Sabbath Sanctity and the Scrapbook of Hiram Edson

Hiram Edson’s Scrapbook dates to 1847 in Adventism and is a witness how the pioneers kept the Sabbath.

Not to make clothes and garments on Sabbath or to do needlework

In the scrapbook of Hiram Edson he cited Jerome [396 CE] talking on the funeral of a certain lady Paula saying: “She, with all her virgins and widows who lived at Bethlehem in a cloister with her, upon the Lord’s day, repaired duly to the church, or house of God, which was nigh to her cell; and after her return from thence to her own lodgings, she herself and all her company fell to work, and every one performed (Edson 25) their task, which was the making of clothes and garments for themselves and for others, as they were appointed” (Hiram Edson Manuscript 1847, Ed 7, page 26).

Churchfather Chrysostom suggested people to listen to the sermon and return to work

“St. Chrysostom, patriarch of Constantinople, ‘recommended to his audience, after impressing upon themselves and their families what they had heard on the Lord’s day, to return to their daily employment.” (Edson 26).

For 600 years after Christ the Catholic Church permitted their members to work on the Lord’s Day (= their Sunday thinking)

“Dr. Francis White, Lord Bishop of Ely, speaking on this matter, says, “The Catholic Church for more than six hundred years after Christ, permitted labor, and gave license to many Christian people to work upon the Lord’s Day at such hours as they were not commanded to be present at the public service by the precepts of the church” (Edson 26).

538 CE forbidden to work on Sunday although Constantine permitted it

“In the sixth century efforts were made to prevent this labor. The following promulgation of a synod held by command King Junthran, of Burgundy, will show the condition of things, and the means used to improve them: “We see the Christian people, in an unadvised manner, deliver to contempt the Dominical day, and, as in other days, indulge in continual labor. Therefore they determined to teach the people subject to them, to keep the dominical day, which, if not observed by the lawyer, he should irreparably lose his cause, but if a countryman or servant did not keep it, he should be beaten with heavier blows of eudgels. The council of Orleans, held 538, prohibited the country labor on Sunday, which Constantine, by his laws, permitted. This council also declared, “that to hold it unlawful to travel with horses, cattle and carriages, to prepare food, or to do anything necessary to the cleanliness and decency of houses or persons, savors more of Judaism than Christianity. In another council held at Narbonne, in France, in the seventh century, they also forbid this country work.” (Edson 26).

Pope Gregory in 603CE calls anyone who do not work on Saturday or do not bath on Sunday, ‘preachers of the Antichrist’

“Early in the 7^th century, in the time of Pope Gregory I, the subject of the Sabbath attracted considerable attention. There was one class of persons who declared, “that it was not lawful to do any manner of work upon the Saturday, or the old Sabbath; another that no man ought to bathe himself on the Lord’s day, or their new Sabbath.” Against both of these doctrines Pope Gregory wrote a letter to the Roman citizens. Baronius in his Councils, says, ‘This year (603) at Rome, St. Gregory the Pope, corrected that error which some preached, by Jewish superstition, or the Grecian custom, that it was a duty to worship on the Sabbath, as likewise upon the dominical days; and he calls such preachers the preachers of the Antichrist.” (Edson 27).

The following is not from Hiram Edson’s Scrapbook.

Sabbath keepers called Antichrist by Pope Gregory I (590-604)

Historically, the Catholic Church sees Pope Gregory as the one who established the papal empire that was to dominate the scene until 1798.

"Gregory, servant of the servants of God, to his most beloved sons the Roman citizens. It has come to my ears that certain men of perverse spirit have sown among you some things that are wrong and opposed to the holy faith, so as to forbid any work being done on the Sabbath day. What else can I call these but preachers of Antichrist, who, when he comes, will cause the Sabbath day as well as the Lord’s day to be kept free from all work. For, because he pretends to die and rise again, he wishes the Lord’s day to be had in reverence; and, because he compels the people to Judaize that he may bring back the outward rite of the law, and subject the perfidy of the Jews to himself, he wishes the Sabbath to be observed. - Source: Gregory I (Pope, 590–604), Selected Epistles, bk. 13, Epistle 1, trans. in NPNF, 2d series, Vol. 13, pp. 92, 93.

Council of Laodicea (343-381 CE) decrees Saturday work but Sunday no work

"Can. 16. “On Saturday [Greek sabbaton, “the Sabbath”] the Gospels and other portions of the Scripture shall be read aloud.” …
Can. 29. “Christians shall not Judaize and be idle on Saturday, but shall work on that day; but the Lord’s day they shall especially honor, and, as being Christians, shall, if possible, do no work on that day. If, however, they are found Judaizing, they shall be shut out [Greek anathema] from Christ.” …
Can. 49. “During Lent, the bread shall not be offered, except on Saturday and Sunday.” …
Can. 51. “During Lent, no feast of the martyrs shall be celebrated, but the holy martyrs shall be commemorated on the Saturdays and Sundays of Lent.” - Source: Charles Joseph Hefele, A History of the Christian Councils, Vol. 2, trans. and ed. by H. N. Oxenham (Edinburgh: T. and T. Clark, 1896), pp. 310, 316, 320.

Council of Macon 585 CE forbade any business on Sunday

The Lord’s Day (= their thinking Sunday) ‘is the day of perpetual rest, which is suggested to us by the type of the seventh day in the law and the prophets,’ and ordered a complete cessation of all kinds of business.”- Source: M. G. Glazebrook, “Sunday,” in James Hastings, ed., Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics (New York: Scribner, 1928), Vol. 12, pp. 105, 106.

Jews use to prepare their food before Sabbath in the days of Churchfather Ignatius

"Let us no longer keep the Sabbath after the Jewish [Nasarene] manner . . . and not eating things prepared the day before, nor using lukewarm drinks." Pseuso Ignatius, Epistle Magnesians

Source:

http://www.essene.com/Church/Sunday.htm

Hiram Edson’s Scrapbook is available at the Andrews Library Adventist Resources Archives site. The Photos are very clear. It is in PDF format.