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Pacific Press Publishing Company · New York · January 17, 1895

An American Citizen Defends His Faith and His Rights.

A Victim of the Sunday-law Crusade Is Fined $50 and Costs For Keeping Open Store on the “Lord’s Day.”

W. T. GIBSON, a Seventh-day Adventist, of Everett, Mass., is arrested as the result of the work of a spy, who, sent by the mayor, purchases a half-pound of candy, and then informs. The defendant, when brought into court, pleaded his case substantially as follows:—

W. T. Gibson.—Your honor, I would like to say that I am not acquainted with the rules of the court-room, and therefore ask that you make allowance for any mistake I may make in pleading my case.

Judge Pettengill.—I think you will have no trouble.

G.—Your honor, the summons which brought me into this court accuses the defendant of keeping open shop on the Lord’s day, to which charge I plead not guilty (drawing a New Testament from his pocket); and I desire to define the Lord’s day by the declarations of Him who is the Lord of the Lord’s day as they are recorded in the Lord’s book.

Prosecuting Attorney.—Your honor, I object.

Judge.—Mr. Gibson, this is a civil, not an ecclesiastical court.

G.—Your honor, the summons which brought me before this court is by virtue of a law respecting an establishment of religion; and the very wording of the summons necessitates a religious controversy. The summons does not accuse defendant of doing work on the first day of the week, commonly called Sunday, but on the “Lord’s day;” and I desire to read from the Lord’s book a few scriptures, which will explain why I plead not guilty of doing business on the Lord’s day. The Lord’s book is the only authority which can decide which is the Lord’s day.

Judge.—Go on, Mr. Gibson.

G.—I wish to refer you to Mark 2: 27, 28, which reads: “And he said unto them, The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath: Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath.” Again, speaking of the Lord Jesus, the declaration is made in the second and third verses of the first chapter of the Gospel by John, that “the same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made.” The first declaration, your honor, asserts that

the Sabbath was made; and the second scripture declares that the Lord Jesus, who was in the beginning with the Father, made all things that were made in the beginning: hence, the Lord made the Sabbath day, and is therefore, rightfully Lord of the Sabbath day or Lord’s day. He it was who labored six days and rested the seventh day; “wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it.” Now, having shown that the Son of man is Lord of the Sabbath day, I call your attention to Luke 23:56, to show which day of the seven is the Sabbath or Lord’s day.

Judge.—Please wait a moment, Mr. Gibson. Clerk, will you bring me the Bible? (After securing the court-room Bible, and blowing the dust from its covers) Mr. Gibson, what was your first reference?

G.—Mark 2: 27, 28.

Judge.—(After finding the text)—Go on, Mr. Gibson.

G.—I was about to read Luke 23:54–56. The text reads as follows: “And that day was the preparation, and the Sabbath drew on. And the women also, which came with him from Galilee, followed after, and beheld the sepulchre, and how his body was laid. And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments; and rested the Sabbath day according to the commandment. Now (next verse, chap. 24, verse 1) upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulchre, bringing the spices which they had prepared, and certain others with them.” The text first quoted states that the Son of man is Lord of the Sabbath. This text states that “the Sabbath day according to the commandment” is the day which precedes the first day of the week. The Son of man is therefore Lord of the day which precedes the first day of the week, and that day is the Sabbath or seventh day of the week. Therefore the only day which the Son of man declares himself the Lord of, is the seventh day of the week and not the first day, hence the seventh day of the week, or the day preceding the first day of the week, is the Lord’s day.

Your honor, I would like to ask you if the law by which I am prosecuted, relative to the Lord’s day, is not based upon the fourth precept of the Decalogue?

Judge.—I question your right to ask the court such a question.

G.—Your honor, I do not insist upon your answering it, but would regard the answer as a personal favor.

Judge.—Well, I presume that it is.

G.—Well, then, your honor, we will presume that the law is based on the fourth commandment, which says: “Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work; but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.” Now, your honor, all civil law, not only in this country, but in all countries, recognizes Sunday as the first day of the week; therefore Saturday, the world over, is the seventh day of the week. And, according to the testimony of Christ, as read from the New Testament, Saturday, the seventh day of the civil law of the commonwealth of Massachusetts and of all the countries of the world, is the Lord’s day, a memorial of the creative power of Jesus Christ. The defendant is, therefore, according to the Lord’s book, not guilty of keeping open shop on the Lord’s day.

It is admitted that the scriptures which I have read were written thirty years after the resurrection of the Lord; therefore, the Holy Spirit which the Lord promised to send, and did send, to lead men into all truth, after he ascended to his Father, and which indicted the scriptures quoted, teaches, thirty years after the ascension of the Lord, and still teaches to-day, that the seventh day of the week—the day preceding the first day of the week—is the Lord’s day, according to the fourth precept of the Decalogue.

The command relative to the Sabbath regulates the Christian’s duty every day in every weekly cycle in every year; in fact, it regulates the duty of man every day of his life; and the command, “Six days shalt thou labor,” is just as explicit as the command to rest the seventh day.

Civil law cannot regulate the duties enjoined by the first four precepts of the law. These precepts enjoin duties, which can be rendered to God only, and defendant is accountable alone to God for the manner in which he observes the fourth commandment.

Your honor, I claim the divine right of dissent, and therefore deny the right of the pope of Rome, the czar of Russia, the president of the United States, or the mayor of the city of Everett, to prescribe for me my religious duty. All I ask, as a free-born American citizen, and as a man, is the free exercise of my civil and religious right to worship God according to the dictates of my own conscience. I deny the right of the magistrate to compel me to observe the first day of the week, and thereby deprive me of one-sixth of my time in which to earn my living.

I have observed the Sabbath since 1878, previous to which time I kept Sunday. I require no civil law to enable me to keep the seventh day, and every one around me exercises his right to keep Sunday and labor on Saturday; and no man disturbs me in keeping Saturday. I disturb no man on Sunday or on any other day, and no man thus accuses me. All I ask is the free exercise of my right to worship Him who said, “The Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath,” and the right to labor six days, according to the dictates of my own conscience, so long as I do not actually disturb my neighbors.

Your honor, I have not interfered with any natural or constitutional right of my neighbors, and I am not guilty of keeping open shop on the Lord’s day. And I trust you will so decide.

The court fined Mr. Gibson fifty dollars and costs; but remarked that he would not attempt to defend his decision except to cite a precedent of a higher court. Mr. Gibson appealed his case, and it should have been tried ere this; but for political and other reasons, the case is still pending, although Mr. Gibson, who is a poor man, has repeatedly demanded a trial in the interests of himself and his business.