If straws show which way the wind blows, we are drifting toward a strange combination in South Africa. A strange combination, because with the experience of our forefathers fresh in our minds, it seems passing strange that any intelligent person should cherish sentiments contrary to the principles of religious liberty.
Is it not a sad acknowledgment of the Church’s weakness when she finds it necessary to appeal to the Government to maintain her existing institutions? Have the churches of Cape Town and Cape Colony so far lost their spiritual power as to call upon the civil law to enforce what they deem to be the duty of our citizens? It will be a sorry day for South Africa when the Government enforces the usages of the Church. Does the Church hope to make Christians by act of Parliament? To be a Christian is to be Christ-like; nature must be changed. As well might men expect to change the leopard’s spots or the Ethiopian’s skin by some compulsory act, as to make a man a Christian by compelling him to observe Christian institutions.
No man who has the true principles of the gospel at heart, will for a moment entertain such an idea. The sacrifice of Christ was a voluntary sacrifice; so the service of the Christian must be a voluntary service. “Whosoever will, let him come” is the gospel plan. It is too slow to meet the minds of modern theologians, and so they practically revise it thus: Whosoever won’t, compel him by civil law.
Who sought the aid of civil law in the early church? Was it Christ and the apostles? Nay, verily. They were the parties who suffered the penalties of civil law. The men who enforced religious rites, and who infringed upon the religious convictions of others, were the apostate Jews, who loved tradition more than the word of truth as taught by Christ and the apostles. They had departed from the true faith, and so had lost the power of the gospel, and knew no other way to carry out their ends than by appeal to the Government. They obtained power, which they were evidently seeking for,— power to put to death the Son of God and his chosen apostles, but what was the result? Let the condition of the Jews to-day answer the question.
It was when the Church had departed from the truth, and had lost its purity and power, that it began to clamour for the support of the Government. When we hear professed Christians to-day talking about petitioning the Government in aid of Christianity, we must conclude that it is for the same reasons.
That there is a growing sentiment in favor of legislation on religious questions is becoming very apparent. Only a short time ago, a meeting of the Evangelical Alliance was called, in Cape Town, to consider what could be done to promote a better observance of the “Lord’s day.” One speaker said that the Christians were responsible for this Sunday desecration, and that they could not be guiltless and allow it to continue. The Sunday excursions, picnics, recreations, etc., on Sunday must be stopped. Those men who voted against the Kimberley Exhibition being closed on Sunday, should not be returned to Parliament next year. The people should be educated, and such a petition sent into Parliament as will meet its approval, so that a law shall be made to compel the observance of the Sunday. As the majority of the people are in favor of Sunday-keeping (Jews and Sabbatarians being a small minority, who of course are opposed to its enforcement), therefore it ought to be made compulsory.
These are some of the sentiments which were expressed at this Alliance. Now the Sabbath is a divine institution, and its observance is a duty that man owes to his Creator, and not to the Government. It is not in the province of human government, therefore, to dictate to man what shall be his duty in this respect. Besides, in the Colony the Mohammedans keep Friday, the Jews and Sabbatarians, Saturday, and the majority of Christians keep Sunday; therefore no one of these days could be enforced without infringing upon the rights of the two other classes.
Is the question of Sabbath observance a religious or a political question? A religious question, to be sure. Well then, why not deal with it in a legitimate manner? It is the privilege of the different denominations, which observe the Sunday, to preach from their pulpits, to teach in their Sunday-schools, and to instruct the people privately in reference to the observance of the day.
Who can say that it is not the privilege of the Jews and Sabbatarians to do the same in their churches in reference to the seventh day, which they believe should be observed as the Sabbath?
Again, who can say that it is not the privilege of the keepers of Friday to advocate their views with the same freedom? If they can convince Christians or Jews that they are right, and that all ought to observe Friday, who can deny the Jew or Christian the right of changing his practice in that respect?
To be sure the Bible is the rule for all, or should be, and yet no man has a right to compel another to believe the Bible (if it could be done), or to serve God contrary to his own convictions. It is not in the province of human government to legislate on man’s duty to his Creator, inasmuch as man is not to answer to the government but to God alone for his religious belief and practice. Government has no right to enact laws which will infringe upon the conscience of the humblest of its subjects, so long as the individual in following his convictions does not violate the rights and privileges of his neighbor. The Bible represents our duties religiously, and to the Author of the Bible are we responsible for any failure on our part to comply with its requirements. It is man’s privilege and duty to preach, to teach, to invite, to persuade others to become Christians; but to compel them, never,—no, never.—I. J. Hankins, in Present Truth, London.
