THE Evangel and Sabbath Outlook, of March 21, encourages the persecuted Seventh-day Adventists of Rhea County, Tenn., with the following words:—
We say to these Sabbath-keepers, let the officers have your bodies for prison cells and chains, but sell neither truth nor loyalty to God’s Sabbath.
To this the Cottage Pulpit, of Nashville, Tenn., responds thus:—
Amen! to that sentiment, brother of the Evangel. And may it spread over this State and Union and find a lodgment and take root and grow and bear fruit in the hearts of true patriots everywhere, until the dark spirit of religious bigotry and blindness shall be driven from the field it has invaded under cover of these old “Blue Law” statutes in the codes of this and other States.
If the legislature of Tennessee in session at the Capitol would do its duty, it would not adjourn until it has wiped off the stain of this Rhea County disgrace from the escutcheon of our good commonwealth. If the members of the two houses of this legislature would do an act of lasting benefit to the State and honor to themselves, individually and collectively, they have only to apply the knife to the religious persecuting section in our revised code, and hurl it out!
To the utterances of both the Sabbath Outlook and the Cottage Pulpit, the SENTINEL says Amen! [127]