The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1896-09-08


den of thieves9"
The practical question, then, which
faces every Christian man and woman
in our land to day, and which this All
ance is facing SO earnestly, is not simp-
ly how to prevent the Sabbath, but
how to restore it to it's proper place in
the thoughts and purpose of God.
The principle of this organic alton is
aggressive rather than defensive.
And it is no light task which is I'm
dertaken. 1t is no fad which may &C.
cupy the leisure moments and claim
the surplus resources of a few old
fashioned, Puritanically inclined PEG,
pie. The urgency Of this question
must be pressed home upon the hearts
and conscience Of the whole American
people.
We must stuff n no Encouragement
or indifference to daunt our faith in
the far reaching issue involved in this
movement. Take for example, what
IN some respects was a parallel move
ment. Four centuries ago the mighty
eff ort was inaugurated in Europe to
restore the Bible to the common peo-
pie. How weak that effort in its first
inception! How tremendous the diff
culties in the way Family and ftfulIy
the morning stars of the day that was
to be shOne out in the darkness of that
med Bval night; but they proclaimed
the dawn. The struggle to restore the
Bible to the common people changed
the Renaissance into the Reformation.
A literary revival became a religious
revival which moved Christendom to
it's very depths and brought in it's
train not merely the emancipation of
the intellect, but the vindication of
those great truths which lie at the root
of our evangelism Christianity.
So in this question of Sabbath resto
of America are committing thems eIves.
| make no exaggeration when l say
we are on the threshold of a move
ment hardly less important in its Issues,
OCCpC LOI III gLICAA O4GAL14Ab0 NAp OSSAOLg
than some of US may be conscious of.
For we cannot make it too clear that
this question Of Sabbath observance is
not one of negative restrictions. The
hearto Of the problem is not the enforce.
ment of certain prohibitory statutes.
The Sabbath is not built put of a heap
of prohibitions. The walls of the
Palace Beautiful were not quarried out
of the rocks of negation. The day is not
a little plot of time fenced round by a
wall of Thou shalt nots." No, the
day is Iich in it's positlveness. 1t en-
shTines some OF the most precious
promises of God, and bears tx US some
deepest blessings not onlyfor the indi
vidual, but for the race; and the ira
gic thought for us is just this, that
through the decoration of the day we
are being shut out from those high
privileges and blessings which the true |
observance of the Sabbath brings with
it.
You say this is exaggeration. Well,
look at It in this way. In Scripture |
there are two things which man is
called on directly and sp politically to
hallow. In the Old Testament the
command is, "HallOw Ny Sabbath. "
In the New Testament the prayer is,
"Hallowed be Thy name" Think for
a moment, and you see al once how
closely the command and the prayer /
are linked together. We halIow the
name of the Lord as we hallow the day |
of the Lord. Desecrate the day, and
you dishonor the name; you hinder
the coming of the kingdom; you frus-
the doing of the WILD. Sage
Mackay, D D.