SUNDAY RECREATION.

Thames Star, Volume XIV, Issue 4562, 18 August 1883, Page 2

SUNDAY RECREATION.

(To the Editor of the Evening Star.)

Sib,—Etymology, will carry every word connected with religion back to primitive sun-worship and mental cultivation. Sabbath is derived from, the Hebrew shabath, to rest, originally connected with sheba, seven, which again may be traced to the veneration paid to the moon with its four phases of about seven days duration, and the seven stars or planets generally. In the Mosaic law there was a complete cycle of sabbaths, al. combined by the sacred number seven —the sabbath of days, the sabbath of weeks, the sabbath of months, the sabbath of years, and the sabbath of seven times seven years. The great observance of the weekly sabbath was rest from all manner of work. The naturalness of making the rest on the the last day of the week after the circle of toil, is obvious. The sabbath of weeks was counted from the full moon on the fif- f teenth of the month, which period wjp* consecreted to corn harvest,' and?" the

fifteenth day observed as the festival of the seven weeks. The Sabbath of months started from the first>f Passover, and was held on the seventh month and celebrated with the greatest joyfulness. The Sabbath of years was kept every seven years, and was observed with an entire rest from labour and great rejoicing. The Sabbath of seven times seven was kept every fiftieth year, and celebrated by rest and jubilee. Besides these there was a series of seven annual sabbaths. The vulgar notion that all or any of these days was a thing of glum austerity is altogether erroneous, for it was precisely the contrary —a day of delight, a feast day, honored by fine garments, by the best cheer, by wine, lights, spices, and other physical joys. The teaching of the founder of Christianity on this subject was also liberal. " The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath," points it out as a privilege and a blessing. "My Father worked hitherto, and I work," shows that as the repose of the Deity does not exclude a certain kind of work or activity in providing for the wants of creatures, so the rest of the Sabbath only requires a cessation from ordinary every-day avocations, without rendering sinful any active recreation or duty enjoined by necessity or mercy. Recently there has been a large expression of public opinion and by all friends of progress in favor of making the Sabbath a day of recreative enjoyment. Vast numbers have attended the picture galleries, museums, and music halls whenever such institutions have been opened to them on Sundays, notwithstanding the efforts of congregations and parsons, who feared a falling off in their supporters. Petitions signed by thousands, pray* ing the opening of public institutions on Sundays, have been presented to Parliaments. Attempts to force enlightened communcities to gloomy sabbaths with the demoralising customs thereby entailed, will not for long be successful. The supporters of a rational sabbath must eventually secure the adoption of their views. Experience has proved that the results of opening art galleries, museums, and reading rooms on Sundays, should silence effectually all fears and objections. Some casuists are pleased to say that the masses have no devotion and no doubt there is in all countries a large body of people to whom the ordinary ministration of the churches offers no attraction. Their altars, however, may be the blue and smiling sky, the silent stars, the boundless ocean, the spacious firmaments, and all the lovely things they see in nature, art, and music, which awake new, prayerful, and beauti* fui emotions. To socially reform the degraded classes, their moral nature mast be raised, by providing them with intellectual amusements. By good music, fine pictures, and free reading rooms, the drunkard's appetite, and the larrikin's vulgar coarseness will be silently rebuked and effectually corrected. Galleries of borrowed pictures have been opened in London and other large cities in Europe and America. The inhabitants from cellars and dens have flocked to them in large numbers. Their conduct has been most decorous, and the observations and criticisms, although inartistic, have proved that the multitude was susceptible of improvement, and moral instruction from ttie exhibitions. The donations of these poor creatures, and the sale of penny catalogues, have attested the success of the experiment. When the story of a picture is once understood, their plain direct common sense goes straight to the point, and frequently realises the artist's meaning more clearly than do technical critics. Girls low dowa and familiar with the worst of life, have seen in pictures the true relation between «man and woman, and have realised the idea of love lasting beyond this life, making eternity real, and creating a spiritual bond between them. What work is there nobler than that of the artist, who, by his art, shows the degraded lessons that the author of Christianity lived to teach ? And yet we are told that the working ©lasses are not capable of taking any interest in pictures, and that opening art galleries on. Sundays must have a demoralising result. Are, then, pictures to be kept for the jkfc of the rich only when fc&ey may be pressed into the siervioe of teaching with such excellent effect P Preaching falls'', flat oa the ears of the wretched poor in spirit and dead in conscience j but art, always heautiful in itself, and quietly full of rob suggestions, makes known without assumption its god like mission. Prejudice and circumscribed ideas must in this, and air other snbjeqts, yield to reason and submit to argument. Our art treasures, our libraries and picture galleries, with good music, must be accessible to all on Sundays as an important source of elevating and regulating our,morals by healthful recreation and reasonable instruction.—! am, &c,

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