 25-26; the baptism of Christ may be assigned to a. d. 26-27.—“A Dictionary of the Bible,” James Hastings, art. “Chronology of the New Testament,” Vol. I, p. 406, 1st col. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1898. (See also the same work complete in one volume, 1909, art. “Baptism of Our Lord.”) SBBS 522.7
Pilate was procurator of Judaa, in succession to Gratus, and he held office for ten years. Josephus tells (“Antiquities,” book 18, chap. 4, par. 2) that he ruled for ten years; that he was removed from office by Vitellius, the legate of Syria, and traveled in haste to Rome to defend himself before Tiberius against certain complaints. Before he reached Rome the emperor had passed away. Josephus adds that Vitellius came in the year 36 a. d. to Judaa to be present at Jerusalem at the time of the Passover. It has been assumed by most authorities that Pilate had departed before this visit of Vitellius. They accordingly date the procuratorship of Pilate as lasting from 26 to 36 a. d. As against this view, Von Dobschütz points out that by this reckoning Pilate must have taken at least a year to get to Rome; for Tiberius died on March 16, 37 a. d. Such delay is inconceivable in view of the circumstances; hence Von Dobschütz rightly dates the period of his procuratorship 27-37 a. d.—The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, Vol. IV, art. “Pilate,” sec. 2, p. 2396. Chicago: The Howard-Severance Co., 1915. SBBS 523.1
Note.—Thus in the case of Pilate, the evidence points to early a. d. 27 as the beginning of his governorship, at the earliest, the very last of a. d. 26. Accused of murder to Casar, and sent to answer at Rome, Josephus says he “made haste,” as well he might. Yet he had not reached Rome March 16, a. d. 37, when Tiberius died. The natural inference is that he started early in the year, and that his ten years in Judea, therefore, began early in a. d. 27.—Eds. SBBS 523.2
Seventy Weeks, “The Time is Fulfilled.”—We have our Lord’s own testimony to show that his entrance upon his official career was the time when this prophecy of Daniel concerning the appearance of the Anointed, the Prince, was fulfilled; for when he began his ministry, we are told that the burden of his preaching was, “the time is fulfilled. The kingdom of God is at hand,” in the sense that the Prince was then offering himself to his people, as already explained. That our Lord, in thus speaking of “the time,” referred to the term of 69 weeks foretold in this prophecy as reaching “unto the Messiah, the Prince,” is recognized in our reference Bibles, and has been pointed out by the ablest commentators.—“Daniel and the Revelation,” Rev. Joseph Tanner, B. A. (Church of England), p. 41. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1898. SBBS 523.3
Note.—It is suggestive that the year of John’s proclamation was a Sabbatical year, when the land had rest. “The year from Tishri (Autumn) 779 [a. d. 26] to Tishri 780 [a. d. 27] was a sabbatic year.”-Edersheim’s “Life and Times of the Messiah,” book 2, chap. 12 (Vol. I, p. 278), 8th edition, footnote. On the stillness of the year, when more Jews were free to gather and to listen, broke the voice of one crying in the wilderness, “Prepare ye the way of the Lord.”-Eds. SBBS 523.4
Seventy Weeks, Catholic Bishop on Last Week.—In the fifteenth year of Tiberius, St. John Baptist appears; Jesus Christ receives baptism from that divine harbinger; the eternal Father acknowledges his well-beloved Son by a voice from heaven; the Holy Ghost descends upon the Saviour, under the harmless figure of a dove: the whole Trinity manifests itself. There begins, with the seventieth week of Daniel, the preaching of Jesus Christ. This last week was the most important and the most noted. Daniel had distinguished it from the rest, as the week wherein the covenant was to be confirmed, and in the middle of which the old sacrifices were to lose their efficacy. We may call it the week of mysteries. In it Jesus Christ establishes his mission and doctrine by numberless miracles, and afterwards by his death. This happened in the fourth year of his ministry, which was also the fourth year of the last week of Daniel; and after this manner is that great week found exactly intersected by the suffering of our Saviour.—“A Universal History,” Jacques B. Bossuet, Bishop of Meaux (1681-1704), p. 96. London: T. Evans, 1778. SBBS 523.5
Seventy Weeks, The Midst of the Week.—It seems to me absolutely certain that our Lord’s ministry lasted for some period above three years. For St. John mentions by name three Passovers (John 2:13; 6:4 and the last); and St. Matthew’s mention of the disciples’ rubbing the ears of corn (Matthew 12:1 sqq.) relates to a time near upon a Passover, later than the first (for John had been cast into prison, Matthew 11:2), yet earlier than the last but one, for it preceded the feeding of the 5,000, which itself preceded that Passover (Matthew 14:15; John 6:4-10). 35 This bears out the opinion, which in itself is nearly certain, that the intermediate feast, mentioned by St. John, is the Passover (John 5:1). Our Lord’s parable of the fig tree virtually asserts that a period of some three years of special culture of God’s people had preceded. “Behold these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig tree and find none;” and that one year remained, “let it alone this year also.” The cursing of the barren fig tree and its instant withering, just before his Passion and the final pronunciation of its sentence, seems to be the symbolical declaration that that year of respite was over, and its doom was fixed.—“Daniel the Prophet,” Rev. E. B. Pusey, D. D., pp. 176, 177, 3rd edition. Oxford: James Parker & Co., 1869. SBBS 524.1
Note.—In the form of a table, Dr. Hales outlines the events between the first and last Passovers of Christ’s ministry: SBBS 524.2
| a. d. | ||
| I. | Passover | 28 |
| Christ purges the temple-Opens his ministry in Judea-John imprisoned by Herod Antipas-Christ’s Ministry in Galilee-Sermon on the Mount. | ||
| II. | Passover | 29 |
| 12 Apostles sent to proclaim Christ-John beheaded. | ||
| III. | Passover | 30 |
| 70 Disciples sent to proclaim Christ-Christ’s transfiguration. | ||
| IV. | Passover | 31 |
| Christ’s crucifixion, resurrection, ascension. | ||
| -“A New Analysis of Chronology and Geography,” Rev. William Hales, D. D., Vol. III, p. 2. London: C. J. G. & F. Rivington, 1830. |
Seventy Weeks, Eusebius on the Half Week.—It is recorded in history, that the whole time of our Saviour’s teaching and working miracles was three years and a half, which is the half of a week [of years]. This John the Evangelist will represent to those who critically attend to his Gospel.... Moreover, “in the half of this one week,” in which he confirmed the covenant disclosed to the many, “was the sacrifice taken away,” and the libation, and “the abomination of desolation” began; since, in the midst of this week, after the three years and half of his teaching, at the time of his Passion, “the veil of the temple was rent from top to bottom;” so that from that time, the libation and the sacrifice was virtually taken away from them, and the abomination of desolation began to take place in the temple, that tutelary power which watched over and guarded the [holy] place from the beginning to that season, leaving them desolate.—“Demonstratio Evangelica,” Eusebius (A. D. 300), p. 400; cited in “A New Analysis of Chronology and Geography,” Rev. William Hales, D. D., Vol. I, pp. 94, 95. London: C. J. G. & F. Rivington, 1830. SBBS 524.3
Seventy Weeks, Secondary Evidence on Date of Christ’s First Passover.—And now Herod, in the eighteenth year of his reign, and after the acts already mentioned, undertook a very great work, that is, to build of himself the temple of God.—“Antiquities of the Jews,” Josephus, book 15, chap. 11, par. 1, p. 471. SBBS 524.4
Herod made this proposal to a general assembly of the people, in the eighteenth year of his reign, probably at the Passover, b. c. 19, but they were startled thereat, apprehending that when he had pulled down the old temple, he might not be able nor willing to build the new; he therefore promised them that he would not attempt to demolish the present, until he had provided all the materials for immediately rebuilding it. And he kept his word; for he employed a thousand carts to draw stones and materials, ten thousand of the most skilful workmen, and a thousand priests, whom he had instructed to be masons and carpenters; and, after two years’ preparation, pulled down the old temple, and began the new, in the twentieth year of his reign, b. c. 17.... SBBS 525.1
This determines the date of our Lord’s first Passover, a. d. 28, which was forty-five years complete, or the forty-sixth current, from the foundation of the temple, b. c. 17. And leads us to an emendation of the English translation of John 2:20: “Forty and six years hath this temple been in building [and is not finished yet], and wilt thou erect it in three days?” For such is the proper rendering of the Greek aorist, [Greek word, transliterated “pskodonethe”].—“A New Analysis of Chronology and Geography,” Rev. William Hales, D. D., Vol. II, p. 601. London: C. J. G. & F. Rivington, 1830. SBBS 525.2
Seventy Weeks, Jewish Authorities on the Sacrifices Ceasing. Rabbi Phineas, Rabbi Levi, and Rabbi Jochanan, from the authority of Rabbi Menachim of Galilee, said, “In the time of the Messiah all sacrifices, except the sacrifice of praise, should cease.”—Rabbi Tanchum, Vol. LV; cited in Clarke’s Commentary, on Hebrews 13:15 (Vol. VI, p. 455), edition, 1834. SBBS 525.3
Seventy Weeks, The Time Known to the Jews.—Daniel’s weeks had so clearly defined the time of the true Messias his coming, that the minds of the whole nation were raised into the expectation of him. Hence it was doubted of the Baptist, whether he was the Messias. Luke 3:15. Hence it was that the Jews were gathered together from all countries unto Jerusalem (Acts 2), expecting, and coming to see, because at that time the term of revealing the Messias, that had been prefixed by Daniel, was come. Hence it was that there was so great a number of false Christs (Matthew 24:5, etc.), taking the occasion of their impostures hence, that now the time of that great expectation was at hand, and fulfilled: and in one word, “They thought the kingdom of God should presently appear.” Luke 19:11. “But when those times of expectation were past, nor did such a Messias appear as they expected (for when they saw the true Messias, they would not see him), they first broke out into various, and those wild, conjectures of the time; and at length, all those conjectures coming to nothing, all ended in this curse (the just cause of their eternal blindness), [gives Hebrew] “May their soul be confounded, who computeth the times!”-Bishop Lightfoot; cited in Clarke’s Commentary, on Matthew 2 (Vol. V, p. 33), edition 1834. SBBS 525.4
