Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1894. Excerpt: ... used to attain that object are identical with those of the fourth century. There it was pleaded that without a Sunday law the people would not sufficiently attend to things divine. At the Elgin convention, the following resolutions were passed:--"Resolved, That we recognize the Sabbath as an institution of God, revealed in nature and the Bible, and of perpetual obligation on all men; and also as a civil and American institution, bound up in vital and historical connection with the origin and foundation of our Government, the growth of our polity, and necessary to be maintained in order for the preservation and integrity of our national system, and therefore as having a sacred claim on all patriotic American citizens." Let us read the commandment according to this resolution: Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it civilly. The seventh day is the American Sabbath, and you shall keep it civilly, because in six days the Americans made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day they rested. Wherefore they blessed the Sabbath day, and civilized it. "The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God" is what the commandment says, and that is whose it is. The word Sabbath means rest. But the rest belongs to the one who rested. Who rested?--God. From what?--From the work of creation. "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy," says the commandment. It is religious entirely. There is nothing either American or civil about it. It is the Lord's, and it is holy. If it is not kept holy, it is not kept at all. And being the Sabbath of the Lord--the Lord's day--it is to be rendered to the Lord, and not to Czesar. With its observance or nonobservance, civil government can never of right have anything to do. The second resolution was this:--"Resolved, That we look w...
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