Richmond daily register. (Richmond, Madison County, Ky.) 1917-1978, 1921-09-24
STRONG DEFENSE OF
CHRISTIAN SABBATH
DR.. Covert Tells Worlds Alliance
Its Commercialization Must
Be Prevented
tBy Associated frees,

Pittsburgh, Pa, Sept. 24-Dis-
claiming the intention of the
Christian church to put over any
obnoxious blue laws" and urg-
ing that Sunday be made day
of real and Legitimate joy for all
mankind, DR.. William Chalmers
Covert, of the First Presbyterian
church Of Chicago, today sounded
a new keynote in the discussion
of Sabbath observance.
Addressing the worlds Alliance
|of Presbyterian and Reformed
Churches. Rev. Covert said:
Certain profound convictions
relative to the Christian Sabbath
are shared by those who are
gathered here and those they sew
orally represent. Upon these
points of concurrence, therefore,
argument no longer needs to be
made nor exi1ortations proffered.
In the main these convictions
are: That the Sabbath was writ
ten down in the physical consti-
ton of men before it was carved
on the Mosaic tables of stone as
the most extended and specific
junction of the Decalogue. And
without reservation of One-sev-
enth of our time for the purposes
OF rest and recuperation of de-
pleted physical powers. there is
no accommodating physical deficit
certain to overtake the surplus
energies of life, and this deficit in
due time threatens with inevi-
table bankruptcy the total en-
dowment OF human strength. The
Sabbath is a physical necessity.
Nothing of the old command
ment has been abrogated but ev-
erything has been illumined and
emphasized by the new found
urgencies and the guaranteed
privileges of the Christian Sab
bath
"The final conviction to be
mentioned is that the Christian
church is today seeing the sane
titles Of the Christian Sabbath
and all the bulwarks more DELHI
erately disregarded by those who
have shared its blessings than ev-
er before The war broke down
convictions and thwarted old
time habits of Sabbath-keeping
a deliberate propaganda against
the day and all of its alleged ex-
actions moving under the banners
Of a so-called personal liberty -
party has spread through all the
Christian lands the passion for
recreation and amusement pos
sessing' the heart of our restless
age has for multitudes tainted all
sacred things with triviality and
prostituted for selfish purposes
the holy Sabbath Day.
eff men wipe this day from the
sacred calendar of their expert
ence and grow to recognize no
difference between Sunday and
other days, we shall have gone
far~on the roadway toward pro-
founder social and industrial dis
order, and toward final collapse
Of organized society. The day
and all of its blessed cornpensa-
tions for the soul is gone if men
forget it as a spiritual and relig-
ious opportunity and use it simply
for the recreation of their bodies
ITO save the Cristian Sabbath
to its holy uses the united church
es of Christ must at once array
herself against all forms of its
commercialization by greedy and
Goddess men. Organized profan-
alton Of the Sabbath Day has as
its supreme motive the making
of money. The privileges of leis-
ure accorded to men under laws
and customs of the day are CAPT
talized for gam by shrewd money
makers for whom the day has no
spiritual meaning. At the heart
of most, protests against social
ed "Blue Laws" and against the
alleged infringements of that sa-'
cred thing called personal liber-.
ty," we are apt to find financial
greed. 1t is this greed. for gain
whose selfish ends are baffled by
a decent regard for the Sabbath
Day that is leading the noisy
campaign against so-called Blue