Note.—As the time drew near, the joyful expectation of the Messiah stirred the hearts of the Jewish people. In a work, “Psalms of Solomon,” composed from about b. c. 70 to 40, it was written, as cited in “The New Archeological Discoveries and the New Testament,” Cobern, p. 612: SBBS 525.5
“Behold, O Lord, and raise up unto them their king, the Son of David.... He shall have the heathen nations to serve him under his yoke.... Nations shall come from the ends of the earth to see his glory.... All nations shall be in fear before him.... For God will make him mighty by means of his Holy Spirit.”-Eds. SBBS 525.6
Seventy Weeks, The Temple Left Desolate.—Goode (Warb. Lect. pp. 304-7) also quoted the remarkable Jewish tradition that “for 40 years before the destruction of Jerusalem,” a. d. 70, i. e., from the day of atonement after the crucifixion, what they held to be a sign of acceptance, never took place. (See Rosh. hashahnah, p. 31; in Lightfoot, min. templ., c. 15, Opp. i. 746, 2nd. ed.)-“Daniel the Prophet,” Rev. E. B. Pusey, D. D., Lecture 4, p. 172, footnote. Oxford: James Parker & Co., 1869. SBBS 525.7
Seventy Weeks, Close of Last Week.—The one week, or Passion week, in the midst of which our Lord was crucified, a. d. 31, began with his public ministry, a. d. 28, and ended with the martyrdom of Stephen, a. d. 34.—“A New Analysis of Chronology and Geography,” Rev. William Hales, D. D., Vol. II, p. 518. London: C. J. G. & F. Rivington, 1830. SBBS 526.1
Eusebius dates the first half of the Passion week of years as beginning with our Lord’s baptism, and ending with his crucifixion. The same period precisely is recorded by Peter, as including the duration of our Lord’s personal ministry: “All the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of [or by] John, until the day that he was taken up from us,” at his ascension, which was only 43 days after the crucifixion. Acts 1:21, 22. And the remaining half of the Passion week ended with the martyrdom of Stephen, in the seventh or last year of the week. For it is remarkable, that the year after, a. d. 35, began a new era in the church, namely, the conversion of Saul, or Paul, the apostle, by the personal appearance of Christ to him on the road to Damascus, when he received his mission to the Gentiles, after the Jewish Sanhedrin had formally rejected Christ by persecuting his disciples. Acts 9:1-18. And the remainder of the Acts principally records the circumstances of his mission to the Gentiles, and the churches he founded among them.—Id., Vol. I, p. 100. SBBS 526.2
The number seven implies completion, and the completion of the term of probation of the Jewish nation in possession of their city and temple, and also the complete establishment of the Christian church in the Gentile world, may be said to have been accomplished during the few years that elapsed between the cutting off of the Messiah and the martyrdom of Stephen. There are no certain data for fixing positively the time of Stephen’s death, but it is admitted to have taken place within a few years after the crucifixion. The three and a half years therefore of respite to the Jewish nation after the perpetration of their great crime,-the period during which the door of national repentance and forgiveness, ere the sentence of judgment should be irrevocably pronounced, was still left open,-may fitly be taken as the epoch which marked the close of 490 years.—“Daniel and the Revelation,” Rev. Joseph Tanner, B. A., p. 64. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1898. SBBS 526.3
Seventy Weeks.—See Artaxerxes, Seventh Year of; Ptolemy’s Canon; Year-day Principle. SBBS 526.4
Signs of the Times, Spirit of Irreligion.—A minister of our church in the Middle West was pastor in a city with a population of 100,000. The Ministerial Alliance caused a religious survey to be made. It found the entire numerical strength of all denominations, Protestant, Jews, and Catholics, to be 15,000. There were 85,000 souls in that city living as if there were no God, no heaven, no hell, no church. In the same city Christian Science, Spiritualism, Theosophy, and secret societies flourished like green bay trees.... There were twenty-eight secret societies, each having from three to five different chapters, camps, and lodges, that met every week, not to speak of labor unions, gentlemen’s clubs, and ladies’ whist, euchre, and literary societies.—Editorial in Baltimore Southern Methodist, May. 25, 1916.* SBBS 526.5
Signs of the Times, Unrestrained Passion for Pleasure.—“Unrestrained passion for pleasure,” said M. Comte, editor of the French Relevement Social, writing just before the European war, is bringing a terrible train of evils into modern society. Along with it he put “the hunt for money without regard for means,” adding: SBBS 527.1
“This is the theme which manufacturers, business men, men in the public administration, continually harp on with ever the same conviction and ever the same wealth of proof. The note is ever the same, and the conclusion identical: Nous sommes perdus! [We are lost!].”-Quoted in Record of Christian Work (interdenominational), East Northfield, Mass., July, 1914.* SBBS 527.2
Signs of the Times, Increase of Wealth.—Million-dollar incomes are almost as numerous now as were million-dollar fortunes not more than two generations ago. We have millionaires in a new sense: those whose annual returns-not whose whole fortunes-equal or exceed a million dollars.... SBBS 527.3
“There were not five men in the United States worth as much as five million dollars each twenty years before the Civil War,” says a historical writer; “and there were not more than twenty millionaires, all told. When the war was over, they had increased by hundreds, and there were several men with twenty million dollars apiece.”-Albert W. Atwood, in Saturday Evening Post, June, 24, 1916, p. 12. SBBS 527.4
On one hand, it can be shown that the richest two per cent of the people own sixty per cent of the wealth; that the poorest sixty-five per cent of the people own but five per cent of the wealth; and that one or two men are as rich as several million of their fellow countrymen.—Ibid. SBBS 527.5
Signs of the Times, Justice Brewer on Capital and Labor.—A capital combine may, as is claimed, produce better, cheaper, and more satisfactory results; ... but too often the combine is not content with the voluntary co-operation of such as choose to join. It grasps at monopoly, and seeks to crush out all competition. If any individual prefers his independent business, however small, and refuses to join the combine, it proceeds to assail that business.... It thus crushes or swallows the individual, and he is assaulted as though he were an outlaw. SBBS 527.6
So it is with organizations of labor; the leaders order a strike; the organization throws down its tools and ceases to work. No individual member dare say, “I have a family to support; I prefer to work,” but is forced to go with the general body.... SBBS 527.7
Are we going to drift along until this contest ends in a bloody struggle? Must our children pay for securing the real liberty of each individual the price that the nation paid a score of years ago to abolish human slavery?-David Brewer, Justice of the Supreme Court; cited in “The Laborer and the Capitalist,” Freeman Otis Willey, pp. 27, 28. New York: Equitable Publishing Co. SBBS 527.8
Note.—The prophecy of James 5 foretold just this condition, warning both the capitalist and the laborer that the day of God is at hand.—Eds. SBBS 527.9
Signs of the Times, Strikes and Lockouts in America.—Since 1880 statistics of strikes and lockouts occurring in the United States have been collected by the United States Bureau of Labor.... During the period of twenty-five years [1881-1905] there were 36,757 strikes and 1,546 lockouts in the United States, making a total of 38,303 disturbances of this character, not including disturbances of less than one day’s duration. Strikes occurred in 181,407 establishments and lockouts in 18,547 establishments, making a total of 199,954 establishments affected. The total number of persons who went out on strike during the period was 6,728,048 and the number of persons locked out was 716,231, making a total of 7,444,279 persons striking or locked out.—Nelson’s Encyclopedia, Vol. XI, art. “Strikes and Lockouts,” p. 499A. SBBS 527.10
Note.—As shown by the tenth census, there were in 1880 only 610 reported strikes and lockouts in the entire United States, while for the five years ending 1905, the average was 2,792.8, or an increase of more than 457 per cent, while the increase in population was only about 50 per cent.—Eds. SBBS 528.1
Signs of the Times, Growth of Social Discontent.—Fifty years ago there was scarcely a voice of protest; indeed, there was hardly anything to protest against. Twenty-five years ago the protest was clear and distinct, and we understood it. Ten years ago the protest found expression in a dozen weekly publications, but today the protest is circulated not by hundreds or thousands of printed copies of books, pamphlets, magazines, and newspapers, but actually by the million.... Only a fool sneers at such a volume of publicity as that.... SBBS 528.2
The warnings that hundreds of us are uttering may be ignored. The squandering may go on, the vulgar bacchanalia may be prolonged, the poor may have to writhe under the iron heel of the iron lord-the dance of death may go on until society’s “E” string snaps, and then the Vesuvius of the underworld will belch forth its lava of death and destruction.... SBBS 528.3
This is not the voice of a pessimist. It is the voice of one who finds himself a part of that which he condemns; of one who would avert the catastrophe that, unless we change our ways, will come and come as inevitably as comes night after day!-“The Morality of the Idle Rich,” by Frederick Townsend Martin, in Hearst’s Magazine (New York), September, 1913, pp. 334-336. SBBS 528.4
Signs of the Times, Syndicalism, a New Symptom of Industrial Unrest.—Syndicalism was born of the growing differences and controversies within labor and trade unions. The first symptoms appeared in France [about 1902], whence the doctrine soon spread to Italy, to England, and thence to America. Syndicalism is antagonistic to government, to existing labor unions, and to capital alike, and is even designed to supplant socialism.... SBBS 528.5
Syndicalism demands that social revolution come through labor unions in order to abolish capitalism, whereas Socialists expect to work reform by political agitation through parliamentary majorities.... SBBS 528.6
Prior to the war France had approximately 600,000 avowed Syndicalists. Agricultural Italy was a veritable hotbed of Syndicalism. Organized farm laborers controlled over 200,000 acres of tillable land, which was farmed on the co-operative plan, and the entire Italian railway sytsem was under the influence of advanced Syndicalism. SBBS 528.7
