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Religious Liberty Notes

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jan 9, 1908

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 85, No. 2.

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Religious Liberty Notes

JANUARY 11 has been appointed by the Colorado Conference as a day when each church should hold a religious liberty convention.
The program of the Religious Liberty day, of the Greater New York and New Jersey union workers’ meeting, December 24, was a decided success.
Elder R. C. Porter, president of the Southwestern Union Conference, writes: “We expect to make a vigorous effort to enlighten the people while these issues are on.”
Elder S. B. Horton, of New Orleans, La., writes: “The next Louisiana Legislature will be called upon to enact statutory prohibition and more stringent Sunday laws.”
The members of our churches in the District of Columbia have been thoroughly organized into small companies for the purpose of placing special literature on the question of religious liberty and prohibition in the hands of the citizens of Washington.
Elder J. W. Watt, of Indiana, Pa., writes that a lively Sunday-closing crusade is in progress in Indiana County, Pa., and that forty arrests have already been made. Now is the time to enlighten the people in that county on the true principles of religious liberty.
Begin to plan for Religious Liberty day, Sabbath, February 1, which has been appointed by the General Conference Religious Liberty Department. The annual collection on that day will be taken for the support of the department, and the prosecution of this important work.
Brother T. B. Westbrook, Religious Liberty secretary of the Western New York Conference, writes that he is doing what he can in this work. The Empire State is becoming a storm-center for Sunday-law enforcement. Further legislation may be expected. Supply your legislature with tracts.
The Christian temperance forces in the District of Columbia are to hold a joint meeting in this city, Jan. 15, 1908. We are cordially invited to participate, and inasmuch as it is a straight temperance issue without involving Sunday legislation, we will gladly join in this commendable movement.
The following is a list of the States whose legislators have been supplied with Liberty: Alabama, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Maryland, Minnesota, Missouri, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, and Washington. Let the conferences that do not appear in this list, take note, and supply Liberty at once to their legislators, and then be placed on the roll of honor.
Two men were tried at Iola, Kan., Nov. 14, 1907, for violation of the Kansas Sunday law. For lack of sufficient evidence the parties were not convicted. Our people improved the occasion by distributing reading-matter, and holding a mass-meeting, at which Elder Chas. Thompson spoke.
From an article by Brother James Cochran, which appeared in the Workers’ Record of November 20, it appears that there is a possibility, as one of the fruits of the Kansas City Sunday-Closing Crusade, that Judge Brumback may render a decision that will make void the provision in the Sunday law of Missouri that exempts Seventh-day Adventists from prosecution for Sunday work.
The Boston Journal of Nov. 11, 1907, quotes the following by Rabbi Charles Fleischer, with a brief comment, from his second address after deciding to conduct Sunday service in his synagogue: “We have just instituted a Sunday service to supplement that of the traditional day which you men find yourselves unable to attend. This service has been established not merely because I knew you need it, but because I believe you wanted it.” Notwithstanding the fact that the more orthodox leaders of the faith have criticized his innovation, Rabbi Fleischer will continue to hold the Sunday service. The orthodox seventh-day service will be held for the present the same as hitherto, but it is his firm belief that its abolishment is merely a question of time. This illustrates again the difficulty there is in attempting to keep the Sabbath or any other command of God without Christ.