THE MASK THROWN ASIDE by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Feb 8, 1899

THE MASK THROWN ASIDE.

By Editor

The Proposed California Sunday Law.

MOST Sunday laws of the past have posed as civil Sunday laws, police regulations, or sanitary measures. Of course these professions were only subterfuges, as we have often pointed out; but they have succeeded in deceiving both legislators and judges. These men have said, "O, no, we could not vote for a religious sabbath law; we could not regard such a law as constitutional; but this is a mere civil sabbath law, a police regulation!" But neither legislator nor judge can make this plea regarding the bill now before the California Legislature. It is distinctly religious. It makes no attempt to hide it. It rejects all the masks hitherto used, and demands of the legislators of California that they shall violate their oath, in which they have sworn to uphold the Constitution of the United States and California. The preamble of the bill reads like this:—

An Act to Prevent Sabbath Desecration, and to Secure a Weekly Rest Day.

Whereas, "Christianity is the common law of the land;" and as the people of the State generally regard the Christian Sabbath, or the first day of the week, as sacred to religious worship, and because the best interests of the State are conserved by Christian morality, which is inseparably connected with the proper observance of the Sabbath.

Five of the six prohibitory sections which forbid manual labor, open business places, sports, amusement, liquor-selling, and hunting, do this respecting "the Christian Sabbath" (both religious terms), which the bill defines to be Sunday, or the first day of the week. The proposed law abounds in these terms, "Christian Sabbath," "religious services," "Christian assemblies," "Christianity," "Christian morality," "proper observance of the Sabbath," "Sabbath desecration," and all of these in direct line with the object of the bill.

The preamble, which presents the reasons for—the foundation of—the bill is wholly of a religious character. Let us in a most general way examine these terms and objects as set forth in the bill according to the standard Book of Christians, the Bible. (1) What and when is "the Christian Sabbath"? (2) What is "proper observance of the Sabbath"? (3) What does "Sabbath desecration" mean, which the bill is designed to prevent? (4) What is "Christianity"?

Now, here are certain principles laid down by eminent jurists which are certainly worthy of application here:—

"In the case of all law, it is the intent of the law-giver that it is to be enforced."

"When words are plain in a written law, there is an end to all construction; they must be followed."

"When the intent is plain, nothing is left to construction."

1. Now the Word of God, the Christians' Book, tells us in Ex. 20:10 that "the seventh day is the Sabbath of Jehovah thy God;" in Gen. 2:2, 3, that the Creator rested upon, blessed, and "hallowed" the seventh day; in the fourth commandment we are enjoined to "remember the Sabbath day [not to make it holy but] to keep it holy;" Jesus tells us that He is Himself "Lord of the Sabbath" (Mark 2:28); and we learn from Matt. 28:1 and Mark 16:1, 2 that this Biblical seventh-day Sabbath came just before the "first day of the week." "The Lord's day," according to the Lord's Book, is the day which the Lord calls His own.

This Sabbath was made by Christ our Creator; it was observed by Christ our Example; its sacredness was taught and enjoined by Christ our Teacher; and He honored the Sabbath by declaring Himself its Lord.

Is there any one who will deny that the "intent" of the word of God's law (Ex. 20:8-11) is to enjoin the seventh day, not the first, of the septenary cycle?

Are not the words "plain"? Should there not then be "an end of all construction"? And should not God's words "be followed"?

In the light of the Christian's Book, what is the meaning of the terms used? "Sabbath observance" would be the keeping of the seventh day of the week, not the first day. "The Christian Sabbath" would be the Sabbath made by Christ, enjoined by Christ, kept by Christ, and of which Christ declared Himself to be Lord.

What other interpretation could a court put upon the matter than that the seventh day, and not the first, was "the Christian Sabbath"?

2. "Proper Sabbath observance" would, according to these principles, be the observance of the day commanded of God according to His instructions. His law declares: "Remember the Sabbath day [the day of God's rest, the seventh], to keep it holy." Man can not hallow it. God has hallowed it. He has made it sacred and holy. He commands that man shall "keep it holy," and He has commanded this concerning no other day. Therefore, if California is to enact and enforce a law for Biblical, Christian Sabbath observance, it must, unless it shall do violence to the Word of God and accepted principles of interpretation of law, attempt to enforce the seventh day—a thing our Sunday-law advocates would not have done for any consideration.

3. "Sabbath desecration," according to the same Word, and principles of American jurisprudence, means the violation, or profanation, of that which God has made sacred or holy; but as He has made holy only one day of the week, namely, the seventh, it follows that "an act to prevent Sabbath desecration" must apply to the seventh day, not the first day.

4. What is "Christianity"? It is not a system of forms and laws, altho it has its forms and laws. Its essential characteristic is life. It is nothing apart from its spirituality, which shaped its primitive original forms; but these forms apart from its life are dry, dead husks, as empty of life as the empty sepulcher from which Christ had risen; but if crystallized into statute law, as fruitful of bloodshed as was that empty tomb during the Crusades.

Moreover, "God is spirit," and God's "law is spiritual," reigning over and controlling the

man by ruling his thoughts, motives, aspirations, ambitions, intents, and purposes. Under God's law man does not kill his brother till he first hates him. He does not commit adultery till he has cherished concupiscence. He does not desecrate the Sabbath in deed till he desecrates it in thought. The roots of sin are in the heart. This is the fundamental teaching of Christianity. But no civil law can control thought, or purpose, or intent. It can not change the heart. It may be able to make hypocrites and slaves, but it can not make Christians or Sabbath observers. For the only true Sabbath observance is rest in Jesus Christ, of which the Sabbath day stands a depository, a symbol, a pledge.

For any civil State to attempt to enforce God's law or religious ordinances, is to put itself in the place of God, and no State has ever attempted to carry this out effectually but that its course resulted in persecution for conscience' sake.

Let California be true to the principles of civil and religious liberty, tho she stand alone. Let our Sunday-law brethren do their missionary work as Christians should—by persuasion, not coercion.