3 66 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTELY. 



all others when it would be most avail- 

 able to thousands. Though designed 

 to honor labor, it is closed at the only 

 time when multitudes of laborers have 

 an opportunity to attend it. 



And what is the reason of so appar- 

 ently extraordinary and stultifying a 

 course ? After so much trouble to get 

 it open, why do the commissioners shut 

 it up this considerable portion of the 

 time ? The answer is, it is done in the 

 name of religion ! Religious people 

 protest that its opening on Sunday 

 would be a violation of the sacredness 

 of that day, and a violation of the laws 

 that enforce its religious observance. 

 Influential religious bodies have passed 

 resolutions and sent committees to Phil- 

 adelphia to press this view upon the 

 commissioners. Now, we strongly pro- 

 test against this assumption that the 

 opening of the exhibition any day of 

 the week will be an irreligious act. 

 The Jew may hold it wicked to visit 

 the show on Saturday, and the Chris- 

 tian may hold it sinful to visit it on 

 Sunday, and both may obey their 'con- 

 sciences and stay away on the days they 

 hold sacred ; but to force their views 

 upon people who think differently is 

 not a dictate of religion but of per- 

 secuting bigotry. A century or two 

 hence, in revising the " History of the 

 Conflict," it will be contemptuously 

 denied that religion was responsible 

 for shutting up the Industrial Exhi- 

 bition of 1876, against the people, 

 and nullifying its usefulness one day in 

 the week. It will be attributed to 

 superstition, to theological influence 

 and sectarian intolerance. It will be 

 said it is a libel on religion to charge it 

 with the narrowness and prejudice of 

 the times when such a thing could be 

 done. 



The position of the Sunday question 

 is simply this: there are two Sundays 

 which we are called upon to recognize 

 in different ways, and on totally dis- 

 tinct grounds, namely, the Sunday 

 of rest from labor for secular reasons, 



and the puritanical Sunday, devoted to 

 pious observances. The former is en- 

 forced by the state, on grounds of pub- 

 lic and general utility ; the latter is 

 enforced by theological influences for 

 reasons claiming to be religious, and 

 stands upon an ecclesiastical basis. The 

 secular Sunday the Sunday of rest 

 from labor is an institution aiming to 

 promote the social welfare, appealing 

 to the sanctions of reason, and is en- 

 forced with the discretions of common- 

 sense, and under limits which recognize 

 the admissibility of a certain amount 

 of labor for the general benefit. These 

 are the considerations to which all par- 

 ties appeal in advocating a day of rest, 

 and they are the sole considerations by 

 which legislators have any right to be 

 moved in legally establishing it. Grant- 

 ing their right to ordain a general sus- 

 pension of labor one day in the week, 

 for the general good, they have no war- 

 rant to go a step beyond this in the 

 direction of restraints upon the free 

 action of individual citizens. They 

 have no more authority to establish a 

 particular religious day than to estab- 

 lish a particular religion. When people 

 desist from work on Sunday, they com- 

 ply with all that the state can justly 

 require of them, and are left free to 

 occupy themselves in any way they 

 please, subject to the usual regulations 

 of conduct which are in force at all 

 times. 



But ecclesiastical influence is con- 

 stantly striving to turn the secular Sun- 

 day to theological account, and to in- 

 voke the interference of law with the 

 freedom of citizens in religious matters. 

 The history of the puritanical Sunday 

 has been for centuries the history of 

 meddling with the liberties of conduct, 

 of the coercion of conscience, and the 

 enforcement of observances on alleged 

 religious grounds. The most innocent 

 actions have been held as profanation 

 of the Lord's day. All amusements 

 were forbidden as wicked, and it was 

 held as sinful to kindle the fire, or 



