Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1885-02-23
THE WAR ON THE SABBATH
DIR. TALMAGE DISCOURSES ON
VIOLATING THE DAY.

nacle to-day on the subject The War on
the abbath." The opening hymn was
Arm of the Lord awake! awake!
Put on thy strength, the nations shake!"
The text was taken from Exodus, XXI,
-: "Nerily my Sabbath ye shall keep
| Following is DR.. Talmage's sermo on in
| full. He said:
The wisdom of cessation from hard labor
one day out of the seven is almost universally
acknowledged. The world has found out that
1t can do less work in seven days than in six
| and that the 81 days of the year devoted TO
| rest are an addition rather than a subtrac-
| tlOn. Experiments have been made IN all
! departments. The great Castlereagh thought
| he could work his brain 365 days in the year.
! but after awhile broke down and committed
| suicide: and WilberfOrce said of him: "POOr
| Castlereagh! This is the result of the non-ob
| servance OF the Sabbath" A celebrated mer-
| chant declar ed: Il should have Deen a ma
| MAC long ago but for the Sabbath" The
nerves, the brain, the muscle, the bones the
| entire physical, intellectual and moral ma
| ture cry out for the Sabbatlc rest. What is
| true OF mar Is for the most part true of the
| brute.
Travellers have found out that they come to
they let their horses rest by
the way on the Sabbath. What
| Is the matter with those f0rlOrn creatures
! harnessed to some of our city cars? Why do
| they stumble and stagger and fall? 1t Is for
| the lack OF the Sabbatic rest. In other days
| when the herdsmen drove their sheep aud
| cattle from the far West down to the seaboard
| 1t was found out by experiment that those
| herdsmen and drOvers who halted over the
seventh day got down sooner to the seaboard
| than those who passed on without the observ-
ance of the holy Sabbath. The fishermen on
the coast of Newfoundland declare that those
men, during the year, catch the most fish who
stop during the Lords day.
When asked the Rocky Mountain IocomO-
| tive engineer why he changed locomotives
when it seemed to be a straight route he said /:
I'VE have to let the locomotive stop and cooi
of or the machinery would soon break
down." Men who made large quantities of
salt were told that if they allowed their
kettles to cool over Sunday they would sub
NIT themselves to great zeal of damage.
The experiment was made, some Observing
the Sa0Oath ana some not observing the. Sab
bath. Those who all owed the fires TO 20 down
and the kettles to cool once week were com
PEELED to spend only small sum for repair
while in the cases where no Sabbath was OBJ
served many dollars were demanded for re-
pairs.
In other words, intelligent man and dumb
beast and dead machinery cry out for the
LORDS day. a prominent manufacturer
told me that he could see difference between
the goods which went out of his establish
ments on Saturday from the goods that went
out on Monday. He said: "Ihey were very
different indeed. Those that were made in
the former part of the week, because of the
rest that had been previously given, were
| b, tier than those that were made in the latter
| part of the week, when the men we're tired
| ont" The Sabbath comes, and it bathes the
| soreness from the limbs, quets the agitated
| brain, and puts out the fires OF anxiety that
have been burning all the week. Our bodies
| are seyen-day clocks, aud unless on the
seventh day they are wound up, they run
down into the grave. The Sabbath was IN
tended as a savings bank; into it we are to
gather the resources upon which we are to
draw all the week. That man who breaks
the Sabbath rObs his own nerve, hiSOwn mus
Gle, his own brain, his own bones. He dips
up the wine of his own life and throws it
sway. He who breaks the Lords d2g gives a
mortgage to disease and death upon his en-
tire physical estate, and at the most unexpect-
ed moment that mortgage will be fOreclOsed,
and the soul elected from the premises. Every
gland and pore and cell and fiuger-nall de-
mands the seventh day for repOse. The respi-
ratlOn OF the lungs, the thrOb OF the pulse in
the wrist, the motion of the bone in its socket
declare, "Remember the Sabbath day TO keen
it holy" There are thousands of men who
have had their lives dashed out against the
golden gates of the Sabbath. A prominent
London merchant testified that thirty yeaIs
ago he went to London. He says: II have
during that time watched minIteIv and |
have motto. that the men who went to busi-
ness on the Lords day or opened their count
lng-houses, have, without a single exception,
come to failure" a prominent Christian
merchant in Boston says: 81 find it don't paw
| to work OF Sunday. When 1 was bow | no
ticed out on Long wharf there were mer-
chants who loaded their vessels on the Sab
bath day, keeping their men busy from morn
ing till night, and it is my observation that
| they themselves came to nOthing-these mer-
chants-and their children came to nothing
1t doesn't pay" he says, "to work on the
Sabbath"
While the attempt to kill the Sabbath by
the stroke of Ak and falls and the yardstick
has beautifully failed, it is proposed in our
day to drown the Sabbath by opening all the
grOg-sbOps. An organized movement is on
loot To get the New York Legislature to re-
peal the present law which prohibits the aaIe
OF intoxicating liquor on the Sabbath. 1t is
SAID that this law is not executed. Ten thou
sand men in the city of Brooklyn in behalf OF
law and order are about to see that the law is
executed. The Sabbath has been sacrificed
to the rum traffic. To many of our people the
best day of the week is the wort. Bakers
must keep their shops closed on the Sabbath
IL is dangerous TO have lOaves of bread going
out on Sunday. The shoe store is closed;
severe penalty will attack the man who sells
boots on the Sabbath. But down with the
window shutters of the grOg shops. Our
laws shall confer particular hOnors upon the
rum trafhckers. All other traders must stand
aside for these. Let our citizens who have
dlsgraccd themselves by trading in clothing
ana hosiery and hardware and lumber and
coal take off Their hats to the rum-seller,
elected to particular honor. 1t is unsafe for
any other class OF men 10 be allowed license
for Sunday work. But swing out your signs,
. ye trahickers in the peace of families and
in the souls of immortal men! Let the corks
fly and the beer foam and the rum go tearing
down the half-consumed throat Of the inebri-
ate. God does not see, does he? Judgment
Will never come, will it?
