The Religious Purpose of Sunday Closing
The press and pulpit of New York City are now warmly discussing the question of closing saloons on Sunday. A. P. Doyle, a Paulist priest, in declaring for Sunday closing, lays bare the real purpose of the Sunday-closing agitation. He says: “What astonishes me most is to find reputable ministers, sound on so many social questions, doing their best to destroy the sanctity of the Lord’s day by declaring for the open Sunday saloon.” It is “the sanctity of the Lord’s day” that is to be protected by this species of anti-saloon legislation; and this admission is but the admission of what so many have long known to be a fact, that Sunday-closing legislation was religious legislation. The New York Independent puts the matter fairly and truly when it says: “A saloon that is bad on Sunday is bad all the week. If it ought to be closed absolutely on Sunday, it ought to be closed all the week.” And it ought to be closed all the week. The Christian can not afford to compromise with sin on any terms whatever.