“He who violates the Sabbath may not steal because the judgment of society so strongly condemns theft, or because he believes that honesty is the best policy; but tempt him with the prospect of concealment, or the prospect of advantage, and there can be no reason why he who robs God will not rob his neighbor also.  For this reason, the Sabbath law lies at the foundation of morality.  Its observance is an acknowledgment of the sovereign rights of God over us.

“2. The sin of these Congressmen is a national sin, because the nation hath not said to them in the Constitution, the supreme rule for our public servants, ’We charge you to serve us in accordance with the higher law of God.’  These Sabbath-breaking railroads, moreover, are corporations created by the State, and amenable to it.  The State is responsible to God for the conduct of these creatures which it calls into being.  It is bound, therefore, to restrain them from this as from other crimes, and any violation of the Sabbath, by any corporation, should work immediate forfeiture of its charter.  And the Constitution of the United States, with which all State legislation is required to be in harmony, should be of such a character as to prevent any State from tolerating such infractions of fundamental moral law.

“3.  Give us in the National Constitution the simple acknowledgment of the law of God as the supreme law of nations, and all the results indicated in this note will ultimately be secured.  Let no one say that the movement does not contemplate sufficiently practical ends.”

From all this, we see the important place the Sabbath question is to hold in this movement—­the important place it even now holds in the minds of those who are urging it forward.  Let the amendment called for be granted, “and all the results indicated in this note,” says the writer, “will ultimately be secured;” that is, individuals and corporations will be restrained from violating the Sunday observance.  The acknowledgment of God in the Constitution may do very well as a banner under which to sail; but the practical bearing of the movement relates to the compulsory observance of the first day of the week.

Even now the question is agitated why the Jew should be allowed to follow his business on the first day after having observed the seventh.  The same question is equally pertinent to all seventh-day keepers.  A writer signing himself “American,” in the Boston Herald of Dec. 14, 1871, said:—­

“The President in his late message in speaking of the Mormon question, says, ’They shall not be permitted to break the law under the cloak of religion.’  This, undoubtedly, meets the approval of every American citizen, and I wish to cite a parallel case, and ask:  Why should the Jews of this country be allowed to keep open their stores on the Sabbath under the cloak of their religion while I, or any other true