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Sunday Labor
Sanitarium, California, August 17, 1902.
Dear Brother,
I will try to answer your question as to what you should do in
the case of Sunday laws being enforced.
The light given me by the Lord at a time when we were expecting
just such a crisis as you seem to be approaching, was that when the
people were moved by a power from beneath to enforce Sunday
observance, Seventh-day Adventists were to show their wisdom
by refraining from their ordinary work on that day, devoting it to
missionary effort.
To defy the Sunday laws will but strengthen in their persecution
the religious zealots who are seeking to enforce them. Give them no
occasion to call you lawbreakers. If they are left to rein up men who
fear neither God nor man, the reining up will soon lose its novelty
for them, and they will see that it is not consistent nor convenient
for them to be strict in regard to the observance of Sunday. Keep
right on with your missionary work, with your Bibles in your hands,
and the enemy will see that he has worsted his own cause. One does
not receive the mark of the beast because he shows that he realizes
the wisdom of keeping the peace by refraining from work that gives
offense, doing at the same time a work of the highest importance.
When we devote Sunday to missionary work, the whip will be
taken out of the hands of the arbitrary zealots who would be well
pleased to humiliate Seventh-day Adventists. When they see that
we employ ourselves on Sunday in visiting the people and opening
the Scriptures to them, they will know that it is useless for them to
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try to hinder our work by making Sunday laws.
Sunday can be used for carrying forward various lines of work
that will accomplish much for the Lord. On this day open-air meet-
ings and cottage meetings can be held. House-to-house work can be
done. Those who write can devote this day to writing their articles.
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