The San Antonio light. (San Antonio, Tex.) 1883-1886, 1883-05-12
RELIGIOUS AND MORAL REFORM.

In Massachusetts, they have a society for
the suppression of vice. 1t claims to be a
society Of moral reform but, we think, is OBJ
noxious to some rules by which such society
should be governed. In a recent report we
find the following declaration Of its governing
principle which seems to denote that what it
seeks is religious rather than moral reform.
The prosecutions for sales on the Lords day
have been numerous enough to convince the
Sabbath breakers that violations OF the sun
day law will not be tolerated; and, while the
traffic has not been wholly prevented, there is
necessarily great reduction in the amount
sold on Sunday, and IL is confidently predicted
that by the end of another year such sales will
be the exception and not the rule.
How an act of moral injury done on Sunday
is more an act Of moral injury done on any
other day or why it is to be more vehemently
suppressed we do not discern. We are aware
that the prosecutions referred to may be under
a law for the suppression Of Sunday traffic
only but, il so, we affirm that il is OF the es-
sence and in the interest of religion,
and not of morals, and can not
be rated as an act OF moral reform
when thus serving the cause Of morals par
tally and incidentally only. The churches
are opened, and the forms of worship OBJ
served on Sabbaths in the interest of religion
exclusively, and whatever measures are done
on that day because it is Sunday are in the
interest of religion and not of morals. For
h. ctala all 1aye
equally. No reform, however successful on
the Sabbath can acquire the dimensions OF
a moral reform because there are six days in
the week, besides the Sabbath, when it does
not operate, But it attains to the limits Of a
religious reform. Ii must cover all days and
all seasons alike to be effective as moral re-
form.
We see, also, that the society for the sup
preston OF vice not alone proposes only TO
suppress vice on the Sabbath, but it does
not even in the discharge of the duty
thus imposed, carry out the principles of
moral reform. Thus it prosecutes for
offences to convictions under existing laws,
and subjects its conucts to penalties such as
a rule in Mas ;achusetts prisons, without any
apparent recognition of them as vicious or
consciousness that the reform which shall rev.
olutionize the government of prisons is more
incumbent on it, and indeed first incumbent
on it if it proposes to suppress vice by i'm
prisonment, than that which brought it to the
PRISONS doors. So that if it be said that there
is no other discipline by which liquor traffic is
10 be suppressed on the Sabbath the answer
is that it does not appear that the society has
urged any other. If it adopt vicious systems
In its pursuit OF reforms, moral or religious,
without seeking to abate them even in the
face of failure, its work is not done A moral
reform society that takes a man from his trade
because ii is a vicious one, and places
him under prison control which is
not less vicious, accomplishes no
bsne6cence and serves no good end, for it
is illogical to argue or admit that moral good
may come Of moral wrong.
No society for the suppression Of vice is
less than nuisance unless it seeks the sup
preston Of vice because it is vice, and not
because, for some reason, it is obnoxious to
the society. That is exactly the trouble with
New England reform societies. They are
inimical to some practice because it viciously
desecrates the Sabbath, or perhaps because it
vicously disturbs commercial or domestic |
sanctity or venerable superstition, but not
simply and only because it is vicious. There
is nothing exclusive in moral reform, while
religious reform is only so because religion is
put aside for Sundays, because it is expected
and designed with its sanctity to Offset the
sins of week. Nothing is Sacred on Sun
day because it is Sunday. Truth and justice
are sacred-but there is no Sunday truth and
justice. Religious reform may be moral re-
form or may not.