The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1904-10-07

to make his Sunday a day of hard
work in churchgoing, so that he works
harder on the Sabbath than he does on
any other day of the week"
The Old Fashioned Sunday.
Sabbath iconoclasts, is that the way
you would have man spend his Sab
baths? Well, already your modern
teaching in reference to the Sabbath
too we'll has taken root Your pre-
misses are wrong, for you know not to
what conclusions they tend. To see
whether your grandfather's Sabbath or
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 a 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 the
stock of the farm knew it was a day
of rest. The family would arise 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 it's 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 a fam
lily pew, and all the members were
there Then came the sermon, then
the journey home, then the quiet yet
bountiful dinner, then the afternoon for
reading or restful quiet, then the sing
ing of the hymns around the old fash
toned piano. No Damrosch's orchestra
or Theodore Thomas stringed instru-
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 the 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
munton with God. 1t meant Bible
study and sacred readings as well as
mere rest. Do you wonder that such a
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 it's 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-
en-, tired from work now, are turning
this Saturday night into the hardest
kind of work. They are dissipating for
pleasures sake. To the nonchurchgo-
er, as a rule, Saturday night is only
too often time for free indulgence of
every desire that is bad.
Sunday morning is here Where do
we now find most of the nonchurchgo.
ers? Again crowding our railroad
trains and cars; plcnics, 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 a boy have given place to the |
silly pictOrials 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 |
it's yelling rioters, half drunk or entire
ly debauched, who are off for 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
lines were too tightly drawn and in
them the Lords day was gloomy and
was a WEAKNESS to the children. Hen
ry Ward Beecher, the brilliant pastor
Of Plymouth church, used to give
humorous description of such Sab
baths. He described his brother and
himself watching the sun go down
over the western hills. In his boyhood
Sunday was observed from the setting
of the sun Saturday to the setting Of
the sun Sunday. No sooner would the
sun sink over the western hills than
these two boys would let out a great
yell, crying: "Hurrah, hurrah Sun
days over Now for some funw But,
though the Puritanic Sabbath was
very angular in the rigid
claim that Sabbath had
ten chances to where the modern Sab
bath has one of producing such fam
lily as Lyman Beecher developed.
l protest, in the second place, against
the iconoclasm which would eliminate
from our lives the divine principle of
concern for the welfare of others. Pro-
fame iconoclastic hands have been I'M
dermining the foundation stones of our
sacred Sabbath. Aye, these enemies
of God have been doing more; they
have been sneering and ridiculing the
beautiful parable of the good Samari-
tan. They have been declaring that
q mans neighbor belongs not to the
family wngth lives next door to him.
The only neighbor who has claims he
Uould racogniza is the wife or child