New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1883-05-20
LEGAL AND MORAL LUENCES.

! BY THE REV. DIR. THOMAS ARMITAGE-BAPTIST.
! To me Edttor or The Trtoune.
| SIR: Your facts and figures on Sabbath observ-
ance in New-York are forceful and startling but
may create the inference that dissertation of the
day is frightfuy on toe increase. Still. do they
warrant such conclusion You show that 800 900
out of 100000 are members of churches; that
10000 attend Sunday schools; and that many not
connected with either attend worship. making, say
10000 who observe the day relgiousIy. without
counting the 100000 Jews. whose Sabbath is on
Saturday. The remaining So, coo you dispose OF
thus: Over 10000 resort to saloons. beer gardens
concerts and other questionable places from
000U0 to 100000 visit the Park, and 10 the hot
months 70 900 leave the city foi its suburbs in all
about $4,000. This leaves 10000 odd. who
either proane waste the day in some other form.
So. then than fve-tenths Of people observe
the day religously, in some manner or measure on
Saturday or Sunday.
The question: Should not onr number of Sabbath
observers be greater iE New York prompts a COM
parson between our sabbatarian statistics and
those of foreign cities In riany of the cities of
Great Britain. the Sabbath keeping land OF Europe.
not over 10000 people attend Sunday worship out
of $4,000. This would De q large proportion for
Edinburgh. esen, while in London the working
masses almost universally neglect church attend
ance. Then in the large Continental cities only
five In every hundred go to Sabbath worship
cordng to late statistics Bnt your figures show that
here about fifty in every hundred attend. And our
city borrows its anSabbatic ideas from its foreign
born people, for moro than half of its Sabbath
negectors are of this class. This influx never
ceases, and it contaminates our community largely
but not degree at all prOpUrt toned to its num-
beers. Besides our cOunteractiug influences are cen
stantly Increasing TO purify and strengthen these
new citizens in better things. The faces and
tongues of the children III numerous missions
show them to be of foreign parents, many OF whom
wish them trained TO observe the American Sab
bath so that more potent facts than those now at
hand needed TO prove that It Is becoming q
Caesars holiday Of merriment, feasting and crime
The day has as firm hold on the stable, native
population ever, as your tables show. With the
brain. tho Influence and the true patriotism OF the
city, it is still set apart for purifying and eleyatng
the moral nature. Former Puritan strictness is laid
aside, but reverence for tho day remains much as
has ever been, and is likely to remain.
On present data the Christian Sabbath seems TO
be in no more danger among Us than any other
ordinance OF Christianity, and stands the tests of
modern iconoclasm with light good nerve, notwlth-
standing the inroads or its foes and the bous croak
ing OF its friends Our ancestors here were stern,
oxactlng, almost ascetic and they felt is need for
SO that their Sabbath took its tone
largely from their own temperament and its severcst
restrictions were no hardship to them. Bat tho
great body Of our present population fellow tread.
mill life to make bread and honesty meet without
those habits of thought which find rest IN iractiv.
ity; and so, when the mill stopr ono day out Of
seven, If the man has religious tendencies he has
every temptation TO drift away into vicious fry oty
instead OF aimless idleness
You ask what steps should be taken to promote a
better Observance OF the Sabbath. Shall we legis-
late or depend entirely upon moral Influences The
best results probably can be reached by combining
the two. No sane man supposes that our population
can either be legislated into our churche, or CON-
PEELED TO remain indoors ON Sunday nor can he
desire this. Rather is the solution of the problem
to 10 found in the dual character of our Sabbath
its civil and Its religious bearings. The State has
recognized the day by law, as civil institution for
the social, moral and political blessing of the COM
has made 1t dies non on the broad
economic ground that il is its duty to provide for
ths we'll being of its citizens in every respect
Ana the greatest statesmen, jursts and philosophers
mold the Sabbath to DO most important factor to
TINS end. Macaulay says that he had not che small.
est doubt that but for the Sabbath England would
nave been "a poorer people and less civilized"
Gladstone holds that from moral. social ana
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