Grand Rapids herald. [volume] (Grand Rapids, Mich.) 1892-1959, 1892-10-03

. proclamation against sunday work
and Sunday sports.
Alter lhs introduction of christianity
iuto England soue Of the kagllsn
kings, Adhesion. Edgss AID Csnete
forbade Sunday trading. aud sunday
begun al O'Clock saturday and ended
With the dawn on Monday.
Ia 1901 tue ABBOT EaslAce OF flay,
90 gain credit for sanity virtues. man
talued the duty OF observing sun
day most strictly aud pat be-
fore the church IN documentary
evidence letter received from Christ
himself, as was ayerred delivered / be-
heve on the altar OF ST. simeon. ct
Golgotna. BY lhls letter ali Kinds Of
work were forbidden from 5 on sstur-
day. tll Monday morning.
This WAS an age or miracles and
stories were rife Of miraculous penal
ties visited on those WHO paid no heed
To this prohibition. One OF woman
weaving after o'clock on Saturday,
was struck dead therefor. Another
woman who had put some paste into an
oven, when she thought II Mas baked,
foucd il paste, still. 4 man who had
made = cake during the forbidden
hours, found blood flowing from u
when be began 10 eat II. An unior-
tunate Jew, who fell on the sabbath
into u place from which II WAS difficult
TO exticate him, who mad scruples
about allowing himself TO be extricated,
while the great Duke OF Gloucester.
under whose domain he lived also had
scrupies about drawing him out on
Sunday, was found dead when he came
to his assistance on Monday.
These were the kind of endorsements
and arguments by which = strict OBJ
servance of the Sunday was effected IN
the Fourteenth century IN England.
Puritanical Endorsements.
Coming down TO the time
of the reformation, the teaching
Of the Reformers, WAS as definitely
opposed as IT could be TO this strict OBJ
servance OF Sunday.
On this point Luther said, "If any
where anyone sets up the observance Of
Sunday, on q jewish foundation, |
order you to work on il, to ride on 1t,
to dance on it, to do anything which
shall remove the encroachments on
Christian liberty" and in the Augsburg
confession tine Protestants say, "Tnose
who Judge that in place of the Sabbath
the Lords Day was instituted As the
day TO be necessarily observed, do
| greatly err"
Scripture abrogated the Sabbath and
| teaches that the Mosaic ceremonies
may be omitted now that the gospel IS
| revealed.
Archbishop Cranmer speaks OF "Sun-
days and other holy days" as mere sp-
| pointments by the magistrates.
To the English purtans, more than
| to the Scotch reformers, We owe the
rigldlst forms of Sabbatarianism, and
the New England puritan Sunday. says
great writer, was more abominable
| in its Sunday code than the laws con-
cerning the Scotch Sunday.
In the twenty-eighth article OF the
| code, drawn up for New Haven, Conn,
in 1856, we find the following article:
"Whosoever shall profane the
Lords Day, or any part of it.
by work or sport, shall be punished
by fine or corporally. But If the court.
by clear evidence, find that the sin was
proudly, presumptuously or with high
hand committed against the command
and authority of the blessed God, such
persons therein despising and re-
preaching the Lord shall be put to
DEATH"
Think of the influence Of assuming
such to be the command OF the Lord
think of all the terror and suffering
visited upon the young by such an as
sumption.
Such is. IN brief. some Of the steps OF
the history Of modern Sabbatarianlem.
| All this history people can read and
learn for themselves, yet nothing is
more astonishing than the ignora nee
of people. otherwise intelligent, on this
subject, and good aud sincere men by
the thousands and tens of thousands
think they are doing Gods service In
opposing the opening of the fair on
Sunday, petitioning congress to close 1t,
while they will be really sending thou
| sands and tens of thousands to degrade
their manhood and blaspheme God In
beer and whisky saloons open to re-
ceive them. For once the church and
the saloon are marshaled under one
banner and working to one end in try
| ing both to close the fair on Sunday.