Sunday Legislation in Canada
By George B. Thompson
At the present writing I am unable to find that anything further has been done by the Dominion Parliament to promote the desired Sunday legislation. Some of the members of Parliament have expressed themselves as being desirous of not meddling further in this matter if not urged to it by their constituency. The Lord's Day Alliance, however, is not idle, and its agitators, who are principally preachers, are doing what they can to stir up the people and influence Parliament to give the matter consideration. They express themselves as determined to enforce the laws already in existence, and to use every available means of securing more stringent enactments. Rev. T. Albert Moore, field secretary of the Alliance, held a meeting at Woodstock, Ontario, recently. The following item gives the attitude of the Alliance:— “Before the evening sermon, Rev. Mr. Moore took occasion to make a short explanation of his connection with the Lord's Day Alliance. In their work of preserving the integrity of the Lord's day they have been able to prevent two hundred and fifty companies obtaining permission to work on Sundays. There were one hundred and fifty thousand people at that time working on the Sabbath, and it was their aim to prevent such desecration. It had been whispered to him that there might be work of that kind going on soon not very far from Woodstock. This would be investigated at once. If street-cars were to run, or any other form of Sunday labor were to be contemplated, the Lord's Day Alliance would put a stop to it.” The Sentinel-Review from which I quoted the preceding paragraph, pertinently asks, “What was Mr. Moore's meaning? Whether he had reference to9a brother who quietly works on his farm outside of the city, or to some one else, in his reference to work near Woodstock, is not known. It sounds similar to statements we have read of the Inquisitors of the Dark Ages. It certainly is the same method they used to exterminate the heretics, and the results will be similar.” One of our brethren who is himself a laboring man prepared an able paper setting forth the evil results of Sunday laws, and presented it to the labor union in Guelph, Ontario. The following, taken from a daily paper in the city, states the result:— “A letter was read with regard to the co-operation between the labor men and the Lord's Day Alliance in Sunday legislation. It was overwhelmingly agreed that the legal observance of one set day for rest was greatly in the interests of the working men. The chief of police was asked to look into some complaints of unnecessary Sunday labor.” This gives some insight into the spirit behind the movement for the most rigorous Sunday legislation. It may be delayed now, that a further opportunity may be given to educate the people concerning the results of the thing when once it is done, but the delay is only temporary. Now is the time to work. The question is still agitated in the press. The Hamilton (Ontario) Spectator, commenting editorially recently on an article in the Toronto Star, said:— “And it is also true that no clique should be permitted to impose its notions of Sabbath observance upon the people. It is also true that no man should be permitted to dictate to his followers his notions of Sabbath observance. The demand for strict observance of Sunday comes from a small but active clique, the officers of which are paid to make and keep up the agitation. They are zealous and aggressive, and work without ceasing to secure their object, while the great bulk of the people mind their own business, and are content, so long as they have the liberty to observe the Sabbath as they will, to allow the same liberty to other people as they claim for themselves—the liberty to observe the Sabbath as they like, so long as they do not interfere with the right of others. “The Sabbatarians [by Sabbatarians the editor means those who keep Sunday] are not suffering in this country. They are entirely at liberty to apply the Mosaic law to the observance of Sunday; they may be as strict in the observance of that law as they will, and no man interferes, either by word or by deed, with their right to do so. But the Sabbatarians are not satisfied to enjoy the privileges which perfect freedom gives them; they must agitate and seek legislation for the purpose of compelling others to do as they do! “The anxiety of the Star grows out of the fact that in Quebec Sunday is observed in a rational way. The people attend church in the morning, and amuse themselves in the afternoon. Quebec will never consent to a Sabbatarian Sunday, and it has been demonstrated— by the prohibition plebiscite—and that when Quebec objects to something, no matter how much the other provinces may favor it, that something is not inflicted upon the people of Canada.”