The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-06-12
SABBATH MADE FOR NAN.
DR.. bowman Says God Ordained Il a
Day Of Rest From Labor.

He Says II is Better to Err on the
Side Of strietness Than Laxness.
Sunday Excursions and Newspapers
Condemned Kit at the Columbian
Exposition Mayor McDonoush APP
plauded for His Sabbath Crusade
and Christians Urged TO Uphold
Him.
Rev. DR. Bowman preached yesterday at
Wesley Monumental churcho on the proper
observance of the Sabbath, taking his
text from Mark H.. %: The Sabbath
was made for man and not man for the.
Sabbath"
DR.. Bowman said he regretted the
tendency in some quarters TO desecrate
the Lords day and the defense of such
dissertation by Christian people. He com
plimented Mayor McDonough in his
efforts to give Savannah a holy Sabbath
in trying to compel its observance as a
day of rest from labors, and Endorsed the
action of the courts in backing up the
municipal authorities by rigidly enforc-
ing the penalties of the law for violations.
DR.. Bowman said all true Christians
should applaud our authorities for their
fearlessness in the matter and should
lend them every support.
ATTACKING THE SCRIPTURES.
Gas among the apostles of a new theol-
ogy. " said the preacher, 1.-THE inspiration
Of the holy scriptures is the point of at
tack. so among those who are disposed TO
relax in matters of morals, the sanctity
of the Sabbath is first assalled. There
are few who dare to defend drunkenness,
gambling, RIGHTEOUSNESS and the like, but
many apologize for practical disregard
of the Lords day 1t is important to dis
cuss this question now for we are threat
ened as a nation with an inundation of
loose views incident to the flowing in Of
constant stream of immigration from the
continent of Europe, which seems to look
upon Sunday as a day Of carnival instead
of devotion. Another reason is the settled
purpose of the authorities of the
Columbian exposition to set aside what
has hitherto been the English and Ameri-
can Sabbath and the fact that support
to this scheme has been given, with but
few exceptions, by the secular press"
ISSUES OF THE LOCAL CAMPAIGN.
Coming down to home reasons for dis
cussing the Sabbath observance question,
DIR. bowman referred to the fact that the
late municipal campaign was carried on
largely upon the issue of closing the
more or less determined, is being made by
the officers and courts to enforce the state
laws touching the observance Of the Sab
bath.
more than any city in the state of
Georgia, " said DR.. Bowman, Savannah
suffers from Sabbath breaking Our
churches are deserted, our children are
demoralized. Every Sunday the railways,
for gain, pour a multitude of pleasure
seekers into our suburban resorts, where
every sort of temptation to sin is in full
blast to make the day one of riOtOus liv-
ing, where God is forgotten and man
thinks only of giving vent to the indulg-
enee Of his passions"
NOT PURITANICAL IN HIS IDEAS.
81 do not set up as obligatory" said DR.
Bowman, 1.-The pharisaical or Puritan
ideas of the Sabbath. All days are the
Lords, and work is as worshipful on
Monday as prayer or praise on Sunday,
but l rest the observance of the Sabbath
on three general grounds.
First, the original institution Gen.
ii, 2, 3: six days of creation may repre-
sent six periods, and the seventh a period
of cessation from creation Hence God
blessed and sanctitied the seventh day as
a remembrance of God and commemora-
tive of his rest. There is evidence in
Elk. xvi. that the Sabbath was not new
institution unknown to The Hebrews be-
fore
Second, upon the authority of the
decal0gue, whore the command to observe
it stands with other moral principles.
Hence it is equally binding with the pro-
hibition of idolatry, blasphemy, etc. None
of these statutes have ever been repealed.
Jesus came not to destroy, but to fulfill.
MAN AND BEAST NEED REST.
tsThird, it rests upon the need of man.
II has been demonstrated that the sew
enth day rest is best adapted to the con
dition of man. This need is, according to
the scriptures, recognized for laboring
beasts as well as man. 1t is as applicable
to one race as another. The seventh day
was changed for the first to commemorate
the resurrection of the Lord.
1.-THE attitude of Christ toward the
Sabbath, p" said DR., Bowman, "should be
our example. His purpose was to lift its
observance from being burden into the
relation of a benefit, and he rejected the
pharisaical Interpretation. Christ made
the Sabbath for man, and a rightly kept
Sabbath viii be a delight, not burden,
TO the Christly mind The object of the
Sabbath is two-fold, rest for the body and
worship for the soul, and when this OBJ
ject is lost sight of there is nothing that
lust and avarice will not override.
PITY FOR TUE WORKERS.
cit is grand tribute to the power of
Christ that millions of men on that day
stop and rest. pity the poor railroad
men, printers, mail, telegraph and me-
chanical laborers who have no rest and
know no Sabbath. There is, however,
such thing as a nOn-religious observ-
ance-seltsh rest, religious service to the
WEAKNESS of the body, exhaustion of the
mind and spiritual dissipation. But we
have too much of the other sort-irre-
ligious observance
Among the things to be condemned DR..
bowman mentioned Sunday excursions,
Sunday newspapers and Sunday traffic. All
of these things, he said. keeps men work
ing instead OF resting on that day. Chris
tians seem to forget that the things which
may mean pleasures to them on Sunday
means labor to others, and until they can
make some sacrifices of such pleasures the
disregard of the Sabbath will continue to
be a growing evil.
In concluding DR.. Bowman urged his
hearers to lend their aid and influence to
seeing that Sunday is kept holy and made
a day of rest from worldly pursuits
"God give us charity" said he, but in
our personal conduct it is better to err in
Strictness than in laXneSs."
THE GUARDS BACK.