THE SABBATH AND “CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP.”
By L. A. S.
Some Seventh-day Baptists of New Brunswick, N. J., have been trying to carry worldly patriotism along with their Christianity, and, naturally, have got into difficulty. What the trouble is appears from this item, printed in the New York Sun:— “New Brunswick, N. J., July 24.—The order of Col. Quincy O’M. Gilmore, directing Companies K and L of the Second Regiment, N. J. N. G., to go to the State camp at Sea Girt on Saturday next has stirred one of the State’s religious sects. In Company K, which was recently organized in Plainfield, are a number of Seventh-day Baptists, who observe Saturday instead of Sunday as a day of rest. When the order came to the company, the Seventh-day contingent protested. The New Jersey law makes provision for the Seventh-day Baptists as regards transaction of business on Sunday, but makes no mention of exemption from military duty. The Seventh-day observers of Company K intend to make a test case if the order to march to camp on Saturday is enforced.” If Seventh-day Baptists have imagined that conscience would be allowed to cut any figure in dictating conduct to a soldier in the army, they now have a good opportunity to learn their mistake. In the military service, the supreme will is not that of the soldier, nor that of God, but the will of the commanding officer. To him all must yield implicit and unquestioning obedience. When he says, Go out in order of battle, shoot, and kill, he must be obeyed, regardless of the Sixth Commandment. When he gives the order to work or to fight on the Sabbath day, no attention can be paid to what God says in the Fourth Commandment. The military commander stands in the place of God, and any attempt on the soldier’s part to treat him as occupying a different position would promptly result in such punishments as are in use in the army to preserve discipline. The individual who is not willing to put a man between himself and God must simply keep out of the army. Patriotic Seventh-day Baptists may as well make up their minds either to yield the Sabbath or to become patriots in another service from that of an earthly government, even the service of that country in which the Christian has his citizenship.