The State and the Sabbath Law
By G.
The Christian Statesman says that the State should enforce the Sabbath law against all unnecessary infractions of it, that citizens may have opportunity for moral and religious improvement. But the State can only enforce laws of its own making. The only Sabbath law that has any just claim to morality is the law of God, and that law is “spiritual.” How can a fallible human State enforce a spiritual law? The Lord Himself does not pretend to enforce His law. He certainly has not delegated the State to do what He would not do Himself. His own Spirit endeavors only to persuade men, and holds out inducements to them to willingly obey His voice. But what the Statesman means is that the State should enforce the Sunday law. But as the Sunday institution is directly opposed to the Sabbath of the Lord, how can its enforcement by the State work any improvement in the morals of the people? The fact that the State makes Sunday laws at all is evidence that they can not be enforced through any principle involved in either the law or the Sabbath of the Lord. G.