Religious Liberty Notes

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Dec 19, 1907

Religious Liberty Notes

BROTHER W. S. CLEVELAND, of Jamestown, N. Y., the conference canvassing agent of the Western New York Conference, writes that his conference is especially interested in the religious liberty work, and that they are planning a vigorous campaign for our literature. We trust that many copies of Liberty will be placed in the hands of the citizens of the Empire State this winter.

The Seattle (Wash.) Daily Times of November 29, contains nearly a column article, describing a Sunday-closing crusade similar to those which are being carried on so vigorously in other parts of the country. The article says, “Many believed that it was the intention of the executive to respond to the appeal of the Ministerial Association” on the question of Sunday closing. These crusades are directly or indirectly brought about by the clergy.

The Greater New York and New Jersey Conferences are to hold a union conference workers’ convention in New York City, December 23-29. Tuesday, December 24, will be devoted to the study of religious liberty. Papers will be read on the following topics: Religious Liberty—Its Origin and Scope; The Relation the Individual Should Sustain to Civil Government; In View of the Coming Crisis, What Should Seventh-day Adventists Do?

The New York Globe of December 3, contains the sweeping opinion of Justice O’Gorman against Sunday shows and concerts. After-quoting many opinions of higher courts, he adds: “The law is well established in the State of New York that the Christian sabbath is one of the civil institutions of the State, and that, for the purpose of protecting the moral and physical well-being of the people, and preserving the peace, quiet, and good order of society, the legislature has authority to regulate its observance and prevent its desecration by appropriate legislation.”

The following item is quoted in the Trenton (N. J.) Times of October 28, from the Redbank Register: “The blue-laws ought to be wiped from the statute-books. They serve no good purpose. They are enforced only when some malicious person desires to injure his neighbor. Laws which permit this are worse than useless laws; they are harmful laws. No man’s liberty should be interfered with on Sunday except to protect the equal rights of others. Under the present laws the man who goes fishing on Sunday, the man who goes sailing or driving, or even walking on Sunday, the man who trims his rose bushes, and the man who digs in his flower garden on Sunday, are all liable to arrest and fine under the absurd blue-laws of the State. It is time this weapon of malice was stricken from the statute-book.”

From a budget of news items on the question of prohibition, the following item is clipped, which shows plainly that the organization is still intimately joined with the Sunday-law movement: “Assistant Attorney-General Charles W. Trickett, of Kansas City, Kan., stirred the dry bones of religion and politics in two tremendous addresses in Chicago, Sunday and Monday, November 10, 11. Monday morning under the auspices of twenty-five allied temperance, prohibition, and law-and-order organizations, Mr. Trickett struck the key-note for Sunday closing and a straight prohibition movement in Chicago, with five hundred Chicago preachers as his auditors.”

The Mansfield (Ohio) News of Dec. 6, 1907, contains a most excellent editorial on the evil results of Sunday legislation. The following has been selected from the editorial: “No reasonable people, no good citizens, will object to such measures as shall protect to the fullest extent the rights and privileges of all mankind to worship God according to the dictates of their own conscience. It is a right guaranteed by the Constitution. Nobody will object to restrictive and corrective measures designed to protect youth and society at large from crime and vice. Honor, truth, temperance, and other cardinal virtues should be taught by precept and example, education and training. People vary in their views of how they may properly ‘remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.’ Some of our forefathers, who really didn’t have enough religion or Christianity to keep them from murdering those who didn’t agree with them in so-called religious belief, were very punctilious in a formal observance of the Sabbath, so strict that a smile on that day was sacrilegious, and the kissing of a wife by her husband a serious offense.” It is needless to say that the editor of the News is a reader of Liberty.