The Spirit of the Sunday Law Movement
SOME men, wise in the wisdom of God and of principle, have seen danger in it from the beginning. William Lloyd Garrison saw it; Roger Williams saw it; Baptists saw it. Seventh-day Baptists and Seventh-day Adventists have both faithfully warned against it. This the National Reformers themselves have recognized. The "Christian Statesman" of March, 1874, said: "From the beginning of the National Reform movement, they have regarded it as the first step toward the persecution which they, as observers of the seventh day, will endure when our sabbath laws are revived and enforced. One can but smile at their apprehension of the success of a movement which would not harm a hair of their heads; but their fears were sincere enough, for all that." But to show that their fears were not only sincere, but well grounded, we may state right here that in eleven years, 1885 to 1896, under the revival of Sunday laws, over one hundred conscientious, God-fearing seventh-day Christians, besides thirty in foreign countries, were prosecuted for doing quiet work on Sunday. The fines and costs resulting from those prosecutions amounted to $2,269.69. The imprisonment totaled 1,438 days, of which 455 were served in the chain-gang. These prosecutions took place in at least fifteen States.12But the National Reformers themselves have later told us what would be the effect of their movement. The Rev. W. T. McConnell, in the "Christian Nation" of December 14, 1887, in an open letter to the editors of the "American Sentinel," said: "You look for trouble in this land in the future, if these principles are applied. I think it will come to you if you maintain your present position. The foolhardy fellow who persists in standing on the railroad track, may well anticipate trouble when he hears the rumbling of the coming train." Dr. David McAllister, a well-known National Reformer, said in the convention of that body at Lakeside, Ohio, August, 1887: "Those who oppose this work now will discover when the religious amendment is made to the Constitution, that if they do not see fit to fall in with the majority, they must abide the consequences, or seek some more congenial clime." The Rev. E. B. Graham, in the "Christian Statesman" for May 21, 1885, said: "We might add, in all justice, If the opponents of the Bible do not like our Government and its Christian features, let them go to some wild, desolate land, and in the name of the devil, and for the sake of the devil, subdue it, and set up a government of their own on infidel and atheistic ideas; and then if they can stand it, stay there till they die." Let the reader remember that all that opposes the National Reform idea is "atheistic" and opposition to the Bible. And yet on the other hand, the truest Christian faith and devotion to the Bible demands opposition to that movement. The Rev. M. A. Gault, another prominent National Reformer, in a letter dated June 3, 1889, said: "We propose to incorporate in our national Constitution the moral and religious command, 'In it [the Sabbath] thou shalt do no work,' except the works of necessity, and by external force of sheriffs we propose to arrest and punish all violators of this law." The "Christian Nation" said: "Let those who will, remember the sabbath to keep it holy, from motives of love and obedience; the remnant must be made to do so through fear of law. We have no option." Said Dr. S. F. Scovel, president of the National Reform Association, at Winona Lake, Indiana, in August, 1910: "Uniformity is essential both to peace and progress. The opinion of the majority must be decisive. Even in the matter of men's consciences a degree of uniformity is a necessity." The Rev. W. J. Coleman, in the "Christian Statesman" of November 1, 1883, said: "To be perfectly plain, I believe that the existence of a Christian constitution would disfranchise every logically consistent infidel." And so we might go on with quotation after quotation of what is proposed to be done under the régime of a Sunday law. Let California place such a law upon its books, and there would be found bigots enough to see that it was applied, and applied especially to those who have opposed this movement for liberty's and conscience' sake. Without such weapon such bigotry and intolerance would be harmless.