Circulate the Petition by L. A. Spring

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Nov 5, 1908

Circulate the Petition

By L. A. Spring

PETITION blanks have been sent to our churches, with the request that they be properly filled and sent, not to the General Conference Office, but direct to the representative in Congress of the district in which the signatures are secured.

We wish to emphasize this request. It is time right now to secure signatures to this petition. This is an important work, and no time should be lost in doing it. We have only to read the text of the Johnston Sunday bill to see that it is religious legislation, and therefore we ought to oppose it. All such laws are un-Christlike, unconstitutional, and un-American.

If you have received the tract entitled, “Brief on Senator Johnston’s Latest Sunday Bill,” you should read it carefully, and note especially the points which appeal to you, then use these points with others in securing signatures to the petition. This is a live issue, and we should “be ready always to give an answer.” We must meet it.

This bill passed the Senate on the fifteenth of last May. It will come before the House of Representatives during the next session of Congress, which convenes December 7. The next session will be a short one. Our people have been promised an early hearing on the bill; so you see we have no time to lose. This is an opportune time to educate the people on the principles of religious liberty and the everlasting gospel.

This petition work should be taken up at once. Secure as many signers as possible from your friends and others, then write a brief, pointed letter to your representative, telling why you oppose religious legislation, and show him, by sending your petition well-filled with names, that there are many in your community who are anxious to have him vote against the bill. Be sure to send a personal letter with your petition, for it is effectual.

Do not send your petitions in as soon as you have them filled. Hold them with your letters until about December 1, then send both to your representative. Pray as you work, and God will bless. Do not put this off. “Procrastination is the thief of time.”

Just a word more. Let it be known that we are not in league with the liquor element, but that we are strong advocates of temperance seven days in the week and fifty-two weeks in the year. —L. A. Spring, in the Nebraska Reporter.