The “Civil Sabbath” Plea Exposed

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Feb 25, 1909

The “Civil Sabbath” Plea Exposed

The folly and insincerity of the civil sabbath plea, and the claim that a day of rest for the laboring man is all that is desired or intended by the advocates of Sunday legislation, were well exposed in an address delivered by Rev. Jacob W. Kapp, pastor of the First Lutheran church of Cincinnati, Ohio, at the Sunday Rest Convention held in Pittsburg, Pa., Dec. 1-3, 1908. The address in full appears in the Christian Statesman for February, 1909, under the heading, “The Sacredness of the Sabbath the Key to the Problem.” The following are a few extracts taken from the address:—

“In this conflict with the forces arrayed against the Lord’s day, my contention is that the sabbath must be maintained on the ground that it is a command of God. Our contention is that it is absolutely necessary to maintain the sacredness of the day in order to maintain the sabbath. If we should divest it of this idea, we should then leave it with no meaning except that of physical rest.”

“No less an authority than Montalembert says that ‘the result of taking away from it the idea of its sacredness was so disastrous that it ceased to be a day of rest and a day of worship, and that it became the occasion for the ruin of the moral and the physical health of the people, that the worship of God was abandoned.’ This, too, was the position of Dr. Dwight, who said, ‘Where no sabbath is, there is no religion.’”

“It is the sabbath as a religious day, as a day of worship, that stands as one

of the strongest citadels of our liberties. It comes to every man, and says, Cease your labor; and the open church door bids all to come into God’s house to worship, to receive instruction how to be a citizen of two kingdoms, the earthly and the heavenly. The very fact that this is a Christian country makes it needful that the principles of Christianity be made familiar and incorporated into our life. Whatever view, therefore, eliminates its sacredness, in so far perverts it from its splendid mission to the manhood and womanhood of our country.”

“We protest against the efforts to secularize the day, which means that it is not a day in which worship and the teaching of the Bible are the chief things, but pleasure and recreation. That is to say, hold to the sacredness of the day, and you give the church a strong ally in its work of bringing the people into the house of God; secularize it, and you turn the whole thought of the people away from worship, and you will empty the church and destroy its power.”

“We would not be understood, however, as not in accord with the efforts that are being made by labor organizations and other associations of various kinds to secure the closing of the shops and places of business on this day. On the contrary, we welcome most cordially all these efforts. We give all of them the most hearty support and encouragement. We give all of them the right hand of fellowship, and consider them allies in this battle. At the same time, we are not to lose sight of the fact that all these efforts are futile without religion. Make prominent the sacredness of the day in law and literature and in the thought of people, and we shall secure the day as a day of rest.”

“It is the business of the church to supplement the idea of rest with that of worship.” “We must see to it also that the sabbath laws are enforced. With but few exceptions the States have expressed the importance of the day in the laws put upon the statute-books. These laws should be enforced in the spirit of Christianity, always with the end in view of serving the highest interests of the community. Always there will be strenuous opposition to such enforcement; but when it is remembered that this day has a most important part in our national life, there is but one course open for Christian citizens. It is well that these persons who oppose all Sabbath laws should be reminded of two things: that American life and institutions can not be Europeanized, and that it is the business of all citizens to conform themselves to American ideas and institutions.”

No one can mistake the meaning of these utterances, or fail to see the real object the religious Sunday-law advocate has in mind in demanding such legislation, or the “end” he has “in view,” in seeing to it that “the sabbath laws are enforced.”

There is little danger that these laws will be enforced “in the spirit of Christianity.” That spirit which demands that all citizens shall by law be made to “conform themselves” to the religious “ideas and customs” of any country is the spirit that whipped the Quakers, drove Roger Williams into exile, imprisoned John Bunyan, persecuted the Baptists and other non-conformists, and sent to the dungeon, put to the rack, and burned at the stake the millions of the holy martyrs of the Dark Ages. May the Lord deliver us from any such “spirit.”