SUN DAY. The first day of the week.
It commences at twelve o'clock on the night between Saturday and Sunday, and ends in twenty-four hours thereafter; Kil gour v. Miles, 6 Gill & J. (Md.) 268. See Hiller v. English, 4 Strobh. (S. C.) 493 (a very learned case) ; State v. Green, 37 Mo. 466; Bryant v. Biddeford, 39 Me. 193; Steb bins v. Leowolf, 3 Cush. (Mass.) 137. It is so provided by statute in Minnesota, Con necticut, Massachusetts, South Dakota, Lou isiana, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Vermont, and Hawaii. In New Mexico and Virginia, it is the time between sunrise of Sunday and midnight of the same day.
The Sabbath, the Lord's day, and Sunday, all mean the same thing; Kilgour v. Miles, 6 Gill & J. (Md.) 268; Gunn v. State, 89 Ga. 341, 15 S. E. 458.
The stat. 5 & 6 Edw. V. c. 3, enacted that Sunday should be strictly observed as a holy day, provided that in case of necessity it should be lawful to labor, ride, fish, or work at any kind of work. The Book of Sports (1618) declared that, after divine service, the people should not be disturbed from any lawful recreation. The stat. 29 Car. II. c. 7, provided that no tradesman, artificer, work man, laborer, or other person whatsoever, should exercise any worldly business, etc., upon the Lord's day, works of necessity and charity alone excepted. It also forbade the execution of legal process on that day. This has been followed substantially in America, wish a tendency to greater strictness. This includes all business, public or private, done In the ordinary calling of the person; 5 B. & C. 406; ordinary calling means that which the ordinary duties of the calling bring into continued action ; 7 B. & C. 596; Salter y. Smith, 55 Ga. 245.
The Missouri act relates to Sunday as a day of rest and not to its religious char acter; State v. R. Co., 239 Mo. 196, 143 S. W. 785. In Dist. of Col. v. Robinson, 36 Wash. L. Rep. 101, it was held that the leg islature may impose upon citizens only obli gations of a civil and not of a religious na ture. The early colonial statute, with its penalties against blasphemy, was considered to be obsolete.
Many statutes except those who observe the seventh day; others do not; and such legislation is constitutional ; Soc. for Visi
• • tation of Sick v. Com., 52 Pa. 126, 91 Am. Dec. 931; Neuendorff v. Duryea, 69 N. Y. 557, 25 Am. Rep. 235; Com. v. Has, 122 Mass. 40; the fact that one believes the seventh day is the Sabbath, but does not observe it as such, does not bring him within the excep tion; Merman v. State, 26 Neb. 464, 42 N. W. 419, 18 Am. St. Rep. 791. Con necticut (1907) exempts Seventh Day Sab batarians from the operation of the Sun day labor act of 1793. The benefit of the act is obtained only by filing a written state ment of religious belief in the office of the Public prosecutor. In Michigan, an act per mits them to perform servile labor on Sun day if they do not disturb persons attend ing places of worship; and they may keep open their places of business on Sunday, and the latter in Ohio, by act.
Jews are bound to observe the civil regula tions for keeping Sunday ; Soc. for Visi tation of Sick v. Com., 52 Pa. 125, 91 Am. Dec. 931. In New York writs against Jews cannot be made returnable on Saturday; Martin v. Goldstein (Mun. Ct.) 39 N. Y. Supp. 254. In most of the states, Jews are placed in the same class in this respect with Seventh Day Sabbatarians. The Pennsylvania laws do not except Jews and will not permit them to claim exemption on the ground of reli gious faith from the statutes which prohibit work on Sunday. A municipal ordinance in Louisiana, which permitted Jews to engage in business on Sunday, was held constitu tional; Shreveport v. Levy, 26 La. Ann. 671, 21 Am. Rep. 553.
Cases of necessity are determined by the moral fitness of the work; Com. v. Nesbit, 34 Pa. 409. Charity includes everything which proceeds from a sense of moral duty, or a feel ing of kindness and humanity, and is intended wholly for the comfort and relief of another, and not for one's own pleasure and benefit; Doyle v. R. Co., 118 Mass. 197, 19 Am. Rep. 431. A note given to a lawyer on Sunday for services in bailing a prisoner is a work of charity ; Few v. Gunter, 10 Ga. App. 100, 72 S. E. 720.