The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1885-04-22
The Need of a Day of Rest.

lie Necu vi lay vi heSts
In 1893, when infidelity held power in
France, made the land run with blood
and tried to create a new era, it abol-
ished the week by law and decreed that
henceforth there should be periods of
ten DAYS instead of seven, decades in
stead of weeks. The attempt was
failure. The week is a part of civiliza-
ton. 1t has come to stay. 1t prevails
far more widely than Christianity or
Judaism. 1t is accepted by myriads of
the human race who never read or saw
the Bible. SO universal is its recogni
ton that it may be declared to be an
institution of the human race. Whence
comes the week? 1t is easy for us to
tell why there should be year 1t is
measured by the annual revolution of
the earth around the sun. The period
that the moon requires to make its pas
sage around the earth determines the
month: the rotation of the earth on its
axis measures the day: but why should
Greek, Romans, Mahometans, Jews
and Christians all have the week. as
well as the month and year? Why
cannot infidelity abolish the week?
There can be only two answers: %
That God required humanity to observe
the week and to keep one day in seven,
and that the influence of this command
ment has been felt to the very ends of
the earth; or (2) that God has written
in the human frame law, necessity,
that shows itself in the cessation from
busy toll one day in seven. Probably
both these causes have had an effect.
In reference to the second, it is to be
observed that it is not in the idle and
thriftless nations, not among Indian
savages and naked Senegambians, that
the week with its weekly cessation from
toll is most firmly entrenched, but
among the busy races, the hard-wOrk-
ing nations, those who do the work of
the world. We believe that the neces-
sity for Sabbath is implanted in
the human constitutions: that when God
made man he so made him that he could
not fulfill well the ends of his being
without his weekly rest. We believe
that all experience demonstrates that
the body requires it as well as the mind
and soul. 1t is physical as well as
religious necessity. Even the hard
worked brute requires it, In the days
of the overland route to California it
was demonstrated again and again that
the emigrants who stopped their teams
on Sunday, rested them, and started on
Monday morning. soon passed and left
behind those who pushed right on, and
not only made a speedier passage but
reached the journeys end in a better
condition. 1t has been demonstrated
thousands of times that the man who
rests on the Lords day will do more
work in the three hundred siXty-fve
DAYS of the year than the man who re-
fuses to hallow the day. His mind is
clearer, his hand is firmer, his will is
firmer and his spirits more buoyant
AT the same time his health is better
and he is much less likely to lose time
from sickness. If there is anything
demonstrated by human experience. it
is that both the physical and moral well
fare of man demands a Sabbath
But more than this is true. 1t has also
been clearly demonstrated that man re-
quires, not one day in five, or six, or
ten, but in secen. DR.. Peabody, in an
elaborate treatise styled " Religion and
Science" points out the fact, in a mas
terly fashion, that in measurements of
duration things 90 in circles of seven.
Not every eighth day nor every sixth
Sabbath. The French infdels, simply
to disown the Bible claims, would like
to have had one day in ten observed
for the purposes of rest from labor.
But, strangely, the animal constitution
is so strung that it refuses to respond to
such an arrangement. The Bible aside,
it can be shown that God has written
the fourth commandment into the very
organization of mankind, so that, in Sc
curing the best results, the laborer will
necessarily work along the line of Gods
written law. If these things are so.
every friend of humanity should feel
himself called upon to assist in the
preservation of the Lords day Every
brewer or distiller who runs his es-
Enlistment, every manufacturer that
forces his wOrkmen to continue their
hard tasks. every railroad that forces
its engineers, conductors and brake
men to labor seven days in the week,
every saloon-keeper that seeks to make
the day hideous by putting the fires of
hell into the creatures of God, every
theater, circus, concert hall, baseball
park, or any other show that runs its
usual business on the Lords days
the enemy, not only of God, but of
the human race. He is fighting against
its welfare. The welfare of humanity
demands that he should be compelled
to suspend his deleterious work. The
laws in existence should be supported
If the laws in existence are not sutii-
cient, they should be amended in the in
terests of man.-Christidn Evangelist.