The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1907-03-30
RELIGIOUS NEWS NOTES

At conference on Sunday legisIa-
ton and observance held ins Boston.
Professor Mitchell of Boston univer-
lsity made this interesting statement:
When he was in Germany thirty years
ago, everybody was at work on Sun
day, the same as on other days, while
the churches We're empty. Three years
Iago ne found the churches full and
hardly anybody at work. "This.
| change said Professor Mitchell twas
brought about by the socialists, who
wanted more time to themselves and
got one day in seven. In France the
Ilabor unions have brought about the
same result to great extent The
church should take council with the
Iworkingmen in this matter
Professor Mitcheils testimony goes
to support the contention that the
problem of Sunday observance is fun
damentally an industrial question, as
the ten commandments regard it, as
given in their finest form in the fifth
chapter of Deuteronomy, form far
superior to the more familiar deca-
lpgne of the twentieth chapter of FIX
odus. II the church.is i'm earnest in it's
plea for the religious observance of
Sunday let the Church people cease
from demanding the innumerable
forms of Sunday labor which they now
insist upon nearly all of Which are Tin =
necessary Let the church confer with
labor organizations in regard 10 forms.
of Sunday labor to which those orgaf1i-
cations are opposed, and make common
cause with them. Let the church also
use It's efforts for the securing of such
time by workingmen through the week
as shall enable them to get indispensa
BILE service done, outside their stated
Iemployments, and TO make labor condi-.
lions such that the workingnan shall
not reach Sunday with mind and body
too wearied to improve the intellectual
and spiritual opportunities of the day.
Let the church cease wasting it's enar-
| gies in futile opposition to Sunday res
| laxations in which no labor is involved,
and cease urging theological arguments
which have no force with the majority
! of men, Men are naturally religious,
and the working people are naturally
more religious than. any other class of
The population Let the churca give
these people the opportunity to observe
Sunday and they will more and more
| observe 1t reiigiously.
| A notable religious book of the day
| is The Psychology of Religious Belief,
by Prof J. B. Pratt of Williams college.
The author concludes from a wide OBJ
servation and inquiry into the religious
experience of many with whom he has
lcorresponded, that personal religion is
based either on authority, as of creed.
a church, che bible or upon an intel
llectual argument, or from am inner
personal conviction. The first two
forms he believes to be dying out; the
lthird form he finds increasingly preva-
lent. He says: Belief in God today,
with large proportion of the religious
community. Is based not on argument
Eor authority, but on private expert
ence springing from a feeling of the
fspiritual, and which is intimately
bound uo with life and all that life
means This feeling lie says. is de-
pendent upon no authority, nor can 1t
be disproved by any argument Though
|it may properly be called a feeling, it
embraces conviction and experience.
|. 1t is d Fundamental ana universal quail
ity of humanity
OF the universal significance of this
religious conviction ne speaks very in-s
terestingly. This inner experience is
really one; all the nystics speak one
language and profess one faith For
while some commune with Brahm
some with their own larger and purer
selves. some with Jesus or with Mary
some with the oversoul all TESTIFY to.
the conviction, or as they phrase it, to-