"A BIBLICAL SUNDAY"

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22413, 8 May 1936, Page 15

"A BIBLICAL SUNDAY"

Sir, —Rip Van Winkle up-to-date! is the part the Rev. K. J. McFarland is playing to perfection. Only this, the original Rip was asleep but 40 years, while the Rev. McFarland has been asleep for 4000. All he asks is that, when the sun goes down each Saturday evening, New Zealanders should fold their tents like the Arabs and silently steal away to the kirk, and, with intervals for rest and refreshment, for 24 hours to "fold their hands, dwell on death and the bourne from which no traveller returneth." The looms of our lives must cease—no picture shows, no dances, no radio, no lovers' meetings' Our cars in our garages, silent! The children's playgrounds locked. Even the diekv-birds should bo polltelj requested not to sing .intil the e-iriew bell tolls, 24 hours afterwards, and the sun sets again. All this national mortification because, forsooth, the mythology of a small Palestine tribe ordained it so—--4000 years ago. Yet, with variations, Mr. McFarland is true to his clan, for 'tis the dour, dead Scottish Sabbath ho desires to resurrect from its unhappy grave. 1 recollect it well, for a generation ago, in my golden youth, I toured with Good Companions around the Scottish Highlands concertising. and it was difficult to book Saturday nights, as the committees (the accent on the "com" please!) would not rent the halls on Satuidays, because it was too close to the Sabbath, for, as Rabbie Burns sa.vs, "The minister kissed the fiddler's wife, and couldna' sleep for thinkin' o' it" —so our songs and dancing girls might disturb the prayers of guid folk on the Holy Day. As a Rationalist, T believe in the right of every man to spend his Sunday as his conscience dictates, and I will defend to the uttermost his liberty to do so. If Mr. McFarland and his peculiar people wish to sit with folded hands and dwell on "after death" all the livelong day, that is their business. Rut hands of! our lives. We, the great majority, who are not churchgoers. claim the right to spend our day from sunset to sunset as our consciences dictate. So, "on with the dance, turn on the radio, ring up the curtain, step on the gas, go on playing, kiddies, even unto hop-scotch. And quick, Jill! Put on your hat. Jack is waiting for you around the corner!" The greatest human document says: —"The purpose of life is liberty and the pursuit of happiness." The place to be happy is here.* The way to be happy is to make other people so. Henry J. Hayward.