A Tennesseean Stirred Up.
By C. P. B.
THE following letter sent us by a friend in Tennessee to whom it was written, shows that there is a lively revolt in that State against persecution for conscience’ sake. Our after comment will correct one or two inaccuracies in the letter, which runs thus:—
Mayston, Tenn., Nov. 1, 1892.
My dear friend Stokes: My blood runs hot with indignation at the barbarous treatment being dealt out to those men in Paris, Tenn. A Christless Christianity is outraging every sense and sentiment of justice, mercy and decency. A big dog chewing the ears off a little one, a big man insulting a little one, is tame in comparison with a big society trying to crush out a little one through the guise of an unconstitutional law. A big Christian (?) community trying to crush out a little one.—For shame! For shame!
They tried the same game on King, but just before his case reached the Supreme Court, where the Sunday law would have been declared unconstitutional, King suddenly died. Died? No, he was murdered. The orthodox church could never afford to have such a decision as that. She would murder a hundred men before she would consent to that.
I have drawn up a petition to Governor Buchanan, to exercise his executive clemency in their behalf. I have not asked him to pardon them, for they are guilty of no crime. I have already over fifty signatures to this petition, and could get thousands if I had a little time.
I want you to get up one also, and after that we must get a lot of petitions to the next Legislature to repeal all those odious Sunday laws. A law that is good for Monday or Wednesday is good enough for Sunday or any other day. No one has any right to do wrong any day. No one has any right to intentionally disturb a neighbor or a meeting any day in the week.
I wish the United States Congress would enact every Sunday a national holiday, for people to be as free to do and act that day as on any other national holiday, to go to church, to a picnic, or any other place, or to work if they feel inclined. What has become of freedom in free America?
Let us pelt the Governor with petitions until Moon and Dortch and Stem are released from the chain gang. There is no politics in it; there is no religion in it; it is simply a question of our common humanity. These Sunday laws are unconstitutional; are class legislation; are a union of Church and State; are un-American and wholly unnecessary.
The writer of this letter is evidently not a reader of THE SENTINEL, else he would know that Moon, Dortch and Stem are not now in jail, having served out their sentences some time since; but he would understand that these same men are again under indictment, together with some eight or nine others, members of the same church. That the whole Seventh-day Adventist Church is not in jail is not the fault of the instigators of the Henry County Inquisition.
Another error into which the writer’s zeal has led him, is in supposing that King was murdered. Mr. King died of natural causes, though it is very probable that his malady, heart disease, was aggravated by the things which he suffered at the hands of his persecutors. Had the writer of the foregoing letter said that Mr. King was hounded to death374by his persecuting neighbors and the authorities of Obion County, he would not have been so wide of the truth. However we are glad to know that there are in Tennessee those who are alive to the outrages being perpetrated there in the name of Law and Order, and who are ready to protest against such judicial wickedness.
C. P. B.
Repeal Sunday Closing Legislation.
The World's Fair Sunday Opening Association is actively engaged in securing the expression of the will of the people on the question of repealing the act of Congress closing the Exposition Sunday. Mr. Thompson, Secretary of the organization, who returned from a trip to the Eastern cities this week, says that the sentiment of the people of that section on the question of repealing the act is quite as strong as it is in Chicago. This is true of Boston, New York, Washington, and Philadelphia.
George W. Childs, the philanthropist, expressed himself as strongly in favor of having the Exposition at Chicago open Sunday. Mr. Childs was of the opinion that the Philadelphia Exposition being closed Sunday was a mistake that should not be repeated in Chicago. Other public men of Philadelphia are ardently in favor of repealing the act closing the Fair.
Petitions for an open Fair Sunday will be showered upon Congress to a greater extent than that body has ever before known. These petitions will come from every State and city in the Union. They will come from ministers, bankers, clubs, hotel keepers, and labor organizations. One unique feature of the work being done by the association is an effort to gauge public sentiment on the question. Postal cards have been sent to a certain number of men from “Dun's Reference Book” without discrimination or selection. So many to every city of the United States of the population of not less than 4,000 or more than 10,000 inhabitants. These cards were mailed with a circular asking for immediate response. Nothing whatever was given to prejudice the vote. The result was encouraging. From the first 1,000 sent out the answers indicate that four out of every five persons in the United States desire a repeal of the Sunday closing act. The special committee under whose auspices these cards were sent out—composed of James A. Sexton, Mayor Washburne, the Rev. Dr. Thomas, and James W. Scott—will certify as to the returns.
