THE EARLY CHRISTIAN SABBATH - Friends of the Sabbath Australia

The Early Christian Sabbath
has made us rest from our works, for the meditation upon Thy laws. He suffered for us by
Thy permission, and died, and rose again by Thy power: on which account we solemnly
assemble to celebrate the feast of the resurrection on the Lord's day, and rejoice on
account of Him who has conquered death, and has brought life and immortality to light.
Thou did give them the law or Ten Commandments, which was pronounced by Thy voice
and written with Thy hand. Thou did enjoin the observation of the [seventh-day] Sabbath,
not affording them an occasion of idleness, but an opportunity of piety, for their
knowledge of Thy power, and the prohibition of evils. Having limited them as within an
holy circuit for the sake of doctrine, for the rejoicing upon the seventh period.” - Ibid.,
book 7, section 3, chapter 36, in The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 7, Page 474.
At least one of the contributors to this document, who pretended falsely to write
in the name of Peter and Paul, would have felt much at home with a modern five-day
week. - He says:
“I Peter and Paul do make the following constitutions. Let the slaves work five
days; but on the Sabbath day and the Lord's day let them have leisure to go to church for
instruction in, piety. We have said that the Sabbath is on account of the creation, and the
Lord's day of the resurrection.”-Ibid., book 8, section 4, chapter 33, in The Ante-Nicene
Fathers, volume 7, Page 495.
Evidently the writers of the Constitutions of the Holy Apostles believed in
Sabbath keeping. They kept the Sunday, but they did believe in keeping the Sabbath, and
they advocated it.
The Council of Laodicea provided very distinctly, in Canon 16, as previously
pointed out, for regular public Sabbath worship. Basil, who is accounted one of the great
fathers of the Eastern Church, made the Sabbath day one of the days of the week upon
which he celebrated the communion. He says:
“I, indeed, communicate four times a week, on the Lord's day, on Wednesday, on
Friday, and on the Sabbath, and on the other days if there is a commemoration of any
saint.” - Letter 93, in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, volume 8, page
179.
Sabbath observance was also common around AD 400 among the monks of the
church, especially in the East. There was a man by the name of John Cassian, who
traveled extensively among the Eastern monasteries, then moved to France and while in a
monastery there wrote two important essays on monastic life. In discussing the way of
living followed by the monks, he tells us they observed the Sabbath. He says:
“Wherefore, except Vespers and Nocturns, there are no public services among
them in the day except on Saturday [Sabbath] and Sunday, when they meet together at
the third hour [nine o'clock] for the purpose of Holy communion.” - Institutes, book 3,
chapter 2, in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, 2d Series, volume 11, Page 213.
“On those days, -i. e., on Saturday, [Sabbath] and Sunday, and on holy days, on
which it is usual for both dinner and supper to be provided for the brethren, a Psalm is
not said in the evening. But they simply make a plain prayer and come to supper, and
again, when they rise from it, conclude with prayer alone.” - Ibid., book 3, chapter 12, in
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, 2d Series, Volume 11, Page 218.
Cassian also tells of a hermit whose religious customs show how Sabbath was still
being kept:
“He constantly put off taking food until on Saturday [Sabbath] and Sunday he
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