Religious Inconsistency and Sunday Laws
By Editor
THERE is one element that is always lacking in political Christianity, and that is consistency. The Supreme Court has declared this a Christian nation, and Congress has decided that Sunday is the Sabbath of the fourth commandment; yet the managers of the forthcoming ball in honor of the inauguration of President Cleveland are arranging to have it extended to Sunday. SOME individual sends us a copy of the Central Baptist, with a request to publish a certain article and return the paper. There is nothing in the article that we care to publish, and we would return the paper if we knew the address of the sender. But he has written the request and address on the margin of the paper (which is against the law), and the address is so obscure that we cannot decipher it. It is strange how some people will wriggle about to save the cost of a postal card. IT is a remarkable fact that in those countries where offenses against religion are the most relentlessly punished, the common people are the most wretched and degraded. Yet the votaries of popular religion in this professedly enlightened and free country are becoming heedless of the lesson which this great fact teaches. The clamor for rigid Sunday laws and their stricter enforcement shows a disposition to mimic the cruelties of barbarous ages and intolerant governments in the enforced observance of their religious vagaries. THE officials of the Inquisition in Henry County, Tennessee, feel the necessity of covering up their record for partiality in arresting only Seventh-day Adventists for working on Sunday. In order to do this they have lodged complaints against a few poor negro laborers on the railroad. This only adds meanness and cowardice to their bigoted persecution of the Adventists. The railroad people run their trains and their white employes of all grades work with impunity on Sunday and are not molested, but the poor negro laborer of the same company is made the victim of vindictive officials at the behest of religious law. The real spirit of the Sunday law persecutions is exposed by one of the editors of the American Sentinel, of New York, who was recently in that part of Tennessee. He says: "One of the indicted Adventists is a young man who, until a short time before the finding of the indictment against him, was rather wild and did not keep any day, but worked alike on all days or spent the time riding around the country. But nothing was said about it; so long as he did not keep another day nobody seemed to care what he did on Sunday. However, at the first term of court after he became an Adventist he was indicted." IN Greenland when a stranger knocks at the door he asks, "Is this God's house?" And if the occupant answers "Yes," the stranger goes right in without any further invitation. And why not? God says, "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." If we are God's servants, our houses belong to him. If a stranger wants to answer the Lord's invitation to come unto him, where would he go but to one of the Lord's houses? "Be not forgetful to entertain strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares." THE prominence which the pope is attaining in these last days was demonstrated by the enthusiasm of his episcopal jubilee on the 19th inst. The great cathedral of St. Peter's was the scene of an immense throng. A dispatch says 30,000 pilgrims, and about the same number of Catholics of Rome, were packed into the building, and not less than 40,000 were turned away by the military. The papal jubilee was celebrated in New York, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Jersey City, and Minneapolis. In New York the restoration of temporal power to the pope was the keynote of the addresses. WHEN Christ ascended to heaven, he promised his disciples to send the Holy Spirit upon them. But there was also the injunction, "Tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem until ye be endued with power from on high." They not only believed that the promise would be fulfilled, but acted out their belief. "And they all continued with one accord in supplication and prayer." Although the outpouring was a matter of promise, they sought it in humble supplication, and they sought it unitedly. So it must be in regard to the promised latter rain. It will come upon those only who humbly seek it with prayer and supplication. IN no other way is theological error more widely published than in poetry and hymns. The inherent immortality of the soul has been sung so long that men believe it, contrary to the whole teaching of the word of God. The following is illustrative of the same thing in another line; it is taken from some verses headed "Sunday," which appeared some time ago in a popular religious journal:—
"Dear Lord, we thank thee for thy day,
The day that thou hast made and blest.
We lay aside our week-day toils and cares,
And greet with joy this day of rest."
The Bible fact is simply this, that God never blessed Sunday any different than he ever did five other days of the week; nor did he ever appoint it as a rest day. The Sabbath law is found in Ex. 20:8-11. IT is said that the Peace Society of England is waging war on the Boys' Brigade, on the ground of its military organization, its tendency being to make the boys lovers of war and military life. In reply to this criticism the Boys' Brigade Courier says:— "The boys are taught to love peace, and to follow the Prince of Peace. Few indeed have become regular soldiers, and a smaller proportion than might have been expected have become volunteers. Nevertheless, the young men trained in the brigade will be ready at their country's call to fight her battles, if needed, and will make all the better soldiers by reason of their early training in the Boys' Brigade." This is an admission that the boys are better prepared to fight by virtue of the drill in the Boys' Brigade, and does not agree with the claim that they are trained to follow the Prince of Peace. Jesus would not allow his servants to fight, even in defense of their Master's life. He said, "If my kingdom were of this world then would my servants fight, and I should not be delivered unto the Jews; but now is my kingdom not from hence." Then when the boys are made "ready at their country's call to fight her battles," they are prepared to fight for another kingdom than that of the Master. Satan is well pleased with every scheme for teaching men carnal warfare. MR. MORGAN, U. S. Commissioner of Indian Affairs, has been the one particular eyesore of the Catholics during President Harrison's administration. His latest act of hostility to their methods was to annul a government contract made with the Sisters of Loretto for the conduct of an Indian boarding school at Bernalville, New Mexico. In explanation of his action the commissioner says:— "In violation of the contract the sisters have enrolled in the school forty-two children who are pure Mexicans, without a trace of Indian blood, whom they have reported as Indians. Not only this, but they have misrepresented the homes of many of them, locating them in their reports in places far removed from their actual residence, and still they instructed the children, when questioned as to their residence, to give false information. The matter has been investigated with great care, and my action was absolutely necessary in view of the damaging facts revealed."