Orange County observer. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1880-1918, 1908-01-23
z He PULPIT

III 1tLT Z
4 BRILLIANT SUNDAY SERMON BY
= THE REV. q. G. MILLS.
Subject: Spirit Of the Lords Dag.
Brooklyn, N. Y-.The Rev. Grover
g. Mills, pastor OF Pilgrim Chapel,
preached Sunday morning on "The
Spirit Of the Lords Day" taking as
his texts Romans 12:5: @One 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 universality. It fits all sorts
and conditions OF men, and when un-
derstood as Jesus meant 1t to~be un-
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 up 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-
atfng Of numerous moral maxims, but
It is getting the loftiest 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, up
through comp1exity 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
of evil became hazy and we had the
nna mandments This night bs caiped dsR s9gRR gRe
religion OF restraint It meant Sc
ries of "thou shalt nots.". Every
thing was to be done by rule. The
evil was to be separate from the
good, one nation separate from an
other to preserve its holiness, one
meat set apart from the others, one
day sanctified. Then came Jesus with
which should give it perennial fresh
uO00s 4C1A w 0o Az AOASVA " NOAA0uA1
an authority to find whether he
should or should not do 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 ques-
ton of Sunday observance in the light
OF this.
First, the old Sabbath of the Jews,
and as revived in great part by the
Puritans Of three centuries ago, does
not measure up to the demands Of a
spiritual religion. Everything was
| nicely res gulated by rule. But the
| man who takes his ethics predigested
is in danger Of moral atrophy. The
body needs exercise or it will become
| diseased; the intellect must be used
or it will become fiabby; 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 reason fol
/ their obedience become more an6
more blindly reactfonary. Thus it il
/ dangerous to multiply restrictions be
yond what is essential: because men
feeling themselves cramped, breal
the artificial barrier, but at the same
time there comes to them a feel1n.
Of outlines, their ccnsciences ar
hardened and they stand ready t.
break every law, as opportunity OF
fers. The old Sabbath, therefore
was legalistic, it took no account of
mans attitude toward Righteousness
I it only demanded that he fulfil tn
letter Of the law. We see the resul
OF it in the Pharisees, who were stric
observers of the Sabbath, but did no
hesitate to practice hypocrisy, t
grind the poor in the dust with TN
Just taxation, and in general to leav
1 fellow feeling entirely out OF their re
igion.
1 2. But the question is immediate
1y put, It the old Sabbath be abol
fshed, has not Sunday taken its place
Not at all. Observance OF Sunda
Was comEeDced after tae death @
Jesus. It was not to take the piac
of the Jewish holy day, but for tim
the two ran side by side, Christian
keeping the Sabbath, with all its re
strictions, on our Saturday, and cele
brating the neSt day (our Sunday
with great rejoicing in honor OF tn
Lords resurrection At the outse1
then, it was a day Of cheerfulness
It was festival, with JOY and glad
ness, and so strong was the feelin
that this was as it ought to be TIA
we read in the "Epistle to Turibius,
one OF our Oldest documents: tn