THE Creator’s Sabbath is perfectly fitted to the needs of all men; but a man-made Sabbath must have laws for forcing men into conformity with it.AMS March 15, 1900, page 161.4

SINCE the fourth commandment which covers the entire week, leaves no place for a “civil Sabbath,” it is plain that such a “sabbath” is condemned by the Word of God.AMS March 15, 1900, page 161.5

THE state may compel a person to be religious, but it cannot possibly make him a Christian. And only the Christian religion makes people better than they were before.AMS March 15, 1900, page 161.6

ONE vital difference between God’s law and man’s laws is that the latter have no love in them; and this is one great reason why human laws can have no rightful connection with religion.AMS March 15, 1900, page 161.7

GOD did not create individuals to save the state but he ordained the power of the state to serve the interests of individuals. The state was made only for time; but man was made for eternity.AMS March 15, 1900, page 161.8

THE Sunday laws are about the only things that connect the present age of enlightenment with the Dark Ages of medieval church-and-state times. Why not cut these connecting links instead of trying to make them stronger?AMS March 15, 1900, page 161.9

GOD has his own laws, his own penalties and his own remedies for sin, which are in force to-day; and he neither asks man’s help, nor will he tolerate man’s interference, in dealing with sin. Man’s laws are not to maintain righteousness, but rights. An act may be both a sin and a crime; but human tribunals can deal with it as a crime only.AMS March 15, 1900, page 161.10

“The Sabbath Was Made for Man” American Sentinel 15, 11, pp. 161, 162.

ATJ

THE “Lord of the Sabbath” declared that “the Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.” This statement embodies two ideas that lie at the foundation of the legislation that has been enacted for Sabbath observance.AMS March 15, 1900, page 161.1

On of these ideas is that the Sabbath was made for man. This is God’s idea, and the foundation of his legislation for Sabbath-keeping.AMS March 15, 1900, page 161.2

The other idea (held by the Pharisees) is that man was made for the Sabbath; and this is the foundation of all human legislation to preserve the day. This of course is disclaimed by the authors of state Sabbath laws; but it is that to which reason and experience testify as being the truth.AMS March 15, 1900, page 161.3

God made the Sabbath to be wholly a blessing to mankind, and to put upon him no hardship. It was perfectly adapted for man’s spiritual, mental and physical welfare; and, as God has made it, it is the same to-day. If people do not observe it, they lose the good of it, but they get no hurt from it. If they are against it, it is still not against them. It is for them, whether they observe it or not.AMS March 15, 1900, page 161.4

But men have made Sabbath laws from which vastly different results have come. They have used the force of the civil power to fit men to the Sabbath; not the true Sabbath, either, but their human idea of the Sabbath. If men did not want to conform to it, they were forced to do so. Where the human being did not fit to the institution set up by the religious majority, the state applied pressure to the human being until the fit was declared satisfactory.AMS March 15, 1900, page 162.1

If men do not observe God’s Sabbath as his law directs, that law does not interfere with them. They lose the great good they would have gained from keeping it, but their liberty is not restricted and no penalties are put upon them. They are not coerced into anything. But if they fail to observe man’s Sabbath as man’s law directs, they are arrested, imprisoned, fined, put in chain gangs, and in other ways punished until they conform themselves to the Sabbath conception which the majority have set up.AMS March 15, 1900, page 162.2

God’s Sabbath is like a mantle of glory and beauty given to man, which he may put on if he will; but the Sabbaths of the state laws are like a mold into which men must put themselves or be put; and if they do not fit the mold, they are hammered by the law until they are forced into it, at whatever sacrifice or injury to themselves.AMS March 15, 1900, page 162.3

All this is wholly contrary to God and to the purpose of the Sabbath. All such laws ought to be abolished. If men will not make the Sabbath a blessing to themselves, let it not be made a curse to them by the mistaken zeal of those who would make their refusal a crime to be punished with the pains and penalties of the criminal code.AMS March 15, 1900, page 162.4

“Back Page” American Sentinel 15, 11, p. 176.

ATJ

IT is almost universally conceded that the old “Blue Laws,” in which class the Sunday laws are placed, have been outgrown; they are not supported in this day by the sentiment of the people. This should be a plain sign that the time has come to remove such laws from the statute books. But instead of this, the effort is generally made to enforce them as if they were the outgrowth of modern necessities and sentiment. Why not sever these dead branches from the tree of progress instead of trying to nourish them again into life? The tree cannot be benefited, but only injured, by such endeavors.AMS March 15, 1900, page 176.1

March 8, 1900

March 22, 1900