Akron daily Democrat. [volume] (Akron, Ohio) 1892-1902, 1902-01-20
Rev. Edward Everett Hale.

NSV. "
The question of Sunday observance,
which Is attracting so much attention,
has been made the subject of an ar
ticle by Rev. Edward Everett Hale
among the foremost OF the literary
and religious workers of the old school.
BY EDWARD EVERETT HAILED
1t Is no longer with the desire to
compel people to go tO'meeting or to
church that our present statutes are
devised. All that effort has been
wceded out from them. 1t is rather
with the intention to leave everybody
free to 90 TO public worship, and free
to rest If he wants to- rest. 1t Is an
effort to relax all chains on that day.
! am old enough TO remember when
poor debtors who had to reside in the
Jail limits on week days, availcd them
! selves of this statute on Sunday and
went where they chose on visits to
their friends. That liberation Is Il
type of the whole plan.
The apprentice could not he com
PEELED to work, nor the iourneyman.
Stage drivers, ferrymen, hostlers, and
grooms, even, were at large. People
who lived in or near tavcrns were not
to be annoyed by the racket of revel-
lers. Churches were not to he annoy
ed by the passage of vehicles.
am fond of telling my children the
story of the arrest by one of their an
cestors of the Russian Ambassador
and his party, who had landed In
some seab0ard town and were cross
ing the country. Ignorant or indffer-
ent to onr laws, they pressed their way
to the seat of the Government on the
Lords dny. But they found that II
Connecticut tithingman stopped them
He held that the journey was not~One
OF charity ar, of NECESSITY n
OF which the latent desire was not
that the Ambassador should go to
meeting but simply that those that
did should not he annoyed by the rat
tie of his wheels; that the people of
the inns should have only the mini
mum of care, and In general that cv-
himself as he chose on Sunday as
was possible, under every condition
short of Il return TO barbarous life.
think that every conscientious man.
every lender of society, must make
mp his mind whether he thinks public
worship one day in seven good
thing or bad thing, and whether he
considers this Sunday rest, MS pro.
; tected by statute, II good thing or II
bad thing AS matter of feeling or
theory. most men agree hero.
Most young lawyers would say they
are glad there Is one day when they
need not 20 to their offices; most
, young clerks that they are glad that
on that day they need not go to their
stores. and so on. As a matter of
feeling and theory, yes. Nay, as n
matter of feeling and theory. almost
all these persons would he sorry to
, have public worship abandoned, most,
not all
Some people would not care Ad-
dressing those who do care, should
say: You must make this n matter OF
action also. You nave no right 10
take the comfort of Sunday, and then
4 TO leave To the ministers, to your faith.
= er and mother. and to the women of
- the community, the maintaining of
|. Sunday
o When club OF hlgh-mmded, moral
and Intelligent Young men mount thell
4. 4
bicycles on Sunday morning, by public
appointment, they gay far more dis
tinctly than any words or votes could
say that so far as they are concerned
they mean That the next generation
shall have no Sunday.
Courts are not 10 he closed. stores
shut up. sheriffs kept back from exc
cutting writs, in order that young gen
tiemen may ride all day on bicycles
The institution of Sunday. if II is Il
> be maintained at all, Will be main
tanned for the noblcr purposes of high
er life. And, while 1t Is quite lcgiti
mate to urge that the Art Museum
, the Public Library, the concert, ma,
|, tend to this higher life, nobody vii
accept the plea which says that Il fea
n OF lhborious athletics Is II bit of th
higher life. Every such effort to ge
' over the line helps the way to tn
secnmrlzation of all days, when ther
;, Will be no time at all
~ i have refrained from any argumen
or the divine appointment OF Sunda,
- ! nave been discussing the worth no
of the Hebrew Sabbath, but of tn
Massachusetts Sunday, which is
very different thing, do not urg
J. that you should rest from labor on
day In seven because God rested afto
IS. SIX acts OF creation, but | ought
say that soSfar as history ayouche