Sunday Laws and Religious Liberty
On Sunday, December 8, all the theaters and other places of amusement in New York City were closed. A decision of United States Justice O’Gorman was the occasion for so rigidly enforcing a law that has been carried as a dead letter among the ordinances of the city. It is stated that the aldermen have called a meeting, and will do what they can to abrogate the law so that they will not have to do without their theaters again on Sunday. The history of Sunday closing of places of amusement is that the first step is to shut out the amusements on Sunday; and then the next step is to get a law compelling everybody to attend church on that day. The Lord does not attempt to compel men to observe the forms of religion, then why should men undertake what the Lord does not assume to do? The activity of those who would compel the observance of Sunday by law should be closely watched. For no matter how impossible it may seem to us, yet it is nevertheless a truth that one of the clearest prophecies of the book of Revelation foretells the fact that there will be a universal movement in favor of Sunday to secure its observance under the pains and penalties of civil law. This movement will bring about world-wide persecution against those who refuse to surrender their right to worship God without any such intervention from the state. We may have nursed the hope that the days of religious bigotry and religious intolerance are in the past; but the prophecy puts a contrary view upon the subject.