REAL Sabbath rest is not in a Sabbath law, or in idleness, but in the Sabbath itself; and only he enjoys it who takes the Sabbath as the gift of the Creator.AMS April 5, 1900, page 209.4

IF a person has any rights at all, he has all the rights with which man has been endowed by the Creator. He cannot be denied one right without in principle being denied all.AMS April 5, 1900, page 209.5

BECAUSE the true Sabbath is a religious institution, any weekly Sabbath must borrow from it a religious character, just as any imitation derives its significance from the thing imitated.AMS April 5, 1900, page 209.6

THE spirit of Christianity does not prompt a person to inquire of the Lord what his neighbor ought to do, or to inform the legislature of how his neighbor should be made to act, on the Sabbath.AMS April 5, 1900, page 209.7

THE state may command men in religious observance now, but it will not answer for them finally at the bar of Him who alone has authority in religion.AMS April 5, 1900, page 209.8

IT is a bad thing to enact an unjust law, but a worse thing to enforce it after it is passed. If a bad law ought to be enforced, upon the same principle a bad character ought to be protected in doing injury to the public.AMS April 5, 1900, page 209.9

THE true Sabbath—the “Sabbath of the Lord”—is immortal because it is the same now that it was when God created it. Hence no one need be worried over the question of its preservation. Only that which has in it the seeds of sin and death needs to be guarded against the liability of destruction.AMS April 5, 1900, page 209.10

“A Baptist Clergyman’s Defense of Sunday Laws” American Sentinel 15, 14, pp. 209, 210.

ATJ

WE have received from a clergyman of Cleveland, Ohio, the following letter in reference to his connection with the agitation for Sunday observance in that city (noticed recently in our columns), with a request for its publication, with which we very willingly comply:—AMS April 5, 1900, page 209.1

“EDITOR AMERICAN SENTINEL: You kindly sent me a copy of this week’s SENTINEL that I might see your strictures on my plea for ‘enforcement of the law.’ Possibly you will grant a brief reply.AMS April 5, 1900, page 209.2

“Let me say: In keeping with the great denomination to which I belong, I believe in the separation of the church and the state. I do not believe in trying to make people religious by civil legislation. Nor do I believe in civil government granting at any time, anywhere, under any conditions, in states or territories, to Protestant, Catholic, or Jew, one cent of money for denominational purposes!AMS April 5, 1900, page 209.3

“My remarks, which you criticise, were not a plea for laws to be enforced in order to make people religious, or to attend any church, but were on this point: Cleveland has scores of business concerns which work thousands of men and women seven days in the week. These wage earners are crying for a day primarily for physical rest. The laws of the city are against the operation of those business places on the Sabbath. Yet because these business men make money by running on the Sabbath day, they run their business in violation of a plain law which the vast majority of people believe in as a physical right and necessity. Now, that these wage-men who get almost no time for physical rest, or mental improvement, or religious enjoyment, may have at least one day of rest, I said that the laws on our statute books which clearly forbid the operation of these factories and places of business on the Sabbath ‘should be enforced,’ that men and women who are now compelled to work on the Sabbath or be thrown out of their positions may have an opportunity to rest. If you differ from me on this point, then I shall have to be contented in not being agreed with. I believe that righteous laws, and such enforcement of righteous laws as will give American citizens respect for law, are among the chief necessities of our age and country.AMS April 5, 1900, page 209.4

“Respectfully,AMS April 5, 1900, page 210.1

“W. L. PICKARD,AMS April 5, 1900, page 210.2

“Pastor First Baptist Church, Cleveland, O.”AMS April 5, 1900, page 210.3

Probably no more plausible statement of the case for the Sunday laws could be made than is here presented. The workingmen are, in very many cases, overworked by their employers; they are injured by working seven days in the week; it is a great wrong to a man and to his family that he should have almost no time in the week to spend with his wife and children; he ought to enjoy a weekly day of rest. All this we believe as fully as does the writer of this letter. We differ when we come to consider the proper remedy. He says there should be a Sunday-rest law, strictly enforced; we say that all Sunday laws are wrong in principle, and therefore delusive as a remedy for moral or social evils.AMS April 5, 1900, page 210.4

