The star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1908-1909, 1908-02-03
PROTEST AGAINST
/ REGULATION Of
! SABBATH BY LAW
Seventh Day Adventists Declare
Past Attempts Have Re-
suited in Disaster.
A RELIGIOUS, NOT CIVIL,
MATTER, THEY CONTEND
"Sucf Laws Are in COntradic=
tion to Constitution and In
spire Persecution.

! TRENTON, Feb. IA mass meeting
to protest against any form of legisla-
ton to regulate the Sabbath last night
ended the conference of the Seventh
Day Adventists in this city The meet
ing was held in Taylor Opera House,
under the direction of the Religious
Liberty Bureau of the association and
about 400 persons were present. The
Rev. w. H. Hickman, of Philadelphia,
was the chairman.
The Rev. M. N. Campbell, of Michi-
gan, made an address, in which he de-
clared that the movement to compel
men to act out a religious requirement
in which they had no faith was I'M
Christian and anti Christian He asked
the audience If they would approve of
an ordinance requiring every store in
the city to hang out a sign Boots and
Shoes" irrespective Of the goods ON
sale inside. This, he declared, would
be as consistent as to compel all men
to hang out a sign of the Sabbath,
whether they professed religion or not.
The Rev. K. G. Russell, of Washing
ton, d. c., sail hat many who are
working for Sunday legislation are
honest in believing that such legisla-
. tion is in the interests of good morals
and good government. THE New Jer-
sey State Sabbath Association that was
organized last Thursday is similar to
the Sabbath association at Jerusalem
in Christ's time, which was composed
of the Pharisees and Herodians,' he
continued.
Intolerance and persecution have
always followed in the wake of every
attempt to enforce a religious institu-
ton by civil enactment. Scan the his
tory of the past and it will be seen
that from the time of Constantine, the
author of the first Sunday law, untold
evil a resulted from the enforcement
of such laws. Let those who think
hat Sunday laws are for the interests
of good government study the history
of other nations hat have struggled
under the impeachment of q union of
church and State and take warning
n repudiate every effort on the part
of religio-political reformers to enact
new laws or enforce existing laws that
now DISC Zee h statute books of any
Estate for the enforcement of Sunday
laws. Such laws should be repealed.
sunday laws are in fragrant c%ontradic-
81 ion to the first amendment to the
United States Constitution, which says:
y.Congress shall make no law respect
ing an establishment of religion or
prohibiting the free exercise thereof"
Resolutions were adopted favorlng the
passage of a law to prohibit the sale of
intoxicating liquors within the limits of
the District of Columbia, commencing
temperance legislation generally and
making his declaration against legisla-
tion for observance of the Sabbath,
which the members of the association
regard as "a matter Of religious belief
and 0ractise, as much as is the baptism
or theNLord's supper"
+That\we, the citizens of Trenton, here
assembled in mass meeting, do hereby
emphatically protest against the usur-
patton of power as represented in these
efforts to secure and enforce Sunday
legislation or to revive the old blue
laws, n do solemnly affirm our ale
glance to the Christian principles of
civil and religious liberty"
The following clergymen were in at
: tendance: The Rev. K. c. Russell,
president, and the Rev. NJ. c.. Camp
bell, vice-president, of the National Re
liglous Liberty Bureau, of Washington,
ID. c.; the Rev. w. II. Hickman. of
Philadelphia; the Rev. w. j. Fitzgerald,
of South Lancaster; the Rev. H. l..
Hohnhardt, of Jersey City; the Rev. b.
f. Kneeland, of Trenton, president,
and the Rev. G.. w. Spies, of Camden,
secretary, of the Religious Liberty Blu
rear of New Jersey.