ENFORCE THE DECALOGUE by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Mar 25, 1897

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 23, No. 12.

ENFORCE THE DECALOGUE.

By Editor

A MEMBER of the Kansas Legislature, a logical national reformer, by the way, has introduced a bill to enact the Ten Commandments as a part of the criminal code of the State. Penalty for violating the first commandment is $1,000; the second, $1,000 and one year in the penitentiary; the third, $500; the fourth, $500; the fifth, $500 and six months in prison; the sixth, hanging; the seventh, imprisonment for life; the eighth, ninth, and tenth, fine or imprisonment at the discretion of the court. The last advices is that the bill will probably pass the house.

There is more or less ridicule over the bill indulged in by the religious press, and it is hinted by religious papers of Republican proclivities that almost anything may be expected from Kansas. But we wish to call attention to this fact: These very papers have been calling for years for “sabbath laws,” for the enforcement of the fourth commandment, etc. Now the fourth commandment is a part of the Decalogue. If it is good to enforce one part, why not enforce all? If one-tenth can be enforced, why not ten-tenths? Is not the Kansas bill the logical conclusion of the arguments for a “sabbath law”?

The Christian Work well says:—

How is the Decalogue to be enforced—say the fourth and tenth commandments? The bill makes the observance of Saturday, the “seventh” day, imperative.

Yes; but how is it with those Christians who profess to be keeping God’s commandments, and who talk about the sabbath day? If the “bill makes the observance of Saturday, the ‘seventh’ day, imperative,” how about the command itself, and, for the matter of that, the whole Bible? It is everywhere the “seventh” day.

We shall, the Lord willing, comment further on the enforcement of the Decalogue next week.