The Reign of Lawlessness and Sunday Laws
By L. A. S.
“THE REIGN OF LAWLESSNESS” is a theme to which the leading organ of the Baptist Church in this country, the Examiner (New York City), feels that it must call special attention. It notes that “lawlessness is in the air.” “Not a few of our laws, solemnly placed upon the statute books for the protection of society against recognized evils, are openly and notoriously set at naught,” it says, “without an effort on the part of the constituted authorities to bring the infractors to justice.” It sees in this “an exceedingly alarming condition of affairs.” Then it explains: “There are the Sunday laws, for example, in the interest of society, to guard against the practical abolition of the day of rest, not on religious but on humanitarian grounds. But these laws,” it affirms, “are contemptuously disregarded in all our large cities,” and “there is no official attempt to hinder the violation of the law.” (This statement is seriously contradicted by recent news from Pittsburg, Pa.) Something must be done, of course, to stop this “reign of lawlessness.” This is what the Examiner means by what it says. And what then must be done with those who, by teaching that Sunday is not the Sabbath and that Sunday legislation is unjust, are directly fostering the “lawlessness” of which it speaks? The logical answer to this question we do not need to state. It is well that Seventh-day Adventists should know that this question is being raised, as it certainly is, by those professing to be the national guardians of law and order. All these indications admonish us that the crisis we have long looked for is coming, and that it is near at hand. L. A. S.