THE Elgin Sunday-law Convention was held the eighth day of last November in the Baptist Church, Elgin, Illinois. It was “called by the members of the Elgin Association of Congregational Ministers and Churches, to consider the prevalent desecration of the Sabbath, and its remedy.” The leading preachers present were, W.L. Ferris, of Dundee; J.M. Clendening, A.H. Ball, Wm. Craven, H.O. Rowlands, and Geo. A. Milton, of Elgin; John Mitchell, of Sycamore; Henry Wilson, of Carpenterville; W.W. Everts, Dr. Mandeville, S.I. Curtis, and C.K. Colver, of; Chicago; Staunton, of Rock-ford; Harbaugh, of Genoa Junction; Lea, of Woodstock; Stewart, of Savannah; Helms, of Forrest; Chittenden, of Wheaton; Swartz, of Leaf River; and Harris, of Byron. Besides these there were President Blanchard, President Stratton, and Professor Fisher, of Wheaton; Professor Whitney, of Beloit; State’s Attorney Cooper, of Du Page County; Hon. T.E. Hill, ex-Mayor of Aurura; and Frank W. Smith, the Evengelist and Andersonville lecturer.AMS March 1888, page 17.1

The Convention passed the following resolutions:—AMS March 1888, page 17.2

“Resolved, That we recognize the Sabbath as an institution of God, revealed in nature and the Bible, and of perpetual obligation on all men; and also as a civil and American institution, bound up in vital and historical connection with the origin and foundation of our Government, the growth of our polity, and necessary to be maintained in order for the preservation and integrity of our national system, and therefore as having a sacred claim on all patriotic American citizens.AMS March 1888, page 17.3

“Resolved, That we look with shame and sorrow on the non-observance of the Sabbath by many Christian people, in that the custom prevails with them of purchasing Sabbath news-papers, engaging in and patronizing Sabbath business and travel, and in many instances giving themselves to pleasure and self-indulgence, setting aside by neglect and indifference the great duties and privileges which God’s day brings them.AMS March 1888, page 17.4

“2. That we give our votes and support to those candidates or political officers who will pledge themselves to vote for the enactment and enforcing of statutes in favor of the civil Sabbath.AMS March 1888, page 17.5

“3. That we give our patronage to such business men, manufacturers, and laborers as observe the Sabbath.AMS March 1888, page 17.6

“4. That we favor a permanent Sabbath organization for the State of Illinois; the object of which shall be the creation of public sentiment and to secure the enactment and enforcement of necessary laws for the protection of the Sabbath.AMS March 1888, page 17.7

“5. That we favor the organization of auxiliary societies to accomplish the above object.AMS March 1888, page 17.8

“6. That four committees be appointed by this convention, consisting of two persons each, a minister and a layman; one committee to carefully and accurately investigate and report to the next convention all the facts obtainable concerning Sunday business; one to investigate and report similarly concerning Sunday newspapers; one concerning Sunday pleasuring; one concerning Sunday transportation and travel.AMS March 1888, page 17.9

“Resolved, That this association authorizes the Executive Committee to request railway corporations and newspapers to discontinue the running of Sunday trains and the publication of Sunday editions of their papers.”AMS March 1888, page 17.10

Notice, the Sabbath is here set forth as an institution of God, and also as a “civil institution.” It is for “candidates or political officers who will pledge themselves to vote for the enactment and enforcing of statutes in favor of the civil Sabbath,” that they will vote.AMS March 1888, page 17.11

Now we shall present some of the arguments upon which they base this demand for laws in favor of the “civil Sabbath;” and also showing what they want these laws enforced for.AMS March 1888, page 17.12

Rev. Henry Wilson said:—AMS March 1888, page 17.13

“The industries of the world should be silent one city in seven, that the toiler may hear the invitation of the Master, ‘Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest,’ and that the spiritual temple of God may be built without the noise of the hammer.”AMS March 1888, page 17.14

