THE LOST SUNDAY AMENDMENT IN CALIFORNIA.
IN the "California Christian Advocate" of March 21 there is an article by the Rev. E. D. McCreary, D.D., stating how the Sunday Amendment was lost. He frankly tells us that the appeal made to the Legislature was for a constitutional amendment for "Sunday betterment." The plea made before the Committee on Constitutional Amendments of the Assembly was for the aid of the WORKING MEN. The religious idea was utterly and absolutely disavowed, and all the plea that was made was for a day for the poor, oppressed working man. Dr. McCreary tells us who made the plea for the amendment and also those who spoke against it, declaring that they were all ministers or members of the "Seventh-day Adventist Church," and that "the ministers and members of this church made a vigorous and successful canvass of the state, circulating petitions against the amendment, which were numerously signed by members of that denomination, and by saloon-keepers and bartenders, brewers, and other opposers of Christianity." Mr. Chauncey H. Dunn, in his speech before the Assembly Committee, declared as he presented his petitions, that these petitions were circulated "without great effort to get names at all, in various portions of the state, in order to show that there was a general sentiment, and that sentiment extended thruout the state; and we have, therefore, at this time, a petition to present to the Legislature thru this committee, containing between seven and eight thousand names, only of voters—and they represent voters from about forty counties in the State. We have not attempted to make any large canvass, etc."
And yet Dr. McCreary tells us on their petition question: "The apathy of the ministers and members of the churches in regard to the Amendment was appalling. Three thousand petitions, each one having space for thirty signatures, were sent out all over this state to pastors of all denominations. The petitions were sent out from headquarters two months before the Legislature convened, accompanied by an urgent appeal that immediate attention be given to their circulation for signatures. Less than one-third of these petitions were returned, and many of these had only from five to ten signatures. The whole number of signatures only aggregated about 8,000, while the signatures on opposing petitions aggregated 14,000 [15,000]. Some of the largest and most influential churches of our own and other denominations did not send in a single petition nor a single signature. Had the pastors of the state given to this movement the support and attention its importance demanded, at least 50,000 signatures could have been easily gotten; and, with such a constituency as these signatures would have represented, the Legislature would at least have given the Amendment much more careful consideration."
Why can not the good doctor surmise, rather why does he not know, that a great many of these who he thought ought to sign his petition because they keep Sunday, signed the opposing petition because they believe in religious liberty? He charges that the opposing petitions were signed by Seventh-day Adventists and whisky people largely, and yet Seventh-day Adventists are among the most sincere and strenuous opponents of the saloon; and in this entire campaign and in the speech of Mr. J. O. Corliss before the Assembly Committee, it was expressly stated that we are opposed in toto to the manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquor. This has been kept in the very forefront of our literature, and we are known as prohibition people thruout the United States. That there may have been men of this character who signed the petitions is probable, and they had the perfect right so to do; but there are also those who signed the petitions that are members of various Protestant churches, and even ministers of evangelical denominations, who utterly repudiate the union of Church and State and the fostering and protecting of religious institutions by statute law. There is a reason for the apathy of the ministers and members of the churches in regard to an amendment of this character. There may come a time when that apathy is lifted and church-members may be driven to petition for such laws as this, under a combination of arguments for political purposes. But at the present time, thank God, there are Christians in all the various denominations who utterly repudiate the trailing of the garments of Christianity in the mire of politics, who utterly repudiate fornication between Church and State. Seventh-day Adventists did do a little in this campaign. They did not do anything at all compared to what ought to have been done, but we are glad that Dr. McCreary tells us that the "movement for Sunday betterment is not dead;" that "arrangements are being made for a more thorough explanation of the moral and religious forces of the State along these lines." We are glad to know what will be again attempted. We are sorry, so sorry that no words can express it, that the Christian church, the professed spouse of Jesus Christ, can not learn that He is all-sufficient; and that if they have any institution which they call Christian, which has not enough of divinity in it, and divine support in the living word of God behind it, to stand, that it ought to be utterly repudiated and die, rather than to seek to uphold it by legislation. More than this we are sorry they will not repudiate that confessed weakness of character, that they are not willing that what they believe and profess shall stand on just the same ground as the belief and profession of every other citizen of the State. He who believes in religious liberty believes in it for the other man, and he would scorn to take any advantage of that other man, however much in the minority the other man might be. Let the Sabbath, let the Sunday, stand on the inherent qualities which they respectively possess. We have the word of the Lord Jesus Christ that "every plant which My heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted up." We may build Sierra-high walls around a California or an American or a Methodist or any other Sunday, and if it is not of God's planting, in the great day of God those walls will fall. That is true of every other institution, nor need we wait till the day of God to know whether it is of God's planting or not. Study His word, and let that word guide us, notwithstanding the traditions and creeds of men.