Refurbishing the Inquisition

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Oct 6, 1910

Refurbishing the Inquisition

ONE of our brethren in Ontario, Canada, received the following letter from the secretary of the Ontario Lord’s Day Alliance. This threat-breathing missive is thoroughly self-explanatory:—

“Dear Mr. —: Information has come to this office that you are accustomed to follow your weekly employment on the Lord’s day. This is contrary to the Lord’s Day Act, Section 5, which prohibits such work, and leaves you liable, under Section 13, to a penalty on conviction of from $1 to $40, and costs. It is also stated that you have people playing ball in your garden on the Lord’s day. This is a violation of C. S. U. C., cap. 104, Section 3, and leaves those who engage in such playing liable to similar penalty—Section 7 of same act. If one enjoys the protection of the law of the land, he ought to be willing to keep the law. To permit such violation of the law to go unchecked, would be to encourage lawlessness. Will you by return mail explain why you do such things on the Lord’s day, and thus violate the law? Will you let me know whether such violation will henceforth cease permanently, or continue? If it ceases permanently, the matter will be dropped; but if it continues, the matter must be handed over to the attorney-general, that the law may take its course. Under another cover, by this mail, I send you copies of these laws, that you may be duly informed of the position that you occupy.”