West Virginia argus. [volume] (Kingwood, W. Va.) 1877-1946, 1889-01-24
THE DAY OF JOY.
NOR A TIME FOR soLEMN1riEs.
What Talmage Would Have the Sab
bath BE.

AfiAi 10
There Is an element OF gloom striking
brood OF horrora Tho god OF confucfus
lrowned upon It's victims with blind fate
Mohammedansm promises nothing 70 thoss
exhausted with sin In this world but an
eternity OF the same DasSional induigeht eS
But God intended that our religion should
have the grand characteristic Of cheerfulnesS
~. Paul struck the keynote when he said.
Rejoice evermore. and again | say. re
loice" This religion has no spikes for the
feet; 10 has no hooks for the shoulder, IL has
no long pilgrimages To take; IL has no funer.
alpyres upon which TO leap; il has no jug
gernauts before which TO fall. Its good cheet
IL symoolized IN the Bible by the brightness
OF waters, and the fedulence o. lilies, and the
sweetness OF music, and the hilarities of a
banquet A choir of serophim chanted at its
induction and pealing trumpet. and waving
palm, and Tapping wing Of nrchahgel are to
celebrate its triumphs. IL began it's chief
mission with the shout: "Glory TO God in
the highestp' and it will close its earthly
mission with the ascription: "Halleluiah, for
the Lord God o%mnipotent reignethr'
But men have said that our religion is not
cheerful, because we have such n doleful Sab.
bath. They say: you can nave your re-
hgious a~ssemblages, and your long faces, and
your shifting cant, and your psalm books.
and your Bibles. Give us the Sunday eNcur.
son. and the borse-race, and the convivial
laughter. We nave so much 10Y that we
want to spread it all over the seven days of
the week, and you shall not haze one OF our
days OF worldly satisfaction for religious
dolefulnoSs." / want to show these men=if
there are any such In the house this morning
that they are under n great delusion, and
that God intended the fifty-two SUNDAYS OF
the year to be hung up like bells in n tower,
beating n perpetual chime OF JOY, and glory,
and salvation, and heavens; for [ want Won To-
carry cut the idea of the text, "and call the
sabbath a delight"
remark, in the first place, we are TO find
IN this day the joy of healthy repose. In
this democratic country we ALI have 10
work-some with hand, some with brain.
some with foot. IL there is in all this house
q hand that has not, during tho past wear.
been stretched forth to some kind of toll, let
IL he lifted. Not one, not one. You sell the
ln the sick room. You practice at the bar.
You edit a newspaper. You tan the hides.
You preach the Gospel. You mend the shoes.
You sit at the shuttle. You carry the nod
OF bricks up the ladder on the wall. And
the one occupation is as honorable as the
other, provided Col calls you to it, care
not what you do, If you only do it well. But
when Saturday night comes you are faded
and worn. The hand cannot so
sklllfully manufactures; the eve cannot
see as well; the BRAN is not no clear;
the judgment Is not SO well balanced. A
prominent manufacturers told me that he
,ould see n difference between the goods
which went out OF his establishment on Sat
N ~ NhO hCOA1 NAAit NGAAL III On nlOn-
day. He said: They were very different
indeed. Those that were made i'm the former
part OF the week, because of the rest that
mao been previously given, were better than
those that were made in the latter part OF the
week, when the men were tired outn The
sabbath comes, and IL bathes the soreness
from the limbs, quiets the agitated brain,
and puts out the fires of anxiety that have
oeeh BURNING all the week. Our bodies are
.S'S-. day clocks, and unless on the seventh
day they are wound up, they run down into
the grave. The Sabbath was intended as a
savings bank; into it we are to gather the re-
sources upon which we are TO draw all the
week. man who breaks the Sabbath
RODS his own nerve, bis own muscle, his own
bran, has own bones. He dips up the wine
OF hrs W life and throws it away. He
who breaks the Lords day gives a mortgage
20 disease and death upon his entire physical
estate, and at the most unexpected moment
that mortgage will be foreclosed, and the
soul elected from the premises. Every gland,
and pore, and cell, and finger-n nail demand
the seventh day for repose. The respiration
OF tne lungs, the throb OF the pulse in the
wrst, the motion OF the bone in its socket
declare: "Remember the Sabbath day. 10
keep it holy" There are thousands of men
who have had their lives dashed out against
the golden gates of the Sabbath. A promi-
Dent London merchant testifes that thirty
years ago he went to London. He saws; Il
nave during that time watched infinitely.
ana l have noticed that the men who
went TO their bus ness ON the Lords
day, or opened their contingencies,
nave, without a single exception,
come to failure" a prominent Christian
merchant in Boston saws. 81 find it don't nav
to work on sunday. When [ was a boy, 1
noticed out on Long Island there were mer-
chants who loaded their vessels on the Sab
oath day, keeping their men busy from
morning until night, and It is my observa-
ton that they themselves came to nothing
these merchants-and their children came to
notnlng: it doesn't pay" he says, ito work
on the Sabbath
i appeal to your observation. Where ara
the men who twenty years agO were Sab.
bath breakers, ana who rave been sabbath
breakers ever sincei Without a single ex-
ception' you will tell me, they nave come
either 70 financial or 20 moral beggary. /
defy you TO point out a single exception. md
you can take the whole world for your
held. lt has either been q financial or moral
dedication in every instance. Six hundred
ana forty physicians in London petition 1 ar.
lament, saying: I'VE must have the Sab
bath obeyed. We can not have health
N his city md in this nation un-
less the Sabbath is Observed" Those
IN our own country have given evi.
9ence on the same side. Tho mar who takes
down the shutters OF bis store on the sabbath
takes down the curse OF Almighty God
That farmer who cultures bis ground on the
sabbath day ia ses a crop OF neuralgia, and
OF consumption AMI Of death. A farmer
oeLs 4 AttJ your 1uIi5Lldn sabbath. 1
Will raise a Sunday CROP So he went To
work AM plcwed the ground on sunday, aud
narrowed il on Sunday. and he planted corn
On Sunday, and he reaped the corn on sunday.
ana he caUherel II into the barn on sunday.
mere, he says, II have proved 70 you that
OH this idea about a fatality ACCOMPANYING
sabbath work is a perfect sham. My corn
IS garnered, and ell is WE'LL But before
many wesks passed the Lord God struck that
barn with his lightnings, and away went the
Sunday crop.
30 great is the moral depression coming
upon those who toll upon the Sabbath dav.
mat you may have noticed ~ you have not.
1 call your attention % tho fact that In
cases where the pubic interest demands
oauboth toll tho moral depression ia so great
tnot th'fo nre but very few who can stand
%. or instance, the police service. wiihou,
which not ono ~ our houses would be- safe
thcro are very few who can stand the pres.
sure and temptation NJ 10. Jn London. where
there nrc five thousand policemen. the sta.
tstlc U.s. given that in one year nine hundred
end twenty ono NJ that Eve thousand wcra
"d. flee ruIdrsl obd twenty fhra
were suspended. and two thousand. rou.
hundred and ninety-t wo we're fined. Now.i
Tie moral depression is so great in Occupa
tons that are positively necessary for tp
peace and prosperity OF society, II ask y0l
what must be- the moral depression in thoe
cases whore there is no necessity for Sabbath
work, and where n man chooses worldly husi