p. 412 | Signs of the Times, Vol. 6, No. 35. (9/16/1880)

WHICH DAY DO YOU KEEP? AND WHY?

By George Washington Amadon

NEARLY all professing Christians observe some day as a Sabbath unto the Lord. Some keep the day which God appointed; but most, doubtless conscientiously, rest on Sunday. Well, it is presumed that all who read this are interested to know which day is the right one to keep; for certainly there cannot be two Sabbaths, and so we will present a few facts about Sabbath and Sunday. Will you look at them carefully? Take your Bibles and examine the texts of Scripture quoted. Here are the facts referred to:—

FACTS ABOUT THE SABBATH.

God made the Sabbath at creation. Gen. 2 : 2, 3; Ex. 20 : 11. It was observed before the law was given on Sinai. Ex. 16 : 23-30. The command to observe it is associated with nine moral precepts, which are binding upon all men during all time. It is placed in the bosom of the unchangeable law. Ex. 20 : 8-11. It is a sign between God and his people. Ex. 31 : 17; Eze. 20 : 20. Wrath came upon ancient Israel for breaking the Sabbath. Neh. 13 : 15-18. If the Sabbath had been kept, Jerusalem would not have been destroyed. Jer. 17 : 24, 25. Prophecy foretells a reform on the Sabbath. Isa. 58 : 12-14. The Sabbath will exist in the new earth. Isa. 66. Christ observed the Sabbath. Mark 1 : 21. He called himself its Lord. Mark 2 : 28. It was his "custom" to preach on that day. Luke 4. The disciples "rested" on the Sabbath while Christ was lying in the grave. Luke 23 : 56. Matthew, Mark, and Luke, who wrote after the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ, spoke familiarly of the Sabbath as an existing institution. Matt. 24 : 20; 28 : 1; Mark 16 : 1; Luke 23 : 56. It was Paul's "manner" to make the Sabbath a preaching day. Acts 17 : 2. The "Gentile" believers also observed the Sabbath. Acts 13 : 42, 44. Paul preached by a "river side," where there was no synagogue, on the Sabbath. Acts 16 : 13. He reasoned in the synagogue at Corinth "every Sabbath." Acts 18 : 4. He continued there a year and six months (78 Sabbaths), "teaching the word of God." Acts 18 : 11. Finally, in the last mention of it in the Bible, it is called "the Lord's day." Rev. 1 : 10. (Compare this text with Ex. 20 : 10; Isa. 58 : 13; Mark 2 : 28.)

FACTS ABOUT THE FIRST DAY OF THE WEEK, OR SUNDAY.

Christ rose from the dead on that day. Mark 16 : 9; Matt. 28 : 1; Mark 16 : 2; John 20 : 1. (But he did not say that it was therefore the Sabbath.) The women brought spices to the grave of the Saviour on that day. Luke 24 : 1. (Which they would not do on the Sabbath. See Luke 23 : 56.) Christ appeared to his disciples on that day, the doors being shut for fear of the Jews. John 20 : 19. (They were not assembled to keep the Sabbath, but had closed the doors for personal safety.) Paul once preached on the evening of the first day, Acts 20 : 4, corresponding with our Saturday night. (But the next morning, answering to our Sunday morning, he continued his journey toward JERUSALEM, nine hundred miles distant!) The Corinthians were commanded to lay by a "collection for the saints" on the first day. 1 Cor. 16 : 2. (This might be money or goods. It was not a public donation, but a private setting apart.) The foregoing, dear reader, are ALL the texts which speak of the "first day of the week." There are just eight of them. But what do they prove? Nothing at all in favor of Sunday. Carefully examined they prove the reverse. The Bible tells us that "sin is the transgression of the law." 1 John 3 : 4. But what law do we "transgress" when we work on Sunday? If the reader will find a text which says, "Thou shalt do no work on the first day of the week," or "Remember Sunday to keep it holy," or its equivalent, then will his Sunday observance, in place of God's Sabbath, stand the test of the Judgment; otherwise it will not. Will you consider this point? The Saviour says, "Blessed are they that do His [i. e., God the Father's ten] commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city." Rev. 22 : 14. But where is that commandment that speaks about Sunday? It is not in the Bible, but it is in the Roman Catholic catechisms. Read your Bibles through a hundred times with reference to this subject, and you will each time become more and more convinced of the truthfulness of the following notable facts :—

