The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1889-12-24
SUNDAY TRAINS.

IN our slow community, which will
hurt no one, however, and is likely
to die down a long time before the
trains stop running. The discussion
reveals the fact that public opinion
here in our microcosm, as in the wider
world beyond our doors. has out
grown the stern old Puritan theory
of the Sabbath and cast it off like a
garment. 1t is a "creed outworn" in
which many were nurtured, to which
many intelligent and candid men
still adhere, but which no longer
suits the new world with its new in
terests, complex relations and wider
needs. ,-.ea Il
The Sunday train is justifable, not
because people desire it merely, but
because the demand is reasonable
one, one which it is service to the
public to meet and not an offence to
be apologized for or condoued. The
desire for an outing on the part of
people whose, only free hours are on
Sunday, is a legitimate one. We
make one more step forward in civil
lization when we make it possible to
crafty that desire A cold, stiff and
silent Sabbath which lays an icy
hand on every warm, fresh impulse
of the spirit is something to be de-
plored, something to be rid of.
Consistency is a jewel" True,
and let us be consistent at all haz-
ards. But is it consistent to stop the
train which keeps three or four men
busy and carries as many hundreds,
while we ourselves roll easily to
in our carriages? Is it con-
sistent to have our own horses
while we prescribe walking
to the mechanic who has none and
him for sinner because he
hires ride? Is it consistent to use
carriage and forbid the street car, or
to use the street car and frown upon
he steam train? Can we with con
sistency forbid the railroad company
to take three, or four hundred labor
ers and mechanics to enjoy breath
of fresh air at Pearl River, when the
cooks are toiling to cook our din
ners, and the yard boy is Harvesting
our horses, and the milkman and
butcher and central Office and type
setter and hundreds of others are all
busy doing for US on Sunday, our So
called "works of necessity?" If we
are really in earnest about consist
ancy, let us eat bread and milk on
and walk to church.
The fact is that it would be as
easy to put stop to Sunday work
rs it would be to abolish the division
If labor and go back to the print
i've social condition where each fam
ly is little society by itself, where |
10 man has any need of his neighbor
md each individual is half master
If all trades. 1t may be added that |
he Sunday of no work properly be-
ongs to that social stage, and is an
lnachronism in our own. The peace
III quiet of the first New England
'illages may be very poetic and |
desirable ideal, but the logic of
vents has made it an impossible
me. If we wish to do any good in
his world we must set our faces the
anne way as time set his. The world
loes not move backward. 1t is use
ess to look in the past for the
1olden age. 1t is not to be found
here, as little in religious matters
S in anything else. Joshua we are
old stopped the sun in the valley of
Ajalon, but if the world had been
moving as fast then as it is now he
ever could have done it. 8ai
If we look through the world at
arge it is impossible to escape the
that the progress of ideas
as already nearly shuffled our old.
ashioned Sunday off the stage. 1t
obsolescent and will soon be obso-
,te, is every day less of fact and
lore of "reminiscences There is
othing to regret in all this. The
unday which our Puritan fore
lthers brought with them from |
Ingland was nothing but local
lea. 1t had no historical standing 1
| the Christian Church. 1t is un-
Imported by good biblical author
y. 1t presented the strongest anal &
yy to the Jewish Sabbath. 1t was s
re-eminently the work of men. I
hrist came among other things to S