A FAILURE by Editor

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jan 21, 1889

A FAILURE.

By Editor

The Sunday law of Louisiana, according to the Times Democrat, of New Orleans, of December 2, seems to be an entire failure. That journal says:—

"The Sunday law is now being tried before the jury, as it ought to be. We pointed out some days ago that the constitution of Louisiana and the rulings of the highest courts made the jury the judge of the law and the evidence, the protector of the people against defective, unjust, or arbitrary laws, and that it was not only the right but the duty of jurors to declare in their verdict against acts full of discriminations, injustice, and absurdity, as is the Sunday law as it now stands. The juries have done so. The question has been presented to them from every point of view, and nearly every section of the law has been tested and passed on, and yet it has been found impossible to secure a single conviction."

That ought to be the case with all Sunday laws. They should have no place in the law of any civil Government. Sunday is a religious or church institution purely, and the State has no more right to compel its observance than it has to compel men to accept the doctrine of transubstantiation, or to adore the host. Neither do we object to Sunday's being enforced by law because it is a page-papal institution. Men have no right to legalize any Sabbath whatever, whether true or false. It is beyond the province of civil government. The observance of a Sabbath is a matter which lies wholly between man and his Creator.