Besides the inspired records of the Scriptures, there have come down to us the writings of men who were contemporaneous with some of the apostles, and the writings of others who lived in the immediately succeeding generations. We shall quote from the writings of those who lived during the two centuries following the close of the canon of inspiration. These writers give evidence enough that they were not inspired, as were the penmen of the Divine Word. But it will be borne in mind that we appeal to them here simply as witnesses to a matter of fact. Many of their opinions and interpretations of Scripture may not be worthy of acceptance; but their testimony to the existence of the Lord’s day, an admitted fact, cannot be disputed. As there has been a great deal of loose citation from the early fathers on this question, we have been at considerable pains to translate carefully from the original in every case, and accompany each quotation with minute and accurate reference.

The first writer from whom we shall quote is Ignatius. This father stood at the head of the church at Antioch at the close of the first century and the beginning of the second. After occupying that position for many years, he was condemned to death, as a Christian, by Trajan, transported in chains to Rome, and there thrown to lions in the Coliseum for the amusement of the populace, probably in the year 107. On his way to Rome, he wrote seven epistles to various churches. Eusebius and Jerome arrange these writings as follows (1) To the Ephesians; (2) to the Magnesians; (3) to the Trallians; (4) to the Romans; (5) to the Philadelphians; (6) to the Smyrneans; (7) to Polycarp, bishop, or presbyter, of Smyrna. These seven epistles, in connection with a number of others confessedly spurious, have come down to us in two Greek copies, a longer and a shorter. A Syriac version of three epistles has recently been found. Without entering into the controversy concerning these Ignatian Epistles, we give the conclusion reached by Dr. Schaff, which is very generally accepted: “The question lies between the shorter Greek copy and the Syriac version. The preponderance of testimony is for the former, in which the letters are no loose patch-work, but were produced, each under its one impulse, were well known to Eusebius, probably even to Polycarp, and agree also with the Armenian version of the fifth century.” (History of the Christian Church, vol. i. p. 466.) It is admitted, even by those who do not accept the Greek copy as genuine, that it is the work of the close of the second century, or a little later. In any event, then, it is important testimony. In the epistles to the Magnesians occurs the following language: “Be not deceived with false doctrines, nor old, unprofitable fables. For, if we still live in accordance with Judaism, we confess that we have not received grace. For even the most holy prophets lived according to Jesus Christ.... If, then, they who were brought up in ancient things arrived at a newness of hope, no longer keeping the Sabbath, but living according to the Lord’s life, ... how can we live without him?... Since we have been made his disciples, let us learn to live according to Christianity.”^[9]—Ad Magnes. capp. 8, 9; Coteler’s Edition, vol. ii. pp. 19, 20. Amsterdam, 1724.

In this passage, it will be observed, the writer draws a contrast between Judaism and Christianity. To keep the seventh-day Sabbath was to live according to Judaism. To live according to the dominical life, or, as the thought is otherwise expressed, to live according to Christianity, was opposed to the keeping of the seventh-day Sabbath. The argument of Ignatius tells strongly in favor of the first-day Sabbath. If Jews, he argues, brought up in the old order of things, on turning Christians, no longer keep the seventh-day Sabbath, but live according to the dominical life, observing as part of that life, the dominical day, the day on which the Lord rose from the dead, surely those who never had been Jews should live according to Christianity, and not give heed to Judaizing teachers.

Passing on, we come to a document called “The Epistle of Barnabas.” This letter, though not the composition of the Barnabas of the New Testament, was written in the early part of the second century. It cannot be determined who was the author, but the early date of the letter is fully established; and that is the main point. Its language is: “We celebrate the eighth day with joy, on which Jesus rose from the dead.”—Coteler’s Edition of the Apostolic Fathers, vol. i. p. 47.

The testimony of Justin Martyr is full and explicit. As an itinerant evangelist for many years during the first half of the second century, just after the time of the apostle John, he enjoyed an excellent opportunity of becoming, acquainted with the customs of the whole church. Writing in the year 139 to the Emperor Antoninus Pius, in vindication of his Christian brethren, he gives the following account of their stated religious services: “On the day called the day of the sun is an assembly of all who live either in cities or in the rural districts, and the memoirs of the apostles and the writings of the prophets are read;” i. e., the Old and New Testaments. Then he goes on to specify the various parts of their first-day services. Just as at the present day, in Christian congregations, there were preaching, prayer, the celebration of the Lord’s supper, and the contribution of alms. As reasons why Christians should observe the first day, he assigns the following: “Because it was the first day on which God dispelled the darkness and chaos, and formed the world, and because Jesus Christ, our Saviour, rose from the dead on it.”—Robert Stephens’ edition of the works of Justin Martyr, p. 162. Lutetiæ, 1551.

In another of his works, the Dialogue with Trypho the Jew, written about the same time as the Apology, from which we have quoted, occurs this passage: “The command to circumcise infants on the eighth day was a type of the true circumcision by which we were circumcised from error and evil through our Lord Jesus Christ, who rose from the dead on the first day of the week; for the first day of the week remains the chief of all the days.” (Stephens’ Edition, p. 59. See also Trollope’s edition of the Dialogue with Trypho, pp. 85, 86.) The careful reader of Justin Martyr will observe that, in addressing Trypho the Jew, he uses different terms for the days of the week from those which he employs in addressing the Emperor Antoninus. Addressing a heathen emperor, he employs the heathen names for both the seventh and the first day of the week.

Two important notices of the Lord’s day, all the more important because of their incidental character, are found in the History of Eusebius. Dionysius, bishop or presbyter of Corinth, A. D. 170, in a letter to the church at Rome, a fragment of which is preserved by Eusebius, says: “To-day we kept the Lord’s holy day, in which we read your letter.” (Hist. Eccles. iv. 23, Paris Ed. 1678, pp. 117, 118.) The other of these notices is in regard to a treatise on the Lord’s day, by Melito, bishop of Sardis, A. D. 170. This treatise, Eusebius remarks, along with others by the same writer, had come to the historian’s knowledge.—Hist. Eccles. iv. 26, Paris Ed. 1678, p. 119.

Although the letter of Pliny to Trajan is so well known as hardly to need quotation, we shall close this article with its interesting testimony in confirmation, from a pagan quarter, of what has already been adduced from Christian writers: “They [the Christians] affirmed that the sum of their fault, or error, was that they were accustomed to assemble on a stated day—Stato die—before it was light, and sing praise alternately among themselves to Christ as God—carmenque Christo, quasi Deo, dicere secum, invicem.” (Plin. Epist. x., 97.) Here we have the fact that Christians in the early part of the second century met regularly on a stated day, and this stated day, as all the Christian authorities of the same date prove, was the first day of the week, the Lord’s day.

Additional patristic evidence will be given in the next article.