Would Compel People to Keep the Sabbath by W. A. C.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Aug 27, 1908

Would Compel People to Keep the Sabbath

By W. A. C.

A WOMAN, signing herself Katherine Farrar, of Creston, Iowa, writing on the subject of “Sabbath Observance,” to the St. Louis Woman’s National Daily, says:—

“I believe it is the duty of every American citizen to stand for any and all laws that help create a higher moral and spiritual atmosphere, whether these laws be man-made or God-made. If a man will not abide by the law voluntarily, then it is the province of the law to make him do so. If people will not voluntarily observe the Sabbath, then the law should compel them to do so or pay the penalty. My Bible says if I break God’s laws, I have sinned, and it also tells me that ‘the wages of sin is death.’ Not only does the Rev. Wilbur F. Crafts want Sunday observed, but every loyal American citizen wants it, and Christ wants it. We who love law and order will not leave this, our native land, to those who would indulge their own narrow ideas regardless of the wishes of others, their peace of mind and safety. Freedom does not mean self-indulgence; liberty does not mean that every man shall have his own individual way.”

This, though written by a woman, smacks not a little of the spirit of religious persecution. It would seem to justify carrying matters to the extent even of taking the lives of those who might refuse to observe the sabbath prescribed by human law. Surely some one should labor for those Christians who, like the apostles, are so far in the dark that they know not what manner of spirit they are of, but would call for summary vengeance upon those who do not do as they do, and refuse to follow them. W. A. C.