p. 15 | Signs of the Times, Vol. 33, No. 11. (3/13/1907)

RELIGIOUS LEGISLATION.

By W. M. Healey

ITS RELATION TO CIVIL LAW AND THE TEMPERANCE QUESTION.

[Extract from speech of W. M. Healey, before the California Assembly Committee on Constitutional Amendments, on a proposed amendment to embody in the Constitution the first day of the week as a day of rest, Feb. 4, 1907.]

WHY should this body legislate, or the people vote, on this religious issue any more than on the question whether Jesus of Nazareth, Mohammed, or Joseph Smith, were true prophets? or, whether the Godhead is one, two, or three? whether prayers should be offered to the Virgin Mary, or to Christ, without her intercession, and many like questions? We may as well pass a law that every one in this State must be sprinkled by some clergyman, excepting those who have been immersed. All these religious questions, including that of Sabbath observance, are for each individual to decide for himself.

It is said that we are on the same side as the saloon, and against the church. We seek no party affiliation. We stand on the solid rock of liberty, in the land of equal rights, and cry, "Whosoever will, let him come." If the church is less responsive to these principles than the saloon, then we bow with grief and shame.

It is a sad commentary on a man's religion that it can not stand without the support of human legislation. This Sunday cause from the days of Constantine until now, has ever cried in pitiful weakness for human aid thru civil power. It is a law of nature to receive strength from the source that gives existence; and this Sunday institution, being only of human origin, ever seeks to nurse at the breast of her own maternity.

THE SABBATH OF GOD NEEDS NO HUMAN LAWS

for its support. Truth and righteousness are born of God, fed by His word, cheered by His Spirit, and are as far beyond the need of human legislation as heaven is from earth. We ask no laws for our religion. We only ask a continuance of our civil right, which grants that we may, or may not, be religious. Surround all men, religious or otherwise, with civil protection, but give to no religion civil power.

A RELIGIOUS MEASURE.

It is worse than useless to say that this is not a religious measure, when the only pretended exemption from its penalties is on religious grounds. I say pretended, because without reflection upon the motives of the framer or advocates of this bill, this clause as it reads is a deceptive fraud, in that it requires evidence impossible to furnish a human court. It reads, "Who conscientiously believes." No earthly judge can know what another man conscientiously believes. He can not read another's conscience, and he is not an interpreter. It was said by a gentleman on the other side (Mr. C. H. Dunne), somewhat to my astonishment, that the courts would have to take a man's word for that. Gentlemen, will the courts take a man's word for that? Has a judge a right to make so broad and liberal a construction as that? Presuming some judge might do that, then, gentlemen, what security have you from being punished by another judge who will not believe that it is "conscientious," or a biased or prejudiced judge? There is but one judgment bar where conscience can be admitted as a witness; and that is before the great Judge, who can read the intents and purposes of every heart.

THIS AMENDMENT SETS ASIDE THE AUTHORITY

of the Legislature and the courts, and gives the supreme power of the State to each city or county therein, permitting it to add provisions and penalties ad libitum. It makes it possible for this power to be wielded by a very small percentage of the people, as it provides that ten per cent. of the voters of any city, or county, may compel the holding of an election to add any new provision and penalty. And a single insertion of a single line in the most obscure place, in the most obscure paper, in that city, or county, two weeks previous to the day of the election, is all the notice that is required. It would be easy under these provisions for an election to be held, and three-fourths of the voters have no knowledge of it; but they would be bound by the vote cast, with no redress by legislative power or in the courts. To what length might some city of religious bigots, should such exist in our fair and liberty-loving State, go in this matter? Gentlemen, you must see the danger that lies before us in passing such a measure as this. It would tend to no end of confusion. A man going from one locality to another would be in constant jeopardy on the first day of the week, there being different laws and penalties in different cities and counties. If ten per cent. of the voters, or even a majority thereof, have a right to say what a man shall and shall not do, in his own private affairs, upon one day of the week, they have that right on any, and therefore, on every day of the week, and the right of human slavery is then established. The whole principle of the doctrine advocated by this measure is, "I WANT TO, therefore, YOU MUST." A Sunday law alone deprives a man of his individual liberty one-seventh of his time, making a man of seventy ten years a slave.

