Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1873-01-04

The moral and mental alterat We provided by
Sunday Is immense and general. To millions it
Is the only truly domestic day in the week. It
Is, too, the laborers', the clerks, the officials
sole day Of escape from q sense or slavery. The
Sunday breaks more chains every week thaa
their great acts Of emancip alton. 1 will nos
conceal my own belief that the unsystem stic
uses OF Sunday, its usss independest Of eceIesi-
Of res. from to re S trom the ooa.poi Of as
tiers Of all 90, t. day Of leisure, of free breath
ing, day which every nan may pat to his own
use, under certain general and necessary
of opportunity to visit the country, TO walk In
parks and gardens, TO call on old CON-
R. nssns, and 1.i., Keep up valued but en-;
write letters home; to read and think for con-
tinuous hoUns-is one of the greatest usss to
which 1t could be put, and one which no sys-
possible. In reg ard to attendance on public
worship, morning or afternoon or evening, al
though complaints are made OF q falling of, L
GUS complaint Doubtless there is less sapersti-
ton in regard to the virtue of attending public
worship than once prevailed, and q correspond
freedom Of personal choice and mere voluntary
attendance. Church-gong alone does not es
tablish mans moral reputation or pious char
acter, or neglect of it, alone, mark him as
dangerous citizen and an ungod,y person The
church is beginning to suspect Itself of fault
ness when II fails TO command the interest of
those within the sound OF its bells, ard not to
lay all the blame on the absentees. II perceives,
too. that great rival attractions have arisen
under the new conditions OF modern life;
that everybody reads; that books and
magazines and newspapers are very
cheap: that moral and religious instruction is
no longer In the exclusive hands OF the Clergy;
that many or most of the freest, most genuine
and attractive preachers neither stand In Eod-
ern pulpits nor write sermons with texts and con-
ventionsl divisions; but, in essays, reviews,
secular and religious newspapers, in novels and
dramas and poems, address indI ectly the con-
science. heart and will, and feed, infame, and
guide the moral and religious feelings Of man
kind. Thousands Of intelligent, worthy Chris
tian people, in places whore only formal, dry Or
unnspired public ministr atoms are within re sck,
spend the hours they or their predecessors once
devoted to church-going in reading that Is more
religious faith and consolation than the Sunday
preaching offers them. This does not imply a
Ioes Of Christian faith or of reverence for re-
ligion, but only that the religious life Of the
flow IN other channels besides the old ecclesi as
teal one; that other and unbadged teachers of
morals and faith have brought the official ones
into less exclusive reverence and less general
following We ought not to complain Of the
logical result of separating religion from the
state, and leaving the church TO depend for
support on the affecti0nate allegiance OF its
members. In the longrun voluntaryism works
In favor OF true religion, not against 1t. Is
there one voluntary function in all the world Sd
sustained and so -h0nOred as the Christian
church? II 1t be only department Of human
interests, and one great element or factor In
civilization and human furtherance, is it not
one of the most precious, the most widelyrecog-
nized, and the most Indispensable? The world,
thank God! has many modern and glorious saw.
ing and regenerating influences at work upon
it. Yet noIe which fully occupy the sphere or
fuinll the duty, or antiquate or supersede the
functions of Christian churches, or the religious
use OF the Sunday or the church.-Dr. Bellows.