The Keeping of the Sabbath.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXVII, Issue 3556, 5 August 1905, Page 2

The Keeping of the Sabbath.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE MAtJAWATU HERALD

Si r —Will you kindly publish 1 this short letter as a protest against the half-hours’ < abuse j thrown at the congregation on Sunday night by the learned and Rev. Featherstone. The reverend j gentleman took for his text, St. i Mark, ii., 27; “ Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the ( Sabbath.” He began by deploring j the breaking of the Sabbath by the I people of the colony, and gave, some, to his mind, of the most glaring cases. One was that when the Ministerial party opened the club in Wanganui these gentlemen committed the unpardonable _ offence of taking a trip up the river on the Sabbath day. Another was a clipping taken from the local paper, and read that the grand officers of the Masonic Lodge also took a tug up the Manawatu and had a look at a flaxmill. The. learned and reverend gentleman said : 11 I have been told the Masonic ritual originated from the Scripture.” In that I may tell the reverend gentleman he is correct, and at the same time I would tender a little a'dvice on the matter. As a Mason, I think that I am as well qualified to judge for myself, and I am quite sure the Grand Lodge officers are. Wbo made the learned gentleman a judge in Israel ? I must tell him that if he is desirous of emptying the church he could not adopt abetter plan; but perhaps the learned gentleman does not know' the difference between preaching to a congregation and at the congregation. In summing up, there are a few things we may not do : Visit on the Sabbath, not go for a walk, do not have a nap, do not go to the beach. In fact the things we may not do are so numerous that- it muld be impossible to enumerawthem here. Another instance: «Phe reverend gentleman said he had heard that the footballers played on Sunday. Now, sir, I want to mark this — the learned gentleman could see no harm in riding up to the Park to verify what he have heard. I j have credited Mr Featherston I with the purest motive, and, as he I said, our Great Father looks at the motive not so much as at the action. In conclusion, a man who will shelter himself behind his cloth to give utterance to such remarks as the reverend gentlemen did is acting unwisely in attacking a number of people who are trying in their own way to seek the better part. Perhaps the learned gentleman, would give a sermon on what we must do, according to his ideas,—l am, etc.. G, A, Simpson, - Methodist and Mason.