Fine.

Act of

1693.

Servile work and traveling forbidden.

laborer, or other person whatsoever, shall upon the land or water do or exercise any labor, business or work of their ordinary callings, (works of charity and necessity only excepted) nor employ themselves either in hunting, fishing, or fowling, nor use any game, sport, or play, on the Lord's Day aforesaid, or any part thereof, upon pain that every person so offending, being of the age of fourteen years and upwards, shall forfeit and pay the sum of ten shillings.

NEW JERSEY.

AN ACT FOR PREVENTING PROFANATION OF THE LORD'S DAY.1 Whereas it hath been the practice of all societies of Christian professors to set apart one day in the week for the worship and service of God, and that it hath been and is the ancient law of England, (according to the practice of the primitive Christians) to set apart the first day of the week to that end, and finding by experience that the same good practice and law hath been greatly neglected in this province, to the grief of such as profess the Christian religion, and to the scandal thereof. Be it therefore enacted, that if any person or persons shall within this province be found doing any unnecessary servile labor, or shall travel upon the Lord's day, or first day (except to some religious service or worship, or otherwise in case of necessity) or shall be found tippling, sporting or gaming, thereby profaning the Lord's day, or first day, shall upon conviction thereof before one justice of the peace forfeit and pay for every such offense six shillings.2

1"Laws of the Province of New Jersey, 1664-1702," page 519. This is another of the early Sunday laws of the colonies, the religious character and object of which are clearly marked.

2 However much or little it was the practice of the "primitive Christians" to observe the first day of the week, it was not their

AN ACT FOR THE SUPPRESSION OF IMMORALITY.1

Act of 1704.

Whereas profaneness and immorality have too much abounded in this Province, to the shame of Christianity and the grief of all good and sober men; for the suppression whereof for the future, Be it enacted by the Governor, Council and Assembly, now met and assembled, and by the authority of the same, That all and every person and persons whatsoever within this Province who shall be convicted of drunkenness, cursing, swearing, or breaking the Lord's Day, by doing ordinary work or labor thereon (excepting works of necessity or mercy). Every person so convicted shall be fined by the Justice of the Peace nation in for drunkenness or breaking the Lord's Day, in the sum of six shillings and costs; for cursing or swearing, three shillings.

Discrimi

fines.

Sunday drinking not

And be it further enacted, That no public-house keeper within this Province shall suffer any person or persons to tipple and drink in his house on the Lord's Day, especially in the time of divine worship (ex- permitted. cepting for necessary refreshment), under the penalty of six shillings.2

practice to make laws compelling others, regardless of their faith, religious convictions, or desires, to observe it. They did not seek to force their religious views and practices upon others by law. In this is shown the grievous departure of the English and early colonial Christians from "primitive" Christianity. And the sad sequel to it all is that many Christians of to-day are so little acquainted with the spirit of Christ and of primitive Christianity that they are still clamoring for these same compulsory religious laws. There is abundant evidence that for a considerable time the early Christians did not themselves observe the first day as a Sabbath, or day of rest, but continued to observe the seventh day, the day specified in the fourth precept of the decalogue, as such.

1" Acts of the General Assembly of the Province of New Jersey, 1752," page 3.

2 The reason for prohibiting tippling and drinking on Sunday is made quite apparent here. It was not simply to guard against the increased occasion and temptation to drink in consequence of the

Primitive Christians

did not use coercion.

DELAWARE.

Law passed Feb.

6, 1795.

Former

laws not sufficient.

Imprison

ment.

Law against blasphemy.

AN ACT MORE EFFECTUALLY TO PREVENT THE PROFANATION OF
THE LORD'S DAY, COMMONLY CALLED SUNDAY.1

Whereas the penalties which have hitherto been inflicted upon those who profane the Lord's Day, commonly called Sunday, have been found insufficient to deter many persons from such immorality; therefore, Be it enacted . . . That if any person or persons, after the passing of this act, shall do or perform any worldly employment, labor or business whatsoever, upon the Lord's Day, commonly called Sunday, (works of necessity and charity only excepted) such person or persons so offending, for every such offense, shall forfeit the sum of four dollars; and upon the refusal or inability to pay the said fine and the legal costs, he or she shall be imprisoned in the public gaol of the county, for any space of time not exceeding twenty-four hours.2

enforced idleness resulting from the general laws forbidding labor, business, and trade on that day, but to guard the time of divine worship." No supplying of drinks on Sunday, except for “necessary refreshment," was allowed; but to do so "in the time of divine worship" was especially forbidden.

1"Laws of Delaware, 1797," volume ii, page 1209.

2 The Delaware law of colonial times against blasphemy provided that if "wilfully or premeditately" done, the offender "be set in the pillory for the space of two hours, and be branded in his or her forehead with the letter B, and be publicly whipt, on his or her bare back, with thirty-nine lashes well laid on." 'Laws of Delaware, 1797," volume i, pages 173, 174.

