GOOD FEIDAY.

Southland Times, Issue 1556, 26 March 1872, Page 2

GOOD FEIDAY.

The Easter season has come round Again, and the question once more arises, how shall we observe its holy-days ? Now the chief beauty of every service is the voluntariness of the offering ; it is not for one side to give advice to the other. The custom of the church iB everything, and every society is justified in observing its own laws ; but it may be a question very vitally affecting the welfare of the whole community, whether any portion of it should keep as a seoular holiday a dav that has been observed for ages as a sacred fast. We have heard persons remark that Good Friday is not better than any other day. This is undeniably true, but true also of all other days as well as Good Friday. We have no conception of a day being holy unless it is made so. Every day is alike, a certain space of time, and nothing more — but it is an interesting question as to what use we make of these Bpaces j, whether with common labor aad common enjoyment we draw ourselves nearer and nearer together, or whether we keep ourselves wider and wider apart. Whether the day should be kept at all is an open question, but as every one knows what is commemorated on Good Friday, there can be only one opinion as to how it should , be observed if there i 9 any cessation of our usual employments, — for that time should be taken nominally for sacred discipline, and then used for secular enjoyment, is a misappropriation, which, as a matter of morals, is as undesirable aa all other misappropriations usually are. All that we contend for is, that Good Friday should be a working day of some sort or other — a day for the duties of life rather than its pleasures. la a small community like this, where there are so few to lead, it is very important that each man should .. consider the value of his own example, and he should not be impatient if it requires a little self-denial to lead the young into the ways of good taste and sober judgment.— Communicated. ___________^__