Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1870-07-26
How to Keep the Sabbath.

SJdnuS apart from Tie COnlllOu USES,
the parlor receives. 1t is the room
of honor. Now, what the parlor is to
the house, so is Sunday to the rest of
the week. The week is house, and
Sunday is the best room in it. 1t is
a day to be looked up to as the best
day in the week. In the words of
Isaiah we see that Sunday was to be
honorable; it was to be memorable.
1t was a declaration that if men will
lay aside day for worship, the Lord
will bless them. 1t is to be day
upon which man will say "it is de-
light" We are to bear this in mind,
that whatever you do on the Lords
day, you may take this as its charact-
er-it must be pleasant; made pleas
ent by higher manhood, by the en-
joyment of Christian joys. 1t is to be
the day OF the week which is to act on
our higher nature. 1t should, there
fore, carry this feeling of ioyousness
in mans nature. The whole truth
of the prophets words are, then, that
you shall SO enjoy the Sabbath day
that your higher nature shall say it is
a delight and honorable. As the COOP
er would never think of working at
his barrel while entertaining company
at his house, so the Sabbath is to be
kept separate from the rest of the
week. Keep your shavings and your
dirt out of the Lords day. 1t is not
then to be working day. | am not
superstitious on this subject. l don't
think that if a man walking in his gar
den on the Sabbath should see a weed
and pull it up, it would be marked
down against him on the Lords book.
| regard it as a day in the week
when man can say, am not clerk,
am not an apprentice; | am not to
crouch to any one to-day; am a man.
A man stands on his manhood that
day. Wherefore, | say that Sunday
should not be working day, because
it must be unlike other days.
Sunday is the poor mans, it is your
day, it is my day, it is liberty day
1t is not to be visiting day. l am
not 8uperstitious about this either. I
believe that the question is not, can |,
or can | not, visit ? but rather what
sort Of visiting would do ne good,
make me better? l have known min
listers going to preach on the Sabbath,
alter the service not to be asked even
to 60 to dinner, from an over-scrupul-
business on the part of their parishion-
er8, who were afraid Of breaking the
holy day. | do not think it is wrong,
either to write letters home on the
Sabbath. Every child should be so
brought up that. when he thinks of
home, he shall think Sunday the best
day, as the eliminating point of the
joys of the week. 1t is in the light
of making this day Of joy that we
can discuss the question Of walking
and amusement On the Sabbath. Now
| am decidedly in favor of walking up
on the Sabbath And if any GO all
should 90; don't let the children en-
counter temptation alone. But it
must be done soberly.
So far as the working classes are
concerned, it may be an occasional
F truth that it is wise to take them out
of their dirty, filthy homes, and give
them an excursion down the bay or
up the river. Singing birds and beau
, tiful flowers are very pleasant, but
stop-give them first moral culture
, and the means Of interpreting these
beauties, so that they can see Gods
handiwork in every flower. l set my
face like flint against making Sunday
day Of pleasure for the rich man
, aud day Of bondage for the poor
man. | wouldn't sign a petition
against running the cars On Sunday.
If there is any sin in it, | think that
) it is Just as bad to ride in a carriage
to church as in a horse-car. In argu.
! ing for a sacred Sabbath, / am argu-
: ing for the poor man. 1t is his day
1t is his bulwark against oppression
Many have supposed that Christ sci
: his face against the Sabbath. He did
!, not. He explicitly declares that Sun
: day was made for man, not man fol-
Sunday. Sunday is made to serve
: man. 1t is made to make man freer
: nobler.
:. Iremark, secondly, that negative
S Sabbath is poor way of keeping i
n as well as can be. The prevalen
idea of the Sabbath is that you mus
|. not do something. remember in m,
0 childhood, at my home in Litchfeld
G how often upon the Sabbath | woulC
see something to laugh at, and | woult
i laugh. Henry" my mother wouiC
I say, (aS good woman as ever lived,
n "Henry, mustn't laugh" "Why not :?
n Because it is Sunday" And | woul,
II stand at the western window, with m
IS brother Charles, and watching th
slowly declining sun, would nudg
him and say, Charlie, Sunday is mos
2 gone" And my mother would re
% mark, "Henry, you ought not to wis
q that Sunday would be through" Blu
y | was glad when it was through;
hadn't made me in love with it.
IS was restrictive day to me, a perpet
OF ual pruning day. Oh that catechisl
e. that couldn't learn, didn't learn, an
4 can't say even now. Have yo
Sc brought up your children so that the
P like the Sabbath? ? If you haven't s
re used the Sabbath day, then you hay
le broken it. When you come to churc
le don't look in as if you were going
le a sepulchre. Don't pause solemnl.
or and 60 up the aisle with a discons'
ne late visage. All if our Lord was
ra crowned despot this would be right
Ut but he is not; he is a God of love, {
NJ mercy, of forgiveness. Men ought
le' be striving to make this day a MOI
cheerful day, pleasanter day tba
p all the rest of the week.
10 Brothers, friends, fellow citizen
there is nothing that l care SO mue
about as the sacredness of the SaI
W bath. But | don't think you ca
po make it so by law, it must be supper
'ss ed by public opinion. Here is ds
"i hallowed by four thousand years
Ill | observance LET ms keen If so that