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    November 11, 1897

    “Sunday Closing and Temperance in England” American Sentinel 12, 44.

    E. J. Waggoner

    Speaking recently of the Sunday-closing Bill, which is now the chief object of “temperance” zeal, the Bishop of Norwich, while favoring it, did not think that at present it is practicable, in that it is “one-sided and partial legislation,” applying only to the poor, and leaving the rich free to drink as much as they please. He said, moreover, that his personal experience taught him that “no person would more heartily welcome a very great restriction on Sunday opening-say to quite a short period in the middle of the day-than the great bulk of honest and right-thinking publicans themselves.”AMS November 11, 1897, page 695.1

    But nobody ever yet heard of a publican of any kind who was in favor of a diminution in the drink traffic, any more than of a clothing merchant who was in favor of people wearing less clothing and a less expensive sort. So the very fact that publicans can be cited as favoring the Sunday closing of public-houses, shows that it is in no sense whatever a temperance measure.AMS November 11, 1897, page 695.2

    Instead of being a temperance measure, the Sunday-closing effort is in reality an attempt to build up Sunday observance at the expense of temperance reform. The whole tendency of the agitation is to teach people that there is nothing inherently wrong in the liquor traffic, but that the evil consists in carrying it on on Sundays. To illustrate: A mother sees her little boy playing ball on Sunday, and being a devout Sunday observer, says, “John, you must not play ball to-day; it is Sunday.” John understands perfectly well that his mother has no objection to ball-playing in itself, but only to Sunday play. But suppose John were worrying a kitten, and his mother should say, “You ought not to worry that kitten to-day, my boy, it is Sunday;” could he think anything else than that it was perfectly allowable to worry kittens on other days than Sunday?AMS November 11, 1897, page 695.3

    It may be urged that if the public can be educated up to the point of accepting the restriction of the liquor traffic to the last six days of the week, it will be a long step towards getting them to see that it should be suppressed altogether. If this were true, then it would apply to all other business. No; all that can be won by the Sunday-closing agitation is more homage to the Sunday. If there were in it any real recognition of the evil of the liquor traffic, then the man who saw the point would he opposed to the traffic every day. Sin is sin, no matter on what day of the week it is committed. If a man commits a murder, the sin is not enhanced by the fact that the deed was done on the Sabbath. It is a fact that many things are lawful on the six working days of the week, which are not lawful on the Sabbath day, and many of those who believe that Sunday is the Sabbath are laboring hard to put liquor-selling in that list. If they wish to teach the stricter observance of Sunday, they have that right, but let them not delude themselves with the idea that they are furthering the cause of temperance. London, Eng.AMS November 11, 1897, page 695.4

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