Sunday-Law Advocates

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, Cal. · Feb 24, 1909

Sunday-Law Advocates.

They Want Laws to Compel Sunday Observance. Why?

AT the present time there are fourteen Sunday bills of various kinds before the state Legislature of New York. These bills deal with baseball, theatrical and other public performances, closing of canals, the opening and closing of certain places of business, etc., and also there are amendments to the present clause that exempts certain people and classes of work on Sunday. Among other things, there is a proposed act to have a commission appointed to investigate the present Sunday laws, and to inquire into how they are being enforced and observed in the different parts of the state. This commission is to suggest amendments to the next Legislature.

At the opposite side of the continent, in California, there is a very determined effort being made in the Legislature to secure both a statute and a constitutional amendment in favor of Sunday. This has already been quite fully set forth in our columns.

Oregon has a Sunday-law agitation going on in her law-making body; Idaho also has the subject under discussion; Colorado is discussing it; Missouri has but recently passed through a big siege on the subject; the national Congress at Washington is also laboring with the Sunday-law problem, and so the list goes on.

In addition to this agitation that is being carried on in assemblies of state, it will be noted that one of the prominent tasks that the Federation of Churches has set before itself is to secure concerted action in behalf of Sunday observance, and especially to secure laws that will compel it. The thought seems to be that it is necessary to have some particular day for rest, and that particular day must be Sunday, and then to compel all by civil law to observe it. It is believed and taught that such a procedure would do away with the lawlessness and godlessness of the age.

But What Is Real Sabbath-Keeping?

Is it merely to abstain from physical labor? Can true Sabbath-keeping be separated from the worship of the true God? A careful tho brief study of the principles underlying Sabbath-keeping ought to convince any one that the highest form of delight is found in the Sabbath rest. This delight comes through intelligent, interesting, and

soul-charming worship. Let the prophet tell of this in the language of the Lord Himself:

"If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on My holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, and the holy of Jehovah honorable; and shalt honor it, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words; then shalt thou delight thyself in Jehovah; and I will make thee to ride upon the high places of the earth; and I will feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of Jehovah hath spoken it." Isa. 58: 13, 14.

In the foregoing is one of the richest and choicest promises of the Bible, and it is made to him who will "turn away" his "foot from the Sabbath" and from doing his personal pleasure on God's "holy day." In thus taking his foot from the Sabbath of Jehovah and from doing his own pleasure on the Lord's day he will find "delight." He will have joy in his Sabbath observance, and delight himself in Jehovah. This is the plain statement of the text. Any one who will read it with even the most ordinary care will see plainly what it teaches, for there is not one single breath of obscurity in it.

These verses already quoted from Isaiah tell what Sabbath-keeping really is, and it is told in the language of Him who is the Author of the Sabbath. Now let the question be asked, Can not the great God Himself tell us what He expects of us in Sabbath observance? And since He says that the Sabbath is a "delight" to the one who really observes it, can there be any compulsion in it? If a man is made to be idle on some particular day of the week for fear that he will be fined or imprisoned, can it be said that there is any delight in that sort of thing?

Sabbath observance is an essential part of the worship of the true God. Sabbath observance is commanded by Him in the very heart and center of His moral law. Sabbath observance is commanded for the purpose of giving us each seventh day as a time when we worship Him who made "heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is." True Sabbath observance, according to the terms of the Sabbath commandment itself, keeps the true God in our minds. For if we worship the Being who is the great Creator—Him who actually created the heaven and the earth and all they contain—we would be forever completely removed from idolatry. And so it is that as we follow the history of ancient Israel we find that their apostasy from Sabbath-keeping was followed by their departure from the worship of the Creator, and in its stead they were giving homage to the inanimate and man-made images of the heathen nations.

But let it ever be kept in mind that the Sabbath-keeping which is acceptable to Jehovah has "delight" in it. And no man can have delight in a thing that he is compelled to do against his will or desire. True Sabbath-keeping is a "delight," for God Himself says so, and there are multitudes of people who can testify that His words are true. Enforced rest, or rather enforced idleness, on a particular day, may produce long-faced hypocrisy that appears on the surface as Sabbath-keeping; it will also be more than likely to produce blasphemy, some of it in the open, but more of it under cover; but such enforcement can never result in the Sabbath-keeping that is a "delight." Let these undeniable facts stand forth strong and clear. T.