California Sabbath Association Meeting Demands Sunday Law
The California Sabbath Association held a general meeting in this city on October 31. Although the meeting was supposed to be advertised in all the churches within miles of Oakland, but few were present either in the afternoon or evening. One of the officials remarked that he was ashamed and amazed to see so few present, yet he thanked God that so many were there. Their resolutions were a mixture of truth and error, clothing the Sunday with the divine honors of the Lord's Sabbath, and asking for a state law to enforce the institution. It was not demanded as a civil institution, but it was frankly assumed that it was “the duty of government to recognize it [the sabbath] as a divinely benevolent institution,” and “enforce the law of God;” and it was demanded “in the name of the Lord” that all liquor saloons be closed on Sunday during all its hours. Certainly no one can contend for a moment that it is not the religious day that they thus demanded; for it is boldly contended that it is, and that a “Christian nation” ought to have Christian laws. The student of Scripture well knows that this means men's interpretations of God's laws, men putting themselves in the place of Christ, and union of church and state, with all its consequent evils.