p. 16 | Signs of the Times, Vol. 27, No. 51. (12/18/1901)

The Religious Purpose of Sunday Closing

The press and pulpit of New York City are now warmly discussing the question of closing saloons on Sunday. A. P. Doyle, a Paulist priest, in declaring for Sunday closing, lays bare the real purpose of the Sunday-closing agitation. He says: “What astonishes me most is to find reputable ministers, sound on so many social questions, doing their best to destroy the sanctity of the Lord’s day by declaring for the open Sunday saloon.” It is “the sanctity of the Lord’s day” that is to be protected by this species of anti-saloon legislation; and this admission is but the admission of what so many have long known to be a fact, that Sunday-closing legislation was religious legislation. The New York Independent puts the matter fairly and truly when it says: “A saloon that is bad on Sunday is bad all the week. If it ought to be closed absolutely on Sunday, it ought to be closed all the week.” And it ought to be closed all the week. The Christian can not afford to compromise with sin on any terms whatever.

Righteousness Is Ever a Success.

It is never defeated tho it seem to be. Oftentimes what seems to be its greatest defeats are among its most glorious victories. It seemed a hard day for Christianity when Jesus died upon the cross, and the little band was scattered, “every man to his own,” but the ignominious death was the very means by which everlasting victory was assured;—“that through death ‘He might destroy him that had the power of death, ‘that is, the devil; and deliver them who through ‘fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.’” Righteousness won in death. It never loses.

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