Exactly. The State must compel everybody to keep Sunday “that the toiler may hear the invitation of the Master” and “that the spiritual temple of God may be built.” And then they will call that a civil statute! If such a statute as that would be a civil one, then what would be required to make a religious statute? But suppose the toiler should then refuse to go to hear that invitation; what then? Will the State compel him to go? If not, why not? The State compels him to keep Sunday that he may hear the invitation; now is the State to allow its good offices to be set at naught, and its purposes frustrated by the toiler’s refusing to hear the invitation? And the church having gained the recognition of the State to that extent is she going to stop short of her object? Other quotations will answer these questions.AMS March 1888, page 17.15

Dr. W.W. Everts, of Chicago, said:—AMS March 1888, page 17.16

“This day is set apart for divine worship and preparation for another life. It is the test of all religion. The people who do not keep the Sabbath have no religion.”AMS March 1888, page 17.17

Is it then the province of the State to pass and enforce statutes in the interests of divine worship? Is it in the nature of a civil statute to prepare men for another life? “It is the test of all religion,” says the Doctor. Then what is the enforcement of the Sabbath but the enforcement of a religious test? And what is the application of it to “candidates and political officers” but the application of a religious test? And what is that but an open violation of the Constitution of the United States, which says, “No religious test shall be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States”? It is true that, under the decisions of the United States Supreme Court, this provision of the Constitution does not prohibit the application of any religious test as a qualification to any office under any State. And if there be no such provision as this in the State Constitution, these preachers of Illinois, and of all the other States, can go ahead unrestrained in the application of their religious test to all the candidates for State offices. But there is one thing certain, and that is, Sunday being “the test of all religion,” no Sunday-law test can ever be applied to any candidate for the House of Representatives, for the Senate, or for any other office or public trust under the United States, without a direct violation of the Constitution of the United States.AMS March 1888, page 17.18

Further says the Doctor, “The people who do not keep the Sabbath have no religion.” The antithesis of this is likewise true. The people who do keep the Sabbath have religion. Therefore this demand for laws to compel people to keep the Sabbath, is a demand for laws to compel people to be religious. And yet they have the face to call it “the civil Sabbath.”AMS March 1888, page 18.1

Again Doctor Everts says:—AMS March 1888, page 18.2

“He who does not keep the Sabbath does not worship God, and he who does not worship God is lost.”AMS March 1888, page 18.3

Perfectly true, Doctor. The antithesis of this also is true, He who does keep the Sabbath, does worship God. Therefore your demand for laws to compel men to keep the Sabbath, is a demand for laws to compel them to worship God. And that is only to introduce the system of the Papacy and of the Inquisition. There is no use for you to deny that you want laws to compel the observance of the Sabbath, and that, too, with the idea of worship, because in the very next sentence you say:—AMS March 1888, page 18.4

“The laboring class are apt to rise late on Sunday morning, read the Sunday papers, and allow the hour of worship to go by unheeded.”AMS March 1888, page 18.5

Here are the steps plainly to be taken, as surely as these ambitious clerics ever get the slightest recognition of their Sunday law demands. First, a law compelling all labor to cease on Sunday. Then the laboring class will read the Sunday papers, and so allow the hour of worship to go unheeded, consequently there must be, Secondly, a law abolishing all Sunday papers. But suppose then these people take to reading books, and let the hour of worship go by unheeded, then, logically, there must be, Thirdly, a law abolishing all reading of books on Sunday. But suppose they let the hour of worship go by unheeded, anyhow, then, logically, there must be, Fourthly, a law compelling them not to let the hour of worship go by unheeded. Having secured themselves in the first-two of these steps, what is to hinder these divines from taking the other two, which just as logically follow, as the second follows the first? There is just nothing at all to hinder them. Well, then, having taken the first two, will they not take the other two? Anybody who thinks they will not, has studied human nature, and read history, to very little purpose. And anybody who thinks that they do not intend to take the other steps has read the Sunday-law propositions to very little purpose. Prof. Samuel Ives Curtis said in this convention: “We are not commanded to remember the Sabbath as a day of rest and recreation, but to ‘keep it holy.’” And last spring in the Boston Monday Lectureship, Joseph Cook said:—AMS March 1888, page 18.6

