St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1886-06-21
THE AMERICAN SABBATH.

The GLOBE has received number of
communications criticising the Rev. SMITHS
last Sunday sermon on the Sabbath Day"
and the GLOBES editorial concerning the
same. The communications are too numer-
ous, and many of them too lengthy, to pub
lish in full. Some of them applaud our re-
marks while others take issue with us. One
correspondent writes: 81 have read with
great satisfaction your last Mondays edi-
torial on the Sabbath. I should rejoice
to see it published in every paper
In the country. May GOD bless
You and your paper abundantly.
There was a point in my youthful
years when the Sabbath stood between me
and moral and physical ruin" Another
correspondent, who does not agree with the
GLOBES expression on the Sabbath ques-
hon, SAYS: 1T is my opinion that Sabbath
was made, or should be, for man. AS Col.
INGERsoLL aptly puts it, Let the gods
have the skies, give us the earth.'" Still
another correspondent who dissents with
equal emphasis from the proposition that
there is any sort of sacredness attached to
the Sabbath day says the policy which per-
mits one class of citizens to go to church
or the Young Mems Christian Association
hall and denies to another class the priv
lege of visiting the base ball or picnic
grounds, is a stretch of arbitrary power,
which lily becomes country which prides
itself on its principles of religious freedom,
and is in direct opposition to the spirit of
our own civil Institutions" The above
quotations give general idea of the vary
ing shades of public opinion concerning Sab
bath observance. So far as the religious feat
ures of the question are concerned the GLOBE
does not propose to discuss them. That
branch of the discussion more properly be-
longsto the pulpit than to the secular
press, and the extracts from two notable
sermons preached in this city yesterday on
this very subject, and which appear in our
columns this morning, advance the argu-
ments that are used from that standpoint.
We recognize the fact that the American
idea is to recognize the Sabbath as holy
day. The United States is recog-
nized as Christian nation. the
world over, and no one denies that it is the
policy of all the Christian nations of the
world to invest Sunday with more sacred
conditions than are given to the other six
days of the week. Whether Christianity
is a true OF false religion is not pertinent
to this discussion. We only know that the
government of the United States, and all
our political institutions, are the result of
Christian civilization. AS compared with
the other types of civilization, we have no
reason to be ashamed of ours. If the
Puritanism of New England, the
blue-stockingism of Scotland and the
stern discipline of the Roman church have
done no worse for our civilization than to
enforce an observance of the Sabbath as
holy day, we certainly have no cause for
complaint because of the influences of
Christianity on our civilization. We be-
lieye that the Sabbath was made for man.
and not man for the Sabbath, just in the
sense that the shoe is made for the foot,
and not the foot for the shoe. 1t is made
for his benefit, for his comfort, and to be
useful to him. IL is made for him just as
the night is, a season of rest and repose
to the overworked system. The state
has no right to interfere with the individual
conscience, but it has the right to look after
the health of its citizens and to protect the
morals of a community. That is the law
laid down by Justice FIELD of the supreme
court of the United States in an opinion
sustaining law enforcing an observance
of the Sabbath and no other court in this
country has ever had the temerity to con-
trovert this doctrine.