S^.^^'s 
 
 
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 ^ LIBRARY OF THE THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY 
 
 PRINCETON, N. J. 
 
 Purchased by the 
 Mrs. Robert Lenox Kennedy Church History Fund. 
 
 BV 125 .L45 1900 
 
 Lewis, Abram Herbert, 1836 
 
 1908. 
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 KiAre- 1926 
 SWIFT DECADENCE OFV^)^DAY^,^ 
 
 WHAT NEXT? 
 
 BY 
 
 ABRAM HEBBERT'LEWIS, D. D. 
 
 / 
 
 Author of "Biblical Teachings Concerning the Sabbath and the Sun- 
 day," "A Critical History of the Sabbath and the Sunday 
 in the Christian Church," " Critical History of Sun- 
 day Legislation," "Paganism Surviving in 
 Christianity," Etc., Etc. 
 
 SECOND EDITION, REVISED. 
 
 American Sabbath Tract Society, 
 
 Plainlield, N. J. 
 
 1900. 
 
Copyright, 1899. 
 B3- The American Sabbath Tract Society. 
 
PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION. 
 
 The first edition of this book appeared about the 
 first of June, 1899. The reception given to it is 
 abundant reason for the second edition. The testi- 
 mony given in the following pages has compelled the 
 attention of thoughtful men, in spite of popular 
 indifference. The character of the witnesses places 
 the facts beyond question. The testimony shows 
 that decadence of regard for Sunday is universal, 
 and that it is specially marked in the home of Puri- 
 tanic Protestantism, and among Protestants gener- 
 ally. This testimony, from the leaders in religious 
 circles, rather than from secular sources, makes it 
 doubly valuable. 
 
 All too slowly, but yet surely, men begin to see 
 that this decadence is neither temporar3^ nor super- 
 ficial. It marks the decay of foundations and of fun- 
 damental truth. It is much more than the decay of 
 local or denominational peculiarities. It is the 
 definite decay of a fundamental doctrine of Protest- 
 antism and of pre-Catholic Christianity. It assails 
 the integrity of the Ten Commandments, and their 
 perpetuity. It threatens the continuance of public 
 worship, and of religious culture. Involving these, 
 it attacks the foundations on which social progress 
 and permanent national life rest. 
 
 Men who hold the Sabbath question as of little 
 
11 PREFACE. 
 
 account, from a Biblical or theological standpoint, 
 cannot turn lightly from this deca^^ of conscience 
 concerning God's authority and this denial that 
 sacred time continues under the gospel. Discarding 
 theories in the abstract does not prevent their 
 results ; at length men must accept Christ's standard 
 of measuring theories as well as men. " By their 
 fruits ye shall know them." 
 
 The swiftness with which this decadence has 
 come, and the strength of the forces which are impel- 
 ling it forward, are compelling men to a reconsidera- 
 tion of the whole Sabbath question. Since the Puri- 
 tan Period in England, when true Sabbath Reform 
 was checked b^^ the compromise which attempted to 
 transfer the Fourth Commandment to Sunday and 
 to build a Levitical system in connection with that 
 da^^, few men have studied the Sabbath question 
 carefully. In America, the main conception of Sab- 
 bath Reform has been to save the American Sunday 
 from being reduced to the holidayism which charac- 
 terizes the Continental Sunday. There has been lit- 
 tle recognition of the fact that the Puritan theory 
 was a weak compromise, which removed the question 
 but one step from the Catholic, Continental platform, 
 which platform was less than a step from the original 
 Pagan Sunday. The now prevalent decay of the Puri- 
 tan theory, and the corresponding rise of the Conti- 
 nental theory, are compelling inquiry as to the 
 foundation of both, and of its relation to the true 
 Sabbath, seen in the light of the Bible and the exam- 
 ple of Christ. Indifference and prejudice are contest- 
 
PREFACE. Ill 
 
 ing the ground, inch b^^ inch, but the dtraj will not 
 cease, and it will force itself upon the attention of 
 men. 
 
 We subjoin a few additional testimonials which 
 have appeared during 1899. If all such testimonies 
 were gathered, another volume would take the place 
 of this preface. 
 
 Reviewing the efforts made to check the decline 
 of regard for Sunday in Massachusetts, the Defender, 
 January, 1899, says : 
 
 " That a marked change has come in the observ- 
 ance of the Lord's-daA^ in New England during the 
 past forty years is strikingh^ manifest. 
 
 " The mammon-serving causes that affect many 
 members of our churches, are not difficult to trace. 
 And still the baneful leaven works ! An alarming 
 per cent of our population ignores the sanctity- of the 
 dav that has become to so many a labor da\' or a 
 holiday. 
 
 " Multitudes of our^^oung people are growing up 
 in the midst of secularization and desecration, and 
 know no Sabbath. 
 
 " Protests have been made from time to time in 
 the past against the increasing and insidious abuse 
 of the Lord's-day. But little that was effective has 
 been done till recent years." 
 
 The New York correspondent of the Standard, 
 March 11, 1899, speaking of social life on Sunday in 
 that city, said : 
 
 ''This abuse has been going on in the city for 
 some time, and it is said that some churches, partic- 
 
IV PREFACE. 
 
 ularly of the Episcopal and Presbyterian denomina- 
 tions, have suffered ver3^much in their afternoon and 
 evening services, on account of the growth of this 
 practice. It takes the form of receptions in the even- 
 ing and private dinner parties, which are given by 
 church members, and occasionally of a high-class 
 musical. There is a regular musical held at the 
 Waldorf-Astoria Hotel Sunday afternoons, and this 
 is attended by quite a number of the church people, 
 mostly Episcopalians. The late Dr. John Hall called 
 attention to the same state of affairs, and 
 others have noticed it. It is only one of many 
 forms of religious indifference, against which min- 
 isters and spiritually -minded church-members have 
 to contend in this great city. There are thou- 
 sands of professed Christians whose whole religious 
 activity consists in keeping waim a church cushion 
 for an hour and a half Sunday forenoon. The rest 
 of the da}' is given to personal purposes and pleas- 
 ure, and the mid-week service shares the same fate 
 as the Sunday evening service. There has been a 
 decided growth of this Continental idea of Sunday 
 performance, which holds that half the day must be 
 devoted to the formalism of religious worship, and 
 all the rest of the week belongs to business and rec- 
 reation. There is no doubt that all churches suffer 
 more or less from this cause." 
 
 At the 109th Annual Episcopal Convention of the 
 state of Rhode Island, June 15, 1899, Bishop-Coad- 
 jutor McVicar made an address, in which two 
 sources of danger to society and to Christianitv 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 were sharply outlined. These were " Growing laxity 
 in social morality," and "Sunday-observance." 
 Having spoken with power on the social question, 
 as reported in the Providence Journal for June 14. 
 the Bishop said as follows : 
 
 "Another matter, which in its way, I believe, is 
 as fundamental and as important as this last, is 
 that of Sunday and its proper observance. I know 
 the difficulties which surround the subject. I know 
 how widely men differ in their views. But I believe 
 that no earnest, thoughtful Christian can observe 
 the drift and tendency of the time without the most 
 anxious apprehension as to results in the growing 
 non-observance of this holy day. That there is this 
 drift there can be no doubt. And the saddest thing 
 about it again is that this drift is not confined to 
 the world about us, but is as marked, nay, one may 
 almost say, more marked, within the Christian 
 church itself. The tendency to curtail the time 
 devoted to God's worship, to compromise on a 
 single service and even that of shortest and most 
 meagre character and that but intermittently, while 
 the rest of the day is given over to self-indulgence 
 and festivity, suggests an awful contrast with the 
 quiet and happy Sundays of our childhood's memo- 
 ries, with their precious opportunities for spiritual 
 growth and the cultivation of the cognate graces of 
 family life." 
 
 In Christian Work, for August 24, 1899, a corre- 
 spondent writes under head of "The Lord's-day," 
 detailing the "startling evidence of the decadence of 
 
VI PREFACE. 
 
 * keeping Sunday' on the part of professing Chris- 
 tians," of which decadence he says: "It is greater 
 than w^ould seem possible;" and, continuing: 
 
 " But it has been a surprise to me, while visiting 
 in one of our old college towns and distinctly relig- 
 ious communities, to see what Sunday golf-playing 
 has come to mean ! 
 
 "Parents and 3'^oung people who two hours 
 before had come home from God's house, and even 
 from the sacrament table, set out regularly on Sun- 
 day afternoon, by cab, wheel or on foot, to the golf- 
 links ! And this going " onl}^ to play a quiet game 
 of golf on Sunday afternoon " means staying to sup- 
 per at the golf house, with the promiscuous com- 
 pany and conditions of such a gathering. Is it to be 
 wondered at that those who do not claim to be 
 Christians — as in the instance of a young girl of this 
 same circle, a girl of noble womanhood but of no 
 religious teaching in faith or purpose, and who takes 
 unhesitatingly all of Sunday for golf, bicycling and 
 all self-pleasing — should reply, when it was suggested 
 to her that " Sunday is the Lord's-day": "Why, I 
 do not see why any one is happier or better who is a 
 
 * Christian,' as you say, or who keeps Sunday; the 
 same people who go to church for a little while in 
 the morning do just as I do, who am not religious 
 at all, the rest of the day ! " 
 
 So the evil grows, and the ruin becomes more ruin- 
 ous. A generation of golf players on Sunday is death 
 to Sabbath Reform in connection with Sunday in the 
 next century. 
 
INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 rpHIS book is written for the sake of massing facts. 
 Facts are God's commentary on theories, prac- 
 tices and institutions. They form the only safe basis 
 for conclusions. What has been is the true indicator 
 of what must be. The future is the fulfillment of the 
 past and the expansion of the present. Yesterday, 
 to-day and to-morrow form the eternal now. The 
 error of 3'esterday points out the truth of to-day. 
 The incomplete conception of to-day leads to the bet- 
 ter conception of to-morrow. 
 
 He who does not heed these truths must fail. 
 Error, persisted in when light appears, becomes sin. 
 God and truth are the eternal facts. Ignoring does 
 not change them. Denial does not remove them. 
 Evasion and compromise do not escape them. Be- 
 cause men do not heed these great principles, reform 
 must often come by fierce reaction. Men cling to er- 
 ror and misconception until they decay, in hand. 
 Men are driven back to right paths with bruised and 
 thorn-torn feet, because they pass God's guide- 
 boards, heedlessh'. The stor3^ of the Prodigal has a 
 wide application among good people in the matters 
 of reform . 
 
 The present state of the Sabbath question must 
 be studied in the light of the foregoing axioms. Three 
 hundred years ago Puritanism came near returning 
 
11 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 to the true Bible Sabbath, tinder the lead of the Eng- 
 lish Seventh-da3^ Baptists. It came more than half- 
 way, considering the Roman Catholic position and 
 the Seventh-day Baptist position as the two ex- 
 tremes. It stopped short, by compromise, and Sun- 
 day was invested with the name and general charac- 
 ter of the Sabbath. Previous to that time it had 
 never been more than an ecclesiastical and semi-re- 
 ligious rest day. That compromise has spent its 
 force. Reaction against it has come. Sunday has 
 gone back to its former t3^pe by unavoidable gravita- 
 tion. The worst elements of modern civilization 
 have gained a giant's grasp upon it as a day of 
 leisure, through the saloon, the gambling-house and 
 brothel. Change of opinion and decay of conscien- 
 tious regard for it as a sacred day are every where ap- 
 parent, even among Christians. The testimony of 
 its friends fills the first half of this book. 
 
 Reconsideration of the whole Sabbath question is 
 at hand. Readjustment is going forward rapidly. 
 Up to date this readjustment is in favor of holiday- 
 ism and evil. Worse results impend. The issues can- 
 not be waived aside nor escaped. To be indifferent to 
 them approaches criminality. He is weak and frivol- 
 ous who sneers at them. He is foolish who neglects 
 to consider them. He is an empty braggart who 
 says that he knows all about them without study. 
 These pages are for all men, but most for God-loving 
 and God-fearing men. Truth appeals to them first. 
 With them, if anywhere, it must find acceptance and 
 home. For them, and for the truth which has 
 
INTRODUCTORY. Ill 
 
 the right to gain a hearing from them, we have 
 written. 
 
 The Sabbath question includes both the Sabbath 
 and the Sunday. Three great periods in the history of 
 this question are alread^^ passed. The first reaches 
 from Christ and the New Testament church to the full 
 establishment of the Roman Catholic supremacy — 
 five hundred years in round numbers. The second is 
 theperiod of Roman Catholic supreniac3' : a thousand 
 3-ears. The third is the Puntan period, covering the 
 last three hundred years. This period is brief as to 
 time, and correspondingly limited in extent. The 
 characteristics of each period are discussed in the 
 chapters on " Why Sunda\^ Has Decaj^ed." Outside 
 of Puritanism, the Protestant conception of the Sab- 
 bath question did not depart, radically, from the 
 Roman Catholic conception. The Puritan Sunday 
 forms a small island in the stream of Christian his- 
 tor\\ The currents of the Roman Catholic theory 
 have continued to flow under and around this island 
 of the Puritan Sunda\^ and it is being rapidly swept 
 away. 
 
 Our first purpose was to detail the decline of Sun- 
 day lor the last thirty 3'ears. But the mass of tes- 
 timony is so great that it would surpass the space 
 allotted to this book. We have therefore decided to 
 trace this decline since 1882. Before he is done with 
 the testimony, the student will see how deeply the 
 question reaches in its bearings on the issues between 
 Catholics and Protestants, and how the popular 
 drift and the decay of the Puritan view have already 
 
lY INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 landed Puritan Protestants in the Catholic fold, logi- 
 cally, if not actually. 
 
 The Roman Catholic theory, that Sunday is an 
 institution of the state-church has been the prevail- 
 ing idea ever since Sunday became established as a 
 Christian institution. Although the Puritans re- 
 tained the same day, the basis on which it rested and 
 the manner of its observance formed a fundamental 
 point of difference between the Catholic and the Puri- 
 tan. In the ultimate issue, either logical or Script- 
 ural, Sabbath Reform involves a second stage in the 
 Protestant movement. It will help to gain a correct 
 view of the situation if we follow the course of the 
 change of opinions, and the progress of the deca3^ of 
 regard for Sunda}'-, along the lines of those Protest- 
 ant denominations which have been most identified 
 with the Puritan idea. Since the Puritan Sunday 
 was born in the Scotch-English Reformation, it is of 
 vital moment to those denominations of Protestants 
 into whose creeds it first found entrance. The decay 
 which is already so far advanced compels a readjust- 
 ment of the whole Sabbath question in these denom- 
 inations. The case was terseh^ stated to the writer 
 a little time since by a Paulist Father of Brooklyn, 
 N. Y. Speaking in a pleasant way of the fact that 
 he and the writer occupied extremes in theology, he 
 said: "There is nothing for Protestants to do but 
 come to us, or go to you ; we think we shall get them 
 first.'" He was right. The Seventh-day Baptist 
 position or the Catholic position must be chosen, un- 
 less Protestants prefer to adopt the full antinomian 
 
INTRODUCTORY. V 
 
 falsehood, which is theological anarchy. Presby- 
 terians, Congregationalists, Baptists and Methodists 
 are the Protestants whose creeds identify them most 
 closely with the Puritan Sunda3\ Testimony from 
 representative men belonging to these bodies crowds 
 the following pages. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER. PAGE. 
 
 I.— Baptist Testimony, . . . . i 
 
 II.— Methodist Testimony, - - - - i5 
 
 III.— Testimony from Congregational Sources, - 25 
 
 IV. — Testimony from Presbyterian Sources, - - 57 
 
 V. — Testimony from Episcopalian Sources, - 93 
 
 VI.— Christians are Responsible for the Decay of Re- 
 gard for Sunday, - - - - 106 
 
 VII. — Christians are Responsible for the Decay of Re- 
 gard FOR Sunday — Conlimied, - - 118 
 
 VIII.— Christians Neglect the Defense of Sunday, - 137 
 
 IX. — Roman Catholics and Sunday, - - 151 
 
 X. — Why Sunday has Decayed, - - - - 163 
 
 XI.— Why the Puritan Sunday has Decayed, - 176 
 
 XII.— Why Protestants Cannot Arrest the Decay of 
 
 Sunday, . . . . . 184 
 
 XIII. — How Can Sabbath Reform be Attained ? - 194 
 
 Newspapers Quoted, .... 209 
 
 Index, ------ 211 
 
DECADENCE OF SUNDAY. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 BAPTIST TESTIMONY. 
 
 Relation of Baptists to Sabbath Question — The Standard on Sunday in 
 New England — The Exaniiner on Sunday opening of libraries — 
 Dr. McArthur on foreign influence — The Waich Tower — The 
 Christian Secretary — Illegal Sunday trains — Disagreement among 
 Baptists — The E:vaniiner on the "Eclipse of Sunday " — Notable 
 Baptist satire — Decay in Vermont — Baptist congress surrenders 
 Sunday to tradition — Dr. W. W. Evarts on " Violations of the Sab- 
 bath." 
 
 TN editorial files and note-books \ve have a record 
 of the testimon^^ of the friends of Sunday' touch- 
 ing its decay, from 1865 until now. For the first 
 twenty years of that time, the testimony is confined 
 to a few papers, which, more observant than the 
 many, saw a drift that had been accelerated by the 
 Civil War. During the last twelve years the evidence 
 of coming decline has been so apparent that testi- 
 mony has been increased many times. Within the 
 past twelve months open announcements of the 
 hopeless ''Loss of Sunda^^" in the sea of holida^-ism, 
 have been numerous and sad. 
 
 Each of the Protestant denominations has a 
 certain relation to the SundaA^ question. Logically 
 and theoretically, all Baptists are bound to keep the 
 seventh day, and not the first. Their professed ad- 
 
2 DECADENCE OF SUNDAY. 
 
 herence to the Bible as the only rule of faith and 
 practice demands this. The Seventh-day Baptists 
 and the Seventh-day Adventists are the only ones of 
 the Baptist family that are thus true to their creed. 
 The history of the Baptists as related to freedom of 
 conscience, and to the question of religious liberty, 
 naturally leads them to a deep interest in the Sun- 
 dav question. Beginning with 1882, we shall place 
 before the reader a line of testimony from Baptist 
 sources concerning the decadence of Sunday. 
 
 It is a significant fact which meets the investi- 
 gator at the outset, that New England, home of 
 Puritanism and of the Puritan Sunday, is well at 
 the front in the matter of holidayism. A correspond- 
 ent of the Standard, w^riting from Boston in 1882, 
 declared that although they had prided themselves, 
 hitherto, upon the Puritan Sunday and their observ- 
 ance of it, they were in great danger of losing that 
 pre-eminence. The watering places w^ere thronged 
 on Sunday. Trains and boats w^ere crowded with 
 pleasure-seekers. One who had just visited Lynn 
 found the desecration of Sunday there greater than 
 in Paris, or in Italy. Much of the responsibility for 
 the state of things was charged to Christians. The 
 correspondent said that Boston Christians cheated 
 the Lord by going on long excursions for pleasure 
 on Sunday, starting a little before Sunday and re- 
 turning so as to reach home on Monday. In short, 
 Sunda}', in and about Boston, was described as the 
 counterpart of the much-condemned Continental 
 Sunday of Europe. 
 
BAPTIST TESTIMONY 
 
 During the same 3'ear the Standard, discussing 
 the lack of regard for Sunday, represented Christians 
 and Christian influences as powerless to check the 
 downward course; they could not make the laws 
 nor control the railroads ; they could not stop 
 the tide of Sabbathless immigrants from Europe, 
 *' w^hich breaks upon the Eastern sea-coast and rolls 
 to the Western." In view of the fact that the dis- 
 regard for Sunda\' is as great, and comparatively 
 greater, among the home-born people of the United 
 States as it is among foreigners, it is a weak evasion 
 to lay the blame at the door of Europeans. The 
 decay now at hand is that of American Puritanism. 
 It is not the fruitage of the Old World, except as the 
 Sunda^^ of Europe is the result of theories which are 
 now popular in America. 
 
 In the same year the Examiner wrote against 
 the opening of libraries and museums on Sunday-, 
 and plead that Sunday could be saved from total 
 deca3% as to work and business, onlv "b\' stouth- 
 resisting every attempt to enlarge it." But instead 
 of basing its plea on the Bible, the law of God, and 
 religious obligation, the plea was based, mainlv, on 
 the fear that it would lead to such demoralization of 
 the day that "the poor man'sSunday would become 
 a thing of the past." This low-ground T3leading on 
 the part of Christian leaders then, as since, is one of 
 the definite evidences of the decay of regard for Sun- 
 da3' ; for, while it is true that no-Sabbathism tends 
 to make all days alike, when Christians place the 
 observance of Sundav on such crrounds, thev remove 
 
4 DECADENCE OF SUNDAY. 
 
 the whole Sabbath question from the higher, the 
 true, ground on which, only, it can find permanency 
 and power. Of course the reason for this low stand- 
 ard in the case of Sunday arises from the fact that 
 it has no place in the Bible, and our Baptist breth- 
 ren cannot appeal to the Divine Word without con- 
 demning their own practice. In this fact lies the 
 inevitable failure of Sunday. The " one-day-in- 
 seven " theory, the mere "rest-day" theory, and the 
 *' Civil Sabbath " theory all belong to the same list. 
 They exist as the prominent arguments, because 
 men cannot appeal to the Bible as the standard in 
 the matter of Sunday. Because of this, if for no 
 other reason, Sunday must continue to decay. 
 
 In March, 1882, Rev. Doctor McArthur, of New 
 York, a representative Baptist, discussing the open- 
 ing of museums on Sunday, indulged in some strong 
 denunciation of foreigners who come to this coun- 
 try, and before they learn the English language be- 
 gin to clamor for the French or the German Sunday. 
 But even this Phillipic ended with the tame sugges- 
 tion that the best way to preserve Sunday was to 
 do nothing that would secularize the day. There 
 was no appeal to the Word of God as the basis of 
 Sunday-observance. These evasions of the real issue 
 in the case are among the strongest proofs of the 
 decay of regard, and of the want of a religious basis 
 for Sunday. If it be said that men evade in this way 
 because they have learned that there is no basis for 
 Sunday in the Bible, that is still greater evidence 
 that the decay must go on. 
 
BAPTIST TESTIMONY. 5 
 
 In 1883 the Watch Tower declared that the 
 secularization of Sunday was increasing with great 
 rapidity, and that many pleasure resorts in and near 
 New York were thronged on Sunday with depraved 
 crowds, and with depraving amusements. These 
 people were numbered by "hundreds of thousands," 
 said the Watch Tower; and yet from its high place 
 it saw so little hope, and it offered no remedy-, 
 worthy of the name. 
 
 In June, 1883, the Christian Secretary said that 
 "growing Sabbath-desecration was one of the great- 
 est evils of the times." It was bringing swift de- 
 moralization on the land. With the multitude Sun- 
 day was a holida\^ rather than a holj^ day. The 
 Secretary said that Christians "put a sort of salve 
 on their consciences" by attending church in the 
 morning, and then sought forbidden pleasures in the 
 afternoon. It charged hard things against Chris- 
 tians for fostering the increasing decay. 
 
 In the autumn of 1883, the Baptist Convention 
 of the state of New York resolved that a better ob- 
 servance of Sunday is "indispensable to the pros- 
 perity of our religion and the sway of moralit3^" It 
 mentioned and " deplored " various forms of disre- 
 gard for Sunday, and urged Baptists to "stand for a 
 more Scriptural observance of the Christian Sab- 
 bath." But since there is no "Scriptural" observ- 
 ance of Sunday, the appeal of the Convention could 
 not check the decline which it lamented. 
 
 The increase of railroading on Sunday' w^as a 
 prominent feature of the decline in 1883. The Chris- 
 
b DECADENCE OF SUNDAY. 
 
 tian Secretary, and other papers in New England, 
 spoke earnestly against this. The^^ declared that 
 there were two hundred and fifty illegal trains in 
 Massachusetts alone. The discussion in religious 
 circles that year gave evidence of wide and radical 
 differences of opinion, which tended to confusion and 
 weakness. The Baptist Messenger, Pittsburg, May 
 5, reported a discussion in the Alinisters' Conference 
 in that city, as to how far the observance of Sunday' 
 could be based on the Fourth Commandment, and 
 whether there was authorit\^ for the change of the 
 Sabbath to the Sunda3\ This was one of the few 
 cases in \^ hich the fundamental issues were consid- 
 ered. The opinions were summarized b3^ the Mes- 
 senger in the following words: "No two members 
 of the Conference seemed to hold preciseh^ the same 
 opinions, some going so far as to affirm that the 
 Fourth Commandment was abrogated, being part 
 of the Jewish law, and the onh- commandment not 
 re-^.ffirmed in the New Testament. Those who held 
 this view strongly objected to the term ' Christian 
 Sabbath.'" This discussion at Pittsburg was a 
 sample of the prevailing trend among Baptists when 
 the question of the Biblical grounds for observing 
 SundaA' were under consideration. There was then, 
 as there has been ever since, a marked tend- 
 ency to abandon the effort to find any Biblical 
 ground for the "Change of the Sabbath" and to 
 adopt the no-Sabbath doctrine ; or else to place Sun- 
 day-observance on the ground of tradition. This 
 last tendency was evinced in the most open manner 
 
BAPTIST TESTIMONY. 7 
 
 in the Baptist Congress at Detroit, a lew years later. 
 The decay of Sunday has driven Baptists to tradi- 
 tionahsm, and the adoption of traditionalism has 
 hastened the decay. Thus does error feed upon 
 itself. 
 
 In July, 1884, a correspondent of the Examiner 
 wrote sadl\^ of the "eclipse" of Sunday." He cited 
 the fact that California had just lost her Sunday 
 law, by repeal; that the chief cities of the West had 
 no Sabbath; that business and pleasure held sway, 
 at "will. He said that the general disregard for Sun- 
 day w^as ten times as great as it was ten years be- 
 fore, and that if it continued to gain for ten years 
 more at the same ratio, little would be left. His 
 prophecy has been well fulfilled. To his own inquiry 
 as to how the eclipse could be sta^^ed, he had only 
 this lament: "Meanwhile the heavens are darken- 
 ing and the earth is growing ghastly and chill with 
 the coming eclipse." 
 
 In July, 1884, the Examiner spoke of the divided 
 sentiment among Christians. There had been much 
 agitation concerning the establishing of public con- 
 certs in Central Park, New York, on Sunday. It 
 had resulted in their establishment in July of that 
 year. Whereupon the Examiner said that Christian 
 people were much divided in opinion as to the mat- 
 ter, and that several pulpits had given the concerts 
 their approval, and that at least one religious paper 
 had done the same. 
 
 In the National Baptist for July 5, 1888, Robert 
 J. Burdette, the humorist, described Sunday west of 
 
O DECADENCE OF SUNDAY. 
 
 the Rocky Mountains. He said he liad never been in 
 a country where there was so much bath-room and 
 so little Sunda3% and hence cleanliness and Godliness 
 did not always go together. Sunday was a day 
 when ever3'bod3' went somewhere except to church, 
 and did something other than worship. His conclu- 
 sion was that while there was ''some Sunday left in 
 the East, there was none in the West." 
 
 In February', 1889, one who wrote over the sig- 
 nature of "Quandary," in the Examiner, discussed 
 the fact that various forms of the desecration of Sun- 
 day had so emasculated the consciences of men that 
 protest was too feeble to prevent them from yield- 
 ing to the prevalent deca.j. In the course of his arti- 
 cle this correspondent indulged in the following quiet 
 but cutting satire : 
 
 "Is it strange, then, since I see on my way to 
 church on Sunday-, almost as on other days, busy 
 crowds around post-offices, and the railroad depots, 
 and the steamboat landings, and since I hear, as I 
 sit in the sanctuary, the whistle of the engine and 
 the rumbling of the trains, while there comes no 
 voice, or only a faint w^hisper, from the pulpit, in 
 rebuke of all this labor, and noise, and bustle, is it 
 strange that, when I go home, untutored laymen as 
 I am, I should give myself up to the pleasant recrea- 
 tion of reading my Sunday papers, satisfied that in 
 so doing I am no more guilty than those members of 
 the church who do, or direct, all this Sur.da3^ work 
 which I have just mentioned, and that I should ieel 
 assured that, as a considerable part of the church 
 
BAPTIST TESTIMONY. 9 
 
 and of the ministr^^ do not seem to regard them as 
 specially culpable, so I need not regard myself as a 
 great offender, if an offender at all? " 
 
 A sharper picture of general decay could not well 
 be drawn. 
 
 On the 25th of January, 1894, anotable example 
 of satire appeared in the National Baptist. It was 
 over the signature "Rambler," who was none other 
 than the gifted editor, the late Rev. H. L. Wa^dand, 
 D. D. This trenchant sarcasm show^ed, as no logic 
 could, the utter failure of the legal side of Sunday. 
 It is too terse to be summarized, and too good to be 
 lost. Here it is entire : 
 
 "The Rambler is happy to convey to his thou- 
 sands of readers a delightful and momentous an- 
 nouncement. Civilization is saved; morality is 
 secure; the Sabbath is rescued. History does not 
 record a more marked and unparalleled triumph for 
 religion, and especially for the safetj^ of the Sab- 
 bath. We have long been threatened with the 
 overthrow^ of our most cherished religious institu- 
 tions ; but at last, if the reader will permit the play 
 of imagination, the hand of Providence smiles upon 
 us. The Rambler finds in the New^ York Herald, 
 December 27, the statement that on the Sunday 
 previous, Morris Lichnaeum was arrested by Detect- 
 ive Sloan for selling him a shoe-string for two cents. 
 The blood-stained criminal was held in $100 bail, to 
 stand trial for violation of the Sunday law, and, so 
 far as can be gathered, was imprisoned in the Tombs 
 for want of this bail. Once more w^e breathe freelv ; 
 
10 DECADEN'CE OF SUNDAY. 
 
 i. e , the Rambler does; jo3^ irradiates our, his, heart. 
 It is true, on that day the thousands of God-defying 
 saloons were pursuing to the full their murderous 
 trade; ever^^ infamous resort was doing a thriving 
 business ; all the branch houses of hell were prosper- 
 ing ; all the avenues to destruction were crowded ; 
 the locomotives were dragging their heav}' trains of 
 freight and passengers over every railroad in the 
 state; the morning newspaper trains went out 
 gorged Avitli the Sunday papers, and presenth' they 
 were cried in every railroa^ town throughout the 
 state. If it had been summer, the excursion steam- 
 ers would have been plying to and from every acces- 
 sible point on the waters of New York ; but these are 
 trifles. The law arose in its majesty and asserted it- 
 self; the hand of justice descended like an avalanche 
 or a water-spout or a cyclone upon this monster 
 Morris Lichnaeum (who presumabh^ was an Israel- 
 ite, and who, it is quite likely, had spent the pre- 
 vious day in the synagogue, according to the law of 
 his people), and, almost before he knew where he 
 was, Morris was immured in a dungeon, and had an 
 opportunity to reflect upon the unutterable iniquity 
 of his ways and to mourn that he had not spent the 
 Sabbath in the peaceful pursuits of the saloon-keeper 
 and the gambler. The reader will observe that the 
 shoe-string, price two cents, was sold to the detect- 
 ive himself; the presumption is that the detective be- 
 guiled the unhapp\^ Israelite into making the sale. 
 If this be so, it heightens our sense of the dignity 
 and majesty of the transaction, and enhances the 
 
BAPTIST TESTIMONY. 11 
 
 triumph of justice. Let us hope that this event will 
 strike awe into the souls of other Hebrew sellers of 
 shoe-strings; let us imagine the feeling of holy com- 
 placency with w^hich the keeper of the saloon, or of 
 the more infamous resorts protected by the police, 
 must have looked out of the window and seen this 
 felon, laden with unspeakable guilt and ignominy, 
 dragged to the Tombs by Detective Sloan ; and we 
 ma^^ imagine Detective Sloan, as he passed by, wink- 
 ing at one and another of his clients, and seeming to 
 say to them, ' Behold the triumph of justice ' ; and in 
 response the saloon-keepers and the prostitutes and 
 the gamblers must have rubbed their hands, gently 
 murmuring, ' We thank Thee that w^e are not as 
 other men, or even as this Sunday shoe-string seller.' 
 
 " It is a da^' of statues and monuments ; we are 
 erecting monuments to all the heroes we can think 
 of, and a good nian\^ w^hom we cannot think of^ 
 with any pleasure — and we are looking around for 
 other heroes to be immortalized. Will not the Me- 
 tropolis place in its most frequented resort a statue 
 of Detective Sloan, exhibiting in his right hand the 
 historical shoe-string, and in the other hand a scroll 
 on w^hich shall be inscribed, THE TRRTMPH OF 
 SUNDAY-OBSERVANCE? There will be no diffi- 
 culty in providing means for its erection. Those 
 ardent friends of the Sunday-, the saloon-keepers, 
 whose purses are always open when adequately ap- 
 pealed to, wall not be wanting." 
 
 How that satire cuts ! 
 
 The Watchman for Nov. 12, 1890, wrote con- 
 
12 DECADENCE OF SUNDAY. 
 
 ceriiing the difficulty of enforcing Sunday laws be- 
 cause of the differences of opinion among men and 
 the inconsistent practices of Christians, including 
 clergymen. It urged that for the good of all con- 
 cerned, and especially for the good of Sunday, some 
 general agreement should be reached as to how Sun- 
 day- ought to be observed. But this paper, so clear- 
 eyed and stalwart on most questions, closed its plea 
 for tmity with this confession of failure. " Without 
 this it is to be feared that our Sabbath will be slowly 
 worn away by the attrition of worldliness until 
 there is nothing left for the law to protect." 
 
 One of the most open avowals of the decay of 
 faith in the sacredness of Sunda3% on the part of 
 Baptist leaders, is found in the records of the Bap- 
 tist Congress held in Detroit, Mich., in 1894. A 
 prominent theme in that gathering was this : " Tra- 
 dition as a Formative Force in Baptist Doctrine and 
 Church Life." Five prominent Baptists took part 
 in the discussion of this theme. It goes without say- 
 ing that such a theme must induce a consideration 
 of the Sunday question. Rev. Augustine S. Carman 
 said : " It is doubtful whether, if we were left to the 
 scanty- indications of the New Testament alone, un- 
 aided by the light thrown on the New Testament 
 from subsequent times, we should have been able to 
 arrive at that observance of the Lord's-da3^ which 
 has been the priceless possession of Christendom. At 
 any rate we owe a large debt to tradition for facts 
 which aid us in the interpretation of the scanty inti- 
 mations of Scripture on this subject." 
 
BAPTIST TESTIMONY. 13 
 
 Rev. Levi D. Temple made a full surrender of the 
 Sunday to tradition. He declared that tradition 
 was the source of the introduction of the Sunda^^ 
 into the Baptist creed. It had been placed in their 
 Standards like the " Philadelphia Confession," dat- 
 ing from 1784, without Biblical support. He averred 
 that the Baptist creed which claimed that SundaA^ 
 has taken the place of the Sabbath "has almost as 
 little justification in the teachings of Christ and the 
 apostles as the itinerancy of the clergy, or the Cath- 
 olic doctrine of confession and absolution." 
 
 Doctor A. S. Hobart said that if Baptists give 
 up tradition as a source of authority they must give 
 up worship on Sunday, to begin with. Here is a 
 representative sentence from Dr. Hobart: "I tell 
 you, 3'ou ma3^ stand up in any pulpit in the land and 
 quote the Bible, and it won't make any impression 
 at all toward changing the practice of the church, 
 for they would say grandpa did it that wa^-, and it 
 is good enough for us." 
 
 These men told the truth. Sunday has no ground 
 except tradition. It also contradicts the Bible in 
 the claim that the Sabbath has been set aside for 
 Sunday, on Biblical, or Divine authorit}'. But when 
 Baptist leaders yield all this without returning to 
 the Bible, it is overwhelming evidence of the loss of 
 Sabbath sentiment among them. 
 
 In 1885, W. W. Evarts, D. D., issued a book, E. 
 B. Treat, New York, publisher, entitled : " The Sab- 
 bath ; Its Permanence, Promise, and Defense." This 
 book bore testimony to the decay of Sunday- in full- 
 
14 DECADENCE OF SUNDAY. 
 
 ness and detail. It devotes a chapter of thirty-one 
 pages to "Violations of the Sabbath," in which the 
 current forms of disregard for Sunday are recounted. 
 The closing chapter appeals to Christians for a bet- 
 ter observance of the da^^ and urges that the decline 
 is largeh^ induced by the bad example of those who 
 profess to be the friends and defenders of Sunda3\ 
 Here are two representative sentences. "American 
 communities are falling into Sabbath-desecration as 
 the American church becomes slack in Sabbath-ob- 
 servance. Baker, barber, milk-man, confectioner, 
 railroad conductor, and steamboat captain all bear 
 witness that the church membership of the country' 
 contribute largely to the enforcement of Sabbath in- 
 dustries." 
 
 All in all, the Baptist leaders in the United States 
 are united in declaring that regard for Sunday as a 
 Sabbath, on the authority of the Fourth Command- 
 ment, is rapidly going, if not practically gone, from 
 the Baptist ranks. No-Sabbath theories and prac- 
 tices are increasing in corresponding ratio. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 METHODIST TESTIMONY. 
 
 Complicitj- of Methodists with Sunday-desecration bj' Camp meetings 
 — Fears of Southern New England Conference — Decay of Sunday 
 bringing national ruin — Christian Advocate, New York, on Sun- 
 daj- papers, and swift coming dangers — Western Advocate on 
 supreniac3^ of saloons— Sunday base-ball — Christians responsible 
 •for the death of Sunday — Methodist Review or\ "Judgment at the 
 House of God" — National peril— Burning testimonj^ of Bishop 
 Ninde — vSundaj- is dying because of no foundation in the Bible. 
 
 ^HOSE Methodist writers whose words have come 
 under our observation have made much of" the 
 responsibilit\^ of Christians " as to the loss of regard 
 for Sunday'. Methodists have borne ample testi- 
 mony^ against the secularization of Sunday ; on the 
 other hand, more than an\^ other denomination, the}^ 
 have been liable to the cliarge of complicity with 
 Sunday-desecration, especially through their camp- 
 meeting system. We have in hand some very severe 
 testimony on that point, which will yet appear. 
 
 In April, 1882, the Southern New England M. E. 
 Conference, sitting at Providence, R. I., listened to 
 an earnest report from a committee on " Sabbath- 
 observance." That report expressed grave doubts 
 whether Sunda^^-observance could be maintained in 
 New England much longer, unless "the religious 
 masses of ever^^ denomination arouse to their peril." 
 The report mentioned many flagrant forms of disre- 
 gard for Sunday. It was emphatic in condemning 
 the complicit}^ of great business organizations with 
 
16 DECADENCE OF SUNDAY. 
 
 Sunday-breaking, and dwelt upon the serious lack of 
 regard for Sunday laws. It urged all to ring out 
 the alarm, and warn nien of the ruin which would 
 hasten unless Sunday was better observed. 
 
 In 1882 the Methodist Book Concern was cil^cu- 
 lating a booklet, by Rev. C. H. Payne, entitled, 
 '*The American Sabbath." It was first published 
 several years before. Even at that time Dr. Payne 
 said that the observance of Sunda\^ was " one of the 
 most momentous questions of the hour, affecting the 
 most vital interests of our nation." He declared 
 that the influences then combined against Sunday 
 gave great reason to fear that it would be wholly 
 lost. On the national side he put the case in strong 
 terms. "Give us a Continental Sabbath, and fare- 
 well to our loved Christian land." 
 
 The Christian Advocate, of New York, has been 
 among the most vigorous of the Methodist papers 
 in denouncing the various forms of disregard for 
 Sunday. The Sunday newspapers have come in for 
 a good share of attention from the Advocate. In 
 1883 it scored the Tribune and other New York pa- 
 pers for " unblushingh' boasting over the Godless en- 
 terprise of running special trains for the purpose of 
 distributing their papers at points distant from the 
 city, on Sunday." August 13, 1885, the Advocate 
 wrote sadly of the fact that a great and unfavorable 
 change had taken place within thirty years, in pub- 
 lic opinion and in popular practices, concerning Sun- 
 day. It said that the old idea which rested the ob- 
 servance of the dav on the authoritv of the Bible, 
 
METHODIST TESTIMONY. 17 
 
 and on the sanction of the fourth commandment, 
 
 had given way to loose antinomian theories. Busi- 
 ness had increased everywhere, on land and sea, and 
 it was reported that in some of the theological semi- 
 naries candidates for the ministry were taught that 
 the day should be observed on other grounds than 
 that of " divine obligation." December the 17th, of 
 the same year, the Advocate again urged that no 
 man who was interested in the welfare of the nation 
 could be indifferent to the rapid decay of Sunday. 
 It insisted that help must hasten promptly, or Sun- 
 day would be " overwhelmed by the tide of secular- 
 it3^" It also said that these dangers had come in so 
 quietly that many good men were undisturbed, al- 
 though much was alread^^ lost. With a despair, not 
 causeless, the Advocate said: "It is even now a 
 serious question with some of the more w^atchful 
 friends of the Sabbath whether it is not too late to 
 regain what has been surrendered, or even to sta3' 
 the progress of the evil." 
 
 In 1888 efforts were made to check the carnival 
 of the saloons on Sunday in Cincinnati through 
 what was known as the Owen law. The effort was 
 described by the Western Christian Advocate as a 
 useless "spasm of virtue," which lasted for a week 
 or two, and died an ignominious death. It de- 
 clared that no amount of evidence could convict or 
 punish a Sunday saloon in that city. Here is a rep- 
 resentative sentence : " Gambrinus is king, and Cin- 
 cinnati's shame is published to the world." 
 
 The detailed discussion of the Sunda}^ saloon be- 
 
18 DECADENCK OF SUNDAY. 
 
 longs to the temperance question rather than to the 
 theme of this article. But it is well to say in pass- 
 ing, that no one thing marks the collapse of the 
 efforts to rescue Sunday more than the almost un- 
 limited power of the forces of evil which have taken 
 possession of it as the great and growing holiday. 
 The unwise and unjust systems which place the 
 nefarious saloon business so nearU' on the same level 
 with other businesses, under the same general law, 
 is partly at fault in the matter. But the deeper 
 danger lies in this fact: Sunday- law creates a day 
 of irreligious leisure for the masses of men. That is 
 just what the saloon wants. The futile attempt to 
 make a religious day by law does no more than cre- 
 ate the holiday on w4iich the saloons fatten. This 
 form of self-destiuction will continue until the advo- 
 cates of the present system grow wise enough to 
 separate the sale of liquor on Sunda3' from all other 
 forms of business. The license system protects the 
 saloon on six days, and gives it the "whip hand" 
 over all decent and legitimate business on Sun- 
 day. Thus Sunday is made to be self-destructive bj^ 
 law. 
 
 In the autumn of 1888 the Christian Advocate, 
 New York, told of a baseball game in Brooklyn, at 
 which 4,500 people gathered. Contrasting that 
 with former times, the Advocate said that thirt\' 
 years before " an hundred pulpits " would have been 
 aflame with protest, and would have come to the 
 rescue of the outraged Sunday. In the same connec- 
 tion it enumerated manv causes for the decline and 
 
AIETHODIST TESTIMONY. 19 
 
 for the apath^^ of pulpits. It said : '' The demoraliz- 
 ing effects of a Continental Sunday are visible on 
 ever\^ hand. Continental beer, wine, gambling 
 sports, non-church-going are already here. Con- 
 tinental open licentiousness is following hard after." 
 Often and again did the Advocate lift up its voice 
 during 1888 against the persistent decay, which is 
 so clearly apprehended. Here is one of its para- 
 graphs : 
 
 "Eight years ago we w^ere rebuked for saying 
 that the American Sabbath is gone, and that Chris- 
 tians were responsible for its death. Few will now 
 be found to deny the first of these assertions, and 
 few to affirm that this ruin could have been wrought 
 if Christians had consistentl3^ practiced what they 
 professed, and unitedh' endeavored to prevent a vio- 
 lation of law." 
 
 In another chapter we shall present a great 
 arra\' of testimony as to the influence of Christians 
 in bringing in the loss of Sunday. Alean while the 
 reader will be wise who ponders well the trenchant 
 words of the Advocate. 
 
