THE idea that one day in the week is better than the others and should
be set apart for religious purposes; that it should be considered holy;
that no useful work should be done on that day; that it should be given
over to pious idleness and sad ceremonies connected with the worship of
a supposed Being, seems to have been originated by the Jews.
According to the Old Testament, the Sabbath was marvelously sacred for
two reasons; the first being, that Jehovah created the universe in six
days and rested on the seventh: and the second, because the Jews had
been delivered from the Egyptians.
The first of these reasons we now know to be false; and the second has
nothing, so far as we are concerned, to do with the question.
There is no reason for our keeping the seventh day because the Hebrews
were delivered from the Egyptians.
The Sabbath was a Jewish institution, and, according to the Bible, only
the Jews were commanded to keep that day. Jehovah said nothing to the
Egyptians on that subject; nothing to the Philistines, nothing to the
Gentiles.
The Jews kept that day with infinite strictness, and with them this
space of time known as the Sabbath became so holy that he who violated
it by working was put to death. Sabbath-breaking and murder were equal
crimes. On the Sabbath the pious Jew would not build a fire in his
house. He ate cold victuals and thanked God. The gates of the city were
closed. No business was done, and the traveler who arrived at the city
on that day remained outside until evening. If he happened to fall, he
remained where he fell until the sun had gone done.
The early Christians did not hold the seventh day in such veneration.
As a matter of fact, they ceased to regard it as holy, and changed the
sacred day from the seventh to the first. This change was really made
by Constantine, because the first day of the week was the Sunday of the
Pagans; and this day had been given to pleasure and recreation and to
religious ceremonies for many centuries.
After Constantine designated the first day to be kept and observed by
Christians, our Sunday became the sacred time.
The early Christians, however, kept the day much as it had been kept by
the Pagans. They attended church in the morning, and in the afternoon
enjoyed themselves as best they could..
The Catholic Church fell in with the prevailing customs, and to
accommodate itself to Pagan ways and superstitions, it agreed, as far as
it could, with the ideas of the Pagan.
Up to the time of the Reformation, Sunday had been divided between the
discharge of religious duties and recreation.
Luther did not believe in the sacredness of the Sabbath. After church he
enjoyed himself by playing games, and wanted others to do the same.
Even John Calvin, whose view had been blurred by the "Five Points,"
allowed the people to enjoy themselves on Sunday afternoon.
The reformers on the continent never had the Jewish idea of the
sacredness of the Sabbath.
In Geneva, Germany and France, all kinds of innocent amusement were
allowed on that day; and I believe the same was true of Holland.
But in Scotland the Jewish idea was adopted to the fullest extent. There
Sabbath-breaking was one of the blackest and one of the most terrible
crimes. Nothing was considered quite as sacred as the Sabbath.
The Scotch went so far as to take the ground that it was wrong to save
people who were drowning on Sunday, the drowning being a punishment
inflicted by God. Upon the question of keeping the Sabbath most of the
Scottish people became insane.
The same notions about the holy day were adopted by the Dissenters in
England, and it became the principal tenet in their creed.
The Puritans and Pilgrims were substantially crazy about the sacredness
of Sunday. With them the first day of the week was set apart for
preaching, praying, attending church, reading the Bible and studying
the catechism. Walking, riding, playing on musical instruments, boating,
swimming and courting, were all crimes.
No one had the right to be happy on that blessed day. It was a time of
gloom, sacred, solemn and religiously stupid.
They did their best to strip their religion of every redeeming feature.
They hated art and music--everything calculated to produce joy. They
despised everything except the Bible, the church, God, Sunday and the
creed.
The influence of these people has been felt in every part of our
country. The Sabbath superstition became almost universal. No laughter,
no smiles on that day; no games, no recreation, no riding, no walking
through the perfumed fields or by the winding streams or the shore of
the sea. No communion with the subtile beauties of nature; no wandering
in the woods with wife and children, no reading of poetry and fiction;
nothing but solemnity and gloom, listening to sermons, thinking about
sin, death, graves, coffins, shrouds, epitaphs and ceremonies and the
marvelous truths of sectarian religion, and the weaknesses of those
who were natural enough and sensible enough to enjoy themselves on the
Sabbath day.
So universal became the Sabbath superstition that the Legislatures of
all the States, or nearly all, passed laws to prevent work and enjoyment
on that day, and declared all contracts void relating to business
entered into on Sunday.
