States District Court, in the celebrated case of R. M. King, is rich
in lessons of vital importance to thoughtful minds at the present time
of unrest, when conservatism is seeking on every hand, even under the
cloak of radical movements, to secure statutes and legal constructions
of laws which may at an early day be used to fetter thought, crush
liberty, and throttle the vanguard of progress. Briefly stated, the
important facts in the case in question are as follows: Mr. King is an
honest, hard-working farmer. He is charged with no breach of morals;
in fact, it appears that he is a remarkably upright man. But he is a
Seventh Day Adventist; that is, he does not hold the same religious
views as the majority in his State. He stands in the same relation to
his countrymen as that occupied by the early disciples of Christ to
Roman society when Nero undertook to punish Christians by kindling
nightly human fires for the delectation of conservative or majority
thought. He is of the minority, even as the Huguenots were in the
minority when the Church tortured, racked, and burned them for the
glory of God and the good of humanity. He is of the minority, as was
Roger Williams when, in 1635, the popular and conventional thought of
Salem banished him. Mr. King is not an infidel or even a doubter. On
the contrary he is ardently religious, being a zealous and
conscientious member of a sect of Christians noted for their piety and
faith. The Adventists, of whom he is an honored member, it must be
remembered, hold somewhat peculiar views about the second advent of
Christ. They believe they find in the Bible commands making it
obligatory upon them to keep holy the seventh day of the week, or the
Hebrew Sabbath, instead of Sunday, the holiday and rest day observed
by most Christian denominations. Now it was shown in the trial that,
conforming to his belief, Mr. King strictly observed the Sabbath on
Saturday, but being a poor farmer he could not afford to rest two days
each week, or over one hundred days in the year, and, therefore, after
having kept the Sabbath he plowed in his field on Sunday. This aroused
the pious indignation of the narrow-minded and bigoted members of the
community who profess to follow that great Leader who taught us to
judge not, to resist not evil, and to do unto others as we would have
others do unto us. These Christians (?) who, unfortunately for the
cause of justice and religious liberty, are in the majority in
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