| Show SUNDAY legislation IN another column will be found an article on religious legislation in arkansas which shows the tendency of some minds at the present juncture in the direction of intolerance this is a matter of grave importance the power of the state in reference to the church or the line between law and religion ought to be distinctly defined and permanently established under the form of government wa set up in the united states no church has the right to dominate the state or to so influence its affairs that the rights and liberties e civil or religious us of 0 f the members of any other church are infringed on the other hand the state has not the right to establish any particular form of religion to favor one sect at the expense of another to discriminate in matters of faith and worship or to prohibit the free exercise of religion of any kind which does not interfere with the proper powers of the state or the legal liberties of the citizen A movement is on foot to bring a pressure to bear upon the national government in favor of sunday legislation there is danger in it the promoters of the stet movement att mean well no doubt we to see the day of rest protected and preserved by law they neither buying nor selling bravek lug ing nor trading newspaper reading nor secular employ employment meu of my ay kind on the first brat day of the he wee week IF A puritan sabbath is what they wish to establish and maintain no matter at what cost to the country or at what violence to some gome of its fundamental institutions we believe in the religious observance serva uce of the sabbath that I 1 is the setting apart of oice on day out gut of seven for rest reef from tolland iland to religious worship we believe it is in consonance with the Divine command aej in accordance with the laws of nature in our opinion everybody would be the better for a regular restful sunday in which all trades occupations and unnecessary travel and traffic would be suspended the body would be the better for it people would icye ave longer and have happier and healthier lives if it if were observed the religious sentiment would be fostered by it and the spirit of devotion and peace would have wider sway in the world those influences which soften and refine find nd improve the condition of mankind and promote harmony and con concord would have greater opportunity for their beneficent sway and all things would have a tendency upward and onward to that perfection of the race which is our goal and which the prophetic minds of all ages and nations have discerned afar off 14 but we do not think this will be promoted by the stringent hegje legislation that some sectaries sect aries are working for the sentiment of the majority in any state or community should be respected according to its ita volume anything which interferes with ite free ex exercise er c ise p nay ay doubtless do u ai be restrained perhaps SUP sun pressed minorities have their rights ts and the these se sh should be protected but majorities also have theirs heirs fc and the balance of power well and they may consistently take measures to preserve those rights as against the disturbance thereof by any opposing but so long as the minority do pot not attempt to abridge those rights or to violate prevailing public sentiment in an and obstructive and offensive manner their views viea and individual freedom should not be restricted because might rests rest with the greater number the danger about sunday legis latton lation la Is that if permitted to go to the length now desired by the sab dAtar bat arians lans it will move further in the same direction and ultimately the views of the dominant wet sect whichever it may be at the time wm will be crystallized in the form of law and religion will come to be regulated and prescribed by the state while at the same time the state itself will be dominated by the prevalent religious organization this would be a double calamity and the very antipodes of that form of government delineated in the constitution and foreshadow ed in the declaration of independence that there should be some regulations concerning the day of rest from toil in deference to the religious and rational sentiment of the grestina great majority of the people we think must be conceded by all reasonable minds but great caution should be exercised that thai these restrictions should not be carried so f far ar that the sentiments and acts of the minority are so restrained that the liberty which all citizens ought to enroy shall be trampled upon in this nation of many races mingling to together cether where there are many religions and many societies opposed to those religions and where perfect freedom of thought and reasonable freedom of act are conceded to be the heritage of alliea isolation to be successful and right must be framed with a view to the conditions condition and sand the best interests Interest of the whole preserving to all the patu parts such a measure of liberty as will not be inconsistent with the general welfare A sectarian sunday by law after the fashion of that puritanism which Is the ideal of some ascetic minds would be a public calamity and could not be established except by rigid regulations and pains and penalties which would fill the jails and make continual tumult and trouble and cause far more disorder than it was le signed to suppress at the same time those reasonable municipal regulations designed to protect the majority in their views and observance of the sunday as a sabbath ought to be respecter respect ei by the minority and cheerfully complied with people ought not to be forced to go to church to conform to any particular religious ceremony or observance or to do violence to their own convictions in any way but they should not be allowed to intrude their or secularism upon the majority or make the day of rest a day of riot those who be lieve in the christian religion cannot consistently be breakers of the sabbath and those who do not should have sufficient respect for the pr prevailing public sentiment to abstain from anything that would do violence to it let us have reasonable sunday regulations but not strait jacket legislation that will be subversive of that civil and religious liberty which is the pride and glory of american republicanism |
