The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1881-03-30

The character of the article on "The
New Sunday" from the atlantic may be
gathered from the following brief extracts
which we make from it:
Sunday in America has been chiefly the Sun
day of England in the seventeenth century
transferred by the early colonlsts to the New
World. 1t has always had the sombre tone of
the period coeval with Cromwell and the Puri-
tans.
The narrowness of Puritanism on its religious
side is like the narrowness of Scotch Presbyte-
rianism to day,-the narrowness of the fanatic
the unwilllngness to entertain the thought of
another; and this narrowness has been trans
mtted IN the Puritan Sunday.
The protest against the Puritan Sunday is
now universal even the recent Sabbath ESSAYS
"a volume candid and honest as has ever
come from the descendants of the Puritans, in
tended to bring back the Lords day to its right
full place in the religious institutions of great
people-has had hardly feathers weight upon
current opinion. We are borne to-day upon
time OF popular sentiment which is restless at
the least interference with the principle of do
as you please" on Sunday. Public opinion is
IN state of surge and unrest for which there is
no precedent in our history The old Puritan
pO"Oi Hdc SOuc, Olu Cunuay laws are q DEAD
letter; the ancient people no longer carry weight
in church or state; the uncurbed sentiment of
wild democracy In religion dictates the Sunday
observance for the coming generation; and we
are, as 1t were, at the meeting of diverse cur
rents, where no church of the essentials" has
yet acquired sufficient influence to take the
leadership of public opinion, as in England, and
where the state silently consents to the ignoring
of existing law.
The running of horse cars on Sunday has
come to be public necessity in the great cities
the Sunday excursions into the suburbs are al
most necessity to the working classes people
cannot stand up to their daily burdens without
these recreations. Then the opening of the pub
lie Libraries, the museums the art galleries, the
state and national institutions for popular edu-
cation, must be regarded by fair minded persons
as one OF the best uses to which Sunday can be
put.
1t Is possible that even the theatre, in process
OF time, may become legitimate species of Sun
day evening recreation. One dare not saw that
this great variety of instruction shall not be or
that it is dissertation of the Lords day. 1t is
simply the recognition of the fact that this is a
large world, and that there are all sorts of peo-
pie in it.
The great need is to brighten Sunday both at
church and at home. The morning service, or
at least one service day, is now all that can be
ture will have thoroughly to revise it methods
If It Is to retain its hold upon our active popu-
lation
Our religious services are still too much based
upon what seemed best or people two Oh three
centuries ago. They are hard better suited to tie
| needs of moderR life than the OLD Sunday laws of
H'nnlanH Tbatyl To-,
stlnct of our present spiritual needs They al, too
informal, too earthly, on the one hand, so thu t
they lack In reverence, character power; they
are too formal, too restricted too stfy liturgical
too much set in one mould, and that not always
the best so that they fail to touch the popular
sympathies, on the other.
In the April number of Sc,lbner is an
editorial article on 1.-The Power of Opin
ion." Here is the way in which the
clergy OF the United States are spoken of:
Think of the enormous tide of utterance that
emanates from the sectarian pulpit. 1t is suf
fciently earnest it is well expressed; it is per-
| sistently and ingehiously enforced, and its re-
suits next to nothing The progress made
by religion is indebted very little to the pulpit
utterances of opinion. Uttered to partisans in
sympathy, it is, of course, needless and without
results uttered to aliens enemies, it is power
less, because it is the voice of sect, aid not of
man. A man in error will hardly permit
himself to be convinced of the truth by one
whose opinions have been formed in a sectarian
school, who has bound himself to the articles of
creed and who cannot preach any other than
what he breaches or utter an opinion at vari-
ance with his creed, without being driven from
his own pulpit. When it becomes mans bust
ness to preach certain well defined set of doc
trines,-if this is exactly what he is paid for
his opinions upon those doctrines, in tie eyes
of an unbelieving world, are not worth the pa
per they are written on. One of the principal
reasons why Christian opinion makes 50 little
progress in and impression upon the world, is
that the world does not recognize the source
from which it comes worthy of respect.
If we had pulpit dominated by Christianity
pure and simple-and not under the control
OF different and differing sects, Christian opinion
would have power it has never known during
these later centuries.
There is, here and there, a pulpit that is in
dependent, and these gather the crowd, because
1T thirsts for independent opinions on religious
topics. Nh Beecher and Prof. Swing always
have audences-hrst, perhaps because they are
eloquent men, but mainly because they are re-
cognized as no longer mouth pieces of creed
recognized as men who speak exactly what they
think, irrespective of all creeds.
This is the sort of reading that our
people are doing. This is what they
learn about religion in the week, by their
i