“The experience of centuries shows, that you will in vain endeavor to preserve Sunday as a day of rest, unless you preserve it as a day of worship.”AMS March 1888, page 18.7

There, that ought to be plain enough to make anybody understand what is the purpose of the demand for “civil” Sunday-laws. The only safety is in never allowing them to secure themselves in the first step—that is, in never allowing them to secure any sort of a Sunday law. For just as soon as the so-called Protestant churches in this land become possessed of power to wield the civil power in the interests of religion, we shall have the Papacy over again.AMS March 1888, page 18.8

But Doctor Everts continues; it is not enough that Sunday papers must be stopped in behalf of the churches, but Sunday trains must also be stopped, and for the same reason. He says:—AMS March 1888, page 18.9

“The Sunday train is another great evil. They cannot afford to run a train unless they get a great many passengers, and so break up a great many congregations. The Sunday railroad trains are hurrying their passengers fast on to perdition. What an outrage that the railroad, that great civilizer, should destroy the Christian Sabbath!”AMS March 1888, page 18.10

Oh, yes! The church members, and the church-goers, will go on Sunday trains and Sunday excursions, etc. Therefore the trains are responsible and are hurrying their passengers on to perdition. Therefore by all means stop the Sunday trains, so as to keep these excellent church-members out of perdition, for if they have any chance they will go. Shut up the way to perdition, and then they will go to Heaven. They haven’t enough religion, nor love of right, to do right, therefore they must have the State to take away all opportunity to do wrong. And these people will boast themselves of their religion, and their being Christians! It is difficult to see how a Sunday train can hurry anybody to perdition who does not ride on it. And if these church-members are hurried to perdition by Sunday trains, who is to blame? Right here lies the secret of the whole evil—they blame everybody and everything else, even to inanimate things, for the irreligion, the infidelity, and the sin that lies in their own hearts.AMS March 1888, page 18.11

The following statements made by Dr. Mandeville, in the convention, are literally true, in a good deal deeper sense than he intended:—AMS March 1888, page 18.12

1. “There has been an alliance formed between the church and the world.”AMS March 1888, page 18.13

That is a fact, and it is going to ruin bothAMS March 1888, page 18.14

“Let us not deny it.”AMS March 1888, page 18.15

Amen. We earnestly hope you will not. There is no use in trying to deny it. But instead of going about in the right way to remedy the evil, you set on foot a scheme to compel the world to act as though it were religious, and so to bind closer the alliance, and increase the evil.AMS March 1888, page 18.16

3. “Influential men fasten themselves upon the church: a sort of political Christians.”AMS March 1888, page 18.17

Most decidedly true. And the most “influential” of these “political Christians,” and the most of them are found in the pulpit; and they organize conventions and pass resolutions to give their “votes and support to those candidates or political officers who will pledge themselves to vote for the enactment and enforcing of statutes in favor of the civil Sabbath,” “as a day of worship.”AMS March 1888, page 18.18

4. “Too many men are in the church for self-profit.”AMS March 1888, page 18.19

Indeed there are, a vast number too many.AMS March 1888, page 18.20

5. “We pastors are to blame for allowing them to rule.”AMS March 1888, page 18.21

Yes; you are. You are especially to blame for those influential political Christians fastening themselves upon the church and ruling it, and trading off its votes through Sunday-law conventions. The churches themselves, however, are not clear of blame in this. They ought to rise up and turn out the whole company of these political Christians, and fill their pulpits with such Christians as care more for the love of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit than they do for votes and the power of civil government.AMS March 1888, page 18.22

But the following statements by the same gentleman, we do not suppose have any deeper meaning than he intends:—AMS March 1888, page 18.23

1. “The subject has two sides. We must not look alone at the religious side. The interests of the Church and State are united.”AMS March 1888, page 18.24

And yet you are all opposed to a union of Church and State, aren’t you?AMS March 1888, page 18.25

