IN this city, February 7, “The Woman’s National Sabbath Alliance” was organize. A part of the pledge of the alliance reads as follows:—
We … do hereby pledge ourselves to resist by precept and example whatever tends to undermine Sunday as a day of rest and worship: such as the Sunday secular newspapers, Sunday concerts, Sunday social entertainments, Sunday driving and traveling for personal gain or pleasure, and we further pledge ourselves to use our influence to create a right sentiment on all aspects of the Sunday question, especially in reference to traffic of every kind on that day.
When we read this pledge of the new organization, we remarked in the SENTINEL that while the ladies were in error as regards the Biblical day of rest, yet they were violating no principles of religious liberty in endeavoring “by precept and example” to influence people to their way of thinking and acting. But since one error logically leads to another, we made the following prediction: “We shall confidently expect to see, erelong, this so-called ‘Sabbath Alliance’ going the way of the American Sabbath Union in this matter; namely, appealing to the civil law.”
We were correct in our prediction, for the very first document issued after the Alliance was organized was entitled, “Address to the Women of America,” and contained among other things the following:—
We therefore call upon the women of our beloved and favored land—the land toward which the eyes of all nations turn,—to foster by every influence in their power: First, a higher appreciation of civil laws, wisely administered, designed to preserve the Christian Sabbath as a day of rest and worship.
It is also announced in this same address that the headquarters of the Alliance is in the room of the president of the American Sabbath Union, and that its committee will “direct the affairs of the Alliance in coöperation with the American Sabbath Union.”
More than this: upon investigation we learn that the Alliance was organized through the efforts of the president of the American Sabbath Union.
The second meeting of the Alliance was held March 11, on which occasion it was announced that “among those indorsing this movement are Mrs. Fuller, wife of Chief Justice Fuller, Washington, D. C.; Mrs. Shiras, wife of Associate Justice Shiras,” etc., etc. Thus it would appear that this Alliance has secured the indorsement of the wives of two of our Supreme Court judges in their effort to “foster by every influence in their power a higher appreciation of civil laws wisely administered, designed to preserve the Christian Sabbath as a day of rest and worship.”
If this be true, there will be no one to act the part of Pilate’s wife when these judges shall be called upon to act the part of Pilate in condemning as malefactors innocent Seventh-day Adventists who follow in the steps of their Master in observing the Sabbath of which he declared himself to be the Lord, and performing inoffensive labor on Sunday. [98]