Morning journal and courier., 1891-04-29
COMMUNICATION.
Sunday.

The remarks or one or tne IuOst e4cel- lent men and efficient clergymen in our city. in regard to the use of Sunday, which you published Monday morning, proceed, it seems to me, upon an assump- tion which is about outworn, which is des- tined to be swept away altogether, and ad- vocacy of which can only injure the cause of Sunday rest and Sunday benefits. It is the assumption that we must keep Sun day for it's own sake, although our req sons for doing this are, in large part, that so keeping it has incidental results of great value. This way of putting it is of the most ancient Jews Jewish, and of the old Puritans Puritanical, in clear contra vention of the plain teaching of Christ, that the Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath, and consequent ly that our proper motive in the matter is man for mans sake, and not the day for it's own sake.
 Another principle of Christ, and of sound ethics, in which Christ was pro foundly clear and true, that of having the eye, the perception and motive, single, in order to body full of light, has an inn portant application here. The mere Sun day motive only confuses and injures the appeal we make. The motive of human benefit ought to stand alone. Last even ing, for example, Dr. Munger's congrega- ton were holding praise service, and the remarks you published Monday morning sweepingly condemn all Sunday evening praise services as: in violation of the, Snn- day law. This is surprising extrsva- gance of reasoning on the subject, as well as of uncalled for and unwarranted con- demnation. It is difficult to see how any intelligent judge of religious matters can doubt the religious value and the Sunday fitness of any good praise service. At any rate, the average praise service is as effective for good impression as the aver age Episcopal church service, with formal "stinted" prayers and the thinly effective, not to say soulless rendering of music by boys voices. I never attend convention al prayer meeting without wishing for more of the best hymns and less talk, or hymns chosen to fit with talk rather than for music and praise. Certainly at least the same liberty which Episcopal practice uses may be used by Congregational, Bsp- tist and Methodist, according as benefits are supposed to be gained.
 And what applies to praise services has further wide application. An organ ser vice, for example, by Professor Stoeckel, in the college chapel, could never be other than rich improvement of Sunday evening hour; and if with it were given ( half hours instruction in matters of sci ence, history, current higher news of the worlds progress, and anything which { wise scholar could open to in the unwrit ten Bible of God in nature and in man the whole would be perfectly in line witt Christian aims and teaching, and would do great deal of good which is now lef undone The same may be said of goot l orchestral music for the people, and gooC | Sunday instruction in science, history anC l other serious matters, in the Hyperion l theater, even if such place were closed | Saturday or Monday night to make Sun | day opening more convenient. No uoub | there is great waste of time and none, on the everyday theater attractions, ant | it might be a public benefit to limit tn number in a week to four or five, and re quire that one or two others be of char acter aiming higher than the theater com monly aims, and connected with the sys tenn of public education, at, in part, tn public expense.
 The comprehensive trouble, at the pres ent time, is from the fact that an old sys tenn is breaking down altogether, and th new system is not yet made, or is onl half made The clerical and church min cannot frankly put away the old, and g the new fully at work. The mistake made, and it is very great mistake, ( keeping laws in existence which are not i
 force, and which only confuse and injul
 progress in the right direction No dout
 much that liberty has run into, in EuroI
 for example, has been mischievous, and
 demanding correction in the very place
 where extreme ilerty has been triet
 This, however, does not prove that hbert
 should not be tried, but only that the tri;
 should be wisely made. Any law aime
 to merely keep Sunday for its own sake
 false in principle and bad in effect. As
 the uses of Sunday each should be judge
 by itself on it's own merits, with referenC
 to the good it will directly do or the ev
 it will directly repress; and all kinds (
 good should have an equal fair shoy
 Those who are still content to go on in tt
 old way by Sunday evening solemniti'
 should not have any more liberty ths
 those who follow the light of the worl
 into fields of science, art, human fratern
 ty, and whatever advances the welfare
 man. The record of the wrong for whic
 religion has stood and the injury which
 has done, take the ages of Christian hist
 " together, is too great, too terrible
 fact, to permit for moment the assuml
 ton that church and creed are alone to
 heard in the matter. The larger view (
 good men and true lies nearer to the trui
 of Christ, whose offence in his own tin
 was in nothing more pronounced ths
 that his regard for man was in disregaI
 of Sabbath superstition.
 EDWARD c. TowNE.