THE LABORING MAN.

It is said the laboring man needs the Sunday law, that he may have this day for rest. A large per cent. of the employed workingmen are in the employment of the railroads and street-car companies, and would not come under the provision of this amendment. So that even in this matter the amendment would be a complete failure. There are times when the laboring man is with some quite a "pet lamb," because he is wanted to "bleat" thru his ballot at the polls; and it is generally supposed that if kindly treated, he is easily "fleeced." The laboring man is in need of DAILY rest and sleep more than the rest of one day in seven. Why not make a law compelling him to spend certain hours of the night in bed? He needs the rest; it is for his good.

SUNDAY-CLOSING OF SALOONS.

It is said, "We must have this law to close saloons on Sunday, because there is more drunkenness on that day than on other days of the week." Why more drunkenness on that day than on other days of the week? The saloon is the same. The reply is, "Because so many people are idle." Then, the responsibility for this increase of drunkenness rests upon the Sunday institution, which is the cause of increased idleness on that day. Thus Sunday with its idleness is an accomplice with the saloon, and this amendment is to greatly increase that idleness.

But it is said this amendment closes saloons on Sunday. A number of years ago I was in the editorial rooms of a friend of mine who edited a temperance paper. He was a strong advocate of the Sunday-closing of saloons; and while he was talking his theory with all the ability he possessed, he was constantly smoking his tobacco-pipe. I said to him, "You smoke nearly all the time; suppose we should have a law in this State forbidding the sale of tobacco one day in the week, what would you do?" Said he, "Do you think I would not know enough to buy a sufficient supply to last over?" I replied, "I do not know; I know the people know enough if their supply of water is to be shut off for a season, to draw a supply to last them over. I know if I drank intoxicating drinks every day, and could buy them six days in the week, and one day I could not, I should secure enough the day before to last me over, just the same as you would with your tobacco." You invite, instead of the glass and the decanter, the jug and the keg. Instead of drinking in the saloon, you invite drinking in the presence of the wife and the children in the home.

FREEDOM TO REST OR LABOR.

Put this first day of the week back in its own God-given place, stripped of its stolen robes of sanctity and dressed in its own simple working garb, and there will be no more drunkenness on this than on other days. Compel no man to be idle; rather provide employment. Leave all good citizens free to work or rest as they may choose. The saloon question is in no way connected with the question of Sabbath observance, it is only attached to it in order to give influence and effect. Whether it has a right of existence or not, is not a religious, but a civil issue, affecting all classes of citizens, religious and non-religious, and involving every day of the week alike. Give us a clean, open temperance movement, resting on its own merits, and we pledge you our heart and hand for the cause in every fair and honorable way.

SUNDAY LAW PROSECUTION.

By Editor

THE St. Louis News-Press of the 18th ultimo gives an account of the prosecution by the Rev. E. H. Eckel of contractor Morris and his foreman, who were remodeling the Klos building in that city. The crime with which these men were charged was that of "performing common labor on Sunday."

The men pleaded "not guilty," contending that they were putting a derrick in position on that day when there were fewer people on the street, and consequently less danger than on other days.

The minister, however, contended that the "men were being worked on Sunday," yet we hear of no complaint from the men. The secret of the minister's opposition was, however, later revealed by himself. He said:

"I am acting on principle only, and what I did was deliberately done. Permitting those men to work was a VIOLATION of both human and DIVINE LAW. I object to this law against DESECRATION of the LORD'S DAY being called a 'blue law.' . . . Of course, if the defense of these men is that they are Jews, and hence recognize Saturday rather than Sunday as the Sabbath, there can be no objection then to their working on Sunday, for the laws of the State provide for such exemptions. . . . There are certain kinds of work performed on the first day of the week that we have become so accustomed to that we scarcely notice it, and then again there are other kinds to which we are not so accustomed, and the overhauling of that building yesterday comes under the second head. Besides, it was right in our neighborhood, and was more noticeable on that account."