LABOR UNIONS WILL ASSIST.
The labor organizations of the city will supplement the work by complete and effective work. Mr. Morgan of the Trade and Labor Assembly, in connection with a number of other labor leaders, will spare no means to secure petitions from every organization in the country. In addition to these, resolutions will be passed and sent to the congressmen and senators.
It is expected that the municipal government will take decisive action upon the question, inasmuch as the Exposition is given under the direct auspices of the city, and further, that hundreds of thousands of visitors from foreign nations and sister cities will be depending upon the hospitality of Chicago. Further, the Exposition being closed Sundays, these people will be compelled to drift aimlessly in the streets, or fall victims to the inevitable evils of a large and overcrowded city. Chicago's reputation for hospitality will be at stake in this matter, and consequently this feature is of great importance.
No active campaign will be made by the Exposition to induce Congress to repeal the act, although it is well known that a bill for that purpose will be introduced. They will give their moral support to the association, and aid it in any way consistent with their position in having accepted the appropriation with the condition of Sunday closing. Colonel Thompson gives assurance that there is little fear of the result being favorable to the Sunday opening cause. After December 1st he will make his headquarters in Washington at Willard's.
Persons who sympathize with the objects of this association can obtain from the secretary of the association at No. 160 Adams Street, pamphlets and printed matter in relation to the same. All inquiries upon the subject will be promptly answered, and every assistance rendered to bring about co-operation in various parts of the country.—Chicago Tribune.
THE Chronicle, of Bath, England, on November 3, contained a column and a half report of a sermon from a rector of the established church in defense of church establishment. Following this was a full account of the annual meeting of the Bath branch of the Lord’s Day Observance Society. Immediately succeeding these two articles,375was a notice of an address by J. S. Washburn, delivered in the same public Assembly Rooms where the meeting of the Lord’s Day Observance Society was held, on the Book of Daniel, in which the point “especially emphasized was this, that religion always does best when let alone by the civil law.”
An Old Sunday Law Enforced.
THE Washington Post of November 22 has this item of news:—
John Curtis, a respectable-looking colored boy, was arrested on Sunday for carrying a shotgun along the street. District Attorney Mullowney refused to make out a charge against him for carrying concealed weapons, but the policeman who made the arrest was not to be balked, and carrying his prisoner into Judge Kimball’s court, had him fined $3 under the old levy court law for carrying a gun “with the apparent intention of hunting on the Sabbath.”
There is also an old Sunday law in the District of Columbia which provides—
That no person whatsoever shall work or do any bodily labor on the Lord’s day, commonly called Sunday, and that no person having children, servants, or slaves, shall command, or wittingly or willingly suffer any of them to do any manner of work or labor on the Lord’s day (works of necessity and charity always excepted), nor shall suffer or permit any children, servants or slaves, to profane the Lord’s day by gaming, fishing, fowling, hunting, or unlawful pastimes or recreations; and that every person transgressing this act, and being thereof convict by the oath of one sufficient witness, or confession of the party before a single magistrate, shall forfeit two hundred pounds of tobacco, to be levied and applied as aforesaid.
Another old statute inherited by the District from Maryland, has this provision:—
That if any persons shall hereafter, within this province, wittingly, maliciously, and advisedly, by writing or speaking, blaspheme or curse God, or deny our Saviour Jesus Christ to be the Son of God, or shall deny the Holy Trinity, the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, or the Godhead of any of the three persons, or the unity of the Godhead, or shall utter any profane words concerning the Holy Trinity, or any of the persons thereof, and shall be thereof convict by verdict, or confession, shall for the first offense, be bored through the tongue and fined twenty pounds sterling to the lord proprietor to be applied to the use of the county where the offense shall be committed, to be levied on the offender’s body, goods and chattels, lands or tenements, and in case the said fine can not be levied, the offender to suffer six months’ imprisonment without bail or mainprise; and that for the second offense, the offender being thereof convict as aforesaid, shall be stigmatized by burning in the forehead with the letter B and fined forty pounds sterling to the lord proprietor, to be applied and levied as aforesaid, and in case the same can not be levied, the offender shall suffer twelve months’ imprisonment without bail or mainprise; and that for the third offense, the offender being convict as aforesaid, shall suffer death without the benefit of the clergy.
