The Sunday-Law Conflict Coming On.
By Editor
THE Presbyterian Synod of the Pacific met recently at Napa, Cal. One of the Secretaries of the Presbyterian Board of Home Missions attended the meeting, and in the Christian Statesman of Nov. 1 we find extracts from his report. The following will be of special interest to our readers:— The other great topic discussed by the members of Synod at Napa, was the Christian Sabbath. It was stated on the floor, and papers were read to corroborate the statement, that the enemies of the Sabbath in California had cast down the gauntlet, so that nothing was left Christians but to take it up. The note of alarm was sounded. The Synod was called upon to stand like a wall of adamant against the incoming flood of worldliness and infidelity. All pledged to it their time, their influence, and their sacred honor. It was said that efforts would be made by the coming Legislatures511of other Pacific States to abolish their Sabbath laws. Some thought that the opposers of the Sabbath would hardly be bold enough to attempt that. But time has shown us that the Governor of California, who was educated at the expense of the Government to uphold our institutions, recommended in his inaugural address, last December, the abolition of the Sunday laws of California, and the Legislature carried out his recommendation. The German Jews and the worldly citizens of that great State have succeeded, for a time at least, in removing one of the most glorious bulwarks not only of our religion, but of our civil liberty. The war is now going on there between the friends and the enemies of the Sabbath. This war is not likely to be confined to California. The bugle notes of the enemy have been heard and re-echoed by the people of Nevada, Arizona, and Idaho. Not only the Sierra Nevada, but the Rocky Mountains, are beginning to ring with the clash of arms. The struggle will go on, and the question is, Who will gain the day? Is the church of Christ awake? Are the friends of order and morality willing to take sides with her and concentrate their forces before the strongholds of the foe? The enemy is in earnest; shall the friends be only half awake? Let us realize our danger, measure the strength of the opposing forces, and prepare for the fight. We in the East can form no conception of the number and power of the enemies with whom our church in the far West has to contend. She needs the ablest reinforcements we can send there. She needs our sympathy and prayers, as well as our men and means. The fight is ours, and the victory will be ours as well as theirs when the enemy is routed. It only needs a visit to that part of the country to rouse our zeal in Home Missions. There the home work and the foreign work overlap each other. Heathenism and unbelief, like great tides, meet on the Pacific Coast. Where are the men ready to enlist in the glorious war? It seems strange that the advocates of Sunday Law and the Religious Amendment to the Constitution can not state their case without using deception. Notice a few of the statements in the above. 1. "The enemies of the Sabbath in California had cast down the gauntlet, so that nothing was left Christians but to take it up." This is not true. It was the so-called Home Protection Association which pushed the question into politics, by declaring that they would not vote for any candidate who would not pledge himself to vote for the enforcement of the Sunday Law; and that if neither of the parties would give such a pledge they would nominate an independent ticket. The Democratic Convention met the menace with a platform which promised the repeal of the Sunday Law, not to interfere with it, however, as a legal holiday. The Republican party were deceived into the belief that with an indorsement of the Sunday Law they could have an easy victory, and so with "faint praise" they indorsed it. The result was an unexpectedly large Democratic majority, and the repeal of the Sunday Law. The Home Protectionists and their allies are directly responsible for the defeat of the Republican party at the last election in this State, and the repeal of the Sunday Law. 2. Can an intelligent man write that Governor Stoneman was educated at the public expense to uphold the Sunday Law (for he means that), and not blush? Has the Military Academy anything to do with religious education or religious institutions? Every sensible person knows that it has not. The "glorious bulwarks of our religion," nor of anybody's religion, are not a part of military education at West Point. 3. "German Jews and the worldly citizens" have succeeded "in removing one of the most glorious bulwarks of our religion." (1) Many of the best citizens of the State voted for the repeal of a law which was oppressively unjust, acknowledged to be inefficient and useless even by the fast friends of the Sunday, and which the decision of a bare majority of the Supreme Court could not make a majority of the voters of the State believe was not discriminating and unconstitutional. (2) We shall not undertake to decide whether the deception is with the writer of the second sentence quoted above, or with the ministers of California. He says of the State law that it was "one of the most glorious bulwarks of our religion." We can name some of the most eminent ministers of this State who preached, during the campaign, that the controversy was not at all of a religious nature, and that the Sunday Law was not a religious law at all; that it was purely a "sanitary measure," a mere "police regulation." As such, nobody could reasonably object to it on religious grounds! The Sunday, or so-called "Christian Sabbath," is a deception in itself, and there seems to be an unavoidable tendency to deception in advocating it. We are not at all disappointed that the "clash of arms" is heard on this subject. We have been looking for it for the last thirty years. As a question of religion it should be kept out of politics. But its advocates are determined to make it a political question, and the result will be disastrous to both religious and civil liberty. For the consequences they will be responsible. As far as Sunday in California is concerned, we can testify, and we have read the statement in various California papers, that the day is as quiet, and is observed as well as it ever was when the law was in force. By their own impolitic action they have lost the law, but they have lost nothing of the respect paid to Sunday. By the repeal of the law nobody's rights have been infringed upon, as every religionist is permitted to observe it as strictly as he sees fit! Is not that enough? Oh, no; they are fretted because they cannot compel others to observe it who do not believe in it. Poor Haman; he had an abundance of treasures and honors, yet he could not eat his bread because Mordecai the Jew sat at the king's gate! His mantle was a wide one, and covers many professed Christians in this age.