The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1904-11-19
ONE DAY IN SEVEN.

i
Is felt by all people who inherit thS
traditions OF Judea. With them the
need is not necessarily religious one.
i il has come, through process Of time
70 he a natural physical and mental
craving. almost a. rooted instinct OF
bumaD nature. If many tribes and
races do not have weekly rest day
in their calendars it is because so much
of their time is spent i'll idleness or
because of dire exigencies in the strug-
Gle for life. Well-ordered society, pros
perous enough to spare one day in
Iseven from toll, insists upon its Sunday
or as in the case of two religious
/ bodies. on its Saturday. France, in its
revolutionary era. tried to abolish sun
day and Napoleon fixed one day in ten
for rest: but both failed. One day in
seven was the fat of the people.
Unfortunately, with one part of the
Christian world, the observance of sum
dav was turned into a melancholy rite
which made it a dreaded day of self
modification rather than one of per-
sonaI refreshment and release. There
could not have been much mental or
physical benefit to anyone in the,
Puritan Sabbath. Cold fool and little
of it; church three times day; a
nlrve-wracking series of sermons about
eternal punishment and the small
chance of anyone escaping from that
fate; the stiff. uncomfortable garments,
the sedate walk, the mournful visage,
the pause after service in the church
yard among the graves, the tolling of
bells and the long grievance of prayer
AL this must have made the approach
of Sunday brood like a nightmare over
the generous and sensitive soul. One
can almost forgive the bacchanalian
feastings that marked the Sunday o.
the English Restoration after long
years of the Puritan Sabbath of Crom-|
well and of men like Praise-God-
Barebones.
But they reasoned better in Catholic
lands. The wise men who made the
ordinances of the ancient Roman church,
felt that an hour or two of worship
on Sunday and the rest of the time in
joyous forgetfulness of the sordid
cares of the week, "a Ringing of re-
ligious duties with physical refresh
ment and recreation, would have the
best results both to the church and to
those in need of rest from six days Of
labor To the church because there
would be no compuIsion of tiresome,
alI-day, retrospective rites to repel the
communicate: to the people because a
change of air and scene and a process
sion of lightsome gayeties would do
more to secure that necessary rest of
mind and body required of the seventh
day than would be possible by hiber-
mating in ones home with time hang
Ing heavy on the hands. A change
from one activity to another il the
most healthful species of daytime rest.
Observe the fat, healthy and smiling
F1orentine signora with her Sunday
frolicking and contrast her with the
lean, angular and spiritless housewife
of the New England sabbath, with her
Sunday melancholy
Far be it from us to speak of the
Sunday of italy as ideal, but it is nearer
rational than the Sunday of Vermont.
From them both may we not yet
evolve an American Sunday with the
morning for worship and the afternoon
for the pleasures which if harmless
on week days, surely have not
| turned poisonous in the day of Gods
grace, The green pastures and still
waters have been likened to Heavens
| landscape; and the immortal soul may
not be imperilled by visiting them OH
the day of preparation for Heaven.
Why should not the Sunday, which is
made for man be enjoyed by man? Let
people have their morning for church
! if they want it; and in the afternoon
and evening let the parks and beaches,
the mountains and drives be populated;
let the cafes and suburban golf links
and backgrounds be open and let the
yachts spread their wings. If thought
best to close the town in the forenoon
well and good; but for half the day
at least let everyone whose pleasures
do not constitute a public nuisance. en-
joy himself in his own way.
--$
AS the sunday law forbids the
abridgement of opportunities for read
ing and study, the readers of the Sum