At a conference of Syndicalists held in England in November, 1910, 60,000 professed followers attended, since which date their doctrine has spread considerably, especially among the more intelligent of the industrial workers. SBBS 528.8
Here in America Syndicalism first showed its head during the labor troubles at Lawrence, Mass., under direction of the Industrial Workers of the World [1912].—“The World Almanac and Encyclopedia,” 1917, p. 129. SBBS 528.9
Signs of the Times.—See Advent, Second, 13-15; Dark Day; Earthquakes; Falling Stars; Increase of Knowledge; Spiritualism. SBBS 529.1
Silence in Heaven.—See Seven Seals, 498. SBBS 529.2
Society of Jesus.—See Jesuits. SBBS 529.3
Spiritualism, Birth of Modern Form of.—Modern Spiritualism dates from March, 1848, it being then that, for the first time, intelligent communications were held with the unknown cause of the mysterious knockings and other sounds similar to those which had disturbed the Mompesson and Wesley families in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.—“On Miracles and Modern Spiritualism” Prof. Alfred Russel Wallace, p. 146. London, 1875. SBBS 529.4
Spiritualism, Encyclopedia Britannica on Rise of.—A complete examination into it [Spiritualism] would involve a discussion of the religions of all ages and nations. In 1848, however, a peculiar form of it, believed to be based on abundant experimental evidence, arose in America and spread there with great rapidity, and thence over the civilized world.... The movement began in a single family. In 1848 a Mr. and Mrs. J. D. Fox and their two daughters, at Hydesville (Wayne County), New York, were much disturbed by unexplained knockings. At length Kate Fox (b. 1839) discovered that the cause of the sounds was intelligent and would make raps as requested.... It was, however, at Rochester, where Kate and her sister Margaret (1836-93) went to live with a married sister (Mrs. Fish), that modern Spiritualism assumed its present form, and that communication was, as it was believed, established with lost relatives and deceased eminent men.... The “spiritualistic” movement spread like an epidemic.—Encyclopedia Britannica, Vol. XXV, art. “Spiritualism,” p. 705, 11th edition. New York: The Encyclopedia Britannica Co., 1911. SBBS 529.5
Spiritualism, Origin and Adherents of.—Modern Spiritualism claims as its birthday March 31, 1848, and the place of its birth Hydesville, Wayne County, New York, U. S. A.; but it is in reality almost as old as the world’s history, and will go on to its close. SBBS 529.6
That the number of adherents of modern Spiritualism is amazingly large is borne out by Dr. F. Maack, of Hamburg, writing so recently as 1910. As an antagonist of Spiritualism, he is not likely to overstate the numbers. In Berlin alone, he says, there are probably 10,000 Spiritualists, among them exalted and court personages; 400 mediums, and from fifteen to twenty societies. In North America there are said to be 16,000,000 adherents; while in the whole world it was computed that in 1894 there were 60,000,000 modern Spiritualists, with 200 journals exclusively devoted to the propaganda of this awful system. The number has grown considerably since. Add to these the demonized races of the heathen world; the millions of China, Japan, and India; the countless tribes of Africa; the savage hordes of the Sudan; the cannibal inhabitants of the South Sea Islands; and you complete roughly the picture of Spiritualism covering the earth with darkness-ancient Spiritualism in the East, and modern Spiritualism in the West, bringing in its train wickedness of every hideous kind.—Algernon J. Pollock, in “The Fundamentals,” Vol. X, p. 111. SBBS 529.7
Spiritualism, Rapid Spread of.—Never before in the history of the race has any belief of a religious character obtained so wide and deep a foothold amongst men, or established its standards of faith at so many distant points at once, appealed successfully to so many classes of society, and wrought such a vast revolution in human opinion,-and that in less than half a century of time.—“Nineteenth Century Miracles,” Emma Hardinge Britten, pp. 554, 555. Published by William Britten; printed by Lovell & Co., New York, 1884. SBBS 529.8
Spiritualism, Spread of, in Great Britain.—All classes of society have been induced to dabble with these mysteries. Among the intellectuals there are thousands of men and women who, after abandoning Christianity, have, in the search for some kind of spiritual life, which is an essential craving of the human heart, plunged into the dark labyrinths of occult science with little knowledge and less discretion. Society women and shop girls, scientists and city clerks, clergymen in large numbers, and young men with a smattering of self-taught culture, are indulging in seances, crystal gazing, table turning, automatic writing, and the invocation of spirits by one means and another, to an extent which is incredible to those who, so far, have not come within this sphere of influence.—Lecture delivered in London by Mr. Rampert, English clergyman and psychic expert; reprinted in the New York Times, Feb. 1, 1914.* SBBS 530.1
Spiritualism, Reality of Ancient Spiritism.—Magic and sorcery, though they lay outside of religion and were forbidden arts in all the civilized states of antiquity, were never regarded as mere imposture.—“The Religion of the Semites,” Prof. Robertson Smith, D. D., p. 90; cited in “Semetic Magic,” R. C. Thompson, Introduction, p. xvii. London, 1908. SBBS 530.2
Spiritualism, Wins over Scientific Investigators.—The phenomena which have converted to psychicism the greatest scientists of Europe, and are now creating widespread comment in every intelligent center of the globe, are not, we must remember, the credulous mingling of hysteria, darkness, and fraud which we commonly associate with spiritualism; they are facts of cold daylight, things of the laboratory, weighed, measured, dissected, counted, by the exact methods of calculating, unsympathetic science. SBBS 530.3
Of course, Crookes, the inventor of the Crookes tube; Curie, the discoverer of radium; Lombroso, the founder of the science of criminology; Sir Oliver Lodge, the eminent biologist; Morselli, the psychologist, and their several hundred brother scientists, may be very much mistaken in what they say they have discovered. That, the author will not pretend to decide; but surely, what they consider worthy of credence on such a vital subject is at least worthy of our serious consideration.—“Are the Dead Alive?” Fremont Rider, Preface, pp. viii, ix. New York: B. W. Dodge & Co., 1909. SBBS 530.4
Spiritualism, Becomes a Recognized Religion.—This can no longer be ignored or simply laughed at.... The affair has come out into the light of day; its phenomena are in process of being respectfully judged by scientists as well as by theologians; and it must take its place at last among the recognized religions of the world.—“Spiritualism” (pamphlet), Rev. Mgr. R. H. Benson. London: Catholic Truth Society.* SBBS 530.5
Spiritualism, Seen as Coming World Marvel.—The lowly manifestations of Hydesville have ripened into results which have engaged the finest group of intellects in this country during the last twenty years, and which are destined, in my opinion, to bring about far the greatest development of human experience which the world has ever seen.—Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, M. D., in the Metropolitan Magazine (New York), January, 1918, p. 69. SBBS 530.6
Spiritualism, Character No Bar to Spiritist Dealings.—It has been asserted by men for whose opinion I have a deep regard, ... that psychical research is quite distinct from religion. Certainly it is so, in the sense that a man might be a very good psychical researcher, but a very bad man. But the results of psychical research, the deductions which we may draw, and the lessons we may learn, teach us of the continued life of the soul, of the nature of that life, and of how it is influenced by our conduct here.... To me it is religion-the very essence of it.—Ibid. SBBS 531.1
Spiritualism, Declares, “Ye Shall Not Surely Die.”—It demonstrates, as completely as the fact can be demonstrated, that the so-called dead are still alive.—“On Miracles and Modern Spiritualism,” Prof. Alfred Russel Wallace, p. 212. London, 1875. SBBS 531.2
We found beyond a shadow of doubt or peradventure, that death had no power over the spirit, could never touch the soul, or destroy one attribute or property of soul life. In a word, we found our so-called dead were all living, aye, and living so near to us that they breathe our very atmosphere, share our very thoughts.—“Nineteenth Century Miracles,” Emma Hardinge Britten, p. 555. Published by William Britten; printed by Lovell & Co., New York, 1884. SBBS 531.3
Spiritualism, Denies the Divine Saviour and Atonement.—One can see no justice in a vicarious sacrifice, nor in the God who could be placated by such means. Above all, many cannot understand such expressions as the “redemption from sin,” “cleansed by the blood of the Lamb,” and so forth.... Never was there any evidence of a fall. But if there were no fall, then what became of the atonement, of the redemption, of original sin, of a large part of Christian mystical philosophy? Even if it were as reasonable in itself, as it is actually unreasonable, it would still be quite divorced from the facts. Again, too much seemed to be made of Christ’s death. It is no uncommon thing to die for an idea.—Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, M. D., in the Metropolitan Magazine (New York), January, 1918, p. 69. SBBS 531.4
Spiritualism, an Exercise of Satanic Power.—Those Christians who treat Spiritualism as a mere imposture are working much harm. That many impostures are connected with it, is a fact; and that it would be absurd to believe in the occurrence of any alleged manifestation without sufficient proof, is self-evident. But the Bible, as we have endeavored to show, warrants us in conceding the possibility of an exercise of Satanic power. Moreover, at the time of the end, false Christs and false prophets are to show great signs and wonders: it may be that they are even now arising among us.—“Earth’s Earliest Ages,” G. H. Pember, Preface to fifth edition, pp. xxv, xxvi. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1895. SBBS 531.5
Spiritualism, a Revival of Ancient Demonology.—Modern Spiritualism is not only Greek and Roman sorcery, but New Testament demonology. There cannot be found one important point in which they differ. This being the case, what is to be thought of this boasted new dispensation of Spiritualism? What is to be thought of intelligent men going back to Greek and Roman idolatry, and uniting with New Testament demons in “What have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God?” Is it not true, that men “love darkness rather than light”?-“Spiritualism,” W. M’Donald, p. 74. New York: Carlton and Porter, 1866. SBBS 531.6
