Untitled article by A. O. Tait

Pacific Press Publishing Company · New York · April 21, 1892

FromThe American Sentinel, Vol. 7, No. 16

How Many Things Can Be the Chief Cause of the Evils of Our Day?

By A. O. Tait

In listening to the lectures and reading the statements of reformers, and those who would have us believe that they are reformers, we are often told of certain things that they positively affirm are the causes of all the evils in the land. For instance, the temperance reformer says that intemperance is at the bottom of every evil, and that if the whiskey curse were blotted from the land, sin and wickedness would be reduced to a minimum. For this statement there is a large amount of evidence, and the writer is not disposed to doubt it in the least. In fact the history of our race shows that the first sin ever committed was upon the point of intemperance, or what is the same, indulging the appetite in things that were forbidden, and wrong. And statistics are not wanting to show that much of the misery recorded on the pages of this world's history can be traced, either directly or indirectly, to intemperance.

But another, who would have us believe that he has an important reform movement to look after, tells us that all the crime and misery in the world is because men do not observe the Sabbath, and therefore we should have strict Sunday laws, compelling them to observe it. In a recent lecture upon this point, Rev. C. S. Royse, Field Secretary of the American Sabbath Union, in Minnesota, stated that the large number of divorces in Iowa was because the men didn't keep the Sabbath, and hence were not at home with their wives a sufficient amount of time to get acquainted with them to rightly love them and remain loyal to their marriage contract. He said that in Paris, men die very young because they don't keep the Sabbath.

Now, it would seem that before men make such statements they should fortify themselves with statistics that would show conclusively that such is the case. Missionaries tell us that the marriage contract is observed more sacredly among heathens who know nothing about Christianity, or the observance of any day as a Sabbath, than it is in the most refined community of Christian society. Now if the heathen adheres to the marriage vow without any Sabbath at all, why is it that a disregard of the Sabbath in more

enlightened countries would cause the men to seek divorces from their wives? And again, many of these heathen nations that observe no day as the Sabbath, are among the strongest men physically, and live to a good old age. Then why is it that men in France who, like the heathens, observe no Sabbath, should be short-lived, and physically weak, when the heathens, under the same conditions with respect to Sabbath rest, are physically strong?

The writer would not be understood, to argue that Sabbath rest is not beneficial. I believe in observing the Sabbath, and have carefully regarded it all through life, and have found it an incalculable blessing. But the fact that it is such a blessing to those who observe it religiously, is no reason why it should be enforced upon those who do not wish to regard it, and the evidence is still wanting to show that the individual who works seven days in the week will not live as long, and be as healthy as the man who only works six days, provided the individual who works all the week does not abuse himself by any form of dissipation, such as is quite common in France, and will take the amount of rest that nature requires every night. Night is the time which God gave men in which to rest, and while wrapped in slumber, the tissues of the body are built up and strengthened for the labors of the following day.

But it is a noticeable fact that when a man has a theory to uphold, and especially when that theory is one not well grounded in principle, what he lacks in argument, he endeavors to make up in strong assertions which, however, do not bear close scrutiny. A. O. TAIT.