 Nov. 20, 1890, the Advocate said: ''A 'great 
 popular current and movement of the ages^ has 
 taken place ; and with what result ? The Sabbath is 
 almost destroyed in this countr3^ Little by little, 
 with the consent and supported bj^ the practices of 
 man^' Methodists, Presbyterians, Baptists and Con- 
 gregationalists, the land has been filled with rail- 
 road excursions on the Sabbath, and the streams, 
 adjacent seas and lakes filled with steamboat excur- 
 
20 DECADENCE OF SUNDAY. 
 
 sions ; and the rural districts during the summer 
 hegira are covered with city and town Christians, of 
 whom most have left their Sabbath behind them, 
 such as it w^as. In many of the cities theaters are 
 opened, and little or nothing is done to preserve the 
 sanctity of the da3^" 
 
 For terseness and truthfulness, that paragraph 
 cannot be surpassed. To question it is useless. To 
 shrink from it is futile. To laugh at it is foolish and 
 cowardly. 
 
 In 1891 the Methodist i^eWewnumber for March 
 and April published a symposium on the Sunday 
 question. One of the writers, Rev. Dr. Coxe, dis- 
 cussed "Remedies for Sabbath Decline." He re- 
 counted, in an eloquent manner, how Sunday is men- 
 aced by strong and alert foes, and how it is not de- 
 fended by apathetic and self-confident friends. He 
 declared with unction that the issue was not one of 
 human opinion, but of divine authority. He urged 
 the friends of Sunday to remember that defeat is dis- 
 aster and ruin for all the best interests of religion. 
 He averred that the puritv of the home and the sta- 
 bility of the nation depend on a revival of regard for 
 Sunday. He charged the main responsibility for the 
 evil state of Sunday-observance on Christians. Irre- 
 ligious men will not rise higher than the standard 
 set by Christians, and that standard, he said, was 
 sinfully low. "Judgment must begin at the house of 
 God," were his pertinent and closing words. 
 
 In 1893 the Advocate, of New York, again wrote 
 of the national peril from the prevailing corruption 
 
METHODIST TESTIMONY. 21 
 
 associated with the loss of regard for Stinda}-. It 
 pictured the scene with vividness like the flashes of 
 lightning in an August thunderstorm. Here is one: 
 " The question is one of tremendous importance, for 
 it is vital to the successful progress of Christianit3% 
 not to speak of the perpetuation of the Republic 
 itself." For clear-eyedness in seeing- the fact of a 
 hopeless decline in the standing of Sunday-, the Advo- 
 cate was not surpassed b^^ anj^ of its compeers. 
 
 We desire to call special attention to the words 
 of Bishop Ninde, in 1892, when the Sunday question 
 w^as prominentl\^ before the National Conference of 
 Methodists at a meeting in Omaha. The Advance, 
 of May 19, gave this summar^^ of what the Bishop 
 said : 
 
 " At the immense meeting held in tlie interest of 
 the American Sabbath at Omaha, last Sundaj^ 
 Bishop Ninde is spoken of as having made the speech 
 of the day, notwithstanding the fact that the elo- 
 quent ^Yarren and other distinguished speakers made 
 addresses. It w^as the Bishop's wav of putting the 
 matter which seems to have captured the audience. 
 'You cannot,' he said, 'expect the people to keep the 
 Sabbath holy until the churches have won the 
 masses to Christianity.' This gets at the root of 
 the matter. Irreligious people do not want a relig- 
 ious da\\ The}' ma^^ want a rest day or a holiday, 
 but not a hoh' d^y. The principal difficulty in the 
 way of closing the World's Fair on Sunday- is 
 that so mauA' people want it open. One class 
 want it open as a part of the fight against religion, 
 
22 DECADENCE OF SUNDAY. 
 
 and they are a pretty numerous class, but a class 
 who do not usually care to stand befoi-e the com- 
 munity as open enemies of Christianit_v. They prefer 
 to fight it on a side issue, where there is a chance to 
 mask their real meaning. Another class want it 
 open to make money, and the class represents some 
 powerful interests. Still another class want it open 
 as a part of the Sunday holiday program. And it is 
 because of this class and this feeling that much of the 
 advocacy of closed gates goes to pieces. 'We want 
 labor to have a rest,' has been a large part of the 
 argument. But in the minds ot the laboring people, 
 and of the employed people generally, a rest day 
 means a holiday, an ' outing,' if there is anything to 
 go out to. After the usual way of human selfishness 
 twenty people do not stop to think of the one person 
 who will have no Sunday rest if the Fair is kept 
 open.- Hence the argument for rest has, after all, but 
 little weight with the masses. Last Sunday no less 
 than eight thousand people paid the price of admis- 
 sion to see the skeleton Fair grounds. They did it 
 because they had an idle Sunday afternoon and 
 thought that an agreeable way of spending it. 
 
 " In the nature of the case a rest day will be one 
 of the two, a religious day or a holiday-. If the 
 church cannot insist on Sunda\^-closing as a matter 
 of religious observance, it is doubtful whether it has 
 a practical argument. Certainh^ nothing but a 
 strong religious conviction will maintahi itself or 
 the day against such powerful worldly tendencies 
 and influences. Bishop Ninde has done well in call- 
 
METHODIST TESTIMONY. 23 
 
 ing attention, on so conspicuous an occasion, to this 
 important feature of the question." 
 
 We join the Advance in calling attention to the 
 clear-cut truth contained in the last paragraph of 
 the above. Philosophy and history unite to declare 
 that Sunday, as a leisure day, will be " a religious 
 day or a holiday." Roman Catholicism has made 
 the best combination of the two elements that is pos- 
 sible. The result is well known. The holiday has 
 always had the lion's share. That day is yet taken 
 by American Sundaj^ reformers as the t3^pe most to 
 be dreaded. In the present reaction from the Puri- 
 tan Sunday compromise, the religious element has 
 faded out with astonishing rapidity. The triumph 
 of holidayism has come by an universal law of evolu- 
 tion. Sunday has reverted to holidayism because 
 no stream can rise higher than its fountain head. 
 Puritanism forced a temporary religious character 
 upon Sunday, but it could not raise the original 
 fountain head, and so the stream has gone back to 
 its original low level. How long Christians, eager 
 to save something from the ruins of the flood, will 
 refuse to see the facts as Bishop Ninde puts them, no 
 one can sa^^ But one does not need the gift of 
 prophecy to see that Sunday has passed far beyond 
 the point of religious Sabbathism. A few devout 
 souls may keep up the unequal struggle in their per- 
 sonal actions, but without some new ground of ap- 
 peal, and some new basis for conscience, the masses, 
 even of Christians, cannot be called back. If Sun- 
 day had any place in the Word of God, any Biblical 
 
24 DECADENCE OF SUNDAY. 
 
 ground of appeal to conscience, the case would be 
 more hopeful. But even religiovis leaders openly say 
 that it has no such ground, and the lower founda- 
 tion which they attempt to build for it is all, and 
 always in favor of, holidayism. What the new basis 
 must be will be set forth hereafter. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 TESTIMONY FROM CONGREGATIONAL SOURCES. 
 
 Congregationalists active in Sunday Reform — Christian Union on 
 Sundaj' in Boston — Cojigregationalist on Sunday in Chicago — 
 Commissioner Wright's report on Sunday labor; importance of; 
 extent of in Massachusetts—" Church Trains " began the desecra- 
 tion; street cars run on Sunday to accommodate church-goers — No 
 loss of wages from Sunday work — Efforts to save Sunday by civil 
 law — Sunday laws not enforced on religious basis— Nothing gained 
 — The Advance on Sunday in St. Louis, Mo., and in Boston; com- 
 mends Bishop Ninde — Legal desecration in Massachusetts — Con- 
 gj-ega/ionalis/ on destruction of Sunday by Christians; on failure 
 of Sunday law in Cambridge, Mass.— Growth of Sunday Newspa- 
 pers — Dr. Noble on desecration in Chicago — Advance on the same 
 — Crowning testimony from Dr. Leonard W. Bacon — Sunday 
 Lost ! 
 T3EPRESENTING Puritanism in a direct historical 
 line, it must be that Congregationalists should 
 take a deep interest in the question of Sunday and in 
 the evidences of its decay. So far as we can judge, 
 the^' are now the largest factor in the organized 
 efforts to secure a better observance of Sunda\' in 
 New England. During 1883 and 1884 there was 
 such a wide-spread discussion of the evils which had 
 already come with the decline of regard for Sunda^^ 
 that the more hopeful ones looked for some definite 
 improvement, at least among Christians. But on 
 the 10th of July, 1884, the Boston correspondent of 
 the Christian Union (the Christian Union, although 
 an independent paper, belonged in the Congrega- 
 tional group) gave a graphic account of increasing 
 
26 DECADENCE OF SUNDAY. 
 
 disregard for Sunday in the earl^^ home of Puritan- 
 ism. He said that he was not '' moralizing but stat- 
 ing facts" in saying that while '' Boston society" 
 w^as recreating abroad, the masses at home were 
 making Sunda\" a day for recreation in many ways ; 
 that many country people came to Boston for such 
 recreation as only the great city afforded on Sunda}'. 
 The correspondence closed with this : " Driying on 
 Sunda^^ is verj^ common; families who worship in 
 elegant churches in the morning driye in the after- 
 noon, many of them, while the larger numbers who 
 driye for recreation, fearless of God and disregard- 
 ing man, swell the number to troops on the fashion- 
 able highwa3^s. Say what you may on the Sunday 
 question, the strictly Puritan Sunday does not be- 
 long to the Boston of to-day." 
 
 On March 6, 1884, the Chicago correspondent of 
 the Congregationalist detailed the great and grow- 
 ing disregard for Sunday in that Central-Western 
 metropolis. He was especially seyere on the "Ro- 
 man Catholic Archbishop of Chicago," who had 
 lately headed an array of "noisy processions" on 
 Sunda3^ That eyent had drawn out a sermon by 
 Rey. Dr. Little, a Congregationalist, on the wicked- 
 ness of the affair, and the Presbyterian Ministers' 
 Association had made it prominent as a matter of 
 discussion. Among other things the correspondent 
 said : " The extent to w4iich the cit3% if not the day, 
 is eyery Sunday desecrated, defiled, degraded, by the 
 four thousand saloons and all the theatres in full 
 blast, is felt to be bad enough, without haying an 
 
CONGREGATIONALIST TESTIMONY. 2 ( 
 
 archbishop and a hundred of his clergy lend the 
 sanction of their example to such contempt, both for 
 the value of the day and the civil rights of other peo- 
 ple." In reading such animadversions upon Roman 
 Catholics, it is curious to note how Protestants com- 
 plain of the fruitage of the theories which most of 
 them adopt. Roman Catholics have brought to full 
 harvest the theory that the Sabbath was only a 
 JewivSh institution, and that the Sunday has taken 
 its place by virtue of custom and the authority of 
 the church. Although Puritan Protestants broke 
 a^vay from this theory for a time, they have always 
 held to the first and fundamental factor in the 
 theory, viz., that the Sabbath is "Jewish," and not 
 binding on Christians. On that basis the harvest 
 of which the Congregationalist complains is inevit- 
 able. 
 
 COMMISSIONER WRIGHT'S REPORT. 
 
 In 1885 appeared the Sixteenth Annual Report 
 of the Massachusetts Bureau of Statistics, by Car- 
 roll D. Wright, Chief of the Bureau. It is not speci- 
 fically from Congregational sources, but it was so 
 closely connected with Congregational Massachu- 
 setts, and had such a bearing on the Sunday c[ues- 
 tion among Congregationalists, that we place some 
 of the facts brought out in the report here. It de- 
 voted seventv-five pages to the question of Sunday 
 labor in the state. It w^as minute, careful, and in 
 the highest degree important. It did not attempt 
 to deal w4th the religious phases of the question, di- 
 
28 DECADENCE OF SUNDAY. 
 
 rcctl\', but the facts presented had an immense bear- 
 ing on the religious and moral aspects of the situa- 
 tion. The report opened the consideration of that 
 part relating to Sunday as follows: "The great 
 and constant increase in Sunday labor and the inter- 
 est felt in its effect upon the men engaged in it, as 
 well as the moi'al effect upon the community, has 
 given the matter an economic and ethical impor- 
 tance w^hich places it among the leading phases of 
 modern industrial life. 
 
 The publication of the report made a decided 
 sensation in Boston, and elsewhere. A correspond- 
 ent of the Chiistian Union, wanting from Boston in 
 November, 1885, said: "We learn from the report 
 that the largest and most important organized in- 
 dustry in the Commonwealth, in which Sunday la- 
 bor is systematically performed, is that of the steam 
 railroads. The aggregate number of persons thus 
 emploved is 9,256. Sunday trains began in a small 
 and irregular w^ay in 1836. The one train that has 
 run without interruption until the present time was 
 started in 1853. There was no rapid increase in the 
 number of Sunday trains for the next twenty years." 
 Then follows a table of trains, and the correspond- 
 ent adds : "As will be seen by this table, the three 
 Sunday excursion trains, which were begun in No- 
 vember, 1860, for the convenience of the church- 
 going people, and the number of which, in ten years, 
 barely more than doubled, led to the introduction 
 in the next fourteen years, aided somewhat by the 
 milk trains, of one hundred and ninety -three Sunday 
 
CONGREGATIOXALIST TESTIMONY. 29 
 
 excursion trains running both ways on all roads 
 centering in Boston." 
 
 Turning to the report, we find other pertinent 
 items as follows : 
 
 "the growth of the SUNDAY 'CHURCH 
 TRAINS.' " 
 
 " The first local Sunday trains in Massachusetts 
 were put on in November, 1860, between Brookline 
 and Boston. Certain well-to-do people, who were 
 members of churches in Boston, had moved out to 
 Brookline, but wished to retain their membership 
 and continue to attend church in Boston as formerl3^ 
 As Mr. Ginery Twichell, the Superintendent and con- 
 trolling power of the Boston and Worcester road, 
 was a resident of Brookline, they applied to him to 
 put on a Sunda\^ local, as there had already been 
 week-da3^ locals for a number of 3'ears. It being un- 
 lawful to run any but United States mail trains on 
 Sunday, Mr. Twichell hesitated a long time before 
 granting their request. He was a public -spirited 
 man, however, and felt a pride in using the resources 
 at his command to oblige his fellow-citizens. He, 
 therefore, yielded to the steadily increasing pressure 
 of their requests, and put on two trains each way. 
 These were announced in the Boston Daily Adver- 
 tiser of Monday, November 26, 1860. These trains 
 being unlawful, special pains were taken to guard 
 against accident, and as soon as possible the right 
 was secured from the Post Office Department to 
 make them mail trains, so that they might thus be- 
 come lawful. 
 
30 DECADENCE OF SUNDAY. 
 
 As soon as the trains began to run, a new move- 
 ment of travel was developed ; for it was found that 
 people who had formerly lived in Brookline but were 
 now living in Boston desired to attend their old 
 church, and were using the newly-started trains for 
 that purpose. Thus it came about that these Sun- 
 day trains were carrying people both ways to 
 church, (pp. 16, 17.) 
 
 " To sum up the whole matter in brief, it can be 
 safely asserted that all the facts, so far as ascer- 
 tained, show that the inauguration and establish- 
 ment of the Sunday local train system on the rail- 
 roads which center in Boston was wholly the v^rork 
 of church-going people, and that it was, also, for 
 their convenience in going to special churches to 
 which the\^ had become attached. It was not called 
 for, however, b^^ any necessity in enabling them to 
 attend upon the public worship of God. Moreover, 
 the prominence which we have given to the Boston 
 and Worcester (now Boston and Albany) railroad 
 in this matter is just ; for not only did it run Sunday 
 locals for more than ten years before any other road, 
 but the general testimony is that it was the example 
 and influence of this, the most powerful road coming 
 into Boston, which finally made it necessary for the 
 other roads to yield to the importunity of their 
 patrons and do as that road was doing. 
 
 "After a time, however, a change began to ap- 
 pear in thenatureof the travel on these Sunday local 
 trains. The nature of this change will appear more 
 plainh' if we pass at once to those roads where this 
 
CONGREGATIONALIST TESTIMONY. 31 
 
 new movement has had its greatest expansion, viz., 
 the Eastern, and the Boston, Revere Beach and Lynn 
 railroads." (p. 19.) 
 
 In the matter of "horse cars " on Sunda\^, the 
 same general facts appear. After giving the table 
 covering this branch of the service, the report adds : 
 
 " By an examination of the recapitulation of this 
 table, it will be seen that of a total of 3,650 persons 
 emploA^ed on all the horse railroads in the state, 
 2,958, or 81.04 per cent, are at work on Sunda3^ un- 
 der the present S3^stem of horse car service, and also 
 that of this whole number, 703, or 19.26 per cent, 
 would have to be at v^ork on Sunday if no horse 
 cars were run on that da v." 
 
 The chief reasons advanced by the officials of 
 the various horse railroads as the causes w^hich have 
 led to the running of horse cars on Sunda^^ may be 
 briefly summarized as follows : 
 
 " The leader in the movement to have horse cars 
 run on Sunday on the Cambridge road, the oldest 
 horse railroad in the Commonwealth, was a church 
 member, and the specific ground on which he pressed 
 the case was that accommodations might be provid- 
 ed for himself and family, and for others as well, to 
 go to church. On that same road a special car is 
 now leased each Sunday by certain people to carry 
 them to and from church." 
 
 In the case of the Middlesex road, urgent appeals 
 came from the same source. Church-going people, 
 
32 DECADENCE OF SUNDAY. 
 
 by persistent effort, inaugurated, for their own 
 accommodation in going to church, the Sunday 
 horse car SA'stem on this road. 
 
 " The Metropolitan Railroad Company began to 
 run Sunday cars because 'requests were made to 
 carry passengers to the churches, and scholars to 
 the Sunday-schools.' 
 
 '* The Lynn and Boston railroad put on Sunday- 
 horse cars because they felt that the public needed 
 the accommodation; moreover, other roads were 
 running on Sunday, and the management of this 
 road had no doubt but that it would pay. As a 
 matter of fact, Sunday is the best paying da3- in the 
 week. 
 
 •'As regards the South Boston and Charles River 
 railroads, a similar storv is told. The manager of 
 these roads believed the people required this service, 
 and also found that it would pay to run cars on 
 Sunday-. 
 
 " In the same way, the answer from the officials 
 of the horse railroads outside of Boston is that the 
 public demanded it. In the case of the Northampton 
 railroad it was reported that ' church people said it 
 was a duty that the road owed to the public to run 
 cars on Sunday to take people to church.' The New 
 Bedford and Fairhaven railroad, in response to this 
 question, said it was at the 'general request of 
 church-going people.' One of our ministers remarked 
 that ' it was not an^^ worse for the officers of a street 
 railway- company to employ conductors and drivers 
 on Sunda3' than it was for his deacons to employ- 
 
CONGREGATIONALIST TESTIMONY, 33 
 
 their hired men to harness their horses and drive 
 them to and from church.' 
 
 ''Briefly stated, church-going people for church- 
 going purposes are the prime cause of the running of 
 horse cars on Sunday in this Commonwealth.''' 
 (pp. 48, 49. Italics onrs.) 
 
 We have not space to follow the details of this 
 report farther. They will repay study on the part 
 of any one who desires to look carefully into the 
 problem of Sunday -keeping and its future. One im- 
 portant point appears in the report, showing that 
 one prominent argument in favor of Sunday-keeping 
 is set aside b^^ the facts. The report shows that the 
 general effect of all this Sunday labor does not im- 
 pair the health, nor lessen the wages of the workers. 
 The summar\^ of the report indicates that there was 
 in 1885 a total of 720,774 persons employed in 
 Massachusetts on Sunday, of whom 546,591 were 
 males and 174,183 females. The closing pages of 
 the report set forth the following conclusions : 
 
 " The evolution of the modern industrial system 
 has not resulted directly in the use of Sunday labor, 
 Sunday labor being the result of other forces acting 
 on the public mind. 
 
 "Undoubtedly when systematic w^ork for the 
 production of wealth is done on Sunday, that is, 
 w^hen the w^orker labors seven days in the week in 
 the production of w^ealth, there is a powerful and 
 probably an irresistible tendency to break down 
 the rate of pay, so that the total amount of the 
 seven days' wage will be no greater ultimately than 
 
34 DECAnENCE OF SUNDAY, 
 
 the six days' wage was, or would have been. But 
 where systematic work in personal service is per- 
 formed, there is no such tendency to break down the 
 daily rate of wage, for the person who performs this 
 class of labor for seven days receives a full day's pay 
 more than he would if he worked but six da3^s, and 
 so the average day's pay is in no w^ay diminished. 
 It is also probably true that when S3^stematic pro- 
 ductive labor is performed on Sunda^^ there is a 
 marked deterioration in the vital powers, but when 
 such labor is performed in personal service such 
 physical deterioration does not appear. 
 
 " The weaA-er who should try to tend his looms 
 steadily for a thousand daA'S in succession would 
 probably break down completely in health long 
 before the time was passed, while on the contrar^^ 
 the horse-car conductor goes through the whole 
 term without losing a daj^, and finishes the period 
 with vigor unimpaired. 
 
 "From the facts presented, it appears that 
 nearly all systematic work which is performed on 
 Sunday in this Commonwealth, certainly where men 
 w^ork in bodies, is personal service rendered bj^ man 
 to his fellow-men, and not to any considerable ex- 
 tent for the production of material wealth. This 
 being the case, we tind that Sunday labor is almost 
 w^holly and directly caused by the personal demands 
 of one man or one class of men upon another class. 
 The service rendered on Sunday is rendered then 
 because the person to be served exacts it on that 
 particular day. Probably every letter and every 
 
COXGREGATIONALIST TESTIMONY. 35 
 
 passenger could be carried on week days if every 
 letter-sender and everj^ passenger preferred to have 
 it so ; and since nothing, in the nature of things or in 
 the necessities of industry, or in the progress of the 
 modern industrial system, but onh^ the will of man, 
 causes nearly all the systematic labor that is per- 
 formed on Sunday, it follows that Sunday labor will 
 cease when the individual man prefers to have all 
 personal services rendered him on some other day." 
 (p. 73.) 
 
 Some most important facts stare at the reader 
 from this pains-taking report. 
 
 1. The religions people of Massachusetts have 
 no conscientious scruples against demanding labor 
 on the part of those whom they desire to use as 
 public or private servants. Much of the present 
 Sunday-desecration was begun in the interest of 
 church-going. 
 
 2. The great majority of the people of that Puri- 
 tan Commonwealth do not regard Sunday as a Sab- 
 bath, but as a day for such recreation as best con- 
 duces to their comfort. There is very little conscien- 
 tious regard for Sunday as, in an3^ sense, a sacred 
 day. 
 
 3. The swift increase of the tide of Sunday labor 
 since 1885 indicates the destruction of the last bar- 
 riers which protected the New England Sunda}^ of 
 other days. That is gone forever. 
 
 The revelations made in the report of Commis- 
 sioner Wright, and other similar facts, raised the 
 fears of the friends of Sunda3' to such a point that 
 
36 DECADENCE OF SUNDAY. 
 
 notes of warning and renewed efforts to enforce the 
 Sunday laws w^ere abundant in the following year. 
 On the 15th of FebruarA^, 1886, in the prelude to his 
 Monday lecture, in Boston, Rev. Joseph Cook, with 
 dramatic mien, said: "Save Sunday and we can 
 save the Republic; otherwise, not." At the same 
 time he said that he had lately attended service in a 
 stately church on the banks of the Mississippi River 
 where only six persons were present to hear a most 
 admirable discourse. On the same afternoon in the 
 city of Chicago 3,000 people paid a dollar each to 
 hear a popular "infidel" lecture, and 30,000 persons 
 attended a horse race and the show of BuiFalo Bill. 
 
 EFFORTS TO SAVE SUNDAY BY CIVIL LAW IX 
 MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
 From 1884 to 1886 special efforts were made to 
 check the drift downward, by attempting to enforce 
 the Sunday laws. In 1883 the Supreme Court of 
 that state had rendered a decision which, indirectly, 
 declared the running of street cars on Sunday to be 
 illegal. It was in the case of W. W. Day against the 
 Highland Street Railway Company, in an action to 
 recover damages for personal injury. (See Massa- 
 chusetts Reports, Vol. 135; 1883, p. 113 ff.) On 
 Sunday, June 20, 1880, the plaintiff was doing dut3^ 
 as conductor on a car of the Metropolitan Railway 
 Company. While collecting fares, standing on the 
 steps of an " open car," he was injured by a car of 
 the Highland Company-, as it passed on a near-by 
 track. The case went to the Supreme Court, on 
 appeal, and a full bench decided that since the car on 
 
COXGREGATIONALIST TESTIMONY. 37 
 
 which Day was at work was not run as a '' work of 
 necessit3\ nor of mercy," that he was doing an 
 illegal act, in the doing of w^hich the position of his 
 body contributed to his injury, and, therefore, he 
 could not recover damages. Here is the substance 
 of the decision as announced b\^ Judge Colburn : 
 
 " We take occasion prompth' to sa^^ that if the 
 object of the law was to compel the observance of 
 Sunday as a religious institution we would not hesi- 
 tate to declare it to be a violation of the above con- 
 stitutional prohibition. It would violate equally 
 the religious liberty of the Christian, the Jew and 
 the infidel, none of whom can be compelled by law 
 to comply with any merely religious observance, 
 whether it accords with his faith and conscience or 
 not. With rare exceptions, the American authorities 
 concur in this view. . . . The statute is to be judged 
 of precisely as if it had selected for the day of rest 
 any da^^ of the week, other than Sunday; audits 
 validity is not to be questioned, because in the exer- 
 cise of a wise discretion it has chosen that day which 
 a majority of the inhabitants of this state, under the 
 sanctions of their religious faith, already voluntarily 
 observe as a day of rest." 
 
 The Independent, New York, remarking upon 
 the decision, said: "This is an exceedingly lucid 
 statement of the theory which underlies all legisla- 
 tion that requires the suspension of ordinary labor 
 on Sunday. The object is not to enforce religious 
 observance of any kind, but simply to establish a 
 uniform day of rest for the general good of the whole 
 
38 DECADENCE OF SUNDAY. 
 
 people; and thi.s is no interference with the religious 
 liberty of anybod3^" 
 
 Both the decision and the comments were unqnes- 
 tionabh^ correct. The3^ indicate the only possible 
 basis on which Sunday laws can rest. Such decis- 
 ions are, however, w^holly revolutionary. They 
 destroy once and forever the conception of Sunday 
 legislation, as embodied in the original English law^s 
 and in all the Colonial and earlier state law^s of the 
 United States. More significant still is the fact that 
 these judicial decisions remove entirely the basis on 
 which the ''Sabbath reformers " make their earnest 
 and continuous appeals for the enforcement of the 
 "Sabbath laws." 
 
 In connection with this agitation, and in the 
 view of the desecration of Sunday by railroads, the 
 Congregationalist published the following lurid 
 sentences from a correspondent: "A more disas- 
 trous Baalism was never tolerated in the histor^^ of 
 man than this railroading upon the Sabbath-day, 
 whether by horse-power or steam— the smoke and 
 din of a dirty train hurled like a screeching bomb 
 through its hallowed horizon. Such blasphemy 
 gives the loose rein to every inclination to infringe 
 upon the wholesome restraints that attach them- 
 selves to the sacred day. This, alone, is enough to 
 cause the flood-gates of vice and immorality to be 
 opened upon us. It gives impetus to all manner of 
 strife and contention and unlawful competition in 
 business and trade. God-fearing men w^ill clear their 
 skirts of this Sabbath railroading, as honest men 
 
CONGREGATIONALIST TESTIMONY. 39 
 
 did their consciences b}^ not luxuriating under slav- 
 er^^'s cotton, nor fattening upon its cheap sugar." 
 
 The agitation resulting from this decision and 
 the failure of the efforts to check the running of the 
 street cars, and other forms of business, under cover 
 of the decision, showed that a radical change had 
 taken place in public opinion as to Sunday laws. 
 Christians and non-Christians united in the declara- 
 tion that all religious basis for enforcing the Sunday 
 laws must be eliminated. That was equivalent to 
 saying that they could not be enforced at all, unless 
 in some unimportant and valueless instances. That 
 Sunday laws ought not to be enforced on religious 
 grounds is true. But it is also true that they have 
 never been successfull\^ enforced on any other 
 grounds. The zeal of conscience, or the bigotry of 
 intolerance, are the only motives which have ever 
 enforced such laws. But the whole effort was 
 thought-provoking, and it revealed the weakness of 
 the general regard for Sunday as fully as the facts of 
 Commissioner Wright's report had done the previ- 
 ous year. 
 
 Writing of this decision of the Massachusett's 
 Court, the Advance said that the effort to enforce 
 the laws w^ould result in an effort to repeal them. 
 It also reported that the Congregational Club had 
 appointed a committee of three lawyers to act for it 
 in opposition to the repeal. It was reported that 
 many clergymen in Boston were not in favor of the 
 effort to enforce the laws because the failure to do 
 so would weaken the cause of Sundav still more. 
 
40 DECADENCE OF SUNDAY. 
 
 The Congregationalist saw this result, and said : 
 *' Let us then hasten slowly in all this, and if we are 
 to have a revision of the Sunday laws, let that revis- 
 ion be in the interest, not of socialism and anarchy, 
 but of an intelligent and humane Christianity." 
 Speaking- of the situation, the New York Tribune for 
 Nov. 6, 1886, said : " Additional interest is imparted 
 to the Sunda\^ question as it is now being agitated 
 from the Boston point of view by decision of the 
 Siipreme Court of Massachusetts touching Sunday' 
 horse-cars. The Court decides that they cannot be 
 legally run on that day. ' We are of the opinion,' 
 says Judge Colburn, 'that a car so run is in viola- 
 tion of law, though some of its passengers may be 
 lawfully traveling. It is not within our province to 
 determine the wisdom or expediency of the law% or 
 how far there has been a change in public sentiment 
 in relation to the proper manner of observing the 
 Lord's-day. These considerations are for the legis- 
 lature.' Of course the horse-car people will petition 
 the next legislature for relief, so that this phase of 
 the Sunday question bidsfairtobeprett\'' thoroughly 
 discussed before the winter is over." 
 
 Nothing came of all this except an increase of 
 liberal sentiment and practice. Up to the present 
 writing — 1898 — the disregard for Sunday in Mas- 
 sachusetts, and in all New England, has gane for- 
 ward with increasing rapidity and power. The 
 character of the Supreme Court decision, and the 
 failure to gain lost ground for Sunday' under it, gave 
 double emphasis to the depth of the decay of regard 
 
CONGREGATIONALIST TESTIMONY. 41 
 
 for Sunday in the home of New England Puritan- 
 ism. 
 
 In 1887 the Congregational Record published 
 several articles on the Sunday question, from vari- 
 ous correspondents, among whom was Rev. Wash- 
 ington Gladden. He spoke with great plainness of 
 the extent to which the lower elements in society. 
 had taken possession of Sunday as an irreligious 
 holiday, and declared this: That if anything could 
 be done to "check this, the spread of this plague of 
 vice and irreligion and lawlessness and anarchy in 
 our cities, it cannot be done too soon." He closed 
 with these w^ords : " We call it the Lord's-day, but 
 does it belong to him? Surely it is the day when 
 the forces of the adversary work most busiW. It is 
 the day when those that Hje in wait to ruin souls are 
 all alert and intent upon their prey. A great deal 
 more moral injury is done on this da\^ than on any 
 other day in the week. And often, as I go about the 
 streets of m^^ own city, and see with what iiendish 
 and fatal enterprise the evil one is plying his arts of 
 destruction, I am prone to cr3^ out, ' W'ho will come 
 to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord 
 against the mighty?' Where are all the thousands 
 of Christian disciples in this great city? What are 
 they doing to counteract this mischief? A few earn- 
 est souls in every church are doing what the^^ can, 
 but w^here are all the rest? That is the burning Sun- 
 day question. May God help you to answer it." 
 
 The darkest shadows in this picture are made by 
 the attitude of Christians. W^hen all the testimony 
 
42 DECADENCE OF SUNDAY. 
 
 is in, there is no escape from the fact that Sunday is 
 being slain in the house of its friends, or rather, Sun- 
 day is carrying its friends into ruin because of the 
 essential error whi^h underlies the theories on which 
 it rests. 
 
 In the Advance for July 7, 1887, Rev. Geo. C. 
 -Adams, writing of Sunday in St. Louis, Mo., 
 described the fearful harvest of evil which it had 
 gathered. He contrasted it with Sunday in New 
 Enofland, and averred that the West was far more 
 debased as to Sunday than the East. Reading what 
 was said of the East by others, it seems difficult to 
 see the case as Dr. Adams did. Of the effect of the 
 popular disregard for Sunday on religion he said: 
 " One of the greatest difficulties in the way of church 
 work in St. Louis has alwa^^s been the fact that we 
 have no Sabbath. . . . Under the circumstances it is a 
 wonder that any aggressive work can be done success- 
 fully b\^ the churches, and it is no wonder that every 
 year finds a great procession of members of the 
 churches, drawn away by the spirit of worldliness, 
 exchanging the church and the Bible-school for the 
 theatre and the ball-ground, and becoming entirely 
 dead to all vows of fidelity to the Master." 
 
 July 12, 1888, the Congregationalist reported 
 that yacht racing, and similar sports, on Sunday, 
 were popular and prevalent in and around Boston. 
 It said that these sports made no distinction between 
 Sunday and other days, and that church members 
 were much involved in these things. 
 
 In 1892 the Advance reported with favorable 
 
CONOR EGATIONALIST TESTIMONY. 43 
 
 comment the strong words of Bishop Ninde, at the 
 Methodist Conference, concerning the comphcity of 
 Christians with Sunday-desecration. The Bishop's 
 testimony will be found in chapter second — Meth- 
 odist testimony. Few things, if any, could show 
 how regard for Sunday had departed from the home 
 of the Puritan faith, more than the summary given 
 below, of facts presented by A. P. Foster, D. D., of 
 the editorial staff of the Advance, in that paper for 
 March 30, 1893. He declared that Massachusetts, 
 once first in morals, is now the last in New England 
 in respect to Sabbath law and Sabbath practice. 
 The license laws of the state, he affirmed, permit the 
 licensing of "Sabbath-breaking." It seems that 
 according to law in Massachusetts, steam, gas and 
 electricity may be manufactured on Sunday ior light, 
 heat and power; the telegraph and telephone may 
 be used; horses, yachts and boats may be let; news- 
 papers may be manufactured, transported and sold ; 
 butter and cheese may be made; public bath-houses 
 may be kept open; food in bakeries may be made 
 and sold before 10 A. M., and between 4 and 6.30 P. 
 M. ; steamboats and railroad trains may be run 
 "as the public necessity and convenience may 
 require," having regard to the due observance of the 
 da3^ The deep significance of these general state- 
 ments concerning Sunday lawlessness in Massa- 
 chausetts cannot be over-estimated. Massachusetts 
 originalh^ had the most rigid civil laws concerning 
 Sunday. The earlier laws, and practices, covered 
 the time from "sunset on Saturday to sunset on 
 
44 DECADENCE OF SUNDAY. 
 
 SLinda}'." During this time all business and recrea- 
 tion were forbidden, with a strictness more than 
 " Mosaic." If Sunda}'^ law^s are of supreme value in 
 preventing disregard for the da^^ how has it come 
 to pass that this legislation, which was once sup- 
 ported by such public conscience as insured its 
 enforcement, has not only fallen into disuse, but has 
 been actually repealed ? Do men expect to begin 
 with this ruin and accomplish reformation through 
 a system of laws which have not only failed to check 
 the downward drift, but have been actually swept 
 away? Can the fragments of the overthrown sys- 
 tem be drawn from their place in the mud of the 
 overflowing deluge, and be made into barriers which 
 will turn back the tide, and restore the drowned 
 conscience of the state? 
 
 Supporting the statements of the Advance, the 
 Congregationalist — May 1, 1893 — said : '* The 
 sacredness of the Lord's-day appears to be less 
 regarded every 3^ear. As the spring opens there is a 
 fresh impulse on every hand to set aside its distinct 
 features. Excursions invite. Summer houses are to 
 be selected, and Sunday offers opportunity for it. 
 A long bic\'cle ride is specially attractive. The family 
 are invited to visit relatives, and it takes the whole 
 day. At least, the house piazza, the Sundaj^ paper 
 and the novel set u]3 their attractions against pulolic 
 worship. The most painful fact about this gradual 
 loss of the Lord's-day is that its sacredness is being 
 destroA^ed by the Lord's followers. If every person 
 lived up to his convictions on this subject, the day 
 
CONGKEGATIONALIST TESTIMONY. 45 
 
 \^ ould be protected. Its value is lost through Chris- 
 tians doing what they would not wish other Chris- 
 tians to do on that day. If Sunday should cease to 
 be the Lord's-day it would be because Christians 
 have resisted the pleadings of their own consciences 
 concerning it. No legislature can Christianize the 
 w^eekly rest day. It can only free the da}-^ from the 
 burdens of continuous toil. But if each Christian 
 keeps it as in his best moments it might be kept, it 
 cannot be destro3xd." 
 
 If these were the words of an alarmist or of an 
 enemy of Christianity, they might be passed by. On 
 the contrary the Congregationalist stands first 
 among the papers of its denomination, and it is not 
 second to an\^ in clearness of vision and well-bal- 
 anced conclusions on general themes. Its words are 
 those of a friend; but they are heavy with sorrow 
 and clouded with doubt and fear. 
 
 In the following summer, 1894, the growing dis- 
 regard for Sunday again prompted its friends to 
 some efforts for enforcing Sunday laws. Concerning 
 that effort, the Advance and the Congregationalist 
 spoke. The former, under ''The Sabbath Around 
 Boston," said : " The day by no means receives the 
 good old Puritan observance of Cotton Mather's 
 da3^ The time was when the ferries did not run and 
 the gate across the neck was closed on the Sabbath, 
 so that travel in or out of Boston was absolutely 
 impossible. To-day on a hot Sabbath crowds pour 
 out in every direction. Recently when the city was 
 melting in the nineties, 3,000 excursionists gathered 
 
46 DECADENCE OF SUNDAY. 
 
 at Newport, R. I., on Sunday, and 50,000, it is esti- 
 mated, at Crescent Beach in Revere. But the most 
 noticeable feature about Sunda3^ has been the march 
 up hill and down again of Mayor Bancroft, of Cam- 
 bridge, and the ministers of the city in the endeavor 
 to enforce the Sunday laws. The ministers called 
 the attention of the Mayor to the fact that the Sun- 
 day ordinances were not enforced, and asked him to 
 see that the\^ were. They had in mind the selling of 
 tobacco and soda by druggists, the delivery of ice- 
 cream at private houses, and the like. The Ma3^or 
 delared his willingness to enforce the law, whatever 
 it might be. Complaint was made against a person 
 delivering ice-cream on Sunday, which the city solic- 
 itor had declared a clear violation of the ordinance. 
 The judge, however, refused to receive the complaint 
 under the ruling that ice-cream was a necessity in 
 the eye of the law. Then the drug-stores, which had 
 closed the week before, opened again and some sold 
 soda and cigars as usual. Evidence was taken 
 against them, but was not presented in court, and 
 now the Ma3^or declares that in the face of the decis- 
 ion of the judge he can do nothing. Some of the daily 
 papers are gleeful, and declare the Puritan days are 
 over, and that ministers had better learn the fact. 
 It is an unfortunate business, seemingly calculated 
 to give more license to Sabbath-desecration. And 
 yet it may do good in the end by leading to more 
 careful distinctions, both in the law and in public 
 sentiment." 
 
 The CongregationaUst, speaking of this effort at 
 
CONGREGATIONALIST TESTIMONY. 47 
 
 Cambridge, said : ''According to the advice of sev- 
 eral of the Boston daily newspapers, the better way 
 is to let the laws remain on the statute books, but 
 to make no effort to enforce them. No advice could 
 be worse than this. The surest w^ay to encourage dis- 
 regard of law is to teach the people that some laws 
 are made to satisfy a demand for them, but that 
 the3" are meant to be a dead letter. Especially 
 vicious is the counsel that the enactment of any law 
 should satisfy the public conscience, leaving men free 
 to ignore it in practice. The counterpart of dead 
 formality in religion is dead law in the administra- 
 tion of government — a kind of state sanction of 
 h3^pocris3'." But when all was said, whether of 
 pleading or condemnation, the laws could not be 
 enforced, and decay and desecration went on. 
 
 During all the years between the Civil War and 
 1895, the Sunday newspaper grew with magic speed 
 and prodigious power. But 1895 witnessed a 
 crowning stroke of diplomacy on their part. More 
 concerning it will be found in the chapter on '' Re- 
 sponsibility of Christians," but the following from 
 the Congregationalist of Aug. 22, 1895, is pertinent 
 here: "An association has recently been formed, 
 with headquarters in Boston, for the purpose of col- 
 lecting sermons for Sunday newspapers. ' We are 
 asked to appeal to ministers to furnish material, on 
 the ground that Sunday papers have come to stay 
 and that we ought to get into them as much good 
 reading as possible. This movement to secure the 
 endorsement of the Sunday newspaper b^- the clergy 
 
4-8 DECADENCE OF SUNDAY. 
 
 and their co-operation in circulating it ought not to 
 deceive an^^ one. Ministers who give their names to 
 this enterprise will do so because the^^ approve the 
 Sunday press, not because they seek to improve an 
 institution which they believe to be working harm.' 
 Those who write for the Sunday papers will, of 
 course, expect their people to take it. We believe that 
 no other institution has done so much as this one to 
 secularize the Lord's-day. It sets the key-note of 
 the conversation during the day in many Christian 
 families and for the thoughts in the minds of multi- 
 tudes of professing Christians, and that note is far 
 from being in harmony with Christian themes. The 
 indorsement of the Sunday paper b}^ ministers and 
 churches maA^ extend the circulation, but will do 
 little to elevate its influence." 
 
 In the Advance for Dec. 15, 1895. F. A. Noble, D. 
 D., pastor of a leading Congregational church of 
 Chicago, spoke ringing and brave words concerning' 
 the growth of Sundaj^-desecration. Here are some of 
 them : " Few people, it is to be feared, fully realize how 
 determined and wide-spread are the efforts to under- 
 mine regard for the Lord's-day, and how successful 
 these efforts have already been. Sunday newspapers 
 and Sunday theatres have come to stay. Mail trains 
 and freight trains and elegantly-appointed passen- 
 ger trains are regularly scheduled for Sunday. Busi- 
 ness men plan to use Sunday for travel in order to 
 save time. Excursions to sea-side, mountains and 
 expositions are arranged for Sunday as the most 
 convenient and attractive date for starting. Con- 
 
CONGREGATIONALIST TESTIMONY. 49 
 
 tractors, when pressed, never hesitate to complete 
 their jobs on Sunday, even though it be the chapel of 
 a Christian University. Men and women who go 
 much abroad bring back not only the wine cup for 
 their side-boards and their social gatherings, but 
 modified, and often radically changed views of the 
 proper observance of Sunday, The tendencies w^hich 
 work toward the secularization of Sunday are both 
 strong and manifold." 
 
 When the friends of Sunday speak thus, the fact 
 of its loss is beyond question. 
 
 CONGREGATIONALISTS DECLARE THAT SUNDAY 
 IS LOST. 
 
 Testimony from Congregational sources was 
 abundant in 1896. It was dominated b^^ a tone of 
 hopelessness. Open disregard for Sunday law, and 
 flagrant acts of desecration, had increased as the 
 progress of a heavy train does on a down grade. 
 The inconsistencies of Christians were noted more 
 and more, and the charge that they were mainly 
 responsible for the demoralized state of the Sunday 
 question was freely made. On the third of June the 
 Advance sharpened its pen for the Mayor of Chica- 
 go for "leading a procession of nearly six thousand 
 -wheelmen through the streets of that city on Sun- 
 day, during the hours of morning service in the 
 churches." This is what the Advance wrote : 
 
 "The outing was remarkable in many respects. 
 It had been planned without regard to expense — or 
 the Decalogue ; and it was conducted in as gentle- 
 
50 DECADENCE OF SUNDAY. 
 
 manly a manner as though Mephistopheles had been 
 the marshal of the day. It was, in part representa- 
 tive of the city : civic Chicago on cycles. For at the 
 head of the cycle anaconda which took Chicago in 
 its toils on Sunday, May 23, rode a band of police- 
 men; then followed Mayor Carter H. Harrison, 
 riding at ease between President C. P. Root and Dr. 
 J. C. Barclay ; and after them came ten members of 
 the Red Cross corps — a strange place for a cross — 
 the First Regiment cycling club, mail-carriers 
 a- wheel, thirty-three clubs of various names, tan- 
 dems, triplets, quads, gay ladies in purple costumes, 
 and 2,500 unattached wheelmen. 
 
