The Placer herald., 1856-03-29
Sunday LAWS.

EE The following remarks upon Sun
day laws taken from the Sonora Her.
aid of the 18th inst. They express our own
opinion so accurately upon that point that
we give them place and do not hesitate in
saying that three-fourths Of the people of
Placer county will endorse them:
'ln country like this where freedom of
opinion is guaranteed to each citizen in all
affairs of the conscience, we consider all laws
absolutely injurious that tend to restrain and
abridge that freedom. Because a certain
portion of the community believe it right to
abstain from following their usual avocations
on the Sabbath, and to attend and partici-
pate in certain forms of Divine worship, it is
no reason why they should wish to compel
all others to DO so likewise. We believe that
those who desire to attend church, and wor-
ship God, on the Sabbath, or on any day,
should be allowed to do so, free from all
molestation by others. 1t is one of the rights
guaranteed them by our Institutions 1t is
no less the right of others to follow differ
ent course if they think proper. In this
country, every citizen has the right to the
enjoyment and practice Of the beliefs Of his
own conscience, so long as ndulging in those
rights does not in any way interfere with or
disturb others. We have no sympathy,
whatever, with that narrow-minded, bigoted
and intolerant spirit that in matters of re-
ligious belief would attempt to force all 9th
ers to bow to its requirements.
We believe that any occupation or amuse
ment that Is not proper to engage in on the
Sabbath, is not proper to engage in on any
other day of the week. 1t is the character
and tendency of the thing itself, and not the
dav, that makes the evil. If it is sinful to
hunt, ride, sing, dance, laugh, to attend thea
trical performances, to buy and sell, or en-
gage in any other business or amusement, on
the Sabbath, it is equally as sinful to engage
in them on Monday, or Tuesday or any other
day of the seven. On the Sabbath, as on all
other days of the week, the whole of animate
and nanimate Nature performs its wonted
functions; the flowers bloom as fresh and
| fair, and send forth as sweet a fragrance, to
please the senses, on that day as on any 9TH
er; the sun, the earth, the moon the stars,
all perform their diurnal functions on the
Sabbath; the grass, herbs and trees, all look
as green and fresh, as beautiful and fair, and
keep on their usual course; the feathered
songsters do not hush their joyful notes, but
that day, as on all others, tune forth their
songs Of praise and gladness in obedience to
the will of him who created all things
IT, as it is said, the Sabbath was intended
as day when all should offer up their praise
to the Creator we can see no better way to
accomplish this object than to allow all ma
ture free scope to express its joy and thank
fulness unrestrainedly. To force man to
attend church, does not make him moral;
neither does it destroy his sinful desires, (it
there be any, by forcing him to close his
shop on Sunday All the Legislatures that
ever existed, could not, if they should com
bine all the power they ever possessed, legis-
late the soul of single individual into Heav-
en-. But it is very easy, by the passage O.
strict Sunday laws, to engender hypocrisy
and deceit, and thus legislate thousands O.
souls into He'll.