p. 20 | Perplexities Arising From Sunday Laws by S. B. H.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Sep 14, 1911

Perplexities Arising From Sunday Laws

By S. B. H.

FROM press reports we learn that the British Parliament has exempted London, Manchester, Leeds, and Liverpool from the operation of the Sunday law, because it worked hardships on the Jews of those cities who keep the Sabbath. On this question the New Orleans daily States of August 15 says editorially, under the heading “The Jewish Sabbath:” —

“This is a matter of interest to us, for there is a growing demand in this country for similar legislation that will require serious consideration in the near future. All things considered, it does not seem just to compel a citizen, who for conscience’ sake keeps the seventh day of the week as a day of rest, to refrain also from labor on Sunday.

“‘But the question is broader than that,’ says the Brooklyn Times. ‘The law establishes Sunday as a day of rest, and requires general cessation from business activities; and it is a civil institution as well as a religious one. It would not be right to allow one set of citizens to keep their places open on the day when the great majority were closed, so far as large commercial enterprises are concerned. Nor would it be right to permit a dealer to do business both Saturdays and Sundays. There would have to be police inspection to see that one of the two days was observed.’

“It is generally admitted that our present law is a hardship for the orthodox Jew who religiously observes his Sabbath, and it appears that bills were introduced at the last session of the New York Legislature to relieve the Jewish butchers and grocers who cater to a local trade, but the measures were not passed. The country, however, is beginning to feel that it would be only just to allow them greater latitude in cases where their religious convictions compel them to strict observance of the seventh day as their Sabbath, and where it is shown that they have complied with religious custom.”

The States editor well says that it is unjust to compel a citizen who keeps the seventh day of the week as the Sabbath to refrain also from labor on Sunday. This is one of the inconsistencies and anomalies of Sunday laws. But the editor closes his article with a recommendation which does not accord with the American idea of civil government. He says that the Jews should be allowed greater latitude “in cases where their religious convictions compel them to strict observance of the seventh day as their Sabbath, and where it is shown that they have complied with religious custom.” This recommendation, in the last analysis, would mean that the civil government has ordained itself to pass upon the religious customs of its citizens. It will be remembered that the Johnston District Sunday bill (Senate 237), now before the Sixty-second Congress, contains the same proviso; namely, that the subject of religious practise shall become a part of the administration of civil government.

The editor of the Brooklyn Times recommends a policy indicated in the last sentence of the second paragraph of the States editorial, which savors very much of the Russian idea of civil government. It is customary for the police of Russia to busy themselves with the doings of religious meetings, but we hesitate to believe that such a policy will ever be put into practise in this country.

The publicity being given to the Sabbath and the Sunday-law question in this country is an omen of good, to say the least, for it awakens a spirit of careful and earnest study of this great problem. But the more carefully the unprejudiced mind studies the Sunday-law question, the more convinced will he become that Sunday legislation is unnatural and full of perplexities. We may say, in passing, that in the light of what the British Parliament has done in behalf of the Jews, certainly if Christian ethics are to govern in the land which the National Reform Association denominates “a Christian nation,” then every person in the land will be protected in choosing his own rest day, for the Scriptural injunction on such matters is, “One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind.” This language reveals no hint to compel the observance of Sunday or Sabbath by civil law.

S. B. H.