"SUNDAY CLOSING SWEEPS IN WAVE OVER ALL EUROPE."
"A GREAT revival of interest in the great question of Sunday rest is sweeping over" England and France and other European nations, according to Rev. Dr. S. S. Waltz, pastor of the First English Lutheran Church of Louisville, Ky., who spent nearly three months traveling in Europe the past summer. "People everywhere, irrespective of creed or nationality," he declares, "are waking up to the fact that this law of God and man is inherently righteous and necessary for man's well-being and for the good of society. . . . The working people are clamoring for it; business people of all classes are yielding to it." On September 16, the first Sunday following his return, Dr. Waltz preached to a large congregation of his church people and friends "on the increasing power of Christ in the world," declaring that he returned "from foreign travel more hopeful of the triumph of Christ's Gospel, not only in my own, but in other lands, than ever before;" that "with all the world's wickedness, the tide of righteousness is rising everywhere;" that "more and more men and nations are coming to fear and honor God;" and that "more and more is Christ and His Gospel coming to be the governing power in the life and legislation of the lands which are destined to wield the world's power;" and that "one can not travel through this and foreign lands with his eyes and his heart open but he will return more sanguine as a Christian patriot." Then, in illustration and confirmation of these declarations, he proceeded as follows, as reported the next day in the Louisville Herald, under the heading, "Sunday Closing Sweeps over All Europe:" "One incident that impressed me profoundly in three months of travel was the growing respect for that law which Almighty God enacted for the protection of His people, and which all civilized nations have put into their statutes, guaranteeing to all people one day in seven for rest. I left my own city and land deeply interested in this subject. I was greeted on the other side by a great revival of interest on the same subject. People everywhere, irrespective of creed or nationality, are waking up to the fact that this law of God and man is inherently righteous and necessary for man's well-being and for the good of society. It is not a question of religion or of church merely that there be one day in the week for rest. It is demanded by the physical nature of man, by the welfare of society, and the well-being of the home. As citizens, as patriots, and as those who desire the good of the great world of busy working people, we can not do otherwise than plead for the protection of our sabbath day of rest. It is not for us to dictate what they shall do with it so long as they do not interfere with the rest and quiet of other people. It is for us to demand that the law of God and nations guaranteeing this sacred boon to every one be not trampled in the dust. The interests that hang on it are too momentous to be lightly regarded. "In England and France recent legislation by their parliaments have made it more obligatory than ever before that all business be so conducted that one day in seven be given all connected with it as a day of rest. The working people are clamoring for it. Business people of all classes are yielding to it, and a wave of interest on this great question of Sunday rest is sweeping over those great nations. As an indication of how business people are accepting the law in France, this incident will suffice: Less than a month ago every package that went out from a large grocery house, which has a chain of stores throughout France, bore this notice: 'Since Parliament has enacted a law making it obligatory that all people be given one day in seven for rest, all our stores will be closed on Sunday after the first day of September.' When France, not over sensitive on such questions, takes such firm and righteous grounds for the protection of the great throng of working people, it tells how the tide of public sentiment is rising higher and sweeping on to better things." But the law of France will not satisfy our Sunday-law advocates. That demands one day's rest in seven, without specifying the day; the Sunday-law advocates demand that the law shall safeguard the religious Sunday. The only divine law of weekly rest regards one certain day, the seventh. The Sunday-law movement is not a Gospel movement; it is in the interest of a union of religion with the state.