Evening star., 1944-07-17
Letters to The Star
Says Days Do Not Matter
in Worship of God

in Worship OF God
To the Editor Of The star:
read with amaSement and some
amusement the letter Of Carlyle B.
Hayes concerning the so-called desecra-
ton Of Sunday If calendar reform Is
adopted. 1t seems that this gentleman
wholly misconstrues the spirit of the
New Testament II he believes that 1t
makes q vital difference whether Sab
bath worship is held on Saturday or
Sunday or any other day. Does he
think We would be dishonoring God by
worshiping on some other day?
Let us suppose two men, possibly with
In few miles Of each other, but on diff
ferent sides of the date line in the Pa
cific, worshiping God at the same mo-
ment On one side of the date line it is
Saturday, on the other side it is Sunday.
1t Is at the usual hour of worship, say IL
am. The same sun is shining overhead.
the same God is hearing their prayers.
Does the date line make one man right
eous and the other man sinful? Is one
man keeping the law and the other
breaking it?
Does God accept one mans prayers
and reject the others? We even may
extend the distance between the two
worshipers to two or three thousand
miles. Would that make any difference?
How childish and absurd is such a con-
ception of God! God Is neither childish
nor absurd, neither does He violate the
principles Of common sense. God is not
interested in legalistic hair splitting, but
He Is interested In the condition of q
mans heart, whether it Is right or
whether 1t is wrong.
There is no particular day for worship
specified in the moral law Cthe Ten
Commandments which DEGREES which
day of the week should be observed as
the Sabbath. All that the command
ment enjoins is that there shall be six
days OF labor and one day of rest. Which
six days we are to labor and which days
we are to rest are not specified. There
fore the day that Is commonly accepted
as the day for worship Is acceptable
to God. 1t is not the day We worship,
but God
Jesus went to the heart of the matter
when He told the Samaritan woman
at Jacobs we'll that it Is not the place
Of worship that counts, whether Mount
Gerizim or Jerusalem but that we are
to worship God in spirit and in truth.
What Jesus said about the place of
worship applies with equal force to the
time of worship. God seeks true wor-
shippers, whether they worship on Satur-
day or Sunday, whether at am or
pm, whether before sundown or after
sundown. These external matters are
wholly irrelevant to true worship.
Jesus taught the inward meaning OF
religion in the Sermon on the Mount.
True religion Is alright attitude toward
God and man. The teachings OF Jesus
are shot through with these revolution
ary tin those days. ideas; that the ex-
ternals of religion do not necessarily
contribute to true religion. Many were
His conflicts with the scribes and Phari-
sees on this very matter of externalistic
religion. Sharp and searching were His
denunciations and excavations of the
mere externalists.
The Apostle Paul elaborated upon the
teachings of Jesus emphasizing the pri-
macy of spiritual religion In his epistle
to the Corinthians he exalted love as Of
primary importance. He pointed out
what is temporary and what is eternal.
And now abideth faith, hope, love,
these three: but the greatest of these
is love- Cor. 1913. Even tongues and
prophesies will fail and cease, but the
essential things abide forever. We may
search In vain through the New Testa-
ment for a single reference to particu-
lar day as being essential or of abiding
value. If Saturday or Sunday had beer
essential to worship of the Sabbath it
surely would not have been overlooked
So Mr.. Haynes and others of like faith
need not be alarmed by the proposed
change in the calendar. True religion
will not be injured by any change of
days. These have no more to do with
true religion than the material of his
coat or the color of his necktie. Any
religion that is injured by change in
the calendar is too fragile for survival.
Nothing essential will be lost. The es-
sentials of religion will remain regard
less of the calendar. S. r. BAUER.
Senator Pepper Comments
To the Editor OF The Star:
Your correspondent who does not
wish 4-Fs to be labelled national
disgrace" seems to have misinterpreted
the statement made by Col. Leonard G.
Rowntree at the recent hearings of the
Senate subcommittee on Wartime
Health and Education.
Col. Rowntree, medical director of
Selective Service, termed it "a national
disgrace" that such large proportion
Of men of military age are disqualified
for military service because of physical
or mental defects. He pointed out that
large proportion of the defects for
which men were rejected could have
been prevented by timely physical ex-
animation and medical treatment and
that even now many of the defects
are remediable.
In some instances it we'll may be the
fault of the individual that he did not
seek the needed medical care. In the
vast majority of cases, however, the
fault lies not with any individual or
groups OF individuals, but with the
country as a whole for failure to pro-
vide and to organize medical facilities
and services in such a way that ade-
quate medical care might be available