THAT MISSISSIPPI CRIMINAL AGAIN.
By R. S. Owen
THE readers of the Signs who have seen the account of our trial for Sunday work at Amory, Miss., will doubtless be surprised to learn that another chapter has been added to the history of the case. We had supposed that our acquittal in the justice's court would be the end of the matter, and in ordinary cases of criminal offenses it would have been. But while railroads and steamboats are allowed to run all lines of their business at full blast on Sunday, and much other Sunday work is being done without any interference, yet for an observer of the seventh day to be seen in his garden on Sunday using a hoe, is so serious an offense in the eyes of zealous advocates of Sunday laws that it is not to be passed by with an acquittal of one jury. When Bible arguments for Sunday fail, then there is a great zeal for the laws of the land. "Our laws must be respected," say they. But after the case is tried in court and the defendant acquitted, their zeal for Sunday leads them to disregard the law of the land, and they try to bring the Sabbath-keeper into another court for the same offense, which the law expressly forbids. So we were summoned to appear before the circuit court at Aberdeen to answer again for the same charge. Our case was called up in due order March 13, upon which we stated to the court that our case had been tried and we were acquitted in the justice's court at Amory, and asked that our case be thrown out of court. When the witnesses came, they were questioned on that point, and as they confirmed our statement, the case was dismissed at once. In these trials we have realized the presence of God in overruling all to His glory. We have improved the opportunity to disseminate the principles of religious liberty by circulating literature, and we hear many express themselves as favorable to these principles. Among these expressions we have the following, signed by the leading men of the community:— "WHEREAS, An effort is being made by certain parties to bring hardships upon a class of conscientious Christian people known as Seventh-day Adventists, by repeatedly arraigning them before the courts for the most trivial acts of labor which they may have done on Sunday, after having rested the seventh day, which they believe to be the Sabbath; "Therefore, We, the undersigned, do hereby express our disapproval of any such course as will lower the dignity of our State, by thus using it as an instrument of persecution. "Adopting the language of George Washington, we believe that 'every man who conducts himself as a good citizen is accountable alone to God for his religious faith, and should be protected in worshiping God according to the dictates of his own conscience.'"