THE SABBATH CONFERENCE AT BERNE.
By W. W. R.
BERNE, Switzerland, Sept. 9, 1879. The Conference of the Evangelical Alliance at Basle last week, which closed Sept. 6, is followed this week by a two-days' Conference of the “International Union for the Observance of the Sabbath,” held at this fine city of the bears, where the old and the new in architecture and in life are so well blended. There is a large attendance of delegates to this, the second meeting of the Union—chiefly from Germany, Switzerland, and France, with some from the other Continental nations, and from England, and four from the United States. The Conference was formally opened Tuesday forenoon, in the Church du St. Esprit, by an appropriate and excellent address in French by the president, Hon. Alexander Lombard, followed by a similar address in German by Gen. Otto von Büren, Senator and President of the Bernese municipality. The report of the Executive Committee of the Union detailed a year's work of well-directed efforts to secure a better observance of the Lord's day, and a fair measure of success. A few cordial words were then spoken by a Prussian General in behalf of Kaiser Wilhelm, whose sympathy and good will he was charged to convey. At the afternoon session, a paper was read reviewing carefully the progress made in all the sessions of the Union since 1876, proving that the cause is generally and surely gaining ground. Next came an excellent address from Rev. W. Atterbury, Secretary of the New York Sabbath Committee, offering the cordial salutations of American Christians and showing how profound an interest we must needs take in the work of the International Union, since our own welfare is so much at stake in the character of the flood of immigrants unceasingly pouring upon our shores from Europe. Our American Sabbath is a heritage from our fathers, not the Puritans only, but the Royalists, the Hollanders, the Quakers of Pennsylvania, and the Roman Catholics of Maryland. All the thirteen original states had Sabbath laws from the outset—and one cannot well overestimate how much our past and our future owe to this national institution. It is threatened by the flood of unchristianized and pleasure-loving immigrants—who are too often led to regard as an infringement of their rights what is in fact their surest guarantee—and by the vast extent of our railroad system and the eager rivalries of business interests. Hence our lively sympathy with any movement to make our European neighbors Sabbath-keepers, and our ready sympathy and aid. The institution is divine, not human, and our great dependence for both laws and customs is in its full and hearty acceptance by the Christian church as the holy day of God. The address was warmly received, and resolutions unanimously passed thanking America for its sympathy thus expressed, and by many letters to the Union, and hoping that its encouragement and its noble example might be still more useful in Europe. The evening of Tuesday was enlivened by a social reunion in the Münster Terrace, and an organ concert in the Münster itself.—W. W. R., in Illustrated Christian Weekly.