DISCUSSION ON SUNDAY OBSEKVANCE. 



119 



good lady of the house took care to refresh me, but I do not think 

 I did the work so well. When we have to do the Lord's work we 

 ought to travel and keep ourselves in the best condition, so that 

 when we preach we may preach well and not in a lazy or tired 

 way. To me the great day of rest is a day for honouring God. 

 We are priests and priestesses unto God. I love the quiet of the 

 Sunday morning, when there is no noise, but I enjoy the Sunday 

 for the sake of the work. (Applause.) 



Captain Higgens : We must remember this, in the New Testa- 

 ment, St. Paul certainly laid it down that you are not to judge 

 a man concerning his keeping of the Sabbath day. I think I can 

 discuss this impartially because my theory and practice are quite 

 different. In the first place, so far as theory is concerned, it 

 seems to me, looking at the New Testament, that if a man will 

 worship God in the early part of the day, it is perfectly right that 

 he should amuse himself in a reasonable way the latter part of the 

 day. I do not agree with the last speaker about travelling on 

 Sunday — I mean as far as practical work is concerned — because 

 you are keeping someone else, the 'bus conductor, from his day 

 of rest. I never do it. But servile work, he said, you should not 

 carry out. In the Anglo-Saxon laws of Ida, if a man made his 

 slave work on Sunday the slave could claim his freedom. So, 

 apparently, the Church objected to servile work ; and I think very 

 rightly. But I quite agree that the w^ay in which nowadays Sun- 

 day is entirely neglected is really a very serious thing for the 

 country. I know years ago I was churchwarden of a church for 

 many years, and we used to have it crowded wdth young people. 

 Now the church is practically empty. Cycling came along, and 

 they went out cycling. On theory it seems perfectly right, if the 

 people went to church the first part of the day, and then went out 

 to amuse themselves, you could not raise an objection. During 

 the war I had a military job, and had to work on Sundays ; but 

 w^as very fortunate in being near two churches. One had service 

 at 6 in the morning, the other at 7 ; I could go to church and then 

 go to work. But to go out, as people have got into the habit of 

 doing, without going to worship, is a most serious thing. One 

 practical thing. I am an officer of a local authority in London 

 now. If you people could get your local representatives to see 

 that the workmen are not made to w^ork on Sunday, you would 

 be doing a very good thing. In some places they send out far too 

 many men, and spoil their Sunday entirely. 



Mr A. W. Oke • I have been hstening to what has been said 

 about the Ten Commandments. That one about the Sabbath. It 

 seems to me that no State can be carried on without the observ- 

 ance of all those Commandments, and knowing that they were 

 promulgated at Mount Sinai, one cannot help feelinor that they 

 were part of the moral law from the creation. We mav not have 



