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A SUNDAY LAW

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The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Apr 30, 1867

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 29, No. 21.

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A SUNDAY LAW.

By B. S. BARNES

To show that the tendency of the times is fast demanding a restrictive Sunday law, I copy the following for the Review from sermons lately delivered by eminent men of the popular pulpit:—
“The Sabbath, therefore, must be maintained as a public institute in the integrity of its sacredness, and its first safeguard is the protection of the laws. Although the constitutionality of the Sabbath is no longer an open question, yet the extent to which fresh legislation may be carried is, and has been, a matter of contest. No doubt the genius of our system would dictate extreme caution in the way of positive enforcement of Sabbath duties. Yet, since the whole presumption of law and precedent is in favor of the Sabbath as an existing religious institute, there would seem to be no reason why a defensive legislation may not be most stringent and peremptory, saving the liberty of the individual conscience by not exacting a personal worship; but saving, too, the purity of the public conscience by forbidding the open desecration of the public worshiping day. The community owes to itself, as an act of self-preservation, such conservative legislation as this.”—Alexander H. Vinton, D. D.
An article prefixed to this discourse states that it was addressed to one of the largest and most substantial religious audiences ever assembled—the church, which is one of the most commodious in America, being filled to its utmost capacity.
E. O. Haven, President of the University of Michigan, says:—
“Politically, it may be asked, should the observance of the Sabbath be required by civil law?
“This opens up for investigation the general subject, the proper object of civil law. The profoundest Christian statesmen and moralists are coming clearly to see that in moral teaching the church should lead and the state follow. The object of the state is, not to require religion or morality by force, but to protect life, liberty, and property. If the state enacts a law for the observance of the Sabbath, it is to secure the political good of the people. This law is not designed to reach a religious result, but a benefit that shall be enjoyed by all, whether religious or not.
Such a law is proper and should be enforced.”—The Pillars of Truth, p. 94.
John Todd, D. D., has lately written a book to Sunday School Teachers, one whole chapter of which is devoted to setting forth the immediate duty of the State to enact a restrictive Sunday law.
B. S. BARNES.