The Hope pioneer. [volume] (Hope, N.D.) 1882-1964, 1906-06-28

G. Bigelow on 'How Should
Christians Observe the Lords
Day.:
"The lid off," an expression we see
SO often in the newspapers OF today,
may we'll be applied to the proper OBJ
servance of the Sabbath at the present
time, and any reference to properly
keeping it is at one relegated to old
fogy ideas and is classed with the
spirit of the blue laws of the Puritans
so that it now requires a very close
and discriminating observation to dis
tinguish the church member from one
who is not in observing the Sabbath.
And this mixing up of church and
world and loose compliance OF Sab
bath law presents the greatest peril
confronting the church today. While
it we desire to break out from this en-
tanglement and get within sight of our
fathers appreciation of the sacred
ness of the day we are at once con-
fronted with an opposition that is both
formidable and active.
In England there are seven societies
organized for the express purpose of
secularizing the day, and here we
have the anarchists, communists, the
liberty leagues, the brewers league,
the distillers' league, and ever among
our apparent friends, the Seventh
Day Baptists and Adventists, and
these have their representatives in
legislature and congress to see that
no legislation is enacted against their
interests: and the greatest foe of them
all is the saloon. 1t is the saloon that
is robbing the American people of
their Sabbath and breaking down the
great bulwark of American liberty.
Another great factor is the immense
tides of immigration to our shores,
with their ideas of open air concerts,
excursions and family gatherings, &C.
companied with music and beer.
But, after all, the responsibility of
loose Sabbath observance rests large
ly upon us. A great number of rail
road corporations, owned by profess
sors OF religion, run excursion trains
on the Sabbath as we'll as regular
trains. Multitudes of church mem
bers make nothing of travelling on
Sunday. A large number of church
members take the Sunday newspaper,
which tries to take the curse off by a
chapter or two on religion while the
rest OF the pages pander to the fancies,
appetites, and curiosity of the ire
ligious classes. Members of the church
go even from church doors to the drug
stores, not for medicine, but to buy
cigars, soda water, and so forth.
Church members are in the same crowd
that get their mail on the Sabbath.
Many of our church members take the
day for a visiting day, for family re-
unions and friendly dinners. Until
there is a reformation on our part, of
course it is utterly impossible to
speak out against other evils. The
excuses that are offered are of rest
and necessity.
The Sabbath is indeed a day of rest.
One day in seven-not one in twenty
or thirty days, but one in seven-is
the exact ratio necessary to restore
the waste of mind and body in the
duties of life, and the men who insist
on no Sabbath are the men who soon
est wear out and go to an early grave.
AS a simple humanitarian measure
the Sabbath is a weekly benediction,
The fret and worry, the wear and
tear of the physical, make this day a
necessity, and from the standpoint of
the toiler it is a blessed boon. But a
day of rest does not mean a day of
play. The issue really is, shall it be
a day of play or a day of worship, for
it can never be a day of rest until it is
a day of worship. To those who seek
the day of play it very often becomes
a day of exhaustion, and to those who
administer to the play a day of down.
right slavery and labor, and the
French delusion and continental and
European idea of a holiday is in max
ing one-half of the people toll that the
other half may frolic.
AS to necessity, the running of
trains is not a necessity. Cold stor-
age and refrigerator cars obviate the
necessity of rushing cars through on
the Sabbath except for gain. 1t will
cost a triae more for ice, and when
stock is sent SO far that a Sabbath
must intervene it is better for the
owner and for the stock that they be
unloaded and rested on that day.
However, a national law forbids the
keeping of live stock on a continuous
ride more than twenty-eight hours. AS
to the mails, we are the guilty ones.
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