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More Sunday-Law Enforcement

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Nov 14, 1907

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 84, No. 46.

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More Sunday-Law Enforcement

By K. C. R.

THE clergy and churches of Topeka, Kan., have recently been besieging the mayor and city council to enforce the Sunday-closing ordinance of the city. As the result of the agitation upon this question, the judiciary committee announced a public hearing, at which there was a free discussion of the Sunday-closing issue. We also held a mass-meeting in the city auditorium on the same evening, October 14. The Lord blessed in presenting the true principles of religious liberty both at the mass-meeting and at the hearing. A report of these meetings appeared in the Topeka Daily Capital and the Topeka Daily State Journal, the two leading papers of the city.
Our brethren who spoke at the hearing showed plainly that the movement was one which had been brought about by the church element of the city, and that it was this element that was seeking to have the Sunday ordinance enforced. They further showed that all Sunday laws are a species of religious legislation.
It was also shown by one of our brethren who spoke at the hearing that if the people were not attracted to the church services by the preaching of the gospel, it would be useless to seek to get them there through compulsory religious laws; that a more desirable way to safeguard our children against questionable amusements was by means of home training, instead of depending upon some city ordinance to restrain them from attending these places.
In our lecture at the mass-meeting, we stated that in our protest against the enforcement of Sunday laws we were in no way allied with the saloons or theaters, but that we are uncompromisingly opposed to the liquor traffic on all days of the week, and that we in no way favor Christians attending places of questionable amusements on any day.
We admitted that many who were strenuously seeking for the Sunday closing of the saloon and theater were doing so with the best of motives. They behold the tremendous increase of corruption and crime that is filling the land, and have been told that the enforcement of Sunday laws would correct all these great evils. Little do they realize that this supposed remedy — Sunday laws — would be a greater curse in the end than the evils they are trying to correct.
It seemed providential that we had the opportunity to present the principles of religious liberty to the citizens of Topeka, as the great champion of Sunday legislation, Mr. Wilbur F. Crafts, was billed to speak in this city a few days subsequent to our meeting.
Our people living in Topeka are placing religious liberty literature in the hands of as many of the citizens of the place as possible, and have also addressed an open letter to the mayor.
We hope that our people everywherewill be alert to embrace every opportunity of this kind to present the principles of the third angel's message to the public. K. C. R.