There is no divine command for Sunday observance.
There is not the least hint of a Sunday institution.
Christ never changed God's Sabbath to Sunday.
He never observed Sunday as the Sabbath.
The apostles never kept Sunday for the Sabbath.
There is no prophecy that Sunday would ever take the place of the Sabbath.
The word Sunday never occurs in the Bible.
Neither God, Christ, angels, nor inspired men, have ever said one word in favor of Sunday as a holy day.

These are the facts in the case in regard to the Sabbath and Sunday, and it is hoped the reader will search the Bible to see whether these things are so. (See Acts 17 : 11.) Again let me inquire, WHICH day do you keep? and why?

G. W. A.

WATER THE ROOTS.

ONE sweetly says, "In a window, this summer, there was a flower-pot containing a plant whose use it was to be odorous and beautiful. The leaves were just beginning to curl up. I poured a cup of water into the saucer in which the flower-pot stood, and a child looking on asked, "Why did you not rather pour water on the leaves?" It was a child that asked, and I explained the reason; adding, that when God would bring beauty and fragrance and healthfulness into our lives, he waters us at the roots."

It is even so; and yet how many there are just like that child. The leaf is everything to them, the root nothing. "Why dwell so much on the love of Christ," they say, "and on faith in him, and on the atonement, and conversion, and the other doctrines of grace, when, after all, it is better morality we need, and better living and acting?" They forget that there is nothing more practical for all kinds of true work than letting the love of Christ "get in about the roots of our being."—Record and Evangelist.

ANSWER OF A GOOD CONSCIENCE.

By R. F. Cottrell

"The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us [not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God], by the resurrection of Jesus Christ." 1 Peter 3:21.

We hear one say, "I was sprinkled in infancy, and that answers my conscience;" and another, "I was baptized by affusion, and that answers my conscience." It may perhaps be well to inquire how you know that you have a good conscience, for we read of some whose "mind and conscience is defiled;" also we read of an "evil conscience," which needs to be "purged from dead works," in order to serve the living God; and we are exhorted to hold "faith and a good conscience; which some having put away, concerning faith have made shipwreck;" and we are warned of some who have their "conscience seared with a hot iron." Then the conscience needs to be brought to some test; and what is a better test by which to try it than the word of God? Some disobey the word, because they can do so and their conscience not condemn them. These test the word by their conscience. It were better for such not to have the word. It is of no use to them; and, besides that, it will condemn them in the last day. But when we are willing to do our duty just as it is revealed in the word, then we may trust, with the apostle, that "we have a good conscience, in all things willing to live honestly."

But what do you understand by the answer of a good conscience? You say sprinkling answers your conscience; and, from this form of expression, I take your meaning to be that it satisfied the demand of your conscience, i. e., your conscience asks no more. But it is possible that the phrase, "answer of a good conscience," in the text may not refer to what our conscience requires or demands, but to the answer, the response, or the reply that our conscience makes to what the Lord requires. Baptism is not the putting away of the filth of the flesh—not the washing of our bodies from dust and filth—but it is the reply of a good conscience to the Lord's requirement. To illustrate the answer of a good conscience I quote a passage from David: "When thou saidst, Seek ye my face; my heart said unto thee, Thy face, Lord, will I seek."

The text calls baptism a "figure" and says that it "saves us by the resurrection of Jesus Christ." As a figure, then, it seems necessary that it should represent his resurrection and exhibit our faith in that great fact of the gospel. Hence Paul says, "Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death; that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection." Baptism is an emblem of the burial and resurrection of Christ. The sinner, by repentance, becomes dead to sins, to live no longer in them; he is buried or planted again from the watery grave, as a sign of his faith that Christ died and rose again, and that his saints shall be raised in like manner at his coming.

