A DESPATCH from Washington says that the President has sent instructions to United States Commissioner-General Peck, at the Paris Exposition, to see that the American section is kept closed on Sunday during the exhibit as far as possible. Mr. Peck will not take final action in the matter until after he has conferred with the Paris authorities.
Keeping the American exhibit closed at the great Paris Exposition will give some people a great text with which to expatiate on how good this world is getting, etc. But those who know about the canteen evil in this government, and about all the rest of the wickedness and political corruption, will not need to be told that such acts as closing the exhibit on Sunday (even if Sunday were the Sabbath) savors of almost anything else rather than the Spirit of the real Christ.
The enemy of all truth is determined that Sunday shall be thrust upon the people, whether they like it or not. But while he is doing this, the Lord is urging the true Sabbath upon the consciences of men, and very soon all will have taken their stand for or against it. There is much involved in this Sabbath question, and many are liable to make the mistake of thinking that it does not amount to much, or else of allowing their prejudices to keep them from learning the real truth of the Bible upon the subject. The Sabbath commandment reads thus:—
"Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work; but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God; in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy man servant, nor thy maid servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it."
The foregoing is the Lord's own version of the Sabbath question. And it would be absolutely impossible to make that commandment give any sanction whatever to Sunday-keeping. Sunday is not the Sabbath, and, no matter what our views or prejudices to the contrary may be, the indisputable facts stand there just the same. It is better to stand with God, even tho we have to be in the minority, and be right, than to risk the consequences on such a vital matter.
