Virginia Judge Denies Sabbath Exemption to Seventh-day Observer
IN the Sunday laws of most of the States an exemption clause exists for the benefit of observers of the seventh day. It remained for a Virginia judge to make a new discovery with reference to this provision of the Sunday laws, and set up a precedent which, if followed elsewhere, will bring Seventh-day keepers in every State under the liability of fine and imprisonment. A description of the case is given in the Atlantic Union Gleaner, thus:— Mr. C. P. Morse, of Fredericksburg, Va., was arrested, tried, and convicted for opening his place of business on Sunday. He appealed his case to the next court, employing a lawyer as counselor. The judge, after hearing the case, made the following decision: Mr. Morse admitted himself that he kept the seventh day from Friday evening sunset to Saturday evening sunset, did thereby show, that he kept a part of the sixth day and a part of the seventh day, and worked on the seventh day from Saturday sunset to midnight. Therefore, he did not come under the exemption clause of the laws of the State, which reads as follows: “Any person who conscientiously believes that the seventh day of the week ought to be observed as a sabbath, and actually refrains from all secular business and labor on that day [shall be exempt].” . . . The position taken by the judge was that the State recognized the day from midnight to midnight. The fine and costs, amounting to $4.99, were paid by Mr. Morse. (Italics ours.) In order to escape conformity with one heathen observance, the Virginia Sabbath keeper must conform with another observance equally heathen; he must break the Sabbath, in order to escape the penalty of breaking Sunday. This well illustrates the fact that exemption clauses in a Sunday law do not make such laws right, nor provide justice for the people to whom they apply.