Bible Readings for the Home Circle Part 137

3. To whom, then, should its observance be rendered?

"Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and _to G.o.d the things that are G.o.d's_." Mark 12:17.

NOTE.-When men make Sabbath laws, therefore, they require Sabbath observance to be rendered to the _government_, or, presumably, by indirection, to G.o.d _through the government_, which amounts to the same thing.

4. In religious things, to whom alone are we accountable?

"So then every one of us shall give account of himself _to G.o.d_." Rom.

14:12.

NOTE.-But when men make compulsory Sabbath laws, they make men accountable to the _government_ for Sabbath observance.

5. How does G.o.d command us to keep the Sabbath day?

"Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it _holy_." Ex. 20:8.

6. What does He indicate as one of its purposes?

"Six days shall work be done: but the seventh day is the Sabbath of rest, _an holy convocation_; ye shall do no work therein: it is the Sabbath of the Lord in all your dwellings." Lev. 23:3.

7. Seeing, then, that the Sabbath is _holy_, is to be _kept holy_, and is a day for _holy convocations_, what must be its character?

It must be _religious_.

8. What, then, must be the nature of all Sabbath legislation?

It is _religious legislation_.

9. When the state enacts religious laws, what is effected?

A union of church and state.

10. What has always been the result of religious legislation, or a union of church and state?

Religious intolerance and persecution.

11. What was Constantine's Sunday law of March 7, 321?

"Let all the judges and town people, and the occupation of all trades rest on the venerable day of the sun; but let those who are situated in the country, freely and at full liberty, attend to the business of agriculture; because it often happens that no other day is so fit for sowing corn and planting vines; lest the critical moment being let slip, men should lose the commodities granted by heaven."-_Corpus Juris Civilis Cod., lib. 3, t.i.t. 12, 3._

12. What further imperial legislation in behalf of Sunday observance was issued in 386?

"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."-_Neander's __"__Church History,__"_ Vol. II, page 300, edition 1852.

13. At the instance of church bishops, what still further law was secured under Theodosius the Younger, in 425?

"In the year 425, the exhibition of spectacles on Sunday and on the princ.i.p.al feast-days of the Christians was forbidden, in order that the devotion of the faithful might be free from all disturbance."-_Id._, pages 300, 301.

14. What does the historian say of this legislation?

"_In this way the church received help from the state for the furtherance of her ends_.... 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."-_Id._, page 301.

15. What did Charlemagne's Sunday law of 800 require?

"We decree ... that servile works should not be done on the Lord's day, ... that is, that neither should men do field work, either in cultivating the vineyards or by plowing in the fields, by cutting or drying hay, or by placing a fence, or by making clearings in the woods or felling trees or working on stones or constructing houses or working in the garden; neither should they come together to decide public matters nor be engaged in the hunt.... Women may not do any textile work nor cut out clothes nor sew nor make garments.... But let them come together from all sides to church to the solemnities of the ma.s.s, and let them praise G.o.d for all things which he does for us on that day."-_"__Historical Chronicles of Germany,__"_ Sec. 2, Vol. I, 22 General admonition, 789, M. Martio 23, page 61, par.

81.

16. How does the Sunday law of Charles II, of 1676, read?

"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 on 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."-_"__Revised Statutes of England From 1235-1685 __A.D.__"__ (London, 1870), pages 779, 780; cited in __"__A Critical History of Sunday Legislation,__"_ by A. H. Lewis, D.

D., pages 108, 109.

17. What did the first Sunday law enacted in America, that of Virginia, in 1610, require?

"_Every man and woman shall repair in the morning to the divine service and sermons preached upon the Sabbath day, and in the afternoon to divine service, and catechizing_, upon pain for the first fault to _lose their provision and the allowance for the whole week following_; for the second, to _lose the said allowance and also be whipped_; and for the third to _suffer death_."-_Articles, Laws, and Orders, Divine, Politique, and Martial, for the Colony in Virginia: first established by Sir Thomas Gates, Knight, Lieutenant-General, the 24th of May, 1610._

NOTES.-These are the original Sunday laws, after which all the Sunday laws of Europe and America have been modeled. Church attendance is not generally required by the Sunday laws of the present day, nor was it required, in terms, by the earliest Sunday laws; but that is and ever has been the chief object of all Sunday legislation from Constantine's time on, and it is as much out of place today as it ever was.

Who Persecute And Why

[Ill.u.s.tration.]

The Stoning Of Stephen. "Yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth G.o.d service." John 16:2.

1. Because Jesus had not kept the Sabbath according to their ideas, what did the Jews do?

"_Therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus, and sought to slay Him_, because He had done these things on the Sabbath day." John 5:16.

2. What kind of fast is most acceptable to G.o.d?

"Is not this the fast that I have chosen? _to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?_" Isa. 58:6.

NOTE.-This is what Jesus did. He, the Author and Lord of the Sabbath, in addition to attending and taking part in religious services (Luke 4:16), went about doing good, healing the sick, relieving the oppressed, and restoring the impotent, lame, and blind, on the Sabbath day. But this, while in perfect accord with the law of G.o.d, the great law of love, was contrary to the traditions and perverted ideas of the Jews respecting the Sabbath.

Hence they persecuted Him, and sought to slay Him.

3. Why did Cain kill Abel?