Milford chronicle., 1904-10-07
The old Fashioned Sunday.

The Old Fashioned Sunday.
: Sabbath iconoclasts, is that the wa
you would have man spend his Sab
$ baths? Well, already your moder
{ teaching in reference to the Sabbatl
r too well has taken root Your pre-
misses are wrong for you know not t,
what conclusions they tend. To Sc,
whether your grandfather's Sabbath o.
your own is the better l would have
you compare the two side by side
Thirty. fifty years ago the man who
made Sunday a day of pleasure was
looked upon as blasphemer. an Out
and out enemy of God, of the church
and of the better elements of the social
community. When Sunday morning
would come even the horses and tile
stock of the farm knew it was day
of rest. The family would arise Il lit
tie later than usual Then they would
linger a little longer at the breakfast
table. Then the sweetest music of the
world would begin to sound The old
| village bell would send its silvery notes
/ rolling down the valley. Then. after
morning prayers. the horses were hitch
ed up, and father and mother and all
/ the children rode to town in the same
big wagon. Then the pew was fam
lily pew, and all the members were
there Then came the sermon. then
the journey home, then the quiet vet
bOuntiful dinner, then the afternoon for
reading or restful quiet, then the sing
ing of the hymns around the old fash
ioned piano. No Damroschs orchestra
or Theodore Thomas stringed inStlu-
ments ever had such enthusiastic au-
diences and participants as those old
family oratOrios about the piano, where
our sisters played and our fathers and
mothers and the rest of the family all
Joined in the singing Then tile even
ing church service again or. if the
farm was too far away. the evening
prayers and early bed You know. O
man. that old fashioned Sabbath day
meant more than mere cessation from
worldly work 1t meant quiet com
munion with God. 1t meant Bible
study and sacred readings as well as
mere rest. Do you wonder that such
Sabbath as our fathers observed was
the very foundation of church life. Of
Christian home life, of Bible reading
and of conservation to God?
Alongside of this beautiful Sabbath
day of rest l want you TO place the
modern sabbath, with its so called lib-
eral ideas. First. where do we find the
vestibule of the Sabbath? Namely. sat
urday night To bed early? Oh. no.
Saturday night has come In our large
cities the street cars are crowded.
Where are the people going? Some to
the theaters; others, alas, to places of
still more evil resort! Men and wom-
Ell. tired from work now, are turning
this Saturday night into the hardest
kind Of work. They are disspating for
pleasures sake. To the nonchurchco-
er, as a rule. Saturday night is only
too often a time for free Indulgence Of
every desire that is bad.
Sunday morning is here. Where do
we now find most Of the nonchurchSo-
ers: Again crowding our railroad
trains and cars; picnics. ball games.
outing parties, where the breweries
and the wine sellers get their biggest
revenues. The beautiful pictures of
the family Bible which we used TO
study as boy have given place to the
silly pictorals of the Sunday newspa-
per. Everywhere on the Sabbath sin
simply runs riot. In many cities even
the saloons and playhOuses are full.
Instead Of the quiet family group going
to the village church. now almost every
country road near an adjacent city has
its yelling rioters. half drunk or entire
ly debauched, who are off for a day of
sin. DO you mean to tell me. sensible
man, that the modern way of spending
the Sabbath is as profitable as a day
Of rest and communion with God as
were the Sabbath days our forefathers
observed?
Rigid Observance of the Lords Day.
The rigid observance of Gods day
as a day consecrated to himself is the
most important foundation stone of
the church of Jesus Christ. Without
1t no true gospel conservation can ex-
LIST. l know that in some homes the 1
lines were too tightly drawn and in
them the Lords day was gloomy and
was a weariness to the children. Hen
~ Ward Beecher, the brilliant pastor >
Of Plymouth church, used to give
humorous description of such Sab
baths. He described his brother and 1
himself watching the sun go down /
over the western hills. In his bOyhOOd
Sunday was observed from the setting
1f the sun Saturday to the setting of
the sun Sunday. No sooner would the /
sun sink over the western hills than
-hese two boys would let out great
yell, crying: "Hurrah, hurrah! Sun
lays over. Now for some funw But !
hough the Puritanic Sabbath was I
very angular in the rigid
observance, 1 claim that Sabbath had s
en- chances to where the modern Sab [
path has one of producing such a fam [
ly as Lyman Beeeher developed. I
l protest. in the second place. against {
he iconoclasm which would eliminate /,
rom our lives the divine principle Of {