The religious and intolerant character of all such laws is now recognized by all. But the Sunday laws of to-day are but relics of the theocratical system of religious laws which prevailed in colonial times, and have simply been handed down to us as an inheritance from those times.

RHODE ISLAND.

AN ACT PROHIBITING SPORTS AND LABORS ON THE FIRST DAY
OF THE WEEK.1

Law of

1679.

Be it enacted by the General Assembly, and by the authority of the same, That no person or persons May 6, within this Colony shall do or exercise any labor or business or work of their ordinary calling, nor use any game, sport, play or recreation on the first day of the week, nor suffer the same to be done by their children, servants or apprentices, (works of necessity and charity only excepted), on the penalty of five shillings for every such offense together with the reasonable charges accruing thereon; and in the case such offender shall not have sufficient to satisfy the same, then to be set in the stocks by the space of three hours.2

1" Acts and Laws of His Majesty's Colony of Rhode-Island and Providence Plantations in America, 1730," page 27.

2" Most sacredly," says Thomas Armitage, D. D., in his "History of the Baptists," page 649, "has Rhode Island guarded the hallowed trust [of soul liberty] committed to her charge, for no man has ever been persecuted in that sovereignty for his religious opinions and practices from its first settlement in 1636." Worthy as its history has been, and grand as were the principles of its founder on the subject of religious freedom, sad to relate, four years before his death its statute books were stained with this church-and-state Sunday law. There is no evidence, however, that Roger Williams himself had anything to do with its enactment, or that it was ever enforced to any great extent. The pride which the people of Rhode Island have manifested in fostering the principle of religious liberty is well indicated by the motto upon the large bell (weighing 2,515 pounds) in the Baptist church built at Providence, in 1774, and dedicated May 28, 1775, a little over a year before that grand old "sister bell" at Philadelphia rang out our national independence. The motto reads:

"For freedom of conscience the town was first planted;
Persuasion, not force, was used by the people;
This church is the eldest, and has not recanted,

Enjoying and granting bell, temple, and steeple."

For Roger Williams to sanction a Sunday law would have been

Three

hours in the stocks.

Statutebooks stained by Sunday law.

Rhode Island's

Liberty Bell."

Sunday enforcement opposed to Roger Williams's principles.

The Rhode Island law regulating the support of ministers.

To prevent any church gaining ascendency through use of the civil power.

Voluntary support only.

a violation of his own expressed principles. On April 12, 1631, a letter was written to Mr. Endicott, by order of the General Court of Massachusetts, in which the court charged Williams with having "declared his opinion that the magistrate might not punish a breach of the Sabbath, nor any other [religious] offense, as it was a breach of the first table." Knowles's "Memoirs of Williams," page 45. In his History of the Baptists," page 628, Thomas Armitage says: "He saw at a glance, that corruption and persecution must work out in America the same results that they had wrought in England. At once, therefore, he protested, as a sound-minded man, that the magistrate might not punish a breach of the first table of the law, comprised in the first four of the ten commandments."

THE RHODE ISLAND LAW REGULATING THE SUPPORT OF MINISTERS.

As a sample of the religious liberty established in Rhode Island by Roger Williams, the law " regulating the maintainance of ministers within the colony," passed by the General Assembly in 1716, may be cited. The preamble recites : "There was a charter granted to this colony which contained many gracious privileges for the encouragement and comfort of the inhabitants thereof; amongst others, that of free Liberty of Conscience in religious concernment being of the most principal, it being a moral privilege due to every Christian as by His said Majesty is observed, that true piety rightly grounded upon gospel principles will give the best and greatest security to sovereignty, and will lay in the hearts of men the strongest obligations to true loyalty; and this present Assembly being sensible by long experience that the aforesaid privilege by the good providence of God having been continued to us has been an outward means of continuing a good and amicable agreement amongst the inhabitants of this colony; and for the better continuance and support thereof, as well as for the timely preventing of any and every church, congregation, or society of people, now inhabiting or which shall hereafter inhabit within any part of this jurisdiction of the same, from endeavoring for prehminence, or superiority one over the other, by making use of the Civil Power for the enforcing of a maintenance for their respective ministers." Thereupon follows this law:

"That what maintainance or sallery may be thought needful or necessary by any of the churches, congregations or society of people now inhabiting or that hereafter shall and may inhabit within the same for the support of their respective minister or ministers, shall be raised by free contribution, and no other ways." 'Digest of Rhode Island Laws, 1730," page 84.

Contrast this with the laws enacted in Virginia, Massachusetts, and other colonies for the compulsory support of the church and the clergy, and the Rhode Island principles at once appear.