PASSING COUNTERFEIT MONEY by Dudley Marvin Canright

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Sep 14, 1876

PASSING COUNTERFEIT MONEY.

By Dudley Marvin Canright

The law makes it a high crime for a man to pass counterfeit money when he knows it to be such; but yet it does not punish a man for it if he did not know it was counterfeit when he passed it. Suppose a case: Mr. Brown goes to the store and hands out a five dollar bank-note to pay his bill, supposing it to be genuine. The merchant takes it to the bank and finds that it is a counterfeit bill. He hands it back to Mr. Brown, informing him of the fact. Now can anybody find any fault with Mr. Brown in this matter? No; neither would the law condemn him, because he honestly supposed it to be a good bill. But next week Mr. Brown goes to another store and passes that same bill. What now? Is Mr. Brown innocent this time? No, indeed. Now he knows that it is counterfeit, and he is guilty in the sight of God and man, and he is liable to be severely punished by the law.

Dear reader, it is just so with the Sunday institution. We have received it from others in all good faith. Week after week and year after year we have offered this day to the Lord, supposing it to be the genuine Sabbath. In this there was no wrong. We were innocent; we thought we were doing right. But when the Lord has sent us light upon this question, and this counterfeit Sabbath has been examined in the light of God’s great detector, the Bible, and found to be counterfeit, and we are plainly informed of the fact, then, if we continue to offer this to God as his genuine Sabbath day, we become guilty before him and are condemned by his holy law. This is a matter of grave importance, demanding serious attention. D. M. CANRIGHT. Rome, N. Y.