Missionaries, Sunday Laws, and Manhood
The report that the trouble in China originated in the claim of Christians to immunity from burdens borne by natives generally, simply because they were Christians, is not as improbable as it might seem at first sight. If true, history is simply repeating itself in China. Too often have missionaries gone into heathen lands carrying, not peace, but war; trusting not to the power of the gospel, but to the power of the state. It is to be feared that this is true in large measure in China. “The purpose of Sunday laws,” says Rev. J. B. Davison, of the Wisconsin Sunday Rest Day Association, “is not to upbuild any church, or all churches, or religion in general, but to protect liberty, health, home, character, and general prosperity and thus upbuild true manhood, the main element of strength in a republic.” True manhood is the main element of strength in a republic; but Mr. Davison errs in assuming that true manhood can be fostered by laws for Sunday observance. The individual who has true manhood will not lean on the laws; and the more an individual depends upon the legislature to secure for him liberty, health, home and character, the more dependent and lacking in true manhood will he become. Laws protect rights, but they cannot foster manhood; that must be born in an individual, or he must be educated to it. And he who believes in a God and in the binding claims of the divine law, will show his manhood by observing the Sabbath independently of human customs and laws, simply because he believes it to be his duty; this he will do if he has true manhood, and if not, his want of moral backbone cannot be supplied by a civil enactment. No man can learn to walk erect by leaning on a crutch. The more Sunday laws there are passed to enable people to do right, the more will people depend upon the law for their right doing, and that true manhood which is the main element of strength in the republic will be weakened rather than built up. Let the people be taught to do right because it is right, and to depend upon themselves for “health, home and character” rather than on the laws, if the prosperity of the republic is to be maintained.