Untitled article by W. A. Colcord

Pacific Press Publishing Company · New York · March 10, 1892

FromThe American Sentinel, Vol. 7, No. 10

Specious Reasoning.

By W. A. Colcord

THE Christian Statesman, of February 20, 1892, has the following argument to justify Sunday laws:—

A republic can not exist without morality, nor morality without religion, nor religion without the Sabbath, nor the Sabbath without law.

Allowing that the Sabbath is an important element in religion, it is not, however, all that is essential to true religion. Prayer is essential. Let us try the same logic with reference to this: A republic can not exist without morality, nor morality without religion, nor religion without prayer, nor prayer without law, therefore the Government must make a law requiring all to pray. This is as logical as the other, for those who call not upon God are as truly irreligious as those who do not keep his Sabbath. And this is the logic of National Reformers, who know of no other way to advance religion than by law. With them law is the last resort and final appeal in religious matters.

Such reasoning makes human law (for that is the sort of law that is meant), the ultimate source of religion. Religion can not exist without the Sabbath, nor the Sabbath without law; therefore, in order to have religion, the Government must legislate,—must pass a Sabbath law! That is to say that religion can not exist without the aid and support of the Government, or, in other words, without Church and State being united. But who does not know better? Who does not know that it has existed not only without the aid of law but in spite of it? Witness the rise and progress of Christianity during the first two centuries.

If the Statesman had said, a republic can not exist without morality, nor morality without religion, nor genuine religion without conversion and a change of heart, which can be affected by no human law, but by the preaching of the gospel and the influence of the Spirit of God only, it would have come nearer the truth. A purified heart is the only place where genuine religion can dwell. But the heart can be purified only by God, and that by faith. Acts 15:9. Repentance must precede conversion, but it is the goodness of God, not civil laws, that leads to repentance. Rom. 2:4. As well might we expect to gather grapes from thorns, or figs from thistles, as to expect the fruits of religion from those who are unconverted. It is only the good man out of the good treasure of his heart that brings forth good fruit. That religion which expects Sabbath-keeping, religion, and morality, which will be acceptable to God, to come from unregenerated hearts, is not the religion of Jesus Christ, but the doctrine of antichrist. All the religion that can ever come from laws enacted by civil governments can at best be only in form. This is the religion of the National Reform party, the American Sabbath Union, and all the other Sunday-law parties and Sunday Rest Leagues now in existence or that ever will be. Those holding it are well described by the Apostle Paul in 2 Tim. 3:5 as those “having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof.” What can be a greater denial of the power of God to transform the heart, renew the life, and perpetuate religion, than to assert that religion is dependent for its existence upon the legislative enactments of puny men, and wicked men at that?

It is true that the true Sabbath has law for its foundation and maintenance; but it is the law of Him who made the Sabbath, and not of him for whom it was made. This Sabbath is no more dependent for its existence upon human laws than are the returning seasons.

Wherever men are found who know their Creator and honor him, there will be found those who keep, to the best of their enlightenment, the Sabbath of the Lord, in memory of whose works and in honor of whom it was instituted. The law referred to reads: “Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work: but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work,” etc. Here is the all-sufficient Sabbath law. He who has this law for the foundation of his Sabbath observance needs no other. But the fact that this refers to another Sabbath than the one the Statesman and its allies are observing, is doubtless the reason they are seeking elsewhere for “law” to keep in existence the Sabbath of their choice. The Sabbath of the Lord needs no such support, and those who observe it ask for none; they will observe it without such law, and in spite of law.

W. A. COLCORD.