Does the putting of a drop of water on the forehead of an infant or an adult bear any resemblance to a burial and a resurrection? Is it being planted or buried in the likeness of his death? This is what the Lord Jesus, in the gospel, requires; and he set us the example by being buried in the waters of Jordan, as it is generally admitted. The answer of a good conscience to this requirement is, "Amen; I will do it; I will be buried as my Lord was; and thus show my faith in the great facts and promises of the gospel."

A good conscience answers thus; and does not seek for some substitute, that will, as they say, "answer my conscience."

IS YOUR HEART RIGHT?

By Ellet Joseph Waggoner

“It makes no difference what I believe if my heart is right,” and “God will never condemn a man for his honest opinions,” are expressions that we frequently hear from individuals when certain truths of God’s word are presented to them. Many seem to think that they can thus screen themselves from the necessity of obeying God’s law. It is usually a last resort, and nothing could be more fallacious. It is true that God will not condemn a man merely for his opinions, for the Judgment tries men’s characters; and those will be condemned who have “done evil.” Jno. 5:29. Neither will a man be saved for his opinions, for it is only those who “do his commandments” who are blessed with a right to the tree of life. Rev. 22:14. “For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified.” Rom. 2:13. It is “every work” and not every opinion that shall be brought into Judgment, and the standard by which these works are to be judged is not an individual standard, but the commandments of God. Eccl. 12:13, 14.

But how are we to know that our hearts are right? Are we ourselves the proper judges? What says the Bible? “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it? I the Lord search the heart.” Jer. 17:9, 10. Thus we see that if we judge ourselves by any standard of our own we shall fall into error; but God sees the heart, and cannot be deceived. His standard is his holy law, Jas. 2:8–12; Rom. 2:12. It is evident, therefore, that a man’s heart is right when it leads him to do the things contained in God’s law; but if he finds himself unwilling to obey any portion of that law, he may be sure that his heart is not right, but is sinful. Paul says, “The carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.” And “to be carnally minded is death.” Rom. 8:6, 7. The man whose heart is right will not find the requirements of God irksome, but will be ready to exclaim with David, “O how love I thy law! it is my meditation all the day.” Ps. 119:97. It is dangerous to try to excuse ourselves from keeping any of God’s commandments. God will not excuse us. “To him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.” Jas. 4:17. The feelings and consciences of men unenlightened by the word of God are a very unsafe guide. The only safe way is to follow God’s word. “The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple.” Ps. 119:130.

Reader, are you sure that your heart is right? E. J. WAGGONER.

THE AGED PENITENT.

He was seventy years of age when we knew him. The neighbors said that he was wealthy—extremely wealthy; and such was the fact. He generally went by the familiar name of Sammy B——, but his business letters came to the post-office directed, "Samuel B——, Esq." If you were to drive in any direction for miles from his dwelling, accompanied by an old inhabitant of the town, he would say to you, as you asked who was the owner of the farms you passed, "That belongs to Sammy B——," and "that belongs to Sammy B——," until you began to wonder how much land Sammy B—— owned throughout the country. And this was besides mortgages, large sums in savings-banks, and other securities.

But the time came when Sammy B—— felt that he could not keep his possessions much longer, and he sent for us that he might learn how to secure more enduring riches. He had been a great toiler. So devoted had he been to his meadows and broad acres that, when health failed him, and his limbs refused to sustain the old body, he was known to get upon a load of hay, and, upon his knees, pitch it into the barn. Now his strength was gone, and he knew it, and gave up all work, and was disposed to employ his energies in a more spiritual way. We had a long and interesting conversation with him, explained the plan of salvation, and together we knelt in prayer. As we parted, the question was asked, "Can you trust in Jesus?"

"There is something in the way," was the answer given in a tone of great sorrow. After a few days we called again, and urged him to give himself up completely to the Saviour.

"I do so," he replied most emphatically.

"Can you not, then, believe in him, and trust that he receives and blesses you?"

