The Washington Campaign

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jan 23, 1908

The Washington Campaign

The campaign for the enforced observance of Sunday in the District of Columbia is now in full swing. The agitation of the matter has been growing in volume since the first of November, the first definite plans for the conduct of the campaign having been laid on the thirteenth of that month.

On the above date a meeting of the Archdeaconry of the Episcopal Church of Washington was called at St. Steven’s church, Bishop Satterlee presiding. At that meeting a joint committee of the various churches reported what had been accomplished as a result of its two meetings. This committee had decided to issue a call for a mass meeting ‘of all the ministers of all the Christian bodies here in Washington, with the exception of the Adventists and the Jews, of course.’ The chairman of the committee stated that Dr. Radcliffe was to bring the matter to the attention of Cardinal Gibbons, with a view to securing the attendance and co-operation of all the Catholic clergy of the District. The chairman of the joint committee went on to say that “the main purpose of the whole thing is to get a better law passed for the observance of Sunday in the District of Columbia; and we are trying as far as it seems wise to concentrate on that one object, rather than for various objects in connection with Sunday,—to get a better law for the observance of Sunday introduced.”

Thus was the campaign opened in a quasi public way, with the advocates of the only divinely ordained Sabbath excluded, and the church that has substituted a sabbath of its own for the Sabbath of Jehovah made a star member of the organization. In view of the part

Rome has played in establishing the false sabbath, it was but logical that those who are determined to enforce it by law should turn to her for the help which her experience of some hundreds of years in enforcing religious laws and decrees will enable her to give.

It is the purpose of those who are in charge of this campaign that every influence which can be used to make their efforts successful shall be employed. The committee whose recommendations inaugurated the campaign was a joint committee of the various Sunday-keeping churches of the District, and contained also the name of one Jew, Rabbi Abram Simon. However, when the committee was ready for its work, the Jew was brusquely informed that the invitation to the mass meeting did not include him.

The mass meeting was held at the Presbyterian church on New York Avenue, November 25, Rev. Wallace Radcliffe acting as chairman.

At this meeting, following a recommendation of the joint committee, the second Sunday in January was appointed as a day on which all the ministers in the District would set before their congregations the necessity for better Sunday observance and for the enactment of laws by Congress to bring it about. The various speakers deprecated the fact that there was now no civil law to which they could appeal for the enforcement of Sunday observance. It certainly did appear that with no law, either human or divine, the Sunday institution was in a bad way. But the lack of a divine command did not cause the convention as much concern as did the lack of the human command. The sentiment was well voiced by one speaker who said: ‘Sunday after Sunday, as I go through my parish, I see men employed. No difference between Sunday and any other day. What is the good of my preaching to the people about the keeping of Sunday? It is for the government to set the example for the country.’

It need hardly be said that the religion that looks to the government for its commands and examples in matters of faith and practise is hardly an affair of the conscience, of the heart, and of serious conviction. And the preaching that is of no value when the government’s example is against it is not the kind of preaching that will do any harm to the kingdom of darkness or reap any beneficial results for the kingdom of righteousness. It is not such preaching as that of Jesus, of Peter, or of Paul, of Luther, or of Wycliffe.

One speaker, in recommending the publication of a pamphlet on the better observance of Sunday, said they should be careful not to call Sunday the Sabbath, ‘because, if we say Sabbath, we are up against the Second Adventists and the Jews, and we know how they thwarted our plans on the question of the Bible in the public schools.’

The chairman called for remarks from Father McLane, of the Roman Catholic Church, who spoke as follows:—

I have just arrived, so did not get the first part of the meeting. All I can say is that Cardinal Gibbons is heartily in favor of any movement or any combination that will help toward the proper observance of the sabbath. He has always said so. I can say that much for him. In regard to different movements, I am trying to learn what the different movements are, and certainly you will find that the Catholic clergy will be shoulder to shoulder in any rule or order in regard to the proper observance of the Lord’s day. [Applause.]

Among those who know the origin of the Sunday institution and Rome’s desire for the spiritual headship of Christendom, there has never been any question but that the Roman Church could be counted on to put its blessing upon and its great influence behind a move so much to her liking. She can well afford to seem to play a secondary part in a move that is wholly for her glorification—a move that exalts her sabbath in place of God’s Sabbath.

Before this convention closed, a committee was appointed to draft a pastoral letter which should be given out to the members of the various congregations on the second Sunday in January after the sermon upon Sunday observance. A committee was also appointed to make all the preliminary arrangements for a mass meeting to be held as soon as possible after the second Sunday in January. It was arranged that this committee should be composed of clergymen and laymen, in order that it might come before congressmen without the handicap from which the committee suffered last year when they came before the District Commissioners. The committee then was composed entirely of clergymen, and was much embarrassed by the commissioners’ questions as to whether this movement were not wholly a ministers’ movement, and if not why the committee was composed wholly of clergymen. They will obviate the difficulty this year, but it will be a ministers’ movement as truly as was the other. The only difference will be that last year it stood for what it was, and this year it will stand for what it is not; for the movement is the same, the purpose is the same, and the men who are behind it are the same—a fact which the belated addition of laymen to the committee can not alter. Soon after this meeting, and due largely to its influence, four bills were introduced into Congress in behalf of the enforcement of Sunday observance.

A Counter Campaign

It seemed wise to the members of our churches and General Conference Committee, in view of this Sunday-enforcement agitation, and the demand for Sunday laws, to prepare a memorial to Congress, setting forth the true principles of religious liberty and the danger both to the government and to freedom of conscience if the proposed legislation, or legislation of a similar character, should be enacted.

At the same time two pamphlets were published, one advocating the abolition of the liquor traffic and the other protesting against the enactment of religious legislation and setting forth the binding obligation of the true Sabbath. These pamphlets were judiciously distributed over a large portion of the city just prior to the Sunday on which the various pastors were to preach on the topic of Sunday observance and Sunday laws. The people were thus given an opportunity to consider both sides of the question. All the principal papers in the city save one made reference to these pamphlets or published an epitome of their contents. In the Washington Herald of January 13 appeared the following setting forth of the pamphlet’s contents, under the headings as there given:—