SUCH is the heading to a report from the Presbyterian General Assembly of Minneapolis. A sub-heading runs, "Presbyterians Insist upon Obedience to the Fourth Commandment." Why say fourth commandment? There certainly can be no connection between the talk of the Assembly in their discussion of Sunday rest and the rest enjoined by Jehovah in the fourth commandment. The "literal" rest commanded by the Creator there is as foreign to the rest this body of men is seeking to enforce as sun-worship is foreign to the worship of the true God who made the worlds. The commandment reads:—
"Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work; but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God; in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day; wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it."
But in their discussion—
the Sunday street-car, the Sunday train and railroad excursion, the Sunday newspaper, the Sunday-working Presbyterian, and every form of activity which is not in harmony with the literal meaning of the fourth commandment, was condemned.
But every school-boy knows that Sunday is the first not the seventh day of the week. If they desire to discuss the Sunday rest, they are at liberty to do so; but when they say that the "literal" meaning of the fourth commandment enjoins the observance of the first day of the week, it is time to protest; for the commandment says literally the seventh day is the Sabbath, not the first.
The report continues:—
In the debate on the Sabbath resolutions almost every speaker gave evidence of being imbued with the feeling expressed in the words of the committee: "The American Christian Sabbath is in imminent peril; in fact, in many of our large cities and in other parts of our land, it is already nearly lost. This means that American liberty and American institutions are in peril, for of these the American Sabbath has been both the foundation and the protection."
"The American Christian Sabbath." Here is a sabbath made by the American Government for American Christians. God did not make it, and this American sabbath is in peril. It really seems too bad that that which has been the foundation and stood for the protection of our government should not have inherent power enough to protect and save itself. It will be remembered, tho, that those things which stood for the foundation and protection of Israel in the time of Elijah, when put to the test on the day fire descended from heaven upon Elijah's sacrifice, failed in proving to the people that they were worthy of the confidence reposed in them.
It may be interesting to observe some of the winding difficulties experienced by these Sunday-law makers. The Bible says plainly, however, that there is but "one Lawgiver":—
Dr. Hathaway, secretary of the American Sabbath Union, led in the discussion, and Alexander Dixon, of Scranton, Pa.; Elder John Gilchrist, of Boston; Dr. E. B. Wright, of Austin, Texas; and many others, spoke in favor of literal observance of the fourth commandment. D. W. Glass deplored sabbath violation by Presbyterians, and remarked that President Cowan, of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, which discriminates in favor of Sunday travel, is a Presbyterian. On the other hand, it was pointed out that the many down-town churches would have to be closed if church members never rode to church.
An attempt to get the phrase "Christian Sabbath" substituted for the phrase "American Sabbath," in the resolution, was defeated. As adopted, the amendments deprecate the secularizing of the sabbath; urge members and young people of the church to realize the importance of sabbath observance; legislatures and Congress are urged to protect the American sabbath; the American Sabbath Union and the Women's National Sabbath Alliance are commended; every pastor is recommended to preach on Sabbath observance on some sabbath of next October, and take a collection for the Sabbath Union; the board of publications is requested to prepare, and sabbath-school superintendents to use, a specific observance leaflet. Sympathy is expressed with 3,000,000 Americans, who, because of sabbath desecration, are compelled to do secular work on the sabbath. President McKinley's attention is respectfully called to the fact that employees of the post-office and many other departments of the government are compelled to work on Sunday.