p. 310 | The Sunday Question by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Oct 23, 1889

FromThe American Sentinel, Vol. 4, No. 39.

The Sunday Question.

By Editor

OPPOSITION to evil institutions because of their evil effects is, we think, a justifiable procedure; but opposition to one institution in the spirit of rivalry for the purpose of proselyting to another, is on a par with the act of one individual trying to gain by causing another individual to lose—attempting to climb up by pulling others down. But the phase of this subject which should stir to vigilance every truly American citizen is the movement back of, and principal to, this Sunday reconnoissance, the Sunday-law movement being but the thin end of the union-of-State-and-Church wedge that is thus insidiously trying to get vantage-ground in the nation; a wedge that if allowed to enter in the least will split wide open this Union and baptize our now glorious country in the blood of civil war once more, as surely as Americans love liberty as much as they love life!

The reason given by Dr. Crafts for closing theaters and saloons may be a good basis for ecclesiastical law governing the church membership, but, as a reason for State interference, it is naught. To enact and enforce laws that have as their only or their chief object, directly or indirectly, proselytism, is to unite the functions of Church and State, making the latter subservient to the former at that, which is contrary to the principles of this republic and the spirit of this nation. If attendance at theaters and saloons on Sunday are crimes as man against man, then abate them by law for that reason; if the theaters and saloons are simply successful rivals of the churches, that is the church’s, and not the State’s affair, and they should compete with these counter-attractions as best they can.

Rev. W. D. Gray, secretary of the Missouri Sabbath Union, an auxiliary of the American Sabbath Union, defines the object of this organization as follows:—

“I do not believe that governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, and so the object of this movement [to secure Sunday legislation] is an effort to change that feature of the fundamental law!”

Is this not striking at the vitals of the republic? Is there no impending danger to our country when within is a powerful national association with auxiliaries in nearly every State plotting and working, confessedly, to “change that feature of the fundamental law” which constitutes this a free country? Destroy the American principle of “governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed,” and the chief corner-stone of the republic is destroyed, and in its place substituted the chief corner-stone of monarchism, viz., “the divine right of kings;” and our hundred years’ “experiment” will have proved a failure, to the great delectation of the monarchists who have been prophesying that result, and the hopes of liberty-loving people everywhere will be blasted.

Anarchism may threaten us, but compared with the insidious National Reform foe, anarchism is simply lilliputian. “No danger!” say many; but well do we remember the same delusive assurance in 1860-61!

Let everyone who has at heart the perpetuity of the basic principles of our government, and the liberties they vouchsafe alike to all loyal citizens, beware of being entrapped by this “Sabbath union” scheme of the State-church party. Investigate thoroughly before signing any petition, however innocent it may appear at a first superficial view. Remember that “eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.”—Silver Gate, August 24.