 '^ The^^rode past churches and disturbed the wor- 
 ship of congregations. What minister could expect 
 to hold the undivided attention of his audience, 
 while the Mayor of Chicago was pedaling his way 
 through the streets, and preaching a long-drawn- 
 out sermon on Sabbath-breaking, illustrating the 
 doctrine by his own practice? It was so Teutonic 
 and liberal that outside Chicago burst into an 
 ecstacy of applause. Every saloon-keeper along the 
 line measured by the wheels felt his heart warm 
 toward the Mayor. He thought that a man so lib- 
 eral in his sentiments, a man that could lead six 
 thousand cyclers through the Fourth Command- 
 ment, would not be ver^- hard on him if he should 
 disregard inconvenient, repressive laws. Every man 
 and woman of easy morals felt drawn toward a 
 mayor who could deliberately desecrate the day 
 which Christians obse^'ve as a day of rest and wor- 
 
CONGREGATIONALIST TESTIMONY. 51 
 
 ship. Tliey thowght that he would be more likely to 
 wink at their peccadillos than to sternly punish 
 them." 
 
 One sentence from the above demands re-reading. 
 *'Ever3^ saloon-keeper along the lines measured by 
 the wheels felt his heart warm toward the MaA^or." 
 That is doubly true. And by the same law of logic 
 and experience, all the forces of evil which riot on 
 Sunday rejoice whenever they hear or read from the 
 words of clerg3'men that "the Sabbath is only an 
 effete Jewish affair, with which we of this dispensa- 
 tion have nothing to do." That suits the lovers of 
 beer and blasphemy. Thej^are keen and logical, and 
 thej^ can read the New Testament, if need be; and 
 when the\^ do thus read, they know that if the 
 preachers who decry the "old Jewish Sabbath" tell 
 the truth, that all talk about Sunday being a 
 sacred da^^ is empt3^ sound. If good Dr. Noble 
 were to warn his people against the doctrines 
 of the Seventh-day Baptist church of Chicago, 
 each lover of pleasure on Sunday "would feel 
 his heart warm" toward the doctor, because his 
 words would help to remove any lingering thought 
 of " Sabbath-breaking" which might be awakened, 
 if, while looking through the Bible, he should chance 
 to light on the Ten Commandments. 
 
 The deca}' of conscience in regard to Sunday was 
 put in a strong light by the Advance in 1897, in 
 these words : 
 
 " It is an accepted fact that a failure to respect the 
 sacredness of what we have come to name appropri- 
 
52 DECADENCE OF SUNDAY. 
 
 ately the Lord's-day, is not a serious offense against 
 the common conscience. Multitudes of men who 
 would not steal, neither be guilty of slander, unchas- 
 tity, nor the hate which is the substance of murder, 
 do not scruple to pervert the Sabbath by labor, or 
 loafing, or riot. They are essentially wnthout 
 enlightened convictions of conscience in the matter. 
 How is such a surprising fact to be accounted for? 
 
 " We have an easy answer in the common state- 
 ment that the man of the world has not the fear of 
 God in all his thoughts. He that fears God, it is 
 said, will reverence the day that he has chosen for 
 his own and blessed ; the way, therefore, to protect 
 the Sabbath is to make men pious in the substance 
 of their thinking or feeling. The answer is good ; 
 but it does not reach the ground reason w4iy it is 
 that men who will not steal, nor lie, nor commit 
 adulter}^ yet decline to turn their feet from polluting 
 the Sabbath, and from doing their pleasure on God's 
 holy da3^ Their inw^ard thought seems to be that 
 the law for the Sabbath is positive as distinct from 
 moral, that the reasons for that law are not laid in 
 nature as are the laws protecting property and 
 reputation, that the reasons for the giving' of that 
 law have ])assed, and that God either does not know 
 what the Sabbath -breakers are about, or, if he does 
 know, he does not care very much." 
 
 In August, 1897, the Advance again made record 
 of the loss of Sunda^^ in the East, in some remarks 
 about certain improvements which had been made 
 at Metropolitan Park Beach, near Boston. It said : 
 
CONGREGATIONALIST TESTIMONY. 53 
 
 ''These changes the public greatly appreciate. 
 Unhappily, Sunday seems to be the day when they 
 show their appreciation most. Last Sunday- the 
 beach was packed with an eager crowd, estimated 
 to number 100,000 people. Of these it is said 10,- 
 000 people desired to use the great state bath-house, 
 and enjoy the sea-bathing, while onh^ about 5,500 
 were able to do so. There was not a single arrest 
 during the day, and the park policemen were highly 
 praised for their skill in keeping order. It seems 
 a thousand pities that such great and desirable 
 improvements should lead to such extensive Sab- 
 bath-desecration." 
 
 The crowning testimony for 1897, as many will 
 measure it, was from a book by Rev. Leonard Wool- 
 sej Bacon, D. D., which was published in the 
 autumn of that year. It was volume eleven in the 
 " Arnerican Church Histor^^ Series," entitled, A His- 
 tory of American Christianit\^ 
 
 Chapter XX. covers the period " After the War" 
 down to date. On page 371, ff., we find the follow- 
 ing: 
 
 "An event of great historical importance, which 
 cannot be determined to a precise date, but which 
 belongs more to this period than to any other, is the 
 loss of the Scotch and Puritan Sabbath, or, as many 
 like to call it, the American Sabbath. The law of 
 the Westminster divines on this subject, it may be 
 affirmed without fear of contradiction from any 
 quarter, does not coincide in its language with the 
 law of God as expressed either in the Old Testament 
 
54 DECADENCE OF SUNDAY. 
 
 or in the New. The Westminster rule requires, as if 
 with a ' Thus saith the Lord,' that on the first day 
 of the week, instead of the seventh, men shall desist 
 not only from labor, but from recreation, and spend 
 the whole time in the public and private exercises of 
 God's worship, except so much as is to be taken up 
 in the v^^orks of necessity and mercy. Westminster 
 Shorter Catechism, Ans. 60.* This interpretation 
 and expansion of the Fourth Commandment has 
 never attained to a more than sectarian and provin- 
 cial authority ; but the overmastering Puritan influ- 
 ence, both of Virginia and New England, combined 
 with the Scotch-Irish influence, made it for a long 
 time dominant in America. Even those who quite 
 declined to admit the divine authority of the glosses 
 upon the commandment felt constrained to ' submit 
 to the ordinances of man for the Lord's Sake.' But 
 it was inevitable that with the vast increase of the 
 travel and sojourn of American Christians in other 
 lands of Christendom, and the multitudinus immi- 
 gration into America from other lands than Great 
 Britain, the tradition from the Westminster elders 
 should come to be openly disputed within the 
 church, and should be disregarded even when not 
 denied. It was not only inevitable ; it was a Chris- 
 tian duty distinctly enjoined by apostolic authority. 
 Col. 2: 16. The five years of war, during which 
 Christians of various lands and creeds intermingled 
 
 *The commentaries on the Catechism, which are many, like 
 Gemara upon Mislina, build wider and higher the " fence around the 
 law," in a fashion truly rabbinic. 
 
CONGKEGATIONAJLIST TESTIMONY. 55 
 
 as never before, and the Sunda^^ laws were dumb, 
 inter arma, not only in the field, but among the 
 home churches, did perhaps even more to break the 
 force of the tradition, and to lead in a perilous and 
 demoralizing reaction. Some reaction was inevit- 
 able. The church must needs suffer the evil conse- 
 quences of overstraining the law of God. From the 
 Sunday of ascetic self-denial — ' a day for a man to 
 afflict the soul ' — there w^as a ready rush into utter 
 recklessness of the law and privilege of rest. In the 
 church there was w^rought sore damage to w^eak 
 consciences; men acted, not from intelligent convic- 
 tion, but from lack of conviction, and allowing 
 themselves in self-indulgences of the rightfulness of 
 which they were dubious, ' they condemned them- 
 selves in that which thej^ allow^ed.' The consequence 
 in civil society was alike disastrous. Early legisla- 
 tion had not steered clear of the error of attempting 
 to enforce Sabbath-keeping as a religious duty by 
 civil penalties, and some relics of that mistake 
 remained, and still remain, on some of the statute- 
 books. The just protest against this wrong was, 
 of course, indiscriminating, tending to defeat the 
 righteous and most salutary laws that aimed sim- 
 ply to secure for the citizen the privilege of a weekly 
 day of rest, and to secure the holiday thus ordained 
 by law from being perverted into a nuisance. The 
 social change which is still in progress along these 
 lines no wise Christian patriot can contemplate 
 with complacency. It threatens, when complete, to 
 deprive us of that universal, quiet Sabbath rest 
 
36 DECADENCE OF SUNDAY. 
 
 which has been one of the glories of American social 
 life, and an important element in its economic pros- 
 perit3% and to give in place of it, to some, no assur- 
 ance of a Sabbath rest at all ; to others, a Sabbath 
 of revelrv and debauch." 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 TESTIMONY FROM PRESBYTERIAN SOURCES. 
 
 Presbyterians and Pnritan vSunday — Chrisliaii Siaiesvian on Sundaj' 
 Camp Meetings — Presbytery of Delaware Alarmed — Parkhurst Con- 
 demned— Wayland Hoyt's Sarcasm— C65-<?rz'<fr Condemns Chris- 
 tians—Nebulous Consciences— Sunday Law Needed for Christians 
 —Self-condemned Christians— Sunday and the World's Fair— Dr. 
 Stall Scores Christians— Abolition of Sunday — Sunday-Rest Con- 
 gress — Christian Work — Dr. Cuyler — Christian Statesman 
 Deplores Increase of Desecration — vSynod of New Jersey— General 
 Assembly, Southern— 8,000 Business Places Open in Philadelphia 
 on Sunday — Great Disregard of vSunday in Pennsylvania — Interior 
 on " Passing" of Sunday— Sunday Labor Well V3.\d— Christian 
 Intelligencer on Sunday Among Politicians — Church Members 
 Indifferent— Sunday is " Wheelman's Day "—Dr. Talmage a " Sab- 
 bath-Breaker "—Dr. Cuyler on "New Style of vSabbath "—Chris- 
 tians Apathetic— Dr. Hathaway Condemns Christians— American 
 Sabbath Union— Better Be Seventh-day Baptists— No Remedy for 
 Increasing Decline, Unless Christians Give Up vSunday, and Fol- 
 low Christ in Keeping God's Sabbath. 
 
 pRESBYTERIANISM and the Puritan Sunday 
 were essentially identical, at the beginning. 
 Embodying high culture, orthodox conservatism 
 and intense loyalty to its creed, it was natural that 
 Presbyterians should be among the first to detect 
 the decay of Sunday, and to warn against it. The 
 material for this chapter is greater in amount than 
 that furnished by any other denomination. (We 
 include in the Presbyterian group the Dutch Re- 
 formed branch, and the Christian Statesman, since 
 the National Reform movement of which it is the 
 organ is primarily the product of certain smaller 
 branches of the Presbyterian family.) Beyond all 
 
58 DECADENCE OF SUNDAY. 
 
 others the Presbyterians had faith in the"change- 
 of-Sabbath" theory, and the direct apphcation of 
 the Fourth Commandment to Sunday. To them as 
 much, if not more than to an}^ other branch of Prot- 
 estants, the decay of Sunday means the decay of a 
 fundamental doctrine of Christianity. 
 
 In July, 1882, the Christian Statesman said that 
 on the first hot Sunday of that season there were 
 more excursionists at a single seaside resort near 
 New York than there were worshipers in all the 
 churches in that city. It also charged the managers 
 of the "Simpson Grove Camp Meeting Association," 
 twenty-two miles from Philadelphia, with promot- 
 ing the desecration of Sunday, by its arrange- 
 ments for services, although the Association 
 announced that it would not arrange for "excursion 
 trains." The Statesman averred that the regular 
 trains were ample to meet all the demands, and to 
 empty the Methodist churches of the city, as well as 
 to carry many thousand non-church goers to the 
 grounds for pleasure and non-religious recreation. 
 The Statesman concluded in these words : "We can 
 onh' class the present arrangement with other cases 
 of deliberate complicity by Christians with worldly 
 pleasure-seeking on the Sabbath," 
 
 In the latter part of the same year the Presby- 
 tery of Delaware, N. Y., expressed "the deliberate 
 judgment" that Sunday-desecration was increasing 
 " with fearful rapidity." That " an alarming crisis " 
 had already come, and that Sunday would be 
 "entirely obliterated" at an early day, unless help 
 
PRESBYTERIAN TESTIMONY. o9 
 
 should hasten; that whatever was done must be 
 " done quickly," and that the rescue of Sunday w^as 
 *' the question first in order of time, and first in order 
 of importance." In September, 1883, the Christian 
 Statesman said that the question of Sunda^'-observ- 
 ance was the most prominent and the most impor- 
 tant question before the nation. That it could never 
 return to the quiet and indifference of former times. 
 Neither the friends nor the enemies of Sunday had 
 sought to create the crisis, but it was here, and the 
 issue could not be avoided longer. 
 
 In November, 1885, the New^ York Observer 
 spoke vigorously, but sadly, of the alarming growth 
 of theoretical and actual no-Sabbathism in all the 
 large cities. It declared that man^^ persons consid- 
 ered Sunday laws to be relics of barbarism, and 
 treated them accordingly; that business "goes on 
 without regard to law or the protest of religion." It 
 said that the change for the worse had come so grad- 
 ually that many persons did not realize the danger, 
 thus making the danger all the greater. It closed 
 wath these w^ords: "It must be confessed to our 
 shame that Sunday as a da^^ of rest and hoU^ occupa- 
 tion appears to be waning." In the autumn of the 
 following year the Observer repeated its warnings 
 and declared that "thousands of devout people in 
 New England had been scandalized by the example of 
 the President of the United States in traveling on 
 Sunday in order to reach Boston in time for the 
 Harvard Anniversary," not long before. While the 
 Observer condemned this on the part of the Presi- 
 
60 DECADENCE OF SUNDAY. 
 
 dent, it expressed the fear that clergymen and other 
 Christians were on the same train, since they were 
 accustomed to travel on Sunday without any special 
 pressure which could justify the plea of ''necessity." 
 
 During certain local agitation in New York in 
 1886, the Christian Statesman charged Dr. C. H. 
 Parkhurst with "weakening the foundations of the 
 Sabbath," because he taught that the observance 
 of Sunday does not rest on the Fourth Command- 
 ment. In this criticism the Statesman touched one 
 of the prominent causes of the decay of Sunday, viz,, 
 the loss of faith in its claims to divine authority. 
 In w^hat the Statesman complained of Dr. Parkhurst 
 there was represented an incurable element in the 
 final destruction of Sunday. Well did the Statesman 
 say: "No descanting, however eloquent, on the 
 benefits of a day of rest and worship, can long 
 uphold the institution when the foundation is thus 
 cut away from under it." It is well to add this : No 
 insistance that the Sunday has rightfully displaced 
 the Sabbath, as the Statesman claims, however elo- 
 quent, can cover that false assumption. Dr. Park- 
 hurst did no more to undermine the Sunda^^ by a 
 frank and manly admission of an important fact, 
 than the Statesman does by assuming, in the face of 
 the Word of God, that the Doctor did not state the 
 facts. Both of these positions undermine Sunday; 
 one by admittmg the facts, and the other by denying 
 them. 
 
 In April, 1886, the "Ministerial Union" of 
 Philadelphia, at a meeting in the rooms of the Pres- 
 
PRESBYTERIAN TESTIMONY. 61 
 
 b3'terian Publishing House, discussed the problem 
 of the Sunday newspaper. Dr. Ruftis Clark pre- 
 sented a paper in which it was claimed that this 
 greatest of foes to Sunday had become firmly fixed 
 as one of the institutions of our time, and this with 
 the consent and aid of Christians. In the course of 
 the discussion Dr. Wa^dand Hoyt castigated Chris- 
 tians because their efforts at Sunday Reform were 
 spent, mainl\% in passing resolutions, while their 
 practices fostered the evils against which they 
 resolved, at long range. Dr. Hoyt's well-directed 
 sarcasm against the defense by "resolution" w^as 
 very pertinent. The American people are noted for 
 passing resolutions. Many who aspire to be reform- 
 ers seem to think that when proper resolutions have 
 been passed concerning anA^ question, the work is 
 mainly done. The records of the last twenty years 
 show that different religious bodies in the United 
 States have made "resolutions" their main work, 
 so far as Sunday is concerned. Preambles in which 
 we are gravely told what ought to be, followed by 
 resolutions asserting that people ought to do what 
 ought to be done, have been plentiful. Their effect 
 has been quite as marked as that of the Pope's bull 
 against the comet. 
 
 The reader will remember that the Sunday law 
 of California was repealed in 1883. In 1887 a vig- 
 orous effort was made to secure some form of law 
 in its place, but nothing was attained. Similar 
 efforts have been made from time to time since, with 
 the same results. In 1887 Dr. George S. Mott, 
 
62 DECADENCE OF SUNDAY. 
 
 President of the New Jersey Sabbath Association, 
 reported that the disregard for Sunday in that state 
 was increasing in various forms, and that the 
 atmosphere was filled with the poison of "lax 
 observance," which threatened the conscience of the 
 most devout. He said that individual Christians, 
 and churches, were ^'ielding to the Continental Sun- 
 da3^; that the burden of responsibility rested on 
 Christians, and that " a correct Sabbath sentiment 
 is the imperative need of the hour." July 28, 1887, 
 under the title "Loosing Sunday," "Lex," in the 
 New York Observer, drew a dark picture of Sunday 
 in the United States, which represented it as already 
 nigh to death. He declared that Christians were 
 foremost among those who w^ere slaying it. His 
 arraignment of Christians may be compressed into 
 this sentence: "If Christians everywhere would 
 refrain from doing their own pleasure on the Sab- 
 bath, the day would indeed be a delight, the holy of 
 the Lord, honorable." 
 
 March 31, 1887, a correspondent of the Ob- 
 server, trying to answer the arguments of the Sev- 
 enth-day Baptists, took the ground that the Fourth 
 Commandment does not fix any specific day of the 
 week, but only one day of rest, beginning to count 
 where you choose. 
 
 July 26, 1888, an editorial in the Observer s-pok^ 
 sadh^ of the rapid decline of regard for Sunday, and 
 said : "If all Christians were united in defence of it 
 as a religious institution," there would be much 
 greater hope of checking the decline and decay. 
 
PRESBYTERIAN TESTIMONY. 63 
 
 Again, November 1, 1888, the Observer wrote at 
 length on the general disregard, and of New Eng- 
 land, said : " Old staid New England is gone over to 
 Sabbath-desecration to an extent that causes her to 
 keep pace with the demoralization of other sections 
 of the country ; and this has been abetted in great 
 measure by the native population. All over our 
 land the religious Sabbath is falling into neglect ; 
 the holiday Sabbath is spreading. By the conces- 
 sions which are constantly being made through the 
 repeal of old Sabbath laws, and the pernicious 
 examples of man^^ who fill high civil oflSces and the 
 general laxness which has come to all classes, we 
 stand face to face with the problem whether the 
 American Sabbath of our fathers is to be abandoned 
 for the Continental Sunday, which means the sur- 
 render of our peculiar institutions as the\^ have here- 
 tofore shaped the genius of the Republic. Christians 
 are not regarding the Sabbath as sacredly as they 
 should. Many Christians are neglecting the sanctu- 
 ary and its services ; many Christians fail to regard 
 the Sabbath as unto the Lord ; in many Christian 
 families there is laxity of training on this point. 
 Not till Christians preach and practice reverence for 
 the day of God can a better state of things be 
 expected." 
 
 The report of the Executive Committee of the 
 National Reform Association, presented at its meet- 
 ing in Philadelphia, in April, 1888, showed that 
 great efforts were being made to secure legislation, 
 throuo^h constitutional amendment, which would 
 
64 DECADENCE OF SUNDAY. 
 
 establish Sunday by national law. It was reported 
 that the Woman's Temperance Union had enlisted 
 in that enterprise, and that the prospect for such an 
 advance in the matter of Sunday was full of promise. 
 The speakers and the report urged that " Sunday 
 was already in politics," and that its friends must 
 push it to a successful issue, along political lines. 
 The necessity of bringing Christians into better rela- 
 tions to the question was put in the following 
 words : " This National Sabbath Committee should 
 be appointed by the churches, and its chief work at 
 first should be with the nebulous consciences of the 
 church. If Christians could be shown that it is their 
 duty to withhold their stock and patronage from 
 railroads running Sunday trains, and their adver- 
 tisements and sanction from Sunday newspapers, 
 and their endorsement from Sunday mails, all these 
 would soon become as disreputable as tipling, and 
 laws against them would be secured with no more 
 difficulty." 
 
 Those who have followed the history of the Sab- 
 bath-question in politics since 1888 know that the 
 ''nebulous consciences of the church" have con- 
 tinued to cultivate the seeds of decay in Sunday, in 
 spite of the efforts to create conscience by civil enact- 
 ment. The extent to which good men, blind to the 
 fact that the influence of civil legislation has alwa\'s 
 been in favor of Sunday holidayism, in the long run, 
 have fostered national legislation as a means of sav- 
 ing Sunday, is as surprising as it has been futile. 
 For example: 
 
PRESBYTERIAN TESTIMONY. 65 
 
 J. M. Foster, Secretar3^ of the National Reform 
 Association, writing from Richmond, Ind., in 1892, 
 drew a dark picture of the disregard of Christians 
 for Sunda3% and of "Presbyterian elders" who 
 travel with " Masonic excursions " on that day. To 
 correct these evils and make these Christians better, 
 Mr. Foster declared that there is need of a strict Sun- 
 day law, the aim of which shall be : " To protect the 
 employer against himself. He is often so covetous 
 that he will sin against his own conscience in order 
 to gain the time of the Sabbath. The superintend- 
 ent of a leading house in Cincinnati, in order to 
 have his goods arranged for their opening day in 
 in a new house, said to those imder his direction : 
 ' I am a member of the church. I respect any 
 one's scruples. But those who have no conscien- 
 tious objections to working on the Sabbath w411 
 come and help me to-morrow. The rest must w^ork 
 Saturday night.' That man needs a Sabbath law to 
 protect himself. He has not conscience enough to 
 doit." 
 
 What a proposition : create religious conscience 
 for Presbyterian elders and other church members, by 
 civil law ! Think of this scene at the judgment seat 
 of Christ. Dialogue: Judge. — Why did a^ou disre- 
 gard Sunday while on earth? Culprit. — Because the 
 civil law of Indiana did not compel me, nor create in 
 me a heart clean enough to keep the " Lord's-day 
 holy." What a travesty ! ! And A^et it must always 
 come to this when men attempt to substitute 
 human law for divine law, and to relv on the out- 
 
66 DECADENCE OF SUNDAY. 
 
 ward restraint of civil enactment, rather than the 
 inward control of an enlightened conscience. 
 
 In 1888 the New York Observer, quoting from the 
 Journal of Commerce, pressed the truth in vigorous 
 language, that "a Sunday which has no sacred 
 hours will soon have no interval for peaceful rest." 
 It commended this from the y^ourfla/, " as a bit of com- 
 mon sense and sound political economy from a busi- 
 ness counting-house.'' In 1889 the Christian Intelli- 
 gencer i^or tray ^d tho: rapid loss of Sunday and the 
 criminal indifference of its professed friends in strong 
 colors, and sounded the alarm in these words: "It 
 is a time, not of peace, but of war — of war to the 
 knife, of war to the bitter end ; for we must remem- 
 ber that where our enemies are victorious there will 
 they be striking a fatal blow at the religion of Jesus 
 Christ." 
 
 In October, 1889, Secretary Foster, of the 
 National Reform Association, said : " There is a gen- 
 eral feeling of anxiety among the people for our Sab- 
 bath. They feel that something should be done, but 
 there is a night-mare of inability to do anything. A 
 good brother said to me: 'The Sunday paper 
 comes to my house regularh'. We began taking it 
 during the war. We wanted the latest news from 
 the battle-fields. And it has been coming ever since. 
 I know it is wrong. There should not be any Sun- 
 day paper. It is an injury to society. But when 
 others take it we might as well have it.' Another 
 brother said : ' I am a stockholder in a street-car 
 company. I know it is wrong to compel the work- 
 
PRESBYTERIAN TESTIMONY. 67 
 
 men to labor on the Sabbath. It is an injury to 
 their body and soul, it wrongs their families and dis- 
 honors God. But I do not believe you can ever stop 
 street-cars on the Sabba'h. Christians generally 
 use them. And the stockholders are no more blame- 
 able than society which justifies them.' " This was 
 a significant commentary upon the decay which had 
 ensued in the consciences of Christian people. 
 When he represented Christian men as standing 
 powerless through weakness of conscience, continu- 
 ing to do that which they think is wrong, and yet 
 frankh^ sa^'ing that they do not believe matters can 
 be made better, the picture was dark indeed. Such 
 a result is unavoidable, since the only foundation on 
 which conscience can rest is divine authority. Hav- 
 ing disregarded divine authority in the matter of 
 the Sabbath ("Saturday"), these Christian men for 
 whom Secretar\^ Foster spoke found themselves slain 
 by their own acts, and unable to shake off the night- 
 mare which a moribund conscience had induced. 
 Appeals to the civil law are of no value in such cases. 
 While men continue to put aside divine authority, 
 for the sake of avoiding the claims of the Sabbath, 
 the decay of consience must go on, until there will be 
 left too little vitality to develop even "night-mare." 
 
 OPENING OF THE WORLD'S FAIR. 
 
 The 3^ear 1892 was made memorable on the Sun- 
 day question by the struggle over the opening of the 
 World's Fair in Chicago. Presbyterians took a 
 prominent part in the struggle. Unable to secure 
 the closing through the local authorities, the friends 
 
68 DECADENCE OF SUNDAY. 
 
 of Sunday besieged Congress to grant aid to the 
 enterprise only on the ground that the gates should 
 be closed on Sunday. The history of their efforts, 
 and the evidence of negative zeal, or definite indiffer- 
 ence on the part of the friends of Sunday, shov^ed 
 that even then the decay had passed beyond cure or 
 arrest, even by Act of Congress. The inactivity of 
 the pastors was sharply commented upon by the 
 Christian Statesman as follov^^s: "When Congress 
 opened, the desk of every Senator and Congressman 
 should have been heaped high with petitions and 
 letters asking for the closing of the World's Fair on 
 the Sabbath. About one hundred and fifty thou- 
 sand blank petitions had been sent out; most of the 
 pastors of the country had two sets, many of them 
 three, some of them four and others five. We find 
 records of less than one hundred petitions presented 
 in the United States Senate before the holiday recess. 
 We have no words to characterize this negligence. 
 Hundreds of petitions that have been adopted have 
 not been signed and forwarded, and probably a 
 majority of the churches of the land, with the roar 
 of this moral Waterloo in their ears, have not even 
 adopted the petition." A little later, Feb. 6, 1892, 
 the Statesman added this: "In the first sixteen 
 days of this Congress, the great state of Pennsylva- 
 nia sent to the United States Senate just twelve 
 petitions against Sunday-opening of the World's 
 Fair, and other states did no better. Awake, 
 awake, Deborah; arise, Barak, and lead thy captiv- 
 ity captive." 
 
PRESBYTERIAN TESTIMONY. 69 
 
 In response to the call for aid to Sunday, Con- 
 gressman Morse, of Massachusetts, on the 5th of 
 January, 1892, in the House of Representatives, 
 introduced " A Bill to Prohibit the Opening of any 
 Exhibition or Exposition where Appropriations of 
 the United States are Expended," on Sunday. Sen- 
 ator Colquitt introduced the bill in the Senate on 
 the 11th of February. This renewed the activity all 
 along the line of the Sunda}^ question. It is not 
 needful to rehearse here the ins and outs of that con- 
 test. It is enough to note that the final result was a 
 pretended effort to close the Fair which was in no 
 way accomplished. But the want of deep or consci- 
 entious regard for Sunday by the people of the 
 United States, Christian and non-Christian, was 
 demonstrated many times over. The Interior, stal- 
 wart and able representative of Presbyterianism in 
 the Northwest, summarized the situation in October, 
 1893, so fineU^, that we make room for its well- 
 chosen words. (This was from a correspondent of 
 the Interior, Rev. Sylvanus Stall, D. D.) : 
 
 "The national observance of the Lord's-day 
 waits upon the individual observance of the Sab- 
 bath. If the Lord's-da^' was properly observed in 
 all our homes, there would be no question concern- 
 ing its observance by corporations and by those 
 who represent the nation. When we look at it 
 calmly and considerateh' we will discover that the 
 real influences which have contributed to the open- 
 ing of the gates of the Exposition on Sunday have 
 derived their efficiency and power from the fact that 
 
70 DECADENCE OF SUNDAY. 
 
 in too many of the Christian homes throughout the 
 United States there are open gates on Sunday. 
 Look about in your own communit}^ and see how 
 mauA^ Christian people regard it as essential to their 
 comfort that the confectioner should serve them 
 with ice cream for their Sunday dinner. Inquire of 
 your grocer, your btitchei, and your baker how 
 many members of the Christian church come to their 
 store on Sunday for supplies which could just as 
 easily have been provided on Saturday evening. In 
 every village and city there are scores, and hundreds, 
 and in some instances even thousands, who enjoy 
 no day of rest, simph^ because thc}^ are consigned to 
 perpetual servitude by the many gates that stand 
 open on Sunday. Everywhere there are men of 
 respectability and of influence who think little or 
 nothing of stepping into a cigar store on Sunday and 
 purchasing that which could just as easilyhave been 
 provided at any time before twelve o'clock on Satur- 
 day night. The quiet of Sunday morning in all our 
 cities and villages is disturbed by the cries of news- 
 boys who find many purchasers among those who 
 constitute the professedly Christian population. Too 
 often social visiting and letter-writing are deferred, 
 and made to fill the hours on Sunday which should 
 properly be spent in public worship, or the reading of 
 religious books and periodicals, or such religious 
 contemplation as is suited to the sacredness of the 
 day." 
 
 In the same month and year the Christian States- 
 man said: '*The present is the only time that 
 
PRESBYTERIAN TESTIMONY. 71 
 
 remains to the friends of the Sabbath. Another 
 decade, at the present rate of progress, and it will 
 be too late to secure a weekly day of rest and wor- 
 ship. Mammon will triumph, and the toil of the 
 masses wnll be uninterrupted. The church in its 
 humiliation will have time to mourn the wicked- 
 ness and folly of its course in failing to maintain the 
 Sabbath of the fathers. When will the church learn 
 that in its toleration and support of the Sunday 
 press it is nursing a viper, the sting of which is 
 already inflicting a deadl^^ wound. F'or the Sunday 
 paper the church is responsible. Without the mone^'^ 
 received from the church — from the members of the 
 evangelical denominations — the average Sunday 
 paper would soon die." 
 
 In the spring of 1893, Rev. W. F. Crafts, who, 
 according to the Golden Rule, of Boston, "is an 
 expert in Sabbath Reform," in the Christian States- 
 man, drew a doleful picture of the decay of Sunday 
 in New England. He declared that all New Eng- 
 land was in dire peril from work and dissipation on 
 Sunda\^ and that next to nothing was being done 
 to avert the danger. He said that New England 
 seemed to "be sliding in its sleep, waiting to be 
 waked up by a smash-up at the foot of the hill, like 
 Cincinnati." Massachusetts came in for a large share 
 of Mr. Craft's denunciations. 
 
 Rev. John Woods, D. D., in the Interior, of June 
 29, 1893, wrote of "The Gradual Abolition of the 
 Sabbath." He traced in detail the rise of Sunday 
 mails, Sunday trains, Sunday newspapers, and the 
 
72 DECADENCE OF SUNDAY. 
 
 opening of the Columbian Exposition, His treat- 
 ment of the case was accurate and intelligent, show- 
 ing how the efforts to check the downward drift had 
 proved futile ; how state and municipal laws were a 
 dead letter, and how Congressional action had been 
 like a barrier of water-weeds before the swollen Nile. 
 He closed w4th these words: "But there is a 
 broader question than this opening of the Fair on 
 the Sabbath. Where do the Christian people of this 
 country propose to make a stand ? They have 
 allowed one form of lawlessness after another. They 
 first endure, then pity, then embrace. In some of the 
 states all Sunday laws have been wiped from the 
 statutes. Municipal ordinances are a dead letter. At 
 what point is this downward course to be arrested ? 
 Is it to be arrested at all? These are questions that 
 vitally concern the nation and the Christian 
 church." 
 
 The tendency to rely on inoperative Sunday 
 laws, and to complain of their non-enforcement, was 
 seriously and ably discussed in 1893 by Rev. J. H. 
 Knowles, D. D., the Secretary of the American Sab- 
 bath Union. He showed the folly of such reliance, 
 and urged that the appeal be made to conscience 
 and the Bible. In this respect Dr. Knowles was 
 much in advance of many of those who have been 
 active in Sunda\^ Reform. He has gone to his 
 reward, but it is a pleasure to bear a tribute to his 
 candor, his sweet spirit, and to his clear apprehen- 
 sion of the true basis of reform. 
 
 A "Sunday Rest Congress" was held in Chi- 
 
PRESBYTERIAN TESTIMONY. 73 
 
 cago, in connection with the World's Fair. It 
 closed on the 30th of September, 1893. It was 
 meagerly attended. The Roman Catholics were a 
 prominent factor in it, if not the most prominent 
 one. Then, as at other times, there was evidence 
 that Catholics rejoice in such efforts of Protestants 
 as force them to appeal to Catholics for aid, and to 
 a reliance on civil law for the basis of Sunday-ob- 
 servance. More will be said on this point in a sub- 
 sequent chapter. Taken all in all, the year 1893 
 strengthened old factors, and introduced new ones 
 which promoted the decay of Sunda3^ It gave an 
 impetus downward, from which Sunday has not 
 recovered. Probably no one event of the last half 
 century has done more to weaken the cause of Sun- 
 day, and the execution of Sunday law, than did the 
 action of Congress, the failure of that action, and 
 the revealing of the wide-spread apathy of Chris- 
 tians in the matter. Perhaps the action of Con- 
 gress was taken with the expectation that it would 
 not be evaded. But the circumstances made it easy 
 to evade it, in the interest of Sunday-opening, which 
 the majority of the people desired. In July, 1893, 
 the writer, as editor of the Evangel and Sabbath 
 Outlook, said: ''It seems unnecessary to say that 
 the immediate results of the opening of the Colum- 
 bian Exposition on Sunday are not the most impor- 
 tant ones. Under any decision, the holding of the 
 Exposition, especially at Chicago, could not fail to 
 increase and emphasize the growing disregard for 
 Sunday. As to the Sabbath question, which is 
 
74 DECADENCE OF SUNDAY. 
 
 much larger than the Sunday question, the funda- 
 mental issues involved have been assumed, but not 
 discussed. The facts on which the final settlement 
 must rest are little Known, and less regarded. The 
 defeat of Sunda3^-closing will doubtless lead Chris- 
 tian men to thoughtfulness, such as has not been 
 common. That defeat is far more than a case of out- 
 witting the courts. Carefully considered, it is a new 
 revelation of the actual weakness of public opinion 
 in the matter of regard for Sunday. This weakness, 
 this disease unto death, will compel recognition at 
 last, no matter how much the friends of the patient 
 may shrink from it. The cancer is growing, and the 
 patient is failing. It is useless to ignore the symp- 
 toms. When they are fully recognized, much will be 
 gained. Nostrums and quacks will then be ruled 
 out. An actual and Biblical diagnosis of the case 
 must me made. God's Word is ready to write the 
 prescription that w\\] bring healing. The friends of 
 Sunday shrink from that prescription. But God 
 waits patiently, and if we may venture to interpret 
 events, the failure of Sunday-closing, under the Act 
 of Congress, is another of God's verdicts in history 
 that nothing is ever settled tmtil it is rightly settled. 
 The Christian church must return to the Sabbath of 
 the Bible, the Sabbath of Christ, or meet similar 
 defeats to the end of the chapter." 
 
 The proof that our words indicated the results 
 that must follow is seen in the fact that now so 
 many of the most thoughtful friends of Sunday con- 
 fess that its "loss" has come. That is the most 
 
PRESBYTERIAN TESTIMONY. 75 
 
 important step toward something better. When 
 error dies, truth gets a hearing. 
 
 In 1894, Christian Work {Christian Work is an 
 ■undenominational paper, but its affinity for the 
 Presbyterian position on the Sunday question 
 makes it proper to place its testimony in this con- 
 nection), published a summary of the schedules for 
 the baseball season that year. It showed that there 
 were one hundred and twentj^-eight games. Chris- 
 tian Work characterized this as a "disgraceful 
 record." It also said that the most hateful feature 
 of the case was the influence of such gaming in defi- 
 ance of law, on other forms of pleasure and business, 
 since the popularity and success of these games, 
 w^hich w^ere great monej^-making schemes, were a 
 w^arrant to all else " To go ahead and violate the 
 Sunday laws w^ith impvmity." To the same j-ear 
 belongs the testimony from the Christian Reformer, 
 Pittsburg, which reported that local disregard for 
 Sunday, in and about that city, had attained a 
 great triumph, in spite of the efforts of the National 
 Reformers to prevent such decay. "Forty thou- 
 sand people "were reported as seeking pleasure in 
 Schenh^ Park, on Sunday, June 10. On May the 
 26th, the i?e/br/77er said that all the popular games 
 went on, and that the local authorities made little 
 or no effort to prevent them. 
 
 In April, 1894, Dr. Theodore L. Cuyler made an 
 address before the American Sabbath Union, in 
 which he dwelt at length on the deca^^ of Sunday', and 
 the many influences that were destroying it. He 
 
76 DECADENCE OF SUNDAY. 
 
 insisted with much earnestness that the greatest 
 need of the time was "pubhc conscience," for the 
 salvation of Sunday. He declared that political 
 power, national law, and all similar agencies were 
 of no avail without religious conscience. 
 
 In Ma\% 1894, the Christian Statesman put 
 forth a combination of warning and despair, which 
 formed so good a summar\^ of the situation that we 
 reproduce it here. But it goes without sa^'ing that 
 the "common ground " which the Statesman recom- 
 mended has never been found ; and concert of action 
 b^^ Christians is pushed farther into impossibility 
 each year. This is the Statesman s call to arms : 
 ''The Christian Sabbath is in peril in this land. 
 Upon all sides it is assailed. There is a growing 
 desecration of the day. Sabbath labor is largely on 
 the increase. Amusements and recreations are 
 multiplying on the Sabbath. Sunday mails, Sunday 
 trains, Sunday newspapers are increasing. Open 
 theatres, galleries, libraries, flower-shows in the 
 parks, excursions b}^ rail and boat, secular meetings 
 of labor organizations, and social brotherhoods, and 
 a thousand other desecrations of the sacred day, are 
 seen everywhere. The day is turning into a mere 
 holiday with its mingled toil and demoralizing 
 recreations. The Sabbath of our American history, 
 of the Bible, is becoming obsolete with an increasing 
 portion of our population. And with this growing 
 Sabbath-breaking comes a subtile but deliberate 
 eftbrt to remove from our statute books the laws 
 which protect the Sabbath from outward desecra- 
 
PRESBYTERIAN TESTIMONY. 77 
 
 tion. Much of the Sabbath-breakhig of the day is 
 against the civil as well as the divine law. And 
 hence our legislators, who too generally represent 
 the law-breaking classes in this matter, are serving 
 their masters by quietly but persistently amending 
 the Sabbath laws in the interest of these practices. 
 And thus, as a nation, we are gliding into the condi- 
 tion of Continental Europe, so far as the Sabbath is 
 concerned. Our American Sabbath is becoming a 
 Continental Sunda\^ Many thoughtful minds are 
 beginning to see clearh^ that unless the drift be 
 checked, and that very soon, our Sabbath will be 
 gone beyond recovery. Just when the nations of 
 Continental Europe are beginning to realize that 
 many of the burdens that are crushing out the very 
 life of their people are to be traced to the demoral- 
 izing influences of a holiday Sunday, and can be 
 removed only by securing to them the beneficent 
 influences of the sacred day, the people of this land 
 are permitting the sacred day to be turned into a 
 holiday. But there is still hope, in the fact that the 
 danger is beginning to be discerned. From all our 
 exchanges, and from private correspondence, it is 
 evident that, while there is an apparently consenting 
 apathy with reference to this state of things, on the 
 part of the great mass of even our Christian citizens, 
 yet there are very many who are awake to the dan- 
 ger, and are ready to w^elcome and second any move- 
 ment which may give promise of success in the resto- 
 ration of the Sabbath to our land. And this raises 
 the question as to the possibility and feasibility of a 
 
78 DECADENCE OF SUNDAY. 
 
 concerted effort all over the land, for the suppression 
 of these Sabbath-desecrations, and the full protec- 
 tion, by law, of the Sabbath in its civil relations and 
 claims. Is such a concerted movement possible? 
 Can a union of all the Sabbath-loving citizens of the 
 land, in a general and persistent effort on behalf of 
 the imperiled Sabbath, be secured and maintained? 
 Surely it must be possible. Could not the various 
 branches of the Christian church inaugurate and 
 carry on such a movement? Let each body appoint 
 certain of its most reliable and influential members, 
 to meet with similar representatives of the othe^ 
 bodies, and let the representative body agree upon a 
 line of general effort, and formulate methods by 
 which the entire constituencies of all the churches 
 can work together to this end, and have behind the 
 effort the moral weight and force of the entire Chris- 
 tian citizenship of the land. Such a movement must 
 certainly be possible. And what a power it 
 v^^ould carry with it ! How soon it would 
 constrain the Post Office Department of the Na- 
 tional Government to dispense with its Sabbath- 
 breaking mail service, the railway managements to 
 reduce to the minimum the Sabbath running of 
 trains, the Sunday newspapers to discontinue their 
 Sunday editions, and the numberless minor dese- 
 crations of the da3^ to cease their work. Can such 
 an effort not be undertaken? Who will lead off in 
 the attempt to secure it? The Christim Statesman 
 can be counted on to do all within its power to 
 help it on." 
 
PRESBYTERIAN TESTIMONY. 79 
 
 SOME OFFICIAL UTTERAXCES. 
 
 In October, 1894, the "Permanent Committee 
 on Sabbath-observance" of the Presbyterian Synod 
 of New Jersey, through the chairman, George S. 
 Mott, D. D.,made an elaborate report upon Sunda^^- 
 observance in that state. The report stated that 
 the friends of Sunday felt a deep sense of the impor- 
 tance of the question, and desired to secure a better 
 state of things. In all of their attempts, serious 
 obstacles were encountered. Few persons were will- 
 ing to take the necessary responsibility and do the 
 work necessary to accomplish any definite and 
 permanent results. It was also said that the laxity 
 of church members undermined effective efforts. 
 Profit and pleasure combined to nullify any success- 
 ful enforcement of the Sunday laws. The report 
 declared that "Sunday traffic, Sunday excursions, 
 SundaA^ saloons, and the Sunday newspaper, once 
 they dominate the Sabbath, will change it from the 
 peoples' day into the devil's day." At the same time 
 the report averred that all these forms of decay in 
 the matter of Sunda^^-observance were increasing in 
 New Jersey. 
 
 The report of the Permanent Committee on 
 Sunday-observance, of the Presbyterian General 
 Assembly which met at Nashville, Tenn., in 1894, 
 contained much evidence of the general decay of 
 regard for Sunday. Forty-eight Presbyteries had 
 replied to inquiries concerning Sunday-. Fifteen 
 reported either some improvement, or a state of 
 opinion which promised improvement. Fourteen 
 
80 DECADENCE OF SUNDAY. 
 
 reported a backward tendency, an increase of travel 
 on Sunday, etc. Nineteen reported no perceptible 
 change. Some reported improvement in one place 
 and deterioration in others. Some assigned the 
 diminution of travel to a want of money, rather 
 than to a regard for Sunday. Little w^as said in the 
 report abont Sunday newspapers, and the commit- 
 tee said: "We would be glad to believe the reason 
 to be that the evil is abating, but w^e fear this rather 
 to be the true reason, that the thing has become so 
 common as not to excite any wonder or remark." 
 
 In 1894, J. H. Leiper, Secretary of the Pennsyl- 
 vania Sabbath Association, reported that he had 
 spent the month of March at work in the city of 
 Philadelphia. He said that notwithstanding the 
 general good* character of that city, and in spite of 
 the work and influence of a local Sabbath Associa- 
 tion for more than fifty years, there were in Philadel- 
 phia eight thousand places of business open on Sun- 
 day. Mr. Leiper touched a decayed spot in the local 
 association, as w^ell as in other similar organiza- 
 tions, when he said, in closing, "Satan laughs at 
 plans on paper that never get any farther." 
 