The whole animus of Sunday-law prosecutions is

set forth in this opposition. Pretendedly, it is in favor of the workingman; really, it is in the interests of religion, and because some one's prejudices are trodden upon. "I so desire, you must accede to my request."

It is not so much the men who prosecute. Many, if not all of them, think they are doing God service in their prosecutions. They are what devotion to such a law makes them—selfish, intolerant. Religious legislation, if effective, always develops just such a spirit in a much more radical form than that manifest by Mr. Eckels.

A SAD EXAMPLE.

By Editor

NEWS from the Old World informs us that the Czarina, Queen Margherita, and other royal women are all devotees of the cigaret. In Paris a tobacconist who was sued for advertising himself without authority as purveyor of cigarets to one of these royal ladies, proved that he regularly supplied her majesty with the article. This also includes queens of Portugal and Rumania and ex-queen Christina of Spain. What can we expect of the rising generation in these countries when those who stand at the head of the government and fashion set the example? It has been demonstrated again and again by medical examination and the logical facts of life that there are few things more ruinous to health and mind than cigaret smoking.

Recent investigations in Chicago have resulted in finding most shocking conditions among children, and yet conditions which have been quite well known to careful observers for years. The school authorities have had charge of the investigation, and have found that young boys and girls of what are called the best families are steeped in vice. And one teacher declares that these vices exist among the pupils of nearly every school in the city.

TEARING DOWN THE BIBLE.

By Editor

A SUBSCRIBER sends us a clipping from the Chicago Tribune which notices a book by a Dr. Selleck. This book, we are told, tears down many of the popular ideas of orthodox Christian literature and higher criticism, and runs along the same line as Foster's "Finality of the Christian Religion." The author declares the Bible should be studied merely as "a piece of literature," a "collection of ancient writings, not a single book, but a library of sixty-six different books." And these he assumes to place in various classes, from worthless fiction and contradictory dreams to maxims of practical conduct. He also stoops to consider some of the doctrines of the Scriptures.

Now, all this we have heard of before. It has been one of the amusements of the unbelievers of the ages to throw stones at the rock of the word. It reminds one of a small boy throwing pebbles at the Sphinx, or the great Pyramid of Ghizeh. The pyramid stands and the rock stands. The stone-hurlers and critics cause a momentary stir, their names are heralded abroad because of their daring, but in a little while their pebbles and books are relegated to oblivion while the grand old rock of the word stays on. The Bible is composed of sixty-six books, but still it is one Book, inspired by the one Spirit, and as the one Book it will live.

THE TELEGRAPHONE.

SPEECH is assured a wonderful way, we are told, in the development of the telegraphone, sometimes called the electro-magnetic phonograph. Instead of an impression by a stylus on a moving disc, a wire is run between two electro-magnets, which face each other at an interval of perhaps one-sixteenth of an inch. While passing, each tiny section has been magnetized with an intensity and polarity corresponding with the strength of the particular sound wave entering the instrument at that instant. The principle is that some change takes place in the grouping of the particles of metal as the wire is brought under the influence of the electro-magnet. The record completed, the spools are reversed and the switch turned to "hearing." As the magnetized wire is brought into connection with the magnets, the former acts as a magneto-generator, and the coils are electrified according to whether the original sound was strong or weak. The varying vibrations are communicated to the receiver, and the voice is reproduced. To use the wire a second time, all that is necessary is to run it thru for a second record, in the course of which the first record is entirely canceled.

School Fraternities and Skating Rinks

Principal George A. Merrill, of the Lick School, San Francisco, in a recent address decried school fraternities, and plainly declared that he "did not favor skating rinks." He did not want his pupils "idling away their time in such places." Mr. Merrill is right. The best that can be said of them is that they are no good.

Cotton Crop and Southern Resources

The Atlanta "Constitution" is responsible for the statement that the total cotton crop in sight at the close of January amounted to 9,830,750 bales, being 1,842,919 more than the previous year. Texas leads with 3,270,473 bales. The Constitution invites investigation of the resources of the South, including the cotton industry.