Spiritualism, a Sign of the Times.—The movement is rapidly advancing, and becoming one of the signs of the times.—“Review of SBBS 531.7
Spiritual Manifestations,” Rev. Charles Beecher, p. 58; cited in “A Threefold Test of Modern Spiritualism,” William R. Gordon, D. D., p. 80. New York: Charles Scribner, 1856. SBBS 532.1
Spiritualism, a Fulfilment of Prophecy.—This modern revival of Spiritualism, therefore, not only seems to lend evidence that we are living in what Paul calls the “latter times,” but Paul seems to intimate rather strongly that the spirits which are around in the seances and sittings of the present day, or rather night, are not the spirits of our loved ones at all, but spirits whose distinguishing features are a cloven hoof and a forked tail and a lying tongue. Demon possession does not, of course, always manifest itself in the same way, but always with one purpose, and that is to seduce man from the worship of God. SBBS 532.2
The old devil is as cunning as ever, and these demons of his, like angels of light, often disguise the real purpose of their action by a pretended zeal for the truth, even by the reading of the Bible and encouragement to the Christian life; but this is only to gain confidence and a firmer hold on the victim, and back of it all is the sinister motive of enthralling mankind under the dominion of their lord and master, Satan, the arch-enemy of God. The Bible says distinctly that the air which envelops our earth is full of evil spirits, and, if that is so, we cannot be surprised at their attempt to communicate with man and to influence him for evil.—“Spiritualism,” William Edward Biederwolf, pp. 21, 22. Chicago: Glad Tidings Pub. Co. SBBS 532.3
Spiritualism, Demonism in Heathenism.—Dr. Ashmore, who has spent his whole life in China, says: “I have no doubt that the Chinese hold direct communications with the spirits of another world. They never pretend that they are the spirits of their departed friends. They get themselves into a certain state and seek to be possessed by these spirits.”-“Ancient Heathenism and Modern Spiritualism,” H. L. Hastings, p. 211. Boston: H. L. Hastings & Sons. SBBS 532.4
Spiritualism, Accompanying Revival of Doctrines “from the East” (Isaiah 2:6).—India has apparently still a mission to fulfil, for her thought is slowly beginning to mold the thought of Europe and of America; our keenest minds are today studying her philosophy; our New Theology is founded upon the old, old Vedanta.—Madame Jean Delaire, in the National Review (London), September, 1908, p. 131.* SBBS 532.5
Spiritualism, What Theosophists Expect.—My message is very simple: “Prepare for the coming of Christ.” We stand at the cradle of a new subrace, and each race or subrace has its own messiah. Hermes is followed by Zoroaster; Zoroaster by Orpheus; Orpheus by Buddha; Buddha by Christ. We now await with confidence a manifestation of the Supreme Teacher of the world, who was last manifested in Palestine. Everywhere in the West, not less than in the East, the heart of man is throbbing with the glad expectation of the new avatar.—Newspaper report of speech by Mrs. Annie Besant (of India), on tour in America, 1909.* SBBS 532.6
Spiritualism, Viewed as System to Unite All Religions.—If such a view of Christianity were generally accepted, and if it were enforced by assurance and demonstration from the New Revelation which is, as I believe, coming to us from the other side, then I think we should have a creed which might unite the churches, which might be reconciled to science, which might defy all attacks, and which might carry the Christian faith on for an indefinite period.—Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, M. D., in the Metropolitan Magazine (New York), January, 1918, p. 75. SBBS 532.7
Stars, Falling.—See Falling Stars. SBBS 533.1
State Religion.—See Religious Liberty. SBBS 533.2
Stylites, St. Simeon.—See Monasticism, 314. SBBS 533.3
Suevi.—See Rome, Its Barbarian Invaders, 456. SBBS 533.4
Sunday, New Testament Texts Often Referred to as Authority for.—Taken separately, perhaps, and even all together, these passages seem scarcely adequate to prove that the dedication of the first day of the week to the purposes above mentioned was a matter of apostolic institution, or even of apostolic practice.—“A Dictionary of the Bible,” William Smith, LL. D., art. “Lord’s Day,” p. 356. New York: Fleming H. Revell Company. SBBS 533.5
These arguments, however, are not satisfactory to some, and it must be confessed that there is no law in the New Testament concerning the first day.—Buck’s Theological Dictionary, art. “Sabbath,” p. 403. SBBS 533.6
Note.—This statement of Buck’s is reproduced word for word in the later standard work, McClintock and Strong’s “Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature,” art. “Sabbath.”-Eds. SBBS 533.7
Sunday, “The First Day” Meeting of Acts 20:7.—It was the evening which succeeded the Jewish Sabbath. On the Sunday morning the vessel was about to sail.—“Life and Epistles of the Apostle Paul,” Conybeare and Howson, chap. 20, p. 520. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell & Co. SBBS 533.8
Strength and peace were surely sought and obtained by the apostle from the Redeemer as he pursued his lonely road that Sunday afternoon in spring among the oak woods and the streams of Ida.—Id., p. 522. SBBS 533.9
The Jews reckoned the day from evening to evening, and on that principle the evening of the first day of the week would be our Saturday evening.—“Commentary on Acts,” Horatio B. Hackett (Professor of New Testament Greek, Rochester Theological Seminary), p. 329; cited in “History of the Sabbath,” Andrews and Conradi, p. 204, footnote, edition 1912. SBBS 533.10
It has from this last circumstance [“lights in the upper chamber”] been inferred that the assembly commenced after sunset on the Sabbath, at which hour the first day of the week had commenced, according to the Jewish reckoning.—“Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature,” Kitto, art. “Lord’s Day;” cited in “History of the Sabbath,” Andrews and Conradi, p. 204, footnote. SBBS 533.11
Sunday, Mention of “First Day,” 1 Corinthians 16:2.—From this passage it can by no means be concluded that there were collections in church assemblies on Sunday; for the intent is that every one lay that amount aside, at home.—“Biblical Commentary on All the New Testament,” Olshausen, on 1 Corinthians 16:2; cited in “History of the Sabbath,” Andrews and Conradi, p. 200, edition 1912. SBBS 533.12
All mentioned here is easily explained, if one simply thinks of the ordinary beginning of the week in secular life.—“General History of the Christian Religion and Church,” Augustus Neander, Vol. I, p. 339 (German edition); cited in “History of the Sabbath,” Andrews and Conradi, p. 200, edition 1912. SBBS 533.13
[Greek words, transliterated “par eanto”], at one’s home or house, Lat. a pud se.—Liddell and Scott’s Greek-English Lexicon. SBBS 534.1
Note.—It was by misunderstanding the everyday usage of Palestine in this matter that Mr. S. W. Gamble was led, some years ago, to come out with the theory that the translation “first day of the week” is incorrect, that the word “day” is supplied incorrectly, and that the real meaning is that Sunday is the first of the Sabbaths, or the original Sabbath of Eden. Opponents of the Sabbath quickly seized upon Mr. Gamble’s “discovery,” and great was the agitation and joy. It was hailed as “the Waterloo of the Saturdarians”-until, in chagrin, Mr. Gamble’s own people and others showed the absurdity of it all.—Eds. SBBS 534.2
Sunday, Mr. S. W. Gamble’s Theory of “First of the Sabbath” Reviewed (1899).—In the contest with the tireless seventh-day Sabbatarians, increasingly are certain Methodist writers insisting that the resurrection of Christ upon the first day of the week recovered and reenacted the original, creational, and true Sabbath. With hearty sympathy does the writer view their every legitimate argument to establish the sanctity and foster the hallowing of the Lord’s day. But when a claim on its behalf is distinctly based upon, or forcibly corroborated by, a gross wresting of the Holy Scriptures, suspicion as to its validity instinctively sets in, to say nothing of mortification and repugnance.... SBBS 534.3
This widely heralded Klondike discovery as to mian Sabbaton turns out to be only the glitter of fool’s gold. It rests upon the profoundest ignoring or ignorance of a law of syntax fundamental to inflected speech, and especially of the usage and influence of the Aramaic tongue, which was the vernacular of Jesus and his apostles. Must syntax die that the Sabbath may live? SBBS 534.4
Let these affirmations [of the theory] be traversed: “4. No Greek word for ‘day’ occurs in any of the passages.” Made for simple readers of English, that statement lacks candor. Said word is there, latent, to a much greater degree than it is in our phrase, “The twenty-fifth of the month.” Upon being asked, “The twenty-fifth what?” the veriest child instantly replies, “Day.” But stronger yet is the case in hand. The adjectival word mian is in the feminine gender, and an immutable law requires adjective modifiers to agree with their nouns in gender. Sabbaton is of the neuter gender, and out of the question. What feminine Greek word is latent in this phrase, and yet so patent as to reflect upon this adjectival numeral its feminine hue? Plainly the feminine word hemera, “day,” as analogously it is found in Mark 14:12, prote hemera ton azumon, “the first day of unleavened bread.” Boldly to aver that “no Greek word for ‘day’ occurs in any of the passages,” is to blind the simple English reader to the fact that an inflected language, by its numerous genders and cases, can indicate the presence and force of latent words to an extent undreamed of in English.—Dr. Wilbur Fletcher Steele, in an article “Must Syntax Die That the Sabbath May Live?” in the Methodist Review, May, 1899.* SBBS 534.5
Note.—Speaking of the West Aramaic speech of Palestine in the days of Christ, Mr. Steele said: “In that language we have the names of the days of the week as Mary taught them to her son Jesus.” Then he gives a sample of the ancient Aramaic calendar: “One in the Shabba” (Sabbath), “second in the Shabba,” “third in the Shabba,” etc., on to “eve of the Shabba,” and “the Shabba.” Such were the calendars that Matthew and Mark and Luke were familiar with, the current language of the street as men or children spoke of the days of the week. Mr. Steele concluded his review and exposure of Mr. Gamble’s theory with the words: SBBS 534.6
“As a vital or corroboratory part of any argument for the sanctifying of the Lord’s day, this travestied exegesis, instead of being a monumental discovery, is but a monumental blunder. Thereby our foes will have us in derision. SBBS 534.7
Tell it not in Gath,
Publish it not in the streets of Battle Creek,
Lest the daughters of the Sabbatarians rejoice,
Lest the daughters of the Saturdarians triumph.”-Eds.
