The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1859-09-14


and his lobby retainers and confederates We
shall probably know the best or the worst in
season for our issue of tomorrow morning
THE MEETING AGAINST SUNDAY TYRANNY
In another page we publish full report of the
proceedings of the meeting held last evening
in the Bowery against Sabbatarian despotism.
of the attention Of the reader The principles
enunciated are sound and incontrovertible, and
we have no doubt that this meeting will prove
the entering wedge of public opinion which,
driven home by similar meetings, will SILVER
the old rotten plank which bridges the gulf
sent enlightened age, and then that gulf shall
be rendered forever impossible.
We have already shown in these columns
that there is no authority in the New Tesla.
ment for the gloomy Sunday of the Sabbath
rians. There is no trace of it among the Chris
tians who lived Immediately after the Apostles.
The learned Bunsen, in his singular work,
the sage of Hippolytus," says:-"Wc find
nothing like the English or Scotch (Puritan)
Sabbath among the primitive Christians"
To the same effect is the testimony Of Neander,
the most profound Of all those writer's
who have made research into the early
history of the Christian church. He shows
that the Jewish converts to Christianity at first
kept their old Sabbath on Saturday, in which
weakness they were tolerated They after
wards transferred the sanctity of the seventh
to the first day of the week, or Sunday. The
Catholic Church at later period ordained
that Sunday alone should be observed, but not
as the Puritans have since insisted that it
should be kept Thus, the only Christian au-
thority there is for any observance whatever
Of Sunday is the Church Of Rome, whom those
who have borrowed her Sunday are in the
habit of calling "the scarlet who're of Baby
lon" But they are more Romish than the Ro-
mans themselves, for that most ancient of
churches never observed it as do the modern
sect of Puritans. The most ancient Protestant
churches did not so observe it. The history Of
the Waldenses, in Germany and Italy, the
purest and earliest sect of Protestants, shows
that they utterly disregarded the Sabbath.
The reformers-Luther, Calvin, Melancthon,
and John Knox-have all borne witness that
the Christian religion does not require the OBJ
servance of the Sabbath. At this day nine
tenths of the people of Chrstendom, both
Professionals and Catholics, are of the same
opinion. The idea of Sunday commended for
by our modern Sabbatarians and pious Pills
bury sprung from the extravaganza of single
sect.
The RIGHTEOUSNESS of the age, before the time
of the Puritans in England and Scotland, drove
them to the opposite extreme. When they
gained the ascendant they ordained that not
only labor and amusements Of every kind
should be interdicted, but that all travelling
should be stopped; no tailor was allowed to
carry home a suit of clothes no barber was
allowed to shave man on Sunday, no man
was permitted to sit at his own door, to walk
the streets, or to enjoy the fresh air in the green
fields. The effect of this severity was an in
crease Of moral depravity and crime. The
same rightly prevailed in the early settlement
of New England. The most severe sect of the
Puritans, the Brownists, settled there, and as
sumed the name of Congregationalists From
the history of the colony it appears that in pro-
portion as their Sabbatarian laws were en-
forced so was crime increased. This sect were
also distinguished for their bitter persecution
of all who differed from them, and for their
burning of witches Their posterity mourn
this folly, but the Sabbath superstition still
cleayes to manv of them
This fanatical spirit cannot bear the light of
free inquiry or public discussion, and the time
will soon come when Jewish Sabbatarianism
will become as obsolete among the Christian
churches as the Jewish rite of circumcision.
AFFAIRS IN SAINT DoMrNGo.-According to
our special correspondence from st. Domingo,
the institutions, government and people of the
United States, are in mighty bad odor with the
Dominicans They seem to be scared out of
their wits by the arrival of General Cazneau
and his lady and COL Fabens. These three in
dividuals having been heretofore identified to
some extent with flibuster enterprises their ad-