A NEW THEORY | AdventAI

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Oct 16, 1879

A NEW THEORY.

The Christian Weekly, in its issue of Oct. 11, gives a new and somewhat significant theory of the hard times. The anxiety manifested to attribute the various social disorders to a disregard of the “Christian Sabbath” is one of the straws showing which way the winds of the religious and political world are blowing, and an evidence of the advancement of the Sabbath controversy. The Christian Weekly says:—

The Presbyterian, in an editorial on “Corporations and the Sabbath,” suggests a thought that is worthy of careful consideration. As self-interest is the chief incentive by which they are governed, it may be well for them to inquire whether their persistent transgression of Divine law is not for their own hurt. The uniform judgment of business men is, that the country has suffered since 1873 by the over-production of its manufactured products. Taking the iron trade as an illustration of the ruinous prostration experienced in these years by this cause, it states the fact that “one-seventh of all the iron in market in some of its stages of production was made on the Sabbath;” and then propounds these practical and significant questions, which may well be weighed by other Sabbath-breaking corporations, and influence their action, now that prosperity seems about to return:— “If in 1874 one-seventh of all the iron in the market had been annihilated, would there not have been a fair demand—at a fair price for the rest? If one-seventh of the coal consumed by this Sunday production of iron had been left in the mines, would there have been need for the suspension of work to reduce the plethora at the seaboard, and would the rails and rolling stocks of our roads have been in the condition we find them if they had rested one day in seven or one year in seven? or if they are in good condition, would not their stocks be one-seventh better in market value than they now are, and stockholders who have been ruined be on their feet, and the helpless that have been breadless in consequence have a fair living?”