Proceedings of the National Reform Convention
By C. S. Longacre
In a pamphlet which was circulated at this convention are set forth the following significant statements: “The state, then, being a moral person, must act in the sphere of morals and from moral motives. . . . But morality and religion are inseparable. The state, in order to be practically moral, must be practically religious for itself; for there can be no real morality apart from the sanctions of religion. . . . Well, if this nation is to be religious for itself, the question arises, What shall be its religion? Shall it be Mohammedan, Confucian, pagan, or Christian? . . . Its religion is Christian, and Protestant Christian at that.” The next step is obvious. They will not stop here, any more than the papacy did when it got intoxicated with power and sovereign authority to correct all heretics. The beast will have a complete image. The pamphlet continues: “A recognition of Christianity in fundamental law should be provided for; first, because it is required as a religious duty.” Rev. R. C. Wylie, D. D., made the following statements, and afterward circulated them in printed form: “Christianity without the sabbath [Sunday] is not Christianity.” “The nation, in order to remain a Christian nation, must of necessity recognize the Christian sabbath, or renounce Christianity and the title of a Christian nation. Sabbath laws are constitutional, since they infringe on the rights of none. The law of rest for all is the condition of rest for any. No one ever suffered persecution under the sabbath [Sunday] laws.” When I informed the president of the association that our people were being persecuted under the existing Sunday laws, he replied that “there must be a uniform standard of morality, and a few objectors can not be allowed to stand in the way and veto the liberty of action of the great majority.” The most interesting feature of the whole convention was the question-box service the last afternoon of the session. For fear my questions would be ignored, I sent them to the chairman, who was to answer all questions, or call on others to answer if he deemed advisable. My questions seemed to set the convention on fire, and it was interesting to see the different positions the reformers took in answering the questions, some of which they read, but did not attempt to answer according to what they must have known was the intent of the question. The question that created the greatest stir was the following: “You say you are contending for the state to recognize the law of God, and yet you are asking the state to recognize the first day of the week as the Sabbath, or rest day. Where is a divine law or a God-given command in the Bible that has sanctified or enjoined the first day of the week as a rest day? Please quote the Bible for an answer.” No attempt was made to read a commandment out of the Bible. Dr. R. C.20Wylie made the first attempt to answer the question. He said: “There is no law or commandment in the Bible from Genesis to Revelation that has enjoined the Christian or any one to keep the first day of the week, and I assert with the same emphasis that neither is there any law nor commandment in the Bible that has set apart the seventh day of the week to be kept. The fourth commandment simply says that we are to rest the seventh day after six days of labor. That seventh day is not a specific day, but is determined by the six days of toil whenever you begin and end them.” Dr. Milligan shook his head at Dr. Wylie's argument, and rose up and said: “I have to differ with Dr. Wylie's position of an indefinite sabbath day, as my position goes to prove just the opposite. Our seventh-day Sabbatarians would do well if they studied a little Greek in regard to this matter of the change of the Sabbath. The original Greek of Matt. 28: 1, should have been translated, ‘And in the end of the old Jewish sabbath of the former dispensation as it began to dawn toward the new Christian sabbath of the Christian dispensation, they came to the sepulcher.’ Another point I wish our seventh-day Sabbatarians to consider is that if the government would sanction their day and make it more favorable to observe for them, they would heartily indorse these principles we are contending for; therefore they must accede us the same privileges and desires.” It was an extremely difficult task to keep silent under such misrepresentations of facts and truths, but as long as they devoured each other's arguments, I held my peace. The men who translated the Bible were as able Greek scholars as the so-called “Reformers” ever produced, and their united testimony on this text is that Dr. Milligan is mistaken. Moreover, he is mistaken as to our position in regard to Sunday laws. We would oppose laws of the state that would force the true Sabbath upon people as vigorously as we would oppose those enforcing a false sabbath. Rev. Wm. Parsons took still another position. He said: “I admit, too, that there is no written law that sets apart the first day of the week, but the Christian is not guided alone by the written letter of the Word; he is guided by the phenomena of Scripture as well as by the letter. While the first day is not set apart by the letter, yet we find good proof in the phenomena of the Bible.” This phenomena must be a sort of penumbra between truth and error, light and darkness, where Satan and the church meet in the haze to fix up their compromises. What error could not be supported from this standpoint? Rev. T. P. Stevenson, D. D., had still another answer to this question. He said: “This Christian nation must decide as a moral being for itself which day it is to keep. The government must interpret which day of the week the law of God sets forth when once that law is adopted in the fundamental law of the land. The voice of the majority must settle this question. The minority must swing into line with the current of progress. They might as well try stopping the flow of a mighty river.” Dr. Wylie further said: “The fourth commandment has not been repealed. Our courts have frequently declared it to be the basis of our sabbath laws. The sabbath [Sunday] more than any other institution, is the conservator of public morals. The foes of our sabbath [Sunday] are foes of our civilization and of our nation. The freest nations on earth are the nations with the strictest sabbath laws. We can not maintain our free government without our Christian civilization; our civilization can not be preserved without the Christian religion; the Christian religion can not be perpetuated without the Christian church; the Christian church goes down without the Christian sabbath [Sunday]; the Christian sabbath needs the protection of law; the law needs a clearly expressed constitutional basis on which to rest.” From the foregoing statements we can clearly see that the Reform Association means to ride over the consciences of the minority, and whip them into subjection. To accomplish this end, they are bending every effort to flood the present Congress with petitions to acknowledge the Christian religion as the established religion; and shall we sleep while they work with all their zeal? Shall we allow them to bind our hands without a protest? God forbid! Let us rally around the standard of religious liberty.