^vSSbef.1!™*}     Sunday  as  a  Religious  Institution.  511 
the  second  is  only  a  phase  or  aspect  of  the  first.  One  point  is  of 
importance  in  this  connection,  however;  that  is,  that  people  do  use 
Sunday  as  a  day  for  going  to  church  about  as  generally  as  they  use 
any  other  holiday  for  the  purpose  for  which  it  is  appointed.  On 
Sunday  perhaps  10  per  cent,  of  the  population  of  this  country,  who 
are  not  compelled  to  work  on  that  day,  go  to  church.  The  other 
90  per  cent,  go  to  Atlantic  City  or  to  Coney  Island  or  to  the  country 
or  to  sleep — all  of  which  things  are  about  synonymous  so  far  as 
using  the  day  for  its  appointed  purpose  is  concerned.  But  what  of 
Decoration  Day  ?  How  many  of  those  who  are  released  by  their 
employers  from  their  work  on  that  day,  and  for  a  purpose,  regard 
that  purpose  seriously  ?  How  many  take  any  part  in  the  decoration 
of  dead  soldiers'  graves  and  how  many  spend  the  day  entirely  in 
doing  other  things  ?  What  of  the  Fourth  of  July  ?  How  many 
people  nowadays  ever  foregather  on  that  day  to  hear  so  much  as 
the  Declaration  of  Independence  read?  Or  of  Thanksgiving  Day? 
What  percentage  of  the  multitude  to  whom  this  becomes  a  holiday 
make  it  in  any  sense  a  holy  day  and  show  forth  in  any  formal  manner 
any  "  Thanksgiving  to  Almighty  God  for  the  fruits  of  the  earth  and 
all  the  other  blessings  of  His  merciful  Providence  ?  "  The  percent- 
age in  all  cases,  I  trow,  is  about  the  same.  And  the  penalty  will  in 
all  cases  be  about  the  same  eventually,  namely,  the  denial  to  people 
ultimately  of  these  days  as  holidays  for  any  purpose  if  they  per- 
sistently decline  to  use  them  for  their  appointed  purposes.  But 
more  of  this  anon. 
The  second  of  these  three  subjects  that  I  desire  to  set  aside 
as  not  identical  with  my  own  is  the  so-called  "  breaking  "  of  the 
Sabbath  by  working  upon  it ;  the  sin  involved  in  working  on  Sun- 
day. This  also  is  a  grave  and  serious  subject,  but  it  is  not  this 
subject.  Here  is  a  point  against  which  many  a  reformer  hurls 
arguments  that  break ;  they  break  because  they  fall  in  such  con- 
fusion. For  this  matter  is  one  that  requires  very  clear  thinking  and 
the  making  of  very  fine  distinctions.  Everyone  realizes  that  there 
are  kinds  of  work  that  are  wrong  on  Sunday — wrong  because 
unnecessary.  But  everyone  must  also  realize  that  there  are  other 
forms  of  work  that  are  inevitable.  Nov/  the  difficult  thing  is  that, 
in  a  state  of  civilization  which  develops  so  rapidly  as  our  own,  these 
forms  change  and  give  place  to  each  other  so  rapidly,  and  that  in  a 
civilization  so  complex  as  that  of  the  present  day  a  vast  and  ever 
