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    December 17, 1895

    “The Prosecution in London” The Advent Review and Sabbath Herald 72, 51.

    EJW

    E. J. Waggoner

    The communication given below was sent by the directors of the International Tract Society in London to the Home Secretary. This officer has charge of the administration of Sunday laws. We copy from the Present Truth:ARSH December 17, 1895, page 812.1

    “The Board of Directors of the International Tract Society, Limited, beg respectfully that you will allow them to call your attention to the following facts, showing the operation of the Sunday clause in the Factory Act in the case of our printing works, situated at 451, Holloway Road, N.ARSH December 17, 1895, page 812.2

    “By the seizure of machinery and materials to satisfy fines imposed for allowing certain women and young persons to work on Sunday we are compelled to close the factory.ARSH December 17, 1895, page 812.3

    “For six years in our present factory our work was allowed to proceed without interference. Visiting Inspectors recognized the fact that the spirit of the Act was complied with, and that the violation was only technical. We being observers of the seventh day of the week, and all our employees being of like faith, our works have been entirely closed on the Sabbath, and opened on Sunday.ARSH December 17, 1895, page 812.4

    “Further, had we been able conscientiously to sign the Jewish exemption form we might have continued without interference. But we are Christians-the International Tract Society, Limited being one of the publishing branches of the Seventh-day Adventist denomination-and cannot truthfully enter ourselves as Jews under the Act thus the administration of the law discriminates against us as Christians, forbidding that which would be allowed us did we falsely declare ourselves Jews.ARSH December 17, 1895, page 812.5

    “We have not been contending for our rights nor for our convenience in doing business. But God’s right to our obedience to the Fourth Commandment is not ours to surrender, nor can we obey that commandment to keep the Sabbath holy and at the same time keep the Sunday,-an institution established by human authority in opposition to the Sabbath,-even as we could not serve God and at the same time recognize other gods. In effect the law has sought to compel us to recognize a religious institution which loyalty to the Law of God requires that we should not observe.ARSH December 17, 1895, page 812.6

    “We acknowledge the uniform courtesy of Her Majesty’s Inspectors who have taken this new departure regarding our relation to the Factory Act, but we have felt it not disrespectful to address you this note of remonstrance against the action of the law by which the work of our factory is stopped and our factory employees deprived of this means of earning a livelihood. In the Act these are named as ‘protected persons,’ but by the operation of the Act they have been shut out from their work.ARSH December 17, 1895, page 812.7

    “We respectfully submit that this is an injustice not contemplated by the framers of the Act.”ARSH December 17, 1895, page 812.8

    The Star, a prominent London paper, has the following to say on the case:—ARSH December 17, 1895, page 812.9

    “The Present Truth is the organ of the International Tract Society, Limited, which is one of the publishing branches of the Seventh-day Adventist denomination, which holds that the true Sabbath is Saturday, the seventh day of the week, and not Sunday, the first. The Present Truth people, therefore, rest on Saturday and work on Sunday. Now the Factory Act forbids the employment of women and young persons on Sunday, and the only exemption which is dispenses is in the case of the Jews, who are passed over if they sign a special exemption form. The Present Truth conscientiously objected to signing this Jewish exemption form, because it is Christian and not Jewish, and for six years the factory inspectors let it print in peace, recognizing the patent fact that it kept the law in spirit if not in letter. The other day, however, some new broom came along, and swept the Present Truth before a magistrate who fined it. it having refused to pay the fines, the bailiffs descended on it, confiscated all they could lay their hands on, including the engine, wherefore the Present Truth is likely soon to be the Past Truth. This is about the savagest instance we ever saw of the injustice of justice, and we hope that Sir Matthew White Ridley will make restitution as swiftly as may be.”ARSH December 17, 1895, page 812.10

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