Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1883-01-21
PROGRESSIVE JEWS.

In Favor of Substituting the Resurrection
Day of Christ, sunday, for the Sabbath of
the Bible, Saturday.
DR.. David Stern, prominent Jew of
WiIkesbarre, Pa, is. out in a lengthy letter
advocating the abandonment of Saturday,
the Bible Sabbath, as ''rest-dayp by his
people, and the substitution therefor of the
Christians Sunday, the first day of the
week, the resurrection day of Christ, and
established as festival day by the Roman
Emperor Constantine A. D. 321. Dr. Stern
begins by calling attention to the fact that
his own people do not in any considerable
numbers observe and respect the seventh
day. ''The few attendants on Saturday
morning." he says, 'are composed of some
old ladies and children who have nothing
else in this wide world to do, but the bone
and sinew of the congregation, the young
and middle-aged, are nowhere to be seen."
Since the Jew has assumed the privileges
of citizenship, and taken upon himself cor
responding duties, DR.. Stern is of the
opinion that "there is no other way in
which he can become fully identified with
the spirit of the age than by the abandon
ment of all the external rites which tended
forever to stamp him as an Oriental So
journer amid Occidental nations" The
writer further says:
Having attained the rights of citizen
ship it henceforth became his duty to enter
with life and soul into the spirit of the
times, to contribute his share toward the
wiping out of the lines of demarkation
which had formerly separated man from
oV,6 10 IN 4.
tions between himself and the rest of the
world. The representatives of orthodoxy
saw the danger with which Jewish institu-
tionalism and ceremonialism were threat
ened by the entrance of the Jew into
national life, and did their utmost to dis
suade their followers from accepting the
rights of citizenship. The Jew, SO ran
their argument, is in captivity for his sins,
and he is to remain an outcast until such
time as God will again gather his scat
tered remnants to Palestine. But their eff
forts were in vain. Tho Jew gladly &C
cepted his rights, and from that day al
| most every external ceremony was doomed
| to disappear. Nor has anything been lost
by their disappearance. The American
Israelite who violates the dietary laws, and
| removes his sidelocks is at least as good
| and moral man, as useful citizen, and
as tender parent as the hyperorthodox
| Jew of Turkey and Russia. There was,
however, one external observance in Juda-
ism, the downfall of which was followed by
disastrous consequences, though it easily
might have been otherwise. The day of
rest is an institution which every civilized
nation and the two universal religions of
the word-Ch Christianity and Mobammedan-
ism-have adopted from Judaism. True,
they have not adopted the letter of the
Jewish law; true, they have not enforced
rest upon the "man servant" The "maid
servant" and ''the CATTLE thus turning the
day of'rest into a day of gloom and IN this
they have acted wisely"
AS the Christian religion has suffered
| from the fanaticism of the Puritans, which
permitted no latitude, but bound all things
| down to the literal Interpretation of divine
law, 30 in Judaism "there also existed at
| one time set of Puritans-the Karaites-
who accepted the commands of the Bible
| IN their literal sense, and who therefore
| tolerated no lights in their houses on Sat
urday. But the majority of the people
| laughed at their blue laws, even as the in
| telllgent New Yorker laughs at the anti
| quated paragraphs of the penal code'' In
the same liberal spirit DIR. Stern declares
that any religious observance that does not
tend to increase the happiness and we'll
being of IFS observers is not deserving of
that name, and the quicker it dies the bet
/; ter. "The Sabbath of the Jewish Karaite
| and the Christian Puritan have no future
except in the grave"
| Custom since Constantine's edict has
fixed upon Sunday as the one day out of
seven on which to rest from business and
labor. According to the Bible IL Jew has
better right to observe the seventh or Sab
bath day than has the Christian Christ's
| resurrection or the first day of the week.
| But the world is intensely practical; we
deal with questions as we find them. 1t is
| plain that it would be hundred fold easier
| for the Jew to abandon his Sabbath and to
| come to The Christian rest-day established
| by Constantine than to reverse the order.
| Mohammed recognized the inevitable when
he went to the mountain after vainly com
handing it to come to him. There need
be no conversion to Christian dogmas in
the matter. The world has come to believe
that the Sabbath was made for man, not
man for Sunday; and in changing from
the holy seventh day to the resurrection
first, the Jew, by ignoring the letter of the
law, will be better able to honor its spirit,
and his church can be benefited thereby.
/ AS DR.. Stern says:
"The situation in which the Jew is placed
to-day will not permit him to observe the
traditional day of rest. He cannot rest on
Saturday without great financial sacrifice
and personal inconvenience; hence not 10
per cent. of American Jews observe that
| day. Some wholesale houses have their
front doors closed, but we should advise no
one to go behind the returns. Thus the
young generation grow up without any day
of rest, without the opportunity to attend
religious service, and should we be surprised
that they crowd the halls of agnostics like
! Felix Adler and atheists like Ingersoll? 1t
| must be painful sight to every liberal
| religioniet be he Jew or Christian--to see
| religion discarded simply because men
have not the courage to abandon the shadow
| after having cast aside the substance, and
| to set apart some day in the week for the
purpose of religious worship and ethical
| instruction. Let Felix Adler 20 to NOR
row to Philadelphia, Baltimore, Boston, st.
| Louis or Cincinnati, and the Jewish young
| men will flock around his banner, but
| when he lately visited Chicago his visit
| was almost complete failure, because
Il