The Legal Rest Day

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Feb 18, 1909

The Legal Rest Day

At the very time when an effort is being made to secure from Congress the passage of a law requiring rest from ordinary labor on Sunday in the District of Columbia, a movement is on foot in Massachusetts to so modify the present Sunday law of that State as to provide for one legal rest day in seven, without that day necessarily being Sunday. The discussion of this question includes some statements worthy of note. One is made by Dr. Gordon, of the Old South Church (Congregational) of Boston:—

If civilization demands that a man work Sunday, he should have some other day of rest. Sunday can not be arbitrarily set as that day.

The second is credited to the pastor of the Warren Avenue Baptist Church of the same city:—

We are willing to let men decide for themselves whether or not they shall have a Sabbath day, and how they will observe it.

The third is found in an editorial from the Morning Star (Baptist) of Boston:—

Either we must invade the field of conscientious conviction, and attempt to compel the Jew to keep the Christian Sunday, which would not be relished if it were a case of the Jew trying to compel Christians to keep the Jewish Sabbath, or else we must agree to let each party observe his own rest day and work on the other six, provided he does not disturb anybody's worship.

This is a frank statement of the actual situation. A law requiring rest on Sunday invades the field of conscientious conviction, and punishes those who obey the commandment of God. The only defensible course is to leave each one free in the choice of a day of rest, and to protect all in their right to hold a peaceable assembly for public worship on any day of the week.

In its further discussion of the question, the Morning Star makes this inquiry:—

How will it affect the rest of us to put Sunday on a kind of secular level with the other six days of the week?

This question broadly suggests that Sunday now depends upon legal enactment for any superiority over other days of the week. If Sunday is a genuine religious institution supported by divine authority, it has no need of the support of the state. If it does not rest upon divine command, it ought to give way to the true Sabbath. In any case, there can be no justification of legislation in its behalf.