Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1882-05-17
II MEMPHIS APPEAL
A SANITY CINCINNArI sHAm

sAANTLH CINCINNATI SHAM.
When He who went about doing good was
upon earth, those who erred far from the
virtues He exhibited ever had His compass
sionate pity. The woman whose tears fell
upon His feet, the thief that mourned his
wrong-doing, received from Him words of
compassion and forgiveness. Only one
phase of human guilt wrung from Him de-
nunciatioD, and on those guilty of that it
came sharp and decisive: "Serpentsl gen.
Grafton of vipersl how can ye escape the con-
domination of help" And whom did He th us
denounce with the harshest words recorded
as coming from His lips? Men who made
religion sham, made its sacred principles a
cover for their evil deeds; brought discredit
upon what is essentially pure and holy by
their glozing and cunning, making the hottest
precepts into implements of guile, shaped to
administer to their own selhshness. Strong
az is the denunciation it does not e1tin-
guish sham religion. A glazing instance
of the survival of the unittest for
any good end is just now prominent in Gin
cinnati. The saloon people there have been
violating all decency with respect to the
Sunday Observance. While the narrow, harsh
Sunday of the puritan is detestable, Sum
day devoted to drink and sensuaIism, dis
regarding the feelings and mocking the OBJ
servances Of citizens of purer and more sober
habits-is intolerable outrage on the quiet
and order that should characterize the day
the mass of the people dedicate to devotion.
That decent regard for that day is abandoned
is proved by the police reports, for the list of
SUNDAY DRINKS and disorders" is always
larger than for the other days of the week.
In the city there is one paper that has taken
an especially high tone with the transgres-
sors, blaming, rebuking and denouncing
without stint. This paper was supposed TO
have a special right to do this, for it is the
only paper in the city not published on
Sunday. 1t is the organ, to a great
ertan', of tho pIous portion of the
community, and having no Sunday issue,
it has of course a strong claim to the
support of those who favor perverting the
Sunday into an unreasonable Sabbath. A
strife has been raging in Cincinnati for some
time between the saloon and beerhouse peo-
pie, and the contenders for, at least, decent
Sunday, and this journal, which abstained
from publishing on Sundays, naturally dis
tinguished itself by sharp and persevering
contention for Sabbath Observance" And
yet this paper, this contender for righteous
ness, is sham distinguished and prominent.
1t publishes no paper on Sunday, but it
has one every Monday morning, and that
paper is got up on the Sunday. While other
editors can go TO church on Sundays, those
OF this supporter of what it calls "the sacred
Sabbath day" must be writing at the desk,
looking over exchange papers, and searching
police stations and the retreats where most
mischief is to be found, for local news, and
the printers must, from early evening, be
hard at work at the case, and the engineer
must get up his steam, and the pressman
have his press ready, Other daily journals
ct the time are closed, no fires are
lighted, no lamps are casting their glare into
the streets. What is likely to be the inAu-
ence of this rebuker of Sabbath-breakersa and
sinners as an improver OF Cincinnati's Sun
day morals? Can all the efforts of saloons
and beerhouses do the decent-Sunday-cau
the damage this one sham reprover aud ex-
horter is doing? So it is that goodness suf-
fers in the house of its friends. One would
expect that the decent portion of the COM
munity while contending against other forms
of Sunday desecration, as they call it, will
not forget to put down this. Its standing or
falling, as a future supporter of Sabbath OBJ
servance, will be a sort of thermometer that
will show exactly how far Cincinnati piety
is contaminated by shams, and how far it is
digni6ed and purified by the manifestation
of that sort of pure religious principle that
opposes defending a religious Observance as
a profitable business pursuit.