aw of God is worthy of notice. With true Satanic instinct, he
undertakes to change that commandment which, of all others, is the
fundamental commandment of the law, the one which makes known who the
Law-giver is, and contains his signature of royalty. The fourth
commandment does this; no other one does. Four others, it is true,
contain the word God, and three of them the word Lord, also. But who is
this Lord God of whom they speak? Without the fourth commandment it is
impossible to tell; for idolaters of every grade apply these terms to
the multitudinous objects of their adoration. With the fourth
commandment to point out the Author of the decalogue, the claims of
every false god are annulled at one stroke; for the God who here demands
our worship is not any created being, but the One who created them all.
The maker of the earth and sea, the sun and moon, and all the starry
host, the upholder and governor of the universe, is the One who claims,
and who, from his position, has a right to claim, our supreme regard in
preference to every other object. The commandment which makes known
these facts is therefore the very one we might suppose that power would
undertake to change, which designed to exalt itself above God. God gave
the Sabbath as a memorial of himself, a weekly reminder to the sons of
men, of his work in creating the heavens and the earth, a great barrier
against atheism and idolatry. It is the signature and seal of the law.
This the papacy has torn from its place, and erected in its stead, on
its own authority, an institution designed to serve another purpose.

This change of the fourth commandment must therefore be the change to
which the prophecy points; and Sunday-keeping must be the mark of the
beast! Some who have long been taught to regard this institution with
reverence will perhaps start back with little less than feelings of
horror at this conclusion. We have not space, nor is this perhaps the
place, to enter into an extended argument on the Sabbath question, and
an exposition of the origin and nature of the observance of the first
day of the week. Let us submit this one proposition: If the seventh day
is still the Sabbath enjoined in the fourth commandment; if the
observance of the first day of the week has no foundation whatever in
the Scriptures; if this observance has been brought in as a Christian
institution and designedly put in place of the Sabbath of the decalogue,
by that power which is symbol