Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1873-04-01

| Sabbath and provoking the just indignation of
an insulted God If they had been editors or
! type-setters, they would probably have gone
home from meeting to work on Mondays news
| paper, and if they had been railroad employees,
| they might have run their trains as usual on
Sunday. after sermon. or perhaps before. stop
ping at some convenient way-side chapel to
unite in public worship with their Christian
brethren, who had just come in from the labors
| Of their work shops and farms.
10 come down to our great religious reform
ers, Luther most violently denounced the Ju-
daic observance Of Sunday. IF, anywhere"
said that heroic man, "the day is made holy
for the mere day S sake-if, anywhere, any one
sets up his observance upon Jewish founda-
tion-then order you to work on it, to ride
on it, to dance on 1t, to feast on it, to do any
thing that reproves this encroachment on the
Christian spirit and liberty" Wise words,
bravely spokenl Obeyiog thy orders, 0 Lu-
therl we will work, and ride, and dance and
feast on Sunday. if We choose, just to protest,
most empbaticaly, against this ''encroachment
on the Christian spirit and liberty
Even the stern Calvin denounced this rigid
Sabbath worship as ''gross and carnal su-
perstition. by changing the day." said that
great but harsh man, ''and yet attributing to
this day, when changed, the same sanctty
which the Jews did to their Sabbaths, we re-
talu Tue SamS ty pIcdi uISCuCGlOu Vi QdyS aS udu
place among the Jews. Those who now cling
to them go thrice as far as the Jews themselves
10 their gross and carnal superstition OF their
Sabbath Worship
Beza 8 argument is as striking, as it is obvi-
GUS. "On the Lord s day no cessation of work
is required; that would not be to abolish Ju-
daism, but merely to put it off to another day"
Archbishop Cranmer, holy martyr, who was
burnt at the stake, by bloody Mary for the
Protestant religion, instructed his clergy to
teach the people that they would grievously Of
fend God if they refused to work On Sunday in
harvest. Our tobacco planters have too much
good sense to wait for the clergy to tell them
that it is no sin to put the knife to their hard
worked plants, on Sunday, when necessary TO
save them from an impending frost. Who
would not work on Sunday to pull his OK out OF
the ditch or to save his property from fire or
h)ud? We kindle fires 10 our houses on Sun
day to warm ourselves and boil our coffee and
cook our victuals; We make up our beds and
clean up our houses aud milk our COWS on Sun
day; we work our horses on Sunday to carry
US to church, and go for the physician; we
keep our apothecary shops, hotels, boarding
houses and livery stables open on Sunday; We
open our post Office on Sunday; we sail our
vessels and run our canal boats on Sunday we
move armies and fight battles on Sunday; we
aud receive letters and telegraphic messages on
Sunday; We visit oar neighbors on Sunday
and the mail, passenger and freight trains trav
el On Sunday-though most OF these trips are
clear violations of the Jewish Sabbath. Hold
ing the great Christian principle that 'the Sab
bath was made for man" and mot man for the
Sabbath" We respect Sunday for its rational
uses, as day OF physical and mental rest and
recreation, of social enjoyment, and of moral
and religious improvement; but keeping these
substantial ends in view, we nevertheless so use
it as to subserve domestic comfort. business ne
cessties. and all the requirements and exigen-
cies of busy and complex civilization. We
do not worship the day for the day g sake,
with gross and carnal superstition. Un-
like those horrid old puritans, we neither stop
our clocks from running on Sunday, nor whip
our cider-barrels and yeast-crocks for working
| on that holy day. The Lord deliver US and
our children from the funeral gloom of Puri-
| tan Sabbath
1t may or it may not be necessary that
| railroad trains should run on Sunday. All
| that | contend for is, that railroad companies
| and business communities are not interdicted
| by any inexorabe Dtpme LaU from consider
| ing and deciding that question on enlightened
business principles Because man can travel
| from Boston to New Orleans between Monday
morning and Saturday night, it by no means
| follows that it is not frequently all-lmportant
| that he should start on Saturday or some other
day, aud travel on Sunday on urgent business
or to to visit sick or dying friend OF relation.
A telegram equally violates the Sabbath and
may not answer the purpose. The fact that
trains are sustained ON Sunday indicates the
popular conviction Of their conveDience and
necessity. They will stop at once, without le-
gal prohibition, If no person will parroDiZe
them. If you, Messrs. Editors of the Ne,cs.
are opposed to travelling on Sunday, you can lay
up on your journey or stay at home, but what
| right have you to arrest Or Imprlson me, who
| have no conscientious scruples on the subject,
and am anxious to prosecute my journey 1t
may be on vitally important business, which
can only be transacted in person or to answer
the summons OF dying child or parentY l
may be jew and keep Saturday as my Sab
bath. What right have you to compel me to
keep your Sunday also, which reigously ab-
hor? Are you not invading my religious lights
and liberties? By stopping the mails on Sun
day, do you not declare that your religion is
right and that mine is wrong And are you not
establishing your religion, pro tant0, as the re-
| ligion of the STATE? Upon this point l can
only refer you to the mastery and exhaustive
report of that great philosophic Southern
Statesman, whose prescience amounted to the
gift of prophecy, (Calboun.) on the Sunday
mail petitioners, In the U. 5 Senate. You
caunot contend seriously that railroad accidents
are judgments iufcted by God as pmn,shments
for Sunday travel; and that, if this wick ed
travel we're stopped, those casulties would cease.
Ii so, in the name OF humanity stop the San
day trains at once. Put this safe and cheap pre-
ventive of those horrid accidents into immediate
operation. But the idea is too absurd for serious
retutstion. We don't Iive like the Jews, un-
der system of temporal rewards and punish.
ments Those accidents can all be traced to
some adequate physical aud human cause.-The
breaking OF wheels, rails or bridges. or the
careessness of conductors in coliiding their
trains; nor will they cease until these causes
are removed, whether the trains travel on Sun
day or not
As to our oppressed and ''demoralized" rail.
road train employees, for whom our sympa-
thies are 50 sympatheticalIy invoked, have they
asked or do they desire our offcious interposi.
tion in their own personal affairs? Are they not
able to take care Of themselves? They are moi
over-worked, are well-pald for their services,
and are allowed ample time for rest and recrea-
tion-working four days out of eight-and
are among the most efficient and reliable
lsborers in the world. The companies ap.
preciate their value, and, with humane econ
my, take care of them in sickness as well as in
hsath. Their pay goes on all the time.
Those Sunday trains, which the Nescs de
nounces as such demoralizing abomination
one of the ablest and most candid of all the
great and good men the Eugsh Church, has
produced, considered very great blessing TO
the poor inhabitants OF our crowded cities
/ III -