Sunday-Breakers as Traitors

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jun 11, 1908

Sunday-Breakers as Traitors

In a recent sermon at Lansing, Mich., an Episcopal clergyman, according to the press report, branded as traitors those who neglect to observe Sunday. The following paragraph is from an abstract of the sermon printed in the Lansing Republican of May 25:—

Rev. Hicks appealed not to the religious sentiment of his parishioners so much as to the patriotic sentiment, believing that the observance of Sunday is essential to a nation's life and prosperity. . . . The great nations of the world have been Sunday-observing nations, and no nation, Rev. Hicks stated, can disregard the day without inviting the same consequences as those of the French Revolution. A person by neglecting to observe the sabbath day, Rev. Hicks believes, is a traitor to his country.

Sunday has often been called “the American Sabbath,” and “a national institution,” and on that basis it may seem appropriate to appeal to the spirit of patriotism in order to secure its observance. It is certainly useless to appeal to the Bible, as Sunday is not the Sabbath of the Bible, and there is no authority in that book for its observance. There is, however, great significance in the suggestion that those who do not keep Sunday are traitors. It implies a state religion with Sunday-keeping as the mark of loyalty, and the death penalty to be inflicted upon those who refuse to acknowledge the sovereignty of the state in the realm of conscience. Thus it was in ancient Babylon, when the three worthies were consigned to the burning fiery furnace. Thus it was under Darius the Median, when Daniel was cast to the lions. Thus it may be in this country; for John, the Revelator, saw concerning the two-horned beast (the symbol of the United States) that “he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.” Jesus was condemned on the ground that his teaching did not tend to preserve the nation, and the followers of Jesus may be condemned in this day for a similar reason; but woe to the nation when this is done.