CHAPTER XIII

SUNDAY AND THE CHILDREN

HE Sunday-school solves a part of the Sunday problem, but only a small part. For an hour or more, the children are trained, more or less effectively, in religion; but many hours remain. Here is a day set apart by common custom from the other days, and in its intention devoted to the furtherance of religion. How may it be best employed to serve the purposes which we have at heart?

In order to make our Sunday plans aright, we ought to have a clear understanding as to the significance of the day. Thus we shall be able to instruct our conscience, which is at present somewhat confused; and we shall be guided in our endeavor to adjust the traditions brought down from our

devout ancestors to the usages which seem to be forced upon us by our contemporary conditions.

The day has two essential meanings. One is contained in the word Rest, the other in the word Religion.

The Old Testament day is enjoined in the fourth commandment. The sanction of it, the reason for setting it apart, is stated in one way in Exodus and in another way in Deuteronomy. In the more familiar form, in Exodus (20: 11) the holy day appears as a commemoration of the repose of the Creator after the making of the world. He "rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and sanctified it." In the other form, in Deuteronomy (5:15) the day is a memorial of the deliverance from Egypt. "Thou shalt remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and the Lord thy God brought thee out thence by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm: therefore the Lord thy God

commanded thee to keep the sabbath day." There is no difference, however, as to the spirit and the manner in which the day is to be observed. It is to be kept in the spirit of religion; it is a sabbath unto the Lord God, in His name and honor. Special sacrifices were appointed to be offered at that time. And it is to be kept in the manner of a holiday. The emphatic and distinctive word is "rest." "Thou shalt not

do any work." And this blessing of rest is extended not only to all the members of the household, but to all strangers who for the moment may be sojourning in the household, and to the domestic animals.

Accordingly, the essential purpose of the sabbath was considerate and philanthropic. It was a law of kindness. It was one of the earliest endeavors to determine by statute the relation of the employer to the employed. The sanction in Deuteronomy is significant and explanatory. "You have been slaves," the commandment says, "and

you are now in your new freedom to have slaves yourselves. Remember your own bondage. Do not be hard upon your servants. Once every week give them a day off."

The method by which the Old Testament legislators tried to secure this leisure was that of negation and restriction. Such and such things, interfering with the right to rest, might not be done. The method was enforced with some severity. The incident of the man who was found gathering sticks on the sabbath day and was promptly stoned to death for the admonition of the people, shows how zealously they guarded against even those little and innocent transgressions which might grow into serious infringements of the privilege of leisure. They were mindful of the fable of the camel who, being permitted to put one toe into the tent, gradually got his whole body in after it, and ejected the owner. They made many curious laws concerning the keeping of the

holy day, prescribing to the last minute detail what might not be done.

Two considerations, however, defend us from drawing over-severe conclusions from the Old Testament observance.

One is the fact that the Old Testament people enjoyed the Sabbath. They delighted in it. There is no more expression of a sense of hardship in the keeping of the Jewish sabbath than there is among us as to the keeping of Thanksgiving Day or Christmas. The many rules and the accompanying penalties did not make the sabbath an irksome or gloomy day. It was a festival of social joy. Work was indeed forbidden, but no ban was put on play. Meals might not be prepared on that day, but the choicest meals of the week were prepared on the day preceding and served on the sabbath. In the Gospels, the Lord is often seen going out to dinner on that day. When Hosea brought a message from God beginning, "I will cause all her mirth to cease," the mirth