GENTLEMEN of the Commission: The Railroads say they face ruin, and must have 15 per cent. more out of the shippers. The shippers show they are in a bad fix as the Railroads. So it would be unjust to the shippers. Besides, the Railroads come into Court with the blood of God’s Sabbath on their hands. They are murdering the Sabbath. They are fighting against God. They must quit that, or perish, like Israel. You have the power and it is your duty to help them quit this deadly, bankrupting habit. Their lawyers, in their arguments, left out God and His laws. Money is their cry. We must recall that “In God We Trust” is America’s motto. Congress excepted every “Act of God” from our Railroad law; and said no man should work over 16 hours out of 24. It is a commandment and “Act of God” that no man and no business and no railroad work for profit on the Sabbath. Six days work, and one day of rest for all is His law.
President Hoover told the American Legion at Detroit “With God Almighty’s guidance we shall win.” Our Presidents, Governors, Judges, and you Commissioners take oath on the
*This vigorous plea for the Sabbath was made by Mr. Noah W. Cooper, Nashville, Tenn., U.S.A., at the rate hearing before the Inter-State Commerce Commission, Washington, D.C., on 25th September, 1931. It is reprinted from the Bulletin of the New York Sabbath Committee.—Editor.
Bible to do your duty, praying “So Help Me God.” And in the name of God, and His law, and for the good of the Railroads and of us all, I most earnestly beg you as a matter of law, right and duty to advise and prescribe Sabbath keeping for the railroads and all carriers. . . . If the Railroads were here guilty of treason, or perjury, or murder, you’d tell them to quit that first. God says Sabbath breaking is just as bad as treason, murder, or perjury. Their schedules and “Sunday” excursion hand bills show they are specializing in Sabbath breaking; a habit as vicious and ruinous as ever cursed man or nation. It dulls the mind, blackens the soul, loosens all moral anchorage, and leads to ruin. It breeds and feeds every vice. This bad habit is the vampire on the throat of the railroads, sucking their life blood. God’s laws are supreme. He commands us to keep the Sabbath holy, and not to work. He tells us that Sabbath keeping brings boundless blessings, and that Sabbath breaking leads to the Babylon of ruin.
If we maim a child or assault a woman, we incur fearful penalties for polluting sacred things. And those who pollute God’s Sabbath are slapping God in the face, defying His command, and inviting God to destroy them. All God’s prophets in the Bible tell us this truth. Christ was a Sabbath keeper. He illuminated, illustrated and re-established Sabbath keeping as a physical, moral and financial necessity for all men. The Sabbath was made for man, not for mammon, nor for lust and money-making. The Hebrews would never have lost their most wonderful nation and gone in shame to slavery and Babylon, had they kept God’s Sabbath. So says Nehemiah, Isaiah, Ezekiel and Daniel. The wails of the Jews at the Wailing Wall at Jerusalem are weekly reminders to the world that Sabbath breaking brings ruin to men or nations. If Europe had honoured God’s Sabbath more than the sword, we’d never have had the World War with its countless evils, costs and vices. If the railroads and their allies had honoured and kept the Sabbath all these years, and thus kept up the spiritual vision of our people, America to-day would not be deluged with crime and
menaced by anarchy. America will never recover from her present ungodliness unless Sabbath keeping is restored to the business world.
Naaman, the great Syrian, had many virtues “but he was a leper;” and he was cured by obeying God’s prophet, and bathing in Jordan 7 times. Our Railroads are mighty exemplars of many virtues, but they have the horrible leprosy of Sabbath breaking. They need to bathe in the Jordan of God’s holy cleansing Sabbath; else they will perish, and America with them. The crippled beggar at the Temple gate asked money of Peter and John. But Peter said “Silver and gold have I none but such as I have give I thee. In the name of Jesus, rise and walk.” And he was cured. In the name of God and for the good of all I beg this Commission imitate Peter and say to the begging railroads “Silver and gold have we none; the shippers have none; but better than that we now give thee; put your hand in the hand of God, go into closer partnership with God; keep His Sabbath and help all men to keep it, and keep all of His commandments, and He will cure and save you and your employees, friends and country. You will find acres of diamonds in keeping God’s Sabbath. If you don’t; if you keep fighting against God, He will overthrow you, as He did Pharaoh, Sisera and Sennacherib.”
Yes; the law gives you full power to make any just regulation for the Railroads. Who denies that Sabbath keeping is a just rule for the roads? No one. I challenge everyone to deny it. God says it is and He knows best. History proves it. Henry Ford ran the D. T. and I. R. R. for years without any “Sunday” work and made wonderful dividends. So have others. In the suit of Hennington versus State of Georgia (163 U.S., 304), our U.S. Supreme Court held that rules and laws to stop trains and railroad work on “Sunday” were constitutional and good for the physical, moral and financial safety and progress of all. And most of our States Supreme Courts and other Courts have often held the same; as cited in my brief. Blackstone, Cooley, Kent and a thousand of the world’s wisest
and best men tell us that Sabbath keeping is most profitable; and Sabbath breaking most vicious and ruinous.
Because the Sabbath dragon has captured the railroads and other enterprises, let us not in despair stick our heads in the sand, and wait like the ostrich for death; but let us pray God’s help, and overthrow this dragon. You gentlemen, guardians of the public welfare, and friends of the railroads can render no higher service to the railroads and to our country than to help them get out of this ruinous habit. It will take prayer, courage and hard paddling upstream to do it. But it must be done, or to Babylon we will go. God will bless you and the people and the Railroads will some day praise you for your service to help rid them of this fearful curse. Nebuchadnezzar for his ungodly pride was sent by God to the wilderness for 7 years, to live like the beasts, till his nails grew to be like birds’ claws. But he learned in his humiliation to honour and obey God who rules all; and then God restored them to His kingdom, as Daniel well tells us. And I pray that though our Railroads may suffer, that this suffering may help to cleanse them from this deadly Sabbath breaking, God-defying habit, and restore them to greater power under God’s guidance.
Jonah thought God’s command to go to Nineveh was foolish; so he turned his back on God; was cast into the sea of troubles; swallowed by the big fish; but he turned to God in prayer, and God saved him; and then he obeyed God and went and preached to Nineveh; and was the instrument in converting and saving the whole city of 5,000,000 souls in 40 days. . . . The King of Nineveh led the way for the people in fasting and prayer. And if our railroads, and our allied industries will turn like Jonah to God, and fast and pray like the King and the people of Nineveh, they will be saved from this vampire of Sabbath breaking that is ruining them and our country; and they will help the newspapers, ‘bus, boat and aviation lines, and all our people out of the perdition of Sabbath breaking. After all, gentlemen, the conclusion of the whole matter at last is like Solomon said “Fear God and keep His commandments for this is the whole duty (and safety) of man.”