 In July, 1895, the Christian Intelligencer 
 attacked the bicycle, vehemently, as did many other 
 papers. It condemned the wheel as the foe to Sun- 
 day, and to all things good, through Sunday. In 
 summarizing it said: "What with Sunday news- 
 papers, Sunday bicyde runs, Sunday excursions, 
 Sunday yacht races, and Sunday traveling, the out- 
 look in this country for a proper and Scriptural 
 
PRESBYTERIAN TESTIMONY. 81 
 
 observance of the Lord's-day is not hopeful. The 
 destruction of the Sabbath advances rapidly." 
 
 In August, 1895, the Christian Statesman said: 
 "The nation has never witnessed such a carnival of 
 Sabbath-desecration as we are having this present 
 summer." To this was added many instances of 
 flagrant disregard for Sunday in Pennsylvania, and 
 elsewhere. In September following the same general 
 statements were repeated. In this exposure of decay 
 in Pennsylvania, the Statesman gave testimony 
 doubly damaging. In no state has the legal protec- 
 tion of Sunday been greater, or more persistent. In 
 none has intolerance toward those who observe the 
 Sabbath been more pronounced and bitter. On that 
 point, intolerance has always been at the front in 
 that state. 
 
 In May, 1896, the Christian Intelligencer 
 declared that, wath the mass of the people, Sunday 
 had become the ''Chief HolidaA^" and the summer 
 of 1896 surpassed all preceding summers in the 
 great tide of pleasure seekers in and about New 
 York. Here is the terse description of the Intelli- 
 gencer : "It is a day given to pleasure, and recrea- 
 tion, so-called, a dusty, noisy day, crowned with 
 discomfort." 
 
 In July, 1897, the Interior ms.6.G so complete an 
 avowal of the death of Sunday that we give it 
 entire. It was headed, "The Passing of the Sab- 
 bath," and runs as follows : "It has long been 
 evident that the ' Continental Sunday ' has super- 
 seded the Sabbath in the large cities. It is the 
 
82 DECADENCE OF SUNDAY. 
 
 harvest-daj^ of the daily papers, and, in summer, of 
 the suburban railways; and as for the bicycles, every 
 smooth road for a score of miles around swarms 
 w4th them. All this pleasure seeking involves an 
 enormous amount of labor — and Sunday labor is 
 always better paid than week-day. In an excellent 
 article the Banner quotes a description of a military 
 dress-parade in Canton, Ohio, on the Sabbath, which 
 attracted large crowds and kept the police busy. 
 This seems to indicate that the inland cities and 
 smaller towns are going over to the Continental 
 Sunday. This means more than ' Sabbath-breaking,' 
 whicb the churchless regard as onh^ the violation of 
 ecclesiastical regulations, no more binding upon 
 outsiders than the rules of a Greek-letter society-. 
 It means an increase of the saloon, and the theater, 
 and of gambling, and a decrease of the sense of moral 
 obligation. That is why it is so serious." 
 
 One item from these statements b\' the Interior 
 should be carefully noted ; namely, that Sunday 
 labor is well paid. This statement is fully supported 
 by the statistics from the report of Commissioner 
 Wright of Massachusetts, given in another place. 
 These facts are a just condemnation of those super- 
 ficial and half-informed writers who are accustomed 
 to say that : " Sunday labor means seven days' work 
 for six days' pay." 
 
 The year 1897 was crowded with telling testi- 
 monv from Presb^'terian sources. In November the 
 Intelligencer reported open and constant desecration 
 of Sunday by political leaders in New York, in a 
 
PRESBYTERIAN TESTIMONY. 83 
 
 campaign then in progress. This had a meaning of 
 double interest, since those men to whom Sunday 
 w^as nothing were the men who were then controll- 
 ing, as they still continue to control, the law-making 
 and the law-executing forces of the great city, and 
 the greater state. In the hands of such men lies the 
 destiny- of Sunday laws, and, worst of all, of that 
 double curse, the saloon, on Sundays, and all other 
 days. Rev. A. E. Myers of the Marble Collegiate 
 Church, New York, preached a sermon in August of 
 that year, in which he announced the deca^^ of Sun- 
 da\^ in strong terms. He averred that if the decay 
 should increase until 1907, in the ratio which had 
 marked the increase since 1887, the results would 
 startle the most thoughtless. He declared with 
 great emphasis, " No Sabbath, no religion, no 
 sanctuary." In the autumn of that year the Inte- 
 rior reported that careful inquiries had elicited the 
 fact that the decay of Sunday in the smaller cities of 
 the land was keeping pace with the decay in the 
 larger ones. In November the Christian Ende^vorer 
 said that "Three millions of people in the United 
 States labor every SundaA^" Other estimates made 
 by the friends of Sunday place the number much 
 higher. But the £^72r7eaForer added, " The majority 
 of church members are either indifferent to this fact, 
 and to the interests of Sundav reform, or are, as is 
 too often the case, themselves Sabbath-desecrators." 
 In August, 1897, the Intelligencer said that "on a 
 recent Sunday" 190,000 pleasure seekers going on 
 bicycles, steamboats, and railroads, congregated at 
 
84 DECADENCE OF SUNDAY. 
 
 Coney Island, Jamaica, and Prospect Park. Includ- 
 ing other points near New York at the same ratio, 
 and that city alone must have sent out 350,000 
 pleasure seekers on that Sunday. In November the 
 Intelligencer again called attention to the fact that 
 the desecration of Sunday "^oes on apace," by 
 means of newspapers, games, bicycles and other 
 agencies. 
 
 Some most definite testimony for 1897 as to 
 apathy among the Christians whom the Christian 
 Intelligencer represents, was given in October, in a 
 communication from Doctor Elmendor. He reported 
 that although the S3mod, two years before, had 
 recommended that all the churches should present 
 the interests of the American Sabbath Union, and 
 take a collection for it, during the month of October, 
 the month had passed and only one church had con- 
 tributed to the funds of the Sabbath Union during 
 the whole year. The Doctor added that this apathy 
 was manifest in the presence of " The greatest need, 
 in view of the fearful growth of reckless Sabbath- 
 desecration." 
 
 In November, Dr. I. W. Hathaway-, General 
 Secretary of the American Sabbath Union, said, in a 
 communication to Christian Work, that Sunday had 
 come to be synon^^mous with "Wheelman's day"; 
 that "hundreds of thousands of young men and 
 women" spend the day on their wheels; that on a 
 Sunday not long before one company nearly a thou- 
 sand strong rode far enough to " girdle the earth 
 nearly three times and a half." 
 
PRESBYTERIAN TESTIMONY. 85 
 
 During the summer of 1897 several Western 
 papers of repute charged Rev. T. D. Tahxiage with 
 being in league with Sunday-desecration through 
 complicity \a ith Sunday trains. Dr. Talmage made 
 an ''explanation," on the strength of which other 
 papers attempted to vindicate him. These efforts 
 drew out the following from a correspondent of the 
 Advance for November, 1897, who wrote over the 
 signature " N. L. P.," and said : 
 
 " The note in the Advance of October 7, excusing 
 Dr. Talmage for Sabbath-desecration, is "too thin" 
 for those who live in Northern Iowa. We are 
 encouraged to learn that the protest has become 
 sufficiently strong to receive attention from the 
 noted lecturer. Several years ago when he spoke on 
 Sunday at Clear Lake, he pleaded ignorance of the 
 fact that his hearers were to come on Sunday excur- 
 sion trains. We could excuse him the first time, but 
 to plead the same ignorance again after he had been 
 well-informed is not so plausible. Besides, a Congre- 
 gational pastor talked with him on the subject at 
 Clear Lake last July, and told him how his course' 
 was grieving the ministry, church and Christian 
 Endeavor of Northern Iowa ; and the Doctor laughed 
 in his face, sneering at us all as a set of cranks. 
 Now we do feel that no agency is more effectively 
 breaking down the Christian Sabbath than the 
 practice of noted ministers like Dr. Talmage and 
 Sam Jones of joining with the railroad companies in 
 encouraging Sunday excursions. It is making the 
 Sabbath simply a secular holiday. I am giving 
 
86 DECADENCE OF SUNDAY. 
 
 utterance to the Christian sentiment of Iowa, and 
 have no doubt that all the consecrated gospel minis- 
 ters within one hundred miles of Clear Lake w^ould 
 join me in this protest." 
 
 One of the strongest testimonies during the clos- 
 ing da^^s of 1897 w^as by that prince of Presbyte- 
 rians and popular writers, Theodore L. Cuyler, D. D. 
 He wrote first in the Independent for December 2, and 
 later in other papers, upon " The New St^de of Sab- 
 bath.'' In the Independent, comparing Sunda}^ as it 
 is with Sunday as it w^as twenty-five 3^ears ago, he 
 said : "The life of evangelical religion was held to be 
 indissolubly linked with the life of the Christian 
 churches, and this life to be dependent on the proper 
 observance of God's day, and of his w^orship in the 
 sanctuary. A steady and most deplorable change 
 has been going on in these later years. A new^ style 
 of Sabbath is very plainly visible to every careiul 
 observer; and the spiritual effects of this lowering of 
 the Sabbath tone are undeniable. To the church it 
 means — 'heart-failure!'" Dr. Cu^der then described 
 at length the Sunday newspaper as a prime agency 
 in the decay of regard for Sunday, descanting upon 
 its effects upon church services and the consciences of 
 people. He quoted from "a very clear-headed and 
 faithful pastor in a country parish, not verv far from 
 one of the largest cities in Massachusetts," who said 
 that the majority of the people in his parish neg- 
 lected church, from pure " w^orldliness." "They 
 want to go elsewhere, and do other things, or lovinge 
 at home over the Sunday newspaper. The lower 
 
PRESBYTERIAN TESTIMONY. 87 
 
 element — the decidedly evil-minded element — I do 
 not take into account. People who belong to the 
 reputable class have come to regard the Sabbath as 
 a day of general convenience for all sorts of things 
 v^hich they cannot well attend to on the six working 
 days." This correspondent of Dr. Cuyler was 
 further quoted as having lateh' visited another rural 
 parish in Massachusetts where things were equally 
 as bad, because there is "a widespread disregard of 
 the claims of God's holy day and of his worship. 
 Dr. Cuyler closed his article with the following 
 strong paragraphs : 
 
 "Such a testimony as this from such a man as 
 m^' correspondent is a danger-signal of a very 
 alarming character. It reveals the fact — confirmed 
 from other sources — that the good old New England 
 Sabbath is losing its hold on the popular conscience. 
 A new st^de of Sabbath is coming in — a Sabbath 
 that begins with a huge secular newspaper instead 
 of the Bible, that fills the roads and parks with 
 bicycles headed aw^a^^ from any church, that prefers 
 a visit to a neighbor to an interview with Christ 
 Jesus — a Sabbath that has no spiritual savor, and 
 which puts the things that are temporal above the 
 things that are eternal. Piety dwindles and dwarfs 
 in the atmosphere of such a desecrated Lord's-day. 
 Let us take warning from German3'', where Protest- 
 antism is fearfully crippled by a false conception of 
 the Sabbath; in its chief cities not over one-fifth of 
 the nominal Protestant population enters God's 
 house on God's own and onh^ day for his worship! 
 
88 DECADENCE OF SUNDAY. 
 
 ** Have Christians no responsibility^ for the subtle 
 growth of this new style of Sabbath? Do our pul- 
 pits emphasize sufficiently the tremendous truth 
 that the Creator owns the Sabbath, and that rob- 
 bery of him means ruin to ourselves? Do most of 
 our church members keep the Lord's-day as sacred 
 and as sweet as they ought to do? The very life of 
 the church of Jesus Christ is intertwined with the 
 life of the Sabbath ; the decay of the one means slow 
 death to the other ! We are talking about revivals ; 
 let us pray and work and act for a revival of God's 
 day." 
 
 Following in the lead of Dr. Cuyler, Secretary 
 Hathaway, of the American Sabbath Union, in the 
 Intelligencer for December 8, 1897, wrote at length 
 under this head : " Have we an American Sabbath ? " 
 He said that a great and serious change had taken 
 place in the general regard for Sunday within the 
 last twenty-five 3^ears. The downward trend had 
 increased greatly within the last ten years. Among 
 the causes for this decay Mr. Hathaway gave these : 
 
 '' First, there are many who cloak their Sabbath- 
 desecration under the assumed notion that the 
 Christian Sunday is not the Sabbath of the Deca- 
 logue. They say that whatever may be the author- 
 ity and binding force of the fourth commandment, it 
 
 does not apply to the first day of the week. 
 
 ***** 
 
 "There is a very widespread, silent — but deep — 
 current of unbelief in the fourth commandment, as 
 covering the first day of the week. How else can we 
 
PRESBYTERIAN TESTIMONY. 89 
 
 account for the fact that while the majority of men 
 in Christian lands admit, without a question, the 
 law of the Decalogue, as related to idolatry, murder, 
 theft and adulter\', they question the authority of 
 the fourth commandment, and appear to think 
 themselves at libert\^ to use or abuse the Sabbath- 
 da^^ disobey this law, as their feelings or inclination 
 ma3' prompt, without realizing that they are doing 
 violence to their moral and spiritual being? " 
 
 This sort of testimony from Presbyterians found 
 repetition and expansion at the annual meeting of 
 the American Sabbath Union, in 1897. This society 
 was organized in 1888, w^ith the late E. F. Shepherd 
 as president. It was prompted by certain action on 
 the part of the Methodist General Conference in 
 April of that year. The president was its main 
 financial supporter. After his death it declined in 
 operations and in influence. Then came the death of 
 its general secretary, J. H. Knowles, and for a time 
 the Union had litlte more than a nominal existence. 
 In May, 1897, an effort was made to revive the 
 Union, and the Rev. I. W. Hathaway became its 
 general secretary. The Ninth Annual Meeting was 
 held on the 19th of December, 1897, at the Central 
 Presbyterian church, New York. The attendance 
 was the usual Sunday evening congregation. Dr. T. 
 L. Cuyler made the address ; theme, " The New Sab- 
 bath." It was an expansion of an article from his 
 pen in the Independent of December 2, 1897. Dr. 
 Cuyler is a stalwart Presb^^terian. Theoretically, 
 he and the Union stand on the Puritan platform, un- 
 
90 DECADENCE OF SUNDAY. 
 
 modified. The whole service, from the Scripture 
 lesson— Nehemiah's contest with Sabbath-breakers 
 at Jerusalem — to the close, assumed that Sunda\^ is 
 the "Bible Sabbath," and finds its warrant and 
 authority in the fourth commandment. It was 
 repeatedly said, and with double emphasis, that the 
 Union stands for the restoration of Sunday as God's 
 day; as sacred to him and to his worship. The 
 hearers were uro^ed to study the Sabbath question 
 from the Bible, and to settle all matters relative to 
 it by the Word of God. Dr. Cuyler declared that the 
 Bible, the Sunday and the Republic must stand or 
 fall together. The address w^as earnest, eloquent, 
 and in marked contrast with the apathy of Chris- 
 tians in oreneral. 
 
 A correspondent of the Sabbath Recorder, writ- 
 ing of the meeting said: "The enemies of Sunday 
 were portrayed and denounced in strong terms. 
 ' The tremendous power of the Sunday press ' was 
 dwelt upon with unsparing rhetoric, and unmistak- 
 able English. 'The tremendous evil influence of the 
 Sunday bicycle ' was pictured as an army of young 
 people wheeling awa}^ from the house of God 'with 
 the devil leading the run, and an imp on every 
 wheel.' 'The tremendous wickedness of social visit- 
 ing on Sunday' was sharply arraigned, and Chris- 
 tians were warned and condemned for their part in 
 it. There was not a hopeful note in the address so 
 far as the tide of influence is concerned, which is 
 rushing Sunday 'down, down, DOWN!' Leonard 
 Bacon and other thoughtful men say, ' Sunda\^ is 
 
PRESBYTERIAN TESTIMONY. 91 
 
 lost.' Dr. Ctivler did not put it in those words ; bnt 
 the facts which he set forth and bewailed were posi- 
 .tive proof that Leonard Bacon is right. We have 
 been a listener at almost every annual meeting of 
 the Union since its first convention in Washington in 
 1888, when its avowed purpose was to push the 
 interest of the 'Blair' Sunday bill, then before the 
 Senate of the United States. In no meeting has so 
 much been said which indicates the hopeless loss of 
 the ' Sunday Sabbath ' as in the meeting on the 19th. 
 Secretary Knowles, at the close of a meeting in 
 Ocean Grove a few years since, said to the writer: 
 ' If we cannot stop this downward drift, I had much 
 rather the Christian church should adopt the posi- 
 tion you occupy, and become Seventh-day Baptists.' 
 Every fact brought out in the meeting we are 
 describing emphasized the truth that the downward 
 drift increases year by year, in spite of all the plead- 
 ing and protesting of the good people who are 
 trying in vain to escape the truth of God's Book, 
 and of all experience, i. e., ' Whatsoever a man sow^- 
 eth that shall he also reap.' These religious leaders, 
 with men like Dr. Cu3'ler at the head, without 
 designing it, persist in trampling on the true Bible 
 Sabbath, God's day, and then moaning over the ruin 
 of conscience which their own error has wrought. 
 They assume that Sunday is the Bible Sabbath. 
 This is non-fact; and no amount of goodness or of 
 devotion, or of offering God Sunday in the dress of 
 his disregarded Sabbath, can avail to check the 
 decay which is gnawing at the life of Sunday. The 
 
92 DECADENCE OF SUNDAY. 
 
 law of God, crowned with the lightning-carved sanc- 
 tions of Sinai, the example of Christ and of the New 
 Testament church, and the bitter fruitage of error 
 persisted in, or compromised with, unite to call the 
 ' Earnest Friends of Sunday ' back to the true Sab- 
 bath of Jehovah. If they will heed and obe\% well. 
 If the3^ will not, all Sa.bbathism will soon have gone 
 down and out in the drift which is resistless because 
 Sunday was born with the germs of decay from 
 which nothing can free it." 
 
 The testimon3^ given in this chapter represents 
 the best Christian culture and conscience in the 
 Protestant churches of the United States. While the 
 witnesses do not seem to apprehend the true causes 
 which have made this decay inevitable, they do see 
 the fact that it hastens, and that all their efforts to 
 turn it aside fail. Great as the evils are which 
 accompany this decaA% and transition, good will 
 come from them if the friends of Sunday shall come 
 to see that the compromise of the Puritan " Change- 
 of-day theory," being but a partial truth, carried 
 the growing germs of decay from the hour of its 
 birth. If, seeing this, they shall turn back to the 
 Bible and complete the reform which was begun by 
 their Puritan ancestors, but was cut short b^^ the 
 compromise, true "Sabbath" Reform will be at 
 hand, and the power of the Law of God will be in it. 
 If Protestants do not thus turn back, Sabbath 
 Reform will be lost, as the Sunday is already lost, in 
 the sea of holidavism. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 TESTIMONY FROM EPISCOPALIAN SOURCES. 
 
 Quotations from Our Diocesan Work — " vSabbath Breaker " not a Term 
 of Reproach — St. Mark'' s Messenger o^woX^t^ — "Appalling" Disre- 
 gard for Sunday — A Day of Dissipation — Indifferent Christians are 
 Criminal — Episcopal Recorder quoted — Sunday- Desecration a 
 Growing Sin — Rev. S. D. McConnell, D. D., in Outlook — Disregard 
 for Sunday Marks a New Epoch in Christian History — Church- 
 Going Decreasing — Roman Catholics Affected Less than Protestants 
 — Not One-sixth of the Churches in New York City Filled on vSun- 
 day — Masses are Indifferent to the Churches — Social and Religious 
 Habits are Reversed — " .Sabbath Tradition " is Passing Out of Mind 
 — Sanctions of Sunday Swept Away — No Sense of Wrong When 
 Sunday is Disregarded — No Such Situation For the Last Fourteen 
 Hundred Years — Public Opinion No Longer Compels Regard for 
 Sunday — Disputes About Forms and Creeds are Childish in Pres- 
 ence of Such Dangers. 
 
 TNASMUCH as the Church of England, and its 
 American counterpart, the Protestant Episcopal 
 Church, never adopted Puritan views concerning 
 Sunday, the adherents of that communion have not 
 been as much affected by the deca\^ of regard for Sun- 
 da^^ as Puritan Protestants have. Nevertheless, 
 there is testimony from Episcopalian sources which 
 is important. 
 
 Our Diocesan Work, Richmond, Va., June, 1883, 
 contained a number of pointed utterances concern- 
 ing the question of Sunday-observance. We extract 
 part of the report of the " Committee on the state of 
 the church" : 
 
 "The matter of Sunday-observance is one that 
 involves increasing peril to the cause of morals and 
 
94 DECADENCE OF SUx\DAY. 
 
 religion, and your committee earnestly recommend 
 that it be made a more frequent subject of exhorta- 
 tion and instruction from the pulpit. We notice a 
 looseness in the observance of this holy da^^, a dispo- 
 sition to make it a day chiefly of carnal recreation 
 and enjoyment, that quite prepares us to expect 
 along with it a doubt or denial of the divine obliga- 
 tion of the law of the Sabbath as one of the funda- 
 mental moral laws of the divine government. When 
 Sabbath-breaker has ceased to be a term of obloquy, 
 or designates only a violation of the civil regula- 
 tions concerning the day of rest, thus reducing a 
 divine ordinance to a human, wx are no longer sur- 
 prised to find a similar disregard of other moral 
 restraints and obtuseness of conscience to other 
 divine ordinances. We rejoice to see, therefore, in 
 the International Sabbath Association, evidence 
 that Christian society is becoming alarmed at the 
 prevalence of this non-observance of the holy day, 
 and are moving unitedly toward a correction of this 
 evil. We must fully recognize this truth, and empha- 
 size it, that attendance on divine w^orship once a 
 day, and refraining from customary secular occupa- 
 tions, does not fill out the full measure of the injunc- 
 tion to ' remember the Sabbath-day to keep it holy.' 
 . . . We earnestly press upon our clergy and laity 
 the dutv of doing w^hat in them lies to form a 
 healthy public sentiment against this evil, and to 
 insist upon the great principle that the Sabbath 
 being made for man, man is entitled, and all men 
 should be free, to enjoy the Sabbath." 
 
EPISCOPALIAN TESTIMONY. 95 
 
 St. Mark's Messenger, of Cincinnati, Ohio, in 
 1885, said: *' The pass to which we have come in 
 the violation of all Sabbath law, both human and 
 divine, in this city is appalling to contemplate. It 
 is a disgrace to our boasted civilization, and has 
 justly given St. Louis a fame for wickedness all over 
 the land. On the Sabbath the city virtually is in the 
 hands of the godless and lawless. To thousands, 
 many of them young men, the day is not even a daA- 
 of physical rest, but of dissipation, waste and crime. 
 Every right sense is violated, every principle that 
 conserves the good of society is overthrown, and 
 every force that has for its object the regeneration of 
 human nature and the ennorjling of human life, is 
 scoffed and set at naught by the Sabbath-breaker. 
 The Christian who can look upon this state of 
 things and read what is to come of it in the history 
 of the past without pain, may well question the 
 character of his faith. Surely he is not a witness for 
 the truth of his Master." 
 
 The Episcopal Recorder, of April 21, 1882, said: 
 "Sunday-desecration is one of the great and grow- 
 ing sins of the present da^^ and the church of Christ 
 should wake up on the subject, and as Christians 
 who love the cause of the Redeemer, and desire to 
 see his kingdom hastened, and as citizens who desire 
 the prosperity of our country, stand by it, and plead 
 for it, and demand that that law which is of divine 
 appointment, and which was written by God upon 
 tables of stone on the cloud-capped summit of 
 Mount Sinai, and brought down to his people by his 
 
96 DECADENCE OF SUNDAY. 
 
 servant Moses, be observed, and that at the Colum- 
 bian Exhibition 'the Sabbath-day be remembered 
 and kept holy.'" 
 
 But the most important testimony, and that 
 which will pay for re-reading, is from the pen of Rev. 
 S. D. McConnell, D. D., Rector of Holy Trinity 
 church, Brooklyn, N. Y. It appeared in the Outlook 
 for January 15, 1898, over the title, "The Church in 
 Modern Society." Here is the article entire. All 
 that it says is germane to the question of the decay 
 of regard for Sunday. The writer takes a broad sur- 
 vey of the field involved in Protestant histor3^ Mr. 
 McConnell says : 
 
 "It begins to be evident that the church has 
 entered upon a new epoch. The place and function 
 in society which have been accorded her for a long 
 time are rapidly undergoing a radical change. Of 
 course, for the purposes of this paper, I use the word 
 church in its widest sense. Possibly ' the churches ' 
 would be a better phrase, but I do not like it. What 
 I have in mind is to call attention to some broad 
 facts which concern alike all organized Christianity. 
 The fortunes of Anglican, Reformed and Roman are 
 all involved in the same issues. 
 
 "It will be agreed on all hands that the charac- 
 teristic action of Christianity as an institution is its 
 public worship in church on the Lord's-day. One 
 can conceive the existence of a church w^hich had no 
 formulated creed, or no machinery for beneficence, or 
 which should leave much to be desired in the per- 
 sonal lives of its members, but one cannot imagine 
 
EPISCOPALIAN TESTIMONY. 97 
 
 a church which does not attempt to bring its people 
 together on Sunday for pubHc pra3^er, sacraments 
 and teaching. 
 
 "Now, it is clear to any one who \yill look, that 
 people do not go to church as generally as they once 
 did. The percentage of non-church-goers in the com- 
 munity has been steadily increasing for more than a 
 generation, and within the last ten years we have 
 seen something which looks like "the letting out of 
 waters." Speaking broadh^ the churches are but 
 meagerly attended. There are exceptions, of course. 
 The Roman Catholic churches have not 3^et been 
 serioush^ affected b}^ the change, but even the\' have 
 not been without their warning. There are in the 
 new New York about twelve hundred places of pub- 
 lic worship. Not one-sixth of them are filled ; not 
 one-half of them are half filled at the Sunday' service 
 during the winter months, while during summer one- 
 third of them are practically closed, and, with the 
 exception of the Roman Catholic, the rest are prac- 
 tically empt3^ Nor is this peculiar to the metropolis. 
 In an average New England country town, or a 
 Kansas or California village, less than one-half of 
 the people are to be found in church on Sunday. 
 
 "Society is coming, if it has not already come, to 
 look upon the Christian church in a way which has 
 not been known for fifteen centuries. It is not 
 hostile; it is indifferent. But few realize what a new 
 thing historically this temper is. That it is a new 
 thing will appear upon a very little reflection. The 
 United States is the only country in the world 
 
98 DECADENCE OF SUNDAY. 
 
 wherein organized society' takes no account of 
 organized religion. Elsewhere, throughout Chris- 
 tendom, the church is either established, endowed, 
 subsidized, or recognized in concordat or treaty. 
 Here, and here alone, she is left to one side by the 
 social order. Btit this is only because we are a little 
 further along in the direction of movement than are 
 the other countries. All are coming to this point; 
 but we have reached it. 
 
 "But what a profound reversal of social habit 
 this is I In the fifth century Christianity became the 
 religion of the empire, and the state began by one 
 method and another to build churches, to maintain 
 them, and to constrain people to attend them. By 
 the Middle Ages this had come to be regarded as the 
 natural and divine order of things. The force of 
 statute, the resources of taxation, the power of com- 
 mon law, could all be appealed to in the interest of 
 the church. This condition of things continued 
 through fourteen hundred 3^ears. It survived even 
 in theory till about the beginning of the nineteenth 
 century. It continued practically up to our own 
 generation. Now it is gone. The church can no 
 longer lean upon secular society. Coercion in every 
 form has been abandoned. Civil society does not 
 regard the church as it did in the time of Constan- 
 tine, Charlemagne, Laud, or Cotton Mather. It is 
 possible that society is more Christian, but it surely 
 is less churchl3^ Do the leaders of the church at all 
 realize what a revolution has occurred? 
 
 "But a practice which lasted through so many 
 
EPISCOPALIAN TESTIMONY. 99 
 
 generations could not but leave its impress upon the 
 habits and customs of society. The provision in our 
 constitution that ' Congress shall make no law con- 
 cerning religion ' did not immediately change the 
 situation. From sheer force of habit people contin- 
 ued for a long time to act much as they had acted 
 while secular society upheld the church. A sort of 
 social constraint took the pl^cce of legal coercion. 
 In the earlier new settlements of this county the peo- 
 ple built their own churches, and built them almost 
 as soon as they did their houses, and before they 
 built their school-houses and town halls. It was 
 rare to find a famih^ which had no ' church connec- 
 tion.' Such a family was looked at askance, and 
 was deemed to be in some vague way lacking in 
 respectability. This condition of things still sur- 
 vives in some measure in outlying communities and 
 some small towns and cities, but, taking the country 
 throughout, it has passed away. The new settle- 
 ments in the West and the new suburbs in the cities 
 are not forward in building themselves churches. 
 The\' make their homes, then their school-houses, 
 then their public buildings, and the church comes 
 last, and usually does not come at all until some 
 missionary from an older community arrives to 
 press the duty, arid until money comes from an older 
 community to help pay for it. Nor does a family 
 lose caste from lack of church affiliation. In a 
 w^ord, the social constraint which used to operate 
 in the church's interest has become feeble where it 
 has not entirely disappeared. Do the leaders of 
 
100 DECADENCE OE SUNDAY. 
 
 the church realize what a powerful ally the\' have 
 lost ? 
 
 "Furthermore, we are at the point where 'the 
 Sabbath tradition ' is passing out of sight. While it 
 is true that our own church has never given her 
 assent to the Puritan or Hebrew tradition of the 
 Sabbath-day, we have, nevertheless, lived in a coun- 
 tr_y where we have sucked from that tradition no 
 small advantage. It may fairly be said to have been 
 an American tradition. Even when it has not 
 affected belief it has controlled conduct. Our church 
 bells have during a century rung out upon the still 
 air of succeeding Sundays, and have caught the ear 
 of multitudes who would not have heard or heeded 
 except for the Puritan tradition. Business has been 
 suspended and amusement tabooed because it was 
 * the Sabbath-day,' and people had been taught that 
 to work or to play on that day was blasphemv. 
 But the passing of time, the immigration of popula- 
 tions which had no Sabbath tradition, the discovery 
 that the Puritan Sabbath did not actually rest upon 
 either Holy Scripture or good history — all these 
 things have resulted in bringing in a profound 
 change in the way of regarding Sunda^^ A change 
 in social custom has followed. It followed slowly, 
 and for a long while attracted little attention. But 
 barriers of social habit give way as do those which 
 dam waters. At first a tiny stream escapes, and 
 looks innocent enough, then another and another, 
 and at last all goes with a rush. We are near the 
 time when the social sanctity which has for so long 
 
EPISCOPALIAN TESTIMONY. 101 
 
 hedged in Sunday will be sw^ept away. Indeed, a 
 revolution has alreadj^ occurred, but it has occurred 
 so silently that it has transformed society without 
 our notice. Contrast the Sunday situation of New 
 York or Philadelphia of even ten years ago with 
 that of to-day. Even then on Sundav it seemed as 
 though active secular life had stopped within the 
 cit3" and a wall had been built around it. Few could 
 escape the city limits even if they had wished. In 
 summer a few excursion trains ran to the seashore, 
 and that was about all. Places of amusement 
 within the city w^ere closed, and the recreations 
 which now engage tens of thousands were not 
 invented. People went to church, if for no better 
 reason, because there was nothing else to do. They 
 grew tired of walking about the streets by day and 
 sitting in their houses all evening. A 'popular 
 preacher' was a godsend; a 'musical service' was 
 an escape from ennui. There is such a thing as fol- 
 lowing a multitude to do good as well as to do evil. 
 Now, how the situation is changed! Trolley lines 
 run out into the country in every direction. Good 
 roads have been built, and now glisten and radiate 
 in every direction as the straight threads of a new 
 spider-web shine in the morning dew. It is prob- 
 ably speaking within bounds to say that between 
 May and November a million people go out ofNew^ 
 York every Sunday, by rail, trolle^^ pleasure-boat 
 and wheel. Ten years ago the number was hardly 
 one-tenth so great. It is no doubt true that many 
 thousands of these did not go to church then, but it 
 
102 DECADENCE OF SUNDAY. 
 
 is equally true that tens of thousands of them did. 
 But what is far more significant is that those who 
 went out to play on Sunday at the earlier date did 
 so with the vague consciousness that they were in 
 some way doing wrong, or that at least the3^ were 
 going against the best public opinion. Those who 
 go to-day do not, as a rule, have any such feeling. All 
 idea of wrong-doing has disappeared from such 
 action. The day is spent in pleasure — of course I 
 speak only of those pleasures which are intrinsically 
 innocent — without any sense of violence done to their 
 consciences. The amusements are announced and 
 entered upon quite openly. On a Saturda^^ column 
 after column is given by the newspapers to notices 
 of the ' Sunday runs ' of the following day. Not long 
 ago a single bicycle club left New York on Sunda3^ 
 morning for a day in the countr\', seven hundred 
 stronsf. There were not a hundred churches in the 
 city whose congregations that same morning aver- 
 aged as many. 
 
 "The whole situation is new. It is one which 
 the church has not confronted for fourteen centuries. 
 From this time forward she is called upon to do her 
 work in the midst of a society whose habits, whose 
 prepossessions, whose very conscience differs pro- 
 foundly from that which she has known so long. As 
 members of Christ's church we have now been 
 brought face to face with a situation whose gravity 
 cannot be exaggerated. There is a sort of obstinate 
 skepticism which will lead many good churchmen to 
 doubt that so changed a condition of things could 
 
EPISCOPALIAN TESTIMONY. 103 
 
 come in so suddenly. They will accuse of fanc}^ and 
 exaggeration an^^ one who describes things as they 
 are. The reply is, it has not been sudden, save as all 
 new phases of nature or society are sudden. The 
 new phase always appears suddenly, because the 
 causes of it have been long at work. When the cry 
 of * separation between church and state ' w^as raised 
 four centuries ago, neither party had much concep- 
 tion of w^hat such separation would imply. Now 
 society w^akes up to see that on that principle it 
 has no obligation to the church as such ; and the 
 church is reminded that as such she has no claim 
 upon society. 
 
 "We are being pushed, or led, back to the posi- 
 tion of the primitive church. That w^as a voluntary 
 association of the followers of Jesus, living and act- 
 ing in the midst of a society" which took no account 
 of it or its rules, except as they were w^on, one at a 
 time, to voluntarily submit themselves to her disci- 
 pline. That is what we have nearly come to again. 
 The pressure of public opinion, the force of use and 
 wont, the instinct of long-established custom, can no 
 longer be counted upon to constrain people to keep 
 Sunday or to go to church. Under these new condi- 
 tions, what is the church to say and to do? Shall 
 she lift up her voice to the multitude w^ho are idling 
 or pla3'ing on the Lord's-day, and rebuke them for 
 'desecrating the Sabbath-daj^' ? Their retort is 
 unanswerable ; they say% ' You Christians are quite 
 at liberty to make what regulations you please for 
 the observance of this day by your own members, 
 
104- DECADEN'CE OF SUNDAY. 
 
 but 3'ou have no warrant of 3^our Master to impose 
 them upon us.' Shall she urge them to go to church 
 as a matter of natural and universal duty ? 
 Scarcely ; she ma3^ offer it as a universal privilege, 
 but as a universal obligation, no. Shall she say 
 with the church at Rome, ' Except you come to the 
 church you will be eternally dammed ' ? Rome has 
 thus far found that declaration potent enough to 
 keep her churches filled — with those who believe it. 
 It is open to us to raise the same cry, if we can get 
 an^^body to believe it. But it is the peculiarity of 
 that cry that it fails of all effect if there be the small- 
 est hesitation or doubtfulness in the tone of the mes- 
 senger. 
 
 " What shall we sa\' ? What shall the Christian 
 father say to his well-grown son when he sees him 
 getting ready to go to the country for the Sunday 
 on his wheel? What shall the mother say to her 
 daughter who has been at church in the morning 
 and who has been invited to join a sailing part^^ in 
 the afternoon? The question takes a thousand 
 phases, but essentiallv it is this: How shall the 
 Christian church adjust her discipline and her 
 methods to modern society? The old adjustment, 
 the one w^hich Constantine arranged for, is about to 
 disappear. What shall take its place? How shall 
 she fit her services, her missionary appeal, her disci- 
 pline, her customs, to the changed conditions of 
 modern life? Compared with this, the things with 
 which the churches are concerning themselves some- 
 times seem paltry indeed. W^e are disputing among 
 
EPISCOPALIAN TESTIMONY. 105 
 
 ourselves like a lot of Roman pedants while the bar- 
 barians are at the gates. We are contending that 
 our doctrinal formularies shall be accurately framed, 
 that our liturgies or our rejection of liturgy shall be 
 such as will best serve for the united worship of the 
 great congregation, that our orders or our contempt 
 of orders shall express our belief concerning the 
 ministry. These things are all important enough. 
 But it is more important that we should have a con- 
 gregation than that we should have a book of com- 
 mon prayer, that there should be a church than that 
 there should be a creed, that there should be a people 
 than that there should be a ministr^^" 
 
 Ifanyof our readers have been accustomed to 
 think that the question of the deca3' of regard for 
 Sunday is unimportant, they cannot rise from the 
 reading of Mr. McConnell's words without the con- 
 viction that they have been in error. The issues 
 which are involved in the present situation concern- 
 ing Sunday include the authority of the Bible, the 
 perpetuation of public \^ orship, and the spiritual life 
 and development of the churches. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 CHRISTIANS ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE DECAY OF 
 
 REGARD FOR SUNDAY. 
 
 Christians Make Serious Charges Against Their Brethren— Sunday is 
 Carrying Christians down — False Teaching Concerning Sunday 
 Worse Than Higher Criticism — Christian Advocate on Methodist 
 Camp-Meetings and Sunday-Desecration — Congregationalist 
 Quoted — The Interior on Desplaines Camp-Meeting Association as 
 a Partner in Sunday-Desecration — Association Made $i,8oo on One 
 Sunday— Bishop Merrill Called to Account— y^w^r/ra;/ Sentinel 
 Quoted— Evangel and Sabbath Outlook Quoted— The Epworthian 
 Publishes Advertisements of Sunday-Breaking Railrond— CVzwr^/f 
 Bulletin Quoted — Sunday-School Superintendent Sells Goods on 
 Sunday— Sunday-Desecration by Camp-Meetings Does More Harm 
 Than " Conversions " do Good. 
 
 nPHE general survey made, and the facts collated 
 in the preceding chapters show that friends of 
 Sunda^^ make serious charges against their fellow- 
 Christians. This charge, that Christians are largely 
 responsible for the loss of Sunda3% is made so often 
 that it deserves special attention. But since these 
 same Christians are not charged with being sinful in 
 other matters, it is evident that they are the victims 
 of a fundamental error in regard to the Sabbath and 
 the Sunday that demands the revolution which we 
 plead for. Indeed, it will be seen, on careful study, 
 that this s\^stem of error is carrying Christians 
 down in spite of themselves. If general religious life 
 was increasing in volume, as Sunday declines, it 
 might be said that w^hat the friends of Sunday call 
 
CHRISTIANS RESPONSIBLE. 107 
 
 decay is really improvement. But the opposite is 
 true. Attendance on public worship decreases in 
 proportion to the loss of regard for Sunday. This 
 begets a carelessness, if not an open opposition, to 
 God and the Bible. The unfair way in which the 
 Bible has been interpreted, or rather perverted, by 
 the advocates of the Puritan theory of the change of 
 the Sabbath, has done more to break down its au- 
 thority with Christians than the " Higher Criticism " 
 of which some complain. The various errors in the 
 case have combined to carry not only Sunday, but 
 many of the chief interests of religion down, as an 
 unseaworthy vessel carries all on board to the bot- 
 tom. Either these friends of Sunday are false 
 accusers of their brethren, or else the greatness of the 
 error involved in the attitude of Christians on the 
 Sabbath question is little appreciated, and cannot 
 be overestimated. We believe the bottom fact to be 
 this. Protestantism has fallen into as great and 
 fundamental error on the Sabbath question as the 
 errors of the Catholic church were against which the 
 Protestant revolt began, and the only way of reform 
 lies in a radical revolution. On no other ground can 
 the facts which follow be explained. 
 
 In a former chapter we have given no little testi- 
 mony from the Christian Advocate, New York, 
 against the camp-meeting s^^stem of the Methodists 
 for its complicity with Sunday railroading. The 
 Advocate has convictions, and a pen that is not 
 pointless. For example, this: "The bishop who 
 preached against Sabbath-breaking and the railroad 
 
108 DECADENCE OF SUNDAY. 
 
 corporations at the camp-meeting, when hundreds 
 of the members of his own communion had left in 
 their respective places of worship an array of empty 
 pews, and filled special trains which the manage- 
 ment had asked the railroad corporation to furnish, 
 and on which they had received a royalty for each 
 passenger carried, simply excited the contempt of the 
 worldly-minded . ' ' 
 
 During the time of the World's Fair in Chicago, 
 the Methodists were singled out somewhat sharply 
 in connection with the Sunday question. When the 
 Fair was open on Sunday the Epworth League 
 Herald was extremely radical in demanding that the 
 Methodist "exhibit" be covered wholly and contin- 
 ually. The Congregationalist quoted the Herald as 
 follows : "We should have asked permission to with- 
 draw. If the request were denied and there seemed 
 to be no adequate legal redress, then the exhibit of 
 the great Methodist Episcopal church should have 
 been covered seven days in the week. An enormous 
 moral outrage has been committed, and a denomina- 
 tion that has always been in the vanguard when 
 giant wrongs were to be assaulted should not now 
 be creeping along in the rear." Such radical claims 
 drew attention to local facts, and t\\€: Interior ior 
 July 6, 1893, through a correspondent who signed 
 himself "A Methodist Minister," said that the 
 Desplaines Camp-meeting Association had received 
 "thirty per cent of all Sunday fares to and from its 
 grounds for about twenty years past." Just what 
 this correspondent said is best told in his own 
 
CHRISTIANS RESPONSIBLE. 109 
 
 words. Here they are: "The real blame of our 
 preachers is in attending and preaching at the camp- 
 meeting after the\^ became acquainted with the facts. 
 No Methodist, lay or clerical, can consistently 
 attend, so long as the contract with the railroads 
 continues in force; and everj^one who goes is a parti- 
 ceps criminis in the sin and h^-pocrisy of violating 
 God's commandments in the name of religion for the 
 sake of gain. It is true that the Association's share 
 ofSunda3^ railroad earnings (sometimes amounting 
 to between one and two thousand dollars) has not 
 been used to enrich individuals, but to improve the 
 grounds and pa\^ the charges of celebrated Metho- 
 dist preachers from a distance; but the pious end 
 does not justify the wicked means. Ten years ago 
 the National Holiness Association, consisting of 
 twelve preachers, was emplo^'ed to conduct the 
 camp-meeting. They took awa}^ I was told, $1,200 
 for two weeks' service. On the second Sunday of 
 that meeting they claimed that there were 10,000 
 people present — about 8,000 of whom went out from 
 the city on Sunday. The round trip cost 75 cents 
 each, or $6,000 in all, of which the camp-meeting 
 authorities got $1,800. I Avas present on that Sun- 
 day (I did not know then that the camp shared Sun- 
 day receipts with the road), and made some strict- 
 ures on the conduct of the crowd. The week follow- 
 ing, the National Advocate of Holiness said that 
 there were two men at the meeting who greath- 
 needed the pra^^ers of all good people ; one was the 
 baggage-master, who, under sore provocation, 
 
110 DECADENCE OF SUNDAY. 
 
 swore profaneh^ ; and the other was the correspond- 
 ent of the New York Christian Advocate, who had 
 criticised the proceedings. The same Hohness 
 Association is this year to hold a two weeks' meet- 
 ing at Desplaines, and unless the Interior's kindly 
 admonition and the public shame of the thing pre- 
 vent, will get its pay for preaching sanctification 
 and Christian perfection from the camp-meeting's 
 share of the revenue derived from Sunday railroad 
 travel. 
 
 It is not only a sin against God ; it is a burning 
 shame and disgrace to Methodism ; and an obstruc- 
 tion and injury to all churches in their efforts to 
 hallow the Sabbath. For that reason the /interior 
 has done onlv its duty in calling attention to ' this 
 iniquitous violation of the Sabbath,' and Methodists 
 should kiss the rod that smites them." 
 