SBBS 534.8
Sunday, Not Known as Rest-Day in Early Centuries.—The notion of a formal substitution by apostolic authority of the Lord’s day for the Jewish Sabbath, and the transference to it, perhaps in a spiritualized form, of the Sabbatical obligation established by the promulgation of the fourth commandment, has no basis whatever, either in Holy Scripture or in Christian antiquity.... The idea afterwards embodied in the title of the “Christian Sabbath,” and carried out in ordinances of Judaic rigor, was, so far as we can see, entirely unknown in the early centuries of Christianity.—“A Dictionary of Christian Antiquities,” Smith and Cheetham, art. “Sabbath,” p. 1823. London: John Murray, 1880. SBBS 535.1
Take which you will, either the Fathers or the moderns, and we shall find no Lord’s day instituted by any apostolical mandate; no Sabbath set on foot by them upon the first day of the week.—“History of the Sabbath,” Dr. Peter Heylyn (Church of England), part. 2, chap. 1. SBBS 535.2
The Lord’s day did not succeed in the place of the Sabbath, but the Sabbath was wholly abrogated, and the Lord’s day was merely an ecclesiastical institution. It was not introduced by virtue of the fourth commandment, because they for almost three hundred years together kept that day which was in that commandment.... SBBS 535.3
The primitive Christians did all manner of works upon the Lord’s day, even in the times of persecution, when they are the strictest observers of all the divine commandments; but in this they knew there was none.—“Ductor Dubitantium,” Bishop Jeremy Taylor (Church of England), part 1, book 2, chap. 2, rule 6, secs. 51, 59; cited in “History of the Sabbath,” J. N. Andrews, pp. 338, 344, 345, 3rd edition. SBBS 535.4
Sunday, No Command for, in New Testament.—It is quite clear that, however rigidly or devoutly we may spend Sunday, we are not keeping the Sabbath.... The Sabbath was founded on a specific, divine command. We can plead no such command for the observance of Sunday.... There is not a single sentence in the New Testament to suggest that we incur any penalty by violating the supposed sanctity of Sunday.—“The Ten Commandments,” R. W. Dale, D. D. (Congregationalist), pp. 106, 107. London: Hodder and Stoughton. SBBS 535.5
There is no word, no hint, in the New Testament about abstaining from work on Sunday.... The observance of Ash Wednesday or Lent stands on exactly the same footing as the observance of Sunday.... Into the rest of Sunday no divine law enters.—“The Ten Commandments,” Canon Eyton (Church of England). London: Triibner & Co. SBBS 535.6
And where are we told in the Scriptures that we are to keep the first day at all? We are commanded to keep the seventh; but we are nowhere commanded to keep the first day.... The reason why we keep the first day of the week holy instead of the seventh is for the same reason that we observe many other things, not because the Bible, but the church, has enjoined it.—“Plain Sermons on the Catechism,” Rev. Isaac Williams, B. D. (Church of England), Vol. I, p. 334. London: Longman’s & Co.* SBBS 535.7
It is true there is no positive command for infant baptism, nor is there any against it, as there should have been if Christ intended to abridge the rights of Jewish parents under the Abrahamic covenant. Nor is there any for keeping holy the first day of the week, or for family devotion, or for women to receive the Lord’s Supper. The reasons are obvious; there was no controversy in either case that called for it.—“Theological Compend,” Rev. Amos Binney, pp. 180, 181. New York: Methodist Book Concern, 1902. SBBS 535.8
You may read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, and you will not find a single line authorizing the sanctification of Sunday. The Scriptures enforce the religious observance of Saturday, a day which we never sanctify.—“The Faith of Our Fathers,” Cardinal Gibbons, p. 111. Baltimore: John Murphy & Co., 1893. SBBS 536.1
Sunday, Religious Press on.—I hold that, although the Sabbath was reinterpreted by the Saviour, he left it to future ages, neither cursing it nor especially blessing it, using it as he found it, and giving it a higher aim and method.... You ask me, “Is the old Jewish Sabbath continued?” I do not know, and I do not care whether it is or not.—Lyman Abbott, in Sermon printed in the Christian Union, Jan. 19, 1882, p. 64, middle column. SBBS 536.2
The selection of Sunday, thus changing the particular day designated in the fourth commandment, was brought about by the gradual concurrence of the early Christian church, and on this basis, and none other, does the Christian Sabbath, the first day of the week, rightly rest.—The Christian at Work (now Christian Work, New York), Jan. 8, 1885.* SBBS 536.3
The observance of the first instead of the seventh day rests on the testimony of the church, and the church alone.—Hobart (Tasmania) Church News (Church of England), July 2, 1894.* SBBS 536.4
Sunday is a Catholic institution, and its claims to observance can be defended only on Catholic principles.... From beginning to end of Scripture there is not a single passage that warrants the transfer of weekly public worship from the last day of the week to the first.—Catholic Press (Sydney, Australia), Aug. 25, 1900.* SBBS 536.5
Sunday, The Poet Milton on Applying the Fourth Commandment to First-Day Rest.—It is impossible to extort such a sense from the words of the commandment; seeing that the reason for which the commandment itself was originally given, namely, as a memorial of God’s having rested from the creation of the world, cannot be transferred from the seventh day to the first; nor can any new motive be substituted in its place, whether the resurrection of our Lord or any other, without the sanction of a divine commandment.—“Prose Works of John Milton,” Bohn edition, Vol. V, p. 70.* SBBS 536.6
For if we under the gospel are to regulate the time of our public worship by the prescriptions of the decalogue, it will surely be far safer to observe the seventh day, according to the express commandment of God, than on the authority of mere human conjecture to adopt the first.—“A Treatise on Christian Doctrine,” John Milton; cited in “The Literature of the Sabbath Question,” Robert Cox, Vol. II, p. 54. Edinburgh: Maclachlan and Stewart, 1865. SBBS 536.7
Sunday, Earliest Law for.—The earliest law by which the observance of the first day of the week was ordained, is the edict of Constantine, 321.—Haydn’s “Dictionary of Dates,” art. “Sabbath,” 25th edition. London: Ward, Lock & Co., 1910. SBBS 536.8
The earliest recognition of the observance of Sunday as a legal duty is a constitution of Constantine in 321 a. d., enacting that all courts of justice, inhabitants of towns, and workshops were to be at rest on SBBS 536.9
Sunday (venerabili die solis), with an exception in favor of those engaged in agricultural labor.—Encyclopedia Britannica, Vol. XXVI, 11th edition, art. “Sunday,” p. 95. SBBS 537.1
Unquestionably the first law, either ecclesiastical or civil, by which the Sabbatical observance of that day is known to have been ordained, is the edict of Constantine, 321 a. d.—Chambers’s Encyclopedia, art. “Sabbath.”* SBBS 537.2
Centuries of the Christian era passed away before the Sunday was observed by the Christian church as a Sabbath. History does not furnish us with a single proof or indication that it was at any time so observed previous to the Sabbatical edict of Constantine in a. d. 321.—“Examination of the Six Texts,” Sir William Domville, p. 291; cited in “History of the Sabbath,” J. N. Andrews, p. 345, 3rd edition, 1887. SBBS 537.3
Sunday, Constantine’s Sunday Law.—On the venerable day of the sun let the magistrates and people residing in the cities rest, and let all workshops be closed. In the country, however, persons engaged in agriculture may freely and lawfully continue their pursuits; because it often happens that another day is not so suitable for grain sowing or for vine planting; lest by neglecting the proper moment for such operations, the bounty of heaven should be lost. (Given the 7th day of March, Crispus and Constantine being consuls each of them for the second time.)-Codex Justinian, lib. 3, tit. 12, 3; cited in “History of the Christian Church,” Philip Schaff, D. D., Vol. III, chap. 5, sec. 75, p. 380. SBBS 537.4
Sunday, Grotius on Constantine’s Law.—He [Grotius] refers to Eusebius for proof that Constantine, besides issuing his well-known edict that labor should be suspended on Sunday, enacted that the people should not be brought before the law courts on the seventh day of the week, which also, he adds, was long observed by the primitive Christians as a day for religious meetings.... And this, says he, “refutes those who think that the Lord’s day was substituted for the Sabbath-a thing nowhere mentioned either by Christ or his apostles.”-Hugo Grotius (d. 1645), “Opera Omnia Theologica,” London: 1679; cited in “The Literature of the Sabbath Question,” Robert Cox, Vol. I, p. 223. Edinburgh: Maclachlan and Stewart, 1865. SBBS 537.5
In our received text of Eusebius it is stated that he [Constantine] enjoined for Saturday the same cessation of business. But the statements of both Sozomon and Eusebius are viewed with doubt by the more careful critics, not only because the text of both is corrupt, but also because no such law concerning Friday or Saturday is found either in the Justinian or the Theodosian code.—Franklin Johnson, D. D., in “Sabbath Essays,” p. 241; cited in “The Sabbath for Man,” Rev. Wilbur F. Crafts, A. M., p. 555. New York: Funk and Wagnalls, 1885. SBBS 537.6
Sunday, Begun as Pagan Ordinance, Ends as Church Institution.—This legislation by Constantine probably bore no relation to Christianity; it appears, on the contrary, that the emperor, in his capacity of Pontifex Maximus, was only adding the day of the sun, the worship of which was then firmly established in the Roman Empire, to the other ferial days of the sacred calendar.—“Rest Days,” Prof. Hutton Webster, Ph. D. (University of Nebraska), p. 122. New York: Macmillan and Company, 1916. SBBS 537.7
What began, however, as a pagan ordinance, ended as a Christian regulation; and a long series of imperial decrees, during the fourth, fifth, and sixth centuries, enjoined with increasing stringency abstinence from labor on Sunday.—Id., p. 270. SBBS 538.1
Sunday, Dean Stanley on Constantine’s “Day of the Sun.”—The retention of the old pagan name “Dies Solis,” or “Sunday,” for the weekly Christian festival, is, in great measure, owing to the union of pagan and Christian sentiment with which the first day of the week was recommended by Constantine to his subjects, pagan and Christian alike, as the “venerable day of the sun.” ... It was his mode of harmonizing the discordant religions of the empire under one common institution.—Lectures on the History of the Eastern Church, Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, D. D., Lecture 6, par. 15, p. 184. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1884. SBBS 538.2
