SUNDAY RECREATION.

Freethought Review, Volume I, Issue 1, 1 October 1883, Page 13

SUNDAY RECREATION.

Col Ingersoll being lately inquired of as to how lie would have Sunday observed, wrote to the Washington Post the following characteristic letter : 35 Lafayette Avenue, ) Washington, (D. C.,) June 16, 1883. j To the Editor of the Post : am in favor of all libraries, parks, museums, and picture galleries being open on Sunday. Sunday should be a day of joy and recreation. The gloom of the Puritan Sabbath has darkened lives enough. Nothing can be more perfectly hateful than the Orthodox Sunday. It is a prison a land of dungeon in which joy is chained and shackled. The idea that we can make God happy by making ourselves miserable is the extreme of folly. The fact is, that ministers fear competition. They are afraid that people will keep away from the church if any other plsce is open, The ordinary preacher cannot compete successfully against a park or " wax works." lam in favor of being happy seven days in a week. lam the enemy of dyspeptic piety. I want to see the people enjoying themselves. It is not recreation to go to church and hear about total depravity and eternal fire. There is nothing in the average sermon to cheer the average mail; I say that all libraries, parks, and galleries, should be open on Sunday, and I would like to hear a grand opera every Sunday. Robert G. Ingersoll.