Sunday Laws Not Temperance Laws
By Editor
WE have frequently been accused of a lack of charity, because we have said that Sunday laws are in no sense temperance laws; that the enactment of such laws is solely in the interest of somebody's special religion, and not at all in the interest of temperance; and that, in fact, they tacitly admit that the liquor traffic is all right except on Sunday. The following, which is a portion of a much lauded address recently made before the Young Men's Christian Association of Oakland, by the Rev. J. H. Hector, pastor of the African M. E. Church of San Francisco, shows that we have not overstated the case in the least:— "There is need to tune up the gospel trumpet so that its tones shall sound unmistakably to the world. One thing, and I have noticed it particularly since I came to California, that this gospel trumpet should proclaim is that we must have Sabbath, and a holy Sabbath. We want you Jews to stop selling second-hand clothing on Sunday. We want you Germans to stop selling your beer and running your beer gardens and picnics on Sunday. We want you Frenchmen to stop selling your wine and strong drink on Sunday. We want all of you who are now raising the devil and destroying our children on Sunday to stop it right off. We want to say to you, that while you may raise the devil and destroy our children six days in the week, you've got to rest on the seventh day [first day] and keep it holy." We have always known that Sunday laws were not in the interest of morality or good order, but solely to gratify prejudice and bigotry; but we never before saw it so directly admitted.