2. “The merchants of Tyre insisted upon selling goods near the temple on the Sabbath, and Nehemiah compelled the officers of the law to do their duty and stop it. So we can compel the officers of the law to do their duty.... When the church of God awakes and does its duty on one side, and the State on the other, we shall have no further trouble in this matter.”AMS March 1888, page 18.26

Yes, we remember how it was before. The gentle Albigenses in the south of France greatly disturbed the church. They refused to obey its commands. But the church was wide awake, for Innocent III. was Pope; and he awoke the State with the call, “Up, most Christian king, up and aid us in our work of vengeance!” And thus with the church awake to its duty (?) on one side, and the State on the other, the Albigenses were swept from the earth, and there was no further trouble in that matter. Woe, worth the day, and thrice woe to the people, when the religious power can compel the civil. And that is precisely what this Elgin Sunday-law convention proposes to do.AMS March 1888, page 18.27

It would seem from Dr. Mandeville’s citation of the example of Nehemiah that they intend to set up a theocracy here. If not, there is no force in his argument, from that instance. But from the following it is quite certain that that is what they have in view. Prof. C.A. Blanchard said:—AMS March 1888, page 19.1

“In this work we are undertaking for the Sabbath, we are representatives of the Lord God.”AMS March 1888, page 19.2

Therefore it follows that when they vote to support those candidates and political officers who will pledge themselves, etc., they will vote as the representatives of God. And if any of themselves should secure votes enough to send them to the Legislature or to Congress, they would go there and legislate as representatives of God. And when they get into their hands the power to enforce the law, and to compel the civil power to do their bidding, they will do it all as the representatives of God. And thus again it is demonstrated that if these influential “political Christians” once get the Sunday laws for which they are so diligently working, we shall have in this Nation a living image of the Papacy. And again we say the only safety is in not letting them secure the enactment of any sort of a Sunday law, nor anything else through which they may dominate the civil power.AMS March 1888, page 19.3

NOTE.—We have not selected all these quotations about the religious Sabbath, and left out what was said about the civil Sabbath. We have carefully read the whole report, and we state it as the literal truth that outside of the resolutions, there is not in all the report a single sentence about a civil Sabbath. It is all religious and that only. And yet, just like the California Sunday-law Convention, when it came to putting the thing in form to get votes and legislation they deftly insert the word “civil.” All this goes to show what we have often stated, that there is no such thing as a civil Sabbath; and it shows that these men do not really intend to secure, nor to enforce, a “civil” Sunday-law, but a religious one wholly.AMS March 1888, page 19.4

A. T. J.

“A Dangerous Parallel” American Sentinel 3, 3, pp. 20, 21.

ATJ

ALONGSIDE of the statements of the Elgin Sunday-law Convention, given in a foregoing article, we desire to place some facts of history which reveal a threatening danger that the American people do not dream of. By this we intend to show that it was in this same way precisely that the union of Church and State was formed in the fourth century, out of which grew the Papacy in its highest pretensions. There is no need of much argument; all we shall have to do is to quote the history, and the parallel can be so plainly seen that argument is unnecessary.AMS March 1888, page 20.1

Neander says of the fourth century:—AMS March 1888, page 20.2

“As is evident from the synodal laws of the fourth century, worldly-minded bishops, instead of caring for the salvation of their flocks, were often but too much inclined to travel about, and entangle themselves in worldly concerns.”—Church History, Vol. 2, page 16. Torrey’s Edition, Boston, 1857.AMS March 1888, page 20.3

So it is now with these Sunday-law preachers, in their working up of religio-political conventions, and their lobbying almost every Legislature in the land. But what was the purpose of these worldly-minded bishops in entangling themselves in worldly concerns? Neander tells:—AMS March 1888, page 20.4

“This theocratical theory was already the prevailing one in the time of Constantine; and ... the bishops voluntarily made themselves dependent on him by their disputes, and by their determination to make use of the power of the State for the furtherance of their own aims.”— Id., p. 132.AMS March 1888, page 20.5

