Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1899-04-04

Another Clergyman Takes Issue with
the Rev. DR.. Sooy.

ELDER COBB SAYS THE VIEWS OF
THE PETITIONERS ARE NOT IN
ACCORD WITH THE PRINCIPLE
OF SEPARATION OF CHURCH
AND STATE-THE CIVIL POWER
SHOULD NOT BE COMPELLED
TO ACT BY THE RELIGIOUS
POWER = ANOTHER EXPRESS
ION OF OPINION.
Elder S. M. Cobb, President of the
West Virginia Conference OF Seventh
Day Adventists, submits the following
views on the question of Sunday base
ball, which he requests the Register to
publish:
Il notice in the Wheeling Register
of March 81 the petition OF Rev. DR..
j. l.. Sooy, and see the effort made to
use force in suppressing base ball and
other games on Sunday, and that 446
names of the people of this city have
lent their influence to this movement.
For more than a decade the religion
of the church and the political inter-
ests of the government have been grow
every effort to extricate ourselves from
this ENHANCEMENT has only rendered
the situation more difficult, and has
more fully proven our best efforts to
be inadequate for the emergency at
hand; and because Of these existing
facts, the thinking people of this county
have from time to time been giving eX-
preston to feelings of great anxiety,
n Wy or n d
ing.
Long since has it been seen that
we were slipping away from the quiet
and peaceful moorings which so long
had safely sheltered our forefathers,
and has furnished haven of rest to
the exile and wanderer who sought our
shores to find refuge in the land of
the free, where they could serve God
as they should choose, and be free from
religious intolerance and despotism,
which always has been and always will
be the result of the union Of church and
State.
Il repeat, it has been discovered that
we are slipping away from those quiet
moorings and launching out amid the
rocks and sand bars that have wrecked
so many ships Of State in the past
history of nations. And every inquir
ing mind is raising the question,
Whittier are we tending, and what
shall the end of these things be?'
But what has the efforts Of Rev.
Sooy in trying to suppress Sunday
games to do with principles and mat
tiers so grave as those stated above?
Let us see: The nature of the means
to be used in suppressing Sunday
games is clearly set forth in Rev.
Sooys petition to which so many names
have been attached. The following is
the petition: we, the undersigned, cit
liens of the city Of Wheeling and of
Ohio county, W. Va, do hereby en-
phatically protest against the Sunday
games which the Interstate Base Ball
League purposes playing on grounds in
or contiguous to Wheeling; further
more, we call upon all city, county and
State officials to enforce any and all
laws which touch upon the same, and
hereby give notice that we will make
every effort to bring to justice both the
players of said games and the aiders
or abettors of the same. This is the
petition. and there is couched in it the
spirit of the Dark Ages, and the venom
of death.
"The spirit of love and tenderness
which ever marked the life and char
acter of our blessed Master is not man
ifest in this petition, but it does breathe
forth spirit in direct opposition to
the spirit of Christ, viz: the spirit of
force and power by civil means, upon
the principle that might makes right,
which it never does. Is playing ball
crime? If so, why not put a stop to
this game on all days? Or is it be-
cause men desecrate Sunday by so do
ing and so become Sabbath breakers?
Well, that is q matter between them
and their Gcd to whom they are NOR
ally obligated, and for any man, church
or government to interfere with mans
obligations to his COD is assuming re-
sponsibilities that God has not called
upon us to discharge.
God has given to every man the
right to serve Him as his conscience
may dictate, or not serve Him at all,
If man may so choose, and has made
him accountable to God only in this
matter; therefore, Gods moral law
was given by God in love to govern the
morals of men, and God has also Or
dained that civil laws should be en-
forced by civil governments to make
men civil. When, therefore, the church
resorts to oppressive measures to force
men by civil enactments to comply
with moral principles and laws which
relate only to mans duty to his God,
then the church is clothed with civil
power and becomes a civil tyrant, des-
titute of the tender spirit of love, and
tyranny and prosecutions are sure to
follow. This has been the history of
the past when the civil power has been
used to crafty religious zeal, and like
causes produce like results.
Touching this point of Sabbath rest,
the Lord says in Romans xiv. 5. 6:
Zone man esteemeth one day above an
pther. Another esteemeth every
day alike; let every man
be fully persuaded in his
own mind. He that regardeth the day
(Sabbath) regardeth it unto the Lord,
and he that regardeth not the day to
the Lord, he doth not regard it.
"Other things are also here men
toned, showing in them all that man
Us accountable for himself to God. And
verses 10, II, IS teach us further: But
why dost thou judge thy brother, or
why dost thou set at naught thy broth
er, for we shall all stand before the
Judgment seat of Christ. So,
then, every one of us shall give an
account of himself to God Let us not