The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1921-05-05

day. For it was unique. 1t was the
first bit of labor legislation that was
ever fostered by religion. 1t began the
long march toward regulated hours
and legal rest for the toiler Slave,
servant, beast and family We're includ-
ed in that early beneficent gift from
the heart of God. And to keep it
marked the user off from his world so
that in a very real sense it was the
keeping of a covenant with Jehovah
and was the badge of peculiar peo-
pie. The penalties for its breaking
are inwrought in mans nature instead
of in any arbitrary rule that has ever
been set in operation, and just as fatal
in these days of industrialism as in the
old ones of agriculture and nomadic
wanderings. Jesus kept it, but there
came a great change after the joy of
that first Easte rrang its bells in the
heart of the lovers of Him who had
filled the Sabbath hours with ministry.
1t had always held a joy note within
its feasts and here was the full fruit
age of that seed often hidden under
Pharaisaic requirements. 1t was upon
the recurring first day that Jesus met
with the disciples and for a time the
two days walked in company, but by
the time John was aged, the Christian
church was marked by its Lords Day
that distinguished it from Judaism,
and holding within its hours all the old
worth added the testimony of resur-
rectiCn joy to the rest. It voiced the
protest of the Christian against the
lcgalism of the Jew and the lewdness
Of the Roman. For there came still
another day in the thought Of the
world and that was the pagan Sunday.
No covenant memory is in the world,
no resurrection story is in the name
of the day that belongs to Sun. There
was no reason why gjaditorial shows
should not be held within its hours or
slaves toll for the pleasure of others.
Against such conception the church
fought and while the name persists the
spirit of rest and joyous worship was
injected into the day. But the three
ideas are living now as then. Shall we
have the Sabbath of the Jew, the rest
day of the Christian or the pleasure
day of the pagan? This is one of the
vital struggles Of today.
THE NEW ELEMENT.
There ha scone a new element into
the thinking of the world in connec-
ton with the rest time of folks and
that is the consciousness of the holi-
ness Of play. 1t is as normal as Wor-
ship, self-preservation or friendship.
With the new guarantees that have
been placed to the credit of the work
ing world, assuring greater amount
( of rest time through the eight-hour
day or the 44-hour week, the question
of the use of that time has assumed
an Importance it has not held since the
day when Telemachus stopped the
! gladiatorial shows with his bleeding
/ body. The right of the child to play
and place to play when the city
| street of the golden text has become
an impossibility, is seen as one of the
vital things in the making of manhood
! Why should the work of the factory
I destroy the life of the child? He is
robbed because there is more profit
in the exploited child than in the work
of grown folk. Does James get a
chance to play?" asked a state inves-
tigator recently about a bound-out
boy. "Well," was the reply, "he goes
to church on Sunday mornings and in
the afternoons he rests and goes to
church again" But is that all?" Her
face frightened as she said, There is
never a funeral notice comes to this
house but James goes" And this is
| the extent of recreation for fourteen
year-old boy in our own area. And for
both men and boys these days are
bringing the inevitable reaction
| against the old, drab conditions that
left life without any of its zest so that
the hours of our Sunday are being ia
ken for play that often bears the dollar
mark and is the commercializing of
instincts of liberty not yet subjected
to the law of highest good. And there
is peril that in the confusion when
money would exploit the play instinct
and honest thinking is still uncertain
as to the wisest course Sunday PLAY
Day may displace the Lords Life Day
and leave us robbed indeed. For after
all it is the working man clamoring
for unrestricted Sabbath sport who
has the most to lose, for the wider
open it becomes the more men must
toll to keep the machinery whirling.
And while the play instinct is as God
given as that of worship to destroy
either is to rob life of its Wilderness
that must be builded with both.
THE NEW NEED.
America never more needed not the