The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1888-08-18
Snecia1 Contributors.
THE SABBATH-CAUSES OF ITS
DECLINE.
EDGAR LEAVITT.
Oshkosh, Wis.,


Oshkosh Wis.,
Every one who is acquainted with the
facts must admit that in the matter OF
Sabbath observance, public sentiment
and public practice, during the last forty
or fifty years, have become more lax;
and the observer, even if not a close
observer, must also have seen that in
stead of having arrived at standstiu,
this laxity is yet constantly on the
increase it takes into its wider
and wider circles each year more people
and more and more forms of business.
The question naturally arises in the
mind Of one who takes an interest in
such things, of one who believes that
the Sabbath is q God-given institution,
who believes it is an institution Of vast
importance, not only to the spiritual
and moral welfare Of our fellowmen,
but also, and therefore, of vast impor-
tance to the physical and industrial
welfare of our people,-the question
arises, say, if there shall come no re-
action, where is all this going to end?
If things keep on as they have
been and as they are now going on,
will not the time arrive in the not
far-distant future, when the Sabbath as
an institution generally recognized and
observed among the people will disap-
pear?-when there will be no longer
any Sabbath kept holy either for Gods
sake or mans sake.
We would not have it understood that
we take by any means sc gloomy view
of the probable future. We have too
much faith in God, too much faith in
the intelligence and moral capacity Of
man and especially of the American
people to believe that we shall drift
quite to that extreme; but 1T is certainly
high time that every lover of God, and
of the best interests of his fellow men,
bestirred himself in this regard, unless
he wishes to see the Sabbath go, and
with it all that it imports to our inter
est, spiritual and material.
The question may perhaps be asked,
What is the cause of this decline in re-
gard to observance of the Sabbath 1
think we shall find it among other
things in the following
1st. The large and rapid inflow of
foreign immigration, not as a general
thing Of the best classes of Europe, of
those in comfortable circumstances, the
we'll educated, the most moral or most
religious elements, such as were those
who laid the foundations of American
institutions; but an element as far dif-
ferent in these respects as it is possible
to conceive. While large good ele-
ment has come over from Europe, and
upon them we would cast no disparage-
ment, large mass has been OF the
poorer classes, comparatively unedu-
Gated, immoral if not immoral, and
many of them TO escape an oppression,
both religious and political, so severe
that they had been driven by it to des
peration. They become socialists or
anarchists in political philosophy, and
infdels as regards religion. Even the
better classes who have been coming
over have bad very imperfect cOncep-
tions either of politics or religion from
the English or American standpoint.
In continental Europe, Protestant as
we'll as Catholic; there has never been
any clear distinction in the popular
mind, as there has been in Great Brit
ain and America, between holy day and
holiday. They have a great many
saint nt's.days and national holidays.
Sundays to them are holidays like the
rest, because the church says so; and
having come up in that way when they
come here they can see no difference
between Sundays and The Publication
of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and the
Fourth of July and Washington Birth
day. Nothing but the influence of an
element like this could ever have in
duced Americans to turn Decoration
Day, that most solemn and sacred and
tender of our national holidays into
day for amusement. The example of
this large element Of our population,
regardless of the Sabbath, has had its
emect upon the American population,
and especially upon the younger gener-
alton, to make it more lax in its views
concerning proper Sabbath observance.
The pilgrim fathers left Holland
where they had taken refuge from royal
persecution, and sought the bleak
hores of New England in mid-winteT