St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1904-06-29

book. Its place of honor should not be
restricted to the church, but it should be
found in the school and in the home. 1t
is not to be worshipped as Fetch, but
it must be thought of as possessing an
intrinsic value for all mankind that no
other book possesses; and as such it
should be exalted in mems thought; and
its moral and spiritual teachings should
have place in the education of the heart
and mind of man more prominent and
vital than some comparatively recent
tests among educated people show that
it has now.
Has the Sabbath day been factor in
| making Christian America what it is?
Then there is place in the life of the
state for a reverent spirit toward that;
and most sorely is this need felt today
DR.. Bradford says, and he mentions it as
fact that should. awaken great concern
| in the minds OF men, THE Sunday of our
fathers is almost gone"
/ sometimes feel that we are running
the idea of America, the land of the
free," altogether too far; that the dan
ger which Munsterberg says threatens
democracy is already fact. There are
definite laws on our statute books that
forbid certain things on the Sabbath day
because it is felt that the deepest moral
endangered thereby; but when one body
of men ask that these laws be enforced,
an angry shout goes up from another
class OF men, and the cry, "blue laws"
puritan bigotry," is as bitter and pro-
1onged as is the cry of "scab' by the
trades unions.
Men are seeming to chate more and
more under any restraint that interferes
with their personal pleasure or private
interests of every kind, as though they
were the only ones to be taken into con-
sheraton. But as the state in the past
has drawn certain lines and said "Thus
far and no farther shalt thou CO." so she
should continue, in the best interests of
humanity, to exercise her power; for
when reverence for the Sabbath and for
all those benehcent institutions which
cannot exist without its quiet and ennob-
ling influence is lost, everything that is
of true moral worth is undermined.
Men forget this in their eager haste for
wealth and pleasure and personal graft
fcation, but in their tramping so ruth
lessly as many do, on the Sabbath day,
they are loosen1ng the very foundation
stones of our noblest American life.
There is no sounder word that needs to
be heralded forth to men today than the
Divine Word uttered centuries ago,
Thou shalt keep my Sabbaths and rev
erence my sanctuary"
There is a place for reverence, then, in
the life of the state for the Bible, the
Sabbath and the church, because these
three stand or fall together; and they
have been the most potent factors in
conserving and strengthening everything
that is good. And though the mighty
momentum we have acquired, through
the loyalty of our fathers to these three
cardinal factors, may carry us along for
generation or two, it is yet true that
the permanent prosperity and real great
ness of America demands that the men OF
every generation keep themselves true to
their deeper teachings and to their ennob
ling influences.
II. But there is another vital place for
reverence in the life of the state, and this
can be maint aimed only on condition
that this reverent spirit permeates mems
hearts in their thought of the things
that have just been referred to.
There must be a greater reverence for
law, as expressed on our statute books,
as enunciated by our courts of justice.
and as written on the hearts of men.
The only hope Of our nation. as of every
nation, is that it be a law-abiding people.
Perhaps the irreverent spirit OF the age
is most clearly seen, and its real nature
most fully disclosed in the spirit of open
lawlessness that prevails in many circles,
high as well as low.
We are today witnessing most de-
p1orable condition of affairs in one OF our
great western states where the execu-
tive, judicial and military functions OF
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