110 



DISCUSSION ON SUNDAY OBSERVANCE. 



are quite conscious of the obligation. They iinow they are losing 

 something because they do not worsliip. The real justification of 

 the rest day is that it is a day for worship. The other days are 

 for work; this is for worship. The other days are to serve our 

 country in other ways ; but here is a day in which we serve our 

 country by serving our God, and we bless men by being blessed 

 in approach to God. That seems to me a justification of it. 



That leads me just to raise the question, which is very vital to 

 us at tiie present moment, namely, How are we to preserve this 

 day of rest 1 And I would make it open as a question of discussion 

 w^hether it would be possible, or will ultimately be possible, to 

 keep the day of rest unless it is kept for worship ? \Yhether it is 

 not at bottom that worship motive which makes the day what it 

 is, and whether we are not, as people who believe in worship, 

 and believe in the service of God, the only people who can keep 

 this inestimable blessing, this heirloom of our race, for the genera- 

 tions that come after. I doubt whether you can keep this day 

 unless the great bulk of men recognise that it is a day of God, 

 a day for worship. I was, not long ago, in New York on Sunday, 

 and it is an appalling experience. It is a great Anglo-Saxon 

 city in a sense; it has draw^n its inspiration from Europe, and 

 especially even from this country. But what a desolating thing 

 it is. There the idea of worship seems to have receded or shrunk 

 to a very small point, and the whole great city seems to hand 

 itself over to the expression of its passions and the practice of 

 its vices. The noise is worse than ever. The tumult, the 

 pushing, the crying make it an intolerable day; and that day which 

 they still keep as a day of release from woi'k is not a day of 

 release from noise and toil; but becomes, if possible, worse than 

 if they were all at work. I doubt if you can keep it unless the 

 sense of worship and the sense of God makes you attach to 

 that day a significance, a sacred meaning, and recognise in it 

 a divine claim. Now I close by saying that the part which the 

 State can take in the preservation of this day of rest is quite 

 limited. We could not possibly tolerate the idea that the State 

 should dictate to iis how we should use the day of rest. It seems 

 almost incredible that three centuries ago — four centuries it is 

 now nearly — it was possible to enforce a law to fine every man 

 who did not appear in his parish church on Sunday. It seems 

 incredible that was done. The State can, expressing the general 

 conscience of the community, impose certain restrictions on the 

 actions of citizens which cannot be imposed by agreement, and 

 if the State acts according to the will of the whole people, it can 

 prevent trading on Sunday. It can limit locomotion on Sunday. 

 It can correct or even .destroy every form of noisy and disturbing 

 amusement on Sunday. Not on any religious crround at all. 

 but simply on the hygienic principle that for the life of a great 



