A DIVINE COMMAND FOR CLOSING THE GATES OF THE WORLD'S FAIR ON SUNDAY.
By Wm. Penniman
At a mass meeting held in a Baptist Church in New York City, for the purpose of jubilating over the Sunday closing of the World's Fair, the editor of the Examiner, the Baptist organ of that city, took the position that the American sabbath is by the command of God. At the annual meeting of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, held in Chicago, October 4-7 (reported in the Herald and Presbyter of October 12, 1892), Rev. Joseph Cook, the noted writer and lecturer, who is not only learned in all of the schools of the Occident, but has also sat at the feet of the most learned Gamaliels of the Orient, presented resolutions expressing devout gratitude to God that Congress, by great majorities in both houses, had voted for the Sunday closing of the Columbian World's Fair, and, in view of current agitation for Sunday opening, renewed their petition to Congress and the directors and commissioners of the World's Fair, to keep the doors of the Exposition closed in accordance with the divine command. Mr. Cook must agree with the editor of the Examiner that the American sabbath is by the command of God, as he expresses his gratitude that he has commanded the gates to be shut on that day. We would like to have the learned theologian show the chapter and verse in the Bible where there is any "divine command" for shutting the doors of the World's Fair on Sunday. Can he prove that we are now living under a theocracy, as were the Jews at the time of Nehemiah, when he commanded the gates of Jerusalem to be shut on the Sabbath? Here are two difficult cases for Dr. Cook to cure. In the first place, he must prove that Sunday is the Sabbath; and in the second, that we are now under a theocracy. Dr. Cook is not always logical, as he reasons from a wrong premise as occasion requires, and irrationally expects a correct conclusion. It is encouraging to know that, while so many are wishing for a union of Church and State, there are many true reformers who are zealously opposing this movement. A standard is lifted up against this work in the American Sentinel and in other papers, and we are glad to know that many others are lifting a warning voice against it.