The Findlay Jeffersonian. [volume] (Findlay, Hancock County, Ohio) 1870-1881, 1875-10-29
The Sabbath.

And then go home, my crown 10 wear
For there is a crown for me.
The Sabbath.
Says the Boston Watehman and Re
fectOr: The A dcGnee, noting the fact
that even the secular papers have been
shocked into protest against recent
glaring Sabbath dissertations; that the
President of yarmouth College has ap-
pealed in behalf of a Sabbath-keeping
community; that OUR Methodist breth-
rem are questioning the wholesale secu-
larization of the Sabbath by Sunday ex-
cursion trains to their camp-meetings;
that the Newark On. j. Presbytery have
demonstrated against the Sunday eXeur-
sions over the Pennsylvania Central;
that the Franklin Co., Mass, ministers
and Christians headed off a proposed
Sunday excursion to Pleasant Lake;
adds, in words in fullest harmony with
our own recent utteranee on the subject,
and which we strongly commend to the
serious attention of all our readers:
All thoughtful men must and do per-
ceive how vitality our sacred day is inter-
woven with all that is good in our re-
publican institutions and social life. 1t
furnishes the opportunity and guaranty
for religious instruction and co-opera-
ton, moral influence, benevolent enter
prises and kindly relationships in hu-
man life. 1t eherishes every better
tendency and purpose, every noble
thought and aspiration and habit. All
sober men know that without it our
country never could have been what it
is, never can be what it has been. 1t is,
therefore, not merely the technically re-
ligious man, but the wise and moral gem
orally, the true patriots who plead for the
preservation of the day.
1t is time to pause and see whittier we
are now drifting in this matter. The
rude shock given to New England is,
perhaps, most timely. Changes of cir
cumstanees have, indeed, neeessitated
some changes in the old methods of the
sacred day. Other notifications have
arisen from a modification of views as to
the supposed excessive rigidness of the
former observance; others by thought
lessness and laxity of principle. But it
is a question whether the pendulum has
not gone TO the other extreme, and
whether, besides the more grave viola
tions of the day, there are not creeping
in a multitude of minor questionable
practices, often on the part of religious
men, which lead directIgiGnd certainly
to the total deseeration of the day. We
refer to such things as Sunday railway
travelling, Sunday drives, and even
Sunday pleasure strolls in country viii
lagos when there is no valid reason for
them, the growing introduction of secu-
lar reading and Sunday newspapers into
the sacred day, and great multitude of
loose usages and Objectionable practices
on the part of Christians, which are but
the beginning of the end. Let us re-
consider this matter, and without falling
into any aseetie notions, let us "keep
holy the Sabbath day" When we final
ly lose hold of that eOnseerated day,
by what appliances or instrumentalities
shall religion itself lay hold on human
hearts and lives, and what shall be the
fate of Republic that has abrogated
the very foothold of religious infiueneey
THE PRAYER MERTING.-A well regu-
lated, spirited prayer-meeting is of vast
moment in the history of every church
No church can prosper without such,
and hence it is that every pastor, and
every earnest member of any eongrega-
ton, looks with special interest to the
prayer-meeting. 1t is here that the for
NAL stGteliness of the regular preaching
services of the church are laid aside, and
the active, spiritual membership are
brought together in near, sympathetic
friendship. The pastor, elders, deacons
and members are all one in the prayer
meeting. They here especially share
each Others woes. They here mutually
bear each others blunders, and often in
the outflowing of brotherly love do they
shed in each others behalf the sympa-
thizing tear All this is the experience
of the prayermeeting.
Every member of the Church, as well
as every one who is not such, should
make It point, when possible, to attend
this social service of the church. And
it should be the earnest wish Of every
one to make the prayer-meeting spirit
ed, earnest and interesting .-ChTiStiGn
World