"There is something in the way," he replied in the same tone of sadness. Soon we learned from the neighbors that he was most intensely anxious to obtain salvation, and had gone so far as to spend a whole day in his orchard engaged in prayer. But as we visited him again and again, we found no hope arising in his heart, and received the same reply, "There is something in the way," spoken in the most mournful accents. Surprised at the ill-success of our well-meant efforts, we inquired into the history of his life. We learned that when he was a young man and first married, and living about a mile from the church, he had been in the habit of attending it with his wife, and had had some serious impressions. But he had suddenly ceased to appear among the people of God, and when asked the reason, replied, "I am now commencing life, and I propose to use all my energies in securing a competence for myself and family. When I have done that, then I will go to church and attend to religion."

He continued to live in the same spot all his days, but never, after that remark, was seen in God's sanctuary. When, perhaps, in his old age, at the time we knew him, he might have wished to be there, he was too infirm to go. He never, as far as we knew, paid anything toward the support of the gospel. No religious paper ever entered his door that he paid for. He had made his choice. He had obtained what he labored for, and was now proposing to carry out the rest of his plan, by securing the heavenly riches he had turned away from when he was a young man. But they did not seem to be within his reach. He had fixed upon his own time for God to bless him, and it did not appear to be God's time. He had had the presumption to say to the great Being who rules the universe, "Stand thou aside until I am ready." Now fear and trembling had taken hold of him. His earnest prayers seemed all in vain.

"I pray, and I pray," said he to me, "but I get no answer—no comfort."

The old man continued gradually to fail in health until he was confined to his bed. We visited him frequently, and urged him, with all the earnestness and power we possessed, to commit himself to the Saviour and trust in him, but received the invariable answer, and it was the last sentence we recollect to have heard him speak: "There is something in the way." And he died without seeming to gain one ray of hope. How true it is that, if we postpone the day of salvation, the time may come when God will let us alone, as it was said of Ephraim; and when "He shall laugh at our calamity and mock when our fear cometh!"—Selected.

DEATH OF GEN. MYER.

A NOTABLE man has died. Gen. Myer was the father of the signal service which is now so beneficial to the country, and especially to commerce. His reports of the probabilities of the weather won for him the title of "Old Probabilities." But all are ready to accord to him the honor he so faithfully won. The following synopsis of his service as given in the Advance will be appreciated for the incident which gave rise to one of P. P. Bliss' most popular pieces:—

"The death of Gen. Albert J. Myer, chief signal officer of the United States, at Buffalo last Wednesday, brings to notice his valuable services to the country. He had passed from the position of Assistant Surgeon of the Army into the signal service just before the breaking out of the Rebellion. As signal officer on Gen. Butler's staff at Fortress Monroe he saw his first active duty of the war. Afterward he became the chief signal officer to McClellan, and in 1862 was put at the head of the Bureau at Washington. The efficiency of the corps and the important practical services rendered in the field are attributed largely to the energy of its chief. At first both officers and soldiers used to ridicule the flag-waving on the hill-tops and from the high trees. But in the Atlanta and Savannah campaigns of Sherman, where detached mountains were accessible, overlooking vast stretches of country, it was soon found that the information gained by means of signals of the movements of the enemy and the celerity in sending orders and messages to distant points, made the operations of the Signal Corps as important as those of any department of the Army. One of the most remarkable feats was the receiving of messages by Sherman on Kennesaw Mountain from a beleaguered garrison at Altoona Pass and the transmission of orders some fifteen miles over the heads of the Rebel Army. By this means re-inforcements were ordered up and the garrison and valuable stores were saved, which could have been done in no other way. The writer of this stood near Gen. Sherman when the message came, by use of signal flags and field telescopes, that Gen. Corse, the commanding officer at Altoona, was wounded in the head, and Col. Tourtelotte, the second in command, severely in the leg. Gen. Sherman signaled to hold on and he would soon bring relief. Gen. Corse replied that he was determined to hold out, and he did so. Upon this incident related by Maj. Whittle, P. P. Bliss founded his well-known Sunday-school song, 'Hold the Fort.' And very fittingly Gen. Myer's brevet as Brigadier-General made mention of the date of this remarkable service of his corps—October 5, 1864,—as an achievement worthy of commemoration, and the credit of which he was entitled to share."

"LOVEST THOU ME?"

