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Pacific Press Publishing Company · New York · February 12, 1891

FromThe American Sentinel, Vol. 6, No. 7

Sunday Closing in Denver.

Sometime ago, the city government of Denver, Colorado, passed a Sunday-closing ordinance, similar to that which has recently been enacted in Los Angeles, and Santa Barbara, and to that which is asked for here. At first, and for a time, there was a show of enforcing the ordinance in Denver; but now, according to the statements of the local press, the law is “a dead letter.” It will doubtless be so in this State. The Sunday-closing ordinance will probably not long be enforced in Los Angeles, and Santa Barbara, and it would not be here, should it be passed. It would speedily fall into the same condition as the State Sunday law, for years before its repeal—completely inoperative and thoroughly ignored. As the Colorado Graphic says: “No Sunday law was ever enforced thoroughly and permanently.”

Especially must this be the case in a country where Church and State are entirely separate, and the civil Government is pledged to protect all religions alike and favor none. Those who observe the seventh day (Saturday) as the Sabbath, have the same right to governmental recognition and protection as those who observe the first day of the week as their religious rest day. Jews and Christians stand equal before the law.

The pretense that the Sunday-closing law is asked for simply in the interest of temperance, good health, and the public peace and welfare, and not that of a religious dogma, is a very false and shallow one. It deceives nobody. Laws enforcing public order and hygienic conditions are as necessary one day of the week as another. Temperance and cleanliness are no more desirable on Sunday than on Monday or Tuesday. It is only a peculiar phase of religious belief that would distinguish Sunday above the other days of the week. Whatever church drill and partisan zeal may be able to accomplish in the way of legal enactments enforcing Sunday observance, the good sense and free spirit of the people will render them null and void. —Oakland, California, Times.