The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1895-09-15
The Lords Dny.

AT a time when the Sabbath. as the
day of weekly rest and worship, is as
sailed in many quarters. the following
extract from the pastoral letter of the
third Plenary Council of the Roman CATH
olic Church is a timely appeal to Ameri-
can citizens of every creed and race:
There are many sad facts in the ex-
perience Of nations, which we may well
store up as lessons of practical wisdom
Not the least important of these is the
fact that one of the sureSt marks and
measures of the decay of religion in
people is their non-observance of the
Lords day. In travelling through some
is panied by the almost undated rush
of toll and traffic on Sunday. First,
grasping avarice thought it could not af-
ford to spare the day to God; then un-
wise governments, yielding to the pres
sure of mammon, relaxed the laws which
for many centuries had guarded the day s
redness-forgetting that there are GER
tain fundamental principles which ought
not to be sacrificed to popular caprice or
greed. And when, as usually happens
neglect of religion had passed, by lapse
of time into hostility to religion, this
growing neglect of the Lords day was
easily made use of as means to-brlng
religion itself into contempt. The church
mourned, protested. struggled, but. was
almost poWerIeSS to resist the. combined
forces of popular avarice and Caesar SIN
fuence arrayed on the side of irreHg1on
The result, is the lamentable. deSecratlon
which all Christians must deplore.
And the consequences of this desecra-
ton are as manifest as the desecrauon
itself The Lords days the poor man
dav of rest drawing closer the sweet
domestic ties. by giving the toiler day
with wife and children; but it has been
turned into a day of labor-and nome
ties are fast losing their sweetness and
their hold The Lords day is the church
n a
bond of brotherhood among all men, by
their kneeling together around the al
tars of the one Father in heaven; but
men are drawn away from this blessed
communion of Satnts-and as natural
consequence they are lured into the
counterfeit communion of socialism, ana
other wild and destructive systems. Inc
Lords day is Gods day, rendering ever
nearer and more intimate the union be
tween the creature and his Creator ana
thus ennobling human life in all It's re-
lations. and where this bond is weak
ened, an effort is made to leave him, ac-
"without God in this world The pro-
fanation of the Lords day, whatever be
its pretext is a defrauding both of God
and His creatures, and retrlbutlon is not
slow.
In this country there are tendencies and
influences at work to bring about SINH
lar result; and it behooves all who love
God and care for society to see that they
be checked. As usual, Sreeu IoI gam
hes at the bottom of the movement.
Even when the pretense put forward is
nopular convenience or popular amuse-
ment, the clamor for larger liberty does
not come so much from those who de
sire the convenience or the amusement
as from those who hope to enrich them
selves by supplying it. Now, lar be 1t
from us to advocate such Sunday laws as
would hinder necessary work, or prohibit
such popular enjoylnents as are consist
ent with the sacredness of the day. 1t
is well known, however, that the tendeE-
cy is to rush far beyond the bounds OF
necessity and propriety, and to allege
these reasons only as an excuse for viz
tually ignoring the sacredness of the day
altogether. But no community can af-
such a cost To turn the Lords day into
a day of toll is a frightening curse to our
country; to turn it into a day of dissipa-
ton would be worse.