Is It Because of, or in Spite of?
By Editor
The Occident, our Presbyterian neighbor across the bay, has the following in a recent number:— “We are surprised that a Christian paper, even if advocating the ideas of the Seventh-day Adventists, should sneer about Sunday observance. Much or little can be said about a tree, depending to a great extent upon the fruit that it bears. A faithful observance of Sunday, even approaching the Puritanical form, has developed the strongest character and the best code of morals to be found in the world. Toronto, Canada, as a city is a fair example. Without many natural advantages, it has grown to be a city of over two hundred thousand population. It is one of the cleanest and healthiest, and the best moral city in the world. No street cars are allowed to run on Sunday; no excursions are allowed to enter or leave the city; no saloons open, in fact they are closed at six o’clock every Saturday evening, and not even a back door open until seven o’clock Monday morning. There are twenty-five Presbyterian Churches, all brick buildings, and every one crowded at both services on Sunday. The workingman lives in a nice brick or grout house, frame buildings not being allowed in the city limits. Wages are small, but they are not wasted in Sunday saloons, Sunday fairs, or Sunday excursions. The result is a model city in every respect.” Now the mistake which our contemporary makes is to ascribe the strength of character and the morality to Sunday observance. If Monday had been as faithfully kept, would the result not have been the same? The strength of character and all the true morality lie back of all Sunday keeping or all true Sabbath keeping. The Sabbath keeping is the result, not the cause. And it is not hard to conceive how a good conscience may lead a man to be conscientious in error, because he believes it to be truth. But this does not affect the standing of Sunday; it is a usurper still. Abraham was one of the best of men, one of the strongest of moral characters, but he was a polygamist. This, however, did not make polygamy right, nor was polygamy the cause of Abraham’s uprightness. He was counted upright notwithstanding it, because ignorant of its sin and right at heart. So God accepts men who observe from the heart Sunday, not because they observe Sunday, but in spite of it, because they have submitted to him and are sinning ignorantly. In the thriving little town of Alfred, New York, the people nearly all observe the seventh day, and there is no saloon whatever, and no Sabbath law rules save that of Jehovah. A Sunday law or Sunday observance never saved anyone. God has respect to the spirit, the heart, the motive, the principle behind it, but the institution itself is like the calves of Jeroboam. It is a usurper. God has blessed those who honor it not because of it but in spite of it.