The silver state. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1909-1925, 1915-01-14
REASONS FOR OP-
POSING
To the Editor;

The Nevada legislature is to be ask
ed by Mr.. q. L.. Tufts of Berkeley
Cal, Of the Weekly Rest Day League.
and by some Of the ministers of Neva
da, to pass a Sunday law similar to the
one overwhelmingly defeated in Cali.
fornia, according to recent reports.
The misleading title to that bin was.
"An Act to Provide for One Day In
Seven as a Day Of Rest" In effect it
was a Sunday bill. IF such a law Il
passed, however, it can only bring evil
to our state.
Many good people are exercised over
the condition of the world today, be-
cause Of the increase Of crime and inn
morality that prevails on every hand
and are seeking to remedy these eondi.
tions. But the cure is not to be found
in Sunday laws.
The false idea that everything good
ought to be enforced by civil law, is
contrary to the Bible and the printi-
plies upon which our nation is found.
ed. With questions of religion and
the conscience, the state has no right
to NEEDLE. Prayer is a highly com.
mendable act, but the policeman has
no right to stand over the citizen with
a club, and say, elf you won t pray,
/ will make you pray The Lord g
supper and baptism are both sacred
acts, and every Christian should do
them voluntarily, but when the state
attempts to force them upon it's citi-
'zens, it makes either hypocrites or
martyrs Of all dissenters.
The Sabbath should be observed,
but If this is not a voluntary act il is
hypocrisy. Christ said, "My kingdom
is not of this world, else would my ser
wants fight, but now is my kingdom
not from hence His injunction is:
" Render therefore unto Caesar (the
civil government) the things which are
Caesar s; and unto God the things that
are God's.''
Jesus sanctions the payment of tax
es and obedience to civil law. But in
religious matters God. not the civil
government, is to be obeyed, for civil
government has no right to put itself
in the place of God to the individual.
When it enaets Sunday laws. or any
other religious laws it does this. A
total separation of church and state
is right and proper. The first amend
ment to the United States Constitu.
tion is in perfect accord with this prin-
ciple, enunciated by Christ. It saws
that Congress shall make no law
respecting an establishment of relig-
ion, or prohibiting the free exercise
thereof" Sunday is an establishment
of religion.
If it is uncivil to do on Sunday what
it is perfectly proper to do on other
days of the week, it must be because
of saeredness of the day, either as.
sumed or genuine. For that reason a
Sunday law will enforce compliance
with a religious custom, and win be a
religious law. Religious laws always
have been found to promote persecu-
ton. A Sunday law win protect Sun
day, not the citizen. 1t will make law.
full acts crimes merely because done on
that day.
Sunday is not the Sabbath, for the
commandment reads, "The seventh
day is the Sabbath If the Lord thy
God" and the seventh day is satur-
day. A Sunday law would tend to give
religious people some foundation for
Sunday observance, for which there
is no command in Scripture. But when
religion must turn to the state for
power which heaven does not give it,
that is a sad day for religion.
The securing of a Sunday law is an
attempt to settle a religious question
by civil law. 1t is certain to be un-
satisfactory, and 10 make trouble, for
if one religious law may rightfully be
passed, others may be enacted. Then
whose religious dogmas shall be en-
forcedf Naturally those of the church
in power. This means the establish
ment of a state church. Put no Prot
estant desires to be forced by the
state TO attend Catholic services, and
adore the host, nor should they be. No
Catholic would wish to be forced by
the police to be immersed, and it would
be wrong to enact such a law. How
ever, if the legislature opens the flood
gates to religious laws by passing a
Sunday law, they will have establish
ed a precedent, and other religious en-
actments will follow. Let the perseeu-
lions by the Russian state church, and
those of the Dark Ages, when the
church ruled empires, and Ignorance
and superstition prevailed as a result,
warn us against the passage of a Sun
day law, "One-day-rest-in-seven' law
or any other religious measure.
j. A. STEVENS,
o0E w S4b IL Rauo New