Sabbath [Sunday] Recreation

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Aug 20, 1914

“Sabbath [Sunday] Recreation”

THE efforts of some religionists to secure legislation in behalf of Sunday observance have come in for considerable criticism, not only in the United States, but in religious circles outside of this country. Rev. E. A. T. Newman, a Church of England clergyman, writing in the London Daily Chronicle, calls this agitation “a mushroom in its growth and an evil fungus in its existence.” Of the right of all men to regard Sunday in the way of their own choosing, he says:—

If it were otherwise, I should still maintain the right of those who did not profess the Christian faith to play games; for I deny the right of a majority to refuse to a minority the freedom to obey their own consciences. As it is, I hold that the only obligation resting on a Christian is to attend the holy communion on Sunday morning. If he can derive profit from attending one or more extra services, it is well; if he can add to that a meditation on sacred things

in the afternoon, it is better; but that is the obligation. That performed, there is no theological reason which can be given why the Christian should not spend the day in the manner which he finds best for the body, the mind, and the spirit, and which helps him most to realize that it is good to be alive.

This minister recognizes the danger of enforced idleness, and that wholesome occupation is much better for the morals of the community than enforced observance of the first day of the week:—

Putting it on the lowest ground, that of expediency, it must be remembered that all men and boys do not spend the whole of Sunday either in church or in their homes. Many of them spend the day in killing time. Each one will admit that there is no more dangerous occupation to be found. It leads, as every resident in village and country town must know, to many evils. It would be infinitely better to occupy all who had nothing to do either in playing or in watching a football or cricket match in the afternoon.

Nor is this clergyman haunted by the fear of empty churches or of the competition of Sunday sports with regular church services. Of this he says:—

If a simple afternoon game will empty the churches in the evening, I can only say that the present system has obviously produced no genuine faith. The Christian church won its way in the face of all manner of counterattractions; it maintained its position for many centuries, in which all manner of games were played on Sundays. I believe it would still hold its own, and perhaps recover its ancient preeminence, if it once again took its old position on this matter.

In conclusion, Mr. Newman, according to the Literary Digest of June 6, 1914, from which we quote, raises the following pertinent questions, which are surely worthy of consideration:—

I would ask my good friends these simple questions:—

1. Do they seriously believe that to us English people alone has been revealed the whole truth in this matter, and that all other Christians in the world are hopelessly in error?

2. Do they think it credible that a Scotsman, fifteen centuries at least after Christ, should discover a commandment of which no other Christian teacher ever dreamed?

3. Are they quite prepared to say that their way is the only possible one, and thereby condemn all the saints and martyrs who built up the church and handed down to us the faith in which we stand?