 The Interior, in w^hich the foregoing appeared, 
 has a habit of using forceful EngHsh. Concerning 
 the article it said, editorially: "An article in this 
 issue by Rev. Sylvanus Stall, an editor of our con- 
 temporary, the Lutheran Observer, goes to the core 
 of the question of the Sunday-opening. He shows 
 the facts from which the directory have drawn their 
 conclusion that the Christian public were not really 
 in earnest about this matter [Sunday -closing]. 
 Inconsistency about a matter of principle is the 
 index of insincerity. And now we have a word to 
 sa)' to Bishop Merrill, of the Methodist church. We 
 wish to ask the Bishop in regard to his responsi- 
 bility^ for this wrong. He is reported by the Tribune 
 
CHRISTIANS RESPONSIBLE. Ill 
 
 as saying that a manifesto will be issued to the 
 members of the Methodist church, 'la^dng it upon the 
 consciences of our people to stay away from an 
 exposition that defies the law of God.' There was a 
 time when we objected to the coparcenary^ of respon- 
 sibility and of pecuniary profit between the Des- 
 plaines Camp Company, whatever be its proper 
 name, and the railroads, for the running of trains on 
 the Sabbath. We do not know what the Bishop's 
 relation to this iniquitous violation of the Sabbath 
 may have been. We only know that the Bishop is 
 an authority in the Methodist church, and we do 
 not see how an arrangement for dividing the profits 
 of Sunday traflSc between the railroads and the 
 Methodist church could have been made without his 
 knowledge and without his protest, if not without 
 his consent. This and similar facts are what we 
 have had to meet in contending for closing the gates 
 on the Sabbath. These were the fatal weapons 
 emplo3^ed to our defeat by our antagonists. We 
 have kept them in the back-ground as far as we 
 could, but now that we are defeated, the responsi- 
 bilit3^ should go where it belongs — and we submit 
 that befo^-e the Methodist bishops issue a general 
 boycott, the act should be preceded by an Old Testa- 
 ment process of purification. 'Let him bathe his 
 flesh, wash his clothes in water and be unclean until 
 the even.' " 
 
 An equally aggravated case was reported by the 
 American Sentinel in 1893. Speaking of the manner 
 in which the friends of Sunday' denounce Sunday 
 
112 DECADENCE OF SUNDAY. 
 
 newspapers, the Sentinel said: "In view of this it 
 wall be interesting to learn that a clergyman, a mem- 
 ber of the American Sabbath Union, recently distrib- 
 uted to his Sunday evening audience a program of 
 the services, on the back of which were advertise- 
 ments of a pork-packing and jobbing firm, a laundry, 
 jewelry store, real estate firm, and, lastly, an adver- 
 tisement for more advertisements. The publishers 
 of Sunday newspapers do not invade the place and 
 hour of worship and thrust a copy of their advertis- 
 ing sheets in the face of each worshiper. ' Why 
 beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's 
 eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine 
 own eye.' " 
 
 This was so surprising that the Evangel and 
 Sabbath Outlook, of which the writer was editor, 
 procured a specimen of the advertising sheet referred 
 to. It w^as the Epworthian, Vol. I, No. 8, Chicago, 
 October, 1891, published monthly by the Fowler 
 Epworth League in the interest of the Wabash 
 Avenue M. E. church of Chicago. In addition to the 
 advertisements mentioned by the Sentinel we found 
 one of the Louisville, New Albany and Chicago R. 
 R., known as the " Monon Route," representing that 
 road as the best line between Chicago and all points 
 South. Desiring full information for this page, we 
 have procured ofllicial information from the General 
 Passenger Agent of that road, under date, Nov. 21, 
 1897, in these words: "This conipan3^ did run Sun- 
 day trains in 1891, and for several \'ears previously, 
 and have done so ever since." Thus it is shown that 
 
CHRISTIANS RESPONSIBLE. 113 
 
 an Epworth League paper, in the interest of a lead- 
 ing Methodist church in Chicago, whose pastor was 
 a member of the American Sabbath Union, pubHshed 
 the advertisement of a railroad known to be running 
 Sunday trains, and circulated that with other 
 advertisements through the congregation on the 
 evening of the " Sabbath." That was breaking Sun- 
 day for revenue onl3^ 
 
 Under the date of August 4, 1893, the Church 
 Bulletin, published in South Chicago, indulged in the 
 following bit of sarcasm: " Now that the Fair will 
 probably be closed on Sunday, it is to be hoped that 
 the camp-meeting managers will not open their 
 gates on Sunday, and share with the railroads the 
 profits of the Sunday excursions. It is time for relig- 
 ious bodies to be pious, too. Christians are largely 
 to blame for the Sunda}^ opening effort." 
 
 In Januarj^ 1895, the Christian Advocate, N. Y., 
 published the following in its "Query " column : 
 
 " Question 4,063. I am a member of the Metho- 
 dist Episcopal church, and hold an office in the Sun- 
 day-school. The Superintendent of the Sunday- 
 school keeps his store open on Sunday morning, and 
 sells groceries and things of that kind. What is my 
 duty? Should I resign m^^ position in the school 
 superintended by a person w^ho does this and will 
 not give it up, or continue ? " 
 
 "Answer. It is your duty to continue in the 
 service of the school, and to make a formal com- 
 plaint to the pastor, with specifications, against 
 the conduct of the superintendent. The respon- 
 
114 DECADENCE OF SUNDAY. 
 
 sibility of proceeding with the discipline will then be 
 upon him." 
 
 "Question 4,064. What shall be done with 
 church members who habitualh^ patronize Sunday 
 morning stores ? " 
 
 "Answer. It is to be feared that there are many 
 such. A person emplo^^ed in cit3^ mission work 
 informs us that he knows it to be the case. Such 
 persons should be expostulated with, shown that 
 they are violating the rules of the church and setting 
 a bad example before their children, and besought to 
 change. In many instances such actions spring 
 from general slackness of character, sheer indolence 
 causing them to neglect laying in provisions for the 
 Sabbath." 
 
 Here is further testimon}- from the Advocate. In 
 June, 1893, a correspondent of the Advocate asked: 
 "Is it customary for our ministers in high official 
 positions to use the Sunday trains in order to meet 
 engagements ? " The closing words of the Advocate 
 in reply were these: " It is^ our belief that the habits 
 of many ministers and leading Christians, camp- 
 meeting projectors and managers, are among the 
 chief promoters of Sabbath-breaking. To see a 
 minister go from a depot, carpet-bag in hand, while 
 the church bells are ringing, or call a hack at the 
 close of the evening sermon and drive to the depot, 
 is practicall3' an opiate to the conscience of persons 
 inclined to disregard the day." 
 
 August 15, 1895, under head of "Washington 
 Notes," the Advocate said: " The camp-meeting of 
 
CHRISTIANS RESPONSIBLE. 115 
 
 the Salvation Army, held at Washington Grove 
 upon the invitation of the trustees, closed Aug. 5. 
 Immense crowds attended. It is, however, worthy 
 of note that not only did Sunday trains run to the 
 g;rove, but upon the circulars of the Army advertis- 
 ing the meeting, equal prominence was given to the 
 choruses of Salvation songs and to the times at which 
 the trains might be taken to and from the camp, and 
 the Sunday trains were thereby- advertised as dis- 
 tinctly as those of the week day. Little by little 
 the religious sanction for the religious observance of 
 the Lord's-day seems to be yielding. Our camp- 
 meetings have thus become in great measure the oc- 
 casion for Sunda3^ travel and traffic, which in no true 
 and proper sense can be of necessity or of mercy." 
 
 In 1896, the Advocate said, editorially, "We 
 fear for the Sabbath because of worldly practices 
 among those w^ho should hallow it, and because 
 weak consciences are yielding to outward pressure. 
 We are more in danger here than in open assault. 
 How may these tendencies be arrested? Ph3^sical 
 force will not avail. Arguments drawn from mere 
 expediency or physical health or present advantage 
 are insufficient. The arm of the civil law" will 
 utterly fail. Truth lodged in the soul — truth mov- 
 ing the conscience — will be effectual, and only this. 
 Christians who have fallen into wrong habits can 
 be recovered only by divinely'- wrought convictions 
 in lespect to Sabbath-observance. To produce such 
 convictions is the important work of the home, the 
 school and the church." 
 
116 DECADENCE OF SUNDAY. 
 
 One more example from the Advocate must 
 suffice. Ill 1885 one of its correspondents asked the 
 following question : " What should be the attitude 
 of Christian ministers and laymen toward a camp- 
 meeting held over the Sabbath, where trains would 
 not run or stop if there were no camp-meeting; 
 whose directors opposed the preachers and laymen ; 
 encouraged Sabbath-traveling by receiving a reve- 
 nue from the railroad company, and so furnish occa- 
 sion for Sabbath-desecration; where, in fact, the 
 said preachers and directors asked the railroad com- 
 pany to run trains on Sunday, when without such 
 solicitation they would not do so ? " The Advocate 
 answered : " If a man believes the running of trains 
 on the Sabbath for such purposes to be wrong, and 
 to contribute to the general desecration of the Sab- 
 bath — so alarming a feature in our American society, 
 and one which in the end is sure to reduce the Ameri- 
 can to the level of the European Sabbath (and when 
 the American Sabbath is reduced to the level of the 
 European Sabbath, Christianity will be about at the 
 level of European Christianity) — he cannot conscien- 
 tiously attend or have anything to do with a camp- 
 meeting that pursues this course. The writer so be- 
 lieves, and has not preached at, or attended, such 
 a camp-meeting in twenty -four years. We look with 
 amazement and sorrow upon the Methodist who 
 will connive at Sabbath-desecration in order to 
 make the financial aspect of a camp-meeting pay. 
 We believe it does more harm than any conversions 
 they get at such a camp-meeting can do good." 
 
CHRISTIANS RESPONSIBLE. 117 
 
 Perhaps Methodists are not the most at fault 
 in the matter of compHcity with railroads and Sun- 
 da^^-desecration. Possibly it is the earnestness and 
 bravery of the Advocate which has revealed the facts 
 so plainly and so often. Be this as it may, that 
 Christians are deeply in the mire with the railroads 
 is beyond question. If it be answered that all this 
 Sunday-going is necessary, the fact still remains that 
 the professed friends of Sunday are hastening its 
 downfall. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 CHRISTIANS ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE DECAY OF 
 
 REGARD FOR SUNDAY— CONTINUED. 
 
 vSharp Thrusts by Prof. Wilkinson — vSunday-observance a Dying Super- 
 stition; a Pious Fiction — It Must be Revived among Christians, or 
 its Doom Will Crack — Christian Statesman Condemns Christians 
 as Violators of Sunday — Dr. Blanchard says Christians are Guilty 
 of all Forms of vSunday-desecration — Mr. Crafts Sets Forth the 
 Indifference of Christians as to the Opening of the World's Fair — 
 Brooklyn Clergymen Condemn Christians for Patronizing Sunday 
 Papers — Congregationalists Silent Because Involved in Sunday- 
 desecration — vSunday-desecration Worse than the Saloon — Califor- 
 nia Christians Condemned — New York Observer Says Christians 
 Consent to Opening of Museums on Sunday — Mr. Moody 
 Denounces Chicago Christians — United Presbyterians and Baptist 
 Watchman Condemn Sunday Papers — Pearl of Days Says Reform 
 Will not Come until Christians Cease to Break Sunday. 
 
 TN 1885, Professor W. C. Wilkinson, then of Tarry- 
 town, N. Y., now of Chicago University, pub- 
 lished in the Christian Advocate (N. Y.) a startling 
 article under this head : " Decay of Sunday-observ- 
 ance among Christians." He avoided the funda- 
 mental question, whether Sunday is the Sabbath, by 
 opening with this sentence: ''Sunday-observance, I 
 say, instead of Sabbath-observance, for I wish not 
 to raise the Sabbatarian question, even in the asso- 
 ciation of a word." This frank admission of the 
 noted Baptist Professor is characteristic of most 
 writers on Sabbath questions. They studiously 
 avoid the " Sabbatarian " issue, because they know 
 that Sunday totters the moment that issue is raised. 
 
CHRISTIANS RESPONSIBLE. 119 
 
 Mr. Wilkinson then cited the case of James G. Blaine, 
 who had then lately traveled on Sunday, journeying 
 from Chicago to New York. Applying the illustra- 
 tion, he said: "Sunday, then, may be taken still 
 to have, even in the view of a reporter attached to a 
 Sundaj^ -issue-printing-newspaper, a certain 'charac- 
 ter,' simpl^v as Sunday. I suppose it really has, but 
 at the rate we go on now it will not have much 
 longer. Sunday-observance is a fond superstition, a 
 relic of former use and wont, that is fast passing 
 away from among us. I do not call attention to 
 Mr. Blaine's disregard of Sunday to criticise it. His 
 disregard of the day seems, indeed, — for we must be 
 carefully just — not to have been a total disregard. 
 Mr. Blaine regarded Sunday enough not to compete 
 with the churches for audience at this point or at 
 that as his train paused from its roaring rush along 
 the road. He only disregarded it enough to travel 
 all da\^ long, from the first moment of Sunday to 
 almost the last. I say I do not refer to this conduct 
 on Mr. Blaine's part to criticise it. I simply refer to 
 it in the way of argument, by instance or illustra- 
 tion. It is for me a striking case in point, recent, 
 and perhaps not too recent. That is all. It exhibits, 
 for it exemplifies, now the decay of Sunday-observ- 
 ance. It would be grossly unfair to treat Mr. 
 Blaine's use of so-called sacred time as a thing iso- 
 lated, exceptional, singular ; a thing on his part in 
 contrast with the general practice of good and 
 accepted Christians of to-day. This is by no means 
 the fact concerning the matter. The breaking down 
 
1-20 DECADENCE OF SUNDAY. 
 
 of Sunday-observance runs along the whole line of 
 current Christian behavior." 
 
 After detailing several instances of flagrant dis- 
 regard for Sunday on the part of church officials, the 
 Professor adds the following: "Now, in the face of 
 facts like these — and from m^^ own individual obser- 
 vation, I could multiply them indefinitely — it is per- 
 fectly plain that Sunday-observance is fast coming 
 to be practically a confessed pious fiction — a fiction, 
 therefore, that cannot continue long to impose on 
 anybod3^ A 'fiction' (of the pious sort) I do not 
 scruple to call the rule of Sunday-observation as 
 formally professed and as actually broken by so 
 many unchallenged evangelical Christians, in all our 
 American churches. It is a ' fiction ' because the very 
 men who thus freely secularize their Sundays them- 
 selves will often be found exclaiming against ' Sab- 
 bath-breaking ' when it is done in certain forms by 
 others. 
 
 "I do not no\v criticise anybody for failure in 
 Sunday-observance. I simply point out a fact. I 
 think it is well that the fact should be faced by 
 everybody concerned. And I believe that everybody 
 is concerned. The fact is full of significance. It 
 means nothing less than that the institution of ' Sun- 
 day ' is fast going. The ' character ' of the day is with 
 uslargeh^a mere tradition. The tradition fades daily. 
 It is pale now to a degree. 
 
 " I cannot guess how serious the regret really is, 
 and by what proportion of average good Christians 
 shared, at this undeniable decay of Sunda^'-observ- 
 
CHRISTIANS RESPONSIBLE. 121 
 
 ance. I am quite inclined to think that what regret 
 exists is mostW official, or else a matter of mere tra- 
 dition and convention. I judge so from the easy 
 conscience with which ministers, for example, use the 
 railroads on Sunday to go to and fro for preaching 
 appointments, and from the apparently tmconscious 
 proneness of any chance Christians you may meet, 
 for example, to take the train upon occasion of a 
 Sunday morning from the suburbs to the cit^^ for the 
 purpose of hearing a favorite voice sound out from 
 the pulpit the doctrine of the creeds— preaching, it 
 well might happen, on the text, ' Remember the Sab- 
 bath-day to keep it holy." This freedom on the part 
 of the flock is, of course, not to be wondered at. 
 The shepherd himself— that eloquent preacher— will 
 perhaps preach the same sermon, on the same text, 
 the evening of the same day, to a congregation fort^' 
 miles distant, reached necessarily at cost to him of 
 Sunday travel. 
 
 "There is no need to accumulate instances. I 
 seriously propose a question : As long as the state 
 of the case is what we all of us perfectly well know 
 it to be respecting Sunday-observance among Chris- 
 tians, is it, can it be, useful for us to talk piously 
 against the Sunday newspapers, Sunday excursions, 
 Sunday concerts, Sunday opening of places of amuse- 
 ments ? 
 
 * w * * * 
 
 "Sunday-observance must be revived among 
 Christians, or the institution is doomed. And the 
 doom is read}' even now presently to crack." 
 
122 DECADENCE OF SUNDAY. 
 
 A bitter enem3^ of Sunday, and of Christians, 
 could hardly have framed a more severe indictment. 
 But, so far as we know, and we were then, as ever 
 since, reading a large number of " exchanges " every 
 week, no one has denied or questioned what Pro- 
 fessor Wilkinson said so graphically. 
 
 In its issue for June 29, 1895, the Christian States- 
 man said : " Sabbath-desecration in certain forms by 
 church-members is alarmingly on the increase. 
 Even the church service is often a flagrant violation 
 of the Sabbath law. It has become the custom in some 
 congregations to have what is known as " Wheel- 
 man's Day," the service being devoted to the wor- 
 ship of the bicycle. Such a day was recently observed 
 in certain churches, and the CAurcAmaw contained the 
 following item with reference to the services : ' Did 
 any of our readers know that last Sunday w^as 
 " Wheelman's Da}^ " in some of the denominational 
 churches hereabout ? It was ; and one preacher in 
 the city of Brooklyn (so the newspaper reports say) 
 had two bicycles artistically disposed on either side 
 of his pulpit by way of adornment. At another 
 church, in Jersey Cit^^, a "special attraction " was 
 the presence of a couple of hundred bicyclists in riding 
 costume. Sermons, and we suppose music, were 
 appropriate to the occasion — one of the texts being 
 Isaiah 5: 28, " And their wheels like a whirlwind." 
 It seems a pity that some one did not think to 
 preach from the verses from the Psalter for the da}^ 
 (sixteenth evening, Psalm 83), "Make them and 
 their princes like Oreb and Zeb : yea, make all their 
 
CHRISTIANS RESPONSIBLE. 123 
 
 princes like as Zeba and Salmana; who say, Let us 
 take to ourselves the houses of God in possession. O 
 m3^ God, make them like unto a wheel, and as the 
 stubble before the wind." Such things are what come 
 of "running" churches on "business" principles.'" 
 
 The Christian Endeavorer, Nov. 26, 1896, 
 asserted that three millions of people in the United 
 States labor on every Sunday, as on other days, and 
 that the "majority of church-members are either 
 indifterent to this fact and to the interests of Sunday 
 Reform, or are, as is too often the case, themselves 
 Sabbath-desecrators . ' ' 
 
 In December of the same j^ear, the Endeavorer 
 published the following from the pen of Charles A. 
 Blanchard, D. D., President of Wheaton College: 
 "I have observed with great pleasure the efforts 
 which the Christian Endeavorer has been making 
 for the rescue and preservation of the Sabbath. I 
 am satisfied that the only way to secure the end 
 which we all desire is for Christian ministers and 
 members of churches to themselves hallow the 
 Sabbath. I think it w411 be difficult to name a form 
 of Sabbath-breaking at the present time in which the 
 Christian church does not participate. I am satis- 
 fied that if the church herself, in the person of her 
 ministers and members, will abstain from all forms 
 of Sabbath-breaking, the battle wnll be largely won ; 
 if she will add to this negative virtue the testimony 
 against the evil, which is both her privilege and 
 duty, God will give victor3^ Someone has said there 
 was never a nation ruined without the consent of 
 
124 DECADENCE OF SUNDAY. 
 
 the clergy. 1 am satisfied that this is true. The 
 ministry must be chloroformed before the nation 
 can be destroyed. The success which God gave to 
 the protest of the church against the Sunday-open- 
 ing of the World's Fair is familiar to all. He would 
 give the same success to her protest against the 
 Sunday newspaper or the Sunday train if she w^ould 
 but speak out. Seven hundred and twenty-five 
 thousand railwa3^ men, 250,000 postal employees 
 and 1,000,000 toilers in other lines have no Sab- 
 bath, because the ministry and members of our 
 churches are willing that some forms of Sabbath- 
 breaking should continue to increase. It is not possi- 
 ble to half this matter. As a nation we break the Sab- 
 bath, as a nation we must keep it or be destroyed. 
 Wishing you all success in your efforts to do good, 
 and desiring that you command me at any time 
 when I may be of service, I am, sincerely yours." 
 
 The indifference of Christians as to the closing 
 of the World's Fair on Sunday was strongly 
 assailed by W. F. Crafts in the Christian Statesman, 
 for September 11,1891. He said that when 100,- 
 000 petitions against opening ought to haA^e been 
 in, there were only thirteen hundred and fifty. Iowa 
 and Pennsylvania, he said, had done better than any 
 other states, but these had "not done fairly well," 
 while the other states had done " shamefully little." 
 "The count by denominations and societies," Mr. 
 Crafts declared, was equally discreditable. Those 
 who were more directly concerned, "temperance 
 people and Sabbath Associations," he described in 
 
CHRISTIANS RESPONSIBLE. 125 
 
 these words : " Worst of all, not one-half of the Sab- 
 bath Associations of our country have even sent a 
 petition of their own. Even those adopted, in many 
 cases, have not been sent. The only petitions of 
 national bodies that I discovered were those of 
 the Presbyterian and United Presbyterian Assem- 
 blies, the Reformed Presbyterian Synod and the 
 United Brethren Board of Bishops. Others have 
 acted, but officers have neglected to report the 
 action, and should have their memories probed." 
 
 The Christian Statesman did not spare its rhet- 
 oric in denouncing the World's Fair officials for their 
 part in Sunday-opening, but it was compelled to 
 acknowledge that Christians, in their organized 
 capacity, as well as in individual cases, set the 
 example which the directors followed. In its issue 
 of Julys, 1893, we find the following: "We fre- 
 quently hear of a minister going to the pulpit from 
 a Sunday train. Why not prelude the sermon with 
 theft, or adultery, or murder, the commands against 
 which are in the same code and much briefer than 
 the Sabbath law ? W^e will be glad to give evangeli- 
 cal ministers who use the Sunday trains, half a col- 
 umn each to explain, over their own signatures, if 
 they dare, how they harmonize a ride on a Sunda}^ 
 train with either the old Testament law of the Sab- 
 bath, or the New Testament spirit of the Lord's-da3\ 
 Most preachers who use Sunday trains explain that 
 they do so only in emergencies. But do they steal 
 in emergencies ? No man can do as much good b^^ a 
 sermon as he can do harm by going to it or from it, 
 
126 DECADENCE OF SUNDAY. 
 
 on a Sunday train. The excuses made do not satisfy 
 other people, nor the offender himself. 
 
 "At this season of the year there is special dan- 
 ger that churches that have protested against a 
 large Sunday picnic at Chicago, will advertise their 
 inconsistency by holding small ones in camp-meet- 
 ings and assemblies. The mother Chautauqua keeps 
 the Sabbath and most other children, but atSedalia, 
 if newspaper reports are correct, one of the Sunday- 
 school assemblies, on the 25th of June, opened its 
 gates with an admittance fee, and a preacher — just 
 like the World's Fair, to that extent — and no doubt 
 in the fact that Sunday-pleasuring followed the ser- 
 mon. We are glad the pastors of Sedalia set them- 
 selves against this attempt to sanctify the Sunday 
 show business, and we hope that if any other assem- 
 bly or camp-meeting brings such a scandal on Chris- 
 tianity, its officers will be called to account in the 
 church or in the courts. It is one of the strange 
 things that, while a man who steals a dollar is 
 'churched,' a man who steals time from God and 
 man is not even reproved. A greater peril to the 
 Sabbath even than Sunday-opening at Chicago is 
 the widespread Sabbath-breaking of Christians. It 
 is this Achan that causes our defeats and delays our 
 victories." 
 
 CHRISTIANS SUPPORT SUNDAY-DESECRATION BY 
 INDIRECTION. 
 
 In May, 1894, the American Sabbath, organ of 
 the American Sabbath Union, sent out the following 
 inquiry to a large number of pastors : 
 
CHRISTIANS RESPONSIBLE. 127 
 
 ^' Rev. and Dear Sir : — In view of the fact that 
 the Sunday secular newspaper imposes an unneces- 
 sarj' burden of Sunday labor upon thousands 
 throughout our country, and also seriously tends 
 to divert attention from the sacred duties of the 
 Lord's-daj^ among Christians, what practical 
 method would you suggest to counteract its 
 influence ? 
 
 "A brief response to the above inquiry — b^^ 
 return mail — will be used by the American Sabbath 
 Union, if 3'ou will kindly grant the privilege." 
 
 These are representative answers published in 
 reply : 
 
 Rev. John Rippere, Brooklyn, said: "If the 
 church, in practice, were only true on this question, 
 w^e might hope for progress in circumventing the 
 evil ; to accomplish an^- reform in this line, we must 
 begin at the church. 
 
 "If the officiary of churches, by joint action, 
 would resolve against reading the Sunda^^ secular 
 paper, and live up to it, the church — so represented — 
 might follow its leaders. Set the church right in 
 practice, then all her influence would tell on the side 
 of righteousness. Till that is done, the less we sa3^ 
 the better." 
 
 Rev. W. A. Layton, pastor of First M.E. church, 
 Brooklyn, said: "Allow me to say that the only 
 practical method to counteract the influence of the 
 Sunday newspaper is for Christian people to refuse 
 to touch 'the unclean thing,' and to discountenance 
 its use by others as far as possible. So long as our 
 
128 DECADENCE OF SUNDAY. 
 
 people patronize the devil, his business will pros- 
 per." 
 
 Few, if any, of the answers failed to emphasize 
 the influence of Christians in upholding the Sunday 
 papers. 
 
 In 1896 a correspondent of the Interior spoke of 
 Sunday newspapers and Christians as follows : 
 
 " How is it then that so man^^ professing Chris- 
 tians, some of them ministers of the Gospel, take the 
 Sunday papers, read them and have testimony to 
 give in their favor? It is said these papers have 
 come to stay, and must be accepted as a part of the 
 new order of things connected with the world's 
 progress. But does not their permanence depend on 
 the support given by those who have been brought 
 up to believe that they ought to 'Remember the 
 Sabbath-day to keep it holy? ' Will not some one 
 give us a little more Interior light on this subject? 
 Shall we accept the Sunday paper as a means of 
 grace, or look upon it as a device of the adver- 
 sary ? " 
 
 About the same date, Rev. Dr. Foster, Boston 
 correspondent of the Advance, reported a "Grand 
 Rally of the Sabbath Protective League" of Massa- 
 chusetts, at Cambridge, at which "Dean Hodges of 
 the Harvard Theological School stated that he was 
 a member of an association for publishing sermons 
 in Sunday papers." He thought the Sunday papers 
 ought to be read, and said that sixty papers were 
 then publishing sermons in their Sunday editions. 
 
 A report of the annual meeting of the Congrega- 
 
CHRISTIANS RESPONSIBLE. 129 
 
 tional churches of Massachusetts, held at Fall River, 
 May 19-21, 1896, in the Congregationalist for May 
 28, gave 1 he following item : 
 
 "Of special reports, that from the committee of 
 last year appointed to express sympathy with Sun- 
 day toilers, aroused intense interest. The committee 
 recounted special interviews with representatives of 
 5,000 street car and railroad employees, who frankly 
 acknowledged a fear of asking for one day in seven, 
 although it is their needed and Bible-allotted respite. 
 A renewed discussion of Sunday traffic at a subse- 
 quent hour developed a nearly evenly marked divis- 
 ion over the adoption of certain resolutions com- 
 mending the subject to the prayerful consideration of 
 the churches. After the liveliest debate of the meet- 
 ing the resolutions were rejected by a single vote, 
 chiefly because they were suggestive of a seeming 
 inconsistency on the part of some who of necessity 
 patronize Sunday cars." 
 
 Put into English, this indicates that the Congre- 
 gationalists of Massachusetts are so mixed up with 
 Sunday-desecration that they dare not advise each 
 other to a "prayerful consideration" of the ques- 
 tion. 
 
 Closely related to the above is the following bit 
 of history from the Defender for May, 1896. One of 
 its correspondents, Rev. Geo. H. Hubbard, said : 
 
 *'Our ministry and church members require Sun- 
 day trains and Sunday horse-cars; they require 
 Sunday postal service, domestic service, and other 
 work from countless public and private servants. 
 
130 DECADENCE OF SUNDAY. 
 
 What right have the Christian people of onr land to 
 do this? On all sides we hear them lamenting the 
 prevalent Sabbath-desecration of the ungodly, yet 
 Christians themselves lead the way in this desecra- 
 tion b3^ depriving so man^' of their servants of all 
 Sabbath-rest. Truh' the time has come for judg- 
 ment to begin at the house of God. Away with 
 that kind of Christianity that mourns over the 
 failure of worldly people to appreciate the blessed- 
 ness of the Sabbath, while it deliberately steals that 
 day of rest from multitudes w^ho need it. Reform 
 in this matter, as in all matters, must begin at 
 home. ' Thou hypocrite, oast out first the beam out 
 of thine own eye, and then shalt thou see clearly to 
 cast out the mote out of th\^ brother's eye.' Let the 
 church of Christ lead the way in a true and un- 
 selfish obedience to the divine command." 
 
 In the March number of the same paper a corre- 
 spondent from Rhode Island said : 
 
 "I am led to think that the results arising from 
 the misuse of the Sabbath are more threatening to 
 the best good of mankind than the terrible results of 
 the saloon. For, when the church-going people, and 
 even church members, participate in Sunday excur- 
 sions, it is high time that Christian p'eople, as well 
 as loyal citizens, should be awake to the dangers 
 which threaten our social and national well-being, 
 and use all proper methods in supprCvSsing this evil 
 before it is too late. We have in this state Sunday 
 laws, which, if enforced, would turn this tide of evil, 
 and give us hope for the future. What cnn be done?'' 
 
CHRISTIANS RESPONSIBLE. 131 
 
 In May, 1897, the Christian Statesman reported 
 the following: 
 
 The Executive Committee of the California State 
 ''Sabbath" Association recently passed the follow- 
 ing resolutions : 
 
 Resolved, That we of this Committee, as friends of the Sabbath, 
 hereby express our regret that so many pastors and churches lower 
 the standard of Sabbath-sanctification by various kinds of musical 
 entertainments such as Sunday concerts, cantatas, or choir exhibitions 
 sometimes called " praise services," or bj' entertaining lectures illus- 
 trated by magic lantern pictures, all which performances, however 
 appropriate on other days of the week, are a violation of the holy law 
 of the Sabbath, which requires all people to spend the whole day " in 
 the public and private exercises of God's worship except so much as is 
 to be taken up in the works of necessity and mercj'. " 
 
 Resolved, That so long as Christian ministers and people continue 
 to set such examples before others we cannot expect non-professors to 
 keep the Sabbath holy or obey any Sabbath law, however good i^ 
 may be. 
 
 The musical programs of man^- of our great city 
 churches for last Sabbath, in their elaborate Easter 
 services, differed but little from the programs of the 
 hall concerts which are breaking down the safe- 
 guards of the Lord's-da3^ How can Christian 
 churches enter a protest against an evil of which 
 they themselves are in substance also guilty ? 
 
 Twelve years before this the Statesman, writing 
 of" The Weakness of the Sabbath Cause," said : 
 
 "This is found in the weak convictions and 
 inconsistent practice of the professed friends and 
 servants of Christ. A prominent merchant in this 
 city remarked the other day : ' I have small hope of 
 success in any reformatory efforts concerning the 
 Sabbath. Christian people themselves have no 
 
132 DECADENCE OF SUNDAY. 
 
 recoo:nized standard as to the right observance of 
 the day.' 
 
 " The scenes depicted on the previous page are, 
 in almost every feature, clearly within the prohibi- 
 tion of the law. The law, too, could be enforced if 
 Christian men cared to demand and assist in the 
 enforcement of the laws. But there is our fatal 
 weakness. Christian men have tied their own hands 
 and sealed their own lips. They dare not make a 
 vigorous and united demand for the suppression of 
 certain forms of Sabbath-breaking for they are 
 themselves engaged habitually in other forms of the 
 same sin. They are members of Sabbath-breaking 
 operations, or they use the Sabbath mail, or they 
 travel on that day, or buy and read and advertise 
 in the 'Sunday papers.' 'The time is come that 
 judgment must begin at the house of God.' There 
 is a plain and imperative obligation resting on those 
 who have a standard of Sabbath-observance to lift 
 it up and press wisely and steadily for its universal 
 adoption." 
 
 When the opening of museums in the cit3^ of New 
 York was being discussed, the Observer, most ortho- 
 dox of Presbyterian papers, and a devoted friend of 
 Sunday, said : 
 
 "If the museums are finally opened on Sunday, 
 it will be owing, not so much to the leadership of 
 the infidel element as to the following this element 
 has gained from those who rank among the relig- 
 ious. Secularists and other despisers of Christianity 
 have led the movement with vigor, hoping that they 
 
CHRISTIANS RESPONSIBLE. 133 
 
 may soon cry with M. Retian, ' Christianity is dead ; 
 it has lost its Sunday.' But they would have been 
 comparatively powerless if their movement had not 
 obtained respectability b3^ the adhesion of those 
 vyrhose general S3^mpathies and associations are with 
 the Christian church. Let our religious people 
 understand that if we lose our Sunday it will be 
 because they have lost it out of their own hearts, 
 and have no deep conviction ot its value or necessity 
 for the world and the church. When Christians 
 travel, entertain, amuse themselves, and recreate in 
 ever\^ way which shows that the sacredness of the 
 day is forgotten or ignored, there is little reason to 
 expect the world around to appreciate or reverence 
 the Sabbath." 
 
 In the issue for Nov. 12, 1885, the same paper 
 said : 
 
 " How do Christians stand in view of this diffi- 
 culty and danger? What is their testimony and 
 example in the midst of a world which regards 
 nothing but what is seen and temporal? In no 
 accusing spirit we reply, that many in our churches 
 are at one with the world in its increasing laxity as 
 to the sacredness of Sunday. We do not say that 
 the mass of religious people are as careless as the 
 irreligious, but that the change in their habits corre- 
 sponds with the change in habits of the world. 
 Numbers of evangelical communicants, members of 
 the various Protestant churches commonly classed as 
 orthodox, do not feel underanyo I (ligation to keep the 
 Sabbath holy by abstaining from ordinary recrea- 
 
134 DECADENCE OF SUNDAY. 
 
 tions, and finding pleasure in religious duties, acts of 
 charity and usefulness. Their ordinary work is 
 necessarily suspended. But travel, social enjo3'ment, 
 innocent recreation, secular newspapers, and ordi- 
 nary novels occupy their time and minds without a 
 thought of loss to themselves or injury to others." 
 
 The Advance, April 8, 1896, quotes Mr. Moody 
 as follows : 
 
 " Look how the commandment to keep the Sab- 
 bath-day is toned down. But what Chicago needs 
 is to get that old law in force again. Young people 
 are out on their wheels, older people are reading the 
 Sunday papers, the saloons are full, and throngs go 
 to the woods for picnics. What is the end of it all? 
 Young men are ruined; young women are ruined ; 
 the police courts are full every Monday morning, 
 and mothers all over the land are weeping over chil- 
 dren who have been ruined. This thing could all be 
 stopped if churches would do their dut\'." 
 
 In 1888 the Pittsburg Synod of United Presby- 
 terians adopted a stirring report upon the question 
 of Sabbath-observance. Touching the Sunday news- 
 paper, and the responsibility connected with it, the 
 Synod said, " that the buying and leading of Sun- 
 day newspapers by professing Christians is an 
 immorality and a violation of the law of God ; and 
 persistence in this practice becomes a just cause for 
 church discipline; also, that all meml^ers of the 
 church be earnestly exhorted not to patronize on 
 any day a paper that publishes an edition on the 
 Sabbath." 
 
CHRISTIANS RESPONSIBLE. 135 
 
 Commenting upon the above, the Watchman, of 
 Boston, said : 
 
 " This, it seems to us, is not onh^ hitting the nail 
 on the head, but driving it in a sure place. There is 
 no doubt that professing Christians are largely to 
 blame for this growing evil, and not only so, but 
 that the weapon for killing it off is in the hands of 
 the church people themselves if they will only use it. 
 That the circulation and reading of Sunday news- 
 papers tends to turn away the thoughts from God, 
 to secularize the mind and destroy the sanctity of 
 the Lord's-day, there can be no doubt. Recogniz- 
 ing this fact, is it not the duty of every professing 
 Christian not only not to buy and read the Sundaj^ 
 daily papers, but also not to patronize in any way 
 those papers which publish Sunday edit ions? Let the 
 Christian people of every community cease their 
 support of such papers, both in their subscriptions 
 and advertisements, and how long would it be 
 before the evil deplored would be a thing of the 
 past? It is in the hands of professing Christians 
 everywhere to decide whether or not the Sunday 
 newspaper must go." 
 
 In the summer of 1889 the Pe^rl of Days, organ 
 of the American Sabbath Union, said : 
 
 "When the Christian church will consent to 
 magnifv the divine command, 'Remember the Sab- 
 bath-day to keep it holy,' not seeking worldly pleas- 
 ure or gain on that sacred day; not joining hands 
 with Sabbath-breaking directors of corporations; 
 not secularizing holy hours by admitting Sunday 
 
136 DECADENCE OF SUNDAY. 
 
 newspapers into the home, then will a new era 
 break upon the nation. The spiritual significance of 
 the Sabbath, as the holy sign between God and 
 man, of all good, will then become widelv^ apparent. 
 The Holy Spirit will then give to moral and Chris- 
 tian reforms, of every kind, a new impulse. In a 
 word, the responsibilit}^ of right Sabbath-observ- 
 ance, with all its attendant blessings, rests upon the 
 church of Jesus Christ." 
 
CHAPTER Vni. 
 
 CHRISTIANS NEGLECT THE DEFENSE OF SUNDAY. 
 
 Few People Defending Sunday — Preachers Remiss in Promoting Regard 
 for Sunday — Christians in Wisconsin Apathetic— Christian En- 
 deavor Societies Indiffc^rent— California Societies Especially So— 
 Delegates to SanFrancisco Convention Desecrated Sunday — Dea- 
 con Pugh in the Advance — Iowa Sabbath-Association Weak in De- 
 fending Sunday — Christians in Massachusetts Relaxed in Senti- 
 ment—Book Writers, Waffle and Stacy, Declare that Regard lor 
 Sundaj' Grows Less— Regard for Sunday and for the Bible Grows 
 Less, Hand in Hand— Protestants Must Give Up the Failing Sun- 
 day and Return to God's Sabbath. 
 
 TN the autumn or 1896, the Christian Endeavorer, 
 Chicago, said : " There are but seven men in the 
 United States who are giving their time to the 
 "Rescue of the Sabbath." Of these two or three 
 are doing other things, so that it may be said that 
 not one-half dozen men in the United States are 
 devoted to this great and important work. 
 
 In the Defender for October, 1896, Rev. W. F. 
 Crafts complained of the general lack of interest and 
 effort in behalf of Sunday. He hoped that Chris ian 
 Endeavor Societies would stir the churches to over- 
 come this lethargy. What he said seemed quite out 
 of harmon}^ with the claims made by others, that 
 there is a great and growing movement among 
 Christians for the salvation of the "imperiled Sun- 
 day." This is what Mr. Craft's wrote: 
 
 "There is hardly a village of five thousand 
 inhabitants in all our land, in which there are not 
 
138 DECADENCE OF SUNDAY. 
 
 more men giving their time to denominational 
 church work as pastors than are giving their time 
 to the defense of the Sabbath in the whole country 
 to-day. Only nine men and one woman are receiv- 
 ing salaries, mosth^ insufficient for full support, as 
 officers of Sabbath Associations. Preachers are in 
 some very insufficient degree urging personal Sab- 
 bath-observance (often nullifying their testimony by 
 their own use of Sunday trains), but the writer does 
 not know of a single instance where churches, as 
 such, are actively engaged, whether by cit3% or state 
 or nation, in the defense of the Sabbath, which man- 
 ifestly cannot be saved by individual or denomina- 
 tional effort alone. In no way does the lack of 
 Christian solidarity and sociality seem so amazing 
 as in the neglect of this institution, which is not only 
 the chief expression of Christian humanities, but also 
 the very foundation of the church's life." 
 
 The reason for this want of "solidarity " on the 
 part of Christians is not far to seek. There is not, 
 and there cannot be, an^^ "solidarity" of sentiment 
 or faith concerning Sunday. The masses believe in 
 it only as a holiday. Christians give all sorts of 
 reasons for some sort of observance of it; but they 
 are non- scriptural and do not appeal to conscience, 
 and there is no religious unity and solidarity with- 
 out conscience, and conscience thrives on divine 
 autho^'ity only. Shifting sand is not the foundation 
 for "solidaritv." 
 
 The apatliy ot Christians, including Christian 
 Endeavor Societies, was much commented upon 
 
CHRISTIANS APATHETIC. 139 
 
 during 1897. Rev. J. B. Davison, who represented 
 the Sunday-observance forces in the state of Wiscon- 
 sin, in Christian Endeavorer for September, reveals 
 the status of the Sunday question in that state by 
 the following : " We in Wisconsin have similar dese- 
 cration of the Lord's-day; but we are hardened to 
 it and absolutely refuse to awaken to its danger. 
 I am often told, 'This is an important subject; but 
 others far more important demand all our time and 
 effort.' The general failure to take hold of this work 
 proves that this is the general feeling. Again, there is a 
 general idea that the chief thing to do is to save and 
 enforce Sunday law ; whereas the first and most 
 important thing is to love the Sabbath more our- 
 selves, and to keep it more holy, then to educate the 
 people to a higher and truer understanding of its 
 nature and worth. Then law enforcement would be 
 easy. Law enforcement is important; but right 
 example, education and agitation are far more 
 important." 
 
 A " Prize Banner" was offered to the state in 
 which Christian Endeavor Societies should do most 
 for Sunday reform, the report to be made to the 
 International Convention at San Francisco, in July, 
 1897. One item in Mr. Davison's complaint was 
 in reference to this banner. It ran thus: "Blanks 
 with urgent requests for prompt return were sent 
 to every Secretary. Five hundred have paid no heed 
 to the request. From reports received and personal 
 knowledge, a report was sent on to headquarters of 
 over two thousand credits in the contest for the 
 
140 DECADENCE OF SUNDAY. 
 
 banner for work for Sabbath defense. California 
 and perhaps Pennsylvania are ahead of us. If every 
 Society had once reported, we should at least come 
 ver}^ near having the banner. If half of the Societies 
 had appointed a Sabbath-observance Committee, 
 and bought from fifty cents to three dollars' worth 
 of Lord 's-daj^ leaflets and either alone or with the 
 other Young People's Societies distributed them in 
 every home in the community, we should have won 
 the banner easily." 
 
 The Societies in California made great eftbrts to 
 secure the banner about which Mr. Davison com- 
 plained. The Pacific Christian EncJeavorer for June, 
 1897, said that what had been done by these Socie- 
 ties was a ''Striking commentar^^ on what had not 
 been done." To this striking statement the Endeav- 
 orer added the following report : 
 
 *' Less than 50 per cent of our Societies have 
 enough interest in securing the proper observ- 
 ance of our Lord's day to appoint a committee for 
 that purpose ! 
 
 "Less than 13 per cent have had sermons 
 preached upon the subject ! 
 
 "Less than 6 per cent have enough interest 
 in this question to discuss it in their Endeavor meet- 
 ings ! 
 
 "And less than 2 per cent have had the matter 
 discussed in the church prayer-meetings ! 
 
 " Los Angeles County deserves honor as having 
 won 25 per cent of all credits reported." 
 
 Considering the peculiar pressure that was 
 
CHRISTIANS APATHETIC. 141 
 
 brought to bear on the societies in California, this 
 was apath^v, indeed. But there is no cause for 
 wonder in all this. The young people have been 
 taught to hold Sunday lightly, b3^ the example of 
 their elders who have done so much to bring it into 
 decay. Even the enthusiasm of youth could not be 
 expected to work miracles, nor restore life to the 
 moribund day. 
 
 DESECRATION BY CHRISTIAN. ENDEAVORERS. 
 
