AT IT AGAIN | AdventAI

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jan 28, 1897

AT IT AGAIN.

THE California State Sabbath Association held a convention in Sacramento on the 20th inst., and passed a resolution to request the Legislature, now in session, to re-enact the Sunday law which was repealed in 1883, amending it so as to apply to persons keeping open barber shops, bath houses, and hair-dressing saloons after 12 o’clock, noon, on Sunday. Dr. M. C. Briggs, who is one of the fathers of Sunday-lawism in the State, outlined the work to be accomplished, and stated that the object is to make a civil observance of one day in seven obligatory on every person, and to make this day the same in all parts of the State. Notwithstanding this statement, the resolution adopted by the convention definitely fixes that “one day in seven” on Sunday; and the burden of the arguments advanced were on the line of a religious institution. That a religious, and not a civil, day is the aim of the association, is shown by the petition formulated by the convention, which asks the Legislature to “enact a Sabbath law that will prohibit all unnecessary secular labor and business, and all sports and amusements inconsistent with the proper observance of the day.” One speaker, who had interviewed a number of the legislators, expressed the opinion that the required legislation could not be secured without hard work. It ought to be hard work to secure such legislation in a country that makes a boast of civil and religious liberty.