Iuka reporter. (Iuka, Miss.) 1888-1894, 1894-06-28

l y
ing OF gun in tho harbor, or If a shell from
some foreign frlgate should drop into your
4 street, would you keep your seats in church?
| lou would want to face the foe. and every
gun that could be managed would be brought
INTO use, and every ship that could be
Drought out OF the navy yard would swing
from her anchorage and the, question would
be decided. You do not want a foreign war
and yet have to tell you that this invasion
OF Gods holy day is a foreign war.
AS among our own native born population
there are two classes-the good and the bad
SO 1t IS with the people who come from other
shores there are the law abiding and the
iaWiess. The former are welcome here. The
more of them the better we like if. But let
not the lawless come from other shores ey-
pecting to break down our Sabbath and in
stltute in the place of it "a foreign Sabbath
HOW do you feel, ye who have been
brought up amid the hills of New England.
about giving up the American Sabbath? Ye
who spent your childhood under the shadow
OF the Adirondacks or the Catskills. We who
We're born on the banks Of the Savannah or
Ohio or Oregon. how you feel about Civ
ing up the American Sabbath? You saw ::
we snail not give it up. We mean to de-
lend 1t as long as there is left any strength
IN our arm or blood in our heart! Do NOT
brlng your Spanish Sabbath here. Do NOT
bring your Italian Sabbath here. Do not
bring your foreign Sabbath here It shall he
Tor us and for our children forever n
pure. consecrated, Christian, American Sab
bath"
VIII make u comparison between the
American Sabbath. as some of you hava
known it, AMI the Partisan Sabbath. Ispeak
from observation On Sabbath morning /
was aroused in Paris by a great sound in the
street. | said. "What is this?'' ooh" thov
said. this is Sunday" An unusual rattle
OF vehicles Of all sorts. The voices seemed
more no 'sterous than on other DAYS. People
running to and fro. with baskets or bundles
TO get 70 the rail trains or gardens. 1t seemed
as II all the vehicles in Paris. of whatever
sort, had turned out for the holiday. The
Champs Elysees one great mob of pleasure
seeking people. Balloons flying. Parrots
chattering. Footballs rolling. Peddlers
hawking their knickknacks through the
streets. Punch and Judy shows in score OF
places, each one with shouting audience.
Hand organs, eymbals and every kind of
racket. musical and unmusical. When the
evening came down, all the theaters were in
full blaze OF music and full blaze of light.
The wine stores and saloons were thronged
with an unusual number of customers At
evantde stood and watched the excursion
lists coming home, tagged out men, women
and children, a gulf stream Of fatigue, irrta-
bility and Indebtedness, for | should think
1t would take three or four days to get over
that miserable way of Sundaying. 1t seemed
mora like an American Fourth OF July than
Christian Sabbath.
Now, In contrast, present one of the Sab
baths In one of our best American cities.
Holy silence coming down with the day
dawn. Business men more deliberately look
ing into the faces of their children and talk
ing to them about their present and future
welfare. Men sit longer at the table In the
IVner han kh.
opened, and the mechanical tools are not to
be taken up. hymn is sung. There are
congratulations and good cheer all through
the house. The street silent until 10 o'clock,
when there is n regular, orderly tramp
churchward. Houses of God. vocal with
Thanksgiving for mercies received, with
prayer for comfort, with charities for the
poor. Rest for the holy. Rest for tho soul.
The nerves quoted, the temples cooled, the
mind cleared, the soul strengthened, and
our entire population turned out on Monday
morning ten years younger. better prepared
for the duties of the life, better prepared for
the life that is to come.
Which do you like best-the American
Sabbath or the Partisan Sabbath? Do you
know in what boat the Sabbath came across
the seas and landed on our shores? 1t was
in the Mayhower. Do you know in what
boat the Sabbath will leave us, If 1t ever
goes 1t will be in the ark that floats over
deluge of national destruction.
Still further, protest against the invasion
of the Lords day because it wrongs vast
multitude of employees of their rest. The
play actors and actresses can have their rest
between their engagements. but how about
the scene shutters, the ballet dancers, the
callboys, the innumerable attendants and
supernumeries of the American theatre?
Where is their Sunday to come from? They
are paid small salaries at the best. Alas.
for them They appear on the stage in tinse
and tassel with halber IS, or in gauze whirl-
ing in toe tortures, and they might be mis-
taken for fairies or queens, but after clock
at night you may see them trudging through
the streets in faded dresses, shivering and
tired. bundle under their arms, seeking
their homes in the garrets and cellars of the
city. Now. you propose to take from thou
sands Of these employees throughout this
country not only all opportunity OF moral
culture, but all opportunity of physical rest.
For heavens sake, let the crushing jugger-
naut stop at least one day in seven.
Again. oppose this modern invasion of
the Christian Sabbath because 1t is a war on
the spiritual welfare of the people. You
have a body? Yes. You have mind? Yes.
You have a soul? Yes. Which of the secular
halls on the Sabbath day will give that soul
any cuture2 Now, admitting that a man
has u spiritual and immortal nature, which
one OF lnt places VI utuuSoulclt Will Cuuuio
it? Which one OF the Sabbath performances
will remind men of the fact that unless they
are born again they cannot see the kingdom
of God?
VIII the music of the Grand Duchess"
help people at last to sing the song of the
one hundred and forty and four thousand?
Besides. il you gentlemen of the secular en-
tertainment have six days in the week in
which to exercise your alleged beneficial in
| fuence, ought you not to allow Christian in
situations to have twenty-tour hoursr Is 1t
unreasonable to demand that II you have six
days for the body and intellect we should
| have one day at least for our immortal soul?
Or. to put 1t in another shape, do you really
think our imperlshable soul Is worth at
least one-seventh as much as our perishable
body?
An artist has three gems--a corneian, an
amethyst and diamond. He has to cut
them and to set them. Which one is he
most particular about? Now, the comedian
is the body, the amethyst is the intellect, the
diamond Is the soul. For the two former
you propose six days of opportunity, while
you offer no opportunity ut all for the last.
which is In value as compared with the
others like 800, 900 ,000. 900 to one farthing.
Besides you must not forget that nine-tenths
aye, ninety mine one-hundredths OF all
the Christian efforts OF this country are put
forth on the Lords day. Sunday is the day
on which the asylums and hospitals and tho
prisons are visited by Christian men. That
Is the day when the youth OF our country
t,,f., ,,tf IN