Religious Sunday Laws in Ambush.
By C. E. Leland
ANOTHER effort has recently been made in Sacramento, Cal., to educate the people up to the point of securing a Sunday-rest law at the next session of the state Legislature. Thru the efforts of Rev. G. L. Tufts, District Secretary of the National Reform Bureau, the campaign was again opened with meetings in a number of churches and the Y. M. C. A., closing with a mass meeting in the Congregational church. Preliminary steps were taken toward the permanent organization of a state Reform League whose duty it shall be to carry on the fight which has been commenced. As the Sunday-rest bill was defeated at the last Legislature thru the efforts of the Religious Liberty Bureau, and other forces, they are adopting new tactics, carefully avoiding any allusion to the Sabbath, or the religious phase of the movement; stating that it is not a Puritan movement for rigid Sabbatarianism, but aiming simply at securing one day of rest in seven for those who wish it; that it is not a religious question in the interest of the churches, but insuring a day of rest for the laboring men, and granting them the opportunity to attend church when they desire to do so. In criticizing the movement, being religious legislation contrary to the provisions of the federal Constitution, the answer was that the federal Constitution, as well as the constitution of every state, California not excepted, recognizes Sunday as a “governmental holiday,” giving to Sunday the true “American stamp.” That is all the stamp any “governmental holiday” requires. The true Sabbath, which means true rest, and was made for man, not the American only, has the stamp or seal of God, which is better than any earthly governmental stamp. The people of California are not yet fooled altogether respecting this so-called holiday, posing as a beneficent gift to the poor toiler, granting a day of respite from the treadmill of labor and the grasp of unscrupulous employers, but are able to see behind the apparently harmless Sunday-rest law, a Sunday-enforced law. Solving the “Empty Pew” Problem.
At the first meeting held in the M. E. Church, the chairman in introducing Rev. Tufts, and stating the object of the meeting, said, “Once we have the Sunday law secured, the problem of the empty pew will be solved;” showing that the real aim of the movement is to fill the “empty pews.” The subject of the first meeting was “Jesus, King of California.” I suppose Rev. Tufts will have Jesus for civil king, as he is discussing purely civil questions. That is the mistake the Jews made at Christ’s first advent. Again, to show that the agitation is in the interest of religion, the statement was made that the law shall be so framed as to prohibit all business and every kind of employment not necessary to the health and convenience of the people, and to prohibit every kind of public amusement on Sunday,—to enforce a Sunday rest,—and then offer as an excuse for this law man’s physical needs for one day of rest in seven, and call it a “governmental holiday.” But the winds of strife and persecution are still held that the honest hearted may see the truth and find real true rest in Jesus before it is too late. Those who would oppose the truth only help it forward, as in this case. The Moral Condition of the City Attacked.
Rev. Tufts took up a personal attack on the moral condition of the city, saying he had never met such a low type of civilization and such a low degree of morality as he had seen on the streets of Sacramento, which roused the editor of the “Bee,” the leading newspaper of the city, to write several stinging editorials, scathing the Rev. Tufts from the standpoint of an American citizen, and taking a noble stand in defense of the Seventh-day Adventists. The following extract will show the position taken by the editor: “The people of this state will not tolerate a Sunday law that, behind the ambush of providing a ‘day of rest’ for the laborer, would make that day one of dreary and monotonous discomfort, by depriving it of almost every form of innocent outdoor and indoor public amusement and fun to which he had been accustomed, which he craves and which he needs. The people of this state will not be slaves to the churches. They will not tolerate interference with the right of the Jew and the Seventh-day Adventist to spend their Sundays as they may see fit, in decency and propriety; nor will they permit one set of11Christians to dictate how another set of Christians shall spend the first day of the week.”
The meetings were very poorly attended, and the mass meeting closing Rev. Tufts’ work here was almost a failure, only about fifty persons present, largely clergymen and their friends. But there is a persistency about the movement that shows that there is a determined class of men organized to commit this country, and thru it all the rest of the world, to religious legislation. And when the desired sentiment is aroused there will follow religious tyranny and all its attendant horrors of persecution. Those who see the threatened danger should arouse to the most vigorous, the most vigilant, and the most continuous action. C. E. LELAND.