It behooves “respectable looking colored boys” in the District of Columbia to be a little careful in these days of reviving Puritanism and of official zeal for religious institutions.
NATIONAL RELIGIOUS LIBERTY ASSOCIATION.
A LEADING article in the Arena for December is entitled, “Religious Intolerance in the Republic: Christians Persecuting Christians in Tennessee.”
The Cincinnati Post of November 18 has the following:—
MAYSVILLE, Ky., Nov. 18.—The Mason County Grand Jury returned indictments Wednesday night against nearly all the barber shops, cigar stores, and clothing houses in this city for keeping open on Sunday.
Those who have back numbers of THE AMERICAN SENTINEL, Signs of the Times, Review and Herald, Youth’s Instructor, or Little Friend, can have these idle papers put to active use by sending them, post-paid, to A. D. Guthrie, Librarian Seattle Tract and Missionary Society, 309 Poplar Street, Seattle, Washington. The society wishes these papers for its depot and ship work.
The pastors of the different churches of the city of Atlanta, Ga., met recently and organized an auxiliary of the American Sabbath Union. On the same day a bill was introduced in the Georgia Legislature to make the reading of the Bible in all public schools compulsory.
Such schools as fail to comply with this requirement are to be deprived of their pro rata apportionment of the public school fund.
In its issue of November 16, under the head, “New Jersey Blue Laws Enforced,” the Daily Times of Middletown, N. Y., has this item from Hackensack, N. J.:—
“Mrs. Elizabeth Berry and Garry Storms were brought to the jail here to serve four days each for violating the Sunday law. They reside at Woodcliff, and were arrested on complaint of Martin J. Meyers, a farmer of that place, who charged them with husking corn on Sunday.”
The Chicago Herald prefaces a report of an address delivered in the Marlowe Opera House, Englewood, on the afternoon of Sunday, Nov. 6, with this paragraph:—
> “Rev. A. T. Jones is among the most ardent of the divines who oppose the action of Congress in ordering that the Columbian Exposition be closed on Sundays. He delivered a statesmanlike address on the measure at the Marlowe Opera House, Sixty-third Street and Stewart Avenue, yesterday afternoon. He treated his subject from the standpoint of constitutionality rather than directly from the assertion that the Exposition should be open.”
A FRIEND in Sierra Leone, says in a private letter that “the ministers of the various denominations and other gentlemen waited on the governor with a memorial, praying for a better observance of the ‘Lord’s day,’ and more especially to prohibit vessels from landing here on Sunday, or to discharge or load their cargoes.” What would be the result of the “praying” to the governor, our correspondent was not able to tell at the time of his writing.
So in far off Africa as well as in this country, the ministers, who above all others should be praying to the Lord for help in the work to which they have been ordained, are “praying the governor.” Will so-called Christians ever learn that their strength is in God and not in governors?
A GENTLEMAN from South Carolina, a lawyer, who has been reading literature on religious liberty put forth by the Association, writes the following:—
Dear Sir: I have perused with a great deal of pleasure and profit Mr. Jones' pamphlet upon the subject of religious liberty, and pronounce it a work of decided merit. His position is strong and tenable, and can not be gainsaid or controverted by the enemies of religious liberty. The great light and luminary in political and philosophic thought, Edmund Burke, has said that no man has a right to anything that is not reasonable. That is a great and fundamental verity, upon which all human systems are built, and out of which many great and important truths may be evolved.
Human systems and laws are the creatures of human rights. When mankind entered into the covenant and compact of civil government, they agreed to surrender everything that was unreasonable and nothing that was reasonable. If man had not covenanted and agreed to surrender those things that were unreasonable, his liberty would have been his greatest tyrant. He could have had no assurance that those things which he would preserve, cherish, and transmit would be protected. Religious liberty is a natural right, and government was intended to be a rock of safety and security to natural and reasonable rights. We live under two governments in this world, the moral and the civil. The civil is intended to check, restrain and punish any and every member of society who offends against the rights of his fellow-man. The moral is intended to direct, guide, and govern us in those things which belong exclusively, unreservedly, and absolutely to the individual. Conscience is the seat of the moral government, and whenever any earthly power or potentate undertakes to dictate to mankind in matters of conscience, it becomes a usurper; it dethrones and dislodges the rightful sovereign.
