St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-09-07
DIR. SIMMONS VIEWS.
What He Has to Say on the Sunday
of the Present.


Yesterday morning, at the First Uni
tartan church, Rev. II. NJ. Simmons
preached on "The Present Phase of the
Sunday Question" Hesaid:
The old foundation of Sunday seems
sunk forever. That foundation was
chiefly in the doctrine of Gods rest
after the six days of creation; but few
thinkers to-day believe in any such rest
or IN any such six days. Those days
have disappeared in an eternal creation,
and religion itself admits that the divine
work has never ceased or slackened.
Nor can Sunday be based OIL the
Bible. The Bible itself is not an infal-
llble foundation. according to the Pres
byterian DR.. Briggs; and, even if it
were, ii does not contain word to sup
port our Sunday laws. The only day it
dedlcates to rest is the Sabbath, and its
Sabbath is never Sunday, but always
Saturday. So universally was this
known that the Sabbath continued to
mean Saturday through many centuries
i'll the Christian church, and still con-
tinues to mean that in many of
the modern languages. In the Italian,
Lithuanian, Bohemian, Polish, Bulgar-
ian, Servian and Russian languages, the
word Sabbath. or one but little changed
from 1t, continues 10 be the common
name of Saturday instead of Sunday,
Even the German and French names
for Saturday (Samstag and Samedi) are
both derived from Sabbath day, schol-
ars say. Even in English, Sunday was
seldom called the Sabbath until the
time of the Puritans. Everywhere in
the early church the Sabbath meant
Saturday. So it always meant i'll the
Bible, and no Sunday law can be found
there.
Nor is even the Sabbath commanded
in the Bible taken as a whole. 1t is
commanded in the Old Testament, but
virtually abolished in the New. Jesus
has not left word in favor it, but one
of the chief charges against him was
that He keepeth not the Sabbath and
Archbishop Whately says Jesus did
decidedly and avowedly violate the
Sabbath No word in the New Tesla
ment orders keeping the Sabbath,
but several imply that it was abol-
ished, and no word teaches the keeping
of another day in its stead. Hence
the Sabbath soon ceased to be kept by
Christians, and when they adopted Sun
day instead as their religious day. they
did not for centuries see anything
wrong in laboring on this, and did not
regard it at all as a substitute for the
Sabbath. Even the great Protestant
leaders, from Melancthon and
Luther to Calvin and Bunyan.
protested most strongly against
Sunday being thought a substitute
for the Sabbath. Many amusements,
too, were still allowed on the day, and
even King James, who gave us our En-
glish translation of the Bible, published
a book giving permission to the people
to indulge freely Sunday afternoon in
orin DIT
there then no foundation for Sunday?
Certainly, and quite as good as before.
1t can no longer be sustained by fear or
force, but is by much higher princi-
Piles. The Sabbath proves to- be
older and more venerable than
even the Bible, originating back
in the old Arcadian worship of the
planets, telling not of tired God who
needed rest, but of the Eternal Power
that has kept the planets in their
courses so faithfully ever since. And
since that venerable origin, the Sabbath
has been absorbing humaner meanings.
Among the better Hebrews it lost its
early harShness, and did not mean re-
strlction so much as a glad roset to la
borers, for bodily refreShmeut and spir-
itual elevation. Hence the Sabbath
proved so good an institution, so we'll
fitted to human needs and human ma
ture, that when early Christianity
sought to abolish it it would not stay
abolished: but disappeared in one day
of the week only to reappear i'll an
other, and grew again and again into
the modern Sunday. And with all
the PUritanic attempts to clothe it in
harshness. it has kept these humaner
meanings, and been in general day of
gladness and great gain to the world. 1t
ivit
from Biblical laws, for it is sanctioned
by the interests and divine laws of
civilization, and we cannot afford to
lose it. We need it for physical rest and
recreation. We need it still more because
it suspends our narrower and work-a-day
thoughts. and brings US larger and
more generous ones. Hence the most
skeptical confess the worth of Sunday.
Parton called it the 1.-The best thing
man has got-an Unreasonable bless
ing which the religion of the future
must preserve. Emerson called it the
''core of civilization" and said, LET it
stand, temple which new love, new
faith. new sight shall restore to more
than it's first sp!endor."
but all the more because Sunday is
so valuable do we need to improve our
methods Of keeping it. We need to
abolish all unjust Sunday laws, and
allow every man to follow his own COLI
science and keep what day he will and
as he will, so long as he does not en-
danger the public order. Indeed, laws
are only superficial forces for keeping
Sunday, and far more important
are the educational ones. Shut the
saloons by all means, but for the
same reason keep open on Sunday
everything that educates men and
weakens the taste for saloons. Keep
open the churches and the lecture
rooms; keep open all the libraries. and
all the museums, and all the exposi-
tons. Sunday is the day of all days
when such places should be open, for it
is the day when laboring men are at
leisure and especially need good
places to spend their leisure. Moral
ity calls for the opening of libraries and
art collections on Sunday. Even re-
ligion calls for it. For art is also an
altar, literature IS liturgy, poetry is a
prayer. The best way to worship is to
enlarge our thoughts and elevate our
souls, and Sunday is kept by everything
that softens and sweetens human
hearts,"