The Real Object of Sunday Closing
By Editor
Do not be deceived. There are some persons who believe in Sunday closing as a temperance measure, but that is not the real object. The real object of the Sunday-closing movement is a full-fledged Sunday law. This we state not on our opinion, but on the positive declaration of those prominent in the movement. Sunday is considered, whether rightly or wrongly makes no difference, a "Christian" institution. To establish Sunday by law is, therefore, to establish an institution of the Christian religion, that which is put forward as "the mark of the Christian religion." And that is to establish the Christian religion to that extent by law. But to establish the Christian religion by law at the demands of the church is to establish a union of Church and State, it matters not whether the church is one denomination or many under one head. A union of Church and State means ruin to the church and the State so united. It has always meant this and has always accomplished it. It ruined Rome; it will ruin America; and the greatest sufferers in sin and pride and eternal ruin will be those who seem to triumph in it. It is to save our fellow men, one and all, Christian and infidel, Catholic and Protestant, Jew and Gentile, Prohibitionist and rumseller, from this dire disaster, that we raise this warning voice. It is easy to laugh and scoff at the warning. Men laughed at the warnings of Christ and His prophets. Men say that this movement will not result in evil under them. But it is already resulting in evil to innocent and godly men and women, and in greater evil to those who have enlisted in it. It will always result in evil. "Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." The Sunday-closing movement, as expressly declared by its fatherers and fosterers, is the first step; the whole baleful train of evils is bound to follow. Will you, reader, vote to bring them about?