p. 278 | The American Sentinel, Vol. 6, No. 35 (September 3, 1891)

Earlier text: WE do not charge the National Reformers with the intention to follow the example

Early Closing and Sunday Closing.

AN association of clerks in Denver is trying to secure the closing of all stores at six o'clock p. m., and all day Sundays. The Colorado Graphic reads the clerks the following sensible lesson upon the subject:—

The Retail Clerks’ Union has everything to lose and nothing to gain by coercive measures. In all kindness and sincerity of purpose, the Graphic urges them to attempt no arbitrary measures, no matter what their foolish president advises. We have seen the rise and fall of many such movements, and they have ever left stumbling places in the road.

It is practically impossible, in a city like Denver, to close all retail shops at six o'clock p. m. Such a business condition never existed.

It is contrary to business harmony.

It is against social equity.

It is one of those conditions with which the buyer and not the seller has to deal.

Now look at it:

There would be no bakers if no one ate bread.

There would be no clothing houses if people went naked.

There would be no butcher shops if people ate no meat.

There would be no sellers if there were no buyers. No stores would open their doors after six o'clock p. m., or on Sunday, if there were no persistent buyers.

Now if you clerks have a quarrel to pick, pick it with the unfortunate buyer.

Logic is logic.

You have the world to fight. You have history to combat.

You can not compel a shopkeeper in Denver to shut his shop one minute from the stroke of the clock at the grand entree of a new year to the last minute of that year, unless he is willing to shut it; and no law under the national Constitution and Bill of Rights can be enforced to compel him to do so.

You may fuss, and fume, and chafe, as much as you please, but you can not overcome this fact.

In the United States of America no sumptuary law can exist.

In the United States of America no Sunday law can prevail.

Sunday observance must be the voluntary act of the individual.

Many business houses find it convenient to close at six o'clock p. m., and all day Sunday. Others find it convenient and profitable to continue business after six p. m., and for a few hours on Sunday. The clerks in other stores have no lawful authority to deprive these merchants of their right or of their desire. You may win their clerks from them; but within an hour they will find a score anxious to fill the vacancies.

Let well-enough alone.

Look to the buyer.

NATIONAL

By R. S. Owen

Religious Liberty Association.

The Sunday Bill in Canada.

MR. CHARLTON’S bill which has been before the Dominion Parliament the past two years, is at last disposed of. The committee to whom it was referred cut it down to less than one half its original size, retaining only those sections which prohibited the publication of Sunday newspapers, the running of certain railway trains, and the opening of canals for traffic on Sunday. In this mutilated form it was brought before the House of Commons. On motion of Mr. Charlton, the promoter of the bill, the House went into a committee of the whole to consider his measure. A sharp debate followed, in which many of the members took part. The strong opposition to the bill from various quarters, showed that the present Parliament has a majority which does not fall in with the movement now on foot to enforce Sunday observance. In the debate, some of the members spoke in behalf of the Sunday newspaper men; others opposed the bill on the ground that such legislation should be left to the discretion of the provincial Legislatures, while other opposition was based on the broad ground of religious liberty, that the people should not be hedged about with “cast-iron laws,” nor could they be “legislated into Christianity.”

Sir John Thompson, a prominent member, spoke decidedly against the bill; but out of deference to the feelings of the Christian community, he recommended Mr. Charlton to withdraw the measure. He moved that the committee rise, report progress, and ask leave to sit again. This is called “the tenderest form of perfumed asphyxiation known to Parliament.”

This brought Mr. Charlton to his feet. He protested against the committee rising without further considering the bill, and insisted that they had the right to deal with the question of Sunday observance, and ought to exercise it. The Montreal Star thus describes Mr. Charlton’s last effort in behalf of his bill:—

Mr. Charlton made so vigorous a fight against this effort to chloroform his bill, that the House could hardly recognize in him the mild gentleman who usually sits next to Sir Richard. His voice rang out defiantly through the chamber as he asked if there was nothing left in the bill worth so much as consideration, and twitted Mr. Mills with being far too great a stickler for provincial rights in the face of so important a question. The bill did not meet his views by any means, but he wanted to get some legislation through on this subject. Amid cries of “No” and “Carried,” he held that some law of this kind was demanded by the Christian people of Canada, and threatened members with arraignment before public opinion if they flung aside the bill without consideration.

The chairman pronounced the motion to rise carried, but Mr. Charlton demanded a vote. A rising vote was then taken, and the motion was carried with sixty-three yeas, and eighteen nays.—R. S. Owen, in Review and Herald.

The Lecture Bureau of the National Religious Liberty Association.

The Lecture Bureau of the National Religious Liberty Association is composed of competent lecturers in various parts of the United States, and any one desiring lectures upon the subject of religious liberty and the relation of Church and State, may secure a lecturer by corresponding with Allen Moon, the Secretary of the Bureau, 28 College Place, Chicago, Illinois.

TUCSON, Arizona, has passed a Sunday ordinance and is enforcing it, so says the Mail and Express.

