The Hebrew Sabbath Recognized in Ohio
THE Northwestern Christian Advocate of March 22 notes that at Columbus, Ohio, recently, an Ohio court for the first time recognized the Hebrew sabbath as within the meaning of the statute relating to Sunday observance. The Advocate says:— Samuel Rosen, an orthodox Jew, was arrested and fined in police court for keeping his place of business open on Sunday. The case was appealed to the common pleas court, Rosen claiming he had observed the Hebrew sabbath, from starlight on Friday evening to starlight on Saturday evening, and, therefore, was within the law. The court upheld his contention, and reversed the verdict in the police court. This raises a new issue. The law creates Sunday as a legal sabbath, so that every one may be protected in securing his one day of rest in seven. If the Sunday sabbath is generally broken down, the day of rest will go with it. The Sunday law of Ohio, like that in many other States, contains an exemption clause for observers of the seventh day; but this fact did not seem to weigh in the police court, and the recognition of it by the higher court as a valid defense for one who fails to keep Sunday, is considered by this prominent Methodist journal as raising a new issue, and as tending to break down the Sunday sabbath. This shows the uncertainty of exemption clauses as a defense against those who would overlook or override them in their zeal for the sabbath of state law.