The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1894-09-29
THE OBSERVANCE AND NoN-oB =
SERvANcE OF DAYS.
Editor of The TRIBUNE:

Editor of THE TRIBUNE:
Sir: 1t is held by high ecclesiastical and
civil authority that no laws should be
passed regulating the observance Of day.
1t is claimed that in themselves all days
are alike. Any one is just as good as an
other so far as the inherent worth Is con-
cerned. This is most cheerfully conceded,
but no day stands or falls wholly upon its
own intrinsic worth Social and political
and religious wants may and do invest
days with certain moral value. Intrin-
sically Sunday may be worth no more than
Friday; but no man dare say that the two
days have the same moral effect upon the
nation and the race. Religious custom
has so inwrought certain ordinances and
teachings of the fibre Of the first day of
the week, Lords day or Sunday, that the
non-observance Of the day by the nation
involves the corruption and overthrow of
the fountains Of national morality. No
nation can exist without morality.
Virtue and intelligence do not spring
into existence without an adequate cause.
There may BIZ regular systematic teaching
to supply the moral qualities essential TO
the existence Of the republic. Suppose
that the Lords day should cease TO b5 OBJ.
served. Let a universal desecration of the
day reign throughout the nation. Then
from what source would be derived our
moral growth? Can we look to state or
municipal government for moral pabuum
necessary to keep the body polite sound?
No; for from year to year secuarism, in
some cases approaching atheism, has ex-
cluded God and His word wholly from the
realm Of civilized education. Shall we
look to the daily newspapers? No, for it
exists not to create moral sentiment re-
quisite to preserve peace and order; but to
parade to the vicious taste that demands
a sensational paper, filled with escapades,
divorces. seductions murders and what
ever makes for moral ruin.
Shall we rely upon the political rostrum
to supply moral backboneg No, for politi-
cian- are tJo busy defeating rivals and
making their own calling and election
sure to seek moral reforms. Shall we look
to great railway corporations working for
the highest material and moral good of
their employees to assert aud secure the
need of morality for citizenship No, for,
as a rule. great corporations know and
seek solely their own wealth. IL moral
eduation come at all. IL will spring not
from the secularized public school system,
nor from the political rostrum or press.
The moral health of the nation will be So
cured only when the Lords day is devoted
to New Testament religion, of which an
essential part must ever remain the moral
law.
Hence, the people who constitute our
nation should have access to the Lords
day with all its moralizing influences. No
man should be forced to read his Bible,
attend Sunday school or listen to preach
ing; but low, civil law should make it
possible for all who 80 wish to have the
benefits that custom has located in the
first day of the week. Today not less
than two millions OF people are shut out
of all participation in the blessings that
are found in'the observance of the Lords
day. A cruel and avaricious secularism
compels conductors, aagmen, brakemen,
expressmen, postmen, teegraphmen and
newspapermen to minister to necessary
wants. No civil or religious law forces
these men from the good which is located
in observing the Lords day. But q tyrani-
cal custom says 1t 10 your business tc