Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1891-06-14

/ Tuesday was in honor OF Thu; Wednes-
dav of Wooden; Thursday of Their; Fri
dav of the Northern Venus, Frigga;
Saturday OF Saturn of the days.
So you will see that the names are OF
pagan origin, and the reason we keep
Sunday instead of what the Jews called
the Sabbath is that the early Christians
adopted the pagan customs and aban-
doned the Jewish. The Jews kept our
SATURDAY.. That was the sacred day
and that day was kept, according to the
[ Old Testament, for two reasons: First,
because God made the world in six days
and then rested being some fatigued
after having made so much out OF moth
| ing; and the other reason is that the
Sabbath should be kept because Jehovah
/ brought the Jews out OF Egypt and de-
| livered them from slavery.
According to the Old Testament that
day was to be kept, not by the whole
world, but by the Jews and by no others.
I suppose in the old days when there
were no ewspaperS-people for the pur-
pose OF finding what we now call the
news came together. In those days
they had no clocks, no watches; conSe-
quently they kept account OF time by
/ the heavenly bOdieS-by the sun, by the
moon and stars. A lunar month is
twenty-eight dayS-that is, the moon
quarters every seven days and they
could keep account OF the new
moons and the full moons: and the
probability is that they fell on one day
( in seven by dividing the lunar month by
/ four, according TO the state of the moon.
| This could be easily determined by
nearly everybody. and in that way the
times were fixed in advance when they
should meet; and when they so met not
only news was exchanged, but the law
givers told the people what they must
do, and the orders Of the king or chief
were made known. Consequently but
/ little business was transacted on that
day--that is, but little work at their
homes.
The Jews had an idea that what they
called the Sabbath was sacred, and TO
such an extremity did they 90 in this,
that if Jew should fall down in the
middle Of the day he would not get up
until shutdown.
OF course n space of time cannot be
holy, any more than vacuum can De
piouS People who think, will never
believe that the infinite energy, or what
we call the universe, was ever tired. or
that it ever rested. People who think
| know that force is forever active, and
/ lust as active on Sunday as on any
other day. There is ho difference in
the attraction of grayitation, no differ
erence in wind, or wave, or tide, no diff
| ference in the speed of planets-on ac-
count of days. Nature is forever
active in every direction, in all
places and all times. Men who
think will know that it is impossible
to add to the happiness of an infinite be-
| ing by keeping, or not keeping, any par
ticular day of the week. Consequently,
people who think will arrive at the con-
cluSion that all days should be set apart
for the good of man, and that those
days are the best days in which men are
the happiest, in which the most good
has been done.
This being so, the question Of Sunday
| keeping is one to be determined by its
effect upon man in this world and no
other.
The church takes the ground that
Sunday belongs to God-that is to say,
to the church-that is to say, to the
clergy, and that it is the duty of every
one to listen to sermon on that day.
| This ground is taken for the reason that
most clergymen know that before peo-
pie will listen to a sermon they must be
convinced that it is 4 matter of duty.
| So most clergymen know that in order
to compel people to attend church,
places of real amusement must be closed
on that day. So they say there must
be no theatre, no opera, no concert, no
museum, no libraries, no boats running
up and down the river, no places of re-
sort at the SeaShOre-cverythiug TO the
world of that character must be tied up
and locked up and shut up.
Now, in my judgment, everyone
should spend Sunday as he spends Mon
day-to the best advantage. But as
there is a custom by which most people
cease from labor on Sunday, think IL
should be set apart as day of enjoy
ment-a day for the working man, not
only to rest, but to take his wife and
children to the park or TO the woods or
to the seaShore.
So | think Sunday is good day to
get acquainted with your family, good
day TO see your best girl, to read Old
letters. old poems, write letters, to have
Dreams good day TO enjoy yourself
in every way in which you may feel in
clined, provided you do not in any way
interfere with the happiness of others.
Nothing is moro idiotic, nothing is
more absurd, than the idea that one day
is better than another, or that any
space of time whatever is too good for
human being to be happy in.
| hope to live long enough to see
people have sense enough to use all time
for the benefit and the real benefit Of
themselves and their neighbors. Under
stand me, | do not wish to interfere
with the sad enjoyment of those who
delight to sit that day and think about
the consultations OF perdition.
LET everyone be fully persuaded in
his own mind" Let the church attend
to its own business and not interfere
with others; ana l am perfectly willing
that all should attend church who de-
sire, provided they do not interfere
with those who are on their way to the
country or to the SeaShore. In other
words: Liberty for all.
Nothing could be more cowardly than
the effort to compel the observance OF
the Sabbath by law. In all places
where an effort has been mac to en-
force Sunday legislation the orthodox
people have met with failure. We of
America have outgrown the childish
ness of our last century; we laugh at
the superStitions of our fathers. We
have made up our minds to be as happy
as we can 6e, knowing that the way to
be happy is to make others so, that the
time to be happy is now, whether that
now is Sunday or any other day in the
week K. q. INGERSoII.
The views Of the great agnoStic finish
this discussion by representative men Of