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Sunday Laws

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Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Aug 2, 1870

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 36, No. 7.

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Sunday Laws.

Bro. Smith: Seventh-day Adventists hold that there will be a law passed prohibiting any one from working on Sunday, and inflicting a penalty for not observing it. That being so, how do you account for the fact that there is a more liberal feeling in regard to the observance of Sunday now than formerly? Men who formerly regarded Sunday as a sacred day, now take the ground that all days are alike. In the city of Boston the feeling in regard to Sunday has so changed that they are about ready to open the public library on Sunday. Is there to be a change in the minds of the people in regard to the observance of Sunday? If so, how is it to be brought about?
Ought there to be a law passed against the violation of the Sabbath?
Ought there to be a law passed against the violation of any of the moral precepts? These questions are asked us, and we would like the opinion of others.
D. W. Leighton.
Reply. Human enactments can properly have reference to the protection of life and property, and all the rights and privileges of individuals as members of society. We do not think they can legitimately go beyond this. In regard to the Sunday law, opposition to it is necessary, in order to bring out the sentiment in its favor. There would be no more agitation upon this subject to-day than there was twenty years ago, did it not appear that the very existence of the institution was menaced in certain directions. It is these very things, such as the move to open the public library in Boston, the opening of the theater in California, the agitation of the street railway question in Cincinnati, Baltimore, and other cities, that is going to rouse the friends of Sunday to protect it by stringent laws. And while some may be growing more liberal, many others are growing more stringent. Not a few who a short time since did not believe in any Sunday restriction, now clamor loudly for a Sunday law. The churches can carry the measure, whenever they move unitedly in the matter.