The Old Sunday Laws by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Aug 6, 1894

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 20, No. 39.

The Old Sunday Laws

By Editor

A WRITER in the Sydney (Australia) Telegraph, of May 9, protests against raking up the old Sunday laws of Charles II. and George III. Some of the prominent men and newspapers are taking a strong stand against their enforcement, calling it by its proper term,—persecution. One of the laws is quoted as an instance of what we might expect from the code cast during the reign of Charles I.: "No carrier with any horse or horses; no wagon-man, with any wagon or wagons, nor car-man, with any car or cart or carts, nor wain-man, with any wain, or wains, nor drovers, with any cattle, shall, by themselves, or any other, travel on the Lord's day, on pain of twenty shillings." We have already given a portion of one passed during the reign of Charles II. Under the law of Queen Elizabeth's time, and under Charles I. also, people were fined for not attending church on Sundays. So the writer remarks: "There is plenty of ammunition for narrow-minded zealots to shoot at their quiet-going neighbors with. The only question is, How long will the great body of the people stand such nonsense?" He advocates a short repealing code, which should include all the antiquated legislative rubbish relating to the questions in dispute. But we apprehend that no such repealing code will pass. The ministers in large force are howling for a rigid enforcement of all these laws, and they will doubtless accomplish their object. Like the National Reformers in America, they boast that they control politics and politicians, and that their wishes must be heeded. So, like Pilate of old, the politicians, in order to save themselves, will grant their requests, and Christ will again be crucified in the persons of his saints.