Wilmington daily commercial., 1874-12-03
THE SABBATH QUEsTION-A DISCUSSION
IMPENDING In NEW YORK

An issue OF which intimations have been CIV
en- for some time past now presses for settle
ment in New York. A growing disregard of the
restrictions and obseryances Of the sabbath in |
that city has been long noted and-the boldness |
of parties who would appropriate the day to
everyday uses renders it impossible to staye on
further an open discussion of the question
Ii must be admitted that the fact Of the matter
having reached its present phase is prihd
fdcie evidence that considerable portion OF the
people desire the disregmded sunday Of new
dispensation. The religious community may be
grieyed and Indignant, bnt that will not help
the case; the people Themselves have made this
move and proprietols Of shows and pleasure
gardens and drinking places would not be active
in the matter unless they had powerful back
ing. For themselves they are probably nentraL
Unless Sabbath pleasure seekers were numerous
thus ensuring them considerable profit they
would show no particular feeling, but being con
yinced that great numbers Of people are
determined on Sunday entertainment they, as
mere business men, propose for their own parts
TO see the thing through. Aud we may as well
allow that it will bo put through whether the
churches, and the body Of people who are we'd
ded to the quiet Sunday idea, like it or not. 1t
is free country and providing man does not
interfere with his neighbor he can dispose of
his Sunday as seems 10 him best Ii enough
persons of his way of thinking can be found to
support Il Sunday theatre or Concert Room, those
places will surely open with managers
ready enough to fill tho gap. The law of supply
and demand will be seen to operate here as un-
sningly as elsewhere. The question Of morals
has ID fact very little to do with the case. 1t is
one OF numbers. II there are laws in any local
ity against Sabbath ''desecrationN those laws
must give way, if it be proved that the people
want to 10 desecrlte and provided that in 50 do
ing they do not break the peace.
For ourselves we are far from being in sym
pathy with any such movements; We only
state tile facts, as they will short
ly be proved, although there may
be an unwilingness to admit their posi-
billy. Good people who feel so outraged AM
indignant at what they consider an abuse o
christian order and Observance must remember
fret that although this question attracts gener
al attention it applies only to New York city
and second that even in New York Sabbath que
viii always DO attainable for those who desire il
and those who do must remain the bulk Of cit
izens Of the better class. There must be on
New York but we believe no other America
community will or can attain its peculiar EN-
nence. New York can scarcely be cale
aud American city. Foreign influence
coutrol It almost exclusively, as now seen in it
pleasures as well as in its business and polite
So, though public sentiment should force r.
peal Of tile present zalutary laws against Sund,
auiusements there, or should support such anus
mentz in defiance Of law, there IL no hkeliho,
that any similar result will be seen elsewher
for tho one and sufficient reason that no whe
else il there body Of people sufficient to car
such measures in oppoHition to the conrervatl
element.
With all this, however, it must
allowed that the Sunday question.
broader ylew-as treating the proper use
the day aa Il means of rest aud relaxation-i
mith Of great deal being said on both sides
the part Of the liheral-minded as well as of I
strict conntructionist. We have ii upon the b.
Of authority that 'the sabbath was made
man, not man for the sabbath and the gr
majority Of men get the only rest they have fr
one year, end to another on Sunday. The
portance OF this recurring season of rest fr
toll. aud as far ar may be from the anXet
which are even more wearing than toll is
sisted upon by the physiologist no less We
mently than by the theologan. The day IL
deed blessed, whether t4 observance war divi
" ordained Or whether it was SIMPLY found
be necessity Of human endurance.