The Great Controversy The Great Controversy | Page 682

Page 52. Image Worship.—“The worship of images ... was one of
those corruptions of Christianity which crept into the church stealthily
and almost without notice or observation. This corruption did not, like
other heresies, develop itself at once, for in that case it would have met
with decided censure and rebuke: but, making its commencement under
a fair disguise, so gradually was one practice after another introduced
in connection with it, that the church had become deeply steeped in
practical idolatry, not only without any efficient opposition, but almost
without any decided remonstrance; and when at length an endeavor was
made to root it out, the evil was found too deeply fixed to admit of
removal.... It must be traced to the idolatrous tendency of the human
heart, and its propensity to serve the creature more than the creator....
“Images and pictures were first introduced into churches, not to be
worshiped, but either in the place of books to give instruction to those
who could not read, or to excite devotion in the minds of others. How
far they ever answered such a purpose is doubtful; but, even granting
that this was the case for a time, it soon ceased to be so, and it was
found that pictures and images brought into churches darkened rather
than enlightened the minds of the ignorant—degraded rather than exalted
the devotion of the worshiper. So that, however they might have been
intended to direct men’s minds to God, they ended in turning them
from him to the worship of created things.”—J. Mendham, The Seventh
General Council, the Second of Nicaea, Introduction, pages III-VI.
For a record of the proceedings and decisions of the Second Council
of Nicaea, A.D. 787, called to establish the worship of images, see
Baronius, Ecclesiastical Annals, Vol. 9, pp. 391-407 (Antwerp, 1612);
J. Mendham, The Seventh General Council, the Second of Nicaea;
Ed. Stillingfleet, Defense of the Discourse Concerning the Idolatry
Practiced in the Church of Rome (London, 1686); A Select Library of
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, 2d series, vol. 14, pp. 521-587 (New
York, 1900); Charles J. Hefele, A History of the Councils of the Church,
from the Original Documents, B. 18, ch. 1, secs. 332, 333; ch. 2,
secs. 345-352 (T. and T. Clark Education, 1896), vol. 5, pp. 260-304,
342-372.
Page 53. The Sunday Law of Constantine.—The law issued by the
Emperor Constantine on the seventh of March, A.D. 321, regarding a
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