p. 7 | L. A. S by L. A. S.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · Jul 27, 1905

L. A. S

By L. A. S.

RECENTLY in The Defender, organ of the New England Sabbath Protective League, there was printed an “Address to the Public,” signed by the secretaries of eleven “Sabbath societies,” urging the public to do certain things for the furtherance of Sabbath observance in this country. Among the things specified in this exhortation were the observance of the “World’s week of prayer for the Lord’s day;” opposition by voice and letter to Sunday opening of the Lewis and Clark Exposition at Portland; petitions to Congress for a District of Columbia Sunday law; opposition to Sunday sports and amusements, invoking the law against Sunday-breakers wherever practicable; and (on the part of religious gatherings) the discountenancing of all Sunday excursions.

There is just one thing which the eleven Sabbath society secretaries left out of this appeal,—one significant omission. They forgot to exhort the public to read what the Almighty says about the duty of Sunday observance, citing them to the texts where this duty is set forth in God’s Word. Would not this have been very appropriate in an exhortation to the public to conform to the standard of Christian living? The Word of God in the matter is the supreme thing, yet not a reference is made in the whole appeal to any instructions given by Him in whose behalf this Sabbath observance zeal is to be manifested. For the benefit of one class of people, if not for the general public, they should have cited the omitted scriptures,—the class who have been unable hitherto to find in the Word of God any authority for calling Sunday the Sabbath or for paying regard to it as a sacred day.