CIVIL LAW TO FILL THE CHURCHES.
By R. F. Cottrell
It is not a new thing that the State is appealed to to keep "church members, and even deacons," in their places in the churches on Sunday. More than thirty years ago a writer in the Baptist Register spoke in this way:— "How do the citizens of our State understand the law of the Sabbath? Our revised statutes sanction the Sabbath as a day of rest from servile toil. They impose penalties on those who violate the holy day; and still the canals of the State are kept open. Many hundreds of men and teams are constantly employed. The collectors must all be detained from public worship. Lock tenders must be at their stations. The store-houses must be open, and all the long train of systematic business is leagued against the holy day of sacred rest. . . . Is it not time for reform in this matter? We have reason to fear the judgments of God so long as we mock at his Sabbath, and trifle with his own civil laws. . . . To me it appears almost in vain that statute laws and pulpit addresses cry reformation while this sinful practice is tolerated by the canal commissioners and all their subordinate officers. How painful to see church members, and even deacons, vacating the sanctuary and the Sabbath-schools to take toll, to give clearance, etc., on the holy Sabbath!" The writer looks to civil law for a remedy of the monstrous evil of which he complains, and which he seems to deprecate with so much piety. "How painful," he says, "to see church members, and even deacons, vacating the sanctuary and the Sabbath-schools to take toll, to give clearance, etc., on the holy Sabbath!" Now I ask, Is there no law in the churches of sufficient power and authority to keep church members, and even deacons, in their places on what they are pleased to call the holy Sabbath? Must statute laws and "canal commissioners" be called on to keep church members and deacons at church or Sabbath-school on Sunday? Men are free in this State to choose their own occupation. No one is compelled to take toll or give clearance who does not choose to do so. But the truth is, Sunday has but little or no dominion over men's consciences, in this land of Bibles, because there is no law of God for its observance. If there was, ministers would not be obliged to appeal to the State authorities to keep their members and deacons at their posts on that day. But as did the "mother church," so do the daughters; when arguments addressed to the understanding fail to induce respect for their unscriptural doctrines, the aid of civil law is invoked to open the eyes of men's understanding, and compel respect.
R. F. COTTRELL.
Ridgeway, N. Y.