The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1874-04-26


candid viii scarcely dispute the fact that the
demands too frequently made Of him on the
Sabbath threaten to convert that benefcent
institution into bore; and this we say max
ing full allowance for the amiability Of the
kind of person of whom we are speaking. He
is willing to 60 through . moderate number of
religious forms, to attend church once on
Sunday, and even to endure perhaps some
slight curtailment Of that elaborate dinner
which appeals to his palate during the week
Further concessions it is difficult to wiring from
him. His piety is not Of that ascetic kind
which prefers the dinner of herbs to the
stalled OK, even when graced with that affec-
tional accompaniment which Solomon praises.
He has not yet sufficient eye to the beauty of
holiness, and we detect the old Adam latent
within him as we detect the tiger in the cat
Had he lived in the Middle Ages he would
have believed more in indulgences than in
penance, and considered the right to sin,
which he had bought and paid for, a sufficient
atonement for future faults. With him good
intentions are all in all, softening the harsh
accents Of original sin, and acting like moral
cedilla placed beneath the consonant of crime.
He is as fond of comfort as boy is of bird
nesting or coquette of conquest, and gazes
upon the chiaroscuro of human character as
an amateur looks at landscape by Claude,
and not as moral student vitality
interested in the lesson to be cleaned.
With this disposition the Sabbath duties
sometimes laid upon him by jealous rela-
tives come rather hard He is willing to
listen with good grace to one commonplace
sermon; but they insist that he shall swallow
two. They thrust upon him devotions which
David assumed out of choice, and morning
and evening and at noon expect to find him at
the altar They plume themselves on their
fidelity to him, and in evidence of their faith
fitness he may be said to be covered with the
wounds Of his friends. The harmless cpl
tyrdom like this, and, shaking off sense of
the actual Sunday, constructs for itself an
ideal Sabbath, the Sabbath of the future.
Let US inquire what this Sabbath is.
Fancy presents it to us as bright as new
desire and as fresh as the wings of the morn
of death when it falls on green pastures and
still waters, and its atmosphere as sweet as the
sleep of the laboring man and as quiet as the
grace which is given to the lowly. And the
panorama which more practical view dis
Germs is almost equally pleasant in its way.
Unfolding it slowly, men of religious genius
are seen in pulpits where Dr. Platitude and
Bishop Palaver are expounding now, and the
demonstrations of science come to the rescue
of reason and the correction of faith. Sunday
grows into day in which men do not love
church less for loving nature and innocent en-
joyment more. It becomes the Great Sympa-
thetic to the rest Of the week, controlling the
has learned to worship in spirit, and has given
up worshipping in Spite Mr.. Lucre, as be
drops liberal donation into the box, no
longer questions the soidity Of the investment
when reminded that she that giveth to the
poor lendeth to the Lord" and Mrs. Mammon
has ceased to regard the sacred edifice
as a convenient place for the study of
millinery. All that is mean and low and pitt
full has been weeded from public worship, and
the influence of secret prayer fills the sane
tuary with its pure and powerful magnetism.
The innate spitefulness of human nature is
rooted out, and there stream instead the
sweet fowings of mutual charity. Love
reigns, strong as an ocean, tender as tear.
Humanity has ceased to be afraid Of traditions
and ignorant authority. The corner stone of
progress, having long been hewn, mankind
now prepare to foliate the capital Such is
the picture presented of the ideal Sabbath
Sabbath when the number of times o man
goes to church is not taken as the gauge of his
piety, and when Religion forms one of trio,
with Rest and Recreation for her companions.
It will be objected that this is fancy sketch,
none of the tints in which are borrowed, as
we claimed, from practicality; but we insist
that it is a sketch of what must one day be-
come actual if the present premises of some
of our most original and gifted religious and
scientific geniuses prove correct 1t is sad to
believe that golden age has never existed
save in poets fancy; it were sadder to be-
lieve that in no other fashion golden age
ever can exist
Is the actual Sabbath so very pleasant that
we should long to perpetuate it? Nothing is
further from our desire than to make light of
any feeling which has love to God and man as
its basis. We take off our hat to any character
whose foundation stone is the first and great
commandment, and whose rooftree is the
second, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thy
self" What we deplore is that these characters
are not more frequently ones next-door neigh
bors, though probably one would find reasons
for not speaking to them if they were They
are as impossible as the ten righteous for
whom Abraham prayed And even the few
good men who are found are outshone by
their own aspirations. Instead of being apples
of gold in nictures of silver they are annles