The Equity of Sunday Laws
In the Lutheran Observer of August 9, Rev. Mr. Crafts has an article on the equity of Sunday laws, in which, speaking of exemption, he says:— “The only law that can either be justified or maintained in practice is a law which impartially forbids, in rich and poor, all forms of Sunday work that are not works of mercy or necessity.”
And yet Mr. Crafts, as field secretary of the American Sabbath Union, is asking people to sign a petition to Congress praying for the passage of a law which shall exempt, so far as ordinary private work is concerned, all who religiously keep another day of the week as the Sabbath. Therefore, according to his own words, Mr. Crafts is asking Congress to pass a law which can be neither justified nor maintained. Is it such a law as this that the American Sabbath Union really desires? or is it the object of the Union to secure general assent to the principle of Sunday legislation, and then secure the repeal of the exemption clause.