A City Ordinance and the Law of Jehovah
By John H. Hartog
OUR school election took place on Saturday. As several of us were anxious to vote, I took the matter up with the clerk who had charge of this election, and, explaining to him that by having this election on Saturday and closing the polls at 8 P. M., we were disfranchised, I asked him if he would not keep the polls open a little later. He replied that this was absolutely impossible, as the law provided for them to close at 8. He asked me why we could not get there before 8, and I explained that the Sabbath did not close till 8.02. “Well,” he said, “that is certainly very narrow-minded. Suppose you made it a few minutes shorter. Moreover,” said he, “nobody knows when the sun sets, and I always thought that sunset meant 5 o’clock.” I explained to him that we did not ask him to break the city law for our benefit, and that since he said he had to close at 8, we would simply have to abstain from voting; but that we were just as anxious not to break God’s law, as he was not to break the city election law. This was a puzzle to this city official—but food for thought, let us hope. John H. Hartog.