The Great Controversy The Great Controversy | Page 579

An edict was issued forbidding the observance of the Sabbath under the
severest penalties. (See Michael Geddes, Church History of Ethiopia,
pages 311, 312.) But papal tyranny soon became a yoke so galling that
the Abyssinians determined to break it from their necks. After a terrible
struggle the Romanists were banished from their dominions, and the
ancient faith was restored. The churches rejoiced in their freedom, and
they never forgot the lesson they had learned concerning the deception,
the fanaticism, and the despotic power of Rome. Within their solitary
realm they were content to remain, unknown to the rest of Christendom.
The churches of Africa held the Sabbath as it was held by the papal
church before her complete apostasy. While they kept the seventh day
in obedience to the commandment of God, they abstained from labor on
the Sunday in conformity to the custom of the church. Upon obtaining
supreme power, Rome had trampled upon the Sabbath of God to exalt
her own; but the churches of Africa, hidden for nearly a thousand years,
did not share in this apostasy. When brought under the sway of Rome,
they were forced to set aside the true and exalt the false sabbath; but
no sooner had they regained their independence than they returned to
obedience to the fourth commandment. (See Appendix.)
These records of the past clearly reveal the enmity of Rome toward
the true Sabbath and its defenders, and the means which she employs to
honor the institution of her creating. The word of God teaches that these
scenes are to be repeated as Roman Catholics and Protestants shall unite
for the exaltation of the Sunday.
The prophecy of Revelation 13 declares that the power represented
by the beast with lamblike horns shall cause “the earth and them which
dwell therein” to worship the papacy—there symbolized by the beast
“like unto a leopard.” The beast with two horns is also to say “to them
that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast;”
and,

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