THE MODERN MEANING OF SUNDAY REST.

Marlborough Express, Volume XVI, Issue 135, 11 June 1881, Page 2

THE MODERN MEANING OF SUNDAY REST.

Beyond and above everything which sanctions .Sunday as the Lord's day, the periodical rest ia marked out as the great natural law by which the forces of life are to be conserved to the best results. Men have never as now demanded this rest. The men who carry the burdens of the world's great industries, the men who go from counting-rooms to homes with their heads aching, the men who have to work intensely as the only condition of working at all, are quite as much to be considered as those who do not carry to their pillowa a thousand anxieties. God has always provided rest for man m the natural order, and whenever they work seven days m the week they pay their p"ml'y. Tho tender point is the unwillingnusi oi some to concede that each on'? <n\l Inve the rest that he thinks he needs. 'I'iie restraint of social usage points to church-going, but the weary seamstress, the exhausted clerk, the devitalised mechanic, the artisan of every ofass, not less than the tired brain-workerß, reed perhaps the reverse. Some need sleep, somu .jtirnhi-iq, some domestic cheer, some an awakening bj^'c, some the patch of fresh grass on the forest ramble ; some, the inspiration of friends ; some, the quiet of prayer ; some, the words of the spiritual teacher; some, the great sacrament of spiritual refreshment. This large liberty is granted by the State, and is practically taken advantage of by its citizens ; but the friends friends of Christianity, appreciating what sweetness and light Christ puts into life, have hardly yet realised what a sad, weary world we live m ; how nuch the religious life depends upon the vitality of the people, or how closely sanity of mind and soul is connected with a healthy and restful body. The liberty to rest as each one thinks best on Sunday, and thereby not ceasing to be respectable, is slowly gaining ground with good people, and all true advance into the higher uses of Sunday is based upon this concession on the part of those controlling the institutions which are the bulwarks of Christian faith.— Bar. J. H. War.', ia April " Atlantic."