The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1907-11-05

eedents in councils of war, that ap-
point the order of speaking inversely
as the rank of the participants, L take
up the cross laid upon me by the pro-
gram committee and proceed to drive
/ the working views of very humble
| lavman as lambs to the slaughter, for
1 owe both you and myself no less than
this. that without regard to pleasing
ANYBODY. I say frankly and precisely
what I think, as far as | say any
thing. I am, of course, by no means
certain to be correct in the premises,
but I am certain to be straight, from
my own point of view.
l hold one position of whose sound
ness I entertain no doubt whatever. 1t
is this, that as to things which are to
all intents and purpose, per Sc, crimes
against God and man, in the present
state of light and knowledge, 1t is
burlesaue on the deealogue to forbid
them on one day in seven, or certain
hours of the night. As to this | have
not been entirely speeches. in the last
| twenty years.
But with that exception, | think that
I have never until now published an
opinion. or indeed had any hard and
fast opinion, as to how other people
ought to observe the Sabbath. And L
confess that the brief study I have
just now been giving to the subject has
raised in me fairly respectful feeling
toward that somewhat slipshod at
titude.
1t seems to me that the command
ment. Remember the Sabbath day to
keep it holy" is in the nature OF
things and on the authority of Jesus,
directory statute and not mandatory,
as to details, upon anybody.
In a small, primitive and personally
conducted community a certain rigid
ity of observance might properly be
required and successfully enforced, and
such a strict construction would have
for such a community an important
psychological value in setting up a
strong impulse in support of the idea
of the sacredness of rest as a feature
in social economy. But inevitably as
development increased the complexity
of the community life and enlarged the
scope of individual Interpretation, the
technical rules made by authority would
gradually give way to multifarlous
liberty of Interpretation and action IN
the interest of the spirit of the rule
as against the letter of the bylaws in
support of it.
The only base line drawn by the
commandment, from which subsequent
surveys of obedience were to be made,
was that which differentiates between
labor and refreshment, and that at
best is a very elusive monument, be-
cause the two things are indefinable
in terms of one personality, or occu-
patton, for application to another.
Moses. and Jesus did their business
of governing, teaching and healing, |
seven days in the week and Jesus |
made the proposition a fixture that the |
man, and not the day, was the domi- |
nant feature of the institution, from |
which it follows that the man may /
waive his day of rest if he will and |
that to forbid his doing it is folly and /
tyranny.
The explanatory clause, six days
shalt thou labor and do all thy work |
but the seventh is the Sabbath of the |
Lord, IN it thou shalt do no work." is /
as important at one end of it as the |
other; and just how to keep the six
seventies obligation to exert ones self, |
which has never been prescribed, is
no more difficult to prescribe than the
one-seventh of relaxa ton.
The one-seventh was blessed and |
hallowed to purposes of rest. Nothing
narrower was proposed nor possible.
And how a. man shall rest himself
no other man knows and it is no other
mans business, provided due regard is
shown to the rest rights of others.
Clean sport and holy scripture are in
the same class in two particulars.
They are spiritually discerned and
they are not for private Interpretation.
Now play is the best rest ever dis
covered. Wholesome and innocent |
are more necessary than
going to church. It would have been
and shocking if the rule had
said Thou shalt not play on the Sab
bath" What is wholesome and limo
cent work, and wholesome and limo
cent amusement, within certain rather
indefinite bounds. may be determinable
according to the sum of social kncwl-
edge and the peeuiarities of local con-
1itions; but IN general both subjects,
rs related to the individual, are ultra
civil, ultra ecclesiastical and purely
personal, both as to the means en-
oloyed and the calculation of the frac-
tons of the week.
The personal equation is of first i'm
portance in dealing with the fourth
commandment, from the view point of
individual conduct, and it seems to
me that the commentary of the great
given to the woman at the
well. completely covers the matter.
The time is coming and now is. when |
places and times and forms shall be
Of negligible value as compared to the |