A RELIGIOUS BOYCOTT by Editor

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Feb 4, 1889

A RELIGIOUS BOYCOTT.

By Editor

The Presbyterian ministers of Minneapolis have invoked the boycott against Sunday papers, as witnessed by the fact that upon a recent Sunday the following paper was read from all the pulpits of the denomination in that city:—

"The Presbyterian pastors, all of whose names are hereunto fixed, believing the use of the Sabbath newspaper to be a distinct violation of the divine law, do most urgently urge and entreat the people of their congregations to abstain from patronizing it as an advertising medium, and from either purchasing it or reading it."

Sunday papers may be an evil; but it would be hard for those ministers to show that they are such, simply because they are published, vended, and read upon the first day of the week. The assertion that labor or business performed upon Sunday violates the fourth commandment, is false; and the commandment itself shows it to be false, for it specifies the seventh day, and everybody knows that Sunday is the first day. There is another commandment, namely, "Thou shalt not bear false witness," that we would commend to the attention of these zealous Sunday advocates. To assert that the fourth commandment enjoins Sunday-keeping, is nothing short of bearing false witness against God, and against his law, and might be fittingly rebuked by the words recorded in Eze. 13:7: "Have ye not seen a vain vision, and have ye not spoken a lying divination, whereas ye say, The Lord saith it; albeit I have not spoken?"