The Blair Sunday-Rest Bill.
By DOUBLEYOU
[The writer of this article, which we take from the Butler Eagle, is an old and respectable business man of Coultersville, Penn., and a member of the Presbyterian Church. In a private letter to us he says: “I believe that the religion of Christ is the only true religion. Of all men that dwell on earth the true followers of Jesus is the farthest from being a persecutor.”] Christians all agree that one day in seven is to be set apart for holy rest and worship; but there is a controversy among them which day of the week is the right one, one part contending that the seventh, and the other that the first day of the week is the proper one to observe. The thinking mind will recognize this as a purely religious controversy. Now, Senator Blair211proposes that the United States Congress shall step in and settle this dispute in the church. The query is, how Congress can do this without taking sides in a religious controversy. If Congress settles it, it will be in favor of one set of claimants and against the other, and in doing so will be deciding a purely religious question, which is union of Church and State. It is not necessary for the statute to declare in so many words that “Church and State are hereby united.” That satanic union is effected when the State attempts to define any religious duty. Again, all Christians agree that it is proper to use some kind of songs of praise in worship; here again they disagree, one part adhering to the Old Testament psalmody, and the other to the new. Now if Congress is the proper tribunal to settle the other controversy, it follows that it is the proper one to settle this. If Congress can set the time for worship, it can also fix the mode. These cases are logically one, and Senator Blair and his followers cannot separate them. But lay aside all this reasoning. It does not matter whether Sunday laws are wholly religious or wholly secular, or partly one and partly the other, the result is persecution for conscience’ sake. There is no need of hair splitting to see the perfidy of all laws that forcibly interfere between a man and his God. Let Congress once begin on this line of work and it will find plenty of it to do. The Catholics will petition for some advantage over Protestants; Protestants will ask for legislation against Catholics, and infidels will call for the closing of all the churches. The chances will then be for a religious war and reign of terror that would make a French communist shudder. The phariseeism of the Blair bill would make angels weep. DOUBLEYOU.