Our Authority for That Statement.
By Editor
A CORRESPONDENT at Gold Hill, Oregon, writes to ask our authority for the statement that the American Sabbath Union “declare the basis of their movement to be the fourth commandment.” We are surprised that any reader of the AMERICAN SENTINEL (for such we suppose our correspondent to be) should ask such a question, because our authority has been repeatedly stated; but for the benefit of new readers and of those who may have overlooked the matter, we will restate a few points:— 1. Colonel Elliott F. Shepard is president of the American Sabbath Union, so called, as well as editor of the New York Mail and Express, which paper, in its issue of January 25, 1889, published in full Mr. Shepard’s address delivered upon the occasion of his election as president of the Union. In that address Mr. Shepard used the following language: “Choose ye this day whom ye will serve; if the Lord be God, serve him; and if the world be god, serve that. You have to say yes or no—whether you will stand by the decalogue, whether you will stand by the Lord God Almighty, or whether you will turn your back upon him. The work, therefore, of this society has just begun. We do not put this work on mere human reasoning, for all that can be overthrown by human reason. We rest it directly and only on the divine commandment.” 2. On the occasion of the hearing on the Blair Sunday-rest bill before the Senate Committee on Education and Labor, December 13, 1888, Mr. Crafts, field secretary of the American Sabbath Union, introduced to the committee as the next speaker, Dr. Herrick Johnson, of Chicago, and in the course of Mr. Johnson’s remarks the following dialogue took place between himself and Senator Blair, chairman of the committee:— “Mr. Johnson—This appointment of one day in seven is arbitrary. There is nothing in nature to indicate that division of time. There is the day of twenty-four hours, there is the month, there is the year, all these are natural divisions; but there is nothing in nature to indicate the weekly division, the observance of one day in seven. It is arbitrary, and we regard that as an evidence of its divine origin. “The Chairman—How do you base the Sabbath itself upon a divine ordinance when there is no natural law to indicate which day is to be observed? “Mr. Johnson—It is in revelation, and it is found to be exactly in accord with the laws of nature. “The Chairman—You base the law of one day’s rest in seven upon revelation; that is to say, upon the Bible? “The Chairman—There are many who doubt that it is established by revelation, are there not? “Mr. Johnson—I think no one who accepts the Bible doubts that there is one day in seven to be observed as a day of rest. “The Chairman—Will you just state the authority? “Mr. Johnson—‘Remember the Sabbath-day, to keep it holy. . . . Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work.’” [This quotation is from pp. 50, 51 of “Notes of a Hearing before the Committee on Education and Labor, United States Senate, Thursday, December 13, 1888, on the bill (S. 2983) entitled, ‘A bill to secure to the people the enjoyment of the first day of the week, commonly known as the Lord’s day, as a day of rest, and to promote its observance as a day of religious worship.’” This is a public document, and if the edition is not exhausted can be had free of charge by application to any member of Congress.] On this occasion Mr. Johnson was speaking directly in behalf of the American Sabbath Union, and, as we have already stated, was introduced to the committee by the field secretary of that Union. 3. But again, in a speech delivered before the General Assembly of the Knights of Labor, held in Philadelphia, November 16, 1888, and reported in the Journal of United Labor (the date we are unable to give) Mr. Crafts himself said: “A weekly day of rest has never been secured in any land except on the basis of religious obligation. Take religion out and you take the rest out.” 4. Again; the Lutheran Observer (524 Walnut Street, Philadelphia), of December 21, 1888, a paper which is in hearty sympathy with the American Sabbath Union, attributes to Mr. Crafts this language: “The bill which has been introduced makes Sunday the ideal Sabbath of the Puritans, which day shall be occupied only by worship.” The bill referred to was Senator Blair’s Sunday-rest bill. Other utterances might be quoted, but these are abundantly sufficient to show that we have not misrepresented the leaders of the American Sabbath Union when we say that they “declare the basis of their movement to be the fourth commandment.” And yet they deny that their movement is religious, asserting that it is in the interests of the workingmen, and that it in no way tends to a union of Church and State.