Sunday Laws and the Federation Movement
By Editor
ONE of the great aims of the Protestant Federation Movement is the unification of churches, not simply for religious purposes, but for political purposes as well. As one speaker declared in the meeting held in New York City when the great movement was fully launched: "I trust that one of the practical results of this conference will be the organization of A FORCE THAT LAWBEAKERS AND LAWMAKERS WILL RESPECT AND HEED when great questions of morals are involved. OUR GOSPEL is the FULFILMENT of the LAW. It is our province in the name of our supreme King, and seeking the good of mankind, to ask rulers to respect the code of our kingdom. Rulers may ignore sects, but they will respect the church. THIS FEDERATION WILL COMPEL AN AUDIENCE and it will speak with power if it will put aside its differences." There is one thing upon which it will put aside its differences, and that is in favor of a Sunday law. Upon this, national, state, and municipal federations are united. Contrary to the very essence of Christianity itself, it seeks to COMPEL where it can not persuade. The observing citizen must have noticed that during the last two or three years there has been wide-spread agitation over Sunday laws. At its last session the New York Legislature had twenty measures before it involving the Sunday. Nearly every legislature, so far as we know every one, had some measure of that sort during the last year. Where Sunday laws exist there are efforts to make them more rigid, more comprehensive. Where there are no Sunday laws, any kind or sort of measure is submitted if it can only give promise of success. We have just now before us a successful attempt in the Senate of the United States in the passing of the Johnston Sunday Bill. Senators saw the danger of religious legislation; they passed it as a "police" measure. Just as tho a change of name changed its nature! One of the arguments used to push the inconsistent thing through, was that every state had Sunday laws. Yet some of the Sunday laws of the states are so decidedly religious that the most sophistical advocate of civil Sunday legislation could not quibble over them. The matter will now come before the House of Representatives. Advocates of Sunday law in California are determined to push one through the next legislature of this state. They are laying their plans in a broader way than ever before, and are using every means in their power to secure any kind of measure as a root upon which they can graft more decided and drastic laws in the future. From the Middle West comes news that in various towns and cities the same question is up for settlement. For instance, in the city of Leavenworth, Kansas, there was a short time ago a decided movement on. One of the arguments presented by a member of the ministerial alliance was that "this is a CHRISTIAN nation and must have CHRISTIAN LAWS." "Law enforcement is necessary for the perpetuity of the nation." "The state must undertake to ENFORCE all of ITS LAWS, and SUNDAY OBSERVANCE IS ONE OF THEM." Another advocate declared: "CIVIL LAW IS BUT A REFLECTION OF DIVINE LAW. The man who lives in defiance to civil law will naturally live in defiance to divine law which is its inspiration." And "the ultimate object of our work in this city is to BRING MEN INTO HARMONY WITH THE DIVINE LAW." Right in this connection it is well to remember the words of Richard M. Johnson, whose report on the Sunday question was unanimously adopted by the United States Senate in 1829: "Among all the religious persecutions with which almost every page of modern history is stained, no victim ever suffered but for the violation of what government denominated the LAW OF GOD. To prevent a similar train of evils in this country the Constitution has WISELY WITHHELD FROM OUR GOVERNMENT THE POWER OF DEFINING THE DIVINE LAW. It is a RIGHT RESERVED TO EACH CITIZEN, and while he respects the rights of others HE CAN NOT BE HELD AMENABLE TO ANY HUMAN TRIBUNAL for his conclusions." And yet the Church Federation proposes to define what the divine law is, and to enforce that divine law by civil statute. It might be well to remark upon this that no true servant of Jesus Christ, no one who truly knows the spirit of Christianity, will ever attempt to enforce divine law; and secondly, that as divine law is spiritual it can not be enforced; and thirdly, the laws that are enforced are invariably traditional and not Christian. We wish to say as we have said many times before, that we have no desire to prevent any soul on earth from keeping Sunday if that soul feels it his duty or desire so to do. This is a matter of religion, and religion is a matter between the soul and God. But we do protest, and we appeal to every true lover of liberty, whatever his theological belief, to join with us in protesting, against any enforcement of religious dogmas, by whatever name called by civil law.