SUNDAY CONCERT CONTROVERSY IN SACRAMENTO.
MINISTERS of the Gospel often take occasion to censure the secular press, and their censure is sometimes well deserved. On the other hand, the press sometimes very aptly points out the fallacy of those ministers who assume that their position on public affairs is entitled to more than ordinary consideration. A case in point is the opposition of the Ministerial Union of Sacramento to open-air concerts on the plaza of that city on Sunday evenings. Be it remembered that such concerts are not objected to because they are in themselves bad, but because they are given for the pleasure of the people on Sunday. The daily Bee replies to the onslaughts of the union in quite forcible, logical terms, also noting the fact that there are some ministers who favor the musical entertainment. We cull a few pointed remarks pertaining to the Sabbath question and equal rights, which it would be well for ministerial unions all over the country to ponder. On this feature of the discussion the Bee says:— The plea of the Ministerial Union that these Sunday concerts are a “direct violation of the law of God as revealed in His Word concerning the sanctity of the Sabbath” and are “hurtful to the moral sense of hundreds of our best citizens” can be disposed of in a few words. There is no law of God making Sunday holy. If God’s words be written true in the Bible, He made Saturday holy, and man was impious when he altered His decree. Sunday open-air concerts are not hurtful to the moral sense of the great majority of the citizens of this community, men or women. That they are distasteful to a number of good people is undoubtedly true. But those good people have no more right to interfere with the innocent enjoyment of other people numerically far stronger and morally equally as good, by stopping Sunday concerts, than the Jews would have to demand the cessation of all toil and all amusement on Saturday, their Sabbath, and the Sabbath ordained by the Most High. The members of the Ministerial Union, the enthusiastic members of all the Churches, have as much right as any other citizens, but they have no more rights than the humblest citizen. It would be well for them to always remember this when they think hereafter of curtailing or stopping the innocent enjoyment of others because it does not fit in with their own narrow views. Besides, if it be a question of desecration, the people have no more right to desecrate the Sabbath of the Jews than the Sunday of the Christians. And those ministers certainly present a weak plea and put themselves upon a very pitiful exhibition, when they demand that the Sunday evening open-air concerts be suppressed because they can not compete with them! Were it not that the secular press, and men who do not pose as the moral monitors of the people, are often able to discern correct principles of equality and justice and morality, and have the courage to express them, the ministerial unions would soon dominate the public in every department of life.