The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1892-09-21

PLEASURES OF SUNDAY.
IT Is the Best Day of the Week for tho
Christian Home.

1T was Sunday afternoon in foreign |
city. Holiday crowds, were surging
through the streets and overlooking in
to the suburbs. Everywhere was hub
hub of talk and laughter: in every
square music piping and carrousels
spinnings; in every garden was feast
ing and merry-malSing We were sitting
at coffee in the house of a revered
pastor. and the pastors son was dis
coursing to us of the advantage of hav
ing the best plays and operas reserved
for Sunday evenings.
."And how. do you in America spend
Sunday?rfe asked. !
Mornings we go to church.
"Nes, of course" ..'
Afternoons we read, sing, talk to-
gether; when we are in the country we
take quiet walk"
yes" somewhat obviously
Evenings we go to church, or enjoy
one another at home. arr .. "A
-'"Ah, du leiber Gott! What a dull life!"
We could only let the subject drop in
silence. But like breath from the gar
den of the lord stealing into sultry,
arid place had come the memory of our
childhood's Sabbath.
The sunbeams that walked us in the
morning wrote over our little bed in
letters of serene gold: ..Holy Day"
Our mother came to us with a hymn
upon her lips, and the family met to-
gether with every home love burning
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through hushed and shining land
we never saw of weekday, and we
sang with the great congregation from
the depths OF happy hearts:
ION day of rest and gladness"
All day long, the tasks and diversions
of other days laid by, we could yield
ourselves at will to the dreams,
the fancies, the deep, dim, di-
vine thoughts that made the heaven
of childhood. before life had
laid SOLDERING hand upon us and called
our reveries idle. Night come and the
Sabbath stars shining so much more
than other stars, all the sweet infu-
ences of the day grouped themselves
about our drowsy head, and our last
thought was prayer that they might
go with us down the merry week.
blessed he who has such memories, to
whom the Sabbath was never day of
revelry on the one hand, nor of gloom
or dullness on the other, but in truth
The worlds sweet inn from care and wear
isome turmoil
That is profound philosophy which
counscls parents to make Sunday the
happiest day of the week. And the
chief requisite to this is that they give
themselves to their children, at church
Us well as at home. The Sunday-school
must not be allowed to usurp the place
of the church service. The child
nestled in the family pew at his moth
er's side, holding his fathers hand,
enters naturally from the shelter of
warm human love into the mystery of
Divine love, and the house of God very
early becomes to him the gate of
Heaven.
For little children it is a pretty plan
TO set aside for Sabbath use the most
attractive toys, the favorite pictures
and stories, the sweetest child songs
and hymns, and TO join with them more
than ever in their quiet moods, until,
when they wake Sunday morning, they
shall exclaim, with four-year-old of
our acquaintance: "Oh, I'm so glad it's
Sunday
Music is the heritage of the family
sabbath. Not church hymns and
Sunday-school hymns only, but the
music of the masters as well, those
great compositions that tell with
out words the story of human
life, and tell Il religiously because truly
and profoundly; that speak to the chill
dren as plainly as to the elders: that
open heart to heart, and intensity in
each his own living and longing.
1t is fortunate when nature can enter
into the family Sabbath. To iostle with
Sunday crowds on car and boat is to
forfeit, we must think, our heritage OF
holy day. But the sojourner in rural
haunts sees nature on the Sabbath as
he can not of a week day. During the
week we are sadly apt, whatever our
creed, to roam the fields mere material
lists. But the sabbath kindles into flame
the spark of divinity within us.
Then, as the family walk abroad, the
father assumes his most ancient, mos,
sacred Office OF high priest of his house.
hold. Then all become psalnists, al
prophets, The harvest waves tn,
promise Of better things than loaves fol
the table. The solemn mountains, the
deep skies. are more than background.
for landscapes, show-places for rain
bows; for underneath the voices o
winds and waters they hear the earth
spirit in her most secret utterance:
'Tis thus at the roaring loom OF time ply
And weave for God the garment thou sees
Him by.
They who so walk the earth together
shall not be separated in heavenly
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