By D. T. Taylor

O BROTHERS and sisters, growing old, Do you remember the time When your soul was strong and your heart was bold, And your love was in its prime?

When you scaled the mountain of God in prayer, And you carried the victor's palm, Till your praise rang out on the holy air, And your life was one sweet psalm?

When every vision of earth seemed fled, And grace did your being enthrall, And passion, and pride, and sin were dead, And the Saviour was all in all?

How the might of your loyal prayers prevailed Till the dark one strove in vain; And the King of Glory removed the vail, And our Eden appeared again!

You said you would no more the Spirit grieve, But keep the end in view; You said you would never the Saviour leave, And vowed to prove faithful and true.

Have you turned your back on the Crucified? Have you flung his cross at your feet? Can you bear, with a heart all cold and dead, That searching eye to meet?

Come back to the loving Lord once more, Come home to his faithful arms; Thy cup of bliss shall again run o'er, And the world will lose its charms.

See! the golden doors on their hinges bright Roll back, and far within The angels wait, in their robes of light, And they cry, "Come in, come in!" —D. T. Taylor, in Bible Banner.

IS IT JEWISH?

The seventh day of the week is the Jewish Sabbath, just as much as, and no more than, the Bible account of creation is a Jewish record, as the books of Moses are Jewish books. It is the Jewish Sabbath just as much as, and no more than, Moses, Joshua, and Samuel were Jewish prophets and law-givers, as David was a Jewish psalmist, as Isaiah, Jeremiah, and other ancient prophets were Jewish prophets, as Jesus Christ was the Jewish Saviour, and the twelve apostles Jewish apostles. In short the seventh day of the week is the Jewish Sabbath just as much as the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are the Jewish Bible, or as Jehovah (or the God revealed in the Bible) is the Jewish God. Its institution, observance, perpetuation, and handing down to the present time, is the memorial and monument of the creation, and giving of the divine law, which the whole Christian world should tenaciously hold on to as the most precious testimony to the reality of the divine record. The strong tendency of the times is for all these things to lose their hold upon the memory and consideration of the world, and to be merged, obscured, and forgotten, in the general inundation of material progress, prosperity, and change. Let Christians beware that they do not aid this materialistic and atheistic tendency.

Sunday observance, on the other hand, is a memorial or monument of the heathen worship of the sun. It prevailed long before the Christian era. It was brought into the Christian church by the pagan converts. Some twenty-five or thirty years since there was a reward offered through the New York papers of 500 dollars for a single precept in the Bible in favor of the first day of the week as a Sabbath—500 dollars for a single instance where Christ or the apostles called the first day of the week a Sabbath, and 500 dollars for a single example of their ever having observed the first day of the week as a Sabbath. No one ever came forward to claim the reward. —W. B. Maxson in Sabbath Recorder.

TRUE CHRISTIAN LIFE.

By Dr. Bonar

Did a holy life consist of one or two noble deeds—some signal specimens of doing, or enduring, or suffering—we might account for the failure, or reckon it small dishonor to turn back in such a conflict. But a holy life is made up of small things. It is the little things of the hour, and not the great things of the age, that fill up a life like that of Paul or John, like that of Rutherford, or Brainerd, or Martyn. Little words, not eloquent speeches nor sermons; little deeds, not miracles, nor battles, nor one great heroic act or mighty martyrdom, make up the true Christian life. The little constant sunbeam, not the lightning; the waters of Siloah, "that go softly" in their meek mission of refreshment, not the waters of torrent, noise and force, are the true symbols of a holy life.

The avoidance of little evils, little sins, little inconsistencies, little weaknesses, little follies, little indiscretions and imprudencies, little foibles, little indulgences of self and of the flesh, little acts of indolence or indecision, or slovenliness or cowardice, little equivocations or aberrations from high integrity, little touches of shabbiness and meanness, little bits of covetousness and penuriousness, little exhibitions of worldliness and gayety, little indifferences to the feelings or wishes of others, outbreaks of temper, or crossness, selfishness, or vanity; the avoidance of such little things as these goes far to make up at least the negative beauty of holy life. And then attention to the little duties of the day and hour, in public transactions, or private dealings, or family arrangements; to little works, and looks, and tones; little benevolences, or forbearances or tendernesses; little self-denials, and self-restraints, and self-forgetfulness; little plans of kindness and thoughtful consideration for others; to punctuality, and method, and true aim, in the ordering of each day,—these are the active developments of holy life, the rich and divine mosaics of which it is composed.—Dr. Bonar.

