p. 278, para. 1 | Untitled article

Untitled article

Pacific Press Publishing Company · New York · September 3, 1891

FromThe American Sentinel, Vol. 6, No. 35

Of the King case, now so prominently before the country, the Sabbath Recorder says:—

Such are the legitimate fruits of the “civil Sabbath” laws for which the Sunday Sabbath reformers are so loudly clamoring, and so earnestly working. Given such laws throughout the United States, and every Sabbath-keeper in the country would be exposed to just that kind of treatment. In the language of Judge Hammond, “Malice, religious or otherwise, may dictate a prosecution,” and there is evidence of sufficient malice against Sabbath-keepers to dictate a good many prosecutions, “but if the law has been violated this fact never shields the law-breaker.” In other words, the law takes no notice of the unworthy and unholy motives which prompt the prosecution. If men set apart, by law, Sunday as a civil rest day, it must be observed as such, without regard to the law of God; and if any man shall choose to do otherwise, even from the most conscientious regard to the laws of God, the spirit of malice may follow him to the bitter end, and the law grants him no protection in the exercise of his religious convictions. This is what “civil Sabbath” means, Judge Hammond, of the United States District Court, being judge. We are sure that no Seventh-day Baptist desires to be put into such a position as that. We are quite sure, also, that no Seventh-day Baptist would willingly do anything to place anybody else in such a position.