 The Christian Endeavorer, of Chicago, for 
 August, 1897, had an editorial on Sunday-desecra- 
 tion by Christian Endeavorers while on their jour- 
 ney to the San Francisco Convention. The core of 
 the editorial was this: "At Denver this question 
 was raised : * Shall we take a side trip, which will 
 necessitate Sunday traveling, or shall we forfeit the 
 scenery, deny ourselves the pleasure of the trip, and 
 thus avoid Sunday travel? ' The party divided, one 
 portion saying, ' It means only a few hours of Sun- 
 day' travel,' and the other saying, ' To remember the 
 Sabbath-day means to keep the whole day ho\y.- 
 We shall not ask which was right. Our sole pur- 
 pose in bringing this matter before our readers is to 
 emphasize the fact that was brought out by one of 
 the speakers at the Convention, viz.: ' The laboring 
 man will never have a Sabbath until the church 
 stops its sinning against the Sabbath.' The church 
 is wholly to blame for the increasing disregard for 
 the Lord's-day. Whole delegations of Endeavorers 
 traveled the greater part of Sunday, July 4, on their 
 wav to the San Francisco Convenlion." 
 
142 DECADENCE OF SUNDAY. 
 
 When the special representatives of Sunday-ob- 
 servance do not deny themselves the pleasure of a 
 side trip for sake of some beautiful scenery, even 
 when going to a Convention, w^hich sought to make 
 a great impression on the world in general and Cali- 
 fornia in particular, in favor of Sunday, they are not 
 different from the Sunday bicyclists, whom they 
 hasten to condemn. This episode adds to the proof 
 that "Sabbath Reform," as represented by these 
 societies, is more a name than a fact. Note the fact 
 that these charges are brought against Christian 
 Endeavorers by their own journals. 
 
 According to " Deacon Pugh," in the Advance of 
 Aug. 5, 1885, the Christian Endeavor Convention, 
 held at Boston that year, was quite unable to fulfill 
 its promise concerning keeping Sunday sacredly. 
 This is the version given by the Advance: 
 
 " In spite of the plans for Sabbath-observance at 
 Boston during the recent Convention, it is reported 
 that the Endeavorers kept the railroad men busy all 
 the preceding Sunday. If this be true, they pr. bably 
 thought the occasion furnished an 'emergency' 
 which justified their course. Surely those who, 
 before the World's Fair, shouted, 
 
 " We won't go 
 To the vSabbath-breaking show, '" 
 
 were but giving voice to the law-abiding spirit of 
 Endeavor. 
 
 "But what about these 'emergencies'? How 
 can we have a Sunda}^ train for emergencies, except 
 b^^ having one ail the time? If, then, we accept the 
 
CHRISTIANS APATHETIC. 143 
 
 emergency, we accept and sanction the regular train 
 that accommodates our emergency, and we have 
 yielded the whole point. Isn't that good logic? " 
 
 In a similar strain this " Deacon Pugh," in the 
 Advance for April 8, 1897, sharpened his pen for 
 such Christians as patronize Sunday trains. This 
 is the way the Deacon put the case, under the head, 
 " Lost, A Conscience " : 
 
 " Bv the way, one who knows, affirms that it is 
 becoming quite the thing for a church committee 
 seeking a pastor, to take the train Sunday morning 
 to a neighboring town or cit^' for the purpose of at- 
 tending the service of an unconscious candidate. 
 Such a scheme strikes one as business like, but what 
 has become of the conscience of the Christian church 
 which authorizes it? 
 
 " Lost ! On Sunda3' morning, by the Pulpit Sup- 
 pl\' Committee, on the wa^^ to the depot enroute to 
 Villaville to hear the Rev. Dr. Power, the Calvary 
 church conscience! The finder will be liberally 
 rewarded on returning the same to the owner." 
 
 Such telling satire would provoke a smile, if one 
 could cover the precipice toward which those drift 
 who have thus lost conscience in the matter of all 
 Sabbath-observance. We sa^^ all Sabbath-observ- 
 ance, for the evil begins in the disregard for God's 
 Law and his Sabbath, into which Christians fell 
 long ago, led by Pagan philosophy, rather than 
 Christ-like obedience. 
 
 In 1896 especial efforts were made to awaken a 
 new interest in Sundav reform in the state of Iowa. 
 
144 DECADENCE OF SUNDAY. 
 
 The reports given b^^ the Iowa State Register, of the 
 ConA'ention at Des Moines, in the autumn of that 
 year, fully sustain the following by Rev. A. L. Frisbie, 
 D. D., which appeared in the Advance soon after the 
 Convention : 
 
 "The month opened w\t\\ what was meant to 
 be a State Convention of the Iowa Sabbath Associa- 
 tion. That societ\^ has been at a ver^^ low stage of 
 life, but a few months ago arose and shook itself 
 and called Rev. C. F. Williams, late chaplain of the 
 penitentiary at Fort Madison for nine \'ears, to be 
 its secretary. The choice was a good one and he 
 took great pains to send the call to the ' Sabbath 
 Rescue Convention' in Des Moines well through the 
 stace. The response was very slight. If the interest 
 of the Iowa people in the rescuing of the Sabbath 
 be measured by the size of the Convention, there is 
 small hope for the rescue of the day. It is possible, 
 however, that a good many are doubtful about the 
 promise of the work attempted by the Association. 
 It does not matter whether or not they are justified 
 in this skepticism, so that they are under the influ- 
 ence of it, they will be lukewarm toward the specific 
 endeavors of the society. And some are in an apa- 
 thetic state, feeling that the Sabbath, as an institu- 
 tion, is so deeply grounded in divine law and human 
 necessity, that there can be no serious danger of its 
 practical loss. Then there is some degree of uncer- 
 tainty of aim in effort for the preservation of the 
 Sabbath. Some find it hard to surrender the notion 
 that the state should protect it as a religious day. 
 
CHRISTIANS APATHETIC. 14-5 
 
 More, however, fall in with the idea of a 'civil rest 
 day,' protected as such b\^ law and guaranteed to 
 the people. The Secular Union men who are sayino", 
 ' Away with the church ! ' ' Away with Sunday- ! ' are 
 posing in bad form as the friends of the laboring 
 man. This program means seven times fifty-two 
 working days in the A^ear. They would take from 
 the w^orking man his chance of a seventh of all the 
 days, sacredly and indefeasibh^ his own — the peo- 
 ple's day, the rest for the weary, the delight of the 
 worshiper, the blessing of all. The laws of most of 
 the states — susceptible of much improvement — do 
 protect the day as one of rest. The church of Christ, 
 taking advantage of this fact, must save the da3' 
 for man, in the best uses of it, and save it for God by 
 a wise and faithful ministration of the gospel on 
 the day when men may rest and hear. The church 
 is, as yet, but a novice in the winning of men. When 
 our churches shall unite to make the day ' a delight, 
 the holy of the Lord, honorable,' we shall have a 
 Lord's-day which will be significant. Otherwise, 
 never." 
 
 W. G. Tuttle, D. D., of Worcester, Mass., was 
 reported by the Defender for October, 1897, as say- 
 ing: 
 
 *' The main danger of the hour is a relaxed senti- 
 ment among Christians respecting the Lord's-day. 
 So long as I hey, in their personal conduct, make no 
 protest against Sunday travel and Sunday pleasure, 
 so long will there be no hope of bettei things. With 
 an unselfish, self-sacrificing spirit in our churches, 
 
146 DECADENCE OF SUNDAY. 
 
 which will impel Christians to avoid all things 
 which compromise the Lord's-da3^ which will make 
 them considerate of th'^se who must toil on Sunday, 
 and will lead them to give up all things which secu- 
 larize the day, a new era of hope will dawn on 
 Christ's kingdom." 
 
 BOOK WRITERS ASSERT THE FAILURE OF SUNDAY. 
 
 In 1885 the American Sunday-School Union 
 published a "prize essay" by Rev. A. E. Waffle, 
 entitled, '' The Lord's-da\^" Discussing the " State 
 of the Question," Mr. Waffle averred that the issues 
 involved in the Sabbath question are of paramount 
 importance, and that even then the decline of regard 
 for Sunday had become rapid and alarming. He 
 said, also, that the question as a whole was by no 
 means settled. Here are some rej^resentative 
 sentences : 
 
 "To say the least, the question is now an open 
 one whether we shall have a Sabbath, or whether 
 Sunday shall be a mere holiday, when it is not 
 devoted, like the other days of the week, to secular 
 toil. . . . It is certain that the relative amount 
 of work done on Sunday in this countr^^ is con- 
 stantly increasing, while the disregard for the Sab- 
 bath by pleasure-seekers is one of the most striking 
 features of our time." 
 
 During the thirteen years since Mr. Waffle wrote 
 thus, the disregard for Sunday has been emphasized 
 and increased many times. Of the state of public 
 opinion when he wrote, Mr. Waffle said : 
 
CHRISTIANS APATHETIC. 147 
 
 '^ As we have opened our ears to the multitudin- 
 ous voices that come to us from the different classes of 
 our people, it has seemed that the protests against the 
 destruction of the Sabbath grow feebler and feebler. 
 It may be that the protest of the church is becoming 
 more vigorous as the danger increases; but the pro- 
 test does not have its proper effect, because the 
 trumpet which raises the note of warning gives an 
 'uncertain sound.' To sa^" nothing of the inconsist- 
 ent practices of those who profess to have a high 
 regard for the sacredness of the Lord's-day, there is 
 such a variety of opinions concerning the reasons 
 for observing it that men are in doubt as to whether 
 it rests on any solid foundation. When Christian 
 teachers disagree on an^'- point of doctrine, it is 
 natural for the indifferent to say that no plain reve- 
 lation has been made on the subject of dispute, and 
 that, therefore, it has small claim to their atten- 
 tion." 
 
 With much more of the same character did Mr. 
 Waffle testify to the fact that Christians have under- 
 mined Sunda}^ and demonstrate that there is neiiher 
 Biblical reason nor common ground for its observ- 
 ance. In so far as his words were prophetic of 
 greater and more rapid decline they have been ful- 
 filled immeasurably. 
 
 In 1885 Whittet and Shepperson, Richmond, 
 Va., published "Day of Rest," etc., by Rev. James 
 Stac3% D. D. It was strongly put, from the Presby- 
 terian standpoint. On page 292 and following, Mr. 
 Stacy wrote on this theme: "Who is responsible 
 
148 DECADENCE OF SUNDAY. 
 
 for the Sabbath-desecration in the land?" He 
 said: 
 
 "That a fearful amount of Sabbath-desecration 
 exists in our land none can deny. And that a disre- 
 gard for the sabbatic law is gradually increasing 
 year by 3^ear is also apparent, even to the most care- 
 less observer. There must be a responsibility for 
 the present state of things resting somewhere. 
 Who, then, is to blame? And whom does the Lord 
 hold responsible for the enforcement of his law? 
 . . . But there is a still greater obligation on the 
 church. . . . She should teach with her example 
 as well as her precepts, in requiring her members, 
 and especially her ministers, to honor this day of the 
 Lord. For what can be expected of the outside 
 world, when the church herself fails to respect this 
 ordinance of her King? And we do not hesitate to 
 charge it upon the Christian church, and that, too, 
 in all of her branches, that it is in a great measure 
 owing to her laxity of doctrine and discipline that 
 this day of the Lord is no more honored. . . . 
 We repeat it, that there is a fearful responsibility 
 resting upon the church, and especially upon her 
 ministers, in this matter. It is because of the 
 encouragement and support that the outside world 
 receive from the people of God that renders the evil 
 so menacing. It is not simph' the apathy, but this 
 open disregard, on the part of the professed friends 
 of the institution that gives such strength to the 
 opposition. If the Christian people of this land 
 were only a unit in their testimony and practice, the 
 
CHRISTIANS APATHETIC. 149 
 
 question of Sabbath-observance would be soon and 
 finally settled." 
 
 Similar testimony is found in all the books of 
 value, touching the Sunday question, which have 
 been published within the last fifteen or twenty 
 years. Book writers and editors agree as to the 
 general facts and the inevitable results. We sum- 
 marize the facts : The Sabbath question is a vital 
 one in its relation to Christianity. It is an unset- 
 tled question. Regard for Sunday is failing, widely 
 and rapidly. Christians are largely, if not chiefly, 
 responsible for the decline and loss of Sunda3\ They 
 can find no common ground for its defense. They 
 are dull through apathy and indifference. They are 
 inconsistent through lack of conscience. Their 
 efforts to check deca\^ are weak, sporadic, and inef- 
 fectual. Worse evils impend. 
 
 In the quotations which have been given in pre- 
 vious chapters, and are given here, there is not one 
 from an enem^^ of Sunday. There are but one or 
 two from secular papers. We have placed before 
 the reader facts and conclusions as the}' have been 
 expressed by the best and most earnest friends of 
 Sunday. He who will not stop here to think and 
 pra}' is too superficial and indifferent to be counted 
 a devout follower of Christ, Lord of the Sabbath. 
 
 These charges, made by Christians against their 
 fellows, might be extended through man}^ more 
 pages. But the case does not demand this. The 
 evidence adduced makes one conclusion certain, v/>., 
 reo:ard for Sundav as a sacred dav has decaved in 
 
150 DECADENCE OF SUNDAY. 
 
 the faith of Christians until their opinions and prac- 
 tices are a prominent, if not the most prominent, 
 influence in continuing this deca}^, and in fostering 
 both non-rehgious and irrehgious hohdayism on 
 Sunday. The best interests of Christianity are thus 
 imperiled. Public worship declines. Regard for the 
 Bible lessens. Indifferentism as to religion and 
 religious duties prevails, more and more. The friends 
 of Sunday are powerless in the presence of the evils 
 they have done so much to create. In this drift 
 away from weekly Sabbathism there is no tendency 
 toward even a theoretical, much less an actual, Pan- 
 Sabbathism. Nothing can check the tide but a 
 reform that v^4 11 be revolutionary. This must carry 
 the Christian world back to the point where it first 
 left the road which Christ marked. The Sabbath of 
 God and of his Son, its Lord, must be restored ; not 
 as the old institution of Phariseeism, but as the 
 Christianized Sabbath of Christ. Protestants, of all 
 others, stand face to face with this issue. Delay will 
 deepen the morass of Sabbathlessness through which 
 the return must be made. God waits to hear the 
 answer Protestants will make. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 ROMAN CATHOLICISM AND SUNDAY. 
 
 Western Christianity and Roman Catholicism Largely Identical— Sun- 
 day Legislation Essentially Roman Catholic— Church or Bible, 
 Which— Catholics on the Sabbath Question, Senex, Cardinal Gib- 
 bons and Others — Catholic Minor Quoted — Protestants Losing 
 Ground — Weekly ^F//«^^j- Quoted— Possible Overestimate by Cath- 
 olic ^Wrror— Protestants Returning to the Catholic Position — 
 Protestants Asking Kelp P'rom Catholics— Catholics Well Pleased 
 With the Situation. 
 
 T>EFORE inquiring more closely as to the causes 
 which have made the decline of regard for Sun- 
 day inevitable, it is well to note that Roman Cathol- 
 icism has been — and is yet to be — an important 
 factor in the Sunday question. This is true, not 
 only because the Roman CathoHc church embodies 
 much the greater part of the history of Western 
 Christianity within itself, but because the same 
 Pa^an influences, philosophical and political, Greek 
 and Roman, which brought the observance of Sun- 
 day, Easter, Good Friday, baptismal regeneration, 
 the use of lights in worship, prayers for the dead, 
 sprinkling and pouring in addition to immersion, 
 the worship of saints, and a long list of other and 
 similar additions to New Testament Christianity, 
 were the influences which culminated in the estab- 
 lishment of Roman Catholicism and the Papacy. 
 No historian thinks of denying that Sunday legisla- 
 tion began in 321 A. D., under Constantine; that his 
 first law was Pagan, purely, in form, fact and 
 
152 DECADENCE OF SUNDAY. 
 
 essence; that it represented the union of Church and 
 State, after the Pagan model. This legislation and 
 the fixing of "Easter" by civil law, on Sunday, 
 rather than on the 14th of the month, according to 
 the Paschal law of the Jews, completed the civil and 
 political enthronement of Sunday in place of the 
 Sabbath. 
 
 Roman Catholics claim that the church has 
 power to make any and all Ecclesiastical laws, and 
 that since the church "created the Bible," it alone 
 can interpret it. The Catholic church was the first 
 to teach the now popular doctrine that the Sabbath 
 and the Ten Commandments are Jewish only, and 
 not binding on Christians. Every man who teaches 
 that doctrine is a Catholic thus far, whether he be 
 called "Roman" Catholic or "Baptist" Catholic, 
 whether he taught in the third century, or teaches 
 now in the nineteenth. The name does not change 
 the fact that the doctrine thus taught, the no- 
 la wism, or, as Paul puts it, the lawlessness which 
 has borne the fruitage of Continental Sundayism 
 with its Spanish bull-fights in Madrid, and its 
 ConcA^ Island excursions in New York, is an anti- 
 Biblical product of Pagan philosophy. 
 
 The developments connected with the Sabbath 
 question and the plans for advancing Roman Cath- 
 olic interests in the United States, being carefully 
 noted by observant Catholic leaders, have brought 
 out some important statements from Catholics, 
 which are being widely disseminated. The^^ are 
 based on the claim that, in keeping Sunday, Protest- 
 
ROMAN CATHOLICS AND SUNDAY. 153 
 
 ants acknowledge the authority- of the Catholic 
 church. In 1890, a Booklet was published in Balti- 
 more, Md., with the sanction of the highest repre- 
 sentative of the Roman Catholic church in the 
 United States, entitled: "The Letters of Senex on 
 True and False Faith, and on the Sabbath Question, 
 Scripturally Considered." Cardinal Gibbons' book, 
 "Our Christian Heritage," p. 495-505 (published in 
 1889), treats the Sabbath question with great 
 ability- and shrewdness, and in a manner calculated 
 to draw Protestant defenders of Sunday into the 
 Roman Catholic net, not only disarmed, but flat- 
 tered that the Catholics are coming to the Protest- 
 ant position. In the "Sunday-Rest Congress," at 
 Chicago, in 1893, a paper by Cardinal Gibbons, and 
 an address by Archbishop Ireland, tended strongly 
 in the same direction. At the same time, and as a 
 significant part of their far-reaching program, there 
 appeared in the columns of the Catholic Mirror, 
 usually regarded as the mouthpiece of the Cardinal, 
 a series of articles upon the Sabbath question, run- 
 ning from September 9 to 30, 1893. The opening 
 article of this series reviewed the situation briefly, 
 the claims of the Israelites, and of Sabbath-keeping 
 Christians, and the A^arious attitudes which Protest- 
 ants took concerning the World's Fair. The iVf/rror 
 states its purpose as follow^s : 
 
 "Our purpose in throwing off this article is to 
 shed such light on this all-important question (for 
 were the Sabbath question to be removed from the 
 Protestant pulpit the sects would feel lost, and the 
 
154 DECADENCE OF SUNDAY. 
 
 preachers be deprived of their ' Cheshire cheese') 
 that our readers may be able to comprehend, the 
 question in all its hearings, and thus reach a clear 
 conviction. 
 
 ****** 
 
 *' Neither is the discussion of this paramount 
 subject above the capacity of ordinary minds, nor 
 does it involve extraordinary study. 
 
 "It resolves itself into a few plain questions, 
 easy of solution. 
 
 "1st. Which day of the week does the Bible 
 enjoin to be kept holy ? 
 
 "2d. Has the New Testament modified by pre- 
 cept or practice the ori^^inal command ? 
 
 "3d. Have Protestants, since the sixteenth 
 century, obeyed the command of God b}^ keeping 
 ' holy ' the day enjoined by their infallible guide and 
 teacher, the Bible; if not, why not?" 
 
 Speaking of ''The Letters of Senex'' named 
 above, the A/irror said : 
 
 "The pages of this brochure unfold to the read- 
 ers one of the most glaringly conceivalile contradic- 
 tions existing between the practice and theory of 
 the Protestant world, and unsusceptible of any 
 rational solution on the theory claiming the Bible 
 alone as the teacher, which unequivocally and most 
 positively commands SaturdaA^ to be kept 'holy,' 
 whilst their practice proves that they utterly ignore 
 the unequivocal requirements of their teacher, the 
 Bible, and occupying Catholic ground for three cen- 
 turies and a half, b3^ theabandonment of their theory 
 
ROMAN CATHOLICS AND SUNDAY. 155 
 
 they stand before the world to-day the representa- 
 tives of a S3^steiTi, the most indefensible, self-contra- 
 dictory, and suicidal that can be imagined." 
 
 Again, speaking of the Protestants of the six- 
 teenth century, the Mirror said : 
 
 "Chief amongst their articles of belief was, and 
 is to-day, the permanent necessity of keeping the 
 Sabbath holy. In fact, it has been for the past 300 
 years the only article of the Christian belief in which 
 there has been a plenar_v concensus of Biblical repre- 
 sentatives. The keeping of the Sabbath constitutes 
 the sum and substance of the Biblical theory. The 
 pulpits resound weekly with incessant tirades against 
 the lax manner of keeping the Sabbath in Catholic 
 countries as contrasted with the proper, Chris- 
 tian, self-satisfied mode of keeping the day in Bibli- 
 cal countries. 
 
 ****** 
 
 "This most glaring contradiction involving a 
 deliberate sacreligious rejection of a most positive 
 precept is presented to us to-day in the action of the 
 Biblical Christian world. The Bible and the Sab- 
 bath constitute the watchword of Protestantism; 
 but we have demonstrated that it is the Bible versus 
 their Sabbath. We have shown that no greater con- 
 tradiction ever existed than their theory and prac- 
 tice. We have proved that neither their Biblical 
 ancestors nor themselves have ever kept one Sab- 
 bath-day in their lives. The Israelites and Seventh- 
 day Adventists [and Seventh-day Baptists] are wit- 
 nesses of their weeklv desecration of the dav named 
 
156 DECADENCE OF SUNDAY. 
 
 b^^ God SO repeatedly, and whilst the^' have ignored 
 and condemned their teacher, the Bible, they have 
 adopted a day kept by the Catholic church. What 
 Protestant can, after perusing these articles, v^ith a 
 clear conscience, continue to disobey the command 
 of God, enjoining Saturday to be kept, which com- 
 mand his teacher, the Bible, from Genesis to Revela- 
 tion, records as the will of God ? " 
 
 However much Protestants may shrink from 
 these sharp words, or however much they ma^^ deny 
 to the Catholics the power they claim, they cannot 
 escape the fact that the Bible commands them to do 
 what they do not do, in the matter of the Sabbath. 
 The only excuse they have placed on record, and the 
 only answer they can make, is to throw away the 
 Fourth Commandment as "Jewish," or else tr^^ to 
 make it appear that God did not mean what he said 
 when he gave it. No discussion of the claims of 
 Roman Catholics can remove the central point in 
 the issue. Protestants profess one thing and do 
 directh^ the opposite. 
 
 pr()Tp:stantism losing ground. 
 
 While the Sabbath question is, doctrinally and 
 practically, the one in which the issue between 
 Catholics and Protestants is most strongly marked, 
 there are several other vital ones which Protestants 
 yield in accepting Sunday. Sunday rests upon the 
 basis of custom, church authority, and the civil law, 
 and it is the supremacy of these over the Bible that 
 forms the core of the Catholic position. That Pro- 
 testantism should lose ground in the struggle with 
 
ROMAN CATHOLICS AND SUNDAY. 157 
 
 Catholicism is a foregone conclusion, when we con- 
 sider how Protestants still clingto the Catholic posi- 
 tion, although repudiating it in theory. 
 
 On the 3d of October, 1895, the New York 
 Weekly Witness republished an article b^^ Rev. R. 
 Sailliens, of Paris, concerning the " Revival of Roman 
 Catholicism in Europe." Referring to it editorially, 
 the Witness said : 
 
 '*This writer [Sailliens] goes to the root of the 
 matter when he points out that the decline of faith 
 in the Bible among Protestants is the great source 
 of danger. Martin Luther could stand alone 
 against the whole power of the Church of Rome, and 
 gain a great victor\^ over it, at a time when the 
 supremacy of Rome was universally acknowledged 
 throughout Western Europe, because he took his 
 stand on the Word of God and refused to recognize 
 any other authority or source of revelation. The 
 Protestantism of to-day, though strong in num- 
 bers and in wealth, is weak in the face of skepticism 
 on one hand and of Romanism on the other, because 
 it does not know how much it can, or cannot, 
 depend on the truth of doctrines taught in the 
 Bible. 
 
 " A religion which hath no ' Thus saith the Lord ' 
 behind it can never be anything but a religion of 
 doubt. There is no power for self-propagation in 
 such a religion ; nor is there any power in it to give 
 its adherents confidence in approaching God. The 
 Protestant churches must come back to first princi- 
 ples in this matter, and then neither Romanism, nor 
 
158 DECADENCE OF SUNDAY. 
 
 Paganism, nor Mohammedanism, nor skepticism 
 will be able to stand before them." 
 
 About the same date — November 3, 1895 — the 
 Catholic Mirror contained an editorial concerning 
 an article by Cardinal Gibbons, published in the 
 October, 1895, issue of the American Catholic Quar- 
 terly Review, in which the Mirror said : 
 
 "The Catholic church, as Fatlier Zahm remarked 
 in his recent admirable volume, has ceased to con- 
 tend with Protestantism, because there is no need of 
 it. Sagacious men in the Protestant ranks them- 
 selves admit that as a representative system it is so 
 rapidly disintegrating that before long it must 
 cease to exist. An article in the Literary Digest of 
 the week just passed, from a Protestant source, dis- 
 pla3^s the position of the sects outside the Catholic 
 church in so hopeless an aspect that one cannot 
 wonder at the concern which is felt for many Pro- 
 testant Christians b}^ candid observers of current 
 events in their ranks. The drift — and that discour- 
 aging word drift is the right one — is directly away 
 from faith in the divinity and teachings of Christ, 
 toward no religion. Is it not, indeed, away from 
 even belief in God ? 
 
 " Now, after considering ever3^thing and making 
 due allowance for many influences, what is the real 
 cause of this lapse into apathy, indifference and 
 neglect? More than anything else, it is the absence 
 of a central teaching authority to define the Word 
 ofGod.tokeep the faith pure and to uphold disci- 
 pline. 
 
ROMAN CATHOLICS AND SUNDAY. 159 
 
 " Hence, as Father Zahm vSa^'s, Protestantism as 
 a force against Catholicity is no longer of conse- 
 quence; what the church is now called upon to con- 
 tend with is unbelief and all the chain of evils and 
 dangers that attend it. And the leading minds in. 
 the Protestant ranks see this as \^ ell, and they know 
 that the coming battle will be for Christianity itself, 
 and accordingly the yearning that the^^ and all good 
 men feel for reunion against the common foe." 
 
 We think that the Mirror overestimates the 
 weakness of divided Protestantism, and thatPoman- 
 ism will not have the easy victory it seems to 
 expect. But the vital fact remains that unless 
 Protestantism takes stronger grasp on an authori- 
 tative Bible as over against an authoritative church, 
 the key-stone to the Protestant arch is gone. The 
 most valuable point of Protestantism in the conflict 
 with Romanism is the authority of the Bible touch- 
 ing the Sabbath. Cardinal Gibbons thinks the strug- 
 gle is already ended in the self-defeat of Protestant- 
 ism which professes one thing and practices another. 
 Be this as it may, a hearty and immediate return to 
 the Sabbath as ('hrist Christianized it, would give 
 Protestants a vantage ground without which they 
 will fulfill Cardinal Gibbons' prophecy by self-induced 
 defeat. The choice may be delayed, but it cannot be 
 avoided. 
 
 It goes without saying that the decline of Sun- 
 day from the Puritan theory is a return to its origi- 
 nal, that is, the Roman Catholic, t^q^e. It would 
 not be fair to say that the better conception of Sun- 
 
160 DECADENCE OF SUNDAY. 
 
 da^^ especially as it exists in the Roman Catholic 
 church of the United States, is at one with the low- 
 est and definitely vicious holidayism which marks 
 the (continental Sunday, and its counterpart in our 
 great cities. But it is historically true that the Con- 
 tinental Sunday has always been associated with 
 the prevalence of Catholicism. In Spain and in 
 South America the worst types prevail. All this is 
 logical. The Catholic theory makes church rules the 
 highest authority in the matter. The higher 
 factors which go to create and cultivate conscience 
 are weak, or wanting. More than this ; the sabbatic 
 idea, whether (christian, as connected with the sev- 
 enth day, or Puritan, as connected wdth the first 
 day, finds no place in the Catholic conception. But 
 there is an element of decay in the Protestant ranks 
 which is wanting in the Catholic. Protestantism 
 attempted to build on higher ground than the 
 Catholic occupied. It openly and vehemently 
 ignored and denounced the Catholic position. But, 
 in fact, it remained on the (.'atholic ground in 
 essence, and actually so far as the main points at 
 issue in the Sabbath question were concerned. At 
 the same time, in discarding the authority of the 
 church, Protestantism lost an immense controling 
 force, which made it less capable of success. The 
 Catholic church holds its members to the rules of the 
 church in the matter of Sunday far better than the 
 Protestant church holds its members to the Script- 
 ures, which it claims to follow. Hence it has come 
 to pass that the decline of regard for Sunda^^, com- 
 
KOMAN CATHOLICS AND SUNDAY. 161 
 
 paratively, if not actually, is worse and more nearly 
 hopeless in Protestant America than it is in Catholic 
 Europe. 
 
 Another feature of the case which has arisen in 
 the United States shows how the weakness of Prot- 
 estants has already driven them to the Catholics for 
 help. In every attempt to secure any legal safe- 
 guard for Sunday that promises to be of an3^ value, 
 Protestants are forced to appeal to Catholics for 
 help. In the valueless interference of Congress in the 
 attempt to close the Columbian Exposition on Sun- 
 da3% Protestants were driven to appeal for help to 
 their ancient foe; and when the signature of Cardinal 
 Gibbons had been secured, Protestants heralded 
 the cry that in this signature seven mUHons of peo- 
 ple had petitioned the National government to save 
 the falling fortunes of the imperiled Sunday. Then, 
 and not till then, Congress acted; but in a way so 
 easily evaded that its action was set aside as a child 
 brushes away a fly. But that one appeal revealed 
 how completely the Catholic power holds the 
 balance on the Sunday question in the United States. 
 Since that time no similar effort to secure aid for 
 Sunday has been made by Protestants without 
 quick appeal to Catholics for help. In the cases 
 which have been before Congress since that time, the 
 aid of Catholics has been constantly and eagerly 
 sought. These facts are their own interpreter. The 
 Roman Catholics ought to be better satisfied with 
 the situation of the Sunday question in this country 
 to-day than any other of its friends, and there is 
 
162 DECADENCE OF SUNDAY. 
 
 abundant evidence that they are. What they have 
 published within the last ten years — quoted and 
 referred to in this chapter — shows that they are 
 quietly waiting for the ripened results of Protestant 
 failure to bring a full harvest of defeat to Protest- 
 ants, and, therefore, of victory to them. So far as 
 Sunday is concerned, Catholics may well repeat their 
 boast, that " Protestantism is a foe no longer to be 
 feared . ' ' 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 WHY SUNDAY HAS DECAYED. 
 
 Sunday Has Decayed Through Internal Influences — It Has Decayed 
 in Spite of Outward Aid — Heredity Compels Decay — Destructive 
 Germs Antedate Christianity — Gnostic Anti-Judaism — Justin 
 Martyr's No-Sabbathism— First Observance of Sunday Was Not 
 as a Sabbath — Tertullian Quoted — Beginning of Sunday Legisla- 
 tion Was Pagan — First Law Quoted — Testimony of Edward V. 
 Neale — First Thirteen Hundred Years of vSunday Show It as Never 
 More Than a vSemi-Religious Holiday. 
 
 ^HE facts accumulated in the preceding chapters 
 show that some potent and persistent influence 
 has wrought the decay of Sunday. This destructive 
 influence has not been from without. Since the open- 
 ing struggle, w^hich began about the middle of the 
 second century and lasted four or five hundred years, 
 the controlling agencies in Church and State have 
 been in favor of Sunda3^ Ecclesiastical tradition has 
 supported it. Popular theology has defended it. 
 Civil law has been its safeguard. This has been es- 
 pecially true of Sunday in America. During the early 
 Colonial period Sunday was king. It commanded 
 the strongest religious sentiment. Conscience bowed 
 to it. Custom fostered it. Consecration sacrificed 
 for it. Civil law protected it as a strong-armed 
 father does his home and the cradle of his first-born. 
 The Pilgrims and the Puritans of the Old World gave 
 their best and bravest souls for the new world. The 
 sacred Sunda^^ was a corner-stone in the social and 
 religious structure which they builded, from Boston 
 
164 DECADENCE OF SUNDAY. 
 
 to Jamestown. That decaj^ should appear as it did, 
 that it should progress as relentlessly as it has, is 
 unaccountable, except through inherent causes. 
 
 This is still more evident, when we consider that 
 other fundamental and practical truths of Christian- 
 ity have not decayed thus. By a strange contra- 
 diction, as it looks on the surface, the decay of Sun- 
 day appears prominently in the church, side by side 
 with great activit3^ in other lines of Christian work. 
 With such facts at hand we must seek with care for 
 inherent causes. It is also clear that the causes we 
 seek are not ephemeral, nor of recent origin. Every- 
 thing denotes the return to an original type. Like 
 a wise examiner for Life Insurance, we must inquire 
 after the antecedents and parentage of Sunday. 
 
 HEREDITY. 
 
 Neither men nor institutions can escape from 
 themselves. To be well born is a large ])art of suc- 
 cess. To be ill born is almost certain failure. Dis- 
 ease in men and decay in institutions are often con- 
 genital. Environment may help or hinder, as develop- 
 ment goes on, but neither environment nor develop- 
 ment can make any essential change in original 
 germs. Better elements, mingled with the germs of 
 decay, may prolong the struggle. New blood may 
 be infused, to some extent, but eventually the normal 
 result comes, and the germs of decay gain the ascend- 
 ency. Nothing is plainer in the results, which ap- 
 pear in all history, than these general and universal 
 principles of heredity. 
 
WHY SUNDAY HAS DECAYED. 165 
 
 Another universal fact must be kept in mind, 
 viz., germs of disease and of decay hasten in develop- 
 ment when unusual strain comes upon a man or an 
 institution, or when old age comes on. Within the 
 scope of these universal principles in the philosophy 
 of history, and in the evolution of cr«eeds and institu- 
 tions, we shall find one important cause for the inev- 
 itable decay of regard for Sunday. 
 
 The birth of Sun-worship antedates Christianity 
 by a long period. It was a prominent feature of the 
 system of Nature- worship. In course of time that 
 system found two forms of expression. The one was 
 higher, and comparatively pure. The other was the 
 depraved and gross Sex-worship, which did more to 
 corrupt ancient Paganism, and the Jews through 
 contact with that Paganism, than all other influences 
 combined. It was a sort of deified lust. Sun-wor- 
 ship, in both its better and baser forms, was brought 
 into Greece and Rome before the time of Christ. 
 Mingling with the '' Isis "-worship from Egypt, it 
 swelled the stream of social corruption which was 
 already well advanced in Greece and Rome when 
 Christ appeared. 
 
 As Christian histor\^ came westward from Se- 
 mitic soil and surroundings, it was plunged into this 
 sea of religious and social impurit^^ It was the grain 
 of divine salt in the mass of corruption. P)ut the 
 most disastrous results to Christianity came from 
 the intellectual philosophy of Greece, rather than 
 from religious-social corruption. That repelled by 
 its vileness. The philosophy deceived and perverted 
 
166 DECADENCE OE SIXDAY. 
 
 by its logic its rhetoric and its theoretical exalta- 
 tion of human conclusions called "Truth." One of 
 the most influential and seductive types of the popu- 
 lar philosophies was " Gnosticism." This dealt pri- 
 marily with the philosophy of creation. A special 
 featui-e of this system made it intensely " Anti-Juda- 
 istic." In the scheme of creation it placed Jahve as 
 National God of the Jews and the Creator of the 
 world of matter in the list of inferior, if not of evil, 
 gods. Hence Gnosticism declared that neither Jahve 
 nor his people could be accepted as anything but in- 
 ferior. Being the creator of the material world, his 
 revelation, the Old Testament, could not be a book 
 of any value, except to the Jews. Out of this philos- 
 ophy, more than from any other cause, arose opposi- 
 tion to the Old Testament and to the Jews. No Sab- 
 bathism and disregard for the authority of the 
 Decalogue came from the same source. This opposi- 
 tion became a special feature of Pagan-infected 
 Christianity, from the middle of the second century 
 forward. For more than a thousand years the 
 germs of that philosophy have poisoned Christianity 
 and destroyed conscientious regard for the Sabbath 
 and the Fourth Commandment. The expansion of 
 this Pagan-born disregard for God is the core of the 
 popular no-lawism and no-Sabbathism, which still 
 enervate the consciences of Christians on the Sab- 
 bath question. 
 
 By the middle of the second century after Christ 
 these Pagan influences had laid strong hold on the 
 simple faith of the New Testament church. Men who 
 
WHY SUNDAY HAS DECAYED. 167 
 
 had sought m vain for peace and satisfaction in the 
 Pagan systemsbegan to adopt Christianity' as being, 
 in some of its parts, better than what they had be- 
 fore. But in doing so they mingled Avith it large 
 elements of former Pagan faith, and, most of all, 
 their theories about the God of the Jews and his 
 Book. The whole spirit of that age was in favor of 
 a composite religion, and men with the best of pur- 
 poses, but lacking in spiritual development, accepted 
 or rejected given features of Christianity as freely as 
 one chooses foods that most suit his fancy and his 
 acquired taste. Justin Martyr, who wrote about 
 the middle of the second centur^^ was an earnest and 
 able leader of this class of philosopher-Christians. 
 He w^as born and reared a Pagan. He was the first 
 man to make any definite mention of Sunday in con- 
 nection with Christianity. But what is of greater 
 moment, he elaborated the first theory of no-Sab- 
 bathism in connection with Christianity. This is 
 found in his ''Dialogue With Trypho, The Jew.'' 
 The reader who has not Justin's book at hand will 
 find his ideas reiterated by any popular preacher or 
 writer of this time, who asserts that the Sabbath 
 was only an institution of the Jews, and is not bind- 
 ing on Christians. 
 
 Justin makes but one reference to Sunday. But 
 since it is the first and definite one in the history of 
 the Christian church, it will be well to consider it 
 here with care. (Note: For an examination of the 
 relation of Sunday to New Testament history, and 
 for a critical examination of the claims of anv refer- 
 
168 DECADENCE OF SUNDAY. 
 
 ences earlier than the time of Justin, see " BibHcal 
 Teachings Concerning the Sabbath and the Sunday," 
 and "A Critical Histor^^ of the Sabbath and the Sun- 
 da}' in the Christian Church," by the author of this 
 book.) 
 
 For the sake of giving the reader a complete view 
 of the birth of Sunda}^ in connection with Christian- 
 ity, we give the entire passage from Justin, a thing 
 that many writers in favor of Sunda\^ fail to do. 
 Here it is : 
 
 "On the da\^ which is called Sunday there is an 
 assembly in one place of all w^ho dwell either in 
 towns or in the country, and the Memoirs of the 
 Apostles, or the writings of the Prophets, are read, 
 as long as the time permits. Then, when the readei* 
 hath ceased, the President delivers a discotirse in 
 which he reminds and exhorts them to the imitation 
 of all these good things. We then all stand up to- 
 gether and put forth prayers. Then, as we have 
 already said, when we cease from prayer, bread is 
 brought, and wine, and water; and the President in 
 like manner offers up prayers and praises with his 
 utmost power; and the people express their assent 
 by saying Amen. The consecrated elements are then 
 distributed and received by every one, and a portion 
 is sent by the deacons to those who are absent. 
 
 "Each of those also who have abundance, and are 
 willing, according to his choice, gives what he thinks 
 fit ; and what is collected is deposited with the Presi- 
 dent, who succors the fatherless and widows, and 
 those who are in necessitv from disease or anv other 
 
WHY SUNDAY HAS DECAYED. 169 
 
 cause; those also who are in bonds, and the strangers 
 who are sojourning among us ; and, in a word, takes 
 care of all who are in need. 
 
 " We all of us assemble together on Sunday, be- 
 cause it is the first day in which God changed dark- 
 ness and matter and made the world. On the same 
 day also Jesus Christ our Saviour rose from the dead. 
 For he was crucified the day before that of Saturn ; 
 and on the day after that of Saturn, .which is the da^^ 
 of the Sun, he appeared to his apostles and disciples 
 and taught them what we now submit to your 
 consideration." " First Apology," chapter 67.) 
 
 Analyzed, this gives the following. A religious 
 service was held on Sunday. Beyond that fact there 
 is no evidence of an\' cessation of business. There is 
 no word of Sunday as the Sabbath, nor is it or its 
 observance associated with the Fourth Command- 
 ment. Sunday appears as a new institution, based 
 on reasons wholly unlike those which produced the 
 Sabbath. The first reason is drawn directly from 
 Gnostic speculation. The second reason is a pure 
 invention, so far as the Bible is concerned. Men talk 
 loosely about observing Sunday in honor of the 
 resurrection of Christ. But the fact remains that the 
 Bible nowhere associates the observance of Sunday 
 or any other day with the resurrection of Christ. 
 The Bible does not even say that Christ's resurrec- 
 tion took place on Sunday. It was made known to 
 the disciples on that day, but the\^ did not believe 
 the report to be true. There is much evidence that 
 the exact time of Christ's resurrection was in the 
 
170 DECADENCE OF SUNDAY. 
 
 evening of the Sabbath. (Matt. 28 : 1.) Justin is the 
 first writer to make it a reason, direct or indirect, 
 for any regard for Sunda\'. The first recorded rea- 
 sons for holding an assembh^ on Sunday are coined 
 by Justin. They are both extra-Biblical and anti- 
 Biblical. 
 
 The leading influences in this birth of Sunday as 
 a day of assembling are easily seen. In the theories 
 of Justin, the Old Testament, the Decalogue, and the 
 Sabbath, had been pushed out of sight. Semi-pagan 
 leaders had begun the work of harmonizing and 
 mingling Christianity and the prevailing Pagan sys- 
 tems. Analogy had been invented between the 
 Rising Sun and the Risen Christ. This form of intro- 
 ducing Sunday into Christianity- was the first defi- 
 nite product in the process of religious syncretism 
 which developed so widely and rapidly in the suc- 
 ceeding centuries. We are therefore prepared for the 
 following description of Sunday as a chief holiday, 
 about fifty years after Justin tells of its introduction 
 into Christian history. Note also how many other 
 Pagan holida3-s Christians then observed. In the 
 last years 'of the second century, or in the earlier 
 years of the third, TerttilHan, the "Father of Latin 
 Christianity," himself converted from Paganism a 
 few years before, wrote against idolatry as among 
 the greatest of prevailing sins. In this treatise (On 
 Idolatry, chap. 14) he says : 
 
 "The Holy Spirit upbraids the Jews with their 
 holydays, 'Your Sabbaths and new moons, and cere- 
 monies,' says he, * My soul hateth.' By us, to whom 
 
WHY SUNDAY HAS DECAYED. 171 
 
 Sabbaths are strange, and new moons and festivals 
 formerly beloved of God; the Saturnalia and New 
 Year's and Midwinter's festivals and Matronalia are 
 frequented — presents come and go — New Year's gifts 
 — games join their noise — banquets join their din! 
 Oh better fidelity of the heathens to their own sect 
 [religion] which claims no solemnity of the Chris- 
 tians for itself! Not the Lord's-day, not Pentecost, 
 even if they had known them, would they have 
 shared with us; for thev would fear lest they should 
 seem to be Christians. We are not apprehensive lest 
 we seem to be heathens. If any indulgence is to be 
 granted to the flesh, you have it. I will not say 
 your own days (Note: This may mean theil' own 
 personal birthdays, or it may mean all other festi- 
 vals besides Sunday), but more too; for to the hea- 
 thens each festive day occurs but once annually; 
 you have a festive day every eighth day. Call out 
 the individual solemnities of the nations [heathens], 
 and set them out in a row ; they will not be able to 
 make up a Pentecost." 
 
 No better evidence is needed to show that Sun- 
 day was born to be a holiday. With the exception 
 of a brief period under the first impulse of Puritan- 
 ism, it has never been otherwise than a holiday. At 
 the first, as Tertullian indicates, it was closeh^ allied 
 to the " Wild Pagan Solar day of Antiquity." 
 
 SUNDAY LAW. 
 
 Another element in the early life of Sunday in the 
 Christian church which made holidavism inevitable. 
 
