TO THE WOMAN'S CHRISTIAN TEMPERANCE UNION OF CALIFORNIA.
By Editor
THE Woman's Christian Temperance Union is again lending its influence to unchristian work, namely, religious legislation. We regret that this is so, not for ourselves, but for their sakes who do this thing. The Pacific Ensign, the Union organ for the Pacific Coast, of December 8, contains the following petition, which the members are asked to sign in duplicate for both houses:— To the Senate and Assembly of the Legislature of California— We, the undersigned, residents of ———, in the county of ———, California, respectfully ask your honorable body to enact a Sabbath law that will prohibit all unnecessary secular labor and business and all public sports and amusements inconsistent with the sanctity of the day, and that at the same time will secure the necessary weekly rest to all classes of weary toilers. And this appeal is made by the superintendent of this branch of the work:— Sisters, how is the rest day observed in your locality? In your superintendent's locality many workmen have "bowed the shoulder to bear," like Issachar, and have become servants to Sabbath toil. They are asked to work, or make way for the man who will work, on Sabbath, and, not being able to do without employment, they yield. Mothers, what assurance have we that our children will not be thus oppressed or become the oppressors? We did not cast the ballot in the late election; but now we can centralize many ballots for a Sabbath law by securing voters' names to the memorial. Under our beneficent institutions and form of government this power is vested in the Legislature to prescribe the rules, and the courts to enforce them. In the other States and all Christian lands the Sabbath, as an institution, is enforced by law, and is constitutionally upheld by the Supreme Court. Its mission is to provide for a compulsory observance of the first day of the week as a day of rest, and cessation from labor and the tumults and bustle of business; but it adds not to this requirement any religious obligation. The Israelite and the seventh-day Christian are not required to rest on the first day, if they observe the seventh. What a great and lasting benefit our W. C. T. U. can now do for Californians if three thousand of us engage in this work of securing signatures until December 20, when they should be returned, to be prepared for the introduction of the bills when the Legislature convenes! All who do not have the memorials will please copy or clip them from this paper. On or before the date, December 20, mail them to the superintendent. Sisters, come and let us reason together over the matter. 1. Who are oppressed in the matter of Sunday work? Surely there is no such a thing recognized in California as involuntary servitude for law-abiding citizens. There is not a man in the State compelled to work Sunday unless he so elects. "But if he will not do it, he will lose his place," you say. Not always. Usually integrity and loyalty are respected by unconverted men. But what if he does lose his place? Can he not afford to do it for conscience' sake, for Christ's sake? Is a religion worth having which will not take this risk? Self-denial for Christ's sake is at the very foundation of the Christian religion. "If any man will come after Me," said Jesus, "let him deny himself." Matt. 16:24. Can not the Christian believe the words of the prophet, when told to lose money rather than engage in a questionable transaction, "The Lord is able to give thee much more than this"? It is better to suffer for principle's sake than to serve at a money profit in its compromise. If Christians can not meet this small temptation, how can they meet greater ones? 2. Let the godly women of the W. C. T. U. teach their children Christian principles. Then, if oppressed, they will come forth the stronger; and they will never be oppressors. No Christian can. 3. Yes, the Legislature prescribes rules, but only in civil matters. The duties which lie between man and his Maker are entirely foreign to the duty and province of a legislative body. Just as soon as a legislature assumes to make laws to govern men's duty to God, it puts itself in the place of God, blasphemously arrogates to itself divine authority, and paves the way for persecution of the innocent and for the destruction of the State. 4. No; the Sabbath, the Bible Sabbath, the Sabbath made and observed by Christ, was never enforced by law; it never could be enforced by law. The Lord's Sabbath is the Lord's rest. "God is spirit;" "the law is spiritual." The Lord's rest is spiritual, "rest unto your souls." The Lord's spiritual rest can only be known or observed by those who know the rest in Christ Jesus, rest from self-righteousness, sin, and strife. They can know this only as they accept it willingly. It can not be enforced, and any attempt to enforce the Sabbath is but the putting forward of an empty, lifeless form, whether true or false, Satan's counterfeit to the true. 5. There are no Christian lands or governments on earth save the church or body of Christ, and she is subject only to her Head. Any act or attempt to enforce any religious or ecclesiastical dogma is unchristian. "Whose image and superscription hath it?" Is it Cæsar's or God's. The Sabbath is the Lord's; it belongs not to Cæsar. Render to Cæsar the things which are his, and to God the things that are His, is what the Master enjoins. And let not Cæsar meddle with the things of God. Further, Jesus Christ said, "If any man hear My words, and believe not, I judge [condemn] him not; for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world." Why should the good women of the W. C. T. U., or the Legislature, or the courts, presume to sit in judgment on those who do not believe the Sabbath as they do? 6. But our sisters of the W. C. T. U. tell us that this Sunday act for which they strive is not religious. If so, what mean the words "a Sabbath law," "secular labor," and "sanctity of the day"? These all clearly imply a religious law. What means the exemption expressed, that "the Israelite and the seventh-day Christian are not required to rest on the first-day, if they observe the Seventh"? Why exempt this class? Who can tell whether they observe the seventh or not? And if a Sunday law is good, why any exemptions? O sisters of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, it is not Christian to compel. You drive away more than you win, and you never win by compulsion. You can not. You can compel men to try to act as tho they were Christians, but you can not make Christians by civil law. You will make men hypocrites; you will turn them from God to man, from the Gospel of love to the gospel of force, "and what will ye do in the end thereof?" Is it not true, Christian sisters, that any and everything that is of Christ will stand because of His own inherent life? Is it not true that what will not stand in Him is not worthy that any child of His should endeavor to maintain it? "Every plant which My heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up." Are not Gospel means and power better than that of force? Is not God stronger than Egypt or Assyria? Is not prayer to God more effectual than petitions to legislatures?