The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1872-04-28
The Sunday Library Question.

The immense crowd which on Monday evening
last assembled in the large hall of the Cooper
Institute to hear what the Rev. Henry Ward
Beecher had to say about the opening of
public libraries on Sunday, and tho hearty
enthusiasm which his broad and generous
views, stated in his own attractive style,
evoked from the audience, proved how strong
and firm hold this Sunday library question
has taken of the public mind. There are hun
dreds of thousands who think with Mr..
Beecher, that the Puritanical view which is
taken of the Sabbath in this country, and in
some of the countries of Europe, particularly
in Great Britain, is alike without the sanction
of Scripture and opposed to common sense.
s.The Sabbath was made for man, and not
man for the Sabbath such was the emphatic
statement of the Master 1t is one of the
strangest features of Christianity that the
ancient Jewish and Pharfsaic view of the
Sabbath has for well nigh nineteen
hundred years prevailed in spite of, nay, in
open violation of, the generous teaching of
well put it, the Sabbath is humanity's day. 1t
was clearly the Masters intention that the day
should be day of rest and of recreation-of
rest to the wearied body, Of recreation to the
wearied brain. In its excessive and mistaken
zeal for the preservation Of its power, the
Church, in all its sections and from the first,
has perverted the purpose of the day of rest.
In this particular the churches Of the Reforma-
ton have been even more to blame than the
churches which were hallowed by hoary an
tiquity The teaching under which millions
of Christians have been reared has left no
room for any opinion but one-that the Sab
bath was made in order that man might go
to church. With Mr.. Beecher, we agree that
it is well to go to church, and that there is
small danger in these times that men will go
to church too much. But we endorse also the
other sentiment-that the day was not made
for this purpose alone.
| There is one simple mode Of looking at this
| question of the libraries. Our well-to-do
classes have their comfortable homes, their
pictures and their books A Sunday at home
with such people is day of rest in the true
sense They can rest, if they will, in we'll
aired, well:.yentilatsd rooms. They can
study what works of art they possess and
enjoy the companionship of the great
master spirits of the past. They can
roam at will through their we'll filed
bookcases and hold converse with the
| illustrious minds of their own and former
times How different is the case of the poor
man who, WITH it may be, thirst for knowl-
| edge, is shut up with his family in some
corner Of wretched tenement house! How
hard is the case of the young man who belongs
to some such family if it should be that he is
hungry for knowledge, and that he has neither
the book which he wishes nor place to read
it if he had Can any one tell us how many
thousands of young men are allowed intel
lectually to rot and physically to give them
selves up to the most abandoned habits
because of the absence of encouragement to
the aspirations Of their higher natures2 How
much of crime, how much Of what we call i'm
morality results from this cause? If we
would have the young grow up virtuous and
useful it is our duty to do our best to lead
them in the right paths.
Our Church leaders and our respectable
Puritans must make up their minds and
decide between the public libraries and the
| gin shops. The gin shops on Sunday, in
| spite of the law, flourish and gather in rich
harvests. Open the public libraries and what
art galleries we possess, and brief expert