put forth, that Christ changed the Sabbath, is
disproved by His own words. In His sermon on the mount He said: "Think not
that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to
destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth
pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all
be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least
commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the
kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall
be called great in the kingdom of heaven."(753)

It is a fact generally admitted by Protestants, that the Scriptures give
no authority for the change of the Sabbath. This is plainly stated in
publications issued by the American Tract Society and the American
Sunday-school Union. One of these works acknowledges "the complete silence
of the New Testament so far as any explicit command for the Sabbath
[Sunday, the first day of the week] or definite rules for its observance
are concerned."(754)

Another says: "Up to the time of Christ's death, no change had been made
in the day;"(755) and, "so far as the record shows, they [the apostles]
did not ... give any explicit command enjoining the abandonment of the
seventh-day Sabbath, and its observance on the first day of the
week."(756)

Roman Catholics acknowledge that the change of the Sabbath was made by
their church, and declare that Protestants, by observing the Sunday, are
recognizing her power. In the "Catholic Catechism of Christian Religion,"
in answer to a question as to the day to be observed in obedience to the
fourth commandment, this statement is made: "During the old law, Saturday
was the day sanctified; but _the church_, instructed by Jesus Christ, and
directed by the Spirit of God, has substituted Sunday for Saturday; so now
we sanctify the first, not the seventh day. Sunday means, and now is, the
day of the Lord."

As the sign of the authority of the Catholic Church, papist writers cite
"the very act of changing the Sabbath into Sunday, which Protestants allow
of; ... because by keeping Sunday, they acknowledge the church's power to
ordain feasts, and to command them under sin."(757) What then is the
change of the Sabbath, but the sign, or mark, of the authority of the
Roman Church--"the mark of the beast"?

The Roman Church has not relinquished her claim to supremacy; and when the
world and the Protestant churches a