Show WASTED SYMPATHY A Utah paper containc a dissertation disserta-tion on the unconstitutionality of a law of Tennessee under which an Adventist Advent-ist preacher has been ent to jail for working on Sundry The fine was 250 which the court remitted but was unable un-able to remit the costs The defendant defend-ant would not pay the costs but preferred pre-ferred to go to jail for two hundred days The argument Is that this Is religious persecution and contrary to the Tennessee Bill of Rights which provides that uNo human authority can in any case whatever control or interfere with the right of conscience and that no preference shall < ever be given by law to any religious establishment estab-lishment or mode of worship The great mistake into which all the champions of the Seventhday Adventists Ad-ventists fall in reference to this question ques-tion is that they confound Sunday laws and ordinances with religious regulations regula-tions Also they lose sight of the fact that none of the laws against which they fulminate attempt to interfere with the right of Individuals to worship wor-ship on Saturday and keep it as the Sabbath if they choose We are not in sympathy with any crusade against the people who stick to the old Seventh day Sabbath observance ob-servance and who perform work on Sunday Such movements savor usually of assaults against a particular sect or class and are incited often fay a most contemptible spirit of petty persecution And we have no doubt that this Is the case largely in the present instance But when we come to the legal aspect as-pect of the question it assumes a different appearance Sunday laws are to prevent overwork and also to protect the majority in the peace and I quiet necessary to their religious I liberty They are not enacted to interfere in-terfere with the right of conscience nor to prefer any religious establishment establish-ment They are secular regulations for the public peace and welfare It will be found that the people who are fined for Sunday working are not Interfered with at all in their Saturday Satur-day Sabbath worship But they bring trouble upon themselves by defiantly and ostentatiously working on Sunday Sun-day in violation of a statute or ordinance ordi-nance framed for general obedience And also that they pose as martyrs by refusing to pay a fine or even the costs of proceedings that > it may be made to appear as though they were I persecuted for religious opinion and worship when they are merely prosecuted prose-cuted for breaking a law that is binding I bind-ing upon all citizens alike If Sunday laws are bad they should I be repealed If they are unconstitutional unconstitu-tional they are void We do not believe be-lieve they are either IThey ire founded in the wisdom which recognizes recog-nizes periodical rest as a human necessity neces-sity or at least a human advantage and in the need of protecting the employed em-ployed against the power of employers which without such restriction would in numerous cases be exercised until there would be no cessation for the laborer from perpetual toil When the Seventhday Adventists get to fully understand this matter it would seem that their good sense would restrain them from making I themselves conspicuous by Sunday working when they will find that their Saturday worship will not be interfered in-terfered with and there will be no special effort to catch them in their violation of the Sunday laws and regulations regu-lations Much of the sympathy felt for those who are aching to maje themselves notable as martyrs is utterly ut-terly needless and wasted |