p. 24 | A Model Sunday Law for the Nation

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jan 23, 1913

A Model Sunday Law for the Nation

On Sunday evening, January 12, there was held in the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church, of Washington, D. C., a meeting of the association of postal employees, under the management of the Lord's Day Alliance of the United States. In the Scripture reading and opening prayer the admonitions and promises of Isa. 58: 13, 14, were made to apply to those who refrain from labor on Sunday, and use the day as one of rest and worship. The principal address was given by Dr. G. W. Grannis, who made an enthusiastic speech upon what the alliance stands for, what it had accomplished, and its program for the future. He dwelt with great earnestness upon the necessity of united action for the accomplishment of legislation that would secure complete cessation of labor on Sunday. A significant statement was this: “The first order in connection with the closing of the post-offices was for them to close the carriers’ windows at Colorado Springs. That was all we asked then.” This is in perfect harmony with the history of the Sunday-law agitation and the policy of the Sunday-law advocates—first the entering wedge and then the split rail; Sunday laws to secure for the laboring man a day of rest, with the final object of a church filled with worshipers; and finally the Sunday law itself as an entering wedge and a precedent for other kinds of religious enactments. He declared it to be the purpose of the alliance to secure a Sunday law for the District which would be a model for the whole country. This was also made prominent by the secretary of the Lord's Day Alliance of the State of Maryland. He declared that “the emphasis in all this work needs to be placed where God placed it, the Sabbath as a day of rest that it may be used as a day of worship. We never want to get away from that. The national board of the Lord's Day Alliance has taken the position that the District of Columbia is the nation's territory. Here is the nation's capital, and it ought to have a Sunday law that is representative of the nation's sentiment on the Sunday question. So there has been a committee appointed to coöperate with the local people here, working together, each doing its part to give to the District of Columbia a Sunday law of which the American Christian, the American nation, need not be ashamed. I believe the time is not far distant when there will be written into the statutes of this nation a Sunday law for the District of Columbia that will be a model to the world of what a Sabbath law ought to be. We pledge to you people in Washington the very best there is in us to help you to get the very best Sunday law there is to be found anywhere in this great nation of ours. But in all our efforts let us not forget that this day is a sacred day, and that those who keep it as such have the promise that God will make them to ‘ride on the high places of the earth.’”

The alliance has drawn up a “model” Sunday bill, which it hopes to be able to substitute for the Johnston Sunday Bill now before Congress, and, through its enactment, obtain that “model Sunday law” for all the States to pattern after. This proposed Sunday bill is one of the most drastic yet framed, and makes no provision even for the tolerance of those who observe another day as the Sabbath. The enthusiasm and determination now being thrown into this program should act as an incentive to the friends of religious liberty everywhere to oppose that program vigorously with petitions and remonstrances and the circulation of literature.

THE response made by our people throughout the United States in sending in to the United States Senate remonstrances against the passage of the Johnston Sunday Bill, or any bill of a similar nature designating Sunday as a day of rest, is very gratifying. The report of proceedings of the Senate, as given in the Congressional Record, contains every day statements concerning the presentation of these remonstrances, and thus the opposition to this legislation is kept constantly before the Senate. The general secretary of the Lord's Day Alliance of the United States visited the capital recently to arrange, if possible, for the substitution of the bill which he had prepared for the Johnston Sunday Bill, now before the Senate; but thus far no direct effort has been made, either to consider the Johnston Bill or to substitute the other bill in its place. Such a step, however, may be taken at any time, in which case we are hoping that the remonstrances presented, and the other work being done, will prevent the enactment of any such measure at this session of Congress.