New Britain herald., 1927-02-21

stituted Just alike, the needed rest
and change might be derived in the
same manner. Needless to say. that
Is not the case. There is one need
common TO all, however, no matter
what the occupation during the six
days of the week, and that Is the
need of the Divine Spirit in human
lives. a craving for worship and fell
lowship with the great Eternal
Spirit. That is Just as natural as the
craving for food and sleep. And so
the need arises for a service of COM
mon worship at least once in seven
days. In worship the soul reaches
upward toward God and outward
toward ones fellowmen. Now. wor-
ship that truly satisfies the deepest
cravings of the human soul must
aspire in these to ways, upward and
outward One is incomplete without
the other.
Not infrequently these days we
meet the person who somewhat
boastfully declares that he never at
tends church service of any kind.
He prefers on Sunday morning to
take his lunch and go off into Gods
great out doors, and Just com
,mune with the spirit Of God through
the wonder works OF nature. Quot
ing the Psalmist, he says that the
heavens declare the glory of God
and the armament showeth his
handiwork.
such a declaration can not be
disputed. 1t is great to get out into
Gods great out-of-doors. Students
Of nature, lovers of nature, are en-
tirely too rare. Would that we had
more people who were vitality inter-
ested in the beauties and wonders
of Gods glorious world! Would that
we could see more families out in
the woods and fields Saturday and
Sunday afternoons, and fewer of the
overcrowded highways in one unend-
ing line of automobiles, The great
majority of people would be health
Ter, saner and happier if this were
the case, for an incessant line OF
whizzing. putting. snorting automo-
biles is not going to get the human
race very far towards the goal of
Christian perfection. Speed as such
is not requisite to the attainment
of that goal.
ION the other hand one can not
get all the benefits from nature
worship which he may get in a serv-
ice of worship, providing he enters
sympathetically into the spirit of
the service by taking part In song.
reading, prayer and in listening to
the Interpretation and application of
Gods truth to his every day living.
The so-called nature worshipper is
getting only half the benefit which
true worship should give him. His
thoughts and aspirations are per-
haps being directed Godward. but
few are being directed towards his
fellow men. II we were solitary
beings upon an island that would
but in this world others must con-
stantly be taken into consideration.
We are members one of another
The religion of Jesus is the religion
not only of love to God, but also to
man. Thou shalt love the Lord thy
God with all thy mind and all thy
heart and all thy strength and
thy neighbor as myself 1t is this
last very important part which the
nature worshipper is apt to forget.
Neither let us forget that in So
cial activities alone can all the
necessary benefits from Sunday be
deprived. The deepest cravings Of
the human soul can not be satisfied
by directing the thoughts only out
ward and not upward. These can
be fully satisfied in the average per-
son best by entering heartily into
service of worship at least once a
week. AS most of you men can tes-
tjfy, church going Is not old-fogey
nor out Of date! AS long as the
spirit of man is constituted as it is,
so long will our churches maintain
the service of worship. AS long as
mans spirit is restless until it rests
in God, so long will the service of
worship prevail. And when people
cut themselves off from the service of
worship and break the habit Of at
tending regularly they are to a
large extent cutting short their high
est moral and spiritual welfare.
Few people today believe that
Connecticut would be better off if
the old Sunday blue laws were rigid
ly enforced as they were in olden
times. Thank God that we have
gotten away from that unhealthy and
Wholesome attitude toward the
Sabbath. Those laws may have been
all right for the day in which the
they were enacted. but to try to en-
force such laws today would be folly.
They showed mans tendency to go
to extremes.
ION the other hand let us not
overlook the marked tendency
abroad today to go to just the op-
posite extreme, and to pay too little
attention to the requirements of a
sane and wholesome Sabbath OBJ
servance. No doubt the blue laws
were too austere and unnatural in
their attitude toward the Lords day.
A person could scarcely smile or
show a friendly spirit, it seems, and
had to spend from three to four
hours in church services on Sunday,
listening to dry embarrassing SER
mons Nor did he dare to go to
sleep during the sermon lest he be
rudely awakened by a rap from the
clergyman's long stick.
The pendulum today has swung
to the opposite extreme and the Sab
bath is too generally regarded as
day Of unmitigated pleasure. For
some time the idea of the continent
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