ORIGIN AND RESULTS OF SUNDAY LEGISLATION. 15 



decided what Christianity was. It defined orthodoxy and heresy, thus 

 involving the whole realm of religious conscience in the meshes of po- 

 litical intrigue. 



As the Holy Roman Empire grew upon the ruins of the pagan em- 

 pire, it continued to secularize and corrupt Christianity. Civil legis- 

 lation relative to Sunday and other festivals and fasts prevailed dur- 

 ing the dark ages. Our Saxon ancestors, converted under this empire, 

 received this inheritance, and transmitted through the Saxon and Eng- 

 lish laws the entire genius of Sunday legislation to our own time. The 

 chain is unbroken which binds the Sunday law of to-day to the first 

 pagan Sunday law of 321 a. d. 



There was little or no development of the Sabbatic idea, as drawn 

 from the fourth commandment, until the time of the Puritan reforma- 

 tion. Under the theory that the fourth commandment might be trans- 

 ferred from the seventh to the first day of the week, Sunday legisla- 

 tion took on the more distinctively Sabbatic type which has prevailed 

 in America. The theocracy of the New England colonies, which 

 made the civil government subservient to the Church, instituted the 

 most rigorous Sunday legislation. These early colonial laws were 

 not only rigid, but were rigidly enforced. Their power was short- 

 lived. As the colonial governments gave way to the States, and the 

 States became united in the nation, Sunday legislation was continually 

 modified and its influence steadily declined. The laws still exist, but 

 are disregarded by all classes of society, according to choice or con- 

 venience. Religious men assemble in conventions, speak through reso- 

 lutions, and editorials bewail the state of things and talk of the neces- 

 sity of a more rigid enforcement of the Sunday laws. No one heeds 

 such talk, and no law is enforced. Year by year we drift further away 

 from a religious regard for Sunday. The most cogent arguments 

 driven into the public mind are like a nail driven into the weak mortar 

 of a thin wall ; it looks well till you attempt to hang a weight upon it, 

 when it gives way, deepening the sense of failure. Hence we say, as 

 at the beginning, either the Sunday laws are not grounded in Christi- 

 anity, or the public conscience has become wickedly indifferent. 



Why thus ? 



The real philosophy of the situation is this : Sunday laws, coupled 

 with the false no-Sabbath theories which were developed in the second 

 century, have depraved the public conscience and produced the very 

 results over which good men now mourn. Granted, for sake of the 

 argument, that Sunday has rightfully taken the place of the Sabbath, 

 and ought to be observed in accordance with a Christian interpretation 

 of the fourth commandment. The fact remains that the civil law, as- 

 suming control of religious actions, places itself between the human 

 heart and God. It shuts out the divine authority. It forbids the con- 

 science to rise above the human authority. The result is, no con- 

 science. If, on the other hand, the observance of the Sunday, or the 



