Drifting On by Editor

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Apr 19, 1883

Drifting On.

By Editor

A RECENT "New York Letter" in a paper advocating strict Sunday laws, speaking of the application of the law in New York, says:—

"This, we hope will do much for the respectable, intellectual citizen, who must listen to something worth hearing. Many we hope will thus be compelled to enter the church on Sunday. We are not of those who think a person must attend the church from a desire to hear the word only, in order to be benefited, we would get them in, even if we must in some way compel them to go, hoping the feast may prove to be inviting, and they be filled."

Thus are we fast approaching the much desired point. First, compel them to rest on Sunday, though they may already have "rested on the Sabbath-day according to the commandment." Remember, it is only a "sanitary measure." Man must have rest. They who keep Sunday need one day in each week for quiet rest; they who keep the seventh day need two! Secondly, they "must be compelled to enter the church on Sunday." This is "not intended to interfere with anybody's religion." Oh, no. Suppose they do keep the seventh day which is "the Sabbath of the Lord thy God," and rest on that day. Will it interfere with their keeping the seventh day to go to meeting on Sunday? By no means. Drive them in. "The feast may prove to be inviting." And thus they drift toward the coming "union of church and State."