Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1899-08-17

those who do so are not all away at the
same time. Now, those few sentences
open g wide field for discussion. II by
church work. is meant the closing of
churches for two months, when the
minister and congregation all take a
vacation, in the sense that all religious
work entirely ceases for that period,
then the latter part of the first sentence
is true. But even IL a church is closed
for two months, 1t by no means follows
that the minister Is not working in 9TH
er fields. or that many church members
do not attend other open churches. And
the writer must entirely differ from the
Waterman and say you can intermit
public worship for two months and then
sustain 1t with renewed enthusiasm the
rest Of the year.
There is no good reason why religious
work Is not governed by the same laws
as other work. Time was when the
mandatory in the New England viii
lage where the writer was born and
raised" commenced work at 6 a. M, had
one hour for dinner from 10 to / clock,
then worked their employees till p. m.
This six days in week. Now notice the
religious work in that manufacturing
town on the seventh day. Three regu-
lar services were held-forenoon, after
noon and evening. Three sermons, av-
eraging one hour in length each, were
preached. Sabbath school services oc-
coupled one hour and half. Two reg
ular prayer meetings a week, Tuesday
and Thursday evenings, We're held. All
OF this work in the mills and in the
churches was kept up fifty-two weeks
in q year. Today the mills in that viii
laGe commence turning their wheels at
q. M. shut down a. p. m. every day,
except Saturday, when they close work
at 5 p. m. Now the churches in that
town have morning and evening serv-
ice, two sermons day, of thirty to for
lty-five minutes each. During the sum-
mer months union service is held Sun
day evenings, all of the churches but
one closing, excepting, of course, the
Roman Catholic church services, which
are the same as forty years ago. And
these are facts for the advocate of con-
tinued long hour work to ponder over.
The mills now turn out larger number
of finished yards per week with the
same number of employees than when
they worked the longer hours. And IL
~
are the results of the religious work of
the church members the argument is
all in favor of shorter services and SER
mons. and the less number.
What the writer in the Waterman
would have us understand by the neg
lect of the Sabbath" can only be sur
missed. If the neglect consists of not
attending church services Sunday eve
ming the statement is true. Ii he means
more Christian people ride. walk and
visit on Sunday than fifty years ago
again he makes true statement. But
| III he claims that Christian people in
their present may pay less attention to
the Sabbath day than years ago he is
| mistaken. We are going on the idea
that the Sabbath was made for man,
and not man for the Sabbath Put 1t
another way. More millions of people
arise every Monday morning better men
and women, mentally and physically, as
a result of the preceding day of rest,
than ever before. This can be proven
in many ways One is, the general in
terest taken in religious matters by the
masses, as evidenced by the space given
| in secular papers to such religious mat
| ters. For IL, as a nation, we are meg
| Letting the Sabbath," there must evil
IDENTIFY be less interest on week days.
But this is not true. No successful daily
or weekly paper (secular) but what is
forced by public sentiment to fill much
space with religious news and discuss
sions. On the death of Bob Ingersoll
more space was given to interviews
with clergymen, with editorials and
communications pro and con on his life
and death than would have been pub
lished If the most noted scientist OF the
| world has passed away. These thousands
of columns of printed matter were
largely filed with opinions and state
ments of religious people. When alive,
these paper condemned his utterances.
when dead it was their final protest
against his teachings. And all this be-
cause these publishers know their read
ers want such matter. No, we're not
neglecting the Sabbath in a general
way. As nation we are more inter-
ested than ever before in religious mat
ters.' only it SO happens the people of
this country are doing their religious
work In different sort of a way from
what they did when the editor of the
Wstchman was l0-year-old boy.
u