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THE KING’S BUSINESS
Eusebius, the historian, A. D. 324, says: “ I think that he (the Psalmist) describes the morning assemblies in which we are accustomed to assemble throughout the world. By this is prophetically signified ■ the service which is performed very early and every morning o f the resurrection day throughout the whole world.” This is exactly what Pliny says : They met together “on a stated day before it was light;” they assembled to eat together a meal. Eusebius says if was the custom o f all Christians “to meet very early and every morning o f the resurrection day.” This ought to settle it and does. Pliny’s stated day was Sunday. This was in the very region where the apostles labored, and only eleven years after St. John died. Thè “Advent History o f the Sabbath,” edition o f 1912, is compelled to admit that Sunday observance was in the Christian Church at the .beginning o f the second cen tury. The author says : “ The results o f our investigation concerning the origin o f Sunday (is) that it was not introduced into the Christian Church until the beginning o f the second century” (page 450). That is exactly the date when Pliny wrote— immediately following the death o f the last apostle. EPISTLE OF BARNABAS. This epistle was highly prized in the earliest Churches, read in some o f them as part o f Scripture, and is found in the oldest manuscript o f the Scriptures, namely the Sinaitic. That it was written by a pious man o f learning and influence cannot be doubted. Johnson’s “ New Universal Encyclopedia” says: “ It is frequently cited by the Fathers, and was by many regarded as being o f authority in the Church; some even claiming for it a place in the sacred canon.” This is a summary o f the best modern criticism as to the date, character and authority o f the epistle o f Barnabas. Read and reverenced in the Church as next to the Gospels themselves as early as A. D. 120, or within twenty-four years o f the
death o f St. John, it shows what Chris tians believed and practiced immediately after the apostles. In this epistle we read : “ Incense is a vain abomination unto me, and your new moons and Sabbaths I can not endure. He has, therefore, abolished these things” (Chapter II). Elder Andrews admits that “he presently asserts the abolition o f the Sabbath o f the Lord.” Coming to the first day o f the week, Barna bas says : “Wherefore, also, we keep the eighth day with joyfulness, the day, also, on which Jesus rqse again from the dead” (Chapter X V ). Notice this fact: All admit that this epistle o f Barnabas was in existence in the beginning o f the second century, or- not later than the middle o f it. At that time it was supposed by the Churches to have been written as a part o f the New Testa ment Scriptures. It is in the oldest copy o f the Bible right after Revelation. It states in positive terms that the Jewish Sabbath was abolished and that Christians kept the day o f the resurrection. Now 'would the churches, week after week, read this language as inspired, and then not keep Sunday ? That is not reasonable. Hence this book does show what Christians believed and practiced at that date, A. D 120 . . But Adventists say this writing was a forgery. It was no such thing. There is not a word in the whole epistle claiming that the author was the apostle Barnabas. No name is attached to it nor is there any claim that it was written by an apostle. For some reason, not now known, it came to be attributed to Barnabas. The book o f Hebrews has no name to it; it is sup posed that .Paul wrote it and' we accept it as such, but some doubt it, and it cannot be proved. Shall we call it a forgery? Just as well as to call the epistle o f Barna bas a forgery. Here, once for all, we will notice the chief argument nn which Adventists depend to invalidate the testimony o f all the early Fathers in favor o f thé Lord’s Day. They try to show that Barnabas, Justin Martyr, Origen, etc., held some
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