sacrilegious work , Rome presumed to expunge from the law of God the second commandment , forbidding image worship , and to divide the tenth commandment , in order to preserve the number .
The spirit of concession to paganism opened the way for a still further disregard of Heaven ' s authority . Satan , working through unconsecrated leaders of the church , tampered with the fourth commandment also , and essayed to set aside the ancient Sabbath , the day which God had blessed and sanctified ( Genesis 2:2 , 3 ), and in its stead to exalt the festival observed by the heathen as " the venerable day of the sun ." This change was not at first attempted openly . In the first centuries the true Sabbath had been kept by all Christians . They were jealous for the honor of God , and , believing that His law is immutable , they zealously guarded the sacredness of its precepts . But with great subtlety Satan worked through his agents to bring about his object . That the attention of the people might be called to the Sunday , it was made a festival in honor of the resurrection of Christ . Religious services were held upon it ; yet it was regarded as a day of recreation , the Sabbath being still sacredly observed .
To prepare the way for the work which he designed to accomplish , Satan had led the Jews , before the advent of Christ , to load down the Sabbath with the most rigorous exactions , making its observance a burden . Now , taking advantage of the false light in which he had thus caused it to be regarded , he cast contempt upon it as a Jewish institution . While Christians generally continued to observe the Sunday as a joyous festival , he led them , in order to show their hatred of Judaism , to make the Sabbath a fast , a day of sadness and gloom . In the early part of the fourth century the emperor Constantine issued a decree making Sunday a public festival throughout the Roman Empire . ( See Appendix .) The day of the sun was reverenced by his pagan subjects and was honored by Christians ; it was the emperor ' s policy to unite the conflicting interests of heathenism and Christianity . He was urged to do this by the bishops of the church , who , inspired by ambition and thirst for power , perceived that if the same day was observed by both Christians and heathen , it would promote the nominal acceptance of Christianity by pagans and thus advance the power and glory of the church .
But while many God-fearing Christians were gradually led to regard Sunday as possessing a degree of sacredness , they still held the true Sabbath as the holy of the Lord and observed it in obedience to the fourth commandment . The archdeceiver had not completed his work . He was resolved to gather the Christian world under his banner and to exercise his power through his vicegerent , the proud pontiff who claimed to be the representative of Christ . Through half-converted pagans , ambitious prelates , and world-loving churchmen he accomplished his purpose . Vast councils were held from time to time , in which the dignitaries
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