p. 9 | SUNDAY AND POLITICS by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · May 18, 1904

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 30, No. 20.

SUNDAY AND POLITICS.

By Editor

REFERRING to the fact that several prominent pastors of New York City recently preached against liquor selling on Sunday, and against legislation permitting such practice, the Sabbath Recorder (Seventh-day Baptist) says:—

If any permanent reform is secured for Sabbath observance, whether in connection with Sunday or any other day, it must be gained upon religious grounds. The most important step toward securing a clear field for Sabbath reform is to separate the whole question from politics. This involves a radical change of base concerning what is called Sunday legislation; and also the entire separation of the liquor traffic from all other forms of business in connection with such legislation. At present all that the friends of true Sabbath reform can do is to restate this truth and call attention to the better way. As in all similar cases, the interests involved must find their way through experience, bitter and continual, toward larger conceptions of the true position which Sabbath reform involves. If the pastors in the city of New York would cease to treat the question as a political one, and fall back upon the Word of God and the essentially religious character of the whole Sabbath question, much would be gained.

The point which we wish to note particularly in connection with this extract is that the Christian Statesman, organ of the National Reform Association, specifically indorses it. But, unless the association radically changes its base of operations, it is difficult to perceive the logic of the indorsement.

The Recorder says that “the most important step toward securing a clear field for Sabbath reform is to separate the whole question from politics.” In supporting such a proposition, the “reformers,” in order to be consistent, would have to recede from all their efforts to secure Sabbath legislation by political bodies. To separate the Sabbath question from the religion of the Bible would leave Sunday out of the question altogether; then if it were to be also segregated from politics, that would leave it no standing at all above other secular days.

The Sabbath question can be, and ought to be, separated from politics, for it is the Lord's day, holy and honorable. No earthly power can affect its character, and its observance is in no sense political. The state of right has nothing to do with it. But the Sunday question is a religious question with a political backing. It is not a Biblical question, and, therefore, has no legitimate connection with the Christian religion. Sunday, as an institution for special observance, was established by a political power, and while it has been accepted by those professing Christianity, its maintenance has ever been by the force of political influence. Its most ardent advocates admit this when they plead for more political support, lest the institution be destroyed.

The last sentence of the quotation from the Recorder is true, but for the pastors of New York, or any other locality, to apply it practically would be to drop Sunday out of the question altogether. If the National Reformers really meant to indorse the sentiment expressed by the Recorder (seeing that they deem Sunday to be a Sabbath), we would expect them to withdraw their District of Columbia Sunday Bill from Congress. But we will not see it. The Sunday institution, altho religious in purpose, would have no force whatever if divorced from politics. It is essentially a church-and-state institution, and never can be anything else.