What complaint is made against Sunday trains and Sunday newspapers?
Answer
"They get a great many passengers, and so break up a great many congregations." "The laboring
classes are apt to rise late on Sunday morning, read the Sunday papers, and allow the hour of worship to go
by unheeded."-Elgin (Illinois) Sunday-law Convention, November, 1887.
NOTES. - In the fourth century, Sunday games and Sunday theatres, it was complained,
"hindered" the "devotion" of the "faithful," because many of the members attended them in preference to
the church services. The church, therefore, demanded that the state should interfere, and enforce Sunday
observance by law. "In this way," says Neander, "the church received help from the state for the
furtherance of Her ends." In this way church and state were united, and the Papacy was placed in power.
The same course pursued now will produce the same results.
It is proper and right for the church to teach Sabbath observance, and to decry Sabbath
desecration; but it should not attempt to secure Sabbath observance through compulsory legislation; nor
should it seek to fasten upon the people by any means the observance of a day which God has never
enjoined, and for which, as is admitted on all hands, there is no Scriptural command. See admissions on
pages 133, 134, 146-148.
For what did David pray?
How will the decisions of the judgment be executed?
What was Christ's custom respecting the Sabbath?
What, according to prophecy, was to be Christ's attitude toward the law?
What means will be employed to compel all to receive this mark?
Will the world be prepared to meet Him?
Have the worthies of old gone to their reward?
Questions & Answers are from the book Bible Readings for the Home Circle