The Penn's Grove record., 1908-01-17
THE PULPIT.
A BRILLIANT SUNDAY SERMON BY
THE REV. G. G. MILLS.
Subject: Spirit of the Lords Da-.

Spirit of the Lords Day." taking as
his texts Romans 1875: zone man
esteemeth one day above another; an
other esteemeth every day alike. Let
every man be fully persuaded in his
own mind" and Mark 2:27: @The
Sabbath was made for man and not
man for the Sabbath" Among other
things Mr.. Mills said:
The glory Of the Christian religion
IS its universally. 1t fits all sorts
and conditions OF men, and when I'M
derstood as Jesus meant it to be I'M
derstood, they receive it gladly, for
His appeal was always past tradition
to truth. The court of final appeal is
the spirit in man backed I'D by the
experience of the race. Christianity
is not the acceptance OF a set of opin-
ions, nor the observance of ritual, sa-
cred places and days, nor the reiter-
at1ng OF numerous moral maxims, but
it is getting the loftiast point of view
with regard to things in general and
ones relations to ones fellow men in
particular. All Jesus teaching looked
toward the unifying Of the moral law.
All progress is from unity, uD
through complexity back to a unity on
a higher plane. In the beginning the
moral law was very simple: Thou
shalt not eat the fruit of the tree"
that is, EVIL is deadly, do not med
die with it." Here we have the re-
ligion of fear. Later mems notions
J OF evil became h2zy and we had the
books of the law and the ten com
mandments. This might be called the
religion of restraint. 1t meant a Sc
ries OF thou shalt nots." Every
J + III n rr-a- - r. r.
evil was to be separate from the
good, n nation separate from an
other to preserve its holiness. one
meat set apart from the others, one
day sanctified. Then came Jesus with
a desire to put a spirit into religion
which should give it perennial fresh
ness. Man was no longer to consult
an authority to find whether he
should or should not do a certain
thing. He was to accept the guidance
OF the inner light. He was not to
separate the evil from the good, but
to overcome evil with good" He
was to make the radiance of the one
day suffuse all the days; he was not
to think of God afar OFF watching His
universe go; but as nearer than
breathing, closer than hands or feet"
he was not SO much to be concerned
with getting men to heaven as get
ting heaven into the world. This is
what may be called the religion OF
the spirit. Now let US view the uues-
ton of Sunday observance in the light
of this.
First, the old Sabbath of the Jews
and as revived in great part by IL
Puritans of three centuries ago, does
not measure up TO the demands of a
spiritual religion. Everything was
nicely regulated by rule. But the
man who takes his ethics predigested
= IS in danger of moral atroDhy. The
body needs exercise or it will become
diseased; the intellect must be used
Or it will become fabby; the con-
science must be trained or it will van
ish into nothingness. The commu-
nifty is in duty bound to give this fac
ulty of conscience as free play as con-
ditions will permit.
On the other hand, the strong peo-
pie, those who tend to question au-
thority and who demand a reason for
their obedience become more and
more blindly r~eactionary. Thus it IS
dangerous to multiply restrictions be-
yond what is essential; because men,
feeling themselves cramped, break
the artificial barrier, but at the same
time there comes to them a feeling
Of outlines, their consciences are
hardened and they stand ready to
break every law, as opportunity Of
fers. The old Sabbath, therefore,
was legalistic, it took no account OF a
mans attitude toward righteousness;
it only demanded that he fulfil the
letter of the law. We see the result
of it in the Pharisees, who were strict
observers of the Sabbath, but did not
hesitate to practice hypocrisy, to
grind the poor in the dust with IN
just taxation, and in general to leave
fellow feeling entirely out of their re-
ligion.
2. But the question is immediate
ly put, If the old Sabbath be abol-
ished, has not Sundaytaken its place?
Not at all. Observance of Sunday
was commenced after the death Of
Jesus. It was not to take the place
of the Jewish holy day, but for a time
the two ran side by side, Christians
keeping the Sabbath, with all its re-
st%rictions, on Jul Saturday, and cele-
brating the next day (our Sunday
with great rejoicing in honor of the
Lords resurrection. AT the outset,
then, it was a day of cheerfulness.
It was a festival, with JOY and glad
ness, and so strong was the feeling
that this was as it ought to be that
we read in the 'Epistle to T%uribius,"
one of our Oldest documents: "The
ManicheanS have been convicted in
the examination which we have made
of passing the Sunday, which is con-
secrated to the resurrection OF our
Lord, in modification and fasting"
Truly, here is a case of the tables
turned.
All reasonable Christians will hold
that this is what Sunday ought to
day of cheerfulness and rec
reation. There should be nothing
blue" about it. 1t should be, in
truth, "the golden clasp that binds
the volume OF the week" But when
we seek c~heerfulness and recreation
we should be careful that we get no
spurious substitutes therefor. Rec
reat means just what it says. Re
create, that is, to fit for the duties of
the week. To put new life into your
self to stand the stress and turmoil of
life. Some men think they can do
this best by assembling at the house
Of worship, some by walking abroad
In Gods out of doors, some by at
tending some innocent place of
amusement, some by just staying at
home and resting, some by a com
/ bination of these.
We must not lose sight of the fact
that 1.-The Sabbath was made for man,
not man for the Sabbath" 1t is to
help man, it is something to satisfy
his needs, not a dark law with 4 pen
atty attached. Now, the deepest need
Of man and especially Americans is
rest. There is something very sweet
about that phrase, The weary are
ct rest" We ought to seek 10 make
the day a real Gay OF rest. L is the
souls library day" On other days
It is all too true
The world is too much with us; late
and soon,
Getting and spending we lay waste
our powers.
Suppose YOU lived in a splendid
ax-N- ho,,eo a,l 49,, r,s1-J-