The Sunday Law and Christian Liberty
SAID Dr. A. J. Nelson, in speaking on the Sunday law some time ago, as reported in the California Christian Advocate of September 18: "Give us the Sunday-Rest law and the world will move forward another one thousand years." The Doctor evidently measures moral worth and progress by the standard of the Dark Ages. One thousand years ago was a halcyon time for just such legislation. These are facts. The Doctor made a mistake; he meant backward instead of forward. He says again in speaking of what he says was the teaching of Christ, "That man was bigger than the Sabbath, bigger than the State, bigger than the church." If this is true, as Mr. Nelson declares, what right, human or divine, has the State, or Church, or both, to compel any man or men to observe a day for a Sabbath contrary to his desires or conscientious scruples? If he is bigger than the Sabbath, cannot he choose or refuse as he pleases? Have his fellows the right to compel him to humble himself and become subservient to something beneath him? Have they a right to compel him to rest when he does not wish to do so? Admitting this statement of what Mr. Nelson says Christ's teaching was, to be correct, how can he or his brotherhood of the American Sabbath Union justify Sunday legislation?