“What Good can It Do?” American Sentinel 14, 32, p. 499.

WHAT good can a Sunday law really do? It can make a man act the hypocrite, by pretending to regard the day when he cares nothing for it. It can make loafers and idlers in the place of men doing honest work. It can put hardships upon good people who conscientiously observe a different day. It can unite church and state. It can do all this evil; but it cannot make a bad man good; or change any heart, to put into it more love for God or man. It cannot force anybody to rest, for mere idleness is not rest. Such laws do not originate in any thought of conferring physical benefits or preserving rights, but solely with the idea of protecting a religious institution from desecration. They never accomplished any good in the past, and they are potent only for harm to-day.

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