Sunday, Dr. Heylyn’s Summing Up.—Thus do we see upon what grounds the Lord’s day stands; on custom first, and voluntary consecration of it to religious meetings: that custom countenanced by the authority of the church of God, which tacitly approved the same; and finally confirmed and ratified by Christian princes throughout their empires; and as the day for rest from labors, and restraint from business upon that day, received its greatest strength from the supreme magistrate as long as he retained that power which to him belongs; as after from the canons and decrees of councils, the decretals of popes and orders of particular prelates, when the sole managing of ecclesiastical affairs was committed to them.—“History of the Sabbath,” Dr. Peter Heylyn, part 2, chap. 3, sec. 12; cited in “History of the Sabbath,” J. N. Andrews, p. 353, 3rd edition. SBBS 538.3
Sunday, Called “First Day of the Week” in the Gospels.—See Calendar, 95. SBBS 538.4
Sunday Laws, Constantine the Father of Sunday Legislation.—So long as Christianity was not recognized and protected by the state, the observance of Sunday was purely religious, a strictly voluntary service, but exposed to continual interruption from the bustle of the world and a hostile community.... Constantine is the founder, in part at least, of the civil observance of Sunday, by which alone the religious observance of it in the church could be made universal and could be properly secured.... But the Sunday law of Constantine must not be overrated.... There is no reference whatever in his law either to the fourth commandment or to the resurrection of Christ. Besides, he expressly exempted the country districts, where paganism still prevailed, from the prohibition of labor.... Christians and pagans had been accustomed to festival rests; Constantine made these rests to synchronize, and gave the preference to Sunday.—“History of the Christian Church,” Philip Schaff, Third Period, chap. 7, sec. 75 (Vol. III, pp. 379, 380). New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1889. SBBS 538.5
Sunday Laws, Increasing Stringency of.—By a law of the year 386, those older changes effected by the emperor Constantine were more rigorously enforced, and, in general, civil transactions of every kind on Sunday were strictly forbidden.—“General History of the Christian Religion and Church,” Dr. Augustus Neander (translation by Joseph Torrey), Vol. II, p. 300. Boston: Crocker and Brewster, 1848. SBBS 538.6
Sunday Laws, Religious Worship Enforced in Constantine’s Army.—For the army, however, he [Constantine] ... enjoined a certain positive observance of Sunday, in requiring the Christian soldiers to attend Christian worship, and the heathen soldiers, in the open field, at a given signal, with eyes and hands raised towards heaven, to recite the following, certainly very indefinite, form of prayer: “Thee alone we acknowledge as God, thee we reverence as king, to thee we call as our helper. To thee we owe our victories, by thee have we obtained the mastery of our enemies.—“History of the Christian Religion and Church,” Philip Schaff, Third Period, chap. 7, sec. 75 (Vol. III, pp. 380, 381). New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1889. SBBS 538.7
Sunday Laws, Baneful Fruitage of Church and State Union.—To the reign of Constantine the Great must be referred the commencement of those dark and dismal times which oppressed Europe for a thousand years. It is the true close of the Roman Empire, the beginning of the Greek. The transition from one to the other is emphatically and abruptly marked by a new metropolis, a new religion, a new code, and, above all, a new policy. An ambitious man had attained to imperial power by personating [espousing] the interests of a rapidly growing party. The unavoidable consequences were a union between the church and state; a diverting of the dangerous classes from civil to ecclesiastical paths, and the decay and materialization of religion.—“History of the Intellectual Development of Europe,” John William Draper, M. D., LL. D., Vol. I, p. 278. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1876. SBBS 539.1
It was the aim of Constantine to make theology a branch of politics: it was the hope of every bishop in the empire to make politics a branch of theology.—Id., p. 311. SBBS 539.2
Sunday Laws, to Promote Church Attendance (425).—All the pleasure of the theaters and of the circus throughout all cities, being denied to the people of the same, let the minds of all faithful Christians be employed in the worship of God. If any, even now, through the madness of Jewish impiety or the error and folly of dull paganism, are kept away, let them learn that there is one time for prayer and another for pleasure.—“Codex Theodosius,” lib. 15, tit. 5, lex. 5; cited in “A Critical History of Sunday Legislation,” A. H. Lewis, D. D., p. 46. New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1888. SBBS 539.3
Note.—Schaff (“History of the Christian Church,” Vol. III, p. 106) shows that the Council of Carthage (399 or 401) had insisted upon this legislation. The bishops wished to find a way of compelling church attendance.—Eds. SBBS 539.4
Sunday Laws, Modern Demands Parallel with Ancient.—Give us good Sunday laws, well enforced by men in local authority, and our churches will be full of worshipers, and our young men and women will be attracted to the divine service. A mighty combination of the churches of the United States could win from Congress, the State legislatures, and municipal councils all legislation essential to this splendid result.—Rev. S. V. Leech, in Homiletic Review (New York), November, 1892.* SBBS 539.5
Sunday Laws, Neander on Church Use of Civil Legislation.—First, in the year 425, the exhibition of spectacles on Sunday, and on the principal feast days of the Christians, was forbidden, in order that the devotion of the faithful might be free from all disturbance. In this way, the church received help from the state for the furtherance of her ends, which could not be obtained in the preceding period. But had it not been for that confusion of spiritual and secular interests, had it not been for the vast number of mere outward conversions thus brought about, she would have needed no such help.—“General History of the Christian Religion and Church,” Dr. Augustus Neander, Vol. II, sec. 3, pp. 300, 301, Torrey’s translation. Boston: Crocker and Brewster, 1848. SBBS 539.6
Sunday Laws, Charlemagne’s Laws, a. d. 789.—In 789, Charlemagne promulgated a law that all should abstain from servile work and farm work; ... and he decreed that women should not weave, or cut or sew their garments, or work embroidery, or card wool, or beat flax, or wash their clothing in public, or shear sheep, “in order that the honor and rest of the day might be observed,” and he commanded that all should attend mass. The same year the people were admonished by Capitularies of Charlemagne to attend church, and not to invite the priests to their homes to celebrate mass. 8 Labbe 990 9.—“Sunday: Legal Aspects of the First Day of the Week,” James T. Ringgold (of the Baltimore Bar), Appendix, p. 268. Jersey City: Frederick D. Linn & Co., Law Publishers, 1891. SBBS 540.1
Sunday Laws, The Act of Charles II (England), 1676.—For the better observation and keeping holy the Lord’s day, commonly called Sunday: be it enacted ... that all the laws enacted and in force concerning the observation of the day, and repairing to the church thereon, be carefully put in execution; and that all and every person and persons whatsoever shall upon every Lord’s day apply themselves to the observation of the same, by exercising themselves thereon in the duties of piety and true religion, publicly and privately; and that no tradesman, artificer, workman, laborer, or other person whatsoever, shall do or exercise any worldly labor or business or work of their ordinary callings upon the Lord’s day, or any part thereof (works of necessity and charity only excepted).... SBBS 540.2
And it is further enacted that no drover, horse-courser, wagoner, butcher, higgler-they or any of their servants shall travel or come into his or their inn or lodging upon the Lord’s day, or any part thereof, upon pain that each and every such offender shall forfeit twenty shillings for every such offense; and that no person or persons shall use, employ, or travel upon the Lord’s day with any boat, wherry, lighter, or barge, except it be upon extraordinary occasion to be allowed by some justice of the peace of the county, or some head officer, or some justice of the peace of the city, borough, or town corporate, where the fact shall be committed, upon pain that every person so offending shall forfeit and lose the sum of five shillings for every such offense.—Act of the 29th of Charles II, chap. 7, issued in 1676; cited in “A Critical History of Sunday Legislation,” A. H. Lewis, D. D., pp. 108, 109. New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1888. SBBS 540.3
Note.—While it is true that the idea of Sunday legislation goes back to Constantine’s law of 321 a. d., it is also true that nearly all American statutes, since the earliest New England legislation of that character, are modeled more or less closely after the statute of 29th Charles 2.—Eds. SBBS 540.4
Sunday Law, Introduced in America by the Puritans.—It was a fundamental article of the Brownist creed, that the Brownists were the just; and it was written that the just should inherit the earth. Moreover, those who did not agree with them could not be overcome without the command of material resources. The acquisition of power, therefore, was a sacred duty, in order that the children of Belial might be destroyed and a kingdom of this world erected in the Master’s name. The spirit of the early bishops, who effected the first union of the Christian church with the state, was thus working perfectly among the men who set up an established church on American soil. And it is to those men that we owe our American Sunday laws. Every Sunday law in America is the work of this spirit, as was that first Sunday law which Constantine made for Europe.—“The Legal Sunday,” James T. Ringgold, of the Baltimore Bar, pp. 50, 51. Jersey City: Frederick D. Linn & Co., 1894. SBBS 540.5
Note.—“Brownists,” or “Separatists,” as they were sometimes called, were the radical Puritans who felt that it “meant treason to the headship of Christ in his church” to remain in the communion of the Established Church of England. Nearly all the Pilgrims were Brownists.—Eds. SBBS 541.1
Sunday Laws, Such Statutes Found in Nearly All the States.—Special regulations for the conduct of citizens on the first day of the week are usually among the first enactments of an American commonwealth. The manner in which such legislation has been treated by the courts forms a most curious and interesting chapter in our constitutional history.... The following general statement, made in Louisiana in 1879, fitly introduces the subject: SBBS 541.2
“The Constitution of the United States forbids the Congress from making any law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. But this is an inhibition to Congress only, leaving to the State governments the whole power over the subject of religion. There are considerable differences in the various State constitutions on this subject, but the general provision of the most perfect equality before the law of all shades of religious belief is common to all of them.”-Bott’s Case, 31 La. Ann., 663; “Sunday: Legal Aspects of the First Day of the Week,” James T. Ringgold, of the Baltimore Bar, pp. 1, 2. Jersey City: Frederick D. Linn & Co., 1891. SBBS 541.3
