Methods in the Sunday Law Campaign
By J. O. Corliss
FOR some months past Dr. George Grannis, of New York, has been touring the State of California in company with Dr. G. L. Tufts, Pacific Coast secretary of the Lord's Day Alliance, in the interest of a Sunday rest law to be voted upon under the new Initiative amendment, at the next general election. These gentlemen held forth at San Jose the evening of February 14, before an audience of about one hundred persons. The Ten Commandments were declared to be the true basis of a needed revival, especially in the matter of Sunday keeping. To enforce this thought, Isa. 58:13, 14 was quoted, which says, "If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on My holy day," etc., which every Bible student knows refers to the seventh day of the week, or Saturday, according to Ex. 20:8-11, instead of Sunday, which is the first day of the week. Now is the Sunday rest law in the interest of the laboring man, as much as to the advantage of the church? At times, as if such advocates almost lose sight of the fact that their theories conflict, they appeal to the church to work in the interest of Sunday rest laws, that their church services may be better attended. Then they tell that there is no design, in their efforts, to secure a religious rest law, but simply a law for the betterment of the laboring man's condition. But every son of toil now has the right to rest on Sunday if he so chooses, without any law compelling him to do so. "Yes," these people say, "but if he rests, he loses his position, and must then reach the verge of starvation." So these people, who think they are Christians, instead of trusting God for protection, fly to the civil power for that which they, by so doing, virtually deny that God is willing to give, notwithstanding His many positive promises to the faithful. But even tho the civil power is thus invoked, its guaranteed protection in this matter is not trusted. For exactly nineteen years there has been on the statutes of California (see Stats. 1893, page 54, or Corporation Laws of California, page 594, ed. 1909) a law forbidding any employer to work any employee "more than six days in seven." Why, then, strive for a Sunday law, if it is not in the interest of the church more than for the laboring class? Dr. Tufts declared that the law desired for California was one similar to that he obtained for the State of Idaho a few years ago, and which Dr. W. F. Crafts, then secretary of the American Sabbath Union, pronounced the best law of the kind in the United States. But judgments differ in this line, as in most all other things. When Gov. James H. Hawley, a Catholic in religion, delivered his message to the Idaho legislature January 3, 1911, among other things he spoke of the Sunday law, then a part of the Idaho statutes. After commenting upon the inconsistencies in its general make-up, the governor closed that part of his message thus: As a result of its experience in construing this law, the Supreme Court has proposed, in its report to the governor, that it be so amended as to make it intelligible. Undoubtedly the act needs amendment if it is continued in force, but I would suggest a still better remedy that the entire act be repealed, and the subject-matter of it relegated to local authorities in the various municipalities of the State.
There is no doubt, however, that the campaign in behalf of a California Sunday rest law will be pushed to extremes, since the advocates thereof seem to be adopting the tactics of ordinary politicians, in that they plead for votes to their cause by blackening the character of all who do not affiliate with them. Seventh-day observers, because they adhere strictly to Bible principles, and point out from the prophecies the turmoil and confusion sure to result from man-made religion, established by law, are classed with "dive-keepers" and "saloonists," and are said to be in league with the devil. And yet this very people gave many thousands of dollars for workers and literature, to help sustain prohibition in the late Maine contest. So prominent were these people in that struggle that Dr. Crafts, of Washington, writing about it, declared that had it not been for the assistance rendered by these seventh-day people, Maine would have been lost to the temperance cause. But this is not the only testimony regarding the work done by that people in the recent Maine temperance campaign. Less than two weeks ago Mrs. L. M. N. Stevens, national president of the W. C. T. U., Miss Anna Gordon, national vice-president, and the leading workers of the W. C. T. U. for the District of Columbia, in addresses made before the students of the Foreign Mission Seminary of the Seventh-day Adventists, spoke in praise of the good work done by the seventh-day people in that campaign for temperance, Mrs. Stevens especially mentioning the distribution of fifty-five thousand copies of the Temperance Instructor. Knowing as they do that they have God's approval, seventh-day observers need not be disheartened; for their Saviour was loaded with opprobrium for the part He bore in opposition to the prevailing leaven of religionists during His earthly sojourn. He, the only-begotten Son of God, was called "Beelzebub," the god of flies, by the religionists of that day. If the "Master of the house" must be called by such a name, in order to rouse passion against Him and His work, in order to bring Him to the cross, it should not be thought a strange thing that His followers would also be classed with that which is low and vile. It will pay all, however, to watch the trend of this Sunday rest law movement, and note its bias under varying circumstances. Its true character may thus be learned, and its errors avoided.