Religious Liberty Notes
By W. A. COLCORD
A CLERK of one of the courts of Washington paid for one thousand copies of our leaflet, “Religion in the Public Schools,” which was distributed quite extensively here during the recent agitation over this question. Brother Tom C. Hege, of Winston, N. C., has again been arrested for keeping open his store on Sunday. The mayor, before whom he has previously been brought several times on like charges, says he dislikes to try him, as, upon inquiry, he has been unable to learn that Brother Hege has ever harmed any one. Under date of June 3, the American Citizen, of Boston, published an address on “The School Fight in Washington,” delivered by Mrs. Stella Archer Maloney, one of our sisters, before the Berkeley Hall, Boston, Patriotic Lecture Course. The address occupied over seven columns in the paper, and was printed in response to a vote of the meeting that it should be published. A note published not long ago in The Defender, the official organ of the New England Sabbath Protective League, said: “Special copies of this issue are sent to the Roman Catholic clergy of New England.” In this number was published an article on “The Sunday Question,” written by an “Italian preacher,” of Florence, Italy, in which occurred the following statements: “The Holy Bible tells us that God rested on the seventh day and sanctified it.” “Jesus, when he came into the world, confirmed the law, but he, by his church, transferred the day of rest from the last to the first day of the week. The first day of the week thus became the Lord’s day.” “Sunday belongs to God, and you must respect the property of the Almighty.” This is perfectly in accord with the Catholic view, and with the fact that “the church” changed the Sabbath; and its appearance in The Defender shows that in their defense of the Sunday Sabbath, Protestants are going over onto Catholic ground. In a constitution which it is said the czar intends to grant Russia, the following provisions are of special interest: “Every subject is allowed to express his opinion without fear of punishment in the press or in speech, in all matters political or otherwise.” “Every citizen is free to choose his own religion; and all sects, Christian or others, are to have equal rights.” Had Russia recognized and granted to her citizens these unalienable rights, perhaps she would not have needed to be humbled as she has been lately. The town council of Claremore, I. T., has just passed an ordinance penalizing one dollar “every person who shall on the Sabbath, or Sunday, be found laboring, or shall compel his apprentice or servant to labor or perform other services than the customary household duties, of daily necessity, comfort, or charity.” “Every person who shall on Sunday keep open any store or retail any goods, wares, or merchandise” is to be fined from ten to twenty dollars. And “any person who shall on the Christian sabbath, or Sunday, be engaged in any game” is subject to a fine of from ten to twenty-five dollars. We must be drifting back rapidly into slavery if men can now “compel” their apprentices and servants to labor on Sunday, or on any other day.
W. A. COLCORD.