Religious Liberty Notes
By K. C. RUSSELL
THERE is a lively issue now on in Columbia, S. C., over the question of Sunday closing. Elder E. W. Webster has been doing excellent work there in educating the people by writing for the public press concerning the evil of religious legislation. He is planning to place religious liberty literature in the hands of the people. Rev. T. Albert Moore, general secretary of the Lord’s Day Alliance in Canada, recently at a meeting in Winnipeg, Manitoba, “emphasized the fact that true national greatness of any country lay in the character of its citizens. To build up a great nation, he said, it was absolutely essential that the Lord’s day be observed. He noted that no nation had risen to greatness and maintained its position, which had desecrated the Sabbath. As soon as a nation degraded its rest day its glory waned.” The Post Standard, of Syracuse, N. Y., reports that one of the ministers said at a recent Presbyterian Synod: “Christians have a right to demand that these [Sunday] laws be enforced as they will be partakers of their deeds [the deeds of those who disregard Sunday laws]. What is the use of preaching of ‘civic pride’ when the wicked walk on every side? Let every minister demand from his pulpit that these good laws be enforced.” What a blessing it would be if their demanding were only confined to the pulpit! At a banquet held November 16 in New Haven, Conn., there was a dramatic scene when W. J. Slocum, a prominent Roman Catholic priest of Waterbury, Conn., and Rev. Artemas J. Haynes, pastor of the United Congregational Church of New Haven, clasped hands. The report says: “As both clasped hands, one hundred and fifty business and professional men stood with bowed heads while Father Slocum said: ‘I feel proud at the words of my Protestant brother. It is time the Protestant and Catholic should forget the differences of faith and stand united as American citizens, the grandest and greatest on the face of the earth.’” Words worth remembering were written by President Roosevelt in his communication addressed to the Jews of this country at the celebration of their two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of their settlement in this country, which was held Thanksgiving day, Nov. 30, 1905, in New York City. In referring to the suffering the Jews had been subjected to in other lands, the President said: “I feel very strongly that if any people are oppressed anywhere, the wrong inevitably reacts in the end on those who oppress them; for it is an immutable law in the spiritual world that no one can wrong others and yet in the end himself escape unhurt.” Elder H. W. Reed gives a report of the eighth annual meeting of the Wisconsin Federation of Churches and Christian Workers in the Wisconsin Reporter of November 29, in which he quotes the following from their annual report: “The existence of this body represents one hundred and thirty thousand people in this State, who stand for Christian morals and for the securing of better legislation. The petition which was sent to Madison last fall aided greatly in getting better Sabbath observance. This federation has drawn together seventeen divided Methodist bodies, thirteen Baptist, twelve Presbyterian, as well as other denominations. This federation in the eighth year of its existence deserves our continued and enthusiastic support. The time has come for the churches to stand together and pull together for the extending of the kingdom of God in our State.” A prominent attorney of Fremont, Neb., writes our department regarding a signal victory he has scored for “religious freedom” in the State of Nebraska against Sunday legislation in defending parties who had been arrested for Sunday baseball playing. The following quotation from his letter shows that he attributes much of his success to the assistance rendered him by the Religious Liberty Bureau: “With the aid of the splendid literature sent to me by your society and Dr. W. S. Butterbaugh, of Johnson, Neb., I was able, with my assistants, to meet every proposition advanced. The verdict returned in this case is a grand stand taken, and I believe it foretells the coming of a better day, a time when you and I will know that the splendid efforts made by your society have not been made in vain. I desire at this time to express to you my heartfelt thanks for the interest taken, and the assistance that you have rendered me in this case.”