heathen festivals prevailed. This change, covering centuries, was greatly helped by Constantine’s civil law of 321 in favor of the first day of the week, which banned work on that day in the cities, and commanded the people to rest on “the venerable day of the sun.” This famous decree said nothing about the “Lord’s day,” but was promulgated apparently for the purpose of finally establishing a heathen festival. This law of Constantine’s is quoted in the old Chambers’s Encyclopedia, in its article “Sabbath,” as follows OF 169.7
“‘Let all judges, inhabitants of the cities, and artificers, rest on the venerable day of the sun. But in the country, husbandmen may freely and lawfully apply to the business of agriculture; since it often happens that the-sowing of corn and the planting of vines cannot be so advantageously performed on any other day’DOF 170.1
“But it was not until the year 538 that abstinence from agricultural labor was recommended, rather than enjoined, by an ecclesiastical authority (the third Council of Orleans), and this expressly that people might have more leisure to go to church and say their prayers.”DOF 170.2
From the Encyclopedia Britannica we read OF 170.3
“The earliest recognition of the observance of Sunday as a legal duty is a constitution of Constantine in 321 AD., enacting that all courts of justice, inhabitants of towns, and workshops were to be at rest on Sunday (venerabili die solis), with an exception in favor of those engaged in agricultural labor.”—Article “Sunday,” vol. 26 (11th ed.), p. 95.DOF 170.4
This, then, is admittedly the very first law for the observance of Sunday, the first day of the week, and it is made, not by “the Lord from heaven,” our, one and only Lawgiver, but by Emperor Constantine, who was of questionable character, and whose sympathies were more with paganism than with Christianity. Even this was not an ecclesiastical law of the church at that time, but merely a civil law made by the ruling emperor, and it was made in the fourth century after Christ, too late, it seems to us, to deserve any recognition from Christians as establishing a Christian institution which they are bound, under penalty of sin, to recognize; and, besides, it comes from a very questionable source.DOF 170.5
The fact seems to be that Constantine’s law for Sunday observance was not made for the purpose of favoring and establishing a Christian day of worship at all, but to enforce a pagan festival upon Christians and pagans alike, Mr. Canright’s argument to the contrary notwithstanding. Thus his law, instead of commanding rest upon “the Lord’s day,” commands it “on the venerable day of the sun.” He did not recognize Sunday as a Christian ordinance, but as a day sacred to the sun-god worshipped by the pagan world. It was the holy day of Mithraism, the great rival of Christianity. His law, therefore, was not for the purpose of enforcing Christianity on the pagans under his jurisdiction but for enforcing the new paganism upon the Christians.DOF 171.1 ...
Dean Stanley declares OF 173.1
“The retention of the old pagan name ‘Dies Solis,’ or ‘Sunday,’ for the weekly Christian festival, is, in great measure, owing to the union of pagan and Christian sentiment with which the first day of the week was recommended by Constantine to his subjects, pagan and Christian alike, as the ‘venerable day of the sun.’ ... It was his mode of harmonizing the discordant religions of the empire under one common institution.”—Arthur Penimyn Stanury, D.D., Lectures on the History of the Eastern Church, lecture 6, par. 15, p. 184.DOF 173.2
And from Philip Schaff we quote OF 173.3
“The Sunday law of Constantine must not be overrated.... There is no reference whatever in his law either to the fourth commandment or to the resurrection of Christ. Besides, he expressly exempted the country districts, where paganism still prevailed, from the prohibition of labor.... Christians and pagans had been accustomed to festival rests; Constantine made these rests to synchronize, and gave the preference to Sunday.”—Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church, Third Period, chap. 7, sec. 75 (vol. 3, p. 380).DOF 173.4 ...
People in that century were saying the apostles changed it, but they offered no proof. No word of Christ or apostle is ever quoted by them on this point. The testimony of Scripture is silent on the subject of Sunday sacredness not a word about it. There is not an instance of observance. Had there been such a word spoken, Mr. Canright would certainly have built his argument upon it, instead of trying to bolster it up with this Sunday law of Constantine, who he admits was still head of the heathen religion when his Sunday law was enacted. Mr. Canright cites certain texts where he thinks perhaps Sunday is alluded to, but later frankly admits that they do not furnish a real record of a change. For such a record he has to go to his Christian-heathen emperor, Constantine, and there too he is disappointed, because this man, unfortunately, referred to Sunday by using its pagan name instead of calling it the Lord’s day. It seems to us that Mr. Canright’s Lord’s day argument is built upon a sandy foundation.DOF 174.2
Prof. Hutton Webster calls Sunday a pagan institution which was engrafted onto Christianity OF 176.4
“The early Christians had at first adopted the Jewish seven-day week, with its numbered week days, but by the close of the third century A. D. this began to give way to the planetary week; and in the fourth and fifth centuries the pagan designations became generally accepted in the western half of Christendom. The use of the planetary names by Christians attests the growing influence of astrological speculations introduced by converts from paganism.... During these same centuries the spread of Oriental solar worship, especially that of ‘Mithra,’ in the, Roman world, had already led to the substitution by pagans of dies Solis for dies Saturni, as the first day of the planetary week.... Thus gradually a pagan institution was engrafted on Christianity.”—Prof. Hutton Webster, Rest Days, pp. 220,221.DOF 176.5
We now quote in this connection an amazing confession by Pr. Hiscox, author of the Baptist Manual, in which he also admits that Sunday came into the church from paganism.DOF 177.1
“Of course, I quite well know that Sunday did come into use in early Christian history as a religious day, as we learn from the Christian Fathers and other sources. But what a, pity that it comes branded with the mark of paganism, and christened with the name of the sun god, when adopted and sanctioned by the papal apostasy, and bequeathed as a sacred legacy to Protestantism!”—Dr. Edward T. Hiscox, author of The Baptist Manual, in a paper read before a New York City Ministers’ Conference, held in New York City, Nov. 13, 1893.DOF 177.2
“Now the question arises, Just when did the practice of Sunday keeping commence? No one can tell exactly. Why? If the change had been made by divine authority, we could put our finger on the exact point, and show where it was done. But, like all error, its introduction was gradual. You cannot follow a river into the ocean, and put your finger down and say, There, just at that spot the fresh water stops and the salt water begins. Neither can you tell where Sabbath keeping stopped and Sunday observance began, as there was a gradual mingling of truth and error.DOF 177.5
“You will hear men say with all confidence that, while the seventh day was kept to the crucifixion, the practice of the church since then has been unanimous in keeping the first day. I do not see how a man can be honest and say this, unless he is very ignorant, as the most trustworthy historians ... testify to the contrary....DOF 178.1
“When it [Sunday] was introduced, it did not come in as a Sabbath. Look at the word itself, ‘Sunday.’ Webster defines it as ‘so-called, because this day was anciently dedicated to the sun;’ and the North British Review styles it ‘the wild solar holiday of all pagan times.’ Now, how did it creep into the church? I’ll tell you how. When the early Christians evangelized the heathen tribes, they would do to the head, or chief, and labor with him to convince him of the superiority of the Christian religion. If he became convinced, he would command his entire tribe to be baptized. They were pagans, and had kept Sunday as a festival in honor of one of their gods, the sun; and when they outwardly accepted Christianity, they kept up their observance of Sunday, which gradually supplanted the Lord’s Sabbath. And while some of these might have been soundly converted, there is evidence to show that though the Sabbath was kept, Sunday was also observed as a kind of holiday, but with no idea of sacredness attached to it....DOF 178.2