What then were their aims? Their first and greatest aim was the exaltation of themselves; and second only to that was the exaltation of Sunday. These two things had been their principal aims, and especially of the bishops of Rome, for more than a hundred years, when Constantine gave them a chance to make their aims effectual by the power of the State. The first assertion of the arrogant pretensions of the bishop of Rome to power over the whole church, was made in behalf of Sunday by Victor, who was bishop of Rome from A. D. 193 to 202.AMS March 1888, page 20.6

“He wrote an imperious letter to the Asiatic prelates, commanding them to imitate the example of the western Christians with respect to the time of celebrating Easter [that is commanding them to celebrate it always on Sunday]. The Asiatics answered this lordly requisition ... with great spirit and resolution, that they would by no means depart, in this manner, from the custom handed down to them by their ancestors. Upon this the thunder of excommunication began to roar. Victor, exasperated by this resolute answer of the Asiatic bishops, broke communion with them, pronounced them unworthy of the name of his brethren, and excluded them from all fellowship with the Church of Rome.”—Mosheim, Church History, 2nd. Century, part II, chap. V, par. 11.AMS March 1888, page 20.7

One of the earliest things in which these church managers secured from Constantine the use of the power of the State, was the famous edict prohibiting certain kinds of work on “the venerable day of the sun.” That edict runs thus:—AMS March 1888, page 20.8

“Let all the judges and towns-people and the occupation of all trades rest on the venerable day of the sun; but let those who are situated in the country, freely and at full liberty attend to the business of agriculture; because it often happens that no other day is so fit for sowing corn and planting vines; lest, the critical moment being let slip, men should lose the commodities granted by Heaven.”AMS March 1888, page 20.9

This edict was issued March 7, A. D. 321. It will be seen by this edict that only judges and towns-people and mechanics were commanded to rest on Sunday. If mechanics were allowed to work, the spiritual temple could not be built “without the noise of the hammer;” don’t you see? But this did not satisfy the political managers of the churches for any great length of time.AMS March 1888, page 20.10

“By a law of the year 386, those older changes effected by the Emperor Constantine were more rigorously enforced, and, in general, civil transactions of every kind on Sunday were strictly forbidden. Whoever transgressed was to be considered, in fact, as guilty of sacrilege.”—Neander, Id., p. 300.AMS March 1888, page 20.11

But these laws only prohibited work on Sunday; pleasure-seeking, games, etc., were not even yet prohibited. Consequently a church convention held at Carthage in 401,—AMS March 1888, page 20.12

“Resolved to petition the Emperor, that the public shows might be transferred from the Christian Sunday and from feast days to some other days of the week.”—Ib.AMS March 1888, page 20.13

But what was the purpose of all these Sunday laws, and petitions for Sunday laws? From the first Sunday law enacted by Constantine, to the last one enacted by any other emperor; from the first petition presented by the political bishops of the fourth century to this last one circulated by the political preachers of Illinois; the sole reason and purpose has always been,—AMS March 1888, page 20.14

“So that the day might be devoted with less interruption to the purposes of devotion;” and “in order that the devotion of the faithful might be free from all disturbance.” Id., pp. 297, 301.AMS March 1888, page 20.15

But what was it that disturbed the devotion of the faithful on Sundays in the fourth century?AMS March 1888, page 20.16

“Owing to the prevailing passion at that time, especially in the large cities, to run after the various public shows, it so happened that when these spectacles fell on the same days which had been consecrated by the church to some religious festival, they proved a great hindrance to the devotion of Christians, though chiefly, it must be allowed, to those whose Christianity was the least an affair of the life and of the heart.”—Id., p. 300.AMS March 1888, page 20.17

But, again, how could a theater or a circus in one part of the city hinder the devotion of the faithful in another, and perhaps distant, part of the city, or even in the country? Thus:—AMS March 1888, page 20.18

“Church teachers ... were, in truth, often forced to complain, that in such competitions the theater was vastly more frequented than the church.”—lb.AMS March 1888, page 20.19

