The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-02-23

once was. The effort is organized and tremen
| dous and unless the friends Of Christ and the
| lovers of good order shall roise up right speed
iy their sermons and their protests will be ut
tered 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 III
full blaze of Theatre and operate rtainment,
ana IL Is becoming practical question whether
| we who received pure Sabbath from the hands
of our fathers shall have piety and pluck enough
to give to our children the same blessed inner
| itance. The eternal God helping us, we will
WAR AGAINST DIVINE LAWS.
protest against these invasions of the Holy
Sabbath, in the first place, because it 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 upon the high
| places" What did he mean by doing thy
! pleasure9' He referred to secular and worldly
amusements. A man told me he was never so
| much frightened as in the midst of an earth
| quake, when the beasts Of the field beloved in
fear and even the barnyard towels screamed in
| terror Well, it was when the earth was shak-
| ing and the sky was all full of fire that God
made the great announcement: Remember the
Sabbath day to keep it holy" Go along through
the streets where the theaters are open on Sab
bath night; go up the steps; enter the boxes OF
those places Of entertainment, and tell me II that
! is keeping the Sabbath holy. ooh" says some
one. God won't be displeased with a grand
sacred concert" gentleman who was present
at 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 / suppose it was a
| holy dance and consecrated tightrope. l am
not certain, however, about that; but this know,
| it was a grand sacred concert"
We hear great deal of talk about "the rights
| of the people" to have just such amusements on
| Sunday as they want to have. l wonder if the
Lord has any rights! You rule your family, the
Governor rules the State, the President rules
the whole land; wonder If the Lord has g
right to rule the nations and make the enact
ment: Remember the Sabbath day to keep it
holy" and if there is any appeal to higher
| court from that decision, and if the men who
are warning against that enactment not
guilty of high treason against the Maker Of
heaven and earth. They have in our cities put
God on trial. 1t has been the theaters and the
opera houses of the land, plaintiffs versus the
Lord Almighty. defendant and the suit has
been begun, and who shall come out ahead you
know. Whether it be popular or unpopular,
| now announce it my opinion that the people
have no rights save those which the Great Je-
hovah gives them. He has never given the right
to man to break His holy Sabbath, and long
as His throne stands He will never give that
right.
The prophet asks question which can easily
answer-"Will a man rob GodP Yes They
robbed him last Sunday night at the theaters
and the opera houses and l charge upon them
the infamous and high handed larceny. be-
lieve with the sailor. The had been dis
charged from the vessel because they would not
work while in port on the Lords day The cap
| tain went out to get sailors. Hefound one man,
and he said to him: will you serve me on the
Sabbath2" 'Eo." ''Why not!" well" replied
the old sailor "a man who would rob God
| Almighty of His Sabbath would rob me of my
wages if he got chance" Oh, it is dastardly
mean when we break the Sabbath. Suppose
you had seven oranges, and you gave to your
child six of them, putting the other orange in
| your pocket for yourself, and you should find
that the child had not been satisfied with the six
| oranges, and had come and stolen your seventh.
| That is precisely what men do when they break
| the Sabbath. Suppose you were poor, and you
| came to a dry goods merchant and asked for
some cloth for garments, and he should say:
! "Tll give you six yards and while he was off
| from the counter binding up the six yards you
| should go behind the counter and steal one adj
ditional yard. That is what every man does
when he breaks the Lords Sabbath God gives
us six days out of seven, reserving one for him
| self, and you will not let Him have it. 1t is
mean beyond all computation
| / am opposed to this dissertation of the Sab
| bath by secular entertainments because it is y
| war on the statutes of our State. The law saws
''it shall not he lawful to exhibit on the first
| day of the week. commonly called Sunday, to
| the public. in any building garden grounds,
concert room or other room or place within the
city and county of New York, any interlude,
|
| negro minstrelsy, negro or other dancing, or any
| other entertainment of the stage, or any part or
| parts therein, or any equestrian, circus or dra-
matte performances or any performance of jug
| glers, aerobats or rope dancing"
/ Was there ever palmer enactment than that?
| Who made the lawf You who, at the ballot
/ box decided who should 60 to Albany and sit in
/ the Legislature. They made the law for you
| and for your families; and now | say that any
man who attempts to override that law insults
you, and me. and every man who has the right Of
suffrage in the State of New York.
| Still further protest against this invasion
| of the Sabbath because it is foreign war Now
| if you heard at this moment the booming Of a
gun in the harbor, a she'll from some foreign
| frigate should drop in our streets how long
would you keep your seats in the Tabernacle2
| You would want to face the foe and every gun
| that could be managed would be brought in
use. and every ship that could be brought out
of the navy yard would swing from her anchor
| age, and the question would be decided. You do
not want foreign war, and yet have to tell
you that this invasion of Gods holy day is a
| foreign war. AS among our own native born pop
ulation there are two classes, the good
/ and the bad so it is with the people who
come from the other shores; there are the law
| abiding and the lawless. The former are well
come here. The more of them the better welke il.
| In this particular church there are representa-
tives of all lands. | believe God intended our
national heart to throb with the blood of all
people! But let not the lawless come from other
! shores expecting to break down our Sabbath and
/ institute in the place a foreign Sabbath
| How do you feel, We who have been brought
| up amidst the hills of New England, about Civ
] ing up the American Sabbath Ye you have
spent your childhood under the shadow of the
Adiroracks or the Catskills ye who were born
ON the banks of the Tennessee or the Savannah,
how do you feel about giving up the American
| Sabbath You say. I'VE shall not give it up.
We mean to defend it as long as there is any
strength left in our arm or any blood in our
heart Do not bring your Spanish Sabbath
here do not bring your French Sabbath here do
not bring your German Sabbath here 1t shall
be for US and our children forever a pure, con-
secrated, Christian, American Sabbath.
/ CONTRAST OF sABBATHs.
! will make comparison between the Sab
bath, as some of you have known it, and the
Sabbath of Paris. l speak from observation.
] Ona Sahhafh rnnrninr WAS aro,,rod I