Untitled article by A. E. Place

Pacific Press Publishing Company · New York · February 25, 1892

FromThe American Sentinel, Vol. 7, No. 8

That Steamboat.

By A. E. Place

LAST summer a little pleasure steamer, capable of carrying perhaps fifteen or twenty persons, passed through Fulton, New York, in the canal, on Sundays, on its way to picnic grounds up the river. This became a shocking affair to some of the members of the Auxiliary American Sabbath Union of that place. Therefore the Union was called together, and the subject introduced in the form of a question:—

Did any one see or hear that steamboat yesterday?

No one had seen or heard it. In fact, any one to see or hear it must needs be down at the canal; for, six rods away no one would know that it was passing. This is but one more evidence of how easily some people are disturbed and shocked on Sunday, and what forms the basis of some pleas for Sunday laws.

But the secret is that that boat had been known to take from the village, and the church, some professors of religion, and others, who, of course, would not have gone from the church or village had it not been for that unsanctified, pleasure-seeking steamboat. Hence the boat must be dealt with. What for?—Presumably to keep these otherwise good people from being forced to go on excursions, and thereby lose the sermons and church privileges on the “American Sabbath.”

I believe that these American Sabbath Union clergymen could do more real good for their church and their country in one week of real earnest, Christ-like work with the hearts of these individuals, who have not religion enough to lead them to church, or keep them away from the pleasure steamboat on Sunday, than they can in a lifetime of trying to legislate away the civil rights of American citizens. The Church to-day needs more of the power of God and less of the power of the State; and then she would have more power with the people, and the little steamboat down in the canal would not disturb the church on the hill. A. E. Place.