The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1904-11-21
FOR LOVE
NOT DUTY
Dr.. Kincaid Gives His
Views on Sunday
Question.

| Rev. DR.. William Morris Kincaid
preached. on The Sunday Question
yesterday morning at Central Union
| church. The scripture reading was the
| twelfth chapter of Matthew and the
| text was taken from the command
ments relating to the observance of
the Sabbath. His sermon began with
a history of the Jewish Sabbath. The
connection with the miraculous gift
of mama, SO that its origin evil
IDENTIFY antedated the commandments
and laws. The Sabbath was an out
growth of the necessities of mankind
and not the result of the ten command
ments. In fact all the commandments
are the result of mans needs. The
laws that nature demanded were SIM
ply compiled in the form Of the ten
commandments.
The Jewish Sabbath, which is at least
5000 years old, was pre-eminentIy a day
of rest from labor. There were no
special religious ceremonies and 1t was
a day of feasting and joy. Then came
the rabbis who hedged the Sabbath
about with laws relating to details,
which though in many cases unreason-
able were nevertheless based on the
idea of freedom from labor. The ex-
perience of nations has shown that a
day of rest is needed-body, mind and
spirit demand it. Until recently Paris
defied the Sabbath commandment but
now even frivolous, atheistic Paris has
come to recognize that the human be-
ing must have one day of rest in seven.
All we have a right to demand from
our legislature is that Sunday be a
day of rest from labor, but we have
right to demand this.
DR.. Kincaid continued with a sketch
of the origin of the Christian Sunday,
telling how the Jewish Sabbath was
gradually done away with and the new
Sabbath instituted. Yet the old saying,
Scratch a Russian and catch a Tar
tar" altered to read Scratch a Chris
tian and find Jew holds true, for we
still too often hold to the old Jewish
idea that Sabbath observance is a duty.
The true Christian Sabbath is not
something We must observe because it
is our duty but because we love to OBJ
serve it. Tt is day, not only of rest
but of worship, a day when we know
men as men, not as clients, servants or |
customers.
The Christian Sabbath is day pre- |
eninently for the home, when the busy |
man may have time to spend with his /
wife and children. Anything. even |
church, which keeps a man from being |
with his family is not in accord with |
the true spirit of the Christian Sun |
sonally he was opposed to Sunday |
although he had been in
'orrned that there were Sunday news
papers and Sunday newspapers. The
reason that DR.. Kincaid objected to
Sunday papers was that they brought |
he cares and business of the world
nto the Sabbath when q man. ought
o be free from all cares of business
He told a story of a buzzard that pitied
canary because its mistress would
lot let it eat carrion. But the canary |
,hirped that it did not care for carbon.
The speaker then said that Sunday
rave a great opportunity for redenp-
i've work and declared that he would
ather be the poorest paid minister in
he world than belong to any other
Profession, for he had the right to work
very day in the week for the redemp-
ion of men. All Christians have an
to do this redemptiye work
n carrying out the great commission
f the Master to carry the message of
lis love to the whole human race.