SUNDAY DISCIPLINE IN SOUTH CAROLINA.
The New York Independent tells of an incident, at the Second Presbyterian Church in Columbus, S. C., lately, which makes somewhat clearer what lies behind the case of Miss Sadie Means, which is now on appeal to the Southern Presbyterian General Assembly. Our readers will remember that she was dropped from the roll of the church for doing telephone duty on Sunday. She appealed to the Presbytery, which sustained the church, and from there to the Synod, which reversed the decision. Recently Dr. Law, a new professor in the Presbyterian Theological Seminary at Columbia, preached for the pastor of the church on "Sabbath Keeping," and after his sermon took occasion to rebuke the church for allowing others to remain in the church without discipline who were engaged in secular work on Sunday, while Miss Means was excommunicated. Considerable correspondence has since passed in the matter, from which it appears that the session of the church, being anxious to take action against Sunday breaking, agreed to impose discipline on any new cases that might arise, but to allow those who had been so engaged in the past to continue in the church, simply with remonstrance or rebuke. Accordingly, Miss Means, being a new offender, was disciplined, while those who had long been equally guilty were simply labored with and patiently endured. The Independent comments on this wise: "It appears to us that if Miss Means was guilty, then the others were guilty also, and that one law should be applied to the old gander and to the gosling. Dr. Law may have been imprudent or officious in volunteering his rebuke, but we do not see that the elders who rose in church and told him to 'stop right there' had much defense to make."