SYNOPSIS OF THE PRESENT TRUTH.

By Uriah Smith

NUMBER THIRTY-TWO.

THE 1290 AND 1335 DAYS (CONCLUDED).

FROM the time that the daily shall be taken away, and the abomination that maketh desolate set up there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days. Blessed is he that waiteth and cometh to the thousand three hundred five and thirty days. With the facts before us that the daily is Paganism, that the abomination that maketh desolate is the Papacy, that there was a change from the former to the latter in the Roman power, and by the authority of State, we have but to inquire further when this took place in a manner to fulfill the prophecy; for if we can ascertain this, we have the starting point from which the prophetic periods in the text before us are to be dated. Therefore,

3. When did the event referred to in the prophecy take place? Let it be observed, the question here is not, when were the saints given into the hands of the Papacy, but when had the change of religion from Paganism to Papacy been so far effected as to make the latter the undisputed national religion, and place it in a condition to start upon its career. This, like all other great revolutions, was not the work of a moment. Its incipient workings were manifest long before. Paul said that even in his day the mystery of iniquity, the "abomination that maketh desolate," which was to develop the Man of Sin was already at work. And it is in the light of this scripture that we must understand our Lord’s words in Matt. 24:15, concerning the abomination of desolation, where he makes evident reference to Dan. 9:27. For although Paganism had not given place to the Papacy in the year 70, when Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans, we do understand that the power which then appeared modified somewhat in name and form, was the very power that should, as the abomination of desolation, wear out the saints and desolate the church of the Most High.

Up to the time of the conversion of Clovis, king of France, which took place in 496, the French and other nations of Western Rome were pagan; but subsequent to that event the efforts to convert idolaters to Christ were crowned with great success. It is said that the conversion of Clovis gave rise to the custom of addressing the French monarch with the titles of Most Christian Majesty and Eldest Son of the Church. "Between that time and A. D. 508 by 'alliances,' 'capitulations' and conquests, 'the Arporici,' the 'Roman garrisons in the west,' Brittany, the Burgundians and the Visigoths, were brought into subjection."

"Paganism in the Western Roman Empire, though it doubtless retarded the progress of the Christian faith, especially in those nations which were molested, as in the case of England, by the inroads of the barbarous clans, who continued idolaters, henceforth had not the power, if it had the disposition, to suppress the Catholic faith, or to hinder the encroachments of the Roman Pontiff. From that time, the papal abomination was triumphant, so far as Paganism was concerned. Its future contests were with the other Christian sects, who were always treated as heretics; and with princes who were always treated as rebels or dividers of the body of Christ. The prominent powers of Europe gave up their attachment to Paganism only to perpetuate its abominations in another form; for Paganism needed only to be baptized to become Christian in the Catholic sense; and when the interests or vengeance of its presiding minister made the demand, their possessions and thrones—perhaps their lives—must be laid on the altar."

In England, Arthur, the first Christian king, founded the Christian worship on the ruins of the Pagan. Rapin, who claims to be more exact in the chronology of events in his history, states that he was elected monarch of Britain in 508. Book ii, p. 129.

What was the condition of the See of Rome at this time? "Symmachus was Pope from 498 or 9 to 514. His pontificate was distinguished by these remarkable circumstances and events:—

"1. He 'left Paganism' when he entered the 'church of Rome.'

"2. He found his way to the papal chair by striving with his competitor even unto blood. Du Pin.

"3. By the adulation paid to him as the successor of St. Peter.

"4. By the excommunication of the Emperor Anastasius."

"How much," says Mosheim, "the opinions of some were favorable to the lordly demands of the Roman Pontiffs, may be easily imagined from an expression of Ennodius, that infamous and extravagant flatterer of Symmachus, who was a prelate of ambiguous fame. This parasitical panegyrist, among other impertinent assertions maintained that the Pontiff was constituted judge in the place of God, which he filled as the Vicegerent of the Most High."

