Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1883-01-14

There is something in the position of our
Jewish felloW-citizens with respect 10 our
Sunday laws 10 which the religious world
fail to give the attention that the circum-
stances and the principles they profess re-.
qulre. Every conscientious Jew regards, az
he has RICH, 10 do from his point of view.
the Mosaic law to keep the Sabbath az one
solemnly binding upon him; not upon The
Gentle, but upon himself, because the only
ceremonial command admitted into the
decalogue lie sign 10 him and his posterity
OF the peculiar relation existing between the
nation Of which be is part and the Crest
Being who has made them the instruments
Of The enlightenment of the world. By
eur laws the Jew is necessarily compelled
TO violate his conscience by habitu.
ally violating the solemn obligation
laid upon him. The Jew beaTs and does not
compisin, bat tho.e who have been intimate
with their families, or who hnbitually read
their newspapers, know what source of
grief this constant and forced violation ia
what mourning, Whist sorrow, what heavy
heart sehinss comes from thisl Let the re.
ligious reader imagine himself in Moham
medan country, and that the laws there com
Pslisd him TO cease work every Friday. He
has his living 10 make; he has TO compete
with men who pursue their avocations six
days week. There sre wife and little ones.
and TO keep them in comfort the Christian
10 far OF land Gsds that he too must work
six days week. The Sunday comes, the
usual implements of trade must be put 10
their ordinary use; the store must be opened,
buying and selling gone on with, money
reckoned up and collected Csn the Sunday
keeping Christian imagine such a fell
loW-Cbristian's feelings as he goes
out TO work on The Sabbath
morning, and the despair that baunts his
soul when, at night, he tries 10 make up with
mutilated devotions for what be has omitted
during the dsy2 He who will honestly put
himself in Imagination through this process
OF reflection will have faint idea of the
position tina, is forced upon the Jew. We
say afaint idea, for the Christian knows that
nowhere in the New Testament is be COM
msnded to keep Sunday; that nowhere in
that book is there one rebuke administered
to Sabbath-breaker. The Jew, on the con-
trary, has before him the scene in the viii.
derness, when tbs Sabbath was irst prescribed
in connections with the gathering OF the
mamma, the awful incidents of Sinai, the ex-
amples in ths book Of Nehemiah, and the
repeated and awful denuncistiens of the
prophets apon the Sabbath. breaker. Is this
violation OF conscience, this woe from a forced
violation of a solemn command a thing for
Christian 10 force and impose Upon any
human being2 Can a religion whose pre-.
cspts restrain him within the limits of that
"bond of perfectness," which is love; that
commands that every man shall abe fully
prepared in his own mind" with respect 10
the Sabbath, and which requires the Chris
tian to let mo man Judge him" with respect
to the Sabbath, justify its followers in perse-
cutting bis elder brother in the faithp To
compel aJew TO break the Sabbath, 10 vic.
late his own conscience, 10 disobey COM
mand given amid the thunders OF Sinai, is
persecution, and violates the second great
commandment of Jesus, which is that
the ChristiAn shall do 10 others a.
hii =~nuid=wish others@@1to@d do TO
him. The Christian desires the con-
version Of the Jews to his own faith; would
a Christian be inclined TO adopt the faith Of
the Moslem il that faith or its adherents in
Aicted on him snch wrong % is mentioned
above? Persecution has heaped insult and
wrong on the Jews for centuries,
has that course made them Chris.
tians? Could any Jew believe a re-
ligion to be true that drives and forces
him every Saturday, that comes to violate
what he is justified in regarding as duty
toward his God? Shall the Christian of this
day, without any command from his Divine
Master, for the sake of an ordinance that is
merely one of the "comma ndments of men,
theological fiction, teach that human COM
msndment as a doctrine" and make of It
ource of persecution to the long-suferipg
Jews Well says religious Contemporary:
"One oil the, ssddest examples of iDgratitude
is that which the Christian Church has
'hown toward the Jews through eighteen
'ong centuries. Disraeli had grounds for |
his sneer, that it is strange Christendom
should go easily forget Israel, when one-half |
oil it worsbips Jew and the other half a |
JeWessp If there is reader who doubts
the ScripGural correctness of what ia
here urged upon his conscience and his |
s~sss of right, ret nfm rexd chapter xiv,
EPistle ~ the Rpnans, and he will see, from |
a source he cannot contradict, that st. Paul |
we have ventured upon, why the Christian
must not persscuie. He Gays: destroy not
tim with thy meat-and thy Sabbath-Tas
The context, verses and 6, shows for
whom Christ died.