EARLY CLOSING.

Evening Star, Issue 3452, 16 March 1874, Page 2

EARLY CLOSING.

Yesterday the Rev. R. L. Stanford preached in All Saint’s Church from Gal. 6, 2, “ Bear ye one another’s burdens and so fulfil the law of Christ.”

The rev. gentleman, in the course of a most admirable application of the requirements of this text to modem society, pointed to the practical neglect of them, especially in regard to making purchases on Saturday evenings. He showed that in the Colonies there eould be no necessity for the practice; that whatever may have given rise to it at Home, our social condition is such that the habit adopted here must bo the result of thoughtlessness. The meaning of the text is plainly that every Christian is bound to aid in redering life pleasant to his fellowmen, but instead of that, Saturday e veniug’s marketing involves the labor of a large class of tradesmen and their assistant’s, protracted to very unreasonable hours, to the detriment of their physical, moral, mental, and religious health. He considered no valid excuse could be argued for the practice, which is as cruel as it is wanton and contrary to that consideration for the welfare of others enjoined by the text. When the Son of man took human form and human nature upon him, he expeirenced human wants, human maladies, and human sympathies. He felt what toiling men feel, and the gospel which he taught is intended to mitigate all those evils which result from neglect of the duties it inculcates. Whoever, therefore, habitually ignores those duties does so to his own great loss. He asked him to reflect carefully upon the evils connected with Saturday nights shopping. It was a poor apology to the conscience to close the shop just at twelve o’clock on Saturday night, under the idea that God should not be robbed of five minutes of the day, kept as strictly within prescribed hours, as the Jewish Sabbath; and yet to be guilty of a practice that induced such bodily fatigue and mentat prostration on shopkeepers and their assistants as to prevent their attendance at a place of worship, because of the necessity for absolute rest to relieve them from exhaustion. Those who followed the practice were guilty of immorality, and were answerable for much that resulted from it Very frequently it led to that demon drink’ through the craving for some stimulant to relieve a sense of exhaustion—very frequently' it led to non-attendance of public worship through a desire to restore strength by enjoyment of fresh air in the fields. Yet many ready to condemn their fellow-men for those practices nevt-r condemed themselves as participators in the pause. Dunedin is a quarter of a century behind most Colonial towns in protracted Saturday evening’s shopping. In most other places the class injured by it have emancipated themselves from its thraldom ; but here it still maintains itself as an inatifcutieii. It would be very bard to ask any tradesman to close his shop if full of customers, without first supplying their wants, and therefore the only way to cure the evil is for every one to abstain from making purchases after an early hour on the Saturday afternoon. The reasons mWit be summed up thus:—First. Saturday nigh°t marketing deprives many of a week-day holiday. Secondly. It prevents many from going to Church on a Sunday morning bemuse of fatigue and lassitude. Thirdly. It necessitates men go out sometimes with’parcels after twelve o’clock on Saturday’ nii-fit Fourthly. It induces husbands to adjourn to taverns and indulge in drinking, while their wives are making purchases at the shops. Fifthly. It creates a desire for alcoholic stimulants to relieve a sense of exhaustion in those who are subjected to such wearying hours of labor. Sixthly. It deprives many of that Recreation with their families on which true family happiness so much depends. Christians therefore should abstain from doinganytbing tending to these evils, and may aid the movement by abstaining from buying goods on Saturday; by not paying wages on Saturday: by not being JO the ’ streets themselves on Saturday night, nor allowing their servants and dependants to to be there : by refusing to repeiye all parcels sent after five o’clock on Saturday i and lastly, by using influence to interest friends and acquaintances to observe and carry out these rules.