PETITIONS to close all business on Sunday, are being circulated in Sibley, Iowa, and are said to be creating quite a stir.

The present Mayor of Dayton, Tennessee, is enforcing the Sunday ordinances and closing all places of business there on that day.

“The Sunday-closing law,” remarks the ‘Pearl of Days,’ “is now rigidly enforced in Fernandina, Florida. Not only saloons, but cigar stores and soda water stands must be closed on Sunday, and nothing can be sold but ice, milk, and drugs.”

An Adventist preacher writes thus to a California paper, of a company of new Sabbath-keepers in southeastern Tennessee:—

May God help this dear little company to stand firm under the present outburst of persecution which some are wont to urge upon them. Some are lying in ambush, like a coyote, to catch them working on Sunday, so as to report them to the Grand Jury.

REV. W. F. CRAFTS, the apostle of the “civil Sabbath” with the religion in it, recently visited Bradford, Pennsylvania. He severely censured the City Council for their action of some months ago on the Sunday ordinance, and declared the Sunday law of Pennsylvania one of the best in the United States. Under his direction a Rest-day League was formed and committees were appointed to carry forward the work of forcing the people of Bradford to keep Sunday.

It was noted in these columns last week that the Superintendent of Public Instruction in Texas had declined to give certificates to certain Sisters of Charity, on the ground that as they would devote their wages to the Catholic Church, to employ them as teachers would be a violation of the State Constitution, which provides that no part of the school fund shall ever “be appropriated to or used for the support of any sectarian school.” The matter was referred to the Attorney-General, who has decided that nothing in the Constitution or the laws of the State disqualified such persons from receiving certificates, if otherwise qualified.

The Mid-Continental Review says: “THE AMERICAN SENTINEL, a religio-political journal, has come regularly to our table for the last eighteen months, and is always a welcome visitor. While we can not indorse all its sentiments and views, yet its fearless expression of what it conceives to be right commends it to the thinking men of the day. Church and State, polygamy, and the Sunday law, are among the subjects that are discussed, and which must result in good in securing thought and investigation among the people. It is thinking, reflecting men that are needed in this day, and especially in America where the Government must be perpetuated by and through the intelligence and virtue of the people, or destroyed through their ignorance and debasement. Let the battle go on! The truth never came out from the ordeal of discussion with its lustre dimmed.”

Of the King case, now so prominently before the country, the Sabbath Recorder says:—

Such are the legitimate fruits of the “civil Sabbath” laws for which the Sunday Sabbath reformers are so loudly clamoring, and so earnestly working. Given such laws throughout the United States, and every Sabbath-keeper in the country would be exposed to just that kind of treatment. In the language of Judge Hammond, “Malice, religious or otherwise, may dictate a prosecution,” and there is evidence of sufficient malice against Sabbath-keepers to dictate a good many prosecutions, “but if the law has been violated this fact never shields the law-breaker.” In other words, the law takes no notice of the unworthy and unholy motives which prompt the prosecution. If men set apart, by law, Sunday as a civil rest day, it must be observed as such, without regard to the law of God; and if any man shall choose to do otherwise, even from the most conscientious regard to the laws of God, the spirit of malice may follow him to the bitter end, and the law grants him no protection in the exercise of his religious convictions. This is what “civil Sabbath” means, Judge Hammond, of the United States District Court, being judge. We are sure that no Seventh-day Baptist desires to be put into such a position as that. We are quite sure, also, that no Seventh-day Baptist would willingly do anything to place anybody else in such a position.

RACINE, Wisconsin, is having some excitement over closing the saloons on Sunday. The former Mayor had the saloons closed on that day, but when the present Mayor was elected he allowed the saloons to be again opened. The church people petitioned the Mayor to no effect, and afterwards formed a citizen’s association, employed some detectives from Chicago, and began to arrest the saloon-keepers. As a result the saloons are closed, only as some who have the password are admitted on the sly.

It should ever be kept before the public, that if these church people would put forth the same zeal to have the saloons closed every day in the week, it would be as easy to do that as to shut them up simply on Sunday. And when they only make their great efforts to secure Sunday closing, it is manifest that their zeal is for Sunday, and not against the saloon. Correct principles are always broad enough to take in more than Sunday, or any other one day in the week, when suppressing the saloon.

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IS THE PAPACY IN PROPHECY?

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ARGUMENTS

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Breckinridge Sunday Bill.

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THE Christian Advocate has the following:—

Speaking of the flag of our country in connection with the schools, the Youth's Companion says: “The flag, rightly regarded, represents many good things besides loyalty; it represents truth, religion, liberty, law, self-sacrifice, mutual help, and forbearance for a common good.” There are men in our country who deny that the flag has anything whatever to do with religion. They would teach the children that there is no religious significance whatever in the banner of the Republic. They tell us that it rather signifies a complete divorce of the Nation from religion. They contend that in our country not only are Church and State separated, but religion and the State also. This is a false and dangerous sentiment. But for religion we would have no Republic. The foundations of our Government were laid in the principles of Christianity. The teachings of Christ are interwoven with our laws, our literature, and our national customs and life. The flag represents religion, protects it, and derives from it strength and glory.