Sunday Laws, Invade Divine Prerogative.—It is the duty of the civil power to protect Christians against disturbance in their Sabbath worship. But the power is intruding into the divine prerogative when it assumes the right to compel the subject to worship God, or to refrain from those pursuits which do not disturb others. The keeping of the Sabbath is eminently a moral duty, and hence it must be a voluntary service rendered under the pressure of moral suasives only.—“Theological Compend,” Amos Binney, pp. 173, 174. New York: Methodist Book Concern, 1902. SBBS 541.4
Sunday Laws, Report of the United States Senate, 1829.—The proper object of government is to protect all persons in the enjoyment of their religious as well as civil rights, and not to determine for any whether they shall esteem one day above another, or esteem all days alike holy.... Our government is a civil, and not a religious institution.... SBBS 541.5
Among all the religious persecutions with which almost every page of modern history is stained, no victim ever suffered but for the violation of what government denominated the law of God.... Extensive religious combinations to effect a political object are, in the opinion of the committee, always dangerous. This first effort of the kind calls for the establishment of a principle which, in the opinion of the committee, would lay the foundation for dangerous innovations upon the spirit of the Constitution, and upon the religious rights of the citizens. If admitted, it may be justly apprehended that the future measures of the government will be strongly marked, if not eventually controlled, by the same influence. All religious despotism commences by combination and influence; and when that influence begins to operate upon the political institutions of a country, the civil power soon bends under it; and the catastrophe of other nations furnishes an awful warning of the consequence.... SBBS 541.6
If the principle is once established that religion, or religious observances, shall be interwoven with our legislative acts, we must pursue it to its ultimatum.... SBBS 542.1
What other nations call religious toleration, we call religious rights. They are not exercised in virtue of governmental indulgence, but as rights of which government cannot deprive any portion of citizens, however small. Despotic power may invade those rights, but justice still confirms them. Let the national legislature once perform an act which involves the decision of a religious controversy, and it will have passed its legitimate bounds. The precedent will then be established, and the foundation laid, for that usurpation of the divine prerogative in this country which has been the desolating scourge to the fairest portions of the Old World.—From Senate Report on Sunday Mails, communicated to the United States Senate, Jan. 19, 1829, and adopted by that body. 366 “Register of Debates in Congress,” Vol. V, Appendix. pp. 24-26; cited in “American State Papers,” W. Addison Blakely, of the Chicago Bar, pp. 234-244, edition 1911. SBBS 542.2
Sunday Laws, Report of House of Representatives, 1830.—A Jewish monarch, by grasping the holy censer, lost both his scepter and his freedom. A destiny as little to be envied may be the lot of the American people, who hold the sovereignty of power, if they, in the person of their representatives, shall attempt to unite, in the remotest degree, church and state. SBBS 542.3
From the earliest period of time, religious teachers have attained great ascendancy over the minds of the people; and in every nation, ancient or modern, whether pagan, Mahometan, or Christian, have succeeded in the incorporation of their religious tenets with the political institutions of their country. The Persian idols, the Grecian oracles, the Roman auguries, and the modern priesthood of Europe, have all, in their turn, been the subject of popular adulation, and the agents of political deception. If the measure recommended should be adopted, it would be difficult for human sagacity to foresee how rapid would be the succession, or how numerous the train of measures which follow, involving the dearest rights of all-the rights of conscience. [p. 252] ... SBBS 542.4
If minor punishments would not restrain the Jew, or the Sabbatarian, or the infidel, who believes Saturday to be the Sabbath, or disbelieves the whole, would not the same system require that we should resort to imprisonment, banishment, the rack, and the fagot, to force men to violate their own consciences, or compel them to listen to doctrines which they abhor? ... SBBS 542.5
If the Almighty has set apart the first day of the week as a time which man is bound to keep holy, and devote exclusively to his worship, would it not be more congenial to the precepts of Christians to appeal exclusively to the great Lawgiver of the universe to aid them in making men better-in correcting their practices, by purifying their hearts?-House Report on Sunday Mails, communicated to House of Representatives, March 4, 5, 1830; cited in “American State Papers,” W. Addison Blakely, pp. 252, 265, 266, edition 1911. SBBS 542.6
Sunday Laws, Protest of General Assembly of Indiana, 1830.—The memorial of the General Assembly of the State of Indiana, respectfully represents: SBBS 542.7
That we view all attempts to introduce sectarian influence into the councils of the nation as a violation of both the letter and the spirit of the Constitution of the United States and of this State, and at the same time dangerous to our civil and religious liberties, inasmuch as those charters secure to every man the free exercise of his religion and the right to worship the Almighty God according to the dictates of his own conscience, and inasmuch as any legislative interference in matters of religion would be an infraction of those rights: SBBS 543.1
We, therefore, most respectfully remonstrate against any attempt, by a combination of one or more sects, to alter the laws providing for the transportation of the mail, and against the passage of a law to regulate or enforce the observance of religious duties, or which may interfere with what belongs to the conscience of each individual.—Against proposed law to prohibit carrying of mails on Sunday; cited in “American State Papers,” W. Addison Blakely, p. 271, edition 1911. SBBS 543.2
Sunday Laws, Kentucky’s Remonstrance, 1831.—However long and generally the functionaries of our government, in their individual or corporate capacities, may have conformed to the general and laudable custom of observing the Sabbath, it has been voluntary. But when once the Congress shall have assumed the right of deciding by a legislative act the orthodoxy of this or any other point of religious controversy, the magic spell will have been broken which has excluded religious intolerance from our civil tribunals.... Some sect, whose tenets shall at the time be most popular, will ultimately acquire the ascendancy. SBBS 543.3
The civil and ecclesiastical power once united in the hands of a dominant party, the people may bid adieu to that heart-consoling, soulreviving religious liberty, at once the price of the patriot’s blood and the boon of enlightened wisdom; a liberty nowhere enjoyed but in the United States.... SBBS 543.4
It was to secure the inestimable privilege of worshiping God according to the dictates of conscience, against the misguided zeal of even their own representatives, that its enlightened framers ingrafted into the Federal Constitution the prohibitory clauses on Congressional legislation.—Kentucky Citizens’ Remonstrance, communicated to House of Representatives, Jan. 31, 1831, against agitation to prevent transportation of mail on Sunday, published by authority of Congress, 1834; cited in “American State Papers,” W. Addison Blakely, pp. 298-300, edition 1911. SBBS 543.5
Sunday Laws, William Lloyd Garrison’s Protest, 1848.—The right of every man to worship God according to the dictates of his own conscience is inherent, inalienable, self-evident. Yet it is notorious that, in all the States, except Louisiana, there are laws enforcing religious observance of the first day of the week as the Sabbath, and punishing as criminals such as attempt to pursue their usual avocations on that day.... There is, therefore, no liberty of conscience allowed to the people of this country, under the laws thereof, in regard to the observance of a Sabbath day. SBBS 543.6
In addition to these startling facts, within the last five years a religious combination has been formed in this land, styling itself, “The American and Foreign Sabbath Union,” whose specific object it is to impose the Sabbatical yoke yet more heavily on the necks of the American people. In a recent appeal made for pecuniary assistance by the executive committee of the union, it is stated that “the secretary (Rev. Dr. Edwards) has visited twenty of the United States, and traveled more than thirty thousand miles, addressing public bodies of all descriptions, and presenting reasons why, as a nation, we should keep the SBBS 543.7
Sabbath,-all secular business, traveling, and amusement be confined to six days in the week,-and all people assemble on the Sabbath, and worship God.” ... SBBS 544.1
That this combination is animated by the spirit of religious bigotry and ecclesiastical tyranny-the spirit which banished the Baptists from Massachusetts, and subjected the Quakers to imprisonment and death, in the early settlement of this country-admits of little doubt. SBBS 544.2
We claim for ourselves and for all mankind, the right to worship God according to the dictates of our own consciences. This right, inherent and inalienable, is cloven down in the United States; and we call upon all who desire to preserve civil and religious liberty to rally for its rescue.—William Lloyd Garrison’s call “To the Friends of Civil and Religious Liberty,” for a meeting of Protest against Sunday Legislation, to be held in Boston, 1848; cited in “American State Papers,” W. Addison Blakely, pp. 328-333, edition 1911. SBBS 544.3
Of all the assumptions on the part of legislative bodies, that of interfering between a man’s conscience and his God is the most unsupportable and the most inexcusable. For what purpose do we elect men to go to the general court? Is it to be our lawgivers on religious matters? ... This passing a law forbidding me or you to do on a particular day what is in itself right, on the ground that that day, in the judgment of those who make the enactment, is more holy than another,-this exercise of power, I affirm, is nothing better than usurpation. It is the spirit which in all ages has persecuted those who have been loyal to God and their consciences. It is a war upon conscience, and no religious conclave or political assembly ever yet carried on that war successfully to the end. You cannot by enactment bind the consciences of men, nor force men into obedience to what God requires.—From Anti-Sunday Law speech by William Lloyd Garrison at a Convention held in Boston, Mass., 1848; cited in “American State Papers,” W. Addison Blakely, pp. 335, 336, edition 1911. SBBS 544.4
Sunday Laws, Significant Pronouncements.—Let a man be what he may-Jew, seventh-day observer of some other denomination, or those who do not believe in the Christian Sabbath-let the law apply to every one, that there shall be no public desecration of the first day of the week, the Christian Sabbath, the day of rest for the nation.—David McAllister, D. D., at National Reform Convention, Lakeside, Ohio, July, 1887; cited in “Religious Liberty in America,” C. M. Snow, p. 384. SBBS 544.5
