New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1873-11-15
SUNDAY IND ITS KEEPERS.

An argument, animated almost to wrath, has
been going on in the English religious world
lately concerning the observance of Sunday.
Our English brethren do not find the difficulty
in their SabDatical restrictions which our neigh
bors of Pittsburgh and Cincinnati encounter
in the radical notions of German popula-
ton. Their heresies are indigenous, and APP
pear, strangely enough, to have sprung most
luxuriantly out of Covenanting soil.
How the Sabbath is to be observed in fami-
lies appears to be the chief ground Of dissen-
sion. An orthodox multitude of Clergyman,
Parents, and Guardians Individually publish
and urge the old formulas of church twice a
day-Sunday school, devout conversation, no
games. A milder class of advisers substitutes
decorous walks for the devout lectures; still
more lax division gives prescriptions for pious
games. riddles made out of Jewish history,
the personation by each child of Biblical
animal, and the delivery by each of the
aforesaid beasts of its autobiography,
description of habits, &C., very young
"children being permitted to initiate
the CRY of the fowl or quadruped," in o
strictly muscular manner, we presume. large
class of fathers and guardians, however, seem
disposed to break down all ancient trammels
and recommend making Sunday a day of en-
phasized rest and happiness to the young peO-
pie, taking care not to weary nor disgust them
with the thoughts of God, which ought to be
always beautiful and joyful to them. A longer
sleep in the morning, better dessert for dinner,
"oame of chess or cricket in which mamma
"or papa shall join" are some of the novel
ways in which these heretical descendants of
John Knox and holy Latimer propose to edu-
cate their sons into strange creeds
Even such indications as these changes
in popular feeling with regard to the
observance Of the first day of the week
are significant of the one great char
scteristic of the Christian religion as it is at
present, and that is the zeal with which men
of all denominations are "proving all things"
pushing old precedent and form and creed
aside to reach the gist of the matter-to find
the Right.
Some of our correspondents lately have writ
ten long jeremiads on the decadence of Christi
anity. Professionalism, We are told, is dying
out in both Germany and here the world ia
rapidly sinking back into Roman Catholicism or
into Infdeity. We could almost fancy we heard
them blRu vi, lOl hOhi VI olnI III <uohoi
"more $50 vehemently did they bewail the
falling of from the early days of the Reform.
Whether the doctrines OF this or that sect
are spreading or decreasing can surely matter
little, provided we are sure that faith in Christ
and love for our brother is on tho increase.
In the early days, 80 much deplored, our
Catholic, Episcopalian. and Covenanting
fathers proved their faith by sending each
other to the stake the gibbet or the cart-wheel.
Now they vie with each other in missions to
the heather, in building hospitals, in whiten-
ing every bloody battlefield with tents of
Sanitary Commissions. Even the most Jealous
Protestant must be content with the position Of
the Old Catholics, who are more Protestant than
Luther. One comfort remains, that the NOR
bid forebOdings OF such prophets cannot dim
the plain outlook on the religious world,
which shows it to be moro alive, alert, hu-
name, vigorous in separating truth from error,
than ever before in the history of mankind.