THE SUNDAY-LAW SPIRIT

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Oct 3, 1895

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 21, No. 39.

THE SUNDAY-LAW SPIRIT.

The “unselfishness” and “fair-mindedness” of Sunday laws is illustrated by the following from the Christian Statesman. After saying that Sunday laws in Tennessee and Maryland do not interfere with the conscientious conviction of any, the Statesman remarks:—

They [the laws] do not forbid the observance of Saturday as the Sabbath. They do not require any one to observe the sabbath religiously. They do not make a single religious act obligatory. They only restrain from doing what demoralizes, breaks down the sanctity of the sabbath, or interferes with the right of others to a day of rest.

The substance of the above is just this: Seventh-day keepers have the privilege and right, with no hindrance whatever from the law, of keeping Saturday, however few or many they may be. But first-day keepers must have a law to protect their day—Sunday—or their right of rest is interfered with! The fact that the great mass of people are at work on Saturday does not interfere in the least with those who keep the Sabbath, but a few working on Sunday interferes so much with the 40,000,000 of professedly religious Sunday keepers (that is what they claim) that unless there is a law compelling all to keep Sunday, there is an interference with their right to a day of rest! The few can get along very well with simply no law against their Sabbath observance, but the great majority must have laws to assist them; and not only so, but to compel their neighbor to seem to do as they think he ought. Surely the unselfishness, the magnanimity, the goldenrulity, of the argument and demand must be apparent to all!

But the men who are engaged in this movement do not see its wickedness. They have espoused the Sunday-law cause, imbibed the Sunday-law principles, and, as has always been inevitably true, it is developing in them the spirit of persecution.

Sanctity of the Sabbath.—Another word on the expression, “They [Sunday laws] only restrain from doing what . . . breaks down the sanctity of the sabbath.” It is an error that is prevalent that outward service is pleasing to God, and yet our Lord Jesus Christ uttered no such denunciations against any class as he did the formal Pharisees, who were so punctilious about the conduct of others. The Sabbath is not kept at all in God’s sight unless it is kept as he commands. He says, “Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.” Holiness is an attribute of the heart, motive, and life. He only can keep the Sabbath holy who is himself holy, made such by the presence of the One whose presence in the Sabbath makes the day holy. Compulsory rest is not pleasing to God nor beneficial to the heart of the man compelled to take it. Laws compelling to outward observance of religious institutions only make men hypocrites. That righteousness which begins outwardly, governed by the letter of the law only, is at its best but “filthy rags” in God’s sight. The righteousness which he requires is born within, a very part of the heart and of the life, which by growth fills up the letter of God’s law with fragrant, living fullness, exhaling the sweet perfume of love and helpfulness on all around. Such Sabbath keepers will lift men, through God’s grace, to the only true Sabbath-keeping acceptable in God’s sight, but it can never even seek to compel men to observe a sabbath.

One thought more: We can keep only that day holy which the Lord has made holy. He has hallowed the seventh day alone. To set apart another day in the light of his word, to seek to compel men to hallow it, is to make God a liar, and to usurp his throne. Reader, on which side of this matter do you stand?