The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1898-01-17
SUNDAY is FOR Man
The Rev. Sydney H. Cox
breaches a Novel Ser
mon on Sabbath OBJ
ServanCe.
THE DAY NOT A RELIGIOUS ONE
1t Is Not a Question Of Bicycles,
Newspapers or Concerts, Bat
One of a Day Of Rest.

The Rev. Sydney IA. Cox, assistant pass
tor OF the First Congregational Society,
preached an interesting sermon al the
Tabernacle, yesterday morning, on the
subject OF THE Modern Sunday It's
Perils., He chose his texts from John,
vii. "a: Judge not according 10 appear
ances. but Judge righteous judgment, 8
and from Mark, H., rs: .sThe Sabbath was
made for man-not man for the Sabbath.
Nh. Cox's sermon could hardly be term
ed orthodox, in the sense in which the
term is usually applied by his clerical
brethren. He did not assail the bicyclist
nor the Sunday paper, as an excuse for
empty church pews, but attempted to
place the responsibility where it really
belongs. The analysis of Sunday, he con-
tended, must in part be viewed from the
mission of the Son of ma who came to
seek and to save that which was lost.
A more definite statement had never
been made concerning the coming OF
Christ. But the Son of Man was also
Lord of the Sabbath; therefore existing
elements of the Sunday that do not save
should be put aside. Any ultra-holy SER
vice was a specie of idolatry, and no bet
ter than tina of the pagans. Blu on the
other hand, unless there were such be-
ings as holy bookkeepers, holy car
penters. holy tradesmen, etc., any re-
ligion which c~ountenanced the regular
pursuance of their avocations ON the Day
of Rest was a hypocrftical institution.
Man was not made for the Sabbath.
the minister declared. The Sabbath was
not instituted as a purely religious SER
vice in a technical sense. The Fourth
Commandment enjoined no service. 1t
was intended as a day OF joy n rest.
1t was. not even of Jewish origin, though
that would not matter. 1t was as old
as nature. 1t had been scientifically
demonstrated that at least one day IN
seven was required as a fundamental law
of physical recovery of strength by rest.
That fact was recognized long before
Abraham wandered out of Egypt. The
Sabbath existed among the Jews nun
dreds of years before it was made a day
of religious worship. 1t existed for CEN
turtles before men made 1t a ceremonial
machine. The Greeks found 1t necessary
to abandon the idea of a Sabbath every
days, and the oman one in every
eight. in order to restore their physical
and mental qualifications. The French
had tried one day in ten for twelve years
and finally gave way to nb the "d lanias c 1ad
TO a return of the nation to a constitu-
ton that gave back the lighting men of
France the physical perfection Of which
they had been robbed-a constitution
which recognized a Christian Sabbath or
Day of Rest as one in every seven.
The minister argued that the body
needed rest in order that the soul or
spiritual nature of man should be
strengthened. He said that after the
Hebrews captivity, theSPharisees, with,
false penitence, had turned the Sabbath
into an end. instead of a means, and that
religious bigotry was the bitterest and
last thing to be overcome. The only an
swer bigotry had ever made TO any ques-
ton aSsailing it, he said, was to grow
nMd and gnash its teeth. 1t was no
wonder that some intelligent men refused
try prevailed. He did not believe that
one should spend the whole of the Sab
bath day in worshipping in a temple, or
that he should be obliged to sit with his
back to a front window of his home, on
the ground that it was sinful. He spoke
of the quibbling savants in efforts to
determine just when Sunday began and
when it ended, and of the efforts of men
to evade laws on the subject they made
for themselves.
The Church. he maintained, was robbed
of business by society and even by the
Church itself. 1t was not a question of
bicycles, newspapers or Sunday Concerts.
The greed of gain was mainly RESPONSE
bic. Some of the modern syndicates of
church pillars, declared the minister, car
ed more for their oxen and horses thar
the men who drove them. They refused
~ 1tAAA 49, $1,000 ~ SoAAA
PEELED men to work seven days a week.
giving them no chance for rest and wor-
ship. The workmen were soon overcome
with nervous exhaustion and go prema-
turely to their graves. Good business
men, happily, were beginning to find that
this does not pay.
The minister said that "money-in-the-
slot religion was to be despised. In some
of the churches, he said, there were sup
porters who, while singing Jehovah's
praises and looking for the New Jerusa-
lem, were organizing SyndicateS who
make men work seven days in the week
and fifty-two weeks in the year. They
were nothing less than the legitimate de-
~ScendantS of the PhariSees.
All1sion was made in the sermon to
Beecher's famous remark, that Society
used Sunday as a sort of sponge with
which to wipe out their sins of the week.
Some of its members spent the day in
sleeping to make up for lost time.
The minister said he had no quarrel
with the man who takes ordinary physi-
cal recreation on Sunday. He believed
that he should with nature: but
on a century run on Sunday, when he
sees nothing but dust, is found in the
rear of some country saloon at lunch,
n returns home exhausted at night. on
the verge of physical collapse, was utter
ly at variance with the spirit which
brought about the Sabbath day as one
of Iest or recreation. He said he hoped
to see the day when the afternoon Sun
day-school session was don away with.
and thai instead parents would get a
grander conception of the Sabbath for
man. the whole man, the true man. and
not worship God, who is a spirit, as re-
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