THE gospel of God aims to lead an individual to the highest plane of heroism,—so to develop personal independence, courage, and love of truth and justice that he would dare do right though all the world should do wrong, and though he should suffer death for doing it. It aims to make of him a Moses, an Elijah, a Daniel, a Paul, a Luther.
The Sunday law (and all religious legislation) tends to make an individual move with the masses, to lean upon the crowd, to think that he cannot do right independently of others around him, or without a law to make it convenient and easy for him. It tends to make him go as all moral cowards go, to do as they do, and think as they think. It tends to make him more a moral coward than he is already.
No individual ever rose to distinction in this world who followed such a plan of action.
The one tends to elevate the individual to the highest plane of moral development, the other tends to sink him to the lowest level of moral cowardice.
Which is the better of these two systems? Which of these two classes of individuals does the nation want?