The Great Controversy The Great Controversy | Page 578
on Saturday found, when he broke it the next morning, that blood
started therefrom. By such absurd and superstitious fabrications did the
advocates of Sunday endeavor to establish its sacredness. (See Roger de
Hoveden, Annals, vol. 2, pp. 526-530.)
In Scotland, as in England, a greater regard for Sunday was secured
by uniting with it a portion of the ancient Sabbath. But the time required
to be kept holy varied. An edict from the king of Scotland declared that
“Saturday from twelve at noon ought to be accounted holy,” and that
no man, from that time till Monday morning, should engage in worldly
business.—Morer, pages 290, 291.
But notwithstanding all the efforts to establish Sunday sacredness,
papists themselves publicly confessed the divine authority of the Sabbath
and the human origin of the institution by which it had been supplanted.
In the sixteenth century a papal council plainly declared: “Let all
Christians remember that the seventh day was consecrated by God, and
hath been received and observed, not only by the Jews, but by all others
who pretend to worship God; though we Christians have changed their
Sabbath into the Lord’s Day.”—Ibid., pages 281, 282. Those who were
tampering with the divine law were not ignorant of the character of their
work. They were deliberately setting themselves above God.
A striking illustration of Rome’s policy toward those who disagree
with her was given in the long and bloody persecution of the Waldenses,
some of whom were observers of the Sabbath. Others suffered in a
similar manner for their fidelity to the fourth commandment. The history
of the churches of Ethiopia and Abyssinia is especially significant. Amid
the gloom of the Dark Ages, the Christians of Central Africa were lost
sight of and forgotten by the world, and for many centuries they enjoyed
freedom in the exercise of their faith. But at last Rome learned of
their existence, and the emperor of Abyssinia was soon beguiled into an
acknowledgment of the pope as the vicar of Christ. Other concessions
followed.
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