Sunday Laws and Religious Liberty

By Editor

We oppose Sunday laws because we do not believe in religious legislation.

We are told that in this we stand with the most objectionable classes in the community, with saloon-keepers, gamblers, racing-men, etc., because they oppose Sunday laws.

So let it be. We would rather stand on a right principle with the blackest saloon-keeper in this nation than to stand on a wrong principle with the greatest saint.

For it is principles which make men, and there is more hope for the saloon-keeper who truly stands for the principles of liberty than for the saint who steadfastly holds to the principles of tyranny. In fact, the best and most zealously disposed man, if led by wrong principles, becomes the greatest persecutor. In the words of Jesus: "Whosoever killeth you [His disciples] will think that he doeth God service." He will do this because he does not know either God or Christ. See John 16:1-3. That is, he does not know the principles of power, liberty, love, and righteousness there is in God thru Christ Jesus.

If Christians would pause to consider, they would not ask for a Sunday law, nor a law to enforce morality. Granting that Sunday observance is right, they have no right to demand that their opinions shall be respected by the other man more than the other man has the right to demand that they shall respect his opinion and choice. He is much more likely to respect us if we do not compel him, than he would be if compelled. The Golden Rule demands that we give the other man the same right to choose we ask for ourselves.

Furthermore, we can not enforce morality, strive as we may. We may make a man act outwardly as tho he were pious, but no law can change the heart, and morality is a matter of heart and conscience and motive and not of fact. The purpose of civil law is to suppress incivility; to prevent the ill-disposed trespassing on the equal rights of others; to protect one in his rights, respecting property, chastity, reputation, life, and worship, providing he does not encroach upon the equal rights of his fellows. This leaves the devotees of all religions free, with no standing as such in the law, with equal rights before the law. Who could ask more? Who would desire a religion which could not live without the support of the civil arm?

Russian Elections.—The available returns of to-day's balloting in the final elections of members to Parliament, according to a St. Petersburg despatch of February 19, indicate a decisive victory of the Opposition over the Government forces, coupled with the overmastering of the Constitutional Democrats by the more radical parties, such as the Group of Toil, the Social Democrats, and the Social Revolutionists. The prediction that the second Parliament of Russia would be more irreconcilably opposed to bureaucracy than the first is thus being fulfilled.

Our next "Sabbath-School Quarterly" is now ready, and all orders will be filled promptly. Send early, that you may receive it before the next quarter begins. The subjects treated are "Bible Election" and "Spiritual Gifts." Price, five cents per copy.

Change of Capital.—A bill has been presented before the California Legislature, the purpose of which is to submit to the people of the State the question of changing the capital of the State from Sacramento to Berkeley. Berkeley's claims are her geographical position, her superior transportation facilities, and economy to the State. And certainly these are strong points for the university town.

Missouri.—A concurrent resolution is before the Missouri legislature to fix the pronunciation of the name of that State. As received from the Indians it should be in three syllables, accented on the second; short "i" in the first syllable; the sound of "ou" in the second as "oo" in moon; short "i" in the last syllable, and soft "s" in both cases instead of "z," Mis sou ri.

A WARNING.

[The following poem, written by H. W. Longfellow, a half century or more ago, is suggestive of this day of strenuosity and trust oppression.]

BEWARE! The Israelite of old, who tore The lion in his path,—when poor and blind, He saw the blessed light of heaven no more, Shorn of his noble strength and forced to grind In prison, and at last led forth to be A pander to Philistine revelry. Upon the pillars of the temple laid His desperate hands, and in its overthrow Destroyed himself, and with him those who made A cruel mockery of his sightless wo; The poor, blind slave, the scoff and jest of all, Expired, and thousands perished in the fall! There is a poor, blind Samson in this land, Shorn of his strength, and bound in bonds of steel, Who may in some grim revel, raise his hand And shake the pillars of this commonweal, Till the vast temple of our liberties A shapeless mass of wreck and rubbish lies!

