(6) In the so-called Epistle of Barnabas, probably a forgery of the second century (see BARNABAS), the first day of the week is spoken of as observed with rejoicing in memory of the resurrection. 'We keep the eighth day with joy, on which also Jesus rose from the dead' (Barnab. Ep. t5)• (7) The earliest authentic instance in which the name of 'the Lord's day' is applied (after the passage in the Apocalypse) is not till A. D. 200, when Tertullian speaks of it as 'die Domini resurrexionis' (De Orat. sec. 23) ; again, 'Domini cum diem' (De Idol. 14); and Dionysius of Cor inth (probably somewhat later), as 'the Lord's Day' (quoted by Euseb. Hist. Eccles. iv. 23).
Thus far, also, nothing has appeared relative to any observance of the day beyond that of hold ing assemblies for religious worship, and a festal commemoration of the resurrection and the be ginning of the creation.
(8) In the laws of Constantine (A. D. 3oo), cessation from ordinary work on the Lord's day was first enjoined, but with an express excep tion in favor of the labors of agriculture. (See Jortin's Remarks on Eccles. Hist. iii, 236).
(9) Chrysostom (A. D. 36o) concludes one of his Homilies by dismissing his audience to their respective ordinary occupations. The Council of Laodicea (A. D. 364), however, enjoined Chris tians to rest on the Lord's day. To the same effect is an injunction in the forgery called the Apostolieal Constitutions (vii :24), and various later enactments from A. D. 600 to A. D. I too,
though by no means extending to the prohibition of all secular business. In fact, in these subse quent ages of the church we find the ceremonial spirit rather displaying itself in the multiplica tion of religious festivals and solemnities than in any increasing precision in the observance of the Lord's day. This is exemplified in the prac tice of the unreformed church in modern times, and retained by most of the reformed, with the exception of those formed on the Puritanical model, who have adopted a peculiar view of the entire institution to which we shall refer in an other place. (See SABBATH.) We may add, also, that as in the case of Constantine, so in some modern states, where a church has been estab lished by law, the same po/icy has prevailed of passing temporal enactments for the cessation of business, and even public amusements, on the Lord's day, especially in more recent times. To those Christians who look to the written word as the sole authority for anything claiming Apos tolic or Divine sanction it becomes peculiarly important to observe that the New Testament evidence of the observance of the Lord's day amounts merely to the recorded fact that the disciples did assemble on the first day of the week, and the probable application of the designa tion 'the Lord's day' to that day. B. P.