Religious Liberty Notes
By K. C. Russell
The writer attended the convention of the Federation of Churches held in New York City, November 15-20, and hopes to report some features of interest from this significant gathering of churchmen. Brethren H. W. Reed and S. F. Shadel, of the Wisconsin Conference, have been doing some earnest work during the month of October in the distribution of our religious liberty literature. They report an aggregate of 25,585 tracts distributed. The president of the Nebraska Conference, Elder A. T. Robinson, expresses his convictions concerning the great movement in the interest of religious legislation as follows: “I am satisfied that the movement which aroused our people years ago, and which has appeared to die out, is in reality not dead, but be sleeping. The leaders of that movement rushed into the enterprise without reckoning with the forces they had to meet. As stated in ‘Great Controversy’ and the Testimonies, this movement is now moving in a secret way, gathering forces for an open movement later.” In response to “ecclesiastical petitions” and the efforts of “Sabbatarian agitators,” the Ministry of the Victorian Parliament, in Australia, has lately prohibited the running of all suburban trains in the city of Melbourne on Sunday. The Melbourne Argus styles this “a distinctly retrograde move,” and asks, “Why should the ministry become the agent of the churches in a religious crusade? Are the people of Melbourne children who have to be dragooned by a parental government into the due observance of Sunday?” Elder S. B. Whitney gives an interesting report in the New York Indicator of the 8th inst. concerning the fifteenth annual meeting of the New York State Sabbath Association, which was held in Syracuse, October 1, from which we quote the following: “A variety of ideas, at times conflicting, was presented, some of the speakers saying better than they knew. Shutting the eyes while listening to some of the remarks, one could almost imagine himself in a Seventh-day Adventist meeting. One speaker said that legislation would never accomplish what they desired, but they must have a revival of the Spirit’s power. Another said that the best means of preserving the Sabbath was to impress its sacredness by teaching it from the Bible, from the fact that the authority of the fourth commandment is relaxed in the minds of many Christian people, and they become largely responsible for the increased desecration of the Sabbath. A third deprecated this laxity of sentiment, and argued the sanctity and perpetuity of the fourth commandment as strongly as a seventh-day advocate, confirming his position with the statement that the Lord Jesus respected and observed the seventh day. Mr. Stanley stated with double emphasis that the crucial time had come for the decision of the question as to whether we are to save or lose our Christian American sabbath, and that the conflict would center on the Pacific Coast.”
K. C. RUSSELL.