Would our Baptist friends be satisfied with a law which provided that these factory employees should each be given one day off each week, upon any day which might best suit the wishes of the employee or the convenience of the employer? No; we think he would not. The day upon which they are to rest, for physical recuperation and social requirements, must be Sunday, and no other.AMS April 5, 1900, page 210.5

More than this: the Sunday laws must apply not only to owners of factories and business concerns, but to all men generally. The individual who employs no one, but works only for himself, must stop his business, even though he prefers to work. This is what our Baptist friend demands unless he is decidedly at variance with his brother clergymen who favor Sunday laws.AMS April 5, 1900, page 210.6

As we have stated, Sunday legislation is wrong in principle. The Sabbath is a religious institution. Its observance is a religious act, and rest from labor is an essential feature of that observance. The legislature cannot appoint and enforce a weekly day of rest, without coming into contact with religion.AMS April 5, 1900, page 210.7

Here comes in the plea for the “civil Sabbath.” The state does not interfere with religion, we are told, because it only decrees a “civil” Sabbath—mere rest from work. But mere rest from work, upon a fixed day one week, after the manner of true Sabbath observance, ... a religious significance of which it cannot possibly be divested by legislative act. It has been so fixed by the act of the Creator.AMS April 5, 1900, page 210.8

We must keep in mind the arrangement which the Creator has established. His law says, “Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God; in it thou shalt not do any work.” This covers the entire week, and divides it into six working days, and one rest day, and that rest day is a religious day. It provides no place for a “civil Sabbath,” and no such institution can be put into it without altering it and interfering with the position assigned the “Sabbath of the Lord.”AMS April 5, 1900, page 210.9

This is the divine arrangement for the week—one religious day of rest, and six working days. Omniscience was satisfied with it; why should not the Rev. Mr. Pickard be likewise satisfied? Why should any Baptist clergyman think it can be improved on by a State legislature?AMS April 5, 1900, page 210.10

And by this arrangement all men are bound. All men, including workingmen, are religiously bound not to turn the Sabbath into a civil day, nor to turn one of the six working days into a rest day. The six working days must retain their character as such in order that the Sabbath may retain its character as a day sanctified—set apart—from all the rest. Some men observe the seventh day, and feel in conscience bound to regard Sunday as one of the six working days. Others observe the first day, and if that day is the Sabbath they should feel in conscience bound to regard all other days as working days. Hence the state cannot appoint and enforce a weekly day of rest, under any plea, without interfering with conscience.AMS April 5, 1900, page 210.11

Any weekly day of rest, whatever name may be given it, must be either the Sabbath of the fourth commandment or an imitation of it. If an imitation of the true Sabbath, it is a counterfeit and as such must be offensive to the Author of the genuine institution. It is by the genuine Sabbath that men are to be benefited, and not by a man-made imitation.AMS April 5, 1900, page 210.12

The evil of all Sunday legislation is that it sets up a human authority where the divine Authority has spoken, and applies force in the domain of religion and the conscience. From the very nature of the Sabbath institution, as we have seen, this must be so. Hence it cannot be the proper remedy for the evil of overwork. The dictates of conscience ought to settle the question of Sabbath rest for workingmen, as for all others; but those who have no conscience in the matter, or who will not be governed by its dictates, must find a remedy by some other means than that which would bring compulsion upon the consciences of others.AMS April 5, 1900, page 210.13

“A Call for ‘Christian’ Politics” American Sentinel 15, 14, p. 211.

