An Unjust Cause by L. A. S.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · Nov 2, 1905

An Unjust Cause

By L. A. S.

THE cause which is unfair, which can attain its ends only by the perpetration of injustice, is a bad cause. By this test let us examine that cause in behalf of which Sunday laws are passed and enforced.

The religious world is divided over the question whether the first day of the week or the seventh day is the Christian Sabbath. Many people adhere to the seventh day, because that is the day specified in the fourth precept of the decalogue. They conscientiously observe that day as the Sabbath. The individual of this class is required by the Sunday law either to abandon the day he has formerly observed, and which he believes to be the Sabbath, or to observe two days in each week. He must choose one of the two horns of this dilemma, or suffer the penalties of the law. Shall he give up the observance of the seventh day, which he conscientiously believes to be the Sabbath? Shall he deliberately violate each week what he believes to be a plain command of Jehovah? To force him to pursue such a course would be most unjust; this all will admit. It is not the purpose of those advocating Sunday laws, say they, to force people to discontinue the observance of the seventh day or to do violence to their consciences. If the Sunday law required such a thing as this, it would be contrary to every principle of fairness, and would merit only condemnation. This is beyond dispute.

Suppose, then, that he undertakes to observe two days of rest in the week. This involves at once the sacrifice of one seventh of his time; and if he has a family to support, this becomes, merely from a financial standpoint, a very serious matter. If he can barely provide a living for his family by working six days in the week, what will happen to them if his working days are reduced to five? In this case the Sunday law requires that a man shall either violate his conscience or see his family reduced to want. These laws allow, indeed, of works of 'necessity or mercy,' but to provide a living for one's family by working six days in the week, including Sunday, is not regarded from the Sunday law standpoint as pertaining either to necessity or mercy.

The Sunday law, therefore, either requires a man to set aside his conscience and make himself a transgressor before God, or it imposes on him a tax amounting to one sixth of his working time. Reduced to money, this would be in the case of the average working man a far heavier tax than that assessed by the state upon his property. Is such taxation fair? Is it fair to compel an individual either to submit to such a loss or to abandon his religious belief?

But more than this: the Sabbath commandment separates the Sabbath from all other days of the week. It sets the seventh day apart from all the others, making a distinction between them on the point of rest. The seventh day is the rest day, the other days are working days. The Creator made this distinction at the beginning, and commands man to preserve it. Hence there can be but one Sabbath day, one rest day, in the week, and to observe two weekly days of rest is to break down the distinction by which the Creator honored the Sabbath. The fourth commandment requires that the seventh day be observed as the Sabbath, and that all other days of the week be regarded as working days. Hence the idea of observing two weekly days of rest, even if it involved no financial robbery, would fail on the ground of conscience, for it could not be carried out without breaking down the

distinction set up by the Creator. The seventh day observer is therefore compelled, in any case, either to violate his conscience or to break the law. He is compelled to choose between setting aside the law of God or the law of man. Naturally, he chooses to incur the wrath of man rather than that of God.

Is such a law fair? Is it just? Is it in accordance with the spirit of liberty which has made the American people a great nation in so short a time? Is it in accordance with gospel liberty? Is the cause which it is made to serve a righteous cause? These are questions which the people of this land should candidly consider. L. A. S.