The Penn's Grove record., 1908-01-17

ing that there is not quite the same
freedom there as there would be in
the dining room, but you rather Ike
it.. You would not think OF having
your house without a parior. I Is
that which exalts the whole. So IL is
with our Sunday, it is the golden
clasp" We may be a little sitter
than on other days, but it should not
be the stiffness Of the prisoner
hemmed in by restraint. 1t should
resemble the dignity of the king, not
doing all that we have a right to 90.
The question Of Christian liberty
now arises, and it is really about this
point that the whole storm has ragged
OF late. There have been extremists
on one side and on the other. Some
have maintained this to be a Chris
tan country and that therefore all
who come to our shores must fall in
line with the views of our Puritan
ancestors. Ali places of amusement
are harmful On Sunday and should
be closed. On the other side are
those who maintain just as vigCT-
ously that New York is a cosmopo,-
itan city and therefore should be a
Wide-open town. Each party sees
only 4 side OF the truth. If the
two were to come together we would
have a full-orbed view, a reasonable
solution. 1t is true, as Burke says,
much as we dislike to admit it, that
AL government, indeed every human
benefit, every virtue and every pru-
dent act, is founded on compromise
and barter" Those who stand for
a strict observance CT the Sabbath
forget that to some this would mean
much misery, because all men are
not built alike. To compel an Hitter
ate man to read his Bible would be
robbing him OF his day of rest, while
to others 1t would mean real repose.
Those who stand for no observance
at all forget what we owe to such OBJ
servance as we have had hitherto. It
Is because many OF our citizens week
after week have maintained their re-
lations with religious institutions that
the backbone of the country has been
kept. When a man OF nation loses
grip of the higher things, when the
windows Of the soul are closed and
covered with cobwebs, We are pre-
pared to look for dissolution and
decay.
What, then, are we to do? How
are we to arrange matters so that
the benefcent results Of Sunday o.
seryance shall be retained and yet
keep the day from being blue, save
to moral wrongdoers? Certainly not
by keeping on the books the law that
is nCT there. According TO the de-
cisiol recently rendered, practically
all forms OF innocent amusement are
prohibited, including even stereop-
Gicon lectures at churches. Up till
last week the law was evaded. 1t
will be evaded again as soon as mat
tiers quiet down a little. This will
promote disrespect for all law, and
this would be more d~emoralizing than
a liberal law. Permit me at this
point to say that I have no sympathy
with those who on the one side think
that driving people away from Sun
day vaudeville will drive them to the
saloons. l know many people in this
leighborhood VINO attended these per-
iormances and none has as yet taken
to the bottle. These people are not
after all very different from our
selves. They are ordinary American
citizens. Nor have 1 any great belief
in the wisdom of those who think
people can be driven to church by
driving them out of the Sunday thea
ire, and if they only come to church
because there is nc other place open,
I doubt whether it would be worth
their while to come. The spirit IN
which one attends is everything.
The solution, then, seems to be to
have a law in which are specified
those forms of amusement that the
great majority of the citizens are
agreed are harmless and which shall
not disturb the public peace or SER
iously interrupt the repose and re-
Iigious liberty of the community. But
this is only the first step. the law
must have public sentiment behind it
or become a dead letter at the outset.
This public sentiment should be kept
aroused by the moral teachers of the
community as we'll as by the news
papers and by all good men. We
should then have a day which would
mean for all a day OF rest, for rest
does not mean inactivity, but har-
mony. 1t means doing that which is
most c~ongenial. The man who loves
his fellow men and longs for the day
when there shall be one brotherhood
on the earth and men shall have one
| aspiration-to do the will of God
may repair to the assembly of wor-
ship and renew his allegiance to the
old ideals; the brother who, worn
out with the toll of the week, felt
that he needed all his time to re-
create himself by harmless amuse-
ment, would not be ~hindered, though
he might well be pitied. All would
| have more regard for the weightier
matters OF the law.