They would bury the Sabbath very deeentJv
under the wreath of the target company and
to the MUSE of all StrakOsch's brazen instru-
There are to-day IN the different
cities 10000 hands and 10000 pens
busy in attempting to cut out the
heart of our Christian Sabbath and leave
it a mere skeleton of what il once Was The
effort is organized and tremendous, and, un-
less the friends of Christ and the lovers of
good Or,ter shall rouse up right speedily their
sermons and their protests will be uttered
after the castle Is taken, There are cities in
the land where the Sabbath has almost per
ished, and every Sabbath night those cities
are in full blaze of theatric and Operatic en-
tertainment, and it is becoming a practical
question whether we who received a pure
Sabbath from the hands of our fathers shall
have plety and pluck enough to give to our
children the same blessed Inheritance. The
eternal God helping us, we will!
protest against this invasion Of the holy
Sabbath IN the first place, because 1t is a war
on divine enactment. God says in Isaiah:
"If thou turn away thy foot from doing thy
pleasure on my holy day, thou shalt walk
''doing thy pleasure?'' He referred to secular
and worldly amusements. A man told me he
was never SO much frightened as in the midst
of an earthquake, when the beasts of the field
beloved in fear and even the barnyard fowls
screamed in terror. Well, 1t was when the
earth was shaking and the SKY was ali full Of
fire that God made the great announcement:
"Remember the Sabbath day to keen il holvD
Go along through the streets where the thea
tres are open on a Sabbath night; go up on the
steps: enter the boxes of those places OF enter
l.
Sabbath holy. "Oh,' says some one, "God
won't be displeased with grand sacred con-
cert" A gentleman who was present at a
grand sacred concert" said that during the
exercises there were comic and sentimental
songs, interspersed with coarse jokes, and
there were dances and farce and tIght-rope
walking and trapeZe performance. | sup
pose it was a holy dance and consecrated
tight-rope. l am not certain, however about
that, hut this know-it was ''grand sacred
concert"
Wehear great deal of talk about "the rights
of the people" to have just such amussments
on Sunday as they want to have. wonder if
the Lord has any rights. You ralc your
family, the Governor rules the State. the
President rules the whole land: | wonder if
the Lord has a right TO rule the nations and
make the enactment, Remember the Sab
bath day TO keep it holy" and If there is any
appeal to higher court from that d. cisiOn,
and II the men who are warning against that
enactment are not guilty of high treason
against the maker of heaven and earth. They
have IN our cities put Gsd on trial. 1t has
been the theatres and the opera houses of the
land plaintiffs, VS.. the Lord Almighty de-
fendant, and the suit has been begun, and
who shall come out ahead you know. Whether
it be popular or unpopular, now announce
it as my opinion that the people have no rights
save. those which the great Jehovah gives
them. He has never given the right to man
to break His holy Sabbath, and as long as
His throne stands He will never give that
right.
The prophet asks a question which can
easily answer: "Will a man rob God?" Yes,
They robbed Him last Sunday night at the
theatres and the opera houses, and charge
upon them the Infamous and hIgh-handed
larceny. | believe with the sailor. The crew
had been discharged from the vessel because
they would not work while they were In port
on the Lords day. The captain went out to
get sailors. He found one man. and he said
to him: "Will you serve me on the Sabbath?"
"No." "Why nOt?' "Well," replied the Old
sailor, "a man who will rob God Almighty of