“This change of the calendar in regard to Easter was attended with momentous consequences. It brought into the Church the grossest corruption, and the rankest superstition in connection with the abstinence of Lent. Let any one only read the atrocities that were commemorated during the ‘sacred fast’ or pagan Lent, as described by Arnobius and Clemens Alexandrinus, and surely he must blush for the Christianity of those, who with the full knowledge of all these abominations ‘went down to Egypt for help’ to stir up the languid devotion of the degenerate Church, and who could find no more excellent way to ‘revive’ it than by borrowing from so polluted a source; the absurdities and abominations connected with which the early Christian writers held up to scorn.”[249] Many devout Christians now observe Lent without taint of paganism; but with the undevout, Lent is only a resting time from the fashionable dissipation of “society,” which refreshes them for the excesses that follow Easter. FOOTNOTES: [234] See Tertullian, _Apologeticus_, chap. xlvi., and _Ad Uxorum_, lib. ii., chap. vi. [235] See Hefele, _History of the Councils_, etc., to 325 A.D., pp. 150, 151. Clark’s edition, Edinburgh, 1872. [236] _The Church in the Catacombs_, p. 225, London, 1846. [237] See Maitland, p. 228. [238] _Court of the Gentiles_, by Theophilus Gale, part iii., book ii., chap. ii., section 3, paragraph 4. [239] _Stromata_, book vii., chap. vii. [240] _Ad Nationes_, chap. xiii. [241] _Teutonic Mythology_, by Jacob Grimm, four vols., London, 1883, vol. ii., p. 115. [242] _Ibid._, vol. ii., p. 619. [243] _Ibid._, vol. ii., p. 613. [244] _Schaff_, vol. ii., p. 254. [245] _The Two Babylons_, seventh edition, London, p. 21 ff. [246] Jer. xliv., 19. [247] _Two Babylons_, p. 169. The references to Wilkinson’s Egyptians are vol. ii., p. 94, and vol. v., pp. 383, 384. [248] Ovid, _Fasti_, bk. i. [249] Hislop, _Two Babylons_, p. 106. CHAPTER XIV. FIVE CONCLUSIONS. THE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES OF PROTESTANTISM INVOLVED IN PRESENT ISSUES. Protestants must Accept the Bible in _Fact_, as well as in Theory, or be Overthrown--The Bible must be Reinterpreted in the Light of “Higher Criticism” and Deeper Spiritual Life--The Present Tendencies in Bible Study Mark the Opening of the Second Stage of the Protestant Movement--Baptism must Cease to be the Foot-Ball of Denominational Polemics and be Raised to a Question of Obedience to the Example of Christ--Protestants must Return to the Sabbath, Christianized by Christ, and to True Sabbathism, Which is as Undenominational as Faith--Such Sabbathism, and God’s Sabbath, must be Restored to the Place from Which Pagan No-Sabbathism and the Pagan Sunday Drove Them--“Sabbath” Legislation is Unchristian--All Union of Christianity with the State must Yield before the Normal Development of True Protestantism.