Sunday Liquor Ordinance and Sabbath Observance
Anent the Sunday liquor ordinance, the Omaha Bee of August 29 says: "Acting Mayor Johnson insists that the law prohibiting the sale of liquor on the Sabbath day can not be construed to apply to sales on Sunday, because Saturday is the real Sabbath day, in name as well as in fact. On this point Acting Mayor Johnson will be sustained by some of the most profound doctors of theology." This reminds us that the same point was raised in the United States when the Chicago Exposition Appropriation Bill was under discussion. In support of Sunday closing one Senator sent a copy of the fourth commandment to the clerk's desk to be read. The point was raised that the commandment referred to the seventh, and not the first, day of the week; whereupon, by vote of the Senate and for the purpose of the bill, the commandment was construed to mean the first day. In this action the Senate imitated the action of the Council of Laodicea (A.D. 364) in formally transferring the observance of the Sabbath day to Sunday. The council went a little further and imposed the penalty of excommunication upon all church members who should continue to observe the seventh day. The same principle, however, is involved in all laws for enforcing Sunday observance. The man who observes the Sabbath according to the commandment of God, and is then compelled to observe Sunday, is practically fined one day's business on account of his faith.