The idea that “the flag” represents religion is utterly absurd. George Washington, one of the founders of this Republic, and its first President, said: “The Government of the United States is in no sense founded upon the Christian religion,” therefore the flag of this country can in no sense represent the Christian religion. And if it did represent the Christian religion what phase of it would it represent, Protestant or Catholic? The men who teach that the flag has no religious significance teach truly, while men who teach the contrary show thereby their desire to have their religion enforced by the power represented by the flag, namely, by the State.

A LONG article in the New York Tribune, in reference to the International Congregational Council, held in London, in July, closes with this paragraph:—

It should not be without significance that this Council, with representatives from all the world, passed unanimously a resolution expressing the hope that the World’s Fair of 1893, will be closed on Sundays.

No one who intelligently notes the signs of the times will deny but that this is significant as an evidence of the rapid and world-wide spread of the movement for the legal enforcement of Sunday observance.

Take in connection with this and all that it means the latest judicial expression from Judge Hammond of the United States Court in his decision upon the King case, that “to work on Sunday may be harmless in itself because, as the petitioner believes, God has not set apart that day for rest and holiness, and yet, if man has set it apart in due form by his law for rest, it must be obeyed as man’s law, if not as God’s law.”

These things are significant. They signify the general willingness to accept a legal religion and enforce its dogmas by law, and also that the necessary legal conditions are almost ready.

SENATOR PLUMB, of Kansas, gave expression to an important truth, when he said: “Whatever domain Government invades it dominates. The jurisdiction which it takes it keeps.” Those who are asking various measures of religious legislation should make a note of this fact.

If the State had the right to require or to forbid one religious observance, it would have the right to require or to forbid any or all others. This is why all Christians who prize religious liberty as they should, and who are willing that others should enjoy the same privileges that they themselves do, oppose all State interference in religious matters. They insist that all must be left absolutely free to worship or not to worship, just as they please.

THE Bakers' Assembly 5,296 Knights of Labor, of Boston, have resolved to ask the next Legislature of Massachusetts to enact a law prohibiting the opening of bakeshops on Sunday, and a committee was instructed to present the matter to the General Court and to conduct, during the next few months, a vigorous campaign in favor of Sunday closing. The members of the Assembly will, it is stated, request all labor organizations to assist them in this work.

PURE Christianity, that of the Bible, will never form a union with the world, nor with worldly powers. “A church thoroughly nationalized” is a spiritual harlot according to the word of God; and a “nation thoroughly Christianized,” as far as the ægis of law can make it so, is but a repetition of the Dark Ages. A true Christian nation will be seen only when Christ destroys the national governments of earth and reigns in glory over a people redeemed by divine grace, not by civil law.

CARDINAL GIBBONS is credited with saying: “I do not wish to see the day when the Church will invoke or receive any Government aid to build our churches, or to pay the salary of our clergy, for the Government may then begin to dictate to us what doctrines we ought to preach, or rather what we ought not to preach.” Upon this the Christian at Work remarks: “Now let the Cardinal extend the principle to the schools, and he will be in exact accord with the best Protestant sentiment of the country. The Cardinal is on the right road; only he ought to beware of stopping at the half-way house.”

THE Truth Seeker makes the following excellent point against Judge Hammond's decision in the King case:—

The Judge says that it is not necessary to maintain that to violate the Sunday observance custom shall be of itself immoral to make it criminal in the eyes of the law. “It may be harmless in itself because, as the petitioner believes, God has not set apart that day for rest and holiness to work on Sunday, and yet, if man has set it apart in due form by his law for rest, it must be obeyed as man's law if not as God's law.” By this, it is seen, any Legislature can establish religious holydays, enforce their observance, and the United States courts afford no redress. We do not believe this is good law; it certainly is monstrously unjust.

The Truth Seeker is right; the same power that can forbid work upon one day of the week can forbid it on another day; and if, as Judge Hammond asserts, there is no constitutional limitation upon this power, the minority is left absolutely at the mercy of the majority.

“EVERYTHING good,” says the “Pearl of Days,” “centers in a Christian Sabbath for the public worship of God. Let this worship cease in any city or town in our country, and in fifty years there would not be a large business enterprise in it. The moral tone of society would be such that business on a large scale could not be done. There would not be confidence enough to enable men to form and manage corporations. No family of culture and refinement would live there. Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, would be like the cities of Egypt and Assyria—given up to the owls and bats to inhabit.” More arrant nonsense was never written. The history of all past civilization disproves the claim.

WANTED.—Any one who has a copy of THE AMERICAN SENTINEL, volumes 1, 2, and 3, bound in one volume, that they would sell or exchange for other reading matter, will confer a favor by notifying S. H. Carnahan, Walla Walla, Wash.