SABBATH OBSERVANCE.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 479, 11 June 1890, Page 4

SABBATH OBSERVANCE.

Some stir has been caused in Victoria by a statement which the Bishop of Ballarat made at the last sitting of the Church of England Assembly, to the effect that he favoured “ the opening the public libraries, museums, and art galleries, as well as running one train both ways on our railways on Sunday to meet the frequent contingencies of human life.”

There does not seem to be anything very outre about this statement, even coming from a Bishop, to excite fears for the preservation of the sanctity of the Sabbath. Here we have become accustomed to the oDening of museums and public libraries on Sunday, and no one believes that tho quiet observance of the day, or religious feeling or public morals, suffer anything from this practice. In Melbourne, however, the public library is kept closed while the roar of the traffic employed in carrying pleasureseekers to their various resorts robs the Sunday of its quiet restfulness and makes it more like a secular holiday than an English Sabbath.

These anomalies are not peculiar to the colonies. In England, the working man’s beer, or rather the interests of the brewer and the publican, are considered of greater moment in tho eye of the sapient; rulers of the nation than the intellectual and moral culture of the people. The doors of the gin palace are thrown open to tempt poor creatures to their ruin, while tho picture galleries, the museums, and kindred places are closed against the toiling millions on tho only day upon which they and their children could visit them. Class interest, prejudice, and time-honoured custom thus maintain their sway.

But though we have no sympathy with the narrow bigoted view of Sabbath observance, though we believe that God never intended that we should turn into a day of misanthropic gloom the most glorious boon conferred upon man —a seventh of his whole time clear of the necessity for toil—we think the Bishop of Ballarat’s recommendation for tho running of long-distance trains on Sundays a dangerous one. Already the suburban railways in Melbourne supply al[ the requirements of tho needful local traffic ; and we ought to be extremely cautious how we break into the Sabbath rest; of others, by the creation of imaginary wants. We believe there is no real need for railway traffic, except to a very limited extent, on Sunday; and it behoves the clergy to adopt a conservative attitude rather than loud their countenance to unnecessary Sunday labour. In the toil-worn lives of the omnibus drivers of Melbourne and Sydney, many of whom work twelve and fourteen hours a day, from Monday morning till Sunday night, they have examples flagrant enough, one would suppose, to warn them, as the proper guardians of the poor, tonot countenance any selfish demands eq tq y wealthier classes that trench upon the privileges of men whose lives have already few enough gleams of sunshine.

The opinions of the illustrious Kingsley, who revived the old English custom of Sunday afternoon cricket matches, are shared by lesser lights in the Episcopalian Church. In a paper contributed to the “ English Illustrated Magazino” recently the Rev. Prebendary Eyton declared that modern Sabbatarianism was quite unknown to the early Christians, and described it as “a relic of that hateful system which cut life in two, and left the thought of God’s service out of work and play alike. ” “I shall be glad,” he says, “to see a cricket match in every village on Sunday afternoons, and the games and treasures of every institute as fraelv used as on week days.” Probably, if the Rev. Prebendary had a little experience of San Francisco, where his views are given the fullest effect to, he would find reason to change his opinion. There is something radically wrong with the man who cannot, amid the ‘associations of his own family, his books, his friends, and in quiet communings with the sweet influences of God’s universe around him, find means of spending a happy restful day, refreshing alike to soul and body, without the stimulus of strong excitement.

Every man who values the Sabbath rest should beware of secularising Sunday, because, apart from the sacred character of the day, there is no principle strong enough to hold it against the encroachments and pressure of secular pursuits. Among the boons which Christianity has saved to mankind, this at least is one which all men should treasure - not indeed in the spirit of Puritanical severity, but in the true spirit of Christ Himself —an institution ordained for man, but especially for those whoso lives are a painful and almost ceaseless struggle against adverse conditions. “ Auckland Star,” June 7.