Sunday in New York

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Dec 1, 1874

Sunday in New York.

UNTIL recently, theaters and opera houses have not been open on Sundays in New York; but the rising tide of corruption has broken this barrier of Sunday restraint, and now sets on toward the Sundays of Paris and Berlin. Some of the preachers are decrying this innovation; but it will be of little use. The Protestant churches have lost about all the power they once had over the people by their inconsistency. They have made their Sunday services partake largely of the nature of a performance, by the introduction of operatic music sung by hired choirs; and, under these circumstances, it is somewhat difficult for people to see why they might not as well hear a more extended and better representation in the opera house.

In this matter, the Protestants are patterning more and more after the Catholics. Dr. McGlynn (Catholic), of New York, “wished to be put on record as emphatically against Sunday performances.” In reply, one of the leading opera managers calls the attention of the public to the following facts:—

“First. That the Rev. Dr. McGlynn at service last Sunday morning, November 8, advertised to his congregation that they could hear on Sunday night in his church, for $1 and $1.50, Verdi’s requiem for which they would have to pay $4 at the Academy, next Tuesday evening, when I proposed to produce it in its entirety; and,

“Secondly. That a version of the requiem arranged for the organ, whereas the score demands a full orchestra, was sung in Dr. McGlynn’s church on Sunday evening last by hired artists, for which admission fees were charged, the profits going to St. Stephen’s.

“Is the craft in danger? Let Diana and Dr. McGlynn answer.”

Again, the dramatic style of the sensational preacher which now so largely occupies the pulpits, and the frequent substitution of Shakspeare for the gospel, is so very suggestive of the theater as to create a desire to go there, the few protests of conscience being silenced by the knowledge that “other church members go.”

Thus corruption increases. The form of godliness is joined to a denial of the power thereof, for they are “lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God.” And one of the most astounding evidences of blindness is that, while these innovations are constantly increasing, and the power of so-called Christians waning, it is said that the world is growing better, and that the “millennium is about to dawn!” A day of wrath is about to dawn which shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and purge the world of sin and sinners.

Let us find in our “blessed hope,” and in communion with God, that happiness which, by its satisfying nature, shall keep us from the “pleasure of sin;” and, heeding the admonition of the apostle, “turn away” from such as thus dishonor the name of Christ.—Herald of Life.