The World's-Fair-Sunday-Opening-Closing Muddle.
By Editor
From the principles which have been followed, or rather lack of principle, we would naturally expect just such a state of affairs as has been manifest in the Sunday strife in connection with the World's Fair. The Sunday law of Congress was begotten in religious error, superstition, and bigotry; it was born of the government through fear of these same religious elements; and it must live, if it lives at all, by the same means. It is contrary to justice, to constitutional right, to the whole genius of American liberty, and, more than all else, contrary to the gospel of Christ. On the other hand, the majority of those who fought the Sunday bill did so from selfish and mercenary principles instead of basing their opposition on the broad and sure ground of constitutional right. The present state of the case is about thus: The Superior Court of Illinois, through Judge Stein, granted an injunction against closing the Fair on Sunday. The United States Circuit Court granted an injunction June 8 to close the Fair. The judges sitting were Woods, Jenkins, and Grosscup. The first two (like many Sunday preachers) took widely different grounds, but came to the same conclusion, to grant the injunction to close the Fair. Judge Grosscup dissented. The case was immediately appealed to the United States Court of Appeals. June 10 this injunction to close was suspended by order of Chief Justice Fuller till a decision is rendered by the United States Court of Appeals. The hearing is set for Thursday, June 15. It has been truly said by the Examiner of June 10:— This is a much more serious matter than the mere question of Sunday opening of the World's Fair, important as that is. If the Federal Government can close Jackson Park on a particular day of the week, it can close Golden Gate Park. It can prevent the people of San Francisco from going to baseball games on Sunday. It can punish everybody who stays at home from church. The Examiner thinks that the Supreme Court of the United States will not sanction this reckless invasion of the rights of localities; but in view of the decision rendered by the Supreme Court on February 1 and 29, 1892, what have we to hope for from it? The Sunday law and worship will be carried through as it has begun. The Examiner fittingly concludes thus:— It is worth mention that the opinion of the Circuit Court against Sunday opening was read by Judge William A. Woods, of Indiana, the distinguished jurist who reversed himself to keep Blocks-of-Five Dudley out of jail and was promoted by Mr. Harrison as his reward. With Quay for their leader in the Senate and Woods to back them up on the bench, the Sabbatarians [Sunday-law people] hardly need the assistance of Providence. If they were assured of the help of Providence for Sunday they would never ask for the aid of civil law. It is because they know that there is no help in God to support or promote the "wild solar holiday" as his holy day that they seek the aid of the State. God is not in it; and though it will seem to triumph, its short-lived triumph is but the prelude to its everlasting destruction. A SPECIAL correspondent writes in the Independent of May 4 that there is great commotion in Andover Theological Seminary, a Congregational institution. Two members of the senior class which graduates this month, have openly gone over to the Unitarian denomination. Another stood ready to do so, but he had been invited to take charge of a Congregational Church in Minneapolis; he stated his belief to the official board, saying that he was willing to serve them as pastor if they were willing to accept him. "They decided, in the language of the poet,
'With all thy faults I love thee still,'
and so that man is saved, at least for a time, to Congregationalism." Rather, that Congregational Church committed itself to the watchcare of Unitarianism. We should say that the church, pastor, and all need saving. When a church professing to be Christian can so compromise the eternal power and Godhead of Christ as to accept of one who can in no sense be called a Christian, that church is by that act no longer Christian. Another interesting feature in connection with these and other prospective defections is that they come just when the professors of the seminary have been doing their best to establish the divinity of Christ. But it seems also evident that the "Higher Criticism" has had a prominent place in the school. The faculty of the seminary may be surprised, but in our opinion they ought not to be, for the divinity and preëxistence of Christ are inseparably connected with the plenary inspiration of the Scriptures. To deny that upon which the credibility, integrity, and infallibility of the Bible depends is to reject the One—Jesus Christ—of whom the Scriptures testify. IN speaking of the recently held Baptist anniversaries at Denver, the Advance of June 1 says:— A vigorous resolution condemning the Sunday opening of the Fair, as both a wrong in itself and as a breach of faith, was one of the first things done. The Baptists have taken advanced ground on this subject. Yes; the Baptists have "advanced" backwards. There was a time, and that not many years since, when Baptists would have protested with all their heart, and soul, and strength against all religious legislation, all interference of the State in religious matters, all appeals of the church for State aid, all union of Church and State. But all these things are involved in this Sunday question, and Baptists, sad the fact, are standing in the front ranks of the enemies of religious liberty and equality. Their "advance" is departure from Christ. Will all Baptists follow? IF the Sabbath is to be enforced as a hygienic measure, for the good of the public health, why not regulate by law the hours of sleeping and waking? A certain amount of sleep is requisite to health. If a law of rest for one demands a law of rest for all one day in the week, why is not that just as true concerning the hours of the day? Sunday or Sabbath laws from every standpoint would be a roaring farce were it not for the possible persecution and wickedness involved in them.