“Righteousness by Statute” American Sentinel 10, 34, p. 267.

THE World, of the 16th inst., thus contrasts New York’s policy with that pursued in Chicago:—

If there is anything which the city of New York can do in the way of aiding the mayor of Chicago to make government easier and better in the western city, it ought to do it. We owe him a debt of gratitude for having expressed in just thirteen short words a doctrine that is at the present time of vital importance to New York.

Mayor Swift says: “Out in Chicago we don’t think men can be made righteous by statute.” The opinion of New York is identical with that of Chicago. The difference between the two places is that in Chicago the authorities, recognizing the impossibility of making men “righteous by statute,” do not attempt the impossible, whereas in New York a young police commissioner, clothed with the novelty of power, acts on the theory that he can make men righteous by statute, although he would probably admit as a matter of fact that such an achievement was impossible even for a police commissioner.

But Chicago is not consistent in the stand it has taken, as is witnessed by the fact that while it cannot make men “righteous by statute,” to the extent of closing saloons on Sunday, the authorities of that city propose to make Seventh-day Adventists “righteous” by compelling them to cease work on that day. There is a vast deal of hypocrisy in both New York and Chicago.

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