Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1872-02-07
Have We a Sabbath


OHEENEs req. D. 4o4-
EDITOR CHRONICLE 1T is not with
out deep apprehension and sad emotions
that we observe the increasing tendency
to Sabbath dissertation. The vast tide of
foreign emigration promotes it. We are
informed by those who have the means
Of knowing, that in our large cities the
Sabbath is fast being brought into disre-
pute and is being sadly desecrated. We
also observe, with deep regret, that in
our country towns, and rural districts,
especially in dairying localities, we are
fast drifting in the same direction. We
allude to the practice of running u
cheese factories on the Sabbath. Nor is
the practice confined to the i~rreligious
portion of community alone. The
church of Christ, which is said to be
1.-THE light of the world and ''The salt
of the earth" is alike guilty. Descons,
elders, and even ministers of the gospel,
are equally at fault. While they assem-
BILE at the house of God; while the Lin
lister in eloquent strains presents the ex-
e%elleneies OF the gospel, and the conse-
quence Of rejecting it; while the elders
with apparent zeal break the bread and
pour the wine, and invoke the blessing
of God; while the deacons, with sober
countenanee, pass the sacred emblems
to the communicates; they at the same
time, have men employed with teams,
wagons and milk cans, driving up and
down our streets, gathering the milk for
the factories. And only a little way of,
in the hearing Of the church bell, are
men employed from early dawn It'll
evening shade, hard at work, weighing
OF milk, keeping books and making
cheese. As IN apology, it is said: Those
working the factories are generally nom
professors and persons who are not in
the habit of attending meetings, so moth
ing to them is lost. Az the woTSe. The
officers of our churches instead Of going
to them as is their duty, and in love and
tears entresting them to become recon-
ciled to God, and to attend meetings,
virtually say to them, Messrs. we be-
lieve you do not profess to be christians;
that you are not in the habit of attend
ing meetings, and that you are engaged
in the service of sin. Now, sirs, we
wish to hire you to continue in your
present course of sin to still absent
yourselves from the house of God, and
the various means oFgrace. We wish TO
hire you to serve satan more ~zealously
han heretofore. We will aid YOU in
your course to ruin. We will assist YOU
in selling your souls and securing your
eternal ruin. For all this we will paw
you fair and liberal wages and you will
be very much aided in your course to
ruin by accepting our proposal and by
working u factories on the Sabbath
I believe, however, il is not the case in
every instance that nonprofessors work
the factories. If l am not misiuformed
in n instance, at least, an elder of a
church has, during :he past season, been
in the habit of working hard the first
half of the Sabbath in his factory, and
then In the afternoon hurrying away TO
the house of God to break Tread to his
church. Hold" says a Rev. divine,
very good naturally, a 'little too fast,
running u factories on the Sabbath is
a work of necessity. Our COWS must be
MIXED, and milk taken care of. It is
our duty to be prudent, economical and
saving. We are to gather up the frag-
meDts that nothing be LOST We would
not judge rashly, nor condemn or CEN
sure unjustly nor would we seek to in
tentionally offend or wound the feelings
of the most sensitive, but viewing the
matter from our stand point. we fail 70
see any positive necessity in the case. It
is merely a question OF dollars and cents,
in which only a few dollars are involved.
For a rough estimate we will saw that
with a dairy of twenty cows about fifty
dollars more can be made during a sea-
son by making u Sunday milk into
cheese, than by setting it, making but
ter and feeding the sour milk to calves
or swine. In a majority of cases our
dairymen are wealthy they have their
broad fields and numerous herds. No
class Of community are better able to
sacrifice a few dollars than they; and
yet no class seem so eager to secure a
dollars at the expense of virtue and
religion. The poo mechanic dependant
alone on his labor for the support of his
family. might, by working on the Sab
bath during the dairy season, (which is
somewhere from twenty-six to thirty
~Sabbaths,) make fifty or sixty dollars
Yet were he a member of a church and
should persist in such a course, he would
subject himself to church trial and ex-
clusion, and that, too, by ven those who
are having men employed working for
them on the Sabbath. 80, consistency.
thou art a jewel" so, shame, where is
thy blush ?" d. R. B.