Untitled article | AdventAI

Pacific Press Publishing Company · New York · December 8, 1892

FromThe American Sentinel, Vol. 7, No. 48

An Unfortunate Disparity.

We know from all the examples of history, from all the long horrible record of bigotry and intolerance, that any union of Church and State is fatal to public interest, any governmental interference with the religious actions or beliefs of men a cruel and unjustifiable offense against our rights and liberties. There is no principle more thoroughly American than that every man shall practice and profess any religion or no religion that he shall choose. There can be no principle more barbaric and autocratic, more thoroughly un-American, than the enforcement of religious duties or sacraments by the civic power. It is a relic of a brutal and fearful past. It recalls the rack and the thumbscrew. It conjures up visions of the fires of Smithfield, of the tortures of Torquemada, and the persecutions of Salem. It is revolting, not alone to all sentiments of political justice and governmental equity, but to that sweet spirit of gentleness and love which is the appeal in the heart of Christianity. Beside all these reasons, such an action is utterly unconstitutional. As far as the laws of Tennessee are concerned there is no conclusion to be reached, as the Constitution reads: “All men have a natural and indefeasible right to worship Almighty God according to the dictates of their own conscience; . . . that no human authority can, in any case whatever, control or interfere with the rights of conscience; and that no preference shall ever be given to any religious establishment or mode of worship,”—whereas the statutes show this beautiful disparity:—

SEC. 2289. If any merchant, artificer, tradesman, farmer, or other person, shall be guilty of doing or exercising any of the common avocations of life, or of causing or permitting the same to be done by his children or servants, acts of real necessity or charity excepted, on Sunday, he shall on due conviction thereof before any Justice of the Peace of the County, forfeit and pay three dollars, one half to the person who shall sue for the same, the other half for the use of the county.

The Sunday Times would respectfully direct the attention of all good men to this infringement of American rights and liberties; and would further respectfully refer this barbaric and obsolete statute to our candidates for the Legislature.—Sunday Times, Memphis, Tenn.