The Columbian fountain., 1846-04-08
ADDRESS

ADDRESS
OF THE LORDS DAY CONVENTION
To the Citizens Of the District of Columbia,
and to The People Of the United States.
When, in the progress of thought and
observation, it becomes manifest that any
particular course of action will accomplish
a great good, or arrest an acknowledged evil,
the friends of humanity will not hesitate, in
a spirit of benevolence, to seize the advan-
tage Of such crisis, for the attainment Of
so momentous an object. Deeply Impress
ed with the truth and importance of this
sentiment, the friends of the Christian Sab
bath, assembled in Convention, represent
ing different denominations, at the city of
Washington, on the 24th Of February, 1916,
improve the occasion to address their fell
low-citizens on what they deem subject
OF the first importance, the sanctifcation Of
the Lords day. We are the more encourag-
ed to this measure from the fact that the pub
lie mind has been recently awakened, in an
extraordinary degree, not only to the grow
ing evils OF Sabbath profanations, but the
certainty and efficiency of those counteract-
ing remedies, which have already been ap-
piled with distinguished success. Not that
any new discovery has been made in the
science of moral influence, or in the art of
persuasion, but that the more earnest, sys-
tematlc, and persevering application of es-
tabished truths to the reflective powers of
man, has produced that conviction, which,
by the blessing of God, never fails to lead
to practical results These results have been
already developed to an extent that demands
ardent gratitude for the past, and awakens
sanguine hope for the future. They have
been accomplished, not by resort to the
pains and penalties ofthe statute book, nor
by petitions for legislative aid, but by di-
rect appeals to the moral and religious sense
of the people, by an array of striking facts,
and by arguments drawn from the Word of
God-the source of law to men.
Opening that Word, we find, that when
God laid the foundations of the earth, He
laid also the foundation OF the happiness of
man in the institution of the Sabbath ssThe
Sabbath was made for man, even for man
in his primitive innocence and glory. Does
he less need it in bis condition of guilt and
apostacys If, over that condition, there
reigns dispensation of condescending mer-
cy, is law ofthe purest mercy to be struck
from the heavenly code? So far from this,
the law of the sabbath is intimatse inter
woven with the essential interests OF the
race. There is not faculty in man, there
is neither form of society, nor govern
mental organization, to which there is not,
in this law, a wise and divine adaptation.
In system of law, embracing the whole
exercise of his moral agency, this stands
central and luminous point. OF that mo-
raj arch, constructed in heaven, and handed
down on Sinai, amid the excessive glory of
that scene, this was the keystone. Let no
rude hand attempt to dislodge it from its
sacred position. Whatever of purity, of
necessity, of penalty, and Of perpetuity be-
longs to the other precepts of the Decalo-
que, the same belongs to this. fit was the
gilt of God to man at the creation of the
world, it willy continue to be his birthright
to the contamination Of all things Ifalter-
nate labor and rest be the fixed law of his
mental and physical being; if the activity of
the day must be succeeded by the repose of
the night; then the activity of six days
must give way to the rest of the seventh.
This rule, applicable to all the pursuits of
men, cannot be violated with mpunity. 1t
is provision under the government of God,
the excellence and advantage of which are
coming to be extensively acknowledged in
the land. The right of all laboring men to
the rest of the Sabbath, vested in them by
their Creator, and, in many cases, uniustly
withheld by their employers, is beginning
to be acknowledged; and, along many of the
thoroughfares of the land, this right is re-
stored to them, with equal advantage to the
employers and employed. This opens the
way for the performance of their obligations
to God, who commands all men TO " Re-
member the Sabbath day, to keep it holy;n
and who has said she that getteth riches,
and not by right, shall leave them in the
midst of his days, and at his end shall be a
fool"
An additional argument for the promo
ton Of Sabbath sanctifcation may be drawn
from the present crisis in our national
affairs. The right observance of the Sab
bath, would maintain the PEAcE OF THE
WORLD. No moral barrier was ever erect,
ed, within the limits of civilization, so
effectual to restrain the impetuosity OF am
bition, and to roll back the broad tumul-
tuous tide of bpman pacaionS nuer ,,rono