The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1908-02-05

dressed In your best clothes and feeis
ing that there is not quite the same
freedom there as there would De IN
the dining room, but you ratner IKE
it. You would no. think OF having
your house without parlo". !t Is
that which eXa!ts the whole. SO 1t IS
with our Sunday. it is the so!oen
clasp" We may be a little stiHer
than on other days. but it should not
be the stiffness Of the prisoner
hemmed in by restraint. 1t snoulo
resemble the dignity Of the king, not
doing all that we have a right to 40.
The question of Christian liberty
now arises, and it is really about tnls
point that tre whole storm has raged
of late. There have been extremists
on one side and on the other. some
have maintained this to be Chrls-
tian country and that therefore all
who come to our shores must fall ID
line with the views OF our puritan
ancestors. All places of amusement
are harmful on Sunday and snouid
he closed. On the other side are
those who maintain just as Vigor-
ously that New York is cosmopo--
itan city and therefore shoula De a
wide-open town. Each party sees
only one side of the truth; II kas
two were to come together we woq!d
have a full-orbed view, reasonable
solution. 1t is true, as Burke says,
much as we dislike to admit 1t, that
"all 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 Of 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 it 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. 1t
is because many Of our citizens week
after week have maintained tnelr re-
lations with religious institutions tnat
the backbone of the country mas peen
kept. When a man or nation loses
grip of the higher things, when the
windows of the soul are closed ana
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 OBJ
servance 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 now there. According to the de-
cisioA recently rendered, practically
all forms OF innocent amusement are
prohibited, including even stereop-
ticon lectures at churches. up Till
last week the law was evaded. IL
will be evaded again as soon as mat
tiers quiet down a little. This Will
promote disreSpect for all law, ana
this would be more demorallzlng than
a liberal law. Permit me at this
point to say that 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. I know many people In this
neighborhood who attended these per-
fo-mances 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 I any great belief
in the wisdom of those who think
people can be driven to church by
driving them out of the Sunday thea
tire, and if they only come to church
because there is no other place open,
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-
ligious 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 well as by the news
papers and by all good men. We
should then have day which would
mean for all a day Of rest, for rest
does not mean inactivity, but har-
mony. It means doing that which is
most congenial. 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 we'll be pitied. All would
have more regard for the weightier
matters of the law.