A SAD feature of the imprisonment of Seventh-day Adventists for inoffensive Sunday labor is that their prosecutors in many cases are members of the Methodist Church, whose founders themselves suffered much from members of State-enforced creeds.
To show that the persecution of seventh-day observers by Methodists is contrary to the published, standard theology of that church, we quote from that celebrated Methodist work, “Binney’s Theological Compend,” a work officially recommended as a part of every Methodist ministers’ course of reading. The quotation is as follows:—
It is the duty of the civil power to protect Christians against disturbance in their Sabbath worship. But the power is intruding into the divine prerogative when it assumes the right to compel the subject to worship God, or to refrain from those pursuits that do not disturb others. The keeping of the Sabbath is eminently a moral duty, and hence it must be a voluntary service rendered under the pressure of moral suasion only. 302
This is the position which the SENTINEL has always maintained, and it is the position taken by Seventh-day Adventists in their opposition to Sunday laws; and had it been followed by Methodists, much of this modern persecution for conscience’ sake would never have occurred.