The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1877-02-24
THE PACIFIC
SATURDAY,. FEBRUARY q.

source OF debate and even strife since the day
when the disciples of Him who was s. Lord also
Of the Sabbath " plueked the ears Of corn on
the sacred day-the question Of the legal observ-
ance Of Sunday, has lately been again and rather
warmly brought before the public. We do not
propose to enter into any controversy on the
subject, as it would lead to no satisfactory
result, but will venture a few remarks, In a
spirit of charity and consideration for the opin-
ions Of all.
When the command to keep the seventh day
holy was first given from Sinai, it was accom-
panied with the reason, that it was because God
on that day RESTED from the work of creation.
1t matters not whether we understand the term
day to mean ten thousand years or fifty thousand
or any given number of cycles-a day unto Him,
we are told, IL as a thousand years and a thou
sand years as a day. But the prominent idea in
the institution of the Jewish Sabbath, was rest
from labor, for man and beast. Christ, who
grew up in a Jewish home and under Jewish
teachings, but who by His Divine nature knew all
things, on more than one occasion rebuked the
Scribes and Pharisees for their legal s~trictness in
regard to the observance of the day, and declared
Himself " Lord also of the Sabbath Day" In
~"~ AAShOAJ VI hHS AAAbA AAo Sh0A(u VIC
fail to find any record of the Sabbath being kept
in the Jewish sense, but we read that the dis
ciples were wont to meet together on the first
day OF the week, in memory of the Lords
resurrection. But it was more than three hun
dred years after Christ that Constantine, a
Christian Emperor of Rome, ordered the public
observance of the first day of the week, or Sun
day, in the place of the Jewish Sabbath, as a
memorial day of Christ's resurrection and on
which to perform divine worship. 1t has never
been claimed even by tradition, that Constantine
was commanded or inspired by God to alter or
amend the law of Moses in respect to the
Sabbath.
Almost every church or sect of Christians has
It's own views in regard to the observance of
the Sabbath or Sunday, and while most observe
the Sunday of the Roman Emperor, there are
som., such as the " Seventh-day Baptists," who
still cling to the Jewish Sabbath, keeping Satur-
day holy. And therein, if singular, they are at
least consistent. The PuEitans made the day
one of a~usterity and gloom, while the Catholic
Church kept and still keeps it in most countries
as a day of worship first, and afterwards as
one of recreation and worldly amusement. A
singular fact in regard to the observance of the
Sabbath is that while the real Jews observe the
seventh day as holy with great strictness, because
the Bible commands it, the Christians seem to
need severe human laws, with fines and penal
ties, to ensure their keeping Sunday.
The words of Christ, that the Sabbath was
made for man, and not man for the Sabbath, like
everything that proceeded from Him who spake
as never man spake, have a deep significance,
and point to the institution of the Sabbath by
Moses for the wise purposes of rest and recupera-
ton from the toll Of six successive days by both
man, a living soul, and the beast that perishes.
That the opinions in regard to the keeping of
Sabbath or Sunday are as various as the sects Of
religion are numerous, is evident from the fact
that laws are considered necessary to secure the
observance of the day. If all were of one opin-
ion in the matter Of the utter sacredness of the
day, Christians would need no civil law to induce
them to keep it as strictly as do the Jews. In
this, the 10Th century, it is not to be supposed
that the i~nfiction of fines and penalties will be
~efectual in correcting matters of faith. The
days of bloody Mary and of the Inquisition are
happily past. Laws providing for the observance
of one day in seven as a day of rest, should be,
like all laws, for the-beneft of all alike, to give
offense to none. neither to the Puritan with his
austere ideas of the Sabbath, nor to the Catholic
with his Constantine Sunday, half worship and
half play, nor to him who PROCESSES no creed at
all, and considers the day as one Of rest, recrea-
tion and recuperation. The Emperor of Japan,
We have no reason to suppose is a Christian, but
he has recently ordered the observance of Sunday
throughout his dominions as a day of rest, as a
sanitary measure. To all the people. citizens of
a common country, whatever their faith, or of no
faith, the laws of the country owe equal protec-
ton in life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
4 proper Sunday law should be no more and no
less than an enactment to compel every one to
behave himself with due consideration and propri-
ETY. towards his neighbor, by avoiding the ap-
pearance of everything that may give offense.
Thus, while it would be an insult and offensive
to the feelings of a large part of the community
if the workshops and traffic of the town were al
lowed to go on with business on Sunday as on
other days, it would be no less an insult to the
rights and liberties of others whose religious
creed is that of the minority to prosecute. fine
and imprisOn them for engaging in some secular
occupation on that day in the privacy of their
homes. Moses forbade the working of cattle on
the Sabbath day. If, however, it is no ofense to
harness up n horse and drive him to church on
Sunday, what particular grade of Sabbath break
ing is reached by driving a nail on which to hang
ones coat, or by cleansing with water or even
whitewash ones room, so long as this is not done
in a public manner whereby ones " brother is
offended ~ Mail steamers which happen to
reach port on Sunday and must be discharged in
order to proceed on their voyage, should be per
mitted to do so, but into o private warehouse or
!wharfshed, while the passage of drays on the
street should be forbidden. To keep Sunday in
the 18th century with the same s~trictness that
the Jews kept the Sabbath, is an impOssibility,
in consequence of the requirements of civilized
LIE, % Lnr in adzance of the wants of the nnmads