Washing Dishes on the Sabbath.
THERE is, to some extent, a difference of opinion and practice on this question, and a subscriber asks our views in reference to it. We first inquire for ground on which we all stand together; and we apprehend we find it in the proposition that all work should be avoided upon the Sabbath, except that for which some necessity exists, such as the supplying of the wants of ourselves and those dependent upon us, administering to the sick, &c. We think all will be agreed upon this point. Now we are prepared to advance to the next question, Is the washing of dishes on the Sabbath a necessary work? If it is not, then, according to the principle above stated, it is not allowable; if it is, it may be practiced. Those who advocate this custom put in the plea that frequently a family is not sufficiently provided with dishes to have enough for the day's use without washing some. Under such circumstances, it would seem to be necessary to wash enough for the second meal. Also when a large meeting is in session, requiring the entire stock of dishes for one setting of the table, the same thing may be necessary. But in these cases, would there be any necessity for washing the dishes, except after the first meal, setting them by after the second till the close of the Sabbath? And where the supply of dishes is sufficient, is there any necessity for washing them at all on the Sabbath? Yes, say some, they must be washed; for it is untidy and contrary to good housekeeping to have dirty dishes standing around. But would not the same argument apply to other things? For instance, we lay off the soiled clothing of the week, and put on clean raiment for the Sabbath. Why not then say that it is not allowable to have dirty clothes lying in the house over the Sabbath, and so go to work Sabbath morning and wash them all up? No one would think of this. And why cannot dirty dishes be disposed of so as to be as little annoyance as dirty clothes? And why should they, unless in the exceptional cases above referred to, be disturbed on the Sabbath? We think they should not. And we would extend the same principle to other things. Let all acts of preparation for the Sabbath be done before the Sabbath begins. All bathing, shaving, boot-blacking, &c., should be attended to on our own time, not on God's. The natural tendency is, we think, to slackness rather than too great strictness in the observance of the Sabbath. We cannot too highly exalt the nature or the claims of this sacred institution. It is the holy of the Lord, and honorable. Let us not mar its symmetry by infringing upon its commencement or its close, nor stain its purity by any unnecessary secular work, but present it, week by week, as an offering without blemish unto the Lord.