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TOPIC: Gordon, Samuel Dickey - Quiet Talks on Personal Problems (Other Topics in this Collection)
SUBJECT: 69. The Sabbath Question.
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The Sabbath Question.
The question of Sunday travel, both on trains and on street cars, has been one of the questioned things, but in many circles seems to be passing outside the line of question. Some who would not think of travelling on a train on the Sabbath use the street cars freely on that day, though the difference is difficult to see, except in the matter of distance and time involved. Some who do not commonly travel on Sunday trains will yet take a train Sabbath night in order to have a full day for business at the journey's end.
In the thick of city life, with its congested population, the long distances involved, the home now out a bit may be, and the church still down where it used to be, with people of limited means getting accommodations where they best can, and also, be it said, with the growing disregard for the hallowed things—in the city it is very difficult to get along without using the street cars. The man trying to help in church services and at missions seems practically compelled to their use. Yet I know a family of limited means, living in a large city, who, on removing the home from one part of the city to another distant part, changed their church membership, breaking old ties in doing so, simply to avoid the Sunday travel.
I know a Christian man whose service for many years has called him to travel much over the country. I have heard him say that in twenty years of such travel he has never taken a Sunday train, except once in the beginning of his travel, when he missed a connection late on Saturday within a short distance of the place of appointment for the next day. Yet, he said, very deliberately, as though quite clear after much thinking, that the work of that day led him to question very seriously the propriety of his action. And he felt that his influence for the highest standard of the Christian life had been lessened in that place, which was a boom town where Christian standards were loosely held.
He went on to say that he had travelled on the Sabbath a few other times in cases of emergency, once a death call, and a few times taking a train late Sabbath night to reach home on account of serious illness there. This man's matured conviction is that practically it is better to avoid such travel entirely except in distinct emergencies. And I have grown to have great and increasing respect for his judgment. His habit regarding streetcar use on that day is to avoid using them. In making appointments he has this in mind. Yet when he feels led to an appointment necessitating a longer distance than he thinks it wise to walk he does not hesitate to use them.
The consideration regarding Sunday travel is wholly a practical one. It is not that such travel is breaking the Sabbath day necessarily. Even the Jews, the greatest sticklers for Sabbath observance on technical grounds, did travel on the Sabbath; travelled much less, but did travel, as the phrase "a Sabbath day's journey" indicates. But Sunday travel is not a necessity, though in our intense civilization it has come to be so regarded.
The chief objection to it is that thereby men are deprived of their day of rest. That is quite enough of an objection in itself to decide an earnest man. Every man has a right to the rest-day. In being so deprived he distinctly suffers both bodily and spiritually. The tone of his life, and of his home, is lowered. But there is a second great objection. A disregard of the Sabbath day is apt not only to indicate a disregard for other hallowed things, but to breed such a disregard. The Sabbath is a sort of safeguard. Once it is broken through, other breaks are apt to come in a man's regard for holy things.
It may seem very radical to say it, yet I am more and more compelled to believe it soberly true that the common Sunday travel and traffic, both mail and freight, are not a necessity, from any standpoint, with the usual saving clause about exceptions and emergencies. In our intense, aggressive civilization it seems that it must be a necessity. Yet it is not. It could all be stopped, and our national life be both stronger and sweeter. The intense drive of the time, the continual railroad accidents, the breakdowns from overwork, all spell out in biggest capital letters the deep philosophy of needed rest that underlies the old Hebrew commandment.