St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-10-18
SABBATH OBSERVANCE.


The Presbyterian synod of Minnesota,
in session at Minneapolis Monday.
adopted a resolution eondemning the
running Of railway trains on the Sab
bath day, but rejected an amendment
including the street railways in the
condemnation. Such discrimination will
strike the average reader as somewhat
inconsistent. If it is contrary to public
policy or immoral to run railway trains
on the first day of the week it is
equally immoral and unchristlan to RIM
street cars, cabs or private conveyances:
and the man who orders his coachman
to harness his horses and drive him to
church is as grave an offender as is the
railroad manager who dispatches trains
over the line of road over which he has
control.
The example of Toronto was cited by
one of the clergymen present as an i'll
stance of city where the Sabbath was
properly observed. Probably few of the
members of the synod have ever lived
in that city. The Sunday laws are ex-
ceedingly strict there. No one but a
physician engaged in making his pro-
fessional calls is permitted to drive
| through the streets On that day. Ali
business is suspended, and railway
trains neither enter nor depart from the
city for the space of twenty-four hours.
The drug stores are all closed and her
metically sealed. except for one hour
during the day. If Il person happens TO
be taken sick after the hour of l O'Clock
III the afternoon, he is compelled to
suffer without medicine until the drug
stores open OH Monday morning. for
none of them would dare to sell heal
ing lotion or draught of medicine to a
man, even though he should be dying.
a man with fractured limb or lacerat-
ed flesh could procure no splintS or
bandages with which to bind up his
wounds, for it is unlawful there even to
do good on the Sabbath day. Perhaps a
man may be found, it is true, who
would he brave enough to defy the law
III such emergencies, but he would rem
der himself liable to heavy fine and
imprisonment for his endeavors to save
human life or ameliorate human suffer
ing. Men have been heavily fined in
LIlGlI SlIJ lOl dClo SuCI DIS lllCSE.
A case illustrative of the rigor of
the Toronto laws and their rigid enforce
| ment may be cited. In 1884 Edward
| Hanlan, the oarsman, who lived on an
island in Toronto bay, returned late one
Saturday evening from Australia, where
he had been rowing race. During his
absence his wife had given birth to a
child, and at the time of his arrival in
the city she was lying critically ill. Mr..
Hanlan procured boat from his own
| boat house on the eSplanade, and early
on Sunday morning rOwed over the bay
| to his home. He was arrested for the
| otfenSe, and heavily fined by the police
magistrate on the following morning.
| Children are frequently incarcerated in
| the lookup there for romping ON the
streets or in vacant lots. AS stated,
physicians are the only persons exempt
from prosecution for notwithstanding,
cines or surgical appliances except dur
ing one hour of the day.
Perhaps our Presbyterian brethren
might desire to see such a system in
augurated here. If SO, they stand
alone. All good citizens deprecate Sab
bath Dissertation of every sort, and
would be glad to promote better OBJ
servance of the day. But where shall
the limit upon the liberties of the in
dividual be placed, and who shall be the
| judges? Has the man who rides to the
sanctuary in his carriage any right to
deny to his poorer neighbor the right to
ride to the same place in a street car?
Has the man who owns spacious grounds
| and gardens the right to deny to the
poor man the privilege of visiting the
parks, where he may ENJOY the pleas
ures of nature there afforded? The
synod should bear in mind that, accord
ing to Him whose teachings they pro-
fess to follow. tit Is lawful to do good
on the Sabbath day." aid there are
many ways of doing good, chief among
which is the according of liberty to the
Woodworking citizen TO visit the parks
and the groves on the only day of his
release from burdensome toll. They
should remember that there are
sermons in stones, books in the running
brooks
And God is everywhere"