Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1904-10-07

eu uP, ana latner and mother and all
the children rode TO town I'm the Same
big wagon. Then the pew was fam
lily pew, and all the members ,yere
there. Then came the sermon. then
the journey home. then the ouiet VET
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 I'm the singing. Then the even
ing church service again or. il 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 a
Sabbath as our fathers observed was
the very foundation of church life, of
Christian home life. of Bible reading
and of conservation 10 God?
Alongside of this beautiful Sabbath
day of rest 1 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-
en-, tired from work now, are turning
this Saturday night into the hardest
Kind OF work. They are disspating for
pleasures sake. To the nonchurchgo-
er, as 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
study as 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
its yelling rioters, half drunk or entire
~ debauched, who are Off for n day of
sin. DO you mean to tell me, sensible
man, that the modern way OF spending
the Sabbath is as profitable as n 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 day consecrated to himself is the
most important foundation stone of
the church OF Jesus Christ. Without
IL no true gospel conservation can ex-
list. 1 know that I'm some homes the
lines were too tightly drawn and i'm
them the Lords day was gloomy and
was WEAKNESS to the children. Hen
ry Ward Beechcr, the brilliant pastor
of Plymouth church. used TO give n
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 n great
yell, crying: "Hurrah, hurrah! Sun
days over. Now for some fun-' But,
though the Puritanic Sabbath was
sometimes very angular in the rigid
observance, L claim that Sabbath had
ten chances TO where the modern Sab
bath has one OF producing such n fam
;ly as Lyman Beecher developed.
protest, In the second place. against
tho 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
or God have been doing more; they
have been sneerlng and ridIcuiing the
beautiful parable of the good SamarI-
tan. They have been declaring that
q mans neighbor belongs not TO the
family which lives next door to him.
The only neighbor who has claims he
would recognize is the wife or child
who lives within the four walls of his
own house. He has been asserting that
a mans chief duty in life is to himself
and his own.
Can any good come out of such n
NAZARETH once read OF n preat
conqueror invading country OF the
Tar east. One day he entered a temple
where stood an idol so beautiful that
not one OF his followers was willing TO
destroy 1t. With an oath, the conouer-
or said, IF you will not obey my COM
mands will destroy IL myself" He
ll1ted his battleax. AS he raised him
SER In his stirrups-for he had ridden
MS horse into the temple-with a
mighty blow he shattered the idol into
a thousand pieces. Then, 10 his fol-
lowers surprise, he revealed the fact
that the inside OF the idol was not a
vacuum. IL had been filled with thou
sands upon thousands of golden coins.
which as n lava bed burst from the
broken statue and rolled to the feet of
the western icOnoclast The iconoclast
who destroys the beautiful image of
charity and benevolence may think
that he, too, will be able to grasp the
wealth which IL pours forth on the
needy and the suffering, but he will
be disappointed. The economy which
refuses to give help to those who need
proves a canker TO prosperity. and
those who withhold their charity come
10 poverty. The command is that he
who loves God loves his brother also.
ana the converse is true that he who
Ices not love his brother proves that
ne does not love his God.
The Golden Rule with our ancestors
was practically and not a mere the
Dry. Where are you going tonight.
notherF' the father often asked. "Yon
ook tired. You ought not to be going
'ut tonight" Il know It," she Womb
'ay, but must go. Our neIghbor Is
cry slck. l am afraid she will not get
well. They have sent for me to come