The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1889-01-18

THE JEERERs AND JIBERS AT THE SABBATH
With what reFllsion and with what pity
we must look out on that large class Of per
sons In our day who would throw discrcAit
upon the Lords day. There are two things
which Christian'people ought never to give
up; the one Is tn Bible, the other is tho Sab
bath Take away one, and you take both
Take either, and farewell to Chris
tianity In this country, farewell to our civil
and religious liberties When they go, all
go. He who has sver spent Sunday In Paris
or Antwerp, or Rome, II he be an intelligent
Christian, win pray God that the
day win never come when the Sabbath
of continental Europe shall put its foot
upon our shores. had friend In Syracuse
who lived to be 100 years OF age. He said to
me In his 90th year: ~ went across the
mountains in the early history Of this coun
try. Sabbath morning came. We were be
yond the reach Of civilization My comrades
were all going out for an excursion. l said
No, won't go; 1t Is Sunday Why, they
laughed. They said: We haven't any Sun
day here oh, yes said, you have ]
brought it with mo over the mountains"
There are two or three ways In which VIC
can war against Sabbath breaking usages IN
this day; and the first thing is to get our chill
dren right upon this subject, and teach them
that tho Sabbath day Is the hottest of all the
days, and the best and the gladdest. Unless
you teach your child under the paternal roof
to keep the Lords day, there are nine hundred
and ninety chances out Of a thousand it will
never learn to keep the Sabbath. You may
think to shirk responsibility in the matter
and send your child to the Sabbath school and
tho house Of God; that win not relieve the
matter. ! want to tell you, In the name Of
Christ, my Maker and my Judge, that you
example will be more potential than any In
struction they get elsewhere; and IL you disre
gard tho Lords day yourself, or in any wise
throw contempt upon 1t, you are blasting
your children with an infinite curse. 1t Is o
rough truth, know, told In O rough way
but 1t is Gods truth, nevertheless. You
child may 60 on to seventy or eighty year.
Of age. but that child will never get over the
awful disadvantage of having had Sabbath
breaking father or a Sabbath breaking
mother 1t is the Joy Of many Of us that we
can look back to an early home where God
was honored, and when the Sabbath came IL
was day Of great conservation and joy.
We remember the old faces around tho table
that Sabbath morning. Our hearts melt
when we think Of those Blessed associations,
and we may have been Off aad committed
many indiscretions and done many wrong
things; but the day will never come when we
forget the early home In which Gods day
was regarded, and father and mother told us
to keep holy the Sabbath.
HOW THE EVIL IS TO BE FOUGHT.
There is another way in which We can wal
against the Sabbath breaking usaSes Of the
country at this time, and that is by making
% H..
ligious services inspiritinG l plead not for
agugeoUs au1Icnvo cnumDcr, PIeao noJ ror
groined rafters or magnificent fresco; but
do plead for comfortable churches, home like
churches places where the church going
population behave as they ought to. Make
the church welcome to all, however poorly
clad they may be. or whatever may have
been their past history; for think the church
Of God Is not so much made for you who
could have churches In your own house, but
for the vast population of our great cities,
who are treading on toward death, with no
voice Of mercy to arrest them. Ahi when
the prodigal comes into the church, do not
stare at him as though he had no right to
come. Give him the best seat you can find
for him. Sometimes man wakes up from
his sin, and he says: an go to the house of
God" Perhaps he comes from one motive,
perhaps from another nofinds the church
dark and the Christian people frigid land
there are no people on earth who can be
more frigid than Christian people when they
try and the music is duh, and he never comes
again. Suppose one of these men enters the
church. As he comes in he hears q song
which his mother sang when he was boy;
he remembers 1t. He sits down, and some
one hands him a book, open at
Jerusalem, my happy home,
Name ever dear to me-
eyes" he says, 81 have heard that many
times" He sees cheerful Christian people
there, every mans face a psalm Of thanks
giving to God. He says: "Do you have this
90 every Sundayi have heard that the
house Of God was a doleful place, and Chris
tians were lugubrious and repellingl have
really enjoyed myselfr' The next Sabbath
the man is again in the same place. Tears of
repentance start down his cheek; he begins
to pray; and when the communion table is
spread he sits at it, and some one reaches
over and says: 81 am surprised to find you
here thought you didn't believe in such
things" "Ahr' he says, 81 have been cap
tured I came in one day, and found you
were all SO loving and cheerful here that l
concluded would come among you. Where
thou goest, I viii go; thy people shall be my
people, and thy God my God Where thou
diest, will die, and there will be buried"
ALL you can't drive men out of their sins,
but you can coax men out-you can charm
them out
would to God that we could all come to a
higher appreciation Of this Sabbath heritagei
We cannot count the treasures of one Chris
tian Sabbath 1t spreads out over us the
two wings of the archangel Of mercy Oh,
blessed Sabbath blessed Sabbath They
scott a great deal about the old Puritanic
Sabbaths, and there is O wonderful amount
Of wit expended upon that subject now-the
Sabbaths they used to have in New England
I never lived in New England, but would
rather trust the old Puritanic Sabbath, with
all its faults, than this modern Sabbath,
which is fast becoming no Sabbath at all If
our modern Sabbatism shall produce as stall
wart Christian character as the old New
England Puritanic Sabbatism, shall be salts
fed, and l shall be surprised
Oh, blessed dayl blessed dayl I should
like to die some Sabbath morning when the
air Is full Of church music and the bells are
ringing. Leaving my home group with a
dying blessing, should like to look off upon
some Christian assemblage chanting the
praises Of God as / went up to Join the one
hundred and forty and four thousand and the
thousands of thousands standing around the
throne Of Jesus Harki I hear the bell of the
old kirk ON the hillside Of heaven It is
wedding bell, for behold the bridegroom
cometh. It Is a victor's bell, for we are more
than conquerors through him who hath
loved us It Is Sabbath bell, for it calls the
nations Of earth and heaven to everlasting
repose.
Oh when. thou city Of my God,
Shall thy courts ascendf
Where congregations neer break up
And Sabbaths have no end