Progress of the Sunday Movement.
By G. D. Ballou
THE Christian Statesman in its issue of February 4, speaking of "the struggle for the Sabbath" (Sunday), says:— "From this outlook we see many signs of deepening conviction and increasing zeal and determination on the part of the friends of the Sabbath. [By Sabbath, the Statesman always means Sunday.] Temperance men are perceiving more clearly than ever that the liquor traffic is the implacable foe of the day of rest, and that the strict enforcement of Sabbath laws would of itself greatly cripple the saloon. The Law and Order movement is being pressed to the logical conclusion that in the effort to secure general obedience to law, the violation of the Sabbath laws by others than saloon keepers cannot be consistently ignored. The Sabbath committees in some places are showing increased activity. In Cincinnati the Law and Order society secured last week the written agreement of all the theater managers to discontinue performances on the Sabbath." After stating that one of the theaters in question had failed to keep its agreement, and that all the employes were arraigned in court the next day "and fined in the nominal sum of one dollar each, on condition that they would not repeat the offense," the writer gives an extract from an article in Music and Drama, a Chicago theatrical journal, which claims that Chicago wants a similar reform (a law to compel all to close), and sets forth the commercial disadvantages of those managers who close on Sunday in a city where nearly all theaters are opened on that day; and then continues as follows:— "This illustrates the beneficent operation of law. It constrains the obedience of the few, and secures the willing compliance and hearty support of the majority even in such a profession as the management of theaters." Further on, the article speaks thus of the condition of things in Philadelphia: "While saloon keepers, however, are obliged ostensibly to close their saloons and are occasionally punished for their sales, many other kinds of business are continued on the Sabbath [Sunday]. . . . The Sabbath [Sunday] Association, recognizing this inconsistency, and feeling that it weakens and ultimately imperils the enforcement of the law as against the saloons, has twice waited on his honor, the mayor, to secure the suspension of all other forms of business as well." The article closes by saying that the mayor is putting forth his best efforts to carry out the wishes of the committee. The student of prophecy will notice one important fact in the foregoing, i. e., that the elements working for the legal support of the Sunday sabbath are constantly becoming more unified and better disciplined for action. Their method of popularizing their cause by getting the "respectable" theater managers and perhaps soon the "respectable" saloon keepers to pledge themselves not to open on Sunday, bids fair to soon form a precedent for forcibly stopping all kinds of business on that day, even that which is morally legitimate. Here are two classes of business that on any day of the week are morally illegal and vile,—one debasing men through the lust of appetite, and the other corrupting them through the lust of the eyes. And it becomes necessary to restrain all legitimate business on Sunday in order that these corrupting influences may be temporarily suspended. Will not all pious Sunday people be anxious to see all the respectable people of the community make this little sacrifice of Sunday closing in order that the saloons may consistently be shut up? This plea cannot fail to accomplish much towards the speedy enforcement of a universal Sunday law. Another important reflection forces itself upon the mind. How much more moral and pious will the non-professing people of the United States be when, like those saloon keepers of Philadelphia, they are forced into outward compliance with a strict Sunday law, while behind closed doors they carry forward their business just the same? Or will it make this a Christian nation, to have the pious people compel the ungodly to wear an outward robe of piety on Sunday while in their hearts they care nothing for the claims God has upon them? It will not be the claims of God to which they have yielded in acquiescing with this proposed Sunday law, but only the arrogant claims of men. How much better will the unconverted men and women of this nation be in the sight of God, when simply to save their reputation and keep their business position they have yielded outward obedience to these man-made laws? I should think there were hypocrites enough in the land now, without legislating millions more into a state of hypocrisy. Will this be a Christian nation when thirty millions more of our citizens formally observe this man-made Sunday law, for which scarcely one of its advocates dares to claim any divine authority, while their hearts are strangers to divine grace, and God is not in all their thoughts? It would certainly be interesting to have the pious advocates of Sunday laws explain what moral change of heart takes place as the result of obedience to human laws.