172 DECADENCE OF SUNDAY. 
 
 was the introduction of civil law making it a holi- 
 day. This legislation was purely Pagan in form and 
 in spirit. The first law by Constantine in 321, A.D., 
 was part of an old and well-defined system of Pagan 
 laws, which made certain days holidays in honor of 
 the gods to whom they were dedicated. Here is the 
 first appearance of Sunday law in history: 
 
 "Let all judges, and all city people, and all 
 tradesmen, rest upon the venerable day of the Sun. 
 But let those dwelling in the country freely, and with 
 full libert}^ attend to the culture of their fields ; since 
 it frequently happens that no other day is so fit for 
 the sowing of grain, or the planting of vines; hence 
 the favorable time should not be allowed to pass, 
 lest the provisions of heaven be lost." (Cod. Justin, 
 III. Tit. 12, L. 3.) 
 
 This was issued on the seventh of March, A. D., 
 321. In June of the same year it was modified so as 
 to allow the manumission of slaves on the Sunday. 
 The reader will notice that this edict makes no ref- 
 erence to the da}^ as a Sabbath, as the Lord's-day, 
 or as in an3' way connected with Christianity. 
 Neither is it an edict addressed to Christians. Nor is 
 the idea of any moral obligation or Christian duty 
 found in it. It is mereh^ the edict of a heathen em- 
 peror, addressed to all his subjects, Christian and 
 heathen, who dwelt in cities, and were tradesmen, or 
 oflficers of justice, to refrain from their business on 
 the "venerable day" of the god whom he most 
 adored, and to whom in his pride he loved to be 
 compared. 
 
WHY SUNDAY HAS DECAYED. 173 
 
 We quote a single authority and refer the reader 
 to a " Critical History of Sabbath and Sunday," for 
 a full presentation of authorities and details. Here 
 is the testimony of Edward V.Neale, an English bar- 
 rister of learning and renown. It is from his work 
 on " Feasts and Fasts," p. 6; see also p. 86, ff. Air. 
 Neale sa^^s : 
 
 *' That the division of da3^s into juridici, et ferinti, 
 judicial and non-judicial, did not arise out of the 
 modes of thought peculiar to the Christian world 
 must be known to every classical scholar. Before the 
 age of Augustus, the number of days upon which, 
 out of reverence to the gods to whom they were con- 
 secrated, no trials could take place at Rome, had be- 
 come a resource upon which a wealthy criminal 
 could speculate as a means of evading justice; and 
 Suetonius enumerates among the praiseworthy acts 
 of that emperor, the cutting off from the number 
 thirty days, in order that crime might not go un- 
 punished nor business be impeded." 
 
 Sixty-five years passed before there was any 
 other Sunday law in the Roman Empire. In 396, 
 A. D., a law appears w^hich so far introduced the 
 Christian idea as to couple the term "Lord's-day" 
 with the Pagan name Sunda\^ But then, as ever 
 afterwards, Sunday was under the same general 
 holiday regulations as many other days. It had no 
 pre-eminence over them. Twice after the full devel- 
 opment and control of the Roman Catholic church 
 had made Christianity the state religion, there were 
 some restrictions placed on Sunda\^ after the anal- 
 
174 DECADENCE OF SUNDAY. 
 
 ogj of the Jewish legislation concerning the Sab- 
 bath. In the most prominent of these, the laws for- 
 bade work from "three o'clock on the Sabbath until 
 sunrise on Monday," and it is curious to note that 
 miraculous punishments are reported to have fallen 
 upon those who dared to transgress the civil law, 
 from the moment the hour of three w^as reached on 
 "Saturda3^" 
 
 Without following in detail the fortunes of Sun- 
 day through the centuries of Roman Catholic suprem- 
 acy, it is only needful to sa)^ that for the first thir- 
 teen hundred years of its connection with Chris- 
 tianity^, Sunday never rose above a semi-religious 
 ecclesiastical holidayism. This includes the first 
 transition period from the middle of the second cent- 
 ury to the Reformation begun by Luther. During 
 the first four or five hundred 3^ears of the thirteen 
 hundred, while the church was departing from the 
 New Testament type, under Pagan influences, and 
 undergoing the changes which culminated in the Ro- 
 man Catholic church, the Sabbath fought stubbornly 
 for the place in which Christ left it, and for the re- 
 gard which his teachings and example demanded. It 
 was forced out of the church by the poison of no- 
 Sabbat hism and the influence of civil law and ecclesi- 
 astical anathema. But in spite of all this it never 
 wholly disappeared. Various branches and groups 
 of dissenters from the authority of the Roman church 
 kept its observance alive, and formed the germ of 
 the denominational life of the English Seventh-day 
 Baptists, who were a prominent factor in the in- 
 
WHY SUNDAY HAS DECAYED. 175 
 
 fluences which finally brought in the Puritan Sun- 
 day. But the important truth to be kept in mind at 
 this point is that the £rst thirteen centuries of the 
 life of Sunday, as in some sense an institution of 
 Christianity, were centuries of holidayism. 
 
CHAPTER XL 
 
 WHY THE "puritan" SUNDAY HAS DECAY'ED. 
 
 Reforms Center Around One Prominent Idea — They Come by Reaction 
 When Evil Harvests are to be Reaped— Sabbath Reform Not Promi- 
 nent in the Lutheran Movement — Augsburg Confession Teaches 
 No- Sabbath ism — Dr. Hessey's Testimony — Sabbath Question in 
 England — Position of the English Seventh-daj- Baptists— Puritan- 
 ism Wavered and Compromised — Nicholas Bownde Quoted — The 
 Puritan Sunday Compromise Has Dacayed from Inherent Weak- 
 ness — Such Decay Was Inevitable. 
 
 A S in the case of the Continental, so in the case of 
 
 the Puritan Sunday, ^^e must seek the primary 
 
 reasons for its decay in the causes which brouo:ht it 
 
 into being. A brief preview is essential to a full 
 
 understanding of these causes. 
 
 Reforms center around one representative idea. 
 Great reforms usually begm at the point where great 
 evils begin to die, by the law of reaction. Each stage 
 of the reformation must come in its own order. 
 Error grows tyrannical with age. It imposes bitter 
 experiences before its victims rebel. The Lutheran 
 movement began when the burden of "Church 
 authority" became intolerable. The S3'stem ot "In- 
 dulgences" was the lowest point possible, in the 
 Papal apostasy. Here Luther made the stand. 
 Thus, salvation through faith, without the interven- 
 tion of the church or the sanction of its authority, 
 became the central idea in the first stage of the re- 
 formatory movement. Protestation had failed. 
 New ground had to be assumed, through courageous 
 
A DECAYING COMPROMISE. 177 
 
 struggle. Under such circumstances, other issues 
 were forgotten, and the battle raged around the 
 question of man's right to read God's Word, and to 
 believe in Christ, without ecclesiastical intervention. 
 
 Aside from these general principles of reform, 
 there were special reasons why the Sabbath question 
 did not find a prominent place at the opening of the 
 Reformation. The theory which had been held so 
 long, that the Sabbath w^as Jewish only, was ac- 
 cepted by the Continental Reformers. The flagrant 
 evils which had come in with the Romish doctrine of 
 church-appointed holy days led to their rejection, 
 and nothing was left but the no-Sabbath platform. 
 Thus, prejudice against Judaism and hatred for the 
 Papacy set the Sabbath question aside. 
 
 The "Augsburg Confession," which was drawn up 
 by Melancthon, and is still recognized as the stand- 
 ard of faith in the Lutheran church, is plain in its un- 
 qualified no-Sabbathisni. It discards the Sabbath 
 and the authority of the Decalogue in the matter of 
 Sabbath-keeping to the fullest extent. 
 
 The extreme Sabbathlessness of the theories pro- 
 pounded by the Continental reformers is set forth 
 clearly, by the ablest defender of Sunday which Eng- 
 land has produced, for a centurA^ Dr. Augustus 
 Hessey. In Hampton Lectures for 1866, speaking of 
 their position concerning Sunday, he says (Lectures, 
 pp. 165, 172.): 
 
 "With one blow, as it were, and with one con- 
 sent, the Continental reformers rejected the legal or 
 Jewish title which had been set upon it, the more 
 
178 DECADENCE OF SUNDAY. 
 
 than Jewish ceremonies and restrictions by which, in 
 theory at least, it had been encumbered; the army of 
 holy da3'S of obligation b\^ which it had been sur- 
 rounded. But thev did more. They left no sanction 
 for the da}^ itself, which could commend itself power- 
 fully to men's consciences. . . . 
 
 " We are now, I think, in a condition to sum up 
 the views of the Continental reformers of the six- 
 teenth centurA' on the subject before us. Sabba- 
 tarians, indeed, those eminent men were not. They 
 are utterl\^ opposed to the literal application of the 
 Fourth Commandment to the circumstances of 
 Christians. They scarceh^ touch upon that com- 
 mandment except to show that the Sabbath has 
 passed away." . . . "They feel it necessary to defend 
 their practice on grounds, sometimes perhaps of 
 apostolic example (with the proviso, however, that 
 such example is to be taken only for what it is 
 worth), but generally, of antiquity, of the church's 
 will, of the church's wisdom, of considerations of ex- 
 pediency, of regard to the weaker brethren, and 
 sometimes on lower grounds still. And neither the 
 day itself, nor the interval at which it recurs, is of 
 obligation. Our Lord's resurrection is made a decent 
 excuse for the day, rather than the oiiginal reason, 
 or one of the original reasons for its institution." 
 
 The Continental Sunday, under the first stage of 
 the Protestant movement, was shorn of the element 
 of ecclesiastical authority which it had possessed 
 under Catholicism. It may well be questioned 
 whether its adherents were not therefore worse off, 
 
A DECAYING COMPROMISE. 179 
 
 SO far as the sense of obligation was concerned, than 
 they had been as Catholics. This beginning of Prot- 
 estantism rejecting the Catholic position without 
 returning to the Bible removed that sense of obliga- 
 tion to authoritj^ which is an essential element in all 
 religion . 
 
 THE SITUATION IN ENGLAND. 
 
 The Protestant movement met the Sabbath ques- 
 tion in England at an early day. The combined in- 
 fluence of Catholicism and of the Continental reform- 
 ers had made holidayism dominant, on Sunday, and 
 deeply irreligious. At first the Puritans plead for a 
 better observance of the Sunday as a part of the gen- 
 eral work of civil and religious reform. As they con- 
 tinued to seek for higher life and greater puritA^ the 
 Sabbath question grew in importance. This was 
 not fortuitous. Men never come into closer relations 
 with God without feeling thesacredness of the claims 
 which his law^ imposes ; and no part of that law 
 stands out more prominently than the Fourth Com- 
 mandment, when the heart seeks to bring highest 
 honors to him who is at once Father and Redeemer. 
 As these men threw off the shackles of church au- 
 thority, and stood face to face with God, recognizing 
 him as their only law giver, they were driven toward 
 higher ground concerning the Sabbath question. 
 
 On the one hand, the destructive influence of 
 Catholicism and of Continental Protestantism forced 
 the necessity of immediate and radical reform con- 
 nected with Sunday. On the other hand a new fac- 
 tor appeared, which, though represented by a minor- 
 
180 DECADENCE OF SUNDAY. 
 
 ity, exerted a powerful influence upon the Sabbath 
 question. The descendants of the Waldenses in Bo- 
 hemia, Holland, and other parts of Northern Europe, 
 formed the material for Sabbath-keeping groups 
 which came to light when the rays of Reformation 
 began to illumine the long night of Papal supremacy. 
 These Sabbath-keepers were Baptists, and hence 
 were classed with the despised "Anabaptists," who 
 were made still more odious b^^ the fanaticism of a 
 few atMunster during the early part of the sixteenth 
 century. Most writers have, therefore, passed over 
 the histor\^ of these years b\^ saying of Sabbath-ob- 
 servance that it was "revived by some sectaries 
 among the Anabaptists," or words to this effect. 
 When Sabbath-keepers were persons of prominence 
 more definite notice is taken of them. Enough can 
 be gathered, however, to show that Sabbath-keep- 
 ers were not uncommon on the continent of Europe, 
 from the opening of the sixteenth century forward. 
 Through the loss of records by fire, we are unable 
 to fix the date of the earliest organization of Sev- 
 enth-day Baptist churches in England. But their 
 strength and the influence of their position did not 
 depend on organization. Other influences forced 
 their views to the front, in many cases, as much as 
 their own efforts did. The Puritan party^ was al- 
 ready face to face with the attempt to make the 
 Bible the supreme standard in all religious matters. 
 That attem])t compelled them to consider the mat- 
 ter of returning to the Sabbath. The logic of the 
 case was plain. If God was the supreme law-giver. 
 
A DECAYING COMPROMISE. 181 
 
 through the Bible, men must rettirn to the observ- 
 ance of his Sabbath. The conclusion was not even 
 debatable. The Seventh-da3^ Baptists said to their 
 Puritan brethren: "If 3'ou are to be genuine Protest- 
 ants, you must unite with us in returning to the 
 Sabbath." The Puritans saw the truth, and leaned 
 strongly toward the Seventh-day Baptist position. 
 But poHtical influence was powerful and compli- 
 cated. Prejudice was bitter and confusing. The 
 Puritan leaders saw the point, considered, wavered, 
 and decided to compromise. They said : " The Bible 
 must be made supreme, and we must accept the 
 Fourth Commandment as binding on all men. We 
 cannot" hold to the Catholic doctrine of church au- 
 thorit3% and we dare not adopt the loose notions of 
 the Continental reformers." Up to that point all 
 was logical, consistent and Biblical. But the evil 
 spirit of compromise came in and said: "Neverthe- 
 less we cannot accept the Seventh-da3^ but we will 
 attempt to transfer the law to Sunday." 
 
 This compromise was elaborated and formulated 
 by Nicholas Bownde, and first published in 1595, in 
 a book entitled, " The Doctrine ofthe Sabbath Plainly 
 Laid Forth and Soundly Proven." Through more than 
 thirt\' pages Mr. Bownde considers the origin, nature 
 and history ofthe Sabbath, from the Bible, and form- 
 ulates his argument after the manner ofthe Seventh- 
 day Baptists at that time. Coming at length to the 
 crucial point, he attempts to transfer the name, the 
 authority, and purpose of the Sabbath, together 
 with all that the Bible says about it, to the Sunday, 
 
182 DECADENCE OF SUNDAY. 
 
 in the following paragraph : We give the paragraph 
 entire, that the reader maj^ see how illogical, un- 
 scriptural, and non-Protestant, this birth of the 
 Puritan Sunday was. The italics are Mr. Bownde's : 
 
 "But now concerning this very special seventh 
 day which w^e now keep in the time of the gospel 
 that is well known, that it is not the same it was 
 from the beginning, w^hich God himself did sanctify 
 and whereof he speaketh in this commandment, for 
 it was the day going before ours, which in Latin re- 
 taineth its ancient name, and is called the Sabbath, 
 which we also grant, but so that we confess it must 
 always remain, never to be changed any more, and 
 that all men must keep hoh^ this seventh day which 
 was unto them not the seventh, but the first day of 
 the week, as it is so called so many times in the New 
 Testament, and so it still standeth in force, that we 
 are bound unto the seventh day, though not unto 
 that very seventh. Concerning the time, and per- 
 sons by whom, and when the day was changed, it 
 appeareth in the New Testament, that it w^as done 
 in the time of the apostles, and b_v the apostles them- 
 selves, and that together with the day, the name 
 was changed, and was in the beginning called the hrst 
 day of the week, afterwards the Lords day.'' 
 
 Such w^as the Puritan Sunday, at birth. Every 
 student of the New Testament knows that Christ 
 and his apostles did not change the Sabbath. On the 
 contrary, the theory of such a change was never 
 promulgated until Mr. Bownde created it to escape 
 the arguments of the Seventh-day Baptists on one 
 
A DECAYING COMPROMISE. 183 
 
 side, and the morass of Continental theories on the 
 other. It was a new creation, made to meet an 
 emergenc3^ Mr. Bownde made no effort to prove 
 his position beyond referring to Acts 20 : 7, and 2 
 Cor. 16 : 2. These passages are so inapplicable to 
 his theory that they need no notice here. 
 
 There are at least three prominent elements of 
 decay in this Puritan Sunday. 1. It was a com- 
 promise between a plain truth toward which the 
 Protestant movement was leading its adherents, 
 and the system of errors from which the^'^ were flee- 
 ing. Such compromises are alwa3^s weak, and, in 
 the end, are often wicked. They are permeated with 
 germs of decay. 2. It was utterly unscriptural. It 
 was anti-scriptural. It set the Sabbath aside to 
 make way for the Sunday. Such an idea, much less 
 command, is never broached in the Bible, and such 
 a step is positively forbidden by the example of Christ, 
 Lord of the Sabbath. 3. It retained two fundament- 
 al features of the Roman Catholic position ; the Sun- 
 day, and the support of it by civil law under the 
 authority of a state-church. In short, it was a weak 
 half-way measure, illogical, unscriptural, unprotest- 
 ant. It was a denial of the authority of the exam- 
 ple of Christ as a guide to his followers. Its decay 
 was as sure from the hour of birth as is that of an 
 apple unsound at the core. It was as sure of with- 
 ering as a plant is, at the roots of which a gnawing 
 worm lies concealed. That it has decayed the pre- 
 ceding pages fully prove. It was born to holidayism 
 and decav. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 WHY PROTESTANTS CANNOT ARREST THE DECAY OF 
 SUNDAY. 
 
 Virulence of Germs of Decay — Protestants Powerless Unless They Re- 
 turn to the Sabbath — Faith in Puritan Theory Gone — Piotestants 
 Cannot Unite — Congreg:ationalists Undermining Sundaj^ : a Speci- 
 men Case — Chicago Times-Herald Quoted — Bishop Vincent's 
 Theory — Mr. Moody in Golden Rule Advises Keeping any Day that 
 Is Convenient — Summary of Reasons Why Decay of Sunday Can- 
 not Be Checked — Greater Evils Impend Because This Decay 
 Must Go On. 
 
 TTTE sa^' Protestants, because it is well understood 
 that the great Catholic world has reason to 
 rejoice in the decay of the whole Puritan Sun- 
 day idea. The fundamental reason lies in the 
 virulence of the original germs of der-ay which were 
 retained in the heart of the Puritan theory. It is 
 like a case of pulmonar3^ disease, which no change of 
 climate, no trial of new remedies, and no prayers of 
 love can arrest. It is like the slow poison of diph- 
 theria, which shuts its tightening grasp on heart- 
 power and vitalit^^ and laughs at ph3^sician, nurses 
 and remedies. There is a divine antidote, but up to 
 date the friends of Sunday have studiously, if not 
 contemptuously, pushed that aside. That remedy is 
 a return to the actual Protestant position hy accept- 
 ing the Sabbath of Jehovah, and of his Son, the Lord 
 of the Sabbath. When Puritan Protestants are will- 
 ing to give up the compromise which their fathers 
 made, and welcome the true Sabbath which was 
 
REFORM MEANS REVOLUTION. 185 
 
 then discarded as an unholy thing, success and heal- 
 ing will begin. Until then, each new effort will do 
 no more than tell the story of its own ineffectual- 
 ness. 
 
 A second general reason, which involves several 
 subordinate and resultant ones, is that the friends of 
 the Puritan Sunday have lost faith in it. Tradition- 
 ally, they hold to it. Actually, the\' do not. The 
 core of that creed was that Sunday became the Sab- 
 bath by the transfer of the Fourth Commandment 
 to it, on Biblical authorit^^ 
 
 Few men, if any, can be found now who assert, 
 or attempt to defend, that idea. Having given up 
 that position, there is no common ground on which 
 the friends of Sunday can be united. A few years ago, 
 when the death of the late E. F. Shepherd left the 
 Presidency of the American Sabbath Union vacant, 
 a man whose name would have added weight to the 
 movement was importuned to become the President. 
 After a careful consideration of the question, he re- 
 fused to do so because "There was no common 
 ground on which the friends of Sunday could be unit- 
 ed for effective work." This state of things grows 
 worse each year, and lack of union cripples the few 
 efforts that are made to check decay. 
 
 The reasons which are offered for observing Sun- 
 day are almost as variant as are the persons making 
 them. They are often antagonistic, and mutually 
 destructive. These reasons are pervaded with in- 
 definiteness. The}^ have no grip of obligation. Here 
 are some of the more common ones. " One day is as 
 
186 DECADENCE OF SUNDAY. 
 
 good as another." " A seventh part of time is all 
 that is demanded." " The law of rest does not de- 
 mand any one definite or specific day of the week, ' ' etc. 
 Under such teachino^s Sunday must decline, and no- 
 Sabbathisra is fostered. 
 
 Low-ground reasons are most common. "One 
 da}^ in each week ought to be observed as a day of 
 rest, for sake of the general good." "Men live 
 longer," "Animals work better." "Machinery 
 wears better." "Men can earn more money." 
 " Worldly prosperity is promoted." Such arguments 
 as these appear oftener than any others. 
 
 In point of checking decay, they are like a handful 
 of rushes in the swollen Nile. 
 
 We might follow this line of facts indefinitely, 
 showing that the main reasons for decay are found 
 in the theories concerning Sunday, and in the con- 
 fused and weak efforts of those who call themselves 
 its friends, but who have lost faith in it. Preceding 
 testimony has fully established these facts, but we 
 add a few more items at this point. 
 
 [n 1896 an earnest Christian, who had been for 
 many years an active worker in a Congregational 
 church in the state of Connecticut, becoming inter- 
 ested in the Sabbath question, and being anxious to 
 find full support for Sunday-observance, wrote to 
 three prominent Congregational pastors in New 
 England, asking the following question : 
 
 " Will you kindly show me what passages in the 
 Bible command us to keep Sunday instead of the 
 seventh dav, Saturday?" 
 
REFORM MEANS REVOLUTION. 187 
 
 (Note. — This was a matter of private corre- 
 spondence, so that while we are not at liberty to 
 name the writer, we are permitted to give the answer 
 entire. We will also put an\^ reader who desires in 
 communication with the questioner.) 
 
 The first answer was this : " There are no such 
 verses, from which you naturally draw the inference 
 that keeping Sunday is unscriptural. But 3'ou must 
 remember that we do many things rightly for which 
 no definite command can be found in the Bible. The 
 Bible is not a hand-book of rules regulative of all 
 our acts, but a book of principles for thoughtful peo- 
 ple to apply." 
 
 The second was this : '' What you ask cannot be 
 proved from the New Testament. Its proof is derived 
 in other ways." 
 
 The third was this: "As to the question you 
 ask, that I refer you to one or more Bible verses 
 where we are commanded to keep Sunday instead of 
 Saturday, I confess inability. I am somewhat 
 familiar with the arguments brought forward in 
 favor of both days as a sacred time, but can hardly 
 recall any passage that will give a command to keep 
 the first day at all comparable with many to keep 
 the seventh." 
 
 The frankness with which these men confessed 
 the truth is commendable, and it is in strong contrast 
 with the evasions and assumptions with which men 
 less inteUigent and frank seek to cover the truth. 
 But consider what it means, when this seeker for 
 truth is told that there is no scriptural authority for 
 
188 DECADEXCK OF SUNDAY. 
 
 Sunda3Mveeping. Onh- one conclusion is possible, 
 viz., to continue Sunday-observance is to continue 
 an unscriptural practice, and the case is made worse 
 rather than better by the plea that this unscriptural 
 practice may be justified by other unscriptural 
 practices ! 
 
 The third writer is still more explicit, and his an- 
 swer adds a crushing blow to the unscriptural Sun- 
 day, when he draws the parallel between Sunday 
 and the Sabbath, and declares that there is no pas- 
 sage for Sunday and "many" which command us 
 "to keep the seventh day." This writer alone, of 
 the three, adverts to the real question in the issue, as 
 presented by the inquirer. The authorit\^ of the Sab- 
 bath, the plain command of God, is left out of con- 
 sideration. Herein lies the blindness and deep irrev- 
 erence of these men. They do not seem to take God's 
 Sabbath and the divine law into the account. Sun- 
 day is unscriptural, but still Christians — lovers of 
 God— v\diose standard of duty is the Bible, may go 
 on keeping it. But the Sabbath, for which a plain 
 and unrepealed command stands forth, the key- 
 stone of the arch of the Decalogue, the Sabbath which 
 Christ loved, honored, preserved, obeyed, fulfilled, 
 exalted and Christmnized, that it might fulfill its 
 higher mission in his kingdom, that Sabbath comes 
 not into the counsels of these leaders of an inquiring 
 member of their own household ! Has God no right 
 to a hearing in the case? Is this inquiring soul to be 
 told: Sunday is an unscriptural institution, but you 
 may go on keeping it and disregarding the law of 
 
REFORM MEANS REVOLUTION. 189 
 
 God, which is not of sufficient account to come into 
 this consideration? Do these brethern mean all that? 
 That is what their inquiring- member must logicallv 
 conclude. 
 
 Sucli answers destro}^ Sunday. In the case under 
 consideration, as in many similar cases, for such 
 cases are by no means infrequent, this devout Con- 
 gregationalist had to choose between continuing in 
 an unscriptural practice, or accepting the Sabbath. 
 The latter choice was made. Had it not been made, 
 adherence to Sunday from that time under the teach- 
 ing of these Congregational clergymen would have 
 been merely nominal. Conscience decays under such 
 teaching, unless Sunday is abandoned, and the Sab- 
 bath is accepted. 
 
 Another instance of teachings which hasten the 
 decay of Sunday through the influence of men in 
 high positions is this. In the summer of 1897, the 
 Chicago Times-Herald reported an address by Bishop 
 Vincent before the students of Chicago University, as 
 follows : 
 
 ''Bishop Vincent, of the M. E. church, talked to 
 the students of the Univerisity of Chicago last even- 
 ing on Sunday-observance. He spoke in Kent The- 
 atre, and at the beginning of his address surprised 
 his hearers by saying that he did not care on what 
 da\^ anyone observed the Sabbath, just so one da}^ 
 of the w^eek was set apart for meditation and rest. 
 It made no difference, he stated, whether the day was 
 observed between sunrise and sunset, or within other 
 divisions of time." 
 
190 DECADENCE OF SUNDAY. 
 
 It goes without saying that such teaching sup- 
 ported and enforced b}' an eloquent bishop of the 
 Methodist church must promote the decaA^ of Sunday 
 in the lives of University students already assailed 
 b_v the Sabbathless influences of Chicago. He who 
 teaches thus must hold Sunday in light esteem. 
 
 Before the reader has recovered from his surprise 
 over what Bishop Vincent teaches, it will help him 
 to see how this decay of regard for Sunday has per- 
 meated the teachings of another popular religious 
 leader. In the Golden Rule, Jan. 16, 1897, Mr. 
 Moody writes on " How shall we spend the Sab- 
 bath." This suggestive paragraph appears in the 
 first half of his paper: 
 
 "A man ought to turn aside from his ordinary 
 employment one day in seven. There are many 
 whose occupation will not permit them to observe 
 Sunday, but they should observe some other day as 
 a Sabbath." 
 
 That is logical application of the "One-day-in- 
 seven" theory. But the destructiveness of such in- 
 definiteness is glaringl3^ apparent. It yields en- 
 tirely the idea that Sunday should be observed for 
 its own sake. This is right, as a matter of fact. 
 And Mr. Moody is to be commended for ackowledg- 
 ing that fact. But it also ignores equally the de- 
 mands of the Bible and the example of Christ in re- 
 gard to the Seventh-day, the genuine Sabbath. 
 
 When men seek "salvation," Mr. Moody holds 
 them rigidly to God's way of doingthings ; to repent- 
 ance that they may find forgiveness and release from 
 
REEORM MEANS REVOLUTION. 191 
 
 the demands of broken law. Is God's law in general 
 imperative, and in particular of no account? Accord- 
 ing to Mr. Aloody, the Sabbath law in particular is 
 not of as much account as ordinary business. Keep 
 Sunday if you can conveniently ; otherwise Wednes- 
 day, or Friday, says Mr. Moody. Bring God's law 
 to your convenience. Business conies first. "Sab- 
 bath-keeping" is of much less account. Choose a day 
 that will interfere least with your business, and com- 
 pel God to accept that as obedience to one of the Ten 
 Commandments. Why not do thus with all the 
 commandments? Is it any wonder that Sunday de- 
 cays under such teachings from D. L. Moody, in the 
 Golden Rule, organ of the Christian Endeavor Move- 
 ment, Avhich we are told is to be the great power to 
 " Rescue Sunday- " ? 
 
 Let us sum up the reasons why the well-advanced 
 progress of Sunday into holida^'ism and Sabbath- 
 lessness cannot be checked. 
 
 1. The ripened fruit of more than twelve hun- 
 dred years of history in Europe has given nothing 
 better than the " Continental Sun da^^" even under 
 the strong and steadying influence of a vigorous 
 Catholic ecclesiasticism. 
 
 2. The Protestant Continental reformers made the 
 case worse, in some respects, by destroying the power 
 of the church, in the matter, and teaching a false 
 conception of "Freedom" which was closeh- allied 
 to theological anarchy. This course strengthened 
 and increased the holida3asm that Roman Catholic 
 
192 DECAUEXXE OF SUNDAY. 
 
 rule had created, but had held in bounds by church 
 authorit^^ 
 
 3. The Puritan movement vStopped half way in 
 its progress toward truth, faltered, compromised, 
 and made failure certain. This compromise, like a 
 fever, has run its course, and Sunday has gone back 
 to its original type of holidayism and no-Sabbathism. 
 This decline is prominent in the churches which Pur- 
 itanism planted, and popular religious leaders are 
 furthering the downward movement by word and 
 deed. 
 
 4. Sunday laws have reached a point where they 
 foster evil, by indirection, at least. The forces of sin 
 rejoice when men are at leisure. With the great ma- 
 jority the leisure created by the Sunda\^ laws is irre- 
 ligious or non-religious. In this the saloon and its 
 allies rejoice. On such leisure they fatten. 
 
 5. If in the decline of regard for Sunday there 
 was evidence that the churches and the non-church 
 goers were moving in the direction of something bet- 
 ter, we might be content. If the decay of Sunday 
 brought Christians toward Pan-Sabbathism ; if re- 
 ligious set vice and culture were advanced on alidad's, 
 as the decline for Sunday increases, the case would 
 present some rays of light. But the exact opposite 
 is true. Christians in Boston petitioned for certain 
 Sunday trains, that they might the better attend 
 their favorite churches. Now these trains, greatly 
 increased in number and capacity, carry thousands 
 of pleasure-seekers away from all worship and re- 
 ligious culture. Christians, deluded by the remnants 
 
REFORM MEANS REVOLUTION. 193 
 
 of the Pagan-state-church idea, still support Sunday 
 laws against legitimate business, and the saloon and 
 brothel, and dance house, and other forms of pleas- 
 ure and dissipation catch the leisure-tempted masses, 
 and turn them farther from the churches. This is the 
 picture which the friends of Sunday paint with facts 
 that cannot be set aside. It is a sad picture. It fore- 
 bodes worse things. This situation is intercreative 
 and self-perpetuating. It is the culmination of funda- 
 mental errors concerning the Sabbath and the Sun- 
 day. Any reform which is strong enough to lift the 
 church and the world out of this morass must be 
 radical and revolutionary. What that reform must 
 be forms the theme of the next chapter. 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 HOW CAN SABBATH-REFORM BE ATTAINED ? 
 
 Sabbath Reform Must Be Revolutionary — Begin With Christ, Lord of 
 the Sabbath— Early Church Lost Spiritual Power With the Loss of 
 the Sabbath— Christ's Sabbath Has Had No Fair Trial— Sabbath Is 
 God's Representative in Human Life — Only Sabbatic Resting- 
 Brings Spiritual Blessings — Sabbath Observance Honors God's 
 Presence—God the Source of Our Spiritual Life — Prophetic Voice 
 of the Sabbath — {Spiritual Life Enriched by its Promises — A Return 
 to the Sabbath Essential to Spiritual Growth — Discard Civil Law 
 in Sabbath Reform — Base All Reform on Biblical and Religious 
 Grounds — No Return to the "Jewish" Sabbath — Roman Catholic 
 Theories Now Ascendant — Obedience Leads to the Truth — Noth- 
 ing but Truth and Obedience Will Avail. 
 
 rriHE general situation as to Sunday is full of fore- 
 boding. Decay and impending ruin fill the hori- 
 zon. Fear and despair are voiced or suggested in 
 what the friends of Sunday say. Can anything be 
 saved from the wreck ? Can this sad and swift de- 
 cline be checked ? 
 
 It can. But the reform must be revolutionary. 
 Patch-work is worse than useless. Temporizing is 
 deeper failure. The decay of the Puritan Compro- 
 mise has given new vigor to the original hoHdayism. 
 There is nothing of true Sabbathism left in Sunday 
 to be rescued. New ground must be taken. New 
 definitions must be made. This new ground, among 
 other things, must be an enlaiged and uplifting con- 
 ception of Protestantism concerning itself and its 
 mission. Here is a working outline. 
 
RETURN TO GOD'S SABBATH. 195 
 
 START WITH JESUS CHRIST, LORD OF THE SABBATH. 
 
 Christ found the Sabbath buried under a load of 
 ceremonialism and meaningless requirements. By 
 precept and example he freed it from these and fitted 
 it for spiritual service in his new kingdom. Instead 
 of abrogating it or treating it as of little or no ac- 
 count, he made constant efforts to exalt and honor 
 it. Christ Christianized the Sabbath, and whoever 
 throws it SLway, or dishonors it, is thus far disloj^al 
 to him. 
 
 So long as the early church followed Christ's ex- 
 ample and kept the Sabbath as he left it to them, the 
 spiritual life of the church remained at "full tide." 
 After the time of the New Testament, when Pagan 
 philosophy and prejudice against the Jews began to 
 teach the falsehood that the Sabbath was only a 
 "Jewish affair," and that it was not binding on 
 Christians, the spiritual life and power of the church 
 declined in swift and increasing ratio. This was es- 
 pecially true after Christianity became a religion of 
 the Roman Empire by civil law, and Sunday, and 
 other festivals appointed by the state-church, were 
 exalted and fostered. Thus the Sabbath was driven 
 out, slowl}^ but steadily. Nowhere are the evidences 
 of cause and effect seen more clearly than in the apos- 
 tac3^ of the church from Christ's Christianity after 
 the falsehoods of no-lawism and no-Sabbathism 
 were adopted in the creed of paganized and decHning 
 Christianit^^ The cyclone does not mark its path 
 with desolation more surely than these errors, which 
 
196 DECADENCE OF SUNDAY. 
 
 began with the rejection of the Sabbath, left a trail of 
 spiritual decay behind them. 
 
 The Christianized Sabbath which Christ gave to 
 his followers has had no fair trial since the days of 
 the New Testament church. Pushed aside because 
 not understood, it has wandered in the wilderness 
 until now. A brilliant woman once said of Robert 
 Ingersoll that instead of opposing Christianity he 
 was busy "bombarding the gravestones of departed 
 theories." Since the time of Justin Martyr, who led 
 in mingling a large element of Paganism with Chris- 
 tianity, men have been condemning an imperfect con- 
 ception of the Sabbath, \vhich Christ condemned and 
 discarded, and ignoring the Sabbath which he, its 
 divine Lord, left to his church. To understand what 
 this was we must rise above the common notions 
 concerning the nature and purpose of the Sabbath. 
 
 First and alwa3^s, the Sabbath is God's sacred 
 representative in time. Its mission is to bring God 
 constantU^ and definitely before men and into the 
 affairs of human life. The Sabbath stands among 
 the da3's as the Bible does among books, as Christ 
 does among men. The coming of God into human 
 life, in an^^ way, brings a long train of blessings. His 
 purpose is to dwell in close communion \^ ith men at 
 all times. The first and last mission of the Sabbath 
 is to promote this permanent residence of God with 
 men. Such a residence awakens man's love and 
 leads him to obedience. It nourishes hope and 
 strengthens faith. It protects from temptation and 
 sustains in trial. It brings comfort to our sorrow 
 
RETURN TO GOD's SABBATH. 197 
 
 and wisdom to our ignorance. It leads to repentance 
 and strengthens us for duty. By drawing men to- 
 gether in common love for God, it secures regular 
 worship and constant instruction in righteousness. 
 The Day of God leads to the House of God, to the 
 Book of God, and to the Son of God. 
 
 The cessation from business which the Sabbath 
 requires brings many minor blessings. But these 
 come only when the cessation is induced through the 
 behests of religion and conscience. Holidayism with- 
 out religion results in dissipation, which is w^orse, as 
 a whole, than honest and legitimate work. The true 
 meaning of the Sabbath law^ has been greatly per- 
 verted and obscured by two common and superficial 
 definitions, namely, that the primary meaning of the 
 Sabbath is "rest," and its primary purpose to "com- 
 memorate the \vork of creation." These are such im- 
 perfect "half-truths " as to be practicalh^ falsehoods. 
 Such conceptions are even below the Jewish interpre- 
 tation and immeasureably below the teachings of 
 Christ, the "Lord of the Sabbath." 
 
 THE SABBATH IS GOD's REPRESENTATIVE, AND ITS 
 
 OBSERVANCE IS A CELEBRATION IN HONOR OF 
 
 HIS PRESENCE. 
 
 The superficial views of men who do not enter 
 into the deeper meaning of the Sabbath lead them to 
 sa^^: "I can rest and worship on one day as. well 
 as another." As an animal, a man may rest at 
 one time as w^ell as another, if the physical surround- 
 ings are the same. This is onh' the animal concep- 
 tion. As a thinking and worshiping child of God, the 
 
198 DECADENCE OF SUNDAY. 
 
 case is wholly different. To such an one the reason 
 for resting is the determining factor. What he will do 
 when he ceases from worldly affairs will depend on 
 why he ceases. If rest is the only or the main purpose, 
 hewdll seek quiet as the tired ox does, or such change 
 of occupation or form of recreation as will accord 
 with his tastes and surroundings. The low^er im- 
 pulses of the animal \\\\\ control in these choices. 
 Herein lies the deeperphilosophy of choice and action 
 which makes holidayism and debauchery inevitable 
 wdien leisure is sought without religious conscience, 
 oris made obligator}^ by law. Men say: " We do 
 not propose to make men worship by law, but we 
 must make them rest b3^1aw." All experience shows 
 that when men ai'e thus compelled to be idle, not 
 being religious, they will be dissipated, according to 
 tastes and surroundings. The purpose of the soul 
 determines what men will do when they have leisure. 
 Hence it is clear that they will not worship on any 
 day, unless the soul is controlled by the Sabbath 
 idea and by love for him whom the Sabbath rep- 
 resents. 
 
 But this truth goes deeper still. God is the source 
 and center of all spiritual life. True worship has its 
 dwelling in the soul. Spiritual life and growth spring 
 from the soul. True worship is not forms nor cere- 
 monies, but communion with God, and such thoughts, 
 acts and deeds as spring from this communion. It 
 is the outward manifestations of the soul w^hich is 
 loving God and living in him. The recognition of 
 God's presence is a fundamental element in worship. 
 
RETURN TO GOD's SABBATH. 199 
 
 Knowing him to be present, men draw near to him 
 with pure hearts, fervently. True w^orship brings 
 men to the fountain of spiritual life. It begets 
 strength, faith, power, rest, sanctification, peace. 
 The Sabbath, as God's day, draws men to him and 
 promotes such communion and worship. The in- 
 fluence of the Sabbath also goes out into the week, 
 holding men nearer to God, and, in a greater or less 
 degree, continuing this communion and repeating 
 this worship. But since the earthly life of the week 
 must be filled with things which are more specifically 
 earthl3% the weekly Sabbath must continue. "Uni- 
 versal Sabbathism " is not for this life, although he 
 who "keeps the Sabbath holy" realizes more and 
 more the ideal and unending Sabbath to which we 
 shall coiiie in heaven. Argument does not need to go 
 farther to show that true worship and God's sacred 
 day are inseparable. 
 
 THE FORW^ARD LOOK OF THE SABBATH. 
 
 The Sabbath has a forward look which glows 
 with peace and J03', and which is a factor of great 
 power in developing and enlarging spiritual life. As 
 the symbol of God's Sabbath, it points to the eternal 
 resting in the unending life in heaven. He rests in a 
 glory we are as unable to measure as we are to meas- 
 ure the love by which we are redeemed. The Sabbath 
 points us to that glory as the rest which remaineth 
 for the people of God. Each weekly Sabbath sa3^s : 
 Take courage. Find comfort. Earthl^^life is gliding 
 b3^ The week of your earth life will soon be passed. 
 
200 DECADENCE OF SUNDAY. 
 
 Shadows and sorrows will soon be left behind you. 
 A few more days and the Sabbath-crowned life will 
 welcome you to go no more out forever. 
 
 The sands of time are sinking, 
 The dawn of heaven breaks. 
 
 The graveless land is in sight. StumbHng will 
 soon be over. Ignorance will soon be swallowed up 
 in that knowledge which comes when we are face to 
 face with the Everlasting Light. Perfected rest and 
 full redemption await you a little farther on. The 
 doors of the heavenly Sabbath are swinging wide to 
 welcome you to the company of the ransomed who 
 dwell in joy unspeakable and full of glory; Sabbath 
 glory which echoes with the Sabbath songs of the 
 angels of God. 
 
 Such messages and promises enrich spiritual life 
 and purify the soul as nothing earth-born can do. 
 Festivals ordained by custom and the authority of 
 the church have no such message. Rest-days under 
 the civil law cannot lift the soul thus. All these are 
 like the stagnant pools of the morass when compared 
 with the ever-flowing springs which gush from the 
 heart of the everlasting hills. 
 
 The only hope for genuine Sabbath Reform is in 
 the restoration of the Sabbath based on the unabro- 
 gated law of God as written in the Decalogue and as 
 interpreted by Christ. This would lay a permanent 
 and efficient basis for conscience and loyalty toward 
 God and the Bible. 
 
 On such a basis the spiritual life of the church 
 would rise to a point which it has never reached, and 
 
RETURN TO GOD's SABBATH. 201 
 
 can never reach under the prevailing theories. All of 
 these, openly or virtually, set aside the Bible and the 
 law of God and the example of Christ in the matter 
 of Sabbath-observance. So long as Sabbath-observ- 
 ance is made a matter of convenience, so long as it 
 is left to the authority of custom or made to rest on 
 the dictum of civil law, there can be no basis for 
 loyalty toward God, no soil in which to grow a Sab- 
 bath conscience in the hearts of men. The friends of 
 Sunday declare that prominent forms of its desecra- 
 tion would cease if the patronage of Christians were 
 withdrawn. Beyond question, No-Sabbathism and 
 the half-truth of the Puritan compromise have ener- 
 vated spiritual life and destro^-ed conscience beyond 
 the hope of redemption, unless new ground is taken. 
 Hence the Sabbath, though long rejected and sec- 
 ularized even by the church, rises in this hour of 
 peril and ruin through Xo-Sabbathism and offers, in 
 the name of God the law-giver, and of Christ the 
 Lord of the Sabbath, the one and onh^ road back to 
 higher spiritual life, to firm and abiding conscience 
 and to the long train of blessings which are enfolded 
 in love, loyalt^', obedience and communion with God, 
 through his divine Sabbath. 
 
 DISCARD CIVIL LAW IX SABBATH REFORM. 
 
 True Sabbath Reform demands a revolution in 
 the matter of Sunday laws. The history of fifteen 
 hundred 3'ears proves that Sunday laws have fos- 
 tered holida3'ism. The nature of Christ's kingdom, 
 and his definite teachings forbid every attempt to en- 
 
202 DECADENCK OF SUNDAY. 
 
 force the observance of any day as the Sabbath, by 
 civil law. We have shown in a former chapter that 
 Sunday laws started in the Pagan conception of re- 
 ligion as a department of the Imperial government, 
 to be created and regulated by civil law. But accord- 
 ing to Christ and the Bible, God is the supreme law- 
 giver, and Christ is the supreme interpreter of his 
 law. The first and last intent of the work of Christ 
 is to bring men face to face with God, and to keep 
 them in constant communion with him. When the 
 civil law takes precedence of the divine, in any relig- 
 ious duty, human authority is exalted and divine au- 
 thority is debased. When Christianity ascended the 
 throne of the Caesars, it lost far more in spiritual 
 power and purit3^ than it gained in royal patronage. 
 On no point w^as the decline in spiritual power more 
 apparent than in the matter of the Sabbath. There 
 is not the slightest trace of a Christian idea in any 
 Sunda}^ law until 386 A.D. Logically and histori- 
 call3% civil law can make nothing more than a 
 holiday. 
 
