Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1883-05-31

tNeh was ESPECIALLY 10 raise the
jew above the thought of time, to
make him feel that though he was sub
Ject to its laws, he yet stood II direct
connection with an eternal law, with a
being who is and was and is to come. =
90 some OF the earliest Jewish teachers
nave very profoundly said that she who
DIeaks the Sabbath seyeis the creation. =
EWald, the German Nationalist. saws OF
inns jewish day, ''Tne Sabbath, though
the simplest and most spiritual, is at the
same time the wisest and most fruitful
OF institutions. Nothing could be de-
vised which would require so few out
Ward signs or equipments, nor which
would SO directly lead man both to sup,
ply. what is lost in the tumult of life,
and etfectually to turn his thoughts
again to the higher and the eternal
Now, the Christian Sabbath, the
Lords Day is all this, only
enlarged and enriched by the Christian
elements. 1t reminds us, too, of God,
the Father Almighty, Lord OF
heaven and earth. But it reminds us,
also, OF Jesus Christ, his son, his death for
US, his risen power. 1t is day that
hits up our eyes unto the hills, a day
OF worship, paying our homage, pour
ing out our thanksgiving before God,
presenting our needs and desires before
his throne. ltrecalls us to the fact that we
have relations not TO ourselves only and
our fellows, but to God himself, and
that he claims something from us.
The Christian Sabbath provides for
the contact with religious truth and as
sanitation of it. The graft has to re-
main in connection with the stalk in
order to be nourished by its juices. No
nasty lacking will answer. The mind
has to lit itself to the truth, and remain
in union with it TO really appropriate it.
Great truths and principles, to become
fruitful with the life, must be brooded
III the spirit. The Sabbath gives oppor-
tunity for that
Who can estimate what it is worth 10
you and me and our children. relig-
iously, to have this bell ring, this assem-
bly, gather for worship, these hymns
of devotion sung, these themes of re-
demption, God, Christ, heaven, dwelt
upon. Realize its worth if removed to
the frontier
Christians work for others. Mission
schools, gospel preaching to the neg
lected, requires Sunday in which the
Christian laborer has leisure time at
command, and the persons he would
keep disengaged so they may give at
tention to him. When converts
are gathered out of heathenism,
little can be done for them without a
Sabbath. Sec'y Clark says: 1--WE should
have very little hope of success in the
missionary enterprise without the Chris
tian Sabbath. 1t is needed for the
proper education of those who are
brought out from the darkness of igno-
rance and superstit'n into the knowledge
OF the truth. Errors of every sort must be
cleared away. Traditions ingrained
into the very life of the people can be
eradicated only by the most patient in
struction, and new principles of life in
troduced. Hence, everywhere, as a
missionary principle, the strict observ-
ance of the Sabbath is carefully taught. ;
A vigorous and generous Christian
life thus seems to be impossible, for all
parts of the world, without the keeping
of the Lords Day.
A great river cannot roll through Il
land without making its banks green
and variously fruitful So the Sabbath
is not only this majestic religious cur
rent through human society; its overflow
is widely enriching the lives of men.
The Sabbath draws us together as
nothing else can in so vital and whole
some bands. 1t is the great centripe tai
force of this centrifugal world, where
every one is engrossed in his own inter
ests. Its tendency is toward true demo-
crazy. Here, if anywhere, the rich
and poor meet together. One Lord
maketh them all The same rest is ac-
corded to them all; the same culture
is open to them all, intellectual and
spiritual. ''Let the brother of low de-
gree rejoice in that he is exalted and
the rich in that he is made low.' This
is true communism. The Sabbath is
the true leveler. Whatever others may
do let the poor man cling to his Sun
day rs his most priceless possession.
Sunday has been justly termed ''the
common peoples magma charta.n 1t
is the one great chart of their rights,
and their limitless, transcendent privil-
eyes.
If iniquity, vice, inscriptions selfish
ness are the ocean, tumultouS and in
sidious, breaking against the frame of
society and eating its way in, the Sab
bath is the dyke, perpetually renewed,
to save from the overwhelming waves.
In the sacred fires of its affairs are
forged both the swords and armor for
the warfare with all unrighteousness.
1t was no accident that the fourth COM
mandment was placed among the ten as
the connecting link between the COM
mandments relating to God alone and
those relating to man. Where the
Lords day is kept moral motives have
full opportunity to impress themselves
upon us; where there is no Sabbath
these motives are choked out by I'M
checked growth of material pursuits
and passions set free. Count Monta-
lambert's testimony was here quoted in
regard to Sunday observance and quiet
as contrasted in London and Paris
Not only does its faithful observance
tend directly to shelter the family from
those lawless passions and law sane
toned wrongs which scatter fire. brands
upon the hearth; but it is great uniter
of the family. The hurried laborer and
the scarcely less hurried man of bust
ness can on this day have leisure for
association with his loved ones. There
is leisure at the table for parents and
children. Leisure for the family devo-
ton, too often crowded into corner on
other days.
Together the family go to church,
II, Il, ~. Il.
in the house of God. There is oppor-
tunity for converse together at home,
the father and mother reading to their
children and counseling them in the
Christian conduct of life. And all of this
comes not of elegant leisure and wealth
alone it is the precious boon of the
poorest home that is equally to be illu-
mined by the radiance of a godly
Sabbath. Verify, may not this day of
days be fifty symbolized by the prophet
vision of the deep-howing river that
issued from under the threshold of the
Lords house, and of which it was de-
clared that everything shall live,
whittier the river cometh?n Is it not
indeed a river and water of life?
/ think enough has been said to sug-
gest appropriate answer. to the question
IF the Sabbath was made for man,
how shall we manage it SO as to secure
the highest blessings for man?"
For one thing, we must have appro-
pirate Sunday laws, and must sustain
them by enlightened public sentiment.
On this point | wish to emphasize
two remarks
LIST. Sunday laws are absolutely essen
tial to secure the Sunday rest ..the law