Northern Ohio journal. [volume] (Painesville, Ohio) 1872-1896, 1873-07-12

| which threw. the taxed. tea into its .har.
Dor, welcomed both with its perennial
eloauenee, and the songs offs public.
school children. .-..-.
The holiday no one, has any quarrel
with. But there is, very. serious, objee.
tions to some Of its features. =
Insurance officers protest against the
gunpowder part of it. Moralists are
equally eager against the drinking part
of it. But crackers and drinking de
Quoted, what remains of the ~G Glorlous
| Feurth?" It is hot, too hot for military
parades. 1t is day on which one new
er dares to leave home for fear of the
roaming squib or the lurking. cracker.
\ day on which good deal of money
is burned up and fang away, and good
many people injured for life-run away
with by horses they do moi, know how
TO drive, and upset in boats they cannot
sail.
We do not, we say, object to the fes-
tival as Il holiday. There are not half
enough such days in the American cal
andar. We object only to the tradition
ary observanees, which have lost all
their meaning. The only question is,
whether, if these be given tp, the day
will not die. A holiday which no one
knows what to do with is Il foriorn af-
fair. .
Indeed, but one sort of festival can be
enduring. This is the great commemo-
rative. festivals of religion. THEY en-
dure because they commemorate facts
which are ever. living, which have a
present meaning and future hope, as
well as past history. In tbtse the
service and the teaching keep touch and
time. and if the one be divorced from
the other, there will be constant strug-
gle to bring back the true harmony. 1t
is only when the teaching is false, or the
observance degenerates into a scenic pa
geant, that the service fails. But for
these very reasons no festival or holy
day can be manufactured to order.
Sects sometimes attempt it, but i'll vain
after a year .or SO, the poor thing dies
out. Either people DO not care longer
to observe the sentiment which started
the thing or. they can see no reason for
observing it Oh the particular day; and,
with that pleasing independence char
aeteristic of Americans, make a point of
keeping some other day. 1t is only one
more Illustration of the difference be-
tween religion as revelation and re-
ligion as discovery. The one is bind
ing, the other bound.
1t is very noticeable, too, how mere
sentiment will never stand washing. 1t
lduCS OtlL slIlu SHEtIlhS. 1HtiC~dt biliEC
elements to every gratitude for
a gift of God, the necessity fer. keeping
up a past memory, and present 0uty
growing out of both theese. If either
of them is wanting. the festival will not
continue. The State festivals and fasts
of the English Church have, by general
consent, been abrogated, because they
lacked one or the other. Venerable as
sociations could not save them.S Yet,
never since the Reformation have the
truly Church festivals been more to the
people than they are now. So it must
be in this country. Festal days will be
had, because, as we said, founded in a
need of human nature. The merely
historical ones will rise and pass away,
because ephemeral; but the Churchfy
ones will be perennial, for they are
founded on truths which cannot pass
away.
1t is the duty of Churchmen-as they
would substitute the happy and peace
full and enobIing use of ohely DAYS for
the noisy, deleterious, and otter. .crimi-
nal abuse of holidays-to see that the
festival system of the Church be made
much of. Other things will come
round. Business wili}yield, and mere
pleasure-seeking be chastened; and
both these ends-relief from over care
toll, and the elevating and tempering of
the occasional relaxations-are much to
be desired.