IS IT A CHRISTIAN MEASURE?
By Abdiel
THE Sunday-law amendment proposition to be laid before California’s Legislature, and for which petitions are now being asked, is, in its very nature, unchristian. As Christians we protest against its passage. I do not in this refer to the question of days. I will not open the controversy as to whether the seventh day or the first day is the Sabbath of the Lord our God, and obligatory upon every soul. That is a matter purely religious, to be decided by every soul; and with that soul, conscience, the Bible, and God must guide, even as the soul must meet the record in the day of judgment. Whether the first day of the week is wrong or right does not affect this question before the Legislature. If it be the true Sabbath for which law is demanded, they have no business to legislate upon it, for it does not need it, and it is a religious question. If it be a spurious sabbath, they have no right to legislate upon it, as it is also a religious question, and no amount of law can make truth error. No civil tribunal has the right to decide between the divergent religious beliefs of its subjects; in other words, it has no right to assume the judgment seat of God. It is unchristian. Civil Can Not Enforce Spiritual.
It is not Christian to ask State aid that any religious institution may be "promoted," "protected," "fostered," "preserved," or its "desecration" prevented by civil law. Christ’s work is spiritual. Christianity is a life, not an outward form. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth. John 4:24. His "law is spiritual." Rom. 7:14. Only those who have the Spirit of Christ can observe the spiritual law. Rom. 8:4. That the Gospel may be effectual in man, it must be received through faith. Rom. 1:16. The power in His Word is His Spirit. Acts 1:8. The method is that of teaching and moral suasion. 2 Cor. 5:11. "We persuade men." The weapons are "not carnal," but spiritual and mighty. 2 Cor. 10:4. The motive forces in performing duty are faith and love. In this realm, civil law can only make hypocrites, and persecute those who are honest enough and brave enough to follow conscience and God rather than men. When the sticklers for Church-and-State union came to Christ, and asked, "Is it lawful to give tribute to Cæsar or not?" the Master replied by saying, "Show Me the tribute money." They brought a denarius, a Roman coin. He asked, "Whose image and superscription hath it?" and they reply, "Cæsar’s." And He responds, "Render to Cæsar the things that are Cæsar’s, and to God the things that are God’s." See Matt. 22:15-21; Mark 12:13-17; Luke 20:20-25. "Whose image and superscription" hath the Sabbath? It is God’s. Render it therefore to Him, not to Cæsar. Cæsar—civil government—has naught to do with it. He who sets himself up to decide religious controversies, and place men under condemnation in consequence, exalts himself above Christ and usurps the place of the final judge. Said Jesus: "If any man hear My words, and believe not, I judge him not; for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world. He that rejecteth Me, and receiveth not My words, hath one that judgeth him; the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day." John 12:47, 48. Christianity, in the words of Jesus Christ, grants to every soul the right to believe or NOT to believe, answerable to no tribunal but that of God in the last day. We protest against this mixing of politics with religious dogma, and enforcing religious dogma at the demand of the church. God espoused the church "as a chaste virgin to Christ." She takes His name and character. From Him she receives "all power" to do her work. See Rom. 7:4; 2 Cor. 11:2; Eph. 5:31, 32. When the church turns from Christ to seek the influence and power of civil government to aid in her work instead of the promised "all power" of Jesus Christ, her lawful Spouse, she becomes guilty of fornication. James 4:4; Rev. 18:3. But this very thing the church is doing in asking support for a church institution. Would God she might return to the Husband of her youth! She would find in Him more power for righteousness than all the parliaments of earth could give. Jesus Christ said, when charged with treason against the Roman government: "My kingdom is not of this world; if My kingdom were of this world, then would My servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now is My kingdom not from hence, . . . I am a King. . . . For this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth." John 18:36, 37.8The ultimate enforcement of civil law demands the sword; not so the kingdom of Christ. Peter thought so. There are many Peters who still think so. Jesus says to each and all: "Put up again thy sword into his place; for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword." Matt. 26:52. Fighting with carnal weapons may bring temporal deliverance; leaving it with God brings from the very grave eternal life and victory. Civil law is operative among sinful men, and must often resort to force to maintain civil government. Its ambassadors are clothed with the authority and physical force of their government to "make good" its demands. Not so with Christ’s cause. "Preach the Word!" There is no other way. "Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men." "We pray you in Christ’s stead be ye reconciled to God." 2 Cor. 5:11, 20. "Not for that we have dominion over your faith, but are helpers of your joy; for by faith ye stand." 2 Cor. 1:24. "Neither as being lords over God’s heritage, but being ensamples to the flock." 1 Peter 5:3. "What have I to judge them also that are without?" "Them that are without [outside the church] God judgeth." 1 Cor. 5:12, 13. The Sunday law is not of persuasion, but of force, and is therefore anti-Christian. For the Christian’s, and therefore the church’s, conduct between man and man, Jesus has given us the Golden Rule: "All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them; for this is the law and the prophets." Matt. 7:12. If we were in China where no day is observed and idols are worshiped, we would not for a moment admit the right of the Chinese to compel us to work or coerce us into worshiping idols. We would that he should let us observe unmolested our own revered day and worship the one God as we desired. "Do ye even so to them." Would they worship their own gods?—The Golden Rule demands that you should let them. Would they work upon your "holy" day?—The Golden Rule declares that their work shall be allowed. Would you that men grant you fullest religious liberty?—"Do ye even so to them." The Sunday law is not in harmony with the Golden Rule of Christ; therefore it is not Christian, but anti-Christian. As Christians we protest against all Sunday or Sabbath legislation, because it is unchristian. California has the enviable and proud distinction of being the one great State that has expunged from her statute book the Sunday law, and wiped from her escutcheon this blot of the Dark Ages, this relic of Puritan Blue Laws. Let men in their ignorance call liberty license because it will not bind others to the chariot wheels of intolerant creeds, but let not Californians yield to such clamor. Whatever lust or greed has done, let not religious legislation dim the grand luster of the Golden State. Let her not bind about her fair neck a yoke to which is attached the chains of endless strifes and persecutions. Let California remain free for men and women of every religion and creed, and let the best win by its own innate worth. In perfect freedom and fairness the fittest will survive; and with the Arbiter of all, men may safely leave results.