The Complete Testimony of the
Fathers of the First Three Centuries
Concerning the Sabbath and First
Day
By Eld. J. N. Andrews
Steam Press Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Assoc. 1873
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PREFACE 3 ...............................................
CHAPTER 1 5 .............................................
CHAPTER 2 13 ............................................
CHAPTER 3 21 ............................................
CHAPTER 4 33 ............................................
CHAPTER 5 44 ............................................
CHAPTER 6 54 ............................................
CHAPTER 7 63 ............................................
CHAPTER 8 82 ............................................
CHAPTER 9 91 ............................................
CHAPTER 10 100 ..........................................
PREFACE
THE testimony for first-day sacredness is very meager in the Scriptures, as
even its own advocates must admit. But they have been wont to supply the
deficiency by a plentiful array of testimonies from the early fathers of the church.
Here, in time past, they have had the field all to themselves, and they have
allowed their zeal for the change of the Sabbath to get the better of their honesty
and their truthfulness. The first-day Sabbath was absolutely unknown before the
time of Constantine. Nearly one hundred years elapsed after John was in vision
on Patmos, before the term "Lord's day" was applied to the first day. During this
time, it was called "the day of the sun," "the first day of the week," and "the eighth
day." The first writers who give it the name of "Lord's day," state the remarkable
fact that in their judgment the true Lord's day consists of every day of a
Christian's life, a very convincing proof that they did not give this title to Sunday
