p. 524 | Sunday Law Arguments Revisited

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · May 29, 1913

Sunday Law Arguments Revisited

THE Christian Statesman for September, 1912, contained a declaration so completely in harmony with the reason given for demanding a Sunday law in the days of ancient Rome, that it will be of interest to our readers. Commenting on the proposition to have moving pictures exhibited in Pittsburgh on Sunday evenings under the supervision of the Department of Public Works, the Statesman says:—

“Such a proposal originates from an improper conception of the Lord’s day and the method of its observance. It would mean labor on the part of many to entertain others. It would mean competition with the churches.

“Rev. C. R. Zahlinger, pastor of the Lemington Presbyterian Church, wrote a letter of objection to the authorities. . . . He asserted that such pictures on the Lord’s day would be a desecration of the Sabbath, and would decrease attendance at the churches, which have difficulty in securing audiences during the summer evenings.”

It will be remembered that in 401 A. D., a convention of bishops in Carthage sent up a petition to the emperor of Rome, asking “that the public shows might be transferred from the Christian Sunday, and from feast-days, to some other days of the week” for the reason that “the people congregate more to the circus than to the church.”—“Church History,” Neander, Vol. II, page 300, note.