 Puritanism retained the Pagan-Catholic theory 
 of Sunday as a civil institution to be regulated and 
 enforced by civil law. It applied this idea with strict- 
 ness modeled after the Levitical code. But this ad- 
 dition of Leviticalism could not save Sunday from in- 
 ured and therefore inevitable holidayism. This has 
 been demonstrated by its history in the United 
 States. The logic of the case is as plain as is the fact 
 of holida^^ism. In Sunday law the human authority 
 comes between the soul and God's law ; or rather, it 
 
RETURN TO GOD's SABBATH. 203 
 
 sets God's law aside that it may assume control. 
 This destroys conscience. If Sunday were the true 
 Sabbath, the result w^ould be the same. Sabbath ob- 
 servance is pre-eminently the product of religion. It 
 rests on heart-life and spiritual communion with 
 God. It is far more than a form, a ceremony, a rest- 
 ing. The term " Civil Sabbath " is a contradiction. 
 There can be a civil Sabbath no more than there can 
 be a civil baptism, a civil Lord's Supper, or a civil 
 prayer. 
 
 WHAT SHALL BE DONE? 
 
 Base the question of Sabbath and of Sabbath 
 Reform on the Bible. Deny the right of the civil law 
 to do more than protect men in conscientious obedi- 
 ence to the divine law. Hold men face to face with 
 God and his law. Accept Christ as the best inter- 
 preter of that law\ Stand on his interpretation, and 
 follow his example. Christianity^ is dying as to Sab- 
 bathism, because it has traded Christ's Sabbath for 
 Constantine's Sunday. It has bartered the Bible for 
 the half-pagan traditions of the Roman Catholic 
 state-church. Protestants have increased the evil by 
 rejecting the strong ecclesiasticism of Rome. Such a 
 return to the Sabbath, and the example of Christ, 
 will give a permanent Biblical and religious basis for 
 faith and conscience. It will lift the Sabbath ques- 
 tion out of the low ground of convenience and out- 
 ward form into which it has sunk. It will take the 
 issue out of politics, and make it one of religion. 
 Cease to expect that the irreligious and the non-re- 
 ligious will keep the Sabbath an^'- more than they 
 
204 DECADENCE OF SUNDAY. 
 
 will pray, or profess faith in Christ by baptim. On 
 this line a victorions revolution awaits true Sabbath 
 Reform. On any other line, defeat lies in wait. 
 
 ''not the JEWISH SABBATH." 
 
 We make no plea for a return to the "Jewish 
 Sabbath." What we ask is that the followers of 
 Christ return to God's Sabbath, according to the 
 teachings and the example of Christ. Accept the Sab- 
 bath as Christianized by Christ, its Lord. The popu- 
 lar theories concerning Sunday- make Justin, Con- 
 stantine and Roman Catholic traditions the stand- 
 ard of faith and practice. They ignore the Decalogue, 
 discard the example of Christ, and deny the funda- 
 mental doctrine of the Protestant Reformation. 
 Under such a system the decay of Sunday is as inev- 
 itable as the freezing of water when the mercury 
 registers below zero. The final failure of Sunday 
 cannot be disguised. Its best friends proclaim it. 
 They mourn over it. They sit helpless while 
 the decay goes on. The fact of decay surrounds 
 them. The consciousness of decay is within them. 
 Protestants are helpless in a double sense. Only 
 two choices are before them. One is a return 
 to Catholicism. This surrenders the doctrine which 
 gave birth to Protestantism, and acknowledges 
 what Catholics claim, that Protestantism is a 
 sublime failure. In every effort made by Protest- 
 ants for what they call Sabbath Reform, there is no 
 semblance of success without appeal to Catholics for 
 help. Such appeal is welcomed by Catholics, because 
 
RETURN TO GOD'S SABBATH. 205 
 
 it is surrender on the part of Protestants. Of all 
 others, Catholics have most reason to be satisfied 
 with the situation. They are calmly waiting the 
 self-destruction of the Protestant claims as to Sun- 
 day. As far as the future of Sunday is concerned, 
 Protestants stand on the shore of the Red Sea of fail- 
 ure. A few seem to think that defeat may be cov- 
 ered by ignoring the facts and proclaiming more 
 loudly than before that Sunday is "God's Holy 
 Day," and assuming that what the Bible says about 
 the Sabbath applies to Sunday. 
 
 The transparency of such a course makes the 
 fact of decay more apparent. Pious misnomers can- 
 not put away facts. When typhoid lights its fatal 
 fire in the blood it is of no avail to insist that the 
 patient is well. The fact that Sunday is doomed is 
 not lessened by denial, nor averted by being ignored. 
 The supreme need of the hour is less of cold creed and 
 loose indifferentism, and more of Christ-like obedi- 
 ence. We need less of dreaming about abstractions, 
 and more readiness to do the will of God. Men 
 said to Christ : "How shall we know that what 
 you say is true ? " His answer : Do the will of God. 
 Men have lived outside of the Sabbath, and below it, 
 so long, that spiritual life flows faintly. Popular 
 appeals to emotion, called evangelism, are weak and 
 ephemeral, because little of the grip of the law of 
 God is in them. True conversion starts with the 
 consciousness of sin against God. Sin is more than 
 being out of right relations with an airy something 
 called humanity and progress. To the same list 
 
206 DECADENCE OF SUNDAY. 
 
 belong the claims of Sunday. They have neither 
 grasp nor grip. A gospel of salvation without the 
 back-ground of law is as meaningless as inviting 
 hunger to sit at a foodless table. The calls of Sun- 
 day to Sabbath Reform are as mocking as a lath 
 thrown to a drowning inan. From the days of Jus- 
 tin until now, the effort to destroy the Fourth Com- 
 mandment has been prompted solely by the desire to 
 escape the claims of the Sabbath. Christians do not 
 write books and preach sermons to prove that the 
 commandment against adulter}^ is abrogated. Every 
 man desires that the law against stealing shall be in 
 force, as to his neighbors at least. But centuries of 
 false teachings concerning the Sabbath have so ener- 
 vated conscience, perverted exegesis, and blinded 
 judgment, that pulpits resound with the falsehood 
 the Sabbath is a dead figment of Judaism, and men 
 are free from its claims. And now, slain b3^ their 
 folly and error, these same Christian leaders sink 
 willingly into holidayism, or wail in wondering 
 weakness over the fact that they must reap what 
 they and their ancestors have sown. This is our 
 message: Come hack to God and his Sabbath, and 
 to Christ its Lord. 
 
 Remember that the testimony contained in the 
 preceding pages is wholly from the friends of Sun- 
 day. We have quoted from religious authorities 
 only. We make no case against Sunday because of 
 what its enemies say. If the importance of Sabbath- 
 observance be half as great as these friends of Sunday 
 say it is, this decay of regard for Sunday carries ruin 
 
RETURN TO GOD's SABBATH. 207 
 
 beyond computation. To know why Sunday- has 
 deca^-ed thus must compel the question which forms 
 part of the title of this book : What next ? Our plan 
 is for a return to the Sabbath according to New Tes- 
 tament example and teaching. This would bring 
 Christians into harmony with the example of Christ. 
 He discarded nothing except the false burdens 
 w^hich degenerate Judaism had placed upon the Sab- 
 bath. He did not disobey the law nor change the 
 day. 
 
 All efforts to secure regard for Sunday as a 
 sacred daj^ under the Fourth Commandment have 
 failed. The Puritan Sunday had everything human 
 in its favor. Its failure is the greater because of the 
 opportunity it had for success. No new facts con- 
 cerning Sunday can be found in the Bible. Scheming 
 for new theories outside the Bible does no more than 
 emphasize the imperative necessity of returning to 
 the Bible and the Sabbath. Thus returning, Protest- 
 ants will have solid ground on which to make ap- 
 peal to conscience. Custom and convenience in the 
 matter of Sabbath-observance are grave-diggers. 
 The folk' of expecting to gain any permanent 
 good through civil law is shown in each new 
 effort to exalt that which men call the "Civil Sab- 
 bath." Religious men alone will regard an^" da}- as 
 Sabbath. Holidayism, through civil law or through 
 personal choice, will always be irreligious. But, 
 worst of all is the death of the sense of obligation, 
 and of conscience, which the popular theories taught 
 by Christians produce. The church is committing 
 
208 DECADENCE OF SUNDAY. 
 
 suicide by what it teaches. Brethren, if you still re- 
 fuse to consider the claims of the Sabbath which 
 Christ honored and kept, and taught us how to 
 keep, you dishonor him and his authority. To his 
 Sabbath Protestants must return. 
 
 This is the requirement of the law of God. It is 
 the commandment of Christ b^'- example. It is the 
 verdict of history. It is the hope of Protestantism. 
 If 3^ou are indifferent, you will discard the message. 
 If you are frivolous, you will sneer at it. If 
 you are cowardh^ you will run away from 
 it. If 3^ou are weak, you will stand helpless 
 before it. If you are lo^^al to God and Christ, you 
 will heed and obe}^, whatever it may cost. What- 
 ever you do, the decay of Sunday will go on. 
 Wishes, praj-ers, and protests are vain. Sunday 
 holidayism has the road. The coach is crowded. 
 Lawlessness holds the reins. No-Sabbathism plies 
 the whip. The horses are mad. The precipice is near. 
 What will you do? 
 
NEWSPAPERS QUOTED. 
 
 Advance, The. 23, 45, 48, 49, 51, 52, 83, 128, 134, 142, 143, 144. 
 Advocate. The Christian (New York). 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 107. 
 
 113, 114. 115, 116. 
 Advocate, Western Christian. 17. 
 American Sabbath, The. 126. 
 American Sentinel, iii. 
 Baptist Messenger. 6. 
 Catholic Mirror. 153, 154, 155. 
 Christian Intelligencer. 66, 80, 81, 82, 84. 
 Christian Work. 75, 84. 
 Christian Reformer. 75. 
 Christian Union. 25. 28. 
 Christian Endeavorer. 123, 137, 139, 141. 
 Christian Secretary, The. 5. 
 
 Christian Statesman. 57, 58, 59, 60, 68, 70, 71, 76, 122, 124, 125, 131. 
 Congregationalist, The. 26, 38, 40, 42, 44, 45, 47, 129. 
 Congregational Record. 41. 
 Church Bulletin. 113. 
 Defender, The. 129, 137, 143. 
 Diocesan Work. 93. 
 Evangel and vSabbath Outlook. 73, 112. 
 Epworthian, The. 112. 
 Episcopal Recorder. 95. 
 Examiner, The. 3, 7, 8. 
 Golden Rule, The. 71, 190. 
 Herald, The New York. 9. 
 Herald, Epworth League. 108. 
 Independent, The New York. 37, 86, 89, 
 Iowa State Register. 144. 
 Interior, The. 69, 71. 81, 82, 108, no, 126. 
 Journal of Commerce. 66. 
 Methodist Review. 20. 
 National Baptist. 7, 9. 
 
210 NEWSPAPERS QUOTED. 
 
 National Advocate of Holiness. 109. 
 
 Observer, The (New York). 59, 62, 132, 133. 
 
 Outlook, The. 96. 
 
 Pacific Christian Endeavorer. 140. 
 
 PeailofDays. 135. 
 
 Sabbath Recorder. 90. 
 
 Standard, The. 2, 3. 
 
 Saint Mark's Messenger. 95. 
 
 Times-Herald. 189. 
 
 Watchman, The. 11, 135. 
 
 Watch Tower. 5. 
 
 Weeklj' Witness. 157. 
 
 BOOKS QUOTED. 
 
 " The Lord's Day." A. E. Waffles, D. D. 146. 
 ** Day of Rest." James Stacey, D. D. 147. 
 " Letters of Senex," etc. 153. 
 " Our Christian Heritage." 153. 
 
GENERAL INDEX. 
 
 A 
 
 Abrogation, Christians seek this of the Fourth Commandment only, 
 206. 
 
 Adams, Rev. George C, describes vSunday-deseoation in St. Louis, 42. 
 
 America, becoming worse than Europe as to Sunday, 77. 
 
 American Sabbath, it is "lost " in the United States; its decay is in- 
 evitable, 53, 54. 
 
 American Sabbath Union, is not sustained by Christians; Annual Meet- 
 ings of in 1897; a member distributes secular advertisements at 
 Sunday evening service, 84, iii. 
 
 Anti -Judaism, sprung from gnostic philosophy concerning Jehovah, 
 165. 
 
 Apathy, Christians are guilty of, 77, 137, 138. 
 
 Apalling, the extent of Sunday-desecration, 95. 
 
 Assembly, Presbyterian, of Tennessee reports decline of regard for 
 Sunday, 79. 
 
 Attendance at church, declines with loss of regard for Sunday, 107. 
 
 Augsburg Confession, a no-Sabbath document, 177. 
 
 Awakening, greatly needed among Christians, to save Sunday, 95. 
 
 B 
 
 Bacon, Rev. L. W., declares that Sunday, as a Sabbath, is lost, 53. 
 
 Baptist Congress,' discusses the Sunday question, 12. 
 
 Baptist Convention, of New York, warns Baptists against Sunday- 
 desecration, 5. 
 
 Baptist Doctrine, requires the observance of the Sabbath rather than 
 Sunday, 2. 
 
 Baptist Preachers, disagree widely as to reasons for observing Sun- 
 day, 6. 
 
 Baseball, playing of, on Sunday, denounced, 75. 
 
 Bible, the only true basis for Sabbath Reform, 74; the authority of, in- 
 volved in the S ibbath question, 105; is against Sunday-observance, 
 155; is the ultimate and supreme standard of Sabbath Reform, 203. 
 
212 GENERAL IiNDEX. 
 
 Bicycle, leads to Sunda5'-desecration, 44; use of, on Sunda}-, severely 
 condemned, 80. 
 
 Bishops, the Methodist, ought to stop camp-meetings from joining in 
 Sunday-desecration, no. 
 
 Blanchard, Rev. A., condemns Christians for leading in vSunday-dese- 
 cration, 123. 
 
 Blaine, Hon. J. G., traveled on Sundaj^, 119; would not make political 
 speeches on Sunday, 119. 
 
 Boston, Continental Sunday abounds there, 2; 100,000 people at sea- 
 shore there, on Sunday, 53; Sunday trains in, first petitioned for by 
 Christians, 192. 
 
 Breaking down of Sunday, shown on all lines of behavior by Chris- 
 tians, 120. 
 
 Burdette, Robert J., describes Sunday in the West, 7. 
 
 Bureau of Statistics, report on Sunday labor in Massachusetts, 27-35; 
 publication of report created great sensation, 28; showed immense 
 amount of desecration ofvSunday, 28. 
 
 Business, increasing amount of, done on Sunda3% 19; cessation from, is 
 not Sabbath-keeping, 197. 
 
 C 
 
 California, has no Sunday law since 1883, 6i;"vSabbath Association" 
 of, condemns Christians for desecrating vSunday, 131. 
 
 Camp-Meetings, proiuote disregard for Sunday, 58, 107, 108. 
 
 Carelessness, Christians are guilty of, in connection with Sunday, 138, 
 
 139- 
 
 Carman, Rev. A. vS., declares there is no authority for Sunday in the 
 New Testament, 12. 
 
 C. E. vSocieties, apathetic in regard to vSunday-desecration, 138; of Cali- 
 fornia, very inactive in Sunday Reform, 140. 
 
 C. E. Delegates, desecrate vSunday by sight seeing in Rocky Mountains, 
 141; favor vSunday-observance in theor}', but oppose it in practice, 
 142. 
 
 " Change of Sabbath," theory unknown previous to 1595 A. D., 181-183. 
 
 Charges, serious ones made by Christians against each other, 149. 
 
 Christ, established the " Christian " vSabbath, in accordance with the 
 law of God, 195; his example must be taken as the standard in 
 Sibbath Reform, 195; Christians disregard that example, 196. 
 
 Christians, are unable to check desecration of Sunday, 3; approve Sun- 
 day concerts, 7; encourage desecration of vSunday by example, 21, 
 22; asked for Sunday trains in Massachusetts, 33; first to ask for 
 street cars on Sunday in Boston, 31 ; lack conscience on the Sabbath 
 
GENERAL IxNDEX. 213 
 
 question, 44; could save Sunday if united in its defense, 62; are 
 criminally indifferent as to decay of Sunday, 66; sent few petitions 
 to Congress against opening of the World's Fair on Sunday, 68; 
 were responsible for the opening of the World's Fair on Sunday, 69; 
 are unable to secure the better observance of Sunday, 104; are being 
 carried down by disregard for Sunday, 107; cannot oppose Sunday- 
 desecration consistently, 121 ; must cease from Sunday-desecration 
 or be ruined, 135, 136; are not united nor earnest in defending Sun- 
 day, 137; are primarily responsible for decay of regard for Sunday, 
 147, 148. 
 
 Christian Advocate, declares that Sunday is lost, 20. 
 
 Christian Endeavorer, says that 3,000,000 people in the United States 
 labor on every Sunday, and that church members do not care for 
 this, 83. 
 
 Christianity, is everywhere endangered by loss of regard for Sunday, 
 q6; is weakened dangerously by no-Sabbathism, 161 ; corrupted by 
 Pagan philosophy, 165. 
 
 Chicago, much given to disregarding Sunday, 26, 27; Sunday-observ- 
 ance in, of a low grade, 48; Mayor of, leads 6,000 cyclers on a Sun- 
 day parade, 49. 
 
 Church attendance, slight on vSunday, 58: is given up for pleasure, 63; 
 declining in both country and city, 97; neglect of, not generally 
 condemned, formerly sustained by law and social custom, 99. 
 
 Church members, undermine Sunday-observance by bad examples, 79; 
 patronize stores for sale of goods on Sunday, 116; disregard for Sun- 
 day among, is rapidly increasing, 122. 
 
 Churches, will be destroyed if vSabbath-observance is destroyed, 79. 
 
 Cigars, sale of, on Sunday a legal " necessity," 46. 
 
 Civil law, applied to Sunday creates a holiday, 205. 
 
 "Civil Sabbath," no more possible than a "civil" baptism, or a 
 " civil " Lord's Supper, 203. 
 
 Clarke, Rev. Dr. Rufus, says Christians support Sunday newspapers, 
 61. 
 
 Clergymen, are accustomed to travel on Sunday, 59; ought not to pat" 
 ronize or preach at Sunday-breaking camp-meetings, 116. 
 
 Columbian Exposition, Act of Congress closing it, could not be gained 
 without aid of the Roman Catholics, 161. 
 
 Conference, the M. E. of New England, 15; it mourns the loss of regard 
 for Sunday, 16. 
 
 Congregationalist, The, says that Sunday is regarded less sacredly 
 each year, 44. 
 
214 GENERAL INDEX. 
 
 Congregationalists, active in agitating Sunday question in New England, 
 25; declare that Sunday is losing, or is lost, 49; acknowledge that 
 Sunday-observance has no basis in the Bible, 186-189. 
 
 Congregationalist Clergymen, advice of, destroys regard for Sundaj% 
 189. 
 
 Conscience, Christians have little relative to vSunday. 15, 66; less con- 
 cerning the Fourth Commandment than concerning any other, 52; 
 Christians have " nebulous " ones, 64. 
 
 Constantine, his first Sunday law quoted, 172. 
 
 Contradictions, of Protestants are glaring as to the Bible and Sunday, 
 154- 
 
 " Continental " Sunday, is fostered by Christians in the United States, 
 62; has taken the place ot the " Puritan " in the United States, 81 ; 
 is based on no-Sabbathism and church authority. 178; is 1,200 years 
 old, 191. 
 
 Continental Reformers, were extreme no-Sabbathists, 177. 
 
 Crafts, Rev. W. F., saj^s that New England is going to destruction by 
 disregarding Sunday, 71; denounces the indifference of Christians 
 as to loss of Sunday, 124; says not one-half of " Sabbath Associa- 
 tions " petitioned Congress for closing World's Fair on .Sunday, 
 125. 
 
 Cuyler, Rev. Theo. I,., mourns over lack of conscience concerning 
 Sunday, 75, 76; describes the deplorable decline of regard for Sun- 
 day in the United States, 86. 
 
 Cox, Rev. Dr. , says that the friends of Sunday are apathetic, 20. 
 
 D 
 
 Danger, to Sunday greatly increased because of lack of conscience on 
 the part of Christians, 114, 115. 
 
 Darkness, as to the future of Sunday constantly increasing, 66, 67. 
 
 Davison, Rev. J. B., complains of the indifference of Christians as to 
 Sunday in Wisconsin, 139. 
 
 Deacon Pugh, advertises for a " lost conscience " touching vSundaj', 
 
 143- 
 
 Decay of .Sunday, reasons for, 163-174; inevitable, 164. 
 
 Defense of Sunday, no adequate, made by Christians, 135, 136. 
 
 Delaware (N. Y. ), Presbytery of, warns against Sunday decay, 58. 
 
 Desecration of Sunday, increasing in New Jersey, 79; a carnival of in 1895, 
 80,81; generally increasing, 80; great in Pennsylvania in spite of 
 law, 81 ; would cease in a large degree except for example of Chris- 
 tians, 201. 
 
 Des Moines, Sunday Reform Convention at, lightly attended, 143, 144. 
 
GENERAL INDEX. 215 
 
 Desplains Camp-Meeting Association, received thirtj- per cent of fares 
 for railroad tickets sold on Sunday, io8. 
 
 Disregard, for Sunday by Christians is unconcealed, 148; greater now 
 than for centuries past, 102. 
 
 Dissipation, is taking the place of rest on Sunday, 95. 
 
 E 
 
 Elements of decaj'. three prominent ones in the Puritan Sunday, 183. 
 
 Elmendorf, Rev. Dr., says that Christians are indifferent as to the sal- 
 vation of Sunday, 84. 
 
 England, Church of, not favorable to the Puritan Sunday, 93; Sabbath 
 question in, during the Reformation, 179. 
 
 Episcopalian testimony, declares the serious decline of regard for Sun- 
 day, 93. 
 
 Epworthian, The, advertised vSunday railroad trains at Sunday evening 
 services, 112. 
 
 Europeans, are not the chief sinners in disregarding Sunday in the 
 United States, 3. 
 
 Evarts, Rev. W. W., says that vSunday is being destroyed by Chris- 
 tians, 13. 
 
 Evil results, many and grave ones are here through decline of regard 
 for Sundav, 148. 
 
 F 
 
 Failure, of Sunday openly conceded by its friends, 204. 
 
 Foreboding of evil, much in connection with the decay of regard for 
 Sunday, 194. 
 
 Foster, Rev. A. P., describes "Sabbath-breaking" in Massachu- 
 setts, 43. 
 
 Foster, Rev. J. M., asks for a law to prevent Christians from traveling 
 on Sunday, 65. 
 
 Fourth Commandment, Christians do not believe in it, 88. 
 
 Fowler Epworth League, advertised " Monon Route " Railroad, which 
 run Sunday trains, 112. 
 
 G 
 
 Gambrinus, is king in Cincinnati, on Sunday, 17. 
 
 Gibbons, Cardinal, declares that Protestantism is already a vanquished 
 
 foe, 159. 
 Gladden, Rev. Washington, says the neglected Sunday question is a 
 
 burning one, 41. 
 God's Law, offers the only basis for successful Sabbath Reform, 200. 
 God's Sabbath, a return to, is the only way to genuine vSabbath Reform, 
 
 201. 
 
216 GENERAL INDEX. 
 
 Gospel, the, is meaningless, if the law is abolished, 206. 
 
 Ground, new and higher, must be taken if true Sabbath Reform is ever 
 
 attained, 194. 
 
 H 
 Half-truths, often become essential falsehoods, ig8. 
 Hathaway, Rev. J. W., says that Sunday is more " wheelman's " day 
 
 than " Lord's " day, 84; says that disregard for Sunday has increased 
 
 greatly within ten years, 88. 
 Heaven, the true vSabbath is type and prophecy of, 200; festivals and 
 
 civil holidays cannot represent it, 200. 
 Help for Sunday, there is none; men must return to God's Sabbath, 
 
 149. 
 Heredity, by the law of, Sunday must decay, 164. 
 Hessey, Rev. Augustus, describes the no-Sabbathismof the Continental 
 
 reformers, 177. 
 History, verdict of, compels the abandoning of Sunday and a return to 
 
 the Sabbath, 206. 
 Hobart, Rev. A. S., declares that Sunday-observance is not Biblical, 13. 
 Hodges, Dean, favors Sunday papers, and writes for them, 128. 
 Holiness Association, received Si, 800 as its share of railroad fares on 
 
 Sunday, 108. 
 Hoyt, Rev. Dr. Wayland, denounces weak efforts at Sunday Reform b}^ 
 
 making speeches and passing resolutions, 60, 61. 
 Hubbard, Rev. Geo. H., says that Christians lead the way in Sundaj-- 
 
 desecration, 129. 
 
 I 
 Ice cream, sale of on Sunday, a "necessity," 45. 
 Ignored, the Decalogue is, by theories concerning Sunday, 204. 
 Inland cities, vSunday-observance in, greatly decayed, 81, 82. 
 Iowa " Sabbath " Convention, slightlj^ attended by Christian people, 
 
 144. 
 Important, facts touching Sunday put forth by Roman Catholics, 152. 
 Irreligious people, will not observe any day as Sabbath, 21. 
 Issues in Sunday-observance, are of paramount interest, 146. 
 
 J 
 
 Jehovah, held to be an inferior God by Gnostics, 165, 166. 
 
 "Jewish " vSabbath, prejudice against, first created by Pagans, 196; we 
 do not ask for a return to it, 204. 
 
 Joseph Cook, Rev., says that Sunday and the Republic stand or fall to- 
 gether, 35, 36. 
 
GENERAL INDEX. 217 
 
 Justin Martyr, was the first teacher of no-Sabbathism, i66, 167; was first 
 to give reasons for regarding Sunday, 168; his reasons for holding 
 services on Sunday were anti-Biblical, 168. 
 
 Iv 
 
 I^abor, 3,000,000 people in the United States engaged in, every Sun- 
 day, 123. 
 
 Layton, Rev. W. A., says Christians help to destroy Sunday bj^ patron- 
 izing Sunday papers, 127. 
 
 L,aw, civil, is useless if divine is ignored, 67; is powerless to check 
 Sunday-desecration, 116. 
 
 Ivaw-makers, lead in desecrating Sunday, 82, 83. 
 
 Legislators, amend Sunday laws in the interest of holidayism, 76. 
 
 Leiper, Rev. J. H., reports 8,000 places of business open on Sunday in 
 Philadelphia, 80. 
 
 " Lex," charges Christians with destroying regard for Sunday, 61, 62. 
 
 Liberalism, growth of, in Massachusetts, touching Sunday, 40. 
 
 Lord's-day, worship on, an essential feature of Christianity, 96; term 
 not used in civil law as equivalent for Sunday until 396 A. D., 
 
 173. 174- 
 
 Loss of Sundaj', Christians are mainly responsible for, 106. 
 
 Low ground arguments, sought for Sunday, because no Biblical argu- 
 ments for, 3. 
 
 Lukewarmness, as to Sunday, prevalent in Iowa, 144. 
 
 Lynn, Mass., great desecration of Sunday in, 2. 
 
 M 
 
 Massachusetts, 250 illegal railroad trains on Sunday, 5, 6; legalizes 
 many kinds of business on Sunday, 42, 44; Congregational Conven- 
 tion of, rejects resolutions on Sunday-observance, 129. 
 
 MacArthur, Rev. R. vS., denounces foreigners as desecrators of Sunday, 
 does not appeal to Bible in support of Sunday, 4. 
 
 McConnell, Rev. S. D,, writes a Philippic against Sundaj'-desecration, 
 96, 97. 
 
 Methodists, some of, have spoken much against desecration of Sunday, 
 15; are charged with joining in desecration for money, 15, 112. 
 
 Methodism, is disgraced through complicit}' with desecration of Sun- 
 day, 108, 109. 
 
 " Methodist Minister," a, charges a Camp-meeting Association with 
 sharing in railroad earnings on Sunday, 108, 109. 
 
 Ministers, Christian, use Sunday trains freely, 120, 121. 
 
218 GENERAL INDEX. 
 
 Moody, D. Iv., declaims against disreg^ard for Sunday in Chicago, 134; 
 advises people to observe some other day, if not convenient to ob- 
 serve Sunday, igo, 191; teaches that God's law should yield to 
 man's convenience, 190. 
 
 " Monon Route " railroad runs Sunday trains, and advertises in paper 
 of the Fowler Epworth League of Chicago, 112. 
 
 Mott, Rev. Geo. vS., declares that vSunday desecration increases in New 
 Jersey, 61, 62. 
 
 Museums, opening of, on Sunday condemned, 132. 
 
 Myers, Rev. A. E., announces the hopeless decay of regard for Sun- 
 day, 83. 
 
 N 
 
 Nation, the, imperilled through disregard for Sunday, 20, 21. 
 National Reform Association urges pushing Sunday into politics, 63. 64. 
 Neale, E. V., shows Pagan origin of vSunday legislation, 173. 
 New England leading in Sunday-desecration, 2, 63; losing conscience 
 
 in regard to Sunday, 87. 
 New York City, church attendance in, at low ebb, 97; one million 
 
 pleasure-seekers go from, on Sundays, loi. 
 Newspapers, few Christians oppose the Sunday issue of, 128. 
 Nicholas Bownde, author of "Puritan vSunday" theorj^ 181 ; quoted 
 
 from, 182. 
 Ninde, Bishop, sharp words of, concerning desecration of Sundaj', 21. 
 Noble, Rev. F. A., describes decay of Sunday in Chicago, 48. 
 Non-church-goers, number of, is steadily increasing, 97. 
 No-vSabbathism is increasing, 59; is a Roman Catholic doctrine, 151, 152; 
 
 was created by Pagan philosophy, 166, 167. 
 
 O 
 Obedience is the way to higher knowledge of truth, 205; to the Fourth 
 
 Commandment will come when men have conscience toward God, 
 
 206. 
 Observing Sunday, reasons for, are numerous and contradictory, 185, 
 
 186. 
 Old Testament, opposition to, sprang from Gnostic philosophy, 166. 
 " Orthodox " Christians are not conscientious as to observance of Sun- 
 day, 133. 
 
 P 
 
 Pagan Philosophy, was a prominent factor in driving the Sabbath from 
 
 the Christian church, 195. 
 Parkhurst, Rev. C. H., did not injure .Sunday by telling the truth about 
 
 it, 60. 
 
GKNERAL INDEX. 219 
 
 Passing of Sunday, shown, 8i, 82. 
 
 Past and present, contrasted as to the observance of Sunday, 100, loi. 
 
 Payne, Rev. C. H., said the loss of Sunday is the loss of the nation, 16. 
 
 Peril, much, from loss of regard for Sunday, 94, 95. 
 
 Physical rest, is the least important part of true Sabbath-observance, 
 197, 198; promotes holidayism if made compulsory, without con- 
 science, 198. 
 
 Pittsburg, Pa., Sunday greatly desecrated there, 75; Synod of, con- 
 demns Christians for buying Sunday papers, 134. 
 
 Pleasure seeking, greatly increased on Sunday within ten years, 100, 
 
 lOI. 
 
 Pleasure seekers, 350,000, go out of New York City on Sunday, 83, 84. 
 
 Preachers, travel on Sunday, 114; condemned for so doing, 125; defend 
 Sunday in theory, but destroy it by practice, 137, 138. 
 
 Presbyterians, hold the Puritan view concerning Sunday, 57; much 
 said by them concerning the decay of Sunday-observance, 58; elders 
 of, need a vSunday law, 65; were active in seeking to close the 
 World's Fair on Sunday, 67. 
 
 Present evils, they promise many more in connection with Sunday, 193. 
 
 President, of the United vStates condemned for traveling on Sundaj', 
 59, 60. 
 
 Prize Banner, C. E. vSocieties did not labor for, in connection with Sun- 
 day Reform work, 139. 
 
 Protests, against Sunday-desecration grow feebler each year, 146, 147. 
 
 Protestants, are losing ground in the United States, 157; are losing faith 
 in the Bible as Supreme guide, 157; condemn Roman Catholics in- 
 consistently, 27; duty of, in connection with Sabbath Reform, 92; 
 are essentially Roman Catholics on the Sabbath question, 160; do 
 not follow the Bible in keeping Sundaj'^, 154; have been self contra- 
 dictory for 300 years, 155; cannot escape the weakness of inconsist- 
 ency on the Sabbath question, 156; must return to the Bible as 
 standard of practice, 157; are disintegrating on the Sabbath ques- 
 tion, 158; are eager for the help of Roman Catholics in enforcing 
 Sundaj' laws, 161 ; are powerless to arrest disregared for Sunday, 184, 
 204. 
 
 Pulpits, are silent concerning the decay of regard for Sunday, 18, 88. 
 
 Puritans, in England, came nearly to the Seventh-day Baptist position, 
 179. 
 
 Puritan Sunday, was unscriptural and unhistoric, 100; its claims per- 
 vert the plain teaching of the Bible, 106; reasons for its decay, 176,183; 
 based on a compromise, 182; first announced in 1595, A. D., 181; its 
 
220 GENERAL INDEX. 
 
 friends have lost faith in it, 185; inherently weak because of a half- 
 way compromise, 191 ; retained the Pagan idea of a "civil Sabbath," 
 202. 
 
 Tublic opinion, no longer compels regard for Sunday, 103, 104. 
 
 Public worship, is secure only through a holy day, 196. 
 
 Pugh, Deacon, charges C. E. delegates with desecrating Sunday, 142. 
 
 Q 
 
 " Quandarj^" satire of, in the Examiner, S. 
 
 R 
 
 Railroad, earnings of, on Sunday used for support of Desplaines Camp- 
 Meeting Association, 109. 
 
 Rapid decline of regard for Sunday, 1. 
 
 Reasons for holding service on Sunday first given by Justin Martyr, 168. 
 
 Reforms center around some one leading idea, 176. 
 
 Revolution, a great one has come in Sunday-obsetvance, 100. 
 
 Rippere, Rev. John, says the church should oppose Sundaj' News- 
 papers, 127. 
 
 Roman Catholics are least affected by loss of regard for Sunday, 97; are 
 a potent factor in the Sunday question, 151; are shrewdly drawing 
 Protestants to their position, 152; are more consistent than Prot- 
 estants on the Sabbath question, 159, 160; are well satisfied with the 
 vSunday question in the United States, 161 ; quietly rejoice in the 
 failure of the "Puritan vSunday," 205. 
 
 S 
 
 Sabbath, the, rejection of destroys all basis for Sabbath-keeping in con- 
 nection with any day, 67; prevents regard ior Sunday, 106; it is 
 God's special representative in time, 196; forward look of 199; is 
 the promise of glorified rest hereafter, 200; returning to, will give a 
 basis for conscience, 203. 
 
 Sabbathism, all, will be lost unless Christians abandon Sunday and re- 
 turn to the Sabbath, 92; has decayed through error concerning the 
 Sabbath and the Sunday, 202; 203. 
 
 " Sabbath-desecration," fearful in amount of, in the United States, 147. 
 
 Sabbath-observance, it is the product of religion only, 203. 
 
 "Sabbath tradition," is passing out of sight, so tar as Sunda\' is con- 
 cerned, TOO. 
 
 Sabbath-keepers are the only consistent Protestants, 156. 
 
 Sabbath-keeping is a celebration in honor of God's presence, 197; it cul- 
 tivates true spiritual life in a high degree, 198. 
 
GEXERAI- INDEX. 221 
 
 Sabbath Reform, not gained by making speeches and passing resolu- 
 tions; 6i; is a vital question and yet unsettled, 149; must be revolu- 
 tionary if it is effective, 194; can never be gained in connection with 
 Sunday, 195. 
 
 Sabbath question, treatment of, by Roman Catholics, 152; not made 
 prominent in the Lutheran Reformation, 177. 
 
 Sailliens, Rev. R., shows how Protestant faith in the Bible is declin- 
 ing-, 157- 
 
 Saloons rejoice in desecration of vSundaj', 51; commend the cry that 
 " Saturday is Jewish," 51; are not so great an evil as desecration of 
 Sunday is, 130. 
 
 Salvation Army conducts Sundaj'-breaking camp-meeting, 115. 
 
 Salvation of Sunday is unsettled, 146. 
 
 San Francisco, Christian Endeavor delegates to Convention at, traveled 
 on Sunday, 141. 
 
 Satire, Deacon Pugh indulges in, concerning desecration of Sunday by 
 Christians, 142; cutting, from Dr. Wayland, concerning Sunday 
 laws, 9-12. 
 
 Self-defeat, accomplished by Protestants in keeping Sunday, 159. 
 
 Seventh-day Baptists were a strong factor in the English Reformation, 
 180; demanded a complete Protestantism, 181. 
 
 Shoe-.strings. satire concerning crime of selling on Sunday, 9-1 1. 
 
 Situation, gravity of, as related to Sunday cannot be overestimated, 
 102. 
 
 Spiritual Life is enriched and exalted by true Sabbath- observance, 200, 
 201; is enervated and destroj'ed by rejecting the Sabbath, 201, 202. 
 
 Sporting prevails in Boston on Sunday, 42. 
 
 Stall, Rev. Sylvanus, condemns Methodists for Sunday-desecration, 
 no. 
 
 Statesman, The Christian, charges Dr. Parkhurst with weakening pub- 
 lic regard for Sundaj-, 60. 
 
 St. Louis famed for wickedness on Sunday, 42, 95. 
 
 Sun-worship brought into Roman Empire and into Christianity from 
 Egypt and the Orient, 165. 
 
 Sunday, eclipse of, 7- observance of, a momentous issue, 15; desecra- 
 tion gains every year, 16, 17; is made a holidaj' by inheritance, 23; 
 must be a holiday or a holy day, 23; is no longer held sacred in Bos- 
 ton, 35; desecration rapidly increasing, 58; is widely disregarded, 
 69, 70; entire loss of, is imminent, 70, 71; is demoralized and assailed 
 on all sides, 76; false claims concerning, promote its decay, 90; can 
 be saved only when Christians awake, 145; its observance is non- 
 
222 GENERAL INDEX. 
 
 Protestant, 154; has been supported by civil law for centuries, 163; 
 decays year by year in spite of civil law, 164; regard for, began in 
 Pagan nature- worship, 165; has been a semi-holiday for thirteen 
 centuries, 174. 
 
 Sunday-breaking Christians are the greatest foes to vSunday-observance, 
 126. 
 
 Sunday-desecration, great increase of, in New England, 45; is a grow- 
 ing sin, 95. 
 
 Sunday Labor, does not decrease wages nor physical health, 33, 34: con- 
 tinues because Christians wish to have it, 123. 
 
 Sunday law helps the saloons by enforcing leisure, 18; decay of, in 
 Massachusetts, 36, 39, ; does not enforce religious regard, 37; legal- 
 izes many forms of business in Masssachusetts, 43; powerless to 
 save Sunday from desecration, 44; unenforced, promotes evil, 48; 
 earlier laws deemed too religious, 55; could be enforced if Chris- 
 tians were more consistent, 139; began as a part of the Pagan state- 
 church system, 152; was wholly Pagan at first, 172; fosters dissipa- 
 tion by enforcing leisure on the irreligious, 192; must be discarded 
 as a means of " Sabbath Reform," 201. 
 
 Sunday papers hasten the loss of regard for Sunday, 44; secure the sup- 
 port of Christian ministers, 47, 48. 
 
 Sunday Rest, Roman Catholics were prominent in the Congress of, at 
 Chicago, 73, 153. 
 
 Sunday trains, began to run in Massachusetts in 1836 A. D., 28; greatly 
 increased after i860 A. D., 29; for church-going led the way, 29; 
 were held to be unlawful, 30; soundly denounced, 38; sustained by 
 Christians, 116. 
 
 Sunday travel, great amount of, in Massachusetts, 31, 33. 
 
 Support, no common ground for Sunday-observance, 138. 
 
 Superintendent of a Sunday-school sells goods on Sunday, 114. 
 
 Synod of New Jersey reports serious obstacles to Sunday-observance in 
 that state, 79. 
 
 T 
 
 Talmage, Rev, T. D., is charged with promoting desecration of Sun- 
 day, 85. 
 
 Teachers, Christian, not agreed as to how vSunday can be sustained, 146, 
 147. 
 
 Temple, Rev. L. D., says that Sunday-observance rests on "tradi- 
 tion," 13. 
 
 Tertullian, shows that .Sunday was " a day of indulgence for the flesh, 
 170. 
 
GENERAL INDEX. 223 
 
 Tuttle, Rev. W. G., says Sunday is endangered by relaxed Christianity', 
 
 145- 
 
 U 
 
 Unanswered question, how can the church adjust itself to the decay of 
 
 regard for Sunday? 104. 
 Union of Christians, not possible in defense of Sunday, 77, 78 
 University, a Christian, contractors labor on its building on Sunday, 48. 
 Universal Sabbathism, belongs to the next life, 199. 
 
 V 
 Vincent, Bishop John, declares that no particular day need be observed 
 as Sabbath, 190. 
 
 W 
 
 War, the civil, promoted loss of regard for Sunday, 54. 
 
 Wayland, Rev. Dr., his sarcasm concerning Sunday laws, 9. 
 
 Watchman, The, charges the blame for Sunday-desecration on Chris- 
 tians, 135. 
 
 Weakness, of Christians the main cause of the decay of Sunday, 131. 
 
 Westminster Chatechism. unscriptural as to Sunday, 54. 
 
 Wilkinson, Prof. W. C, announces the fatal decay of Sunday, 118-121; 
 avoids discussion of the " Sabbath " question, 118; says Sunda}-- 
 observance is a fond, but passing, "superstition," 119; it is a 
 " pious fiction," 120; it cannot continue, 120, loss of is not deeply 
 regretted by Christians, 120, i2t; they prefer to take Sunda}' trains, 
 when convenient, 121 ; preachers set the example, 121; Sunday-ob- 
 servance must revive or its doom is near, 121. 
 
 Wishes, will not save Sunday from decay, 207. 
 
 Worship, in Chicago, disturbed by Sunday parade, 50. 
 
 World's Fair, agitation concerning closing of. on vSunday was super- 
 ficial, 72, 73. 
 
 Worldliness, leads to disregard for Sunday by Christians, 86, 87. 
 
 Woods, Rev. John, declares the gradual decay of Sunday, 71. 
 
 Wright, Carrol D., Commissioner, reports on Sunday labor in Massa- 
 chusetts, 27-36. 
 
 Wrong-doing, disregard for Sunday not considered to be, 102. 
 
Books Concerning the Sabbath, 
 
 PUBLISHED AND FOR SALE BY 
 
 The American Sabbath Tract Society, 
 
 PLAINFIELD, N. J. 
 
 THE SEVENTH-DAY BAPTIST HAND BOOK. 
 
 A brief statement of the history, polity, work and purposes of the 
 Seventh-day Baptists, pp. 48. JNTuslin, 25 cents. Paper, 10 cents. 
 
 SABBATH COMMENTARY. 
 
 A Scriptural Exegesis of all the passages in the Bible that relate, 
 or are supposed to relate, in any way to the "Sabbath Doc- 
 trine." By the late Rev. James Bailey, pp. 216. Price, 60 cents. 
 
 This is by far the most valuable vSabbath Commentary ever pub- 
 lished. It is exhaustive, critical, temperate, just and scholarly. 
 Every student of the vSabbath question should have this book. 
 
 BIBLICAIv TEACHINGS CONCERNING THE SABBATH AND 
 THE SUNDAY, with two important appendicies upon "The 
 Origin and Identity of the Week." Second edition revised. By 
 Abram Herbert L,ewis, D. D. pp. 146. Price, 60 centfc. 
 
 A CRITICAI, HISTORY OF THE SABBATH AND THE SUNDAY 
 IN THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH." By Abram Herbert Lewis, 
 D. D. pp. viii.-583. Price, $1 25. 
 
 A CRITICAL HISTORY OF SUNDAY LEGISLATION, FROM A. D. 
 321, TO 1888." By Abram Herbert Lewis, D. D. pp. X.-279. Price, 
 $1 25. Published by D. Appleton & Co. 
 
 PAGANISM SURVIVING IN CHRISTIANITY." By Abram Herbert 
 Lewis, D. D., large lamo, pp. XV.-309, gilt top, $1 75. Published by 
 Geo. Putnam's Sons, New York and London. 
 
 SWIFT DECADENCE OF SUNDAY ; WHAT NEXT ? 
 
 Second Edition. By Abram Herbert Lewis, D. D. pp. vi.-v.-223. 
 Price, $1 00. 
 
 This, the latest book from Dr. Lewis' pen, is brim full of facts 
 which appeal to all classes of men, but particularly to Chris- 
 tians, both Protestant and Roman Catholic. It covers a field 
 untouched before by any book on the Sabbath question. 
 
 Any of the above named books sent, post-paid, on receipt of price.