No Such Legislation Needed

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Dec 10, 1908

No Such Legislation Needed

In their efforts to defend legal enactments in behalf of the Sunday Sabbath, some of the modern reformers become hopelessly mixed in their arguments. Dr. W. F. Crafts furnishes a good illustration of this:—

Let us use an allegory. We are building a city. It is to consist of three hundred sixty-five squares. We decide to leave fifty-two squares vacant, one here and one there throughout the city. These vacant squares are to be little parks, where the tired mother may bring her babe for fresh air in the afternoon of a summer day; where the father may come and rest after his day’s labor. But no law exists, let us imagine, to prevent building upon these vacant squares. Soon a manufactory will pre-empt one corner, a warehouse will stand upon another; while a saloon will settle upon a third. What is needed? Not a law to compel men and women to come thither and rest, but a law to protect these parks from the encroachments of business and greed. The fifty-two squares are our sabbath days. We need legislation, not to compel any one to attend the sanctuary, but to give him the liberty to rest from weekly toil, and to be present in God’s house, if he desires to be there.

To the careless thinker, this argument by illustration might seem quite plausible, but as a matter of fact there is no parallel between the two cases. Legislation is required to prevent unprincipled persons from seizing vacant property of which there is no owner; but no legislation is necessary to make it possible for any person to rest on any day which he may choose. Many thousands of Jews, Seventh-day Baptists, and Seventh-day Adventists rest on the seventh day of the week without any law compelling their employers to grant them the day, and without any demand on their part for such legislation. Why do not these reformers feel the same solicitude for those who observe the seventh day of the week as the Sabbath as for those who observe the first day of the week? The answer is evident. The effort is really in behalf of the day rather than in behalf of the people. The real purpose of Sunday laws is to prevent the desecration of the day, and not simply to give “the liberty to rest from weekly toil.” Every one has that liberty now, if he is willing to exercise it.