Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1904-10-08

self Inat says our lCOuocihsI 10
my idea Of the Sabbath day. ! do not
think q hardworking man has q right
to make bis 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
bathsf Well. already your modern
teaching In reference to the Saboatn
too well has taken root Your pre-
mises are wrong. for you know not to
what conclusions they tend. To see
whether your grandfather's Sabbath or
y5ur own Is the better | would have
YOU compare the two side by SIDE
Thirty. fifty years ago the man who
made Sunday O 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 the
stock OF the farm knew II was day
Of rest The family would arise q lit
tie later than usual. Then they would
linger C 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
bountlful dinner, then the afternoon for
reading or restful quiet, then the sing
ing of the hymLs 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
toined In the singing. Then the even
ing church service again or, II 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 q
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 want you to place the
modern Sabbath, with It's 80 called lib.
sral Ideas. First, where do we find the
yestbule of the Sabbath? Namely. sat
urday night. To bed earlyi 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 WON.
en-. tired from work now, are turning
this Saturday night into the hardest
kind Of work. They are disslpating for
pleasures sake To the nonchurchgo
or, as a rule Saturday night Is only
too often time for free Indulgence OF
every desire that Is bad,
Sunday morning Is here. Where dc
we now fnd most of the noncburchgo
srsl Again crowding our railroad
trains and cars; picnics, ball games
outing parties, where the hrewer'es
and the wine sellers get their biggest
revenues. The beautiful pictures oi
the family Bible which we used tC
study as n boy have given place to th'
silly pictorlals Of the Sunday newspa
per. Everywhere on the Sabbath sir
simply runs riot. In many cities ever
the saloons and playhouses are full
Instead Of the quiet family group golni
| 10 the village church, now almost ever.
country road near an adjacent city ha
its yelling rioters. half drunk or entire
ly debauched, who are of for day
sin. DO you mean to tell me. sensIbl
man. that the modern way Of spendini
the Sabbath Is as profitable as da.
of rest and communion with God a
were the Sabbath days our forefather
observed?
Rigid Observance of the Lords Day
The rigid observance of Gods da.
as O day consecrated to himself Is III
most important foundation stone
the church OF Jesus Christ. Withou
II no true gospel conservation can e1
ist. | know that in some bones th
lines wore too tightly drawn and i
them the Lords day was gloomy an
was weariness to the children. Her
ry Ward Beecher. the brilliant paste
of Plymouth church. used to give
humorous description Of such Sal
baths. He described his brother an
himself watching the sun go dow
over the western hills. In bis boyhoo
Sunday was observed from the settln
Of the sun Saturday to the setting
the sun Sunday. No sooner would th
sun sink over the western hills tha
these two boys would let out a gref
yell, crying: "Hurrah, hurrah. Sui
: day's over. Now for some funW Bu
though the Puritanic Sabbath ws
someh nes very angular In the rig
observance, claim that Sabbath ha
ten chances TO where the modern sa
, bath has one of producing such fan
ily as Lyman Beecher developed.
. ! protest. In the second place. again
tho lconoclasm which would ellmina
p from our lives the divine principle
concern for the welfare OF others. Pr
fame lconoclastic hands have been U
= derminlng the foundation stones OF OF
| sacred Sabbath. Aye, these eneml'
D of God have been doing more; the
. have been sneerIng and ridicullng II
beautiful parable of the good samaI
II ho,a ham d0oia rtnO th