The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1891-05-24

Southern Writer Who Believes 1.-THE Sabbath
Was Made for Man,"

Was Made for Man."
w. J. g.. in Atlanta Constitution.
Oh-time Standardization got its death
blow when Christ rebuked the narrowness
of the ScriUes and Pharisees by the reply.
The sabbath was made for man, and not
significant fact that at no time, whether he
spoke q Sermon, or parable, or wrought o
miracle. did he emphasize the fourth COM
mandment. The jewish traditions and
teachings with reference TO the seventh day
were strikingly unsuited to the brightness
and sweetness of the first day of the week,
which in due time was to become the
weekly festival of the resurrection. The
Puritans, whose asceticlsm diStigured the
Christian Sabbath. were in sentiment. if
not by birth, unciroumcised Jews.
They put. as Tom Hood phrases It, ''too
much Sabbath into their Sunday" Those
Protestant bigots, the Mathers of New
England, kept Boston in a state of lively
fermentation by their extreme views on
Sunday observance. Tipstaffs were kept
prowling through the streets and around
the Westinghouse, trying to catch some
unlucky wight who was casting loye-lOrn
chances at the deacon's daughter. And
there. too. was the officious beadle, who
was required to touch up come oleaginous
selectman who should nod at intervals in
listening to a sermon that stretched from
the Adamic transgressi0n to the trump of
doom.
Next to this rigid enforcement of Sab
bath laws. was the war waged On Quakers
and Baptists, lnterlined with occasional
holocaust in the way of p W. ch-burning.
There the Mathers, Increase and Cotton.
were as autocratic In their petty
sphere as Hilderbrand in his broader
diocese. Such compulsory methods
were naturally followed by q
reaction hat still exists III Puritan Boston.
Nowhere in this country, east of the MIssis-
sippi. Is there q cOmmOnw ealth that has q
more AUTHORITARIAN theology, a larger per-
centage of divorces. a greater numbe of
criminal abOrtions. and a bigger per capita
of f~elonies than the old Bay State. AS to
Sunday observance. the people of Massa-
chusetts are not more %scrupulous than other
old communities. The recent tempest in
q teapot " that this question produced In
Atlanta shows that the Puritanic theory of
the Sabbath still has some fOothOld in this
progressive city. just as it required three
hundred years to eliminate the seventh day
observance from the Christian calendar. so
such momentOus issues as the decoration OF
a few confederate graves on Sunday after
noon will still be discussed with q f1uency
and feryency hat reminds us Of
An ocean into tempest tossed
To watt a feather or TO drown a fly.
Verify, we are a generation slow of I'M
d~erstanding, however GLIB of tongue.
We are now in less than a decade of the
twentieth century after Christ, and we are
still Judging one another IN respect 70
meats. and drinks. n Sabbaths, and holi-
DAYS.
There is even an organized Christian
Church of Seventh-day Adventists that
observe the literal Sabbath and cling to the
doctrine of a speedy personal advent of the
Son of God. For the Sabbath as the blessed
Christ interpreted it. we are profoundly
thankful and endeavOr to DO fairly observ-
ant of its sacrejness.
Let us steer clear alike of continental
and Puriuanic methods. For the frivolity
of the former and the vinegarish SAVIOR of
the latter are both to be deprecated.