Hard Times Ahead.—A railway man, A. B. Stickney, president of the Chicago and Great Western Railroad Company, declares that there are "hard times ahead if the Legislatures of the various States do not stop 'tinkering' with things which are not fit subjects for legislation. The present 'railroad baiting' is bound to lead to disaster to the country at large if it be not checked. The trouble will come in perhaps three, perhaps four, perhaps five years." But the colossal railway combinations are inviting just such legislation. It will be a marvel if hard times do not come sooner than that.

The characteristics of a perfect man are faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness, charity. "But he that lacketh these things is blind, and can not see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins." It is necessary, first of all, to have faith, in order that the other graces may be properly cultivated. Faith is what unites us to Christ, and He has told us that without Him we can do nothing.

In a storm in the English Channel, February 21, the steamer Berlin was wrecked on entering port at Hook-of-Holland. Stranded and helpless, the waves completely demolished the vessel, and all but ten or twelve of the 143 on board were lost.

A despatch dated February 20 tells of attacks by Russians on Jews at Odessa. Jewish shops were entered, plundered, and demolished, and many were killed, the police making no effort to suppress the disorder.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press.—United States Constitution.

Christian Country.—Much is said, especially among advocates of religious legislation, about this being a Christian country, that the world is growing better, right in the face of the most stupendous systems of sin and fraud the world has ever known. A leading daily calls it "an era of fraud," and mentions many large companies and names of men of international repute as among the guilty ones. It declares what everybody knows, that "fraud and oppression by capital and to the injury of the public have run riot in the United States for the last quarter of a century. Long impunity has induced not only boldness, but actual recklessness, in the commission of what may be called the crimes of monopoly." Of course this daily thinks that the strong hand of the law will improve things. The result will be as it has been before; it will not cure the evil; it will make necessary the change of the form of the crime. This will effect little, save diminishing it temporarily.

Noah's Ark.—We are told by the Jewish Ledger that the editor of Siren and Shipper has taken careful note of the measurements given of the ark in Genesis, and tells us that the "general dimensions of the ark have been closely followed by cargo steamships built for deep-sea and the American Great Lakes service." The ark was 480 feet long, 80 feet wide, 48 feet deep, with tonnage of 11,413. He tells us further, "She had plenty of room for pairs of all the distinct species of animals that were classified by Buffon," and "could have accommodated a thousand persons, and then have plenty of room for the storage of supplies." In the seventeenth century, Peter Jensen, a Hollander, built a boat in the exact proportions of the ark, which was, as the records show, a profitable venture for the owners.

"Thou hast magnified Thy word above all Thy name," the psalmist sings to his God. It is the "word" which is emphasized throughout the Scriptures. At the close of the wonderful Sermon on the Mount, Jesus declares: "Every one therefore that heareth these words of mine, and doeth them, shall be likened unto a wise man, who built his house upon the rock; and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not; for it was founded upon the rock." Not what we think or conclude, or what others decide to be right, is to be our criterion or the standard of our faith, but what God says. Those who build upon God's sure word are established.

To the Hills, or to God?—How many times do men quote the psalm as tho it were a real comfort, "I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help." Ps. 121:1. But this is what the heathen did, looked to the hills and their high places. Ps. 123:1 reads, "Unto Thee do I lift up mine eyes." How much better it is to read Ps. 121:1 as a question: "Shall I lift up mine eyes to the hills? From whence shall my help come? My help cometh from Jehovah, who made heaven and earth." Beyond all the high places of men, let us look unto the Lord our God. See the margin.

"Ask, and ye shall receive" is the assurance of our Lord. True, He knows our needs before we tell Him, but unless we truly appreciate them, we will never rightly ask. If we do not feel our own need, we will not appreciate His favors. How many there are who constantly reveal this in the ordinary every-day gifts of God. If we will not appreciate physical blessings, how can He bestow upon us His spiritual blessings.

Regarding Mr. Henton's advertisement in another column, we wish to say that he is thoroly reliable, and may be depended upon.

No. 3 of the True Education Readers is now ready; price, 90 cents, post-paid. Address, Pacific Press, Mountain View, Cal.

PACIFIC PRESS PUBLISHING COMPANY, MOUNTAIN VIEW, CAL.

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