St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1889-09-30
FOR A DAY OF REST.
Wilbur F. Crafts Argues for
Strict Observance Of
the Day,
And Harrangues Fiepcely
Against the Ignorant
: Continentals,
Who, With the Sacred Name
OF Liberty in Their
Threats,
Come Over Here to Desc
crate Sunday With Their
LuStS.

DdpbSt. Ill tiiC dltClHOUH at tuC llOuos
of Hope church and in the evening a
the Dayton Avenue Presbyterian
church. The subject of his addresSe;
was: (which Shall Go, the Continental
Sunday or the American Sabbath?
There were large audiences at the Serv
vices, and the reverend gentleman
evoked considerable enthusiasm in favor
of Sunday observance. His speech was
very polished and at times eloquent. A
digest Of his argument is here given:
Mr.. Cats stands by the constitution
atty of Sunday laws. believing that
they are consistent with liberty. Pro
ceeding, he remarked when CambySes
invaded Egypt. knowing that they wOr-
SHIPPED cats, he had each soldier in the
front rank of his army take in his left
hand, in the place of shield, sacred
cat. The Egyptians dared not strike
lest they should kill god, and so the
invaders conquered them without a
blow The first part of this history was
repeating itself III the United States.
We are being invaded by an
army of continentals who desire
to break down our institutions i'll the
interests of their lusts, and who march
upon us with our sacred word liberty
as their shield. 1t was a picture
worthy of comic almanac, these I'M
washed refugees from deSpOtism, who
never saw liberty and would not know
it if they saw it, offering themselves as
teachers of liberty to Americans. We
ask these professors OF liberty: where
did you graduate? Who was your
teacher" They answer, Bismarck. !"
Now we understand what they
mean by personal liberty"-the
liberty of Bismarck, the liberty of
one who does what he likes, regardless
of the rights of all below him. The re-
vered Bismarck" who come to this
country believed in personal liberty
the liberty of one person to do what he
liked regardless of the rights of all
above him. The American people did
not believe in any such liberty. We be-
lieved in popular liberty, the liberty of
the whole people and the liberty of the
individual only so far as it was cOnsiS-
tent with the liberty of Others.
Law was the proclamation OF what
gentlemen will not do and others must
Tot do. Sabbath laws proclaimed that
gentlemen would not and others must
not deprive the toilers of their natural
right to the weekly rest day.
Itwas sometimes said by opponents
of Sabbath laws that government has
no right to dictate how a man shall
Spehd the day" But at quarantine
government proved its right to dictate
how amau should spend a fortnight
when the general good desired it. Sab
bath laws were consistent with liberty
in part, because they were health laws;
in part also they were laws for the pre-
yention of crime.
fThncn Xararn thl onGUprS tn tho tbtPpT-
Sonal Liberty Leagues" and to those,
who were victims to their SOphiStrieS.
The case was more difficult when the
cry of religious liberty" was raised by
an entirely different class, by good citi-
Zens who religiouSly and regularly OBJ
served Saturday. The apoState jew
who did not keep Saturday, but pleaded
his neglected religion when arrested
for opening his shop on Sunday, should
have 10 consideration from either Cen
tiles or Jews. His case was precisely
like that of any other heather who
cared for neither the laws of God
nor those of man. But those
who regularly and religiOuSly observed
Saturday by abstaining from labor and
business. deserve the kindly and gener-
Gus treatment they have received, with
few exceptions. in the Sunday laws, and
still more in the customs of the states.
The Saturday Sabbath of the Jews and
the Lords day s ibbath of the Chris
tians were only bylaws. The fourth
commandment could be obeyed by keep
ing either day, but society could not
wisely encourage or protect more than
one of them.
With sweet reasonablenesS we should
try to show these. seventh-day people
the mistake of their literalneSs with
reference to the seventh day of the
week. Mir. Crafts added:
Chaplain Crawford, of the United
States navy. recently told me of voy-
age to Samoa, during which the ship on
which he was serving crossed the Sun
day line, $50 deg, and as usual corrected
its reckoning by adding a day. If he
had been going the other way he would
have lost day. Arriving at Samoa he
found that the missionaries in their zeal
for Christian work had forgotten to
make this change when they crossed
the line years before. and so were keep
ing the Christian Sabbath, the Lords
day, OH what was Saturday on ship
board. He preached for them Oh their
Sunday, and they came out on ship
board to hear him again on his Sunday;
and so for three weeks. during
which time, between the ship and the
shore. they had two Christmas days.
two New Years days and six Sundays.
As the Jews, Seventh-day AdventS,
Seventh-day Baptists form together but
seven-tenthS of / per cent of the pOpu-
lation. it might be well to stop the OPP
position to our Sunday laws by sending
the rabbis and pastors of these literal
lists to Samoa by the route that would
make their Saturdays coincide with our
Sunday. as they would surely refuse to
throw away any day in their literal de-
votion to rigid succession. and then
they could be celebrating the feast of
creation on what they would call the
seventh day of the week on the same
general rest day that we should con-
slider a feast both of creation and re-
demptiOn, and call the first day of the
week.
The proposed congressional Sunday
rest law, at the utmost, would not affect
more than 1000 of these seyenth-day
people, as they could not be in the mail
and military service and interstate COM
Ilerce and yet keep Sunday, and the
further jurisdiction of the law was only
in the District of Columbia and the ter
ritories, in which very few of them re-
sided. Nh. Crafts concluded: There
SD QutSIiOU VI COllSSICANC ia
this matter. 1t is the question of two
millions of people, as many as were de-
liyered from King George by the Revo-
luton. who are now in more serious
bondage-the Sunday slavery of greed
working on the Sabbath with I'M
easy conscience. At Yorktown, in
the very shadow of the monu-
ment that celebrates the close of
the Revolution. asked colored man
who was in charge of the adjoining
farm. pointing to hole in the chimney,
evidently made by grape or canister:
Twas that done in this last war Or in
the Revolution" He answered, Il
don't know: how long ago was the
Revolutions There was good deal of
resolution in the Revolution, otherwise
the barefoot soldier of Valley Forge
would never have trod in triumph the
fields of Yorktown. Victory came not
by such good resolutions as are made
on New Years day and in religious
conventions 1t was resolution with
the rs" that delivered those 100000
from King George. and like resolution
will deliver the 100000 who are in the
worse bondage of Sabbatliless toll to-
day.