Sunday Observance and Coercion
- A CORRESPONDENT of the London Daily Telegraph, in his report of the proceedings of the recent Paris Sunday Congress, says:—
“It will, undoubtedly, be a difficult task for any congress to bring about the general cessation of Sunday labor on the continent. Of late years, however, it must be confessed that Paris has been showing a good example to the provinces in this matter, but it is to be regretted that Sunday observance in the capital has not increased the attendances in the churches, but has rather been productive of more fun and frivolity.” Commenting upon this, another English paper (a religious journal, by the way) says:— “It is in this, as in all matters of religious practice, the person who can be led by the moral argument does not need a law to compel him to follow out his convictions; and he who is not influenced by moral arguments is only cursed by coercion of conscience. A Christian cause never seeks to gain its end by such means.” This is sound and wholesome doctrine, and it would be well for our zealous Sunday-law friends to make a note of the facts so-candidly-recognized by our English cousins.