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THE KING’ S' BUSINESS
rection day we have seen. ’ This term is never applied to any other than the first day. Notice that this witness is from Greece, not Rome. So the resurrection day was a “holy” day, A. D. 170. In this chapter Eusebius gives quite a lengthy account o f Dionysius as a most devoted Christian, a bishop o f great and wide influence. He warned others against all heresies in many letters he wrote. Eusebius quotes his exact words about the “Holy Lord’s Day” as above. As these letters were sent to many other Churches it shows that the Lord’s Day was by all regarded as a holy day. BARDESANES OF EDESSA. Coming down only ten years later, we have the testimony o f the heretic Barde- sanes, the Syrian, who flourished about A. D. 180. He belonged to the sect o f the Gnostics which was very numerous all over the far East. He says: “What then shall we say respecting the new race of our selves who are Christians, whom in every country, and in every region the Messiah established at His coming? For, lo, wherever we be, alLof us are called by the one name o f the Messiah, Christians, and upon one day, which is the first day o f the week, we assemble ourselves together.” Notice that these Christians were scat tered widely “ in every country and every region.” Bardesanes says just the same as Justin Martyr, “W e assemble ourselves together” upon the first day o f the week. These two witnesses are much alike a.s to Sunday. Justin, strictly orthodox, says that “all in cities and country” assemble on Sunday. Bardesanes, heretic, says the same for all the countries o f the far East. The observance o f Sunday was general both among orthodox and heretics. ' Notice here also a refutation o f the idea so strongly urged by Sabbatarians, that Sunday-keeping originated at Rome, and was for a long time confined there. Elder Andrews has tQ admit that the Gnostics at this date used Sunday as a day, o f worship. But, 1. The Gnostics were emphatically an eastern sect, originating in Syria, and were
he was an itinerant preacher like Moody, | or General Booth o f the Salvation Army. Hence this is positive proof that Sunday keeping was general in the Christian Church at that early date. Justin does not state simply his opinion, but a fact then existing, viz., that all Christians whether in cities or country” “ in all nations” held their assemblies on Sunday. Justin does not call Sunday the Sabbath nor the Lord’s D ay! This is readily answered by the fact that Justin was writ ing to a heathen emperor who would have been wholly ignorant o f the meaning of either o f those terms. But there the naked facts stand, clear, positive and undeniable, that within forty-four years after the book o f Revelation was written Christians did hold their assemblies on Sunday. And Jus tin says that Jesus taught these things to the -apostles. Probably the Jewish Christians did con tinue to observe the Sabbath the same as they did other Jewish customs for a time. But even these also kept the Lord’s Day as will be seen later. Justin plainly states that the Gentile believers did not keep the- Sabbath. He says: “ The Gentiles who have believed on Him, although they neither keep the Sab bath, nor are circumcised, nor observe the feasts” yet are God’s children. So today: go to any part o f the globe and wherever you find Christians o f any sect or nation, there you find them keeping Sunday. A few Sabbatarians o f late origin are the only exceptions to this. How did this universal custom come about if not started at the very foundation o f the Church by the apostles themselves? DIONYSIUS, BISHOP OF CORINTH. But we will hear further from these Fathers themselves as to whether they kept Sunday. Dionysius, Bishop o f Corinth, the Church which Paul raised up and to which he gave the command about ( Sunday col lections, 1 Cor. x vi: 1, 2, says: “W e passed this holy Lord’s Day, in which' we read your letter, from the constant reading of which we shall be-able to draw admoni tion.” That the Lord’s Day is the resur
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