State and Church by W. W. Prescott

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park, Washington, D. C. · Sep 26, 1912

State and Church

By W. W. Prescott

Reports, Notes, and Comments Pertaining to the Current History of Religious Freedom, and the Campaign "to Make America Catholic."

Conducted by the Religious Liberty Association.

W. W. Prescott . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Secretary

Enforcing the Blue-Laws of Pennsylvania

The people of Monroe County, Pennsylvania, have had a good example of what it means to enforce regard for a religious institution. The Law and Order Society of that county secured evidence against a druggist and a bootblack by employing some one to make a purchase at the drug store on Sunday, as a basis of arresting the druggist for breaking the Sunday law. It was not difficult to secure evidence against the bootblack, and thus two parties were brought into court.

Commenting upon this matter, the Daily Record of Stroudsburg, Pa. (Sept. 11, 1912), shows that it is not in harmony with this Sunday-law crusade:—

"The State treasury will be enriched by receiving the fines paid by these reputable persons. The State needs the money. Daubert went into the store of White, and bought two cigars on Sunday, the druggist himself selling them to him. Then Daubert forgot the obligation he owed White for past favors, swore out the complaint before Squire Robert Gruver. The readers of the Record know how the populace feels toward the fellows who seek evidence for prosecutions of this nature. The officers knew White sold on Sunday; he didn't try to hide anything. The officers knew the Greeks shined shoes on Sunday; they didn't try to hide anything. But Daubert had to be picked up to do the society's detective (?) work.

"And it is not ended yet. They told the justice they were so very, very sorry that they were compelled to act. There are the old blue-laws of 1794, and they must be enforced.

"Now, gentlemen, members of the Law and Order Society of Monroe County, get down to business. The laws of 1794 referred to call for the discontinuance of every kind of business, and you must stop everything in the borough on Sunday, or you are not prosecuting, but persecuting. There are trolleys here to be stopped, steam roads, livery teams, milk-wagons, newspaper wagons; there is no end to the violations of the blue-laws, and it is up to you, gentlemen, to stop these things. You have made yourselves the self-ordained conservators of the morals of the people; now carry out the work outlined. Either do this, or admit publicly that you are not sincere in your motives. That is the situation in a nutshell here in the borough of

Stroudsburg, and no one can gainsay it. The law is plain; now go after the law right, and do it quick. It is too late to pick one here and there. Everything must be stopped, and at once."

Can any one be so foolish as to suppose that the cause of true religion is advanced by any such methods as these? How much better it would be to remove from the statute-books these remnants of union of church and state in the colonial times, and depend wholly upon the preaching of the gospel in the effort to advance the interests of the kingdom of God upon earth!