TESTIMONY OF CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA, a. d. 194.
This father was born about a. d. 160, and died about a. d. 220. He wrote about a. d. 194, and is the first of the fathers who uses the term Lord’s day in such a manner as possibly to signify by it the first day of the week. And yet he expressly speaks of the Sabbath as a day of rest, and of the first day of the week as a day for labor! The change of the Sabbath and the institution of the so-called Christian Sabbath were alike unknown to him. Of the ten commandments, he speaks thus:—
“We have the decalogue given by Moses, which, indicating by an elementary principle, simple and of one kind, defines the designation of sins in a way conducive to salvation,” etc.—The Instructor, b. iii. chap. xii.
He thus alludes to the Sabbath:—
“Thus the Lord did not hinder from doing good while keeping the Sabbath; but allowed us to communicate of those divine mysteries, and of that holy light, to those who are able to receive them.”—The Miscellanies, b. i. chap. i.
“To restrain one’s self from doing good is the work of vice; but to keep from wrong is the beginning of salvation. So the Sabbath, by abstinence from evils, seems to indicate self-restraint.” Book iv. chap. iii.
He calls love the Lord of the Sabbath:—
“He convicted the man, who boasted that he had fulfilled the injunctions of the law, of not loving his neighbor; and it is by beneficence that the love which, according to the Gnostic ascending scale, is Lord of the Sabbath, proclaims itself.” Book iv. chap. vi.
Referring to the case of the priests in Eze. 43:27, he says:—
“And they purify themselves seven days, the period in which creation was consummated. For on the seventh day the rest is celebrated; and on the eighth, he brings a propitiation, as it is written in Ezekiel, according to which propitiation the promise is to be received.” Book iv. chap. xxv.
We come now to the first instance in the fathers in which the term Lord’s day is perhaps applied to Sunday. Clement is the father who does this, and he very properly substantiates it with evidence. He does not say that Saint John thus applied this name, but he finds authority for this in the writings of the heathen philosopher Plato, who, he thinks, spoke of it prophetically!