Religious Liberty Notes
By K. C. RUSSELL
An earnest letter has been received by our department from Elder Andrew Nelson, the president of the Oklahoma Conference, concerning the religious liberty work in his field. The North American of Nov. 22, 1905, says that “the Carbon County, Pennsylvania, Sabbath Association has petitioned the Lehigh Valley Railroad Company, the Central Railroad of New Jersey, and the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company to discontinue Sunday work as much as possible.” The possibility of reaching the masses through the public press was demonstrated recently as the result of pointed articles written for the New York City papers by the New York Religious Liberty Secretary, Elder J. S. Wightman, showing the meaning of the great Inter-Church Federation Movement. He estimates that these articles reached an aggregate of seven million readers, as they were copied by papers in other cities. Elder F. I. Richardson, president of the Arizona Conference, writes that it seems to him that the National Reformers, in their efforts to have Christianity acknowledged as the standard and basis of our national legislation in the proposed anti-polygamy amendment to the Constitution, reveal just what they have been drifting toward for years, and he feels deeply over this movement. He further says that polygamy is a curse, and should be dealt with from the standpoint of a breach of civil law, the same as bigamy. Elder A. R. Ogden, Kansas Religious Liberty Secretary, writes a strong appeal to our people in his territory, in which he says: “In the present missionary campaign I trust that our brethren will not forget the living issue of ‘religious liberty,’ and in connection with the circulation of literature will give the religious liberty literature its share of attention. The issue of religious persecution is right upon us. The opponents of present truth are laying their plans, and artfully working to make religion a fundamental part of our laws. All need to understand at this time the true principles of Christian liberty.” At the request of the local W. C. T. U., of Winston-Salem, N. C., where Brother Thomas C. Hege recently served a sixty days’ sentence in jail for selling goods on Sunday, several pastors of different churches of the place preached on Sabbath observance. In his sermon delivered on Sunday, October 29, the pastor of the Methodist Episcopal church said, among other things: “The desecration of Sunday is rebellion against God. If we can not have laws, we will have to grant polygamy, free love, and the like. It is a dark picture, this Sabbath-breaking business. No government, State or national, has a right to desecrate God’s day. The city council enforced the law. I indorse it. God was glorified. In God’s name, I protest against any Sunday sales. How can we correct these evils? Answer: Contend with the nobles. Demand, and the demand will be granted. Educate, educate, educate. Agitate, and keep up agitation.”
K. C. RUSSELL.