p. 8 | Editorial by Editor

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Oct 5, 1911

Editorial

By Editor

Church and State Uniting

SEVERAL pages of each issue of the Homiletic Review are devoted to “Studies in Social Christianity,” subjects of a social and semipolitical nature being considered. The leading article in this department in the August number bears the title “Sunday and the Laboring Man,” and this is followed by a series of four studies upon the same general topic. An attempt is made to show that the physical and the civil basis furnishes sufficient ground for demanding Sunday rest and Sunday laws, the spiritual side of Sabbath observance being left wholly in the background. The opening paragraphs of the leading article run thus:—

One of the most cheering signs of the times is the degree of recognition which spiritual laws are commanding among all classes of thinkers. Even the most determined apostles of materialism are compelled to admit that what religion has declared to be good for the soul is invariably good for the body. The allies of the church come from unexpected quarters, and their new evangel is sounded in trumpet tones in street and market-place. Statesmen have been compelled to acknowledge the economic value of foreign missions. The sign of the cross has led all the flags of the nations in the opening of the non-Christian world. The discovery of the vast majority of our fellow men has been the masterpiece of all our discoveries in this wonderful century. Trade, interchange of arts and literatures, international comity, and last, but not least, the dawning purpose of world peace,—these all, with their untold possibilities and prophecies, rest down upon the simple spiritual propositions; when men say “Our Father” together to God they are quite ready for all the rest. Accordingly, kings and parliaments and congresses are bidding the church Godspeed in her world ministry.

States are placing the spiritual law of temperance upon their statute-books. They have at last seen that the self-governed citizen is the corner-stone of the state. What has been axiomatic in religion from the beginning, the state is now declaring to be fundamental in economics.

The law of the weekly Sabbath which the church has declared to be divine in order and intent has waited longest for allies from the camp of materialism. Now the recruits are pouring in from all quarters. We used to warn our countrymen against the European Sunday. Now Germany, France, Belgium, with England and our own country, are leading the world in Sunday legislation. “Legislation on this subject is now so generally agitated that change of laws may be looked for at any time.”

We see nothing cheering in the facts here stated. It has come to this: the aims of the church and of the state are now so nearly the same that the state is more ready to become the ally of the church and to pass laws which, it is thought, will greatly aid the work of the church. But what change has been wrought in order to bring these two organizations into such harmony of purpose? Has the state become more spiritual? or has the church permitted her spiritual perceptions to be dulled and her spiritual ideals to be materialized? Is the church now seeking to establish the kingdom of God as a spiritual kingdom in the hearts of believers? or has her work degenerated into an attempt to better social conditions, and to establish a spurious kingdom of God in the earth by legislative enactment?

The world has not changed. It is still a worldly world. Its aims are not spiritual. The prince of this world is not devoting his energies to the upbuilding of the kingdom of God. Spiritual life and power do not find their origin or their stimulus in the laws of political bodies, and this partnership with “the camp of materialism” will result in an apostate Christianity, a degenerate ceremonialism, a form of godliness without the power thereof.

As one means of helping along the cause of Sunday legislation this counsel is given:—

We should help the cause of the Sunday rest by not confusing the religious Sunday with the civil Sunday, a confusion which has largely, but quite needlessly, created difficulties in the adoption of Sunday laws. People of alien birth in America often oppose Sunday laws as religious bigotry, but if the law be based solely on the natural necessity for rest, their opposition can, at least, be weakened.

All such instruction as this is simply an education in deception. Representatives of the church who are mentally honest and who reject all subterfuge, frankly admit that the real basis of the demand for Sunday laws is a religious one, and that their purpose is to secure the observance of the day as a sabbath. Such an admission is a credit to their sincerity and truthfulness. But note the following effort to establish a civil-religious Sunday, as found in these studies:—

If rest one day in seven is a law of nature, should not Sunday legislation be based on that fact, and not on its religious nature, so that those who are not religious must still admit the wisdom of the legislation? Is there not such a thing as a civil Sunday, wholly apart from the religious Sunday? Having the civil Sunday, can those who do believe in its religious significance observe it religiously? Should not the religious and civil Sunday go together?

Here is certainly a most remarkable example of hocus-pocus logic, and argument with mental reservation. Religious people should demand Sunday laws in order to establish the civil Sunday, a thing entirely separate and apart from a religious Sunday. Having obtained this civil Sunday, they should at once cast it to the winds and put in its place the religious Sunday, thus having a religious Sunday by law; but they should not confuse the religious Sunday with the civil Sunday when asking for the legislation wanted, as this confusion “has largely, but quite needlessly, created difficulties in the adoption of Sunday laws.” In other words, Do not let your real purpose in seeking for Sunday laws be known, as it would interfere with your success, but having obtained the desired legislation, make the most of it for religious purposes.

We do not charge these religious leaders with being consciously dishonest, or with deliberately misleading the people, but it does appear to us that their determined purpose to secure the aid of the state in making Sunday a national sabbath has blinded their minds and dulled their moral perception. The cause of true religion is only injured by such underhand methods. Jesus never advised his disciples to employ the power of the state in their behalf on the pretense that they were acting upon a merely civil basis. The Reformers repudiated all such interference. It is only apostate Protestantism which can revert to the casuistry and the practise of the Roman Catholic Church in the matter of the state support of religious dogmas.

W. W. P.