The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1906-04-07

sabbath" Matt. 12:1-4. The Golden
Text is. Remember the Sabbath
Day to Keep 1t Holy" Eek 2O:S-
BY WILLIAM T.. ELLIS.
eHE persistence of some prob
lens through the
does not speak we'll for the
t-eachableness of the human
race. Here is this Sabbatn
question which, when we SIT
down calmly to consider it, really p
pears to be one of the biggest religious
and social problems of the time. Yet
At is Identical with the Sabpath Ques7
ton which made so much trouble 1or
Jesus. twenty centuries ago II would
seem as if his clear statement of h
principles underlying the institution
would have settled all the bubbles
concerning Sabbath practices We
know. however, that the issue is a iv-
ing one today.
Two of several not dissimilar Incl
dents in the life of Jesus are taken as
the basis of the present sunday school
lesson. One was the fact that the as
cfples of Jesus, passing through a grain
field on the Sabbath, plucked the heads
of grain and ate them. The other was
the healing Of a man with a withered
hand in the synagogue on the SaDDaln.
Both aroused keen opposition, and at
ter h second the Pharisees actually
plotted how they might destroy Jesus.
ATan-BIade Sins.
saTJ7ere are too many man-made
sins" protested an old preacher, de-
CRYING the tendency to resolve religion
into a set of detailed rules for the con-
duct of life. hat is exactly what the
Jews of Jesus day had done They
a taken the great Mosaic principles
n Interpreted hem into an endless
succession of petty practices. Origin
ally, The teaching of a Sabbath was
sound, tested by all standards. The
day of rest and worship and mercy
was wholly helpful to man.
But the theOlogians had read into it
so many of their p~rejudices and queer
notions that the Sabbath had become
a burden grievOus to be borne. Thus,
a man might not pluck a flea from his
body, for hat was a species Of hunt
ingi He might not pluck a handful
of grain. for was that not reaptng ?
Nor could he rub the cham from it be-
tween his hands, for that was thresh-
ing. One orientalist tells how a fire
broke out a few years g in Jerusa-
lem on the Sabbath Day, and three
beautiful young girls were needlessly
burned to death. In the face of such
a tragedy. some of the persons present
thought their conduct especially mer1-
t~orious. because-they had kept the
Sabbath at so great a cost!
The Sabbath observance problem to-
day is complicated seriously by a rab-
binical. not to say, pharisaicaI. empha-
sis upon seventeenth century rules,
which cannot be made to apply in this
twentieth century. The usual discus
sion of the subject is by an iteration
Of detailed "don'ts," rather thar by a
statement, Jesus fashion. of broad,
practical and positive principles for
the right keeping of the day.
are We Afraid Of Real Problems?
The masses of people today are in
different to the %sanctity of the Lords
Day. The tendency of the times is
away from Sabbath keeping. Any
wide-awake, br-oad-visioned observer
must know this. Consider the uproar
OF Sunday night with which this pres
ent year was ushered in, for a recent
Illustration. There is d~iscOverable
more than one indication that the
days laxity in Sabbath observance is
likely to sweep away, together with
the obsolete legal e-nactments upon h
subject. the really wholesome re-
straints which the civil law has thrown
about this vitality important institution.
In the face of his trend of public
sentiment. the church seems to have
nc clear, ringing, constructive message
upon the subject Some far-sighted
and concerned laymen in an eastern
city several months ago called a mems
meeting to consider the Sabbath cues
tion from a new standpoint, namely
the pen free discussion Of the situa-
ton and possible remedies. The sal
aired secretary of a abbat assocfa-
ton got in his work however. and the
usual attack upon every person whC
rides upon a car on Sunday. was made
(thus indicting nine-tenths of all the
men present., and the meeting gave