Old Blue-Laws Bob Up

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Aug 20, 1908

“Old Blue-Laws Bob Up”

HON. G. H. WALSER, of Liberal, Mo., a retired lawyer and an ex-member of the Missouri Legislature, takes the ministers of Lamar, Mo., to task for publishing a petition calling on the business men of the place to lend their assistance to an effort to secure for the city compulsory Sunday rest. In his review of their work, published in three of the leading daily papers of Lamar, and also in leaflet form, under the title, “Old Blue-Laws Bob Up,” Mr. Walser says:—

“From time immemorial the public has been trained to sit in the sanctuary and take down all the ministers say without question; for it is not only impolite to challenge their remarks, however absurd, but a little dangerous, lest one be accused of disturbing public worship; but when ministers go into print, as four of those of Lamar did last week in publishing a petition calling on the business men to lend their assistance in procuring for the city of Lamar a ‘Sabbath day of rest,’ their utterances become public property, and the public has the right of criticism if they take untenable grounds.

“While I am not interested in the Sunday observances in Lamar, yet I am, as every other citizen, interested in all questions that threaten the rights of citizenship in this country. I certainly believe, as a hygienic practise, that men should have one day in seven for rest and recreation from their common vocations; but I would let them choose their own way of that exercise. If they wish to go to church, let them do so. If they want to play ball, go fishing, bathing, attend theaters, or other innocent places of amusement, those inclinations should be encouraged; for Sunday is the only day that working people have for recreation, and it is both a moral and social criminality to deny them that right.

“Those four learned ministers who desire to enforce their way upon the people of Sunday observance, base their arguments on the genius of our government, and what they call the laws of God; and in stating premises they either show themselves to be uninformed on the subject they have brought up, or they wilfully misrepresent Biblical literature.

“In their plea for the proper observance of the ‘Lord’s Day, or Sabbath,’ they submit the following reasons: First, That it is God’s law, and that this is a Christian government. Neither proposition is true. This is not a Christian government. Under our Constitution all men can worship God according to the dictates of their consciences, whether they be Christians, Jews, Gentiles, Mohammedans, Brahmans, Buddhists, Spiritualists, or infidels. They are all protected alike. Second, They beg for a closer observance of the Lord’s day, or Sabbath, and quote as authority the third [fourth] commandment which says, ‘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,’ etc.

“If the Sabbath day has a binding obligation, then Saturday is that day, and not the first day of the week called Sunday.

“Now what of Sunday? Has Sunday any binding force in and of itself as a divine institution? Sunday is not mentioned in the New Testament. It is altogether a religious conception which was first attempted to be enforced by an imperial order of Constantine, in the year 321, in which he decreed that all court business except the manumission of slaves, and all other business except agricultural, should be suspended.

“In the year 425, Theodosius II ordered that all games and theatrical exhibitions be suspended. At the third council of Orleans, in the year 538, all kinds of labor were forbidden on Sunday. There is no divine authority anywhere to be found that makes any distinction between Sunday and other days. Every Sunday law, from the days of Constantine to the present, has been enacted by secular lawmakers for the purpose of boosting the Christian religion, and forcing its observance on the people.”