SUNDAY LAW IN CALIFORNIA.
The Woman's Christian Temperance Union, the Prohibition party, and a small minority of the clergymen of California, have made strenuous efforts to secure the passage of a Sunday law in that State, during the past winter. A mild bill which asked very little, much less than the friends of such legislation desired, was introduced in the Senate, and some hope was entertained by its friends that it might pass and take the place of the law which was repealed in 1882. The bill failed to reach the second reading, by a vote of twenty-two to thirteen. The work of the Seventh-day Adventists, who have a publishing house at Oakland, Cal., is said by the Christian Statesman to have been effective in opposing this bill, and the ground of their opposition, together with their advocacy of religious liberty, is worthy of commendation, which even the Statesman indirectly grants. It is clear, however, that without any opposition on the part of those who observe the Sabbath, public opinion in California is wholly opposed to the re-enactment of any general Sunday law. Prohibitory legislation against liquor traffic on all days ought to obtain in California, and elsewhere. But any law which is directly or indirectly in the interest of religious observance of any day, has no right to demand a hearing, there or elsewhere. All laws which are based upon the idea that it is wrong to attend to "secular affairs" on Sunday, seek to establish a religious observance of the day. Some men may injure themselves by overwork, by not resting on Sunday, but ten times as many injure themselves by the dissipation, smoking, drinking, etc., when the law compels men to make it a holiday. If Sunday laws are to be supported mainly on hygienic grounds they357must be made to include smoking, drinking, "late suppers," and scores of other unhealthful practices which compulsory idleness induces.—Sabbath Recorder.