The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1895-12-05
THE MATTER OF THE CHRIS
TIAN SUNDAY AND THE
SALOONS.
EXCISE REVISION IS THE QUESTION
The Passage of Law Desired That
Will Enable Every Municipality
to Settle Its Own Differ
ences in the Matter

Excise revision may be one of the
vital questions with which the New
York legislature will have to deal. Since
the election of both Republican and
Democratic journals have been calling
for excise reform, and it is suggested
that the committee of fifty as well as
the German-Americans should lose no
time in starting campaign of educa-
ton" for the purpose of compelling the
passage of a law giving large cities the
itself. In view of this revival of the
agitation, symposium in the lndepen-
dent on the general subject of the Chris
tan Sunday will be found speciality
interesting. Among the contributors
are: Cardinal Gibbons, Professor
Thayer, Professor Zahn, the Catholic
philosopher, DIR. Leonard w. Bacon, Mr..
Warner Miller and many others. We
present extracts from the more impor-
tant articles below:
The Christian Sunday the Golden
Mean.-"The Christian Sunday is not to
be confounded with the Jewish Sabbath.
1t prescribes the golden mean between
rigid Standardization on the one hand
and lax indulgence on the other. The
Lords Day to the Catholics heart is
always a day of joy. The church de-
sires us on that day to be cheerful with
out sadness and melancholy. She for
bids, indeed, all unnecessary seryile work
on that day, but as the Sabbath was
made for man, not man for the Sab
BATH she allows such work whenever
charity or necessity may demand it. And
as it is day eonseerated not only to re-
ligion, but also to relaxation of mind and
body, she permits us to spend a portion
of it in innocent recreation. james
Cardinal Gibbons.
No Law of the Sabbath for Chris
tians.-"In strictness of speech, for the
Christian there is no law of the Sab
bath The Sabbath is an integral and
distinctive part of Judaism; and Judaism
for the Christian is Anticipated and abb
rogated by Christianity. The term
Sabbath to be sure, is largely used in
certain circles to designate the Christian
day of rest, which is more accurately
called the Lords Day. the first day of
the week or. in secular speech, Sun
day But there is no warrant in the
records of primitive Christianity-either
in the words of our Lord and OF His
Apostles, or in extra-canonical literature
: for the allegation that this Christian
day of rest was ever identified with the
Jewish. or regarded as its continuation.
or invested with its sacredness, or up
held by the positive enactments and
sanctions connected with the Sabbath in
!. the earlier Scriptures. For q
Christian man, then, there is no law
of the Sabbath first, because the Sab
bath is a Jewish institution; second, be-
. cause the Christian is free from the obi
4 &c = ,s,hl I, ~. L
cause the teaching and practice of the
! Christian Church for centuries indis-
putably and abundantly substantiates
these positions. Prof J. Henry Thayer
of Harvard University Divinity School
Sunday Essentially Day of Joy.-"It
never entered the minds of the Christians
of the first three centuries to regard Sun.
, day as continuation of the Jewish Sab
bath, or to call it the Sabbath. Not until
, the Fourth and Fifth centuries do we
lind the beginnings of this way of regard
ing the subject. The early Christians
called it not Sunday, but the Lords Day
If we should ask the Christians of the
first centuries, the oldest witnesses OF
the idea of Sunday, for the special reason
why they observed just this day, they
will answer with great unanimity. we
: celebrate this day because Christ ON this
| ulOSt lut WIS
4 weekly recurring Easter festival There
| fore, too, it was in every particular con.
ceived as day of joy. That on these
festival days ordinary work was left
; aside as much as possible was matter OF
course. But it is significant for the earli
| est idea of Sunday that in the earliest
church literature there is virtually moth
ing said about this point. Even as late as
, the Fourth century nothing is said ex'
cept that as far as possible Sunday
should be marked by rest from labor. y
, Prof. TIL. Zahn. University of Erlangen
The True Sabbath or None at all. the
Alternatives.-"The choice of the hour
lies between a return to the Sabbath
: and the triumph of the Continental Sun.
! day. History has written that verdict
and il is useless to delay and complain
: The observers of Sunday have no com
mon ground of union or concert of action
Rome rejoices TO help as opportunity of
fers. thus Strengthening herself and her
Sunday. Reliance on the civil law has
: always fostered holidayism and destroyed
true Sabbathism. Historically and logic
ally there is direct relation between the
: nolawism which has driven out the Sab
bath. and that social and political an
! archy which we should dread Anarch
lists rejoice 10 know that the ten com
mandmentS were Jewish only. Wher
Christians discard the deCalogue Of God
they teach the ungodly to defy the human
law. Anarchists are bred where cent
: urieS of no-Sa bbathiSm are ripe with ruin
. Like causes produce like results. The
I holiday Sunday was born and bred under
the theory that the Sabbath is Jewish
only. That is the fundamental doctrine
of the Roman Catholic church, and the
actual if not the avowcd position of most
ProteStantS. The prevalence of the con
tinental Sunday in the United States is
due TO this teaching by Christians more
than to any other cause. The growth of
SabbathleSS holidayism will not cease
until Christians cease from this error and
return TO the truth that the sabbath be-
longs to all men and To all times. The
only Sabbatic regard which Sunday has
ever gained was when its adhererS oc-
cupied the Seventh-day Baptist position
concerning the ten commandments. "A
II. Lewis. ID. H.. Seventh-Day Baptist.
Foreigners Must Adopt Our Customs,
Not We ThcirS.-''lf the Sabbath is 10 he
made simply Il day Of amusement and n.
creation. certainly all the places Of
amusement and recreation should he open
: on that day as we'll rs the saloon
: IF this right is granted to the liquor
traffic it will be the entering wedge which
will destroy the American Sabbath with
all its sacred associations and home
blessings. Every argument in favor Of
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