The union of Church and State is one of the most gigantic frauds and impositions that was ever practiced upon mankind, and it is responsible for some of the darkest and most diabolical crimes that have ever stained and stigmatized the history of the Old World. It was the union of Church and State that sent Cranmer, and Latimer, and Ridley to the stake. It was the union of State and religion that compelled Socrates to drink the poisonous hemlock.
Mr. Edwards is quoted as saying that he would not tolerate an atheist. Where did Mr. Edwards get his right to be intolerant of other people's opinions? I think the reverend gentleman would do well to tone and temper his zeal with a little sound and wholesome reflection. Where did Mr. Edwards get his right to believe in a God? Was it the gift and grant of any earthly power? If so, that power is the keeper and custodian of conscience.
If the secular power can say that I shall believe in a God, then it follows as a legal and logical sequence that it can say that I shall not believe in a God, or any of the great and fundamental doctrines of Christianity. It is time that there should be a better understanding between the governed and the government. It is time that rulers and law-givers should learn that human systems are but the evidences of human rights, and that civil and religious liberty are the greatest and most important of human rights, and that government was made to protect and not trample upon them.
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The Board of Control of the Art Student's League, of New York, has brought up the latest phase of the Sunday question, by its proposition to throw open its studios and schools for the study of the nude on Sunday. The expressed intention of the League to give opportunity for its students to avail themselves of instruction seven days in the week, met with some opposition, but that Sunday should be especially devoted to the nude seems to have horrified many more. Why artistic nakedness should be horrifying on Sunday and quite æsthetic on Monday is a question which only the artistically conscientious can solve.
The Home Missionary in its issue for November makes an earnest plea for the extension of the circulation of THE AMERICAN SENTINEL. Among other things it says: “We are confident that those who have read the stirring articles in recent numbers of THE SENTINEL can not feel indifferent in regard to this matter, or rest content, until its subscription list has been increased by many thousands. Let every one now decide to do what he can for THE SENTINEL. . . . Why should not this work grow until from individual subscriptions and clubs taken, there should be a demand for a regular weekly edition equaling that of the recent ‘special’ of September 22, a round 250,000?”
The Sun's London letter, of November 12, contains this paragraph:—
The liberalism of the times has given rise to a new semi-religious institution known as Museum Sunday. The object is to secure, through church influence, the opening of museums and picture galleries on Sunday. The movement was advocated in many churches on last Sunday.
Are not the religious associations for the Sunday opening of museums and of the World's Fair, and the religious associations for their Sunday closing antagonistic to each other? Can a house divided against itself stand? How long will it be before these opposing forces will unite for the prosecution of seventh-day keepers only and let all others go scot-free?
The “Pearl of Days” gives the latest baseball news as follows:—
Playing baseball on Sunday is a violation of the Nebraska law. The Supreme Court of Nebraska so decided November 11, in the case of the State against O’Rourke, a case originating in the arrest last year of the Lincoln baseball team while engaged in playing a game on Sunday at Lincoln Park. The players were not fined by the County Judge. The County Attorney filed exceptions and carried the case to the Supreme Court for an interpretation of the law, so that future controversies might be avoided in regard to the legality of playing baseball on Sunday. The court yesterday sustained the exceptions. The syllabus of Chief Justice Maxwell is as follows:—
“Under the provisions of section 241 of the criminal code, any person of fourteen years of age or upwards who shall on Sunday engage in sporting, etc., shall be fined in a sum of not exceeding twenty dollars or to be confined in the county jail not exceeding twenty days, or both.
“Playing baseball on Sunday comes within the definition of sporting and renders the person engaging therein liable to the punishment provided for in section 241.”
There are a considerable number of young men in Lincoln, Nebraska, who know that “the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord,” and who faithfully observe it, to whom this decision will be of interest.
THE Mail and Express is alarmed lest Mr. Cleveland should welcome to Washington a Papal nuncio. In its issue of November 17, it said:—
It is indeed a significant coincidence that with the report of the reception given to Mr. Cleveland by the Catholic prelates last night there is published a special dispatch from Rome saying that “as soon as Mr. Cleveland has been inaugurated the Vatican will open negotiations for the establishment of a special United States Legation, and the reception at Washington of a Papal Nuncio.” . . .
