Sunday Laws and Religious Liberty
The following item from the New York Christian Advocate contains a thought worthy of note:— “Twelve hundred St. Petersburg merchants have declared themselves willing to close their places of business on Sunday, with a view of keeping the day as it is understood in the United States and Great Britain. The movement cannot succeed. The Greek Church compels cessation of work in whole or in part on more than seventy man-made holidays. Until this is reformed the people will have to work on Sunday.” It should be remembered that those Sunday-law advocates who demand that all shall rest on Sunday, insist that such a law does not interfere with religious liberty, from the fact that it does not forbid the keeping of any other day. But it will readily be seen in the light of this item from the Advocate that it does practically forbid that very thing, from the fact that few can afford to be idle two days in each week. And a law requiring all to keep Sunday is in effect a law that they shall not observe another day. But even granting that all could afford it, who has the right, in equity, to impose a burden of this kind upon even a few for conscience’ sake? There can be but one answer, namely, that nobody has any such right. The trouble is that the observance or the non-observance of a Sabbath is a matter which lies wholly between each individual and his God, and no man nor set of men has any right to interfere in it.