It is better that a few should suffer than that the whole nation should lose its Sabbath.—Ibid. SBBS 544.6
Note.—This pronouncement is an unconscious repetition of that of the high priest when the Jewish council was preparing to condemn Jesus for violating the law. John 11:49, 50.—Eds. SBBS 544.7
Sunday Laws, Catholics and National Reformers to Join Hands.—There are many Christian issues upon which Catholics could come together with non-Catholics and shape legislation for the public weal. In spite of rebuff and injustice, and overlooking zealotry, we should seek an alliance with non-Catholics for proper Sunday observance. Without going over to the Judaic Sabbath, we can bring the masses over to the moderation of the Christian Sunday.—From Platform of Catholic Lay Congress, Baltimore, Nov. 12, 1889, reported in Daily Inter-Ocean (Chicago), Nov. 13, 1889. SBBS 544.8
What we should seek is an en rapport with the Protestant Christians who desire to keep Sunday holy.—Paper by the editor of the Catholic Universe, read at Catholic Lay Congress, Baltimore, Nov. 12, 1889; cited in “Religious Liberty in America,” C. M. Snow, p. 284. SBBS 544.9
Common interest ought to strengthen both our determination to work and our readiness to co-operate with our Roman Catholic fellow citizens. We may be subjected to some rebuffs in our first proffers, for the time has not yet come when the Roman Catholic Church will consent to strike hands with other churches-as such; but the time has come to make repeated advances, and gladly to accept co-operation in any form in which they may be willing to exhibit it.—Dr. S. F. Scovel, in the Christian Statesman, organ of the National Reform Association, Aug. 31, 1884; cited in “American State Papers,” W. Addison Blakely, p. 348. SBBS 545.1
Whenever they [the Roman Catholics] are willing to co-operate in resisting the progress of political atheism, we will gladly join hands with them.—The Christian Statesman, Dec. 11, 1884; cited in “American State Papers,” W. Addison Blakely, p. 348, edition 1911. SBBS 545.2
Sunday Laws, Alexander Campbell on.—The gospel commands no duty which can be performed without faith in the Son of God. “Whatever is not of faith is sin.” SBBS 545.3
But to compel men destitute of faith to observe any Christian institution, such as the Lord’s day, is commanding duty to be performed without faith in God. SBBS 545.4
Therefore, to command unbelievers or natural men to observe, in any sense, the Lord’s day, is anti-evangelical or contrary to the gospel.—“Memoirs of Alexander Campbell,” Robert Richardson, Vol. I, p. 528. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co., 1868. SBBS 545.5
Sunday Laws, Spurgeon on.—I am ashamed of some Christians because they have so much dependence on Parliament and the laws of the land. Much good may Parliament ever do true religion, except by mistake! As to getting the law of the land to touch our religion, we earnestly cry, “Hands off! Leave us alone! Your Sunday bills and all other forms of act-of-Parliament religion seem to me to be all wrong. Give us a fair field and no favor, and our faith has no cause to fear. Christ wants no help from Casar.” I should be afraid to borrow help from government; it would look to me as if I rested on an arm of flesh, instead of depending on the living God. Let the Lord’s day be respected by all means, and may the day soon come when every shop shall be closed on the Sabbath, but let it be by the force of conviction, and not by force of policemen; let true religion triumph by the power of God in men’s hearts, and not by power of fines and punishments.—Charles H. Spurgeon.* SBBS 545.6
Sunday Laws, A Pulpit Protest.—In respect to seeking the aid of the state in maintaining its pet notions and institutions Protestants are scarcely a whit better than Catholics. In seeking the aid of the national legislature to prevent worldly men from “desecrating the Sabbath,” Protestants are doing the same thing they condemn in Catholics. Both Protestants and Catholics are wrong in this regard; and if either party succeeds, it will bring ruin to both our civil and religious liberties. May God defeat them both. Let us fight out the question of religion and of observing holy days, and especially the Sunday question, with the “sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God,” and not with the sword of Casar.—J. L. Parsons, D. D., (pastor of the First Christian Church of St. Louis), in the Christian Oracle (Chicago), July 13, 1893.* SBBS 545.7
Sunday Laws, Constantine’s Edict of a. d. 321.—See Sunday, 537. SBBS 546.1
Sunday Laws.—See Religious Liberty; Sabbath, Change of. SBBS 546.2
Sunday Mails.—See Religious Liberty, 416; Sunday Laws, 542, 543. SBBS 546.3
Sun Worship.—See Sabbath, Change of, 471-473. SBBS 546.4
Supremacy of the Papacy.—See Papal Supremacy. SBBS 546.5
Syllabus of Errors, Extracts from.—[The encyclical Quanta Cura, published by Pope Pius IX, Dec. 8, 1864, was accompanied by a syllabus containing a summary in eighty propositions of various doctrines condemned by that Pontiff. These propositions were based upon ex-cathedrâ documents put out by the same Pope at various times during his pontificate. SBBS 546.6
In reading this document it should be remembered that every proposition is from the Roman Catholic standpoint an error. In his periodical, Der Papst und die Modernen Ideen (Vienna, 1864-67), the Jesuit Schrader changes these liberal statements condemned in the Syllabus into the orthodox form by putting those which the church would assert as opposed to those condemned. For example, according to Schrader, proposition 55 reads thus: “The church is neither to be separated from the state nor the state from the church.” This is the Roman Catholic view on the relationship of church and state. The other propositions are similarly handled by Schrader. It is therefore legitimate to conclude in a general way that the Roman Catholic Church teaches the very opposite of the error condemned in every one of these propositions. SBBS 546.7
Different Roman Catholic writers of considerable standing take varying views upon the authority of this Syllabus of Errors. Two brief quotations will illustrate this. Charles Coupe, S. J., writing on “The Temporal Power,” in the American Catholic Quarterly Review, October, 1901, asserts that “the Syllabus, if not formally, is at any rate practically infallible.” In contrast with this is the statement of John Henry Newman, the celebrated English convert to Romanism, who in his letter to the Duke of Norfolk (pages 79, 80) says: “The Syllabus is not an official act, because it is not signed, for instance ‘Datum Roma [given at Rome], Pius P. P. IX,’ or ‘sub annulo Piscatoris [under the ring of the fisherman],’ or in some other way; it is not a personal, for he does not address his ‘Venerabiles Fratres [venerable brethren]’ or ‘Dilecto Filio [beloved son]’ or speak as ‘Pius Episcopus [Pius Bishop];’ it is not immediate, for it comes to the bishop only through the cardinal minister of state.... The Syllabus makes no claim to be acknowledged as the word of the Pope.” SBBS 546.8
The Syllabus is generally acknowledged to be a document of great authority, and is doubtless regarded as infallible by the ultramontane partisans. We copy the following articles from it.—Editors.] SBBS 546.9
15. Every man is free to embrace and profess the religion he shall believe true, guided by the light of reason. SBBS 546.10
17. We may entertain at least a well-founded hope for the eternal salvation of all those who are in no manner in the true church of Christ. SBBS 546.11
18. Protestantism is nothing more than another form of the same true Christian religion, in which it is possible to be equally pleasing to God as in the Catholic Church. SBBS 546.12
21. The church has not the power of defining dogmatically that the religion of the Catholic Church is the only true religion. SBBS 546.13
23. The Roman pontiffs and ecumenical councils have exceeded the limits of their power, have usurped the rights of princes, and have even committed errors in defining matters of faith and morals. SBBS 546.14
24. The church has not the power of availing herself of force, or any direct or indirect temporal power. SBBS 547.1
27. The ministers of the church, and the Roman Pontiff, ought to be absolutely excluded from all charge and dominion over temporal affairs. SBBS 547.2
30. The immunity of the church and of ecclesiastical persons derives its origin from civil law. SBBS 547.3
31. Ecclesiastical courts for temporal causes, of the clergy, whether civil or criminal, ought by all means to be abolished, even without the concurrence and against the protest of the Holy See. SBBS 547.4
37. National churches can be established, after being withdrawn and plainly separated from the authority of the Roman Pontiff. SBBS 547.5
38. Roman pontiffs have, by their too arbitrary conduct, contributed to the division of the church into Eastern and Western. SBBS 547.6
39. The commonwealth is the origin and source of all rights, and possesses rights which are not circumscribed by any limits. SBBS 547.7
40. The teaching of the Catholic Church is opposed to the well-being and interests of society. SBBS 547.8
45. The entire direction of public schools, in which the youth of Christian states are educated, except (to a certain extent) in the case of episcopal seminaries, may and must appertain to the civil power, and belong to it so far that no other authority whatsoever shall be recognized as having any right to interfere in the discipline of the schools, the arrangement of the studies, the taking of degrees, or the choice and approval of the teachers. SBBS 547.9
47. The best theory of civil society requires that popular schools open to the children of all classes, and, generally, all public institutes intended for instruction in letters and philosophy, and for conducting the education of the young, should be freed from all ecclesiastical authority, government, and interference, and should be fully subject to the civil and political power, in conformity with the will of rulers and the prevalent opinions of the age. SBBS 547.10
55. The church ought to be separated from the state, and the state from the church. SBBS 547.11
77. In the present day, it is no longer expedient that the Catholic religion shall be held as the only religion of the state, to the exclusion of all other modes of worship. SBBS 547.12
78. Whence it has been wisely provided by law, in some countries called Catholic, that persons coming to reside therein shall enjoy the public exercise of their own worship. SBBS 547.13
79. Moreover, it is false that the civil liberty of every mode of worship, and the full power given to all of overtly and publicly manifesting their opinions and their ideas, of all kinds whatsoever, conduce more easily to corrupt the morals and minds of the people, and to the propagation of the pest of indifferentism. SBBS 547.14
80. The Roman Pontiff can and ought to reconcile himself to, and agree with, progress, liberalism, and civilization as lately introduced. SBBS 547.15
Note.—The eighty propositions in the original Latin are found in the “Theoloyia Moralis” of Ligorio, 3rd edition, Vol. II, pp. 454-461.—Eds. SBBS 547.16
Syllabus of Errors.—See Councils, 124. SBBS 547.17
Symbolism.—See Seven Trumpets, 499, 508. SBBS 547.18
Syndicalism.—See Signs of the Times, 528. SBBS 547.19
Syricius, on Celibacy.—See Decretal Letters. SBBS 547.20