Putnam patriot., 1909-02-12
Sabbath and Sunday.

EDITOR oF PArRtoT:-The Rev. J. W. Walker, at St. Philips church, on Sunday, Jan. Fl, spoke from the text; "rhis is the Day which the Lord hath made; We will rejoice and be glad in il. a Psalms exviii. 24, The aim of the ser mon was 10 show that in the First Day of the week Christianity had given the world a better day for worship than the old Sabbath ever did. as II was on the provisions Of the Fourth Command ment.
 1t was hardly the best text for this purpose, though in itself very fine one: for IL was uttered many hundred years before the birth of Christianity; proclaiming, perhaps, some great civic celebrations, or some deliverance from war or pestilence. There Is nothing In it at variance with the Fourth Com mandment, or in direct touch with Christianity.
 Observing the requirements of that Commandment the earlya Christians mostly converted Jews) for time ad- hered totbe Sabbath t7th day) for their public meetings, gradually transferring to the new day tcommemorating the Lords Resurrection all. that was best in the keeping of the older Sabbath.
 We Episeopaiians, are conscious of certain prejudice against the word "Sabbath,' as though II always repre- sented the sternest features of Puritan manners and worship; and, in speak ing of our weekly day of religious as. sembly, we like 10 call il sunday. But how much better are We of? nSab- bath is from Hebrew word meaning ito rest;' and Sunday was first named in honor of the sun, Monday In honor of the moon, Wednesday after Wodin tor Odin), and all the others after kind of nature worship, or they are like the names of the months) of
 Pagan origin. Hence the Quakers, re- jecting these tainted names of days of the week, and months Of the year, tJa- nuary, February, etc., prefer to call them all by ordinal numbers. Il will not do for us to disparage too far the letter of the 4th Commandment, so long as the whole Decalogue holds high and reverend place in pus own Prayer Book. It stands at the opening of the Communion service, where, as read, it receives prayerful response to each article. To know 1t is also one of the requirements from every candidate for confirmation.
 The 4th Commandment, like most of the others, Is in form prohibitory; the Jew was to keep the Sabbath Day holy but how, except in cessation from labor2 The Christian, adopting the foundation of Peace and Rest and Or tier thus laid, rears upon II the struc- ture of posittte worship--Jesus Christ being the chief cornerstone; as doubt less the Jew, in Temple and Synagogue, did before him, though he was limited to his Messianie hopes and prophecies. As for faerotism in reading the 4th Commandment, 1 think that in this day it is proposed from no intelligent source. What more do we want than those exceptions which Jesus himself made or,sanctioned, and which are re- corded in the New Testament?
 1tseems to me that the basal thoughts of our faith have been beautifullybIend- ed in some of those songs of the Hym- nal dedicated to the "L,ord's Dsy,;" Witness the couplet:
 Welcome, sweet day of rest,
 That saw the Lord arise.n There we have 1t; the Peace and Or der of the Older day, the Triumph of New. L. A. C. Feb. 4th, 1909.