Oh yes! That is the secret of the hindrance to their devotion. If there was a circus or a public show on Sunday, it would get a great many spectators, and “so break up a great many congregations;” the church-members would go to the circus, and “let the hour of worship go by unheeded;” and so their devotion was greatly disturbed and hindered. Don’t you see? Just here, please read again the quotations from Dr. Everts’s speech in the Elgin Convention, where he complains of the Sunday train and the Sunday newspaper. Is not this thing a perfect repetition of that in the fourth century?AMS March 1888, page 20.20

But yet those ambitious prelates of the fourth century were not content with stopping all manner of work, and closing public places, on Sunday. They had secured the power of the State so far, and they determined to carry it yet further, and use the power of the State to compel everybody to worship according to the dictates of the church. And one of the greatest Fathers of the church, was father to this theory. That was the great church Father and Catholic saint, Augustine—and by the way, he is grandfather to National Reform too, as we shall prove one of these days. Augustine taught that,—AMS March 1888, page 21.1

“It is indeed better that men should be brought to serve God by instruction than by fear of punishment or by pain. But because the former means are better, the latter must not therefore be neglected ... Many must often be brought back to their Lord, like wicked servants, by the rod of temporal suffering, before they attain to the highest grade of religious development.”—Schaff, Church History, Vol. II, section 27.AMS March 1888, page 21.2

And says Neander:—AMS March 1888, page 21.3

“It was by Augustine, then, that a theory was proposed and founded, which ... contained the germ of that whole system of spiritual despotism, of intolerance and persecution, which ended in the tribunals of the Inquisition.”—Neander, Id., p. 217.AMS March 1888, page 21.4

Of that whole fourth century Sunday-law movement, from beginning to end, Neander, with direct reference to those Sunday laws, says:—AMS March 1888, page 21.5

“In this way, the church received help from the State for the furtherance of her ends.”—Id., p. 301.AMS March 1888, page 21.6

That is the indisputable truth of the matter. And it is just as indisputably true that this Sunday-law movement in our day in this Nation, is only another attempt of the church to seize upon the power of the State and use it to further her own aims. And just as surely as these political preachers of our day secure the power and the recognition of the State in their first step, they will carry it to the last step, and the logical end to which it was carried in the fourth century, and afterward in the working of the theory of Augustine. The church of our day can no more safely be trusted with political power than could that of the fourth century, or of any other century. The only safety for the people, and the only security for the State, is to make it perfectly certain that the church shall never receive the help of the State for the furtherance of her own ends; and that she shall never obtain any recognition at all by the civil power, beyond that granted to every other person or class in the Nation.AMS March 1888, page 21.7

By these evidences from the fourth century, as well as by the evidences from the church conventions of our own day, it is demonstrated again that there is no such thing as a civil Sunday, and that there is no such thing as civil Sunday laws. The first Sunday law that ever was enacted was at the request of the church; it was in behalf of the church; and it was expressly to help the church. The call for Sunday laws now is by the church; and wherever they are enacted or enforced, it is in behalf of the church, and to help the church; and it is so throughout history. The keeping of Sunday is not a civil duty, and cannot of right be made a civil duty. Sunday is wholly an ecclesiastical institution, and the keeping of it can only be enjoined or enforced by ecclesiastical power. And whenever the civil power attempts to enjoin or enforce it, the civil power then in that is made subordinate to the ecclesiastical, and becomes only an instrument of ecclesiastical oppression.AMS March 1888, page 21.8

That is the use that was made of Sunday laws in the fourth century; it is the use that has been made of them in the United States within the last three years; and that is the use that will be made of them in days to come as surely as the churches secure this help of the State in the furtherance of their own political and ambitious aims. Through Sunday laws the Papacy was developed in the fourth century; and through Sunday laws there will yet be developed a living image of the Papacy in this country. Therefore we are, and everybody else ought to be, uncompromisingly opposed to the enactment or the enforcement of any manner of Sunday laws.AMS March 1888, page 21.9

A. T. J.

February 1888

April 1888