SUNDAY LAWS by C. P. Bollman

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jan 13, 1887

SUNDAY LAWS.

By C. P. Bollman

FOR more than thirty years some have maintained that the Sunday-sabbath would yet be generally recognized and enforced by the laws of our land. And this not simply as the day has been recognized all along in the several States, but that it will have a place in the Constitution of the United States and be rigidly enforced upon all regardless of creed. But till within a very few years, just how this was to be brought about did not appear. It is true that for more than twenty years there has been in existence a party having this very thing as its avowed object, but for some time it seemed to make little or no progress; and for this reason many were ready to assert that rigid Sunday laws could never come into popular favor in this country. But recent events have not only demonstrated the possibility of such a state of affairs, but they have shown how it can be brought about.

The past few months have been exceedingly fruitful in events which indicate most unmistakably the course of the Sunday law agitation, and he must be blind indeed who cannot now see, only a little way in the future, unjust and oppressive Sunday legislation. On every hand influences are at work which will very soon bring together in favor of such laws elements hitherto antagonistic. Indeed the rapidity with which this is being done is simply astonishing.

Speaking of the recent enforcement of the Sunday law in Boston, Mass., the Watchman (Baptist) of that city says:—

"Much Sunday business was interrupted, especially in barbers' shops and apothecary stores. . . . A considerable number of arrests were made, most of the offenders being Jew clothing dealers, and vendors in small bake and grocery shops, and cigar and fruit stands. . . . The Jew clothiers claim a special and very questionable exemption on the ground that they cannot be required to keep two Sabbaths, when very few of them are known to close their stores on Saturday."

The Tuesday following these arrests the Jews held a meeting, and decided to appeal to the Legislature; but inasmuch as the law of that State does at present, we believe, exempt conscientious observers of the seventh day, it is not easy to see what the Jews hope to accomplish. It seems scarcely probable that they can secure the repeal of the law altogether; and exemptions in favor of conscientious observance of another day than Sunday can do them no good so long as they do not observe the other day. And not only so, but as they do not close their places of business on the Sabbath, their opposition to doing so on Sunday will be very generally attributed to a desire on their part to gain an advantage over others in the same line of business, by keeping open on all days. And this will cause other tradesmen who desire to have one day's respite from business each week, to demand that the law be made even more rigid than it now is. Therefore, none need be surprised if the action of the Jews should not only prove futile, but should result in the repeal of even the present reasonable exemption, just as a similar provision was repealed in Arkansas a year ago. And should such be the case, of course really conscientious Sabbatarians will suffer just as they have in other States.

Scarcely any legitimate business would be injured by Sunday closing, provided all engaged in it close; therefore, as soon as business men are assured that the movement is to be general, and to operate alike on all, they will favor it almost to a man; if for no other reason, because of the rest it affords them; and they will insist that there be no exemptions. The masses will not discriminate between those who really keep the seventh day, and those who only profess to do so and yet keep no day. Business men, and laboring men too, for that matter, will insist that justice demands that all rest alike; and of course neither the wishes nor the rights of the few who are really conscientious will be respected, and therefore all such will have to yield to the will of the majority or suffer the consequences, just as some have already suffered in several States where exemptions in their favor are not made.

Another important element of strength in the Sunday movement is the opposition to the liquor traffic. It is urged that saloons reap their greatest harvest on Sunday, and that to compel all such places to close on that day would reduce their business nearly one-half. Of course Sabbatarians would all be glad to see saloons closed, not only on Sunday but on every day; and they argue that if the law can be made to close them one day it can do the same thing every day. But as there are a great many people who are really opposed to saloons only on Sunday, the proposition to close them altogether does not meet with the popular favor that it deserves, nor as much as we have a right to expect from those who make such a loud profession of temperance principles. Very many of the impassioned appeals which we hear for the abrogation of the saloon evil, seem to be inspired almost solely by the idea that the liquor traffic is a "Sabbath-breaking business." And these zealous reformers apparently lose sight of the real merits of the temperance question in their blind zeal for the "American sabbath," the "Christian sabbath," or the "civil Sunday."

But not only do the temperance people, as such, demand a general Sunday law, but the working men are demanding the same thing, only for a different reason, i. e., that they may have a day of rest. As with business men so with working men, when they rest they insist that others shall not work. Indeed, the enforcement of the Sunday law in Massachusetts was owing to the action of certain barbers who belonged to the Knights of Labor. Of them the Watchman says:—

"They desired to enjoy the benefits of the day of rest, and were unwilling to pay for them the heavy price of losing much of their business to competitors who were indifferent to those benefits. Hence arose the prosecution of a Sunday-working barber, his conviction, and the affirming of that conviction as legal by the court of last resort."

Thus it is easy to see what the result will be when the Knights of Labor as a body declare in favor of strict Sunday laws. It matters not that they look at the matter from a purely selfish standpoint; those who desire to enforce the observance of the day as the "Christian Sabbath" will not scruple to avail themselves of all the assistance they can get from whatever quarter; nor will they stop to inquire as to the motives of their allies. And right here comes in one of the most powerful influences ever enlisted in behalf of Sunday; to wit, the power of the Papacy.

The Church of Rome has a special proprietary interest in the Sunday-sabbath, and though apparently indifferent on the subject, she has for some time been shaping her course in such a way as to give substantial aid to those who propose to enforce upon all the observance of her chief festival,—the one to which she points with special pride as being the badge of her authority,—the one by observing which Protestants acknowledge her power to establish festivals of precept. But the relation of the Catholic Church to the Sunday movement will be best shown by the statement of a few facts.

The plenary council at Baltimore decided that Catholics must abstain from selling intoxicants on Sunday; and now after being affirmed by the Pope, this decree has been published by the Archbishop of Philadelphia, who says that it will be rigidly enforced upon all Catholics within his diocese. This action places the whole Catholic Church in America substantially on the same ground with the mass of Protestants who demand Sunday prohibition, and will have the effect of dividing the saloon element itself upon the Sunday question. A great many liquor dealers are Catholics, and when in obedience to "the church" they are compelled to close on Sunday, they will very naturally demand that all others do the same. And when the time comes that saloons must close on Sunday—and it soon will come—it is vain to imagine that conscientious Sabbatarians will be allowed any freedom upon that day. When the laws are so shaped that the saloons must close on the first day of the week, saloon-keepers will vie with members of the popular churches in hunting down every other form of business upon that day; the first class will be actuated by a desire to make the law odious and so secure its repeal; the other to root out, if possible, the little sect of commandment-keepers whose very existence is a standing rebuke to those who make void the law of God by their traditions. He who cannot see in the near future the complete triumph of the Sunday, so far as civil law is concerned, must be blind to the signs of the times. C. P. BOLLMAN.