FIRST-FRUITS OF INTER-CHURCH FEDERATION MOVEMENT.
By K. C. Russell
A SUNDAY-LAW observance convention was held in Columbus, Ohio, May 1 and 2. The official announcement of it said in part: "The objects of the convention will be to voice the sentiment of the Christian people and other friends of the Lord's day in defense of our American Sabbath and to form a permanent state organization with an auxiliary in every county, that the entire state of Ohio may be united in support of our beneficent laws and in preserving the people's rest day from desecration." Bodies that have been requested to send one or more delegates are— Presbyterians, synods, conferences, associations, evangelical alliances, or federation of churches, national reform associations, ministerial meetings, congregations, Christian Endeavor, and other young people's societies; Women's Christian Temperance unions, Young Men's Christian Associations, labor unions, and all other bodies, associations, and unions that favor "the preservations of the American Sabbath as our great national day for physical rest and mental and spiritual culture." This convention and its results will be a specimen of some of the first-fruits of the gigantic Church Federation movement. Time will reveal what the final harvest of this movement will be. It is not strange that the enforcement of the Sunday institution should be the objective point of this federated organization; for it is the one issue upon which they all can agree. The Roman Catholic Church would doubtless gladly lead their forces on in the defense of the Sunday institution, of which they have the honor of being the author and also promoter by civil legislation, as the blood-stained history of the Dark Ages will bear witness. K. C. RUSSELL.