The Curfew of Oakland

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Sep 3, 1896

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 22, No. 35.

The Curfew of Oakland.

The city of Oakland has a bell commonly called the curfew bell. It rings every evening at nine o’clock, at which time children under certain age unaccompanied by those older are not expected to be found upon the streets. This bell is particularly correct, inasmuch as it is regulated with scientific accuracy by Chabot Astronomical Observatory, in the city. The curfew becomes, therefore, a standard by which the people of the city regulate their timepieces. We do not remember ever to have been among a group of men when the bell rang without seeing those who heard the bell and had watches take out the watches and compare them with the standard. So man should do with his conscience, when the standard of God’s word speaks. We have heard men whose watch was wrong or doubtful, say, “Wait till the curfew to-night, and then I will correct it.” So conscience should wait on God’s word. When that speaks, listen. Do not regulate by some other man’s conscience, by some creed or church, or by the exigencies of trade, or the big end of a bargain, but always by God’s word. Keep that word in the heart; let the life be so in harmony with it that conscience shall ever echo its sublime moral standard, manifest in the life of Jesus Christ.