Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1893-06-18
GIBBONS ON SUNDAY.
THE CARDINAL STATES At LENGTH
HIS VIEWS OF THE LORDS DAY.
Dissertation of the Christian Sabbath o
Social Dangor-Thc Day Has Bssn OBJ
served Since the FAN Of Adam.

Many reasons why the Worlds FAR
should be opened on Sundays were stated
by Cardinal Gibbons in the interview with
him which the New York World printed
Monday last. In that interview HIS Emf
hence referred TO paper he had written
on the subject of Sunday Rest" which Is
to be read at the Congress OF Sabbath OBJ
servers at Chicago. In part this paper Is
* follows:
The desecration Of the Christian Sab
bath is one of our social dangers. against
which IL behooves rs to set our face and
10 take timely precautions before 1t as
sumes proportions too formidable to be
easily eradicated.
The custom of observing religious holi:
days has prevailed both IN ancient aud
modern times among nations practicing
false system of worship rs we'll as among
those protesting the true religion. Lac
Hebrew people were commanded by Al
mighty God to keep the Sabbath day. or
SATURDAY, because on that day God rested
from His work He wished to remind
them by this weekly celebration that He
was their Creator and Master and the
founder Of the universe. He Desired that
they shosld be moved 10 worship Him by
the contem plation Of His work and thus
rise from nature to natures God.
PRIOR TO MOSES.
II 10 the opinion of Grotius ana Of other
learned commentators that the Sabbath
was held sacred for generations Prior to
the time OF Moses. and its observance, ac-
cording to Lghtfoot and other writers,
dates even from It's creation, or at least
from the fall of Adam. Hence. they mall
tain that the jewish law giver. IN pre-
scribing the sabbath, was not enacting
DIN htlf
one. This conclusion - obvious from the
very words OF the precept " Remember
TO keep holy the Sabbath day by which
God recalls to the Hebrew people an al
ready existing ordinance which tad grown
well-nieh obsolete during their bondage
in Egypt.
The Sabbath was kept sacred by the
Egyptians, as Herodotus testitos, and 1t is
not to be supposed that a people 80 tena-
cious of their traditions would adopt
from their own slaves a religious custom
that was rarely. If ever. practiced by the
slaves themselves, owing 10 their wrotched
condition. We are therefore justified Ia
asserting that 1t was derived from the
primitive law-giver to Adam.
Sunday, or the Lords day. ~ consecrated
by the Christian world to public worship
and to rest from servile work. in order to
commemorate the resurrection OF our Sa-
viour from the grave, by which He COO
ANIMATED the work of our redemption,
and to foreshsdow the glorious resurrec-
ton of the elect and the eternal rest that
will be theirs in tho lite to come.
EErHcrC.b MEANS.
Whenever the enemies Of God wish TO
destroy the religion OF a people they find
no means 40 effectual for carving out
their implous design as the suppression OF
the Sabbath. Thus, when Antlochus de-
termined 70 abolish the sacred laws of the
Hebrew people and TO compel them to
conform 10 the practice OF Idolatry, ne
deflad the temples Of Jerusalem and
CariZim. he put an end 90 tire Jewish sacri-
fees, and. above all. he forbade, under
pain of death, the Observance of the Sab
bath and the other religious sOlemnlties,
| substituting in their stead his Own birth.
day and the feast of Bacchus "a days OF
sacrifice and licentious Indulgence.
The leaders of the French Revolution in
1923 adopted similar methods for the ex-
tirpation of the Lords day, aad 1t Is q
well-kuown fact that in our times the
| enemies Of religion are the avowod op-
nents Of the Christian Sabbath. have
aaen SUNDAY violated IN Paris, IN Brus-
sels. and IN other capitals OF Europe.
/ And even in Rome ] have seen govern
ment wOrkmen engaged on the Lords
day IN excavating and in building-a pro
I
as he bimse Acknowledged To me. Who
| are they that pFofaDe the Sunday IN those
cities of Europe? They are men lost to
ell sense of religion, who glory IN their
impiety, and who aim at the utter extHpa-
ton of Christianity.
A close observer cannot fan to note the
/ dangerous inroads that have been made on
/ the Lords day IN our country within the
! last quarter of O century. Ii these en-
croachments are not checked IN time the
day may come when the religious quiet
now happily reignIng IN our well-or-
dered cities will be changed into
/ noise and turbulence, when the sound
of the cturch-bell win be drowned
| hy the echo of the bemmer and the dray,
! when the Bible and the prayer-book Will
be- supplanted by the newspaper and the
/ magazine, when the yotarios Of the theatre
/ and the drlnking- saloon will outnumber
/ the religious worshippers. and salutary
B thoughts of God. Of eternity. and OF the
soul will be checked by the cares OF busi-
/ ness and by the pleasure and dissipation
/ Of the world.
KEEPING THEM FREsH.
T'ho roi;c,ous earvioqs hell IN our