SABBATH DESECRATION.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XCVI, Issue 11050, 31 August 1896, Page 3

SABBATH DESECRATION.

TO THE EDITOR.

Sir, —Your correspondents “ Free Hand” and “Another Working Man,” by their letters, seem to agree that :ny motives were sincere in writing on the above subject. What prompted me to write was a letter condemning the heathen Chinese for Sabbath work ; while we do the same things ourselves and allow such things to he done. What I wrote came, and continues to come, under my notice without turning to the right hand or the left, and I am convinced that people do not do mechanical work, as well as gardening, on the Sabbath for recreation but for gain. I hold with “ Free Hand ” that the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath; but I also hold that Christ is the Lord of the Sabbath, and that, as our Lord, He has set us an example of keeping it holy, by doing no manual work for his own pleasure or recreation, but by going about continually doing good. I admire the straightness of “Another Working Man,” as he admits without cover to see no harm in a little gardening as recreation, and brings tram service, sexton, clergymen, choir, organist and blower all into the same category. I may astonish your correspondent when I say I do not use the tram service and have no sympathy with those people who use it for going to church or chapel, and do not believe that all the pomp of paid or unpaid choir or organist is required to worship God. But the point at stake is, we are losing our day of rest by making seven work days and depriving some one who needs it of a crust. We have those, although not many, who are compelled to work on the Sabbath (the Press hands, tram and bus men and many others whose work is not a necessity but for the demands of a selfish public). I wonder what view they take of it. Six days’ work and the seventh rest has been our birthright, and we are fools if we sell it to heathen, civilised or uncivilised, for pleasure, recreation or anything else.—l am, Ac., »ONLT A WORKING MAN.