The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1909-02-27
THE SABBATH DAY.

1t is with feeling of great rejoicing that we
welcome the manifesto which has been issued in
England with reference to Sunday rest The Cath
Ole Archbshops of Westminster, together with the
Protestant Archbishop of Canterbury and the Pres
ldent of the Free Church Council, representing the
Nonconformist Element have joined hands to Sc
cure for every worker in England rest from his
labours that day and also an opportunity of
serving his God. In word, the main purpose of
this alliance is to safeguard the sanctity of the
Sunday, that day especially set apart by Almighty
God for His service and for the repose of man
kind. 1t is time indeed that this evil of Sunday
work should be grappled WITH for employers in
England were following in the footsteps of these
employers the Continent and making Sunday as
much day of grinding toll as any other day in the
week
Nothing could be to the purpose than the
words of the manifesto The words are:
q. 1t is essential to the physical. industrial
and moral efficiency of the nation to preserve one
day in the seven as day of rest, to which every
is by divine law and by human necessity just
ly entitled.
-. That, having regard to the statutes and
laws of Great Britain, and to the immemorial usage
of Christendom, the weekly day of rest should re
main and be "Dies non iursdicus," the Lords day.
commonly called Sunday.
SO. That it is the duty of the state to safe
guard the highest interest of the people by such
legislation as shall as far as possible secure for
all classes of the community their Sunday rest,
and to reduce all Sunday labour to the minimum
consistent with the exgencies of necessity and
mercy"
There is no doubt about it that Sunday toll
works sad havoc with the morals of men and has
also baneful effect upon their bodily health From
weeks end to weeks end they slave away in the
Mines the factories, the workshops and the field,
and the thought of God and the hereafter never
comes before their mind. The faith which they
once had grows dim and is finally extinguished
cry pure and lofty sentiment perishes in their
hearts, and they become for the most part atheists.
Then leaving aside religion, the service of God
altogether, the continual drag of work upon them
enfeebles the powers of the body, and they be-
come worn and decrepit before their time.
Canada has done a great deal for the worker
with regard to Sunday rest. Within the past few
years the parliament passed an act the special aim
of which to put an end to those abuses con-
nected with Sunday trading, and for the short time
/
Of course it is not the intention of those who
drew up the manifesto to make of the Sunday a
day Of gloom, such we had in the Puritan times.
or such as remember to have seen lately in Scot
land, where it was considered an awful thing to
play any instrument of music in the home on the
Sabbath. What the Church wishes is that when
the first solemn obligation of to his God.
namely, of offering prayer, praise and thanksgiv-
ing has been fulfilled, the Sunday should be one
of cheerfulness and innocent amusement.
Every working man in England and every work
ing man. too, throughout the world will welcome
the endeavor of this alliance to secure for them
what they are entitled to by all laws divine and
human. We earnestly hope that this cause of So
cial reform which those dignitaries have taken up
may prove a success