The Romanists believe in the union of Church and State, and that the Sovereign Pontiff on the banks of the Tiber should be the head of both throughout the whole world; and those of them who reside in the United States are working as rapidly as possible for that result. . . .
The conclave now sitting in the white marble palace in Madison Avenue is expected to arrange for the reappointment of a Jesuit Commissioner of Education as soon as Mr. Cleveland shall come into office again, for an appropriation for the Roman University in Washington, for the selection of another Cardinal, for the representation of the Vatican in Washington, for the control of the schools of the country, and generally for all other things which will hasten the ascendancy of the Roman power in all departments of our Government—national, State, and municipal.
What Mr. Cleveland’s attitude toward the Roman Catholic Church will be it is not our province to even predict. Roman Catholicism, unlike other religions, has always been a political power; and so politicians have become accustomed to treat with it as with other political quantities. Both parties have for years catered more or less to Rome. It has probably seemed to them to be one of the necessities of the situation, and “not wise statesmanship” to do otherwise. If Mr. Cleveland should pursue this policy further his offense against correct principles would be greater only in degree than have some of the acts of his immediate predecessor.
We trust that the reception of a Papal nuncio at Washington is not one of the events of the near future; however, it would only be in keeping with the policy which has been adopted by the Government in all its departments—legislative, judicial, and executive.
ANOTHER point of interest in Mr. Moscrip’s article is this:—
Co-operation of given communities through their single heads in a nation gives a national church. Co operation of national churches through their heads is Roman Catholicism. And the State Church and the Roman Church mean the wildest forms of error enforced by the strong arm of the civil power unless the spirit of liberalism or of atheistic philosophy creates a public opinion which makes such enforcement impossible.
This is not a negation of the oneness of the followers of Christ; it is simply a denial that human organizations constitute the true Church, and that they can be safely trusted with the power which would be theirs were organic union to become an accomplished fact.
The early Christian Church had no bond of union but a common faith; and never was there perfect organic union until it was effected by civil power in the time of Constantine. The history of the Dark Ages chronicles the result. Whether or not organic union shall ever again be effected by any means, it is impossible to predict. To us it seems very improbable; but the mawkish, religious sentimentalism of the times threatens a union, not only of Protestants, but of Protestants and Catholics, quite as destructive both to vital piety and to liberty of conscience as was the union which culminated in the Roman Papacy.
FRANK RUSSELL, D. D., Field Secretary of the Evangelical Alliance, has an article in the Christian at Work of November 10, entitled, “The Church and the Community,” in which he asks, “What is the Church?” and answers his own question in these words:—
Presumably in this discussion it is Christianity, the Church and all for which the Church stands as related to the community.
View this in the light of the decision of the Supreme Court that this is a Christian Nation, together with the decisions and “organic utterances” upon which the opinion is based, and who can deny that we already have in this country a union of Church and State in every essential particular?
THE Supreme Court of Nebraska has decided that Sunday laws are religious, in these words:—
As a Christian people jealous of their liberty and desiring to preserve the same, the State has enacted certain statutes which, among other things, in effect, recognize the fourth commandment and the Christian religion and the binding force of the teachings of the Saviour. Among these is the statute which prohibits sporting, hunting, etc., on Sunday.
The opinion was delivered by Chief Justice Maxwell on the 11th inst.
“It is remarkable,” says the Signs of the Times, “how many clergymen declare against a union of Church and State, and at the same time advocate religious legislation in the form of Sunday laws, which is a direct invocation of State support of the Church.”
SPACE is given in another column to an article from the Chicago Tribune in reference to the organized effort now being made to secure the repeal of the Sunday closing proviso attached to the World's Fair appropriation bill. It is already evident that this movement will receive large support. It is very important that it should receive support. But it is of the highest importance that those who throw their influence in its favor should do so intelligently and from proper motives. A compromise usually combines the weakness and the viciousness of both extremes of which it is the mean. It would be so in this case. An unqualified repeal of the Sunday closing act should be demanded. Nothing less can consistently be asked. The petition should also be couched in such language as to show a full realization that this congressional legislation upon religion is unconstitutional. There should also be no reserve in stating the fact, that whatever evil precedent may be cited to the contrary, this, as well as all other religious questions, is totally without the sphere of civil jurisdiction.
To say that the majority of intelligent men in these United States do not know this, would be an insult to their intelligence. If they do not express themselves without reserve when called upon, it will be because of a truckling to time serving policy which it would be a compliment to call moral cowardice.