By the strength secured to the Catholic cause in the West, by these successes, and the agency of the vicars, and other agents of the See of Rome, the papal party in Constantinople were "placed" in a position to justify open hostilities in behalf of their master at Rome. "In 508 the whirlwind of fanaticism and civil war swept in fire and blood through the streets of the eastern capital."

Gibbon, under the years 508–514, speaking of the commotions in Constantinople, says: "The statues of the emperor were broken, and his person was concealed in a suburb, till, at the end of three days, he dared to implore the mercy of his subjects. [Popery is triumphant]. Without his diadem, and in the posture of a suppliant, Anastasius appeared on the throne of the circus. The Catholics, before his face, rehearsed the genuine Trisagion; they exulted in the offer which he proclaimed by the voice of a herald, of abdicating the purple; they listened to the admonition, that, since all could not reign, they should previously agree in the choice of a sovereign; and they accepted the blood of two unpopular ministers, whom their master, without hesitation, condemned to the lions. These furious but transient seditions were encouraged by the success of Vitalian, who with his army of Huns and Bulgarians, for the most part idolaters, declared himself the champion of the Catholic faith. In this pious rebellion he depopulated Thrace, besieged Constantinople, exterminated sixty-five thousand of his fellow Christians, till he obtained the recall of the bishops, the satisfaction of the Pope, and the establishment of the council of Chalcedon, an orthodox treaty, reluctantly signed by the dying Anastasius and more faithfully performed by the uncle of Justinian. And such was the event of the first of the religious wars which have been waged in the name, and by the disciples, of the God of Peace."

With the following extract from Apollos Hale, we close the testimony on this point: "We now invite our modern Gamaliels to take a position with us in the place of the sanctuary of Paganism (since claimed as the 'patrimony of St. Peter') in 508. We look a few years into the past, and the rude Paganism of the northern barbarians is pouring down upon the nominally Christian empire of Western Rome—triumphing everywhere—and its triumphs everywhere distinguished by the most savage cruelty . . . . The empire falls and is broken into fragments. One by one the lords and rulers of these fragments, abandon their Paganism and profess the Christian faith. In religion the conquerors are yielding to the conquered. But still Paganism is triumphant. Among its supporters there is one stern and successful conqueror. (Clovis). But soon he also bows before the power of the new faith and becomes its champion. He is still triumphant, but, as a hero and conqueror, reaches the zenith at the point we occupy, A. D. 508.

"In or near the same year, the last important subdivision of the fallen empire is publicly, and by the coronation of its triumphant 'monarch,' Christianized.

"The pontiff for the period on which we stand is a recently converted pagan. The bloody contest which placed him in the chair was decided by the interposition of an Arian king. He is bowed to and saluted as filling 'the place of God on earth.' The senate is so far under his power, that, on suspicion that the interests of the See of Rome demand it, they excommunicate the emperor. . . . In 508 the mine is sprung beneath the throne of the Eastern Empire. The result of the confusion and strife it occasions is the humiliation of its rightful lord. Now the question is, At what time was Paganism so far suppressed, as to make room for its substitute and successor, the papal abomination? When was this abomination placed in a position to start on its career of blasphemy and blood? Is there any other date for its being 'placed,' or 'set up' in the room of Paganism, but 508? If the mysterious enchantress has not now brought all her victims within her power, she has taken her position, and some have yielded to the fascination. The others are at length subdued, 'and kings and peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues,' are brought under the spell which prepares them, even while 'drunken with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus,' to 'think they are doing God service,' and to fancy themselves the exclusive favorites of Heaven, while becoming an easier and richer prey for the damnation of hell."

We have the date. The "daily" was taken away, and the abomination that maketh desolate set up in 508. Dating from this point the 1290 days or years terminate in 1798 where, as has already been shown, the civil power was stricken from the Pope by the arms of the French. The 1335 days bring us 45 full years this side of that event, to the great Advent movement of 1843.

U. S.

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