Sabbath-Breakers.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIX, Issue 10, 2 May 1914, Page 5

Sabbath-Breakers.

BLUE DOMERS DENOUNCED OUTBREAK AGAINST THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. (Sydney Daily Telegraph.) A remarkable utterance on the subject of Sunday observance, and severe animadversions on the influence of the Homan Catholic Church in this respect, were contained in a paper by the Rev. J. J. Willings, read at !Wednesday’s session of the Congregational Union. That the opinions expressed with regard to the Roman jCatholic Church were not shared by the conference as a whole was evident from the frequent outbursts of dissent which interrupted the reading of the paper. j “Of the various causes of the present deplorable disregard of the Chris(tian Sabbath,” said Mr Willings, “it | may be sufficient if one mentions only a few of the most obvious and |pronounced. The first is infidelity, jl mean primarily the unfaithfulness | to the teaching and training of early 'years, which is too often characteristic both of the native of Australia and the arrival from other lands. This infidelity begins with a carelessness about Church attendance on the part of the parents and young people ; it is seen in the indifference and unconcern with which many now regard the early severance of their boys and girls from Sunday-school and Bible classes; it is fostered by the conditions of our incomparable climate,’ which, being our most valued asset, is, for this reason, in danger of becoming our greatest curse. It is encouraged by the growth in popularity, among all classes of the week-end camp, and it is ministered to by a sordid Government, which in the name of a people who love to have it so, run their Sunday trains and trams with an utter disregard of the best traditions of British people, a: d 'often in direct opposition to the united protest of a faithful minority. An alarming feature of this specific nfidelity is the callous indifference with which family worship has been allowed to drop out of Christian homos. “SUBTLE, CRAFTY, SCHEMING.” “Running abreast, however, with this positive form of infidelity is an agent of evil, subtle, crafty, scheming, which is more and more endeavoring to cast its. blight over bur Sunday, and seeking, moreover, constantly and insistently to enter into and control of every civil and political institution of onr national life. I refer to the influence, sinister, menacing, selfish, of the Roman Catholic Church. (Cries of dissent, and “order”). This church, wjiose local head has sneered again and again at, what ho calls our ‘fast emptying churches’ is one of the most dominant factors in destroying our Sunday. (Dissent). The devout R.C., as wo all know, if he goes early to Mass on Sunday, may go to the devil for the rest of the day. (Uproar and loud cries of disapproval). Absolution awaits him in the Confessional for venial sins,\ but to break the Sabbath and offend the good taste of devout Protestants in that process is no sin. “A third cause contributing to the present state of things may be summed up in the wmrd ‘hypocrisy.’ We have all become familiar with the selfstyled and so called ‘blue domor.’ He who, despising the House of God and all old-fashioned means of grace, professes to worship the Father under ‘the dome of heaven.’ He is no longer regarded by ns as a curiosity; we have ceased to listen to bis idle sophistries; we refuse to bo awed by his superior philosophy, and wo have even ceased to be amused by bis crass foolishness. We have observed him on the Sabbath Day arrayed in more or less picturesque undress uniform, digging, weeding, planting or hosing his garden. We have observed him' taking relaxation from his hard labors of the week, in exciting games of tennis and other open-air sports. Wo have seen him on the Manly train, with golf-sticks or other sporting equipment, going to or returning from his open-air devotional exorcises. We have had many a- passing glance at this ‘worshipper’, splashing in the surf or playing bowls on the green. He certainly is under the blue dome of heaven in all those situations, but worshipping God he certainly it not. ' Heaven is affronted by his brazen declaration, and for onr part we unhesitatingly denounce him for what ho is—a hypocrio, a Sabbah breaker, and a cheat. “COOPED UP IN A SHOP.”

“Another form this modern hypocrisy assumes is a very common one. With every appearance of earnestness and sincerity, the defaulter will excuse himself by saying how he is cooped up in office or shop all the week, and feels it therefore only just to himself and his loved ones that he should get away with or without lii s family for a week-end camp. Now I suppose there is not a Christian worker oho has not heard this excuse often enough to make him heartily sick of it. If

the master man is cooped up in his shop for six days of the week, it is obviously to his own advantage. In these days of short hours and good wages, with long evenings in which to enjoy the fresh air and spend his money, and facilities of easy transit, the toiler lias as little right as his employer to break the Sabbath in order to recoup Ins shattered health of body, jaded brain, or frayed nerves. In addition, the worker has a half day’s holiday a week and then his annual vacation.” SELFISHNESS THE HOOT. Infidelity, false doctrine, and lit-

pocrisy were symptomatic of a national disease, rather than tho disease itself. That one great primary cause underlying all others was selfishness. This selfishness “hails with joy the Sunday tram, dictates the attitude of the tea-room proprietors, keeps open the shops on Sunday, demands the Sunday paper, crowds the Sunday trams—but not to go churchward—spreads itself on the beaches, patronises the Sunday sports and concerts, and in no sense remembers the Sabbath day to keep it holy. It ministers to the avarice of the few, and looks after Number One. “It has become abundantly evident that unless legislation very tooa comes to our aid, we shall have the Continental Sunday, naked and unashamed, established in our fair land, and Australia will become a by-word of the Empire.” THE CHAIRMAN DISSENTS. The chairman (Rev. R. B. Reynolds) said he must dissent from the way in which Mr Willings had referred to the Roman Catholic Church and its teachings. Ho did not think it was a fair thing to say that the Roman Catholic church-goer could go to Mass early in the day and go to tho devil j for the rest of the day. He strenuously protested—and was a good Proitestant in that respect—(laughter)— against any of these unkind attacks upon a Church which, whatever its teachings might be in certain respects, was working against the same forces of evil. He deprecated these slur* ion a great Christian Church.