SUNDAY LEGISLATION IN WASHINGTON.
By G.
The City of Washington is being thoroughly canvassed with petitions against the District of Columbia Sunday Bills now pending in Congress, and the question has received extensive comment in the press of that city. A member of the District Committee of the House of Representatives said to a member of the Religious Liberty Bureau, "If you will kindly keep us informed as to what Mr. W. F. Crafts wishes us to do, you may be sure it will not be done." At first sight, one would suppose that it was not difficult to know what Mr. Crafts wants, as he keeps a headquarters and a number of assistants in the city for the ostensible purpose of making known the wants of his "reform" association. But, after all, it is not so easy to fathom his designs, unless one has learned them from his utterances in the past, when he and his fellow workers were not so cautious in their methods as they have been in the few years. Men who have studied the prophecies pertaining to the outcome of affairs in this nation, and have traced the movements of the so-called National Reform Association the past forty years, are well aware that a practical union of church and state is the aim of Mr. Crafts' religious lobby in Washington; and that the minor "reform" measures that he has caused to be introduced into Congress, and in some instances succeeded in having passed, are mere stepping stones to the one comprehensive purpose. The enforcement of stringent Sunday laws throughout the land by the general government is one aim long ago avowed, and this District of Columbia Bill is but a prelude to that purpose, a minor action to get Congress committed to the principle of national religious legislation, and, further, to enforce a recognition of the aforesaid lobby as a power that Congress must reckon with. In short, the ultimate purpose of these "reformers" is so far-reaching in the direction of religious legislation, that the Congressman who has not followed the "reform" for at least two decades may well ask those who are informed what Mr. Crafts wants him to do, and then see that it is not done. As a specimen utterance of one who advocates this reform movement, of which the District Sunday Bill is but a progressive step, we submit the following: "I want to see the day come when the church shall be the arbitrator of all legislation, state, national, and municipal; when the great churches of the country can come together harmoniously, and issue their edict, and the legislative powers will respect it, and enact it into law." And much more of like import is on record.
G.