The Germans gave us the first valuable lesson on this subject. They
came to this country in great numbers; they did not keep the American
Sabbath. They listened to music and they drank beer on that holy day.
They took their wives and children with them and enjoyed themselves;
yet they were good, kind, industrious people. They paid their debts and
their credit was the best.
Our people saw that men could be good and women virtuous without
"keeping" the Sabbath.
This did us great good, and changed the opinions of hundreds of
thousands of Americans.
But the churches insisted on the old way. Gradually our people began
to appreciate the fact that one-seventh of the time was being stolen by
superstition. They began to ask for the opening of libraries, for music
in the parks and to be allowed to visit museums and public places on the
Sabbath.
In several States these demands were granted, and the privileges have
never been abused. The people were orderly, polite to officials and to
each other.
In 1876, when the Centennial was held at Philadelphia, the Sabbatarians
had control. Philadelphia was a Sunday city, and so the gates of the
Centennial were closed on that day.
This was in Philadelphia where the Sabbath superstition had been so
virulent that chains had been put across the streets to prevent stages
and carriages from passing at that holy time.
At that time millions of Americans felt that a great wrong was done by
closing the Centennial to the laboring people; but the managers--most
of them being politicians--took care of themselves and kept the gates
closed.
In 1876 the Sabbatarians triumphed, and when it was determined to hold a
world's fair at Chicago they made up their minds that no one should look
upon the world's wonders on the Sabbath day.
To accomplish this pious and foolish purpose committees were appointed
all over the country; money was raised to make a campaign; persons were
employed to go about and arouse the enthusiasm of religious people;
petitions by the thousand were sent to Congress and to the officers
of the World's Fair, signed by thousands of people who never saw them;
resolutions were passed in favor of Sunday closing by conventions,
presbyteries, councils and associations. Lobbyists were employed to
influence members of Congress. Great bodies of Christians threatened to
boycott the fair and yet the World's Fair is open on Sunday.
What is the meaning of this? Let me tell you. It means that in this
country the Scotch New England Sabbath has ceased to be; it means that
it is dead. The last great effort for its salvation has been put forth,
and has failed. It belonged to the creed of Jonathan Edwards and the
belief of the witch-burners, and in this age it is out of place.
There was a time when the minister and priest were regarded as the
foundation of wisdom; when information came from the altar, from the
pulpit; and when the sheep were the property of the shepherd.
That day in intelligent communities has passed. We no longer go to the
minister or the church for information. The orthodox minister is
losing his power, and the Sabbath is now regarded as a day of rest, of
recreation and of pleasure.
The church must keep up with the people. The minister must take another
step. The multitude care but little about controversies in churches, but
they do care about the practical questions that directly affect their
daily lives.
Must we waste one day in seven; must we make ourselves unhappy or
melancholy one-seventh of the time?
These are important questions and for many years the church in our
country has answered them both in the affirmative, and a vast number of
people not Christians have also said "yes" because they wanted votes, or
because they feared to incite the hatred of the church.
Now in this year of 1893 a World's Fair answered this question in the
negative, and a large majority of the citizens of the Republic say that
the officers of the Fair have done right.
This marks an epoch in the history of the Sabbath. It is to be sacred
in a religious sense in this country no longer. Henceforth in the United
States the Sabbath is for the use of man.
Many of those who labored for the closing of the Fair on Sunday took the
ground that if the gates were opened, God would visit this nation with
famine, flood and fire.
It hardly seems possible that God will destroy thousands of women and
children who had nothing to do with the opening of the Fair; still, if
he is the same God described in the Christian Bible, he may destroy our
babes as he did those of the Egyptians. It is a little hard to tell in
advance what a God of that kind will do.
It was believed for many centuries that God punished the
Sabbath-breaking individual and the Sabbath-breaking nation. Of course
facts never had anything to do with this belief, and the prophecies
of the pulpit were never fulfilled. People who were drowned on Sunday,
according to the church, lost their lives by the will of God. Those
drowned on other days were the victims of storm or accident. The nations
that kept the Sabbath were no more prosperous than those that broke the
sacred day. Certainly France is as prosperous as Scotland.
Let us hope, however, that these zealous gentlemen who have predicted
calamities were mistaken; let us be glad that hundreds of thousands of
workingmen and women will be delighted and refined by looking at the
statues, the paintings, the machinery, and the countless articles of use
and beauty gathered together at the great Fair, and let us be glad that
on the one day that they can spare from toil, the gates will be open to
them.