WHOSE LAW SHALL WE HONOR?
IN its issue of July 1, the Christian Life publishes as its leading editorial the old Pennsylvania law of April 22, 1794, against "Sabbath desecration;" that is, against performing on that day any act recognized as legal and permissible on other days. The editor states that his purpose in publishing this is to show men that by working or indulging in sports on Sunday they are breaking the laws of man as well as the law of God, and that by "keeping open on this day" they "are sinning against God and man." Now there is no doubt that in working or playing on Sunday in the State of Pennsylvania a person is breaking the law of man; but that such person is, at the same time, breaking the law of God is not so evident. It certainly does not appear in the old law which that journal quotes from the civil code of Pennsylvania. However, there is a law against Sabbath desecration, in the breaking of which there is sin against God. It is not on the statute books of Pennsylvania or any other State. It goes back to a date considerably beyond 1794. Would it not have been better for the editor of the Christian Life to have quoted this law in reference to Sabbath desecration, especially in view of the fact that this law was given by Him who was the Author of the Sabbath, and especially also in view of the fact that Christ (who only can give Christian life) Himself has declared that this law shall never fail or be abrogated in the least particular as long as heaven and earth shall remain? We believe that it would have been more appropriate for a Christian journal to quote a Christian law, than to ignore such a law and publish to its Christian readers a law of the State against the desecration of a professedly Christian institution. The reader has a right to ask, Why is not God's law published in reference to Sabbath desecration? Christ has declared that that law is perpetual. Why is it not given? The only possible answer is that the church of today finds itself keeping as the Sabbath a day to which God's law does not and never can apply, a day which God has never blessed or hallowed as a Sabbath, and a day concerning whose keeping there is no law but the law of man. The law of the State, or the human, is the only law that can be quoted in reference to the keeping of Sunday. But this can not be said of that day which has been and is ever more to be the Sabbath of Jehovah, the seventh day of the week. That needs no recognition or support from the State, for behind it is all the power and authority of the Creator of the heavens and the earth. His law declares: "The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God. In it thou shalt not do any work." And far from its being a sin against God to labor on the first day of the week, Sunday, the one who does so, and rests and worships upon the day He rested, is in that "walking as He walked." We are not indebted to nor dependent upon the State or the church for a Sabbath law; neither are we sinning against God or man in working upon the day which God and Christ dedicated to labor by the very example which they set. We are, however, sinning against God in desecrating the Sabbath which He instituted, and which He commanded should be kept holy. See Ex. 20:8-11, Matt. 5:18, and Luke 17:16, 17. There can be no mistaking the Lord's intention in the matter. It is better to stand on the Lord's side alone, than to be found fighting against Him, tho all the world and all its laws are with us. S.