The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-02-12
ENTERS PLEA FOR CHRISTIAN FAITH
 IN SUNDAY LAWS Dr. Eaves CriticiZes Atti- tude of Certain of the Evangelical Pastors URGES FAIRNESS
 ONE TO ANOTHER Says Our Religion Is Not One of Mosaic Laws But of Spiritual
 Life-Position of the
 Apostles


 the Gospel and Square Deal" pr.
 Eaves writes as follows:
 To the Editor of The Age-Herald:
 Once more evangelical pastors in Bir- mingham are trying to secure Sunday laws for the control of the rest of the cit izens. My good friend, pr. Whitten, and my good friend, Dr. Dickinson, sweep the field with a conscientious majority. But the minority of about 5 per cent of last Monday were, no doubt, just as con scientious as that awe-cumpelling 95 per cent
 My purpose is to show that the posi- tion of the three pastors who protested against the proposed ordinance must be considered not only conscientious, but as more evangelical, more scripturally cor rect, more spiritual in it's method, and therefore more Christian than that of the impressive majority. I therefore beg per- mission to plead on behalf, not of fieshly indulgence worldly repudiation of di- vine authority, but of that Christian faith which we call evangelical. This is a earnest Christians may and do differ Let uo pe ldiF one to another.
 ENEMY TO GOSPEL
 My own objections to Sunday legisla- ton is not by any means founded on the wish to make concessions to the world, the flesh and the devil, but on the fact that such legislation is an enemy to that gospel which pastors want the world to revere and believe. It seems clear to me that all such pastoral movements as the present bewilder the minds of men Christians and unbelievers alike.
 l. In the New Testament sense. Sunday laws are unscriptural. Ours is not a religion of Mosaic laws, but of spiritual life. The Sabbath of the Old Testament was a Jewish institution But, from the first, the gospel made war on that in- stitution, as it was defined by the Jewish puritans ("Pharisees'D and legalists C'ScribesO of the time Further when believers in the gospel became predomi- nantly Gentle, no attempt at all was made to perpetuate the Jewish Sabbath among those Gentiles The first church council, once for all, swept the question aside, leaving Gentiles free, while the Jewish believers continued to 'Sabbatize' after their former usage. It was a mat ter of intense regret to St. Paul that his Galatian disciples were guilty of observ. ing the Sabbath. being hectored and ca joled by legalists. "Ye observe" he con- plains, days and months and times and years. l am afraid of you. lest by any means 1 have bestowed upon you labor in vain." The whole Sabbath-keeping sus- tenn had become to Paul weak and beg garly rudiments'' of the old historic sym bols of Judaism. eff we must keep the VQv uicn 1or xxrI,x ol. faith?' is his Galatian challenge
 LAPSE INTO LEGISLATION
 2. Now, why should the apostle take this position? Because of the principle involved. He saw in it lapse into legalism Is it possible that all these evangelical ministers have become legal ists? Despairing of making believers of the people. are they determined at least to make them outwardly conventional? l cannot believe it; and yet the evidence is amazing.
 Some of these brethren do indeed deny that they are contending for the Sabbath on religious grounds but isn't this a bit of casuistry? So long as 1t is pastors of Evangelical churches who promote Sun- day laws it will be assumed that their interest is based on religion. But if. as "Christians," they must confess such leg islation desertion of St. Pauls position shall they argue that, as "citizens" they are less than Christians and must fight immortality with authority, law, restraint And do they consider a free Sunday i'm moral? Is it not notorious that in Sun. day laws we pass over from questions of vice and crime to questions of conscience and religion? These are proper subjects of law. The Sabbath is purely a matter of common consent
 TREMBLING UNNECESSARILY
 If my brethren would think of it. they are trembling unnecessarily for the ark of God, and following in the wake of one Uzzah, deceased. They have been or dained for the preaching of grace, free dom, the spirit of Sonship, but they are aiming to make men slaves of an out ward ordinance They are even blindins men to the evangelical meani~~ - the Sabbath, viz, that rest in the Lord which consists in teasing from self. Lay ing emphasis on outward forms of con ventional propriety, they appear to others as tyrants, lords of Gods heritage in the soul, and seekers after the club of the policeman. The unscriptural be- comes the legal; spiritual grace is thrust into the background by the desire for what is considered proper decency. Chris tianity loses it's crown of glory when it arms itself with the policemans club and helmet We are here to serve. not to boss. The law may produce conform ity, but it breeds hypocrisy. The law never interprets the spirit of grace, but needed and still needs to be itself inter- preted. >
 Why should the followers of the Nag arene in the twentieth century repeat the mistakes of the English Puritan of the seventeenth, and the Jewish Puritan of the first century? Fighting for the shell they lost the egg.
 SOME HAVE NOT FALLEN
 B. Into this unscriptural and legalistc error some have not fallen-the Catholic clergy. the Episcopal clergy, at least one of the Disciples and two Congregation alists stay with the apostle I leave out the Seventh Day Adventists, who also have a conscience. Strangely enough, the reformed Jews are more Pauline than these numerous evangelical brethren. Multitudes of others, neither Catholics. Protestants nor Jews, have also the right of conscience.
 Surely then, this was fine oppor- tunity to exhibit that liberty and charity which belong to unessential things and doubtful things. At least, considering that respectable minority of religious leaders deplore Sunday legislation, why reach for the big stick? Why seek the glory of God by disregard of His grace? Yours for the gospel of peace
 GEORGE EAVES.
 Birmingham, February H. 1916.
 PERSONAL.