DISCUSSION OX SUNDAY OBSERVANCE. 



107 



a day of rest upon the tenth day. And that had to be surrendered 

 because it was found by experience that the tenth day of rest 

 did not accomphsh the object accomphshed by tlie seventh day 

 of rest. 



I believe it is not only for human beings and the physical 

 frame that this rest is necessary. It is a law that runs all 

 through nature. Not only the animals require rest, but the very 

 machines require rest, and if a machine is used incessantly without 

 a pause it gets out of gear. I am told that that happens with 

 even so rigid a metal as iron — that iron requires rest, and that 

 unless you allow it to rest it gets out of order and disintegrates 

 for the rest which is its due. So we are face to face with a 

 great law which shows that if work is to be done there must be 

 rest. Eest is good, and in the case of man the rest is to be in 

 some such proportion as one day to seven. But there is something 

 which applies to man which does not apply to material. Man 

 is not a machine. The machinery of his body is but a small part 

 of it. Man is a creature who requires something more than the 

 rest of the physical system if he is really to live. There is in 

 man that spiritual element which is easily crushed and trodden 

 down by the rudeness and pressure of the world ; and it is abso- 

 lutely essential and vital to man that this spiritual side of him 

 should recover, and that the shattered personality — shattered 

 perpetually by the strain and toil of life — should have a chance 

 of peace, recovery, of reforming its proper shape, aspect and 

 quality. And as the spiritual part of man is undoubtedly the 

 real man, and as the mere physical side of man is only transitory, 

 this consideration of the spiritual recovery is vital to him ; when- 

 ever a man forgets he is a spiritual being, and neglects the cultiva- 

 tion and presentation of his spiritual nature, he very rapidly 

 declines. 



Therefore, the Sunday Observance we are discussing to-day is 

 not only a law of nature. 'It is because man is a spiritual being 

 that it is also necessary that he should have a day of rest and 

 woi-ship. Man needs it because he is a man. To get his spiritual 

 faculties restored, to keep them at an efficient level, is part of 

 . his life and a most essential part of his life. If it fails, man fails, 

 and the human being degenerates. It is this essential need which 

 suggests the discussion as to how the day of rest is to be used, 

 and preserved when it is in danger, as it is to-day. It also raises 

 the question of the part the State or the Government can take 

 in the preservation of what is really an asset of human life and 

 what may be called one of the great heirlooms of the British 

 people. We must all recognise the peculiar effect upon us of a 

 Sunday morning in Britain. It is, unfortunately, something that 

 you cannot get in any other country, and we miss it wh^n we are 

 abroad. We welcome it with surprise and gratitude when we get 