ATJ

A WRITER in the Sabbath Recorder says:—AMS April 5, 1900, page 211.1

“There can be no question as to the duty of a Christian to take part in politics.AMS April 5, 1900, page 211.2

“There can be no question about the necessity for the Christian to take part in making the laws, and selecting the officers to enforce them.”AMS April 5, 1900, page 211.3

Is this so? Is there any question but that Jesus Christ took no part in politics, neither worked for the enactment or enforcement of any laws? And is there any question but that Christians are bound to be guided by his example?AMS April 5, 1900, page 211.4

Again, this writer says:—AMS April 5, 1900, page 211.5

“We cannot shirk these responsibilities and leave the country entirely in the hands of professional politicians and chronic office seekers.”AMS April 5, 1900, page 211.6

But does not this writer know that true Christians in this country, as in other lands, are not in the majority, but constitute only a small minority? As a part of the government, they would constitute the tail and not the body, and the tail does not wag the body, but vice versa. The candidates will be selected by the great majority who are not Christians, but are “professional politicians, and chronic office seekers,” and followers of these characters, and then the true Christians can vote for them if they choose, under the impression that they are casting a Christian vote; while the politicians laugh at their simplicity.AMS April 5, 1900, page 211.7

Anybody who reads a daily paper ought to know that politics in this country are managed by professional politicians, and always will be. These men have studied the subject until they have made a science of the business of getting and holding a majority of the popular vote; and the unskilled man can no more succeed in a political contest than can the novice succeed against the man of scientific skill in any other business. And the churches and religious organizations which aim to control politics will succeed in their purpose only when they are led by professional politicians; that is, when their religious leaders learn and copy the methods by which professional politicians attain success. But when this is done, where will be their standing as representatives of Christ?AMS April 5, 1900, page 211.8

True Christians are the “salt of the earth”—that which preserves it. Matthew 5:13. But will anyone claim that Christians preserve the earth by their votes? Yet Christians will argue in a Christian journal that Christians must be careful to cast their ballots into the great sea of political worldliness, in order to keep things from going to ruin!AMS April 5, 1900, page 211.9

Politics represents selfishness—the instinct of self-preservation, self-advancement, self-exaltation—which is common to all people. Any person, except perchance the true Christian, will resent an invasion of his rights, and will make trouble if he can for the person or party seeking to invade them. Hence there is a necessity felt to a greater or less degree by all persons in power, of respecting the rights of the people; and it is this necessity caused by the common instinct to “look out for number one,” and not the “Christian vote,” that maintains the rights and liberties which civil governments are instituted to preserve.AMS April 5, 1900, page 211.10

There are a vast number of people in this country who, while lacking the true Christian spirit, are tenacious of their religion, and ready to roll the ear of Judggernaut over the adherents of a rival religion where they constitute but a despised few. And it is just such pleas for Christian politicians as this the Recorder prints, that will take these over-zealous and under-wise “Christians” into politics for religion’s sake. And when this comes to pass, as ere long it will, the Recorder will have plenty of reason to regret the results that will follow.AMS April 5, 1900, page 211.11

“Back Page” American Sentinel 15, 14, p. 224.

ATJ

BISHOP POTTER, who has recently returned from the Philippines with altered views touching that country and people from those previously proclaimed by him, says in The Outlook that “There are probably a few people in America who believe that self-government is an absolute and indefeasible right.” There are a few people, probably, who still believe that “all men are created equal,” and that all men “are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights,” which governments are instituted among men for the purpose of preserving; and that civil governments accordingly derive their just powers from “the consent of the governed.” This language means self-government for all people if it means anything, and there are a few people who still believe it speaks the truth. That is what we believe.AMS April 5, 1900, page 224.1

NO PARTY, religious or political, can put God into the Constitution by taking out of it that equality and freedom for all in religion with which God has ever been inseparably connected.AMS April 5, 1900, page 224.2

THE gospel does not mean that any person shall force even himself to do right, much less that he shall force others to do what he thinks is right.AMS April 5, 1900, page 224.3

THE appointed work of the Christian minister is not to restrain the hands, but to touch the heart.AMS April 5, 1900, page 224.4

March 29, 1900

April 12, 1900