Henry M. Brooks

“ Fifty years ago hardly any one thought of absenting himself or herself from public worship. People went to church as a matter of course, partly from a sense of duty, and partly from habit; and this is still the case to some extent. The majority of thoughtful persons of all religious persuasions are agreed upon one point, and that is, it is desirable to have Sunday set apart as a day of rest and change from the ordinary cares and business of life. From a sanitary point of view this rest is no doubt of the highest importance. ”

“ But while French go to war, and the English make hay,
Though the season proves wet, and hay gets in but slowly,
Yet I would not do other than keep the day holy.
Far, far be from me, to ape those saving Elves,
Who rob God of his due, to grow richer themselves;
But be mine the pursuit, which all good men approve,
To strive to be rich in the Regions above. ”

“ Whatever we may think or say or do, people nowadays will not be forced to attend church. Among all denominations the services are more attractive than they once were, and every year there is less and less of the repulsive kinds of doctrine preached. But in spite of this, while many men regard attendance on divine service as both a pleasure and a privilege, there are others, and they not few, whom no influence or persuasion can induce to attend Sunday worship. Such persons must be left to spend the day as they please. ”

“ When the ordinances of this holy day are forsaken and forgotten, the whole system of moral obligation must of course be also forgotten; the great, substantial and permanent good, of which religion is the only source, is effectually destroyed; the political peace and welfare of a community, the salvation of the human soul, the infinitely benevolent designs of redeeming love, the institution of the means of grace, and the obedience and sufferings of the Son of God, are frustrated and set at nought. ”

“ There are no doubt men who consider the too often expensive ways in which churches are supported as altogether beyond their means. The demands of civilization upon individuals in these restless times, when there are so many organizations, secret, secular, and religious, are indeed too great for small incomes, especially as the cost of food is continually increasing, and as society in other ways makes so many secular demands upon them. Public worship is after all, in the view of many persons, not a necessity, but only a luxury which can easily be dispensed with. ”

“ Our municipal authorities, and all others concerned in bringing this person to punishment, deserve the thanks of their fellow-citizens. The town of Salem, once so distinguished for the purity of its manners and the good order of its society, has been disgraced of late, by outrages upon the peace and quiet of the community, committed by noisy assemblages of young men at the public corners—and even females have been seen to exhibit a demeanor in the streets disreputable to the town, and disgraceful in the highest degree to themselves. ”

“ It is as true as ever that man cannot 'live by bread alone,' but that he needs also the 'word that proceedeth from the mouth of God;' and if it is true, as we believe, that the word of God does come home with special force and pathos when worship is joined in by kindred souls, the argument for public worship, from this point of view, seems complete. And yet, half in jest and half in earnest, and sometimes altogether in earnest, we hear it said that a man can worship God in the fields quite as well as in the church. ”

“ As the devoting one day in seven to religious purposes is a bounden duty we owe to God our creator, and a most reasonable law of our Commonwealth—to see people riding on the Sunday in pursuit of their worldly affairs, is so disgusting to the man of true principle, that the neglect of our executive authority of so flagrant a crime, is to be lamented. ”

“ There is little in the appearance of Paris on a Sabbath morning to remind us that it is a day of rest; the markets are thronged as on other days, carts and drays and all sorts of vehicles, designed for the transportation of merchandise are in motion; buying and selling and manual labor proceed as usual; there is rest for neither man nor beast. In the afternoon the shops are usually closed; and labor is suspended, and the remainder of the day is devoted to pleasure. Few of those who go to church appear to have any other motive than amusement. ”

“ Notwithstanding all the comforts and conveniences of modern places of worship, to say nothing about the more interesting preaching and other exercises, some people consider it a hardship to be obliged to attend even one service on Sunday. How was it in "old times"? Our ancestors were obliged to conform to the prevalent custom of going to meeting whether they liked it or not. The law did not then excuse any one from attendance at public worship, except for sickness. Not to be a "meeting-goer" in those days was to range one's self with thieves and robbers and other outlaws. ”

“ The very thought of going to church makes some people cough or have a headache. Theatres or concerts never seem to affect these people in the same way. Even the weather, which keeps people in-doors on Sunday, never keeps them in on other days.
Our own view of the subject is that while we should be glad to see more interest taken in public worship than there is at present, we think people should have the right of spending their Sundays in their own way,—always, of course, provided they do not interfere with the rights and feelings of others. ”

“ We trust we shall no longer see the Sabbath trespassed upon by these official harpies, who, instead of spending the day as they ought, in worshiping God, confessing their own manifold sins, and praying that they may be endued with a more christian temper, are riding or walking the highway, "seeking whom they may devour," and gratifying at once their malice and their avarice, by plundering their fellow-citizens, and filling their own pockets. In some towns they have been stationed at every turn of the road, ready to dart out upon the traveller, like a spider from the corner of his web. ”

“ It is an age of splendid advance in science, of restless energy in business, of stupendous activity in politics, of daring questioning everywhere. All that makes against public worship; and yet all that makes public worship a greater necessity and demonstrates 'the pressing need of personal consecration' to it. ”

“ All the branches of morality are indissolubly connected. From one breach of moral obligation to a second, to a third, and to all, the transition is easy, necessary and rapid. From negligence of the duties we owe to God, the passage is short to contempt for those we owe to men. The Sabbath, in the judgment of reason and of revelation, is the great hinge on which all these duties are turned. ”

“ Le Sage felt some curiosity to know whether the author of Nature still continued to impose on himself the same law that originally marked the institution of the day of rest. It would have puzzled the first philosopher in Europe to think of any method by which this question could be brought to the decision of experiment: but the ingenuity of our young enquirer soon suggested an experiment.—He measured, with great care, the increase of a plant day after day, in order to discover whether it would cease growing on the Sabbath. ”

“ It seems to us to be clearly a mistake for those of ultra-liberal notions to suppose that all who cannot assent to their views of Sunday must of necessity be either Pharisees or hypocrites,—quite as great a mistake as that of the ultra-conservatives, who condemn as wicked all who do not believe in a puritanical observance of Sunday. ”

“ So far as we can see, the old orthodox believers were right when they called public worship 'a means of grace;' and if human experience is of any value, it is an undoubted fact that a great multitude which no man could number have felt the grace-giving influence of it. ”

“ One thing which prevents many people from attending public worship on Sunday is the increasing tendency towards ritualism,—or perhaps, we should say, making the services less instructive than formerly, and more devotional or emotional. This is seen not only in the Episcopal Church, but also among many other denominations. Even Congregational Orthodox—descendants of the Pilgrim Fathers—introduce prayer-books and responsive services, and make their church buildings more ecclesiastical in appearance, to look as much as possible like Episcopal churches. ”

“ BOSTON JUNE 1.—At the meeting on Monday last, the town of Boston evinced its good sense by voting to postpone the choice of Tythingmen till the first Monday of March next. We venture to assert, that in no district in the universe, of the extent and population of Massachusetts, is the Sabbath more decently and sincerely observed. ”

“ In all ages, the anti-christian spirit of christian professors has done more injury to the cause of religion, than the attacks of its declared enemies. Real Christianity cannot flourish by persecution. Excessive rigour defeats the very purposes it is intended to subserve. In time there will be a re-action, and men will go to the opposite extreme—religion and morals will be as much too lax, as they were before too strict.
[Pg 31] In no part of the world is the sabbath so scrupulously observed as in New-England. ”

“ The dreadful tragedy performed in this town last April, and the subsequent arrests, developments, confessions, trials, &c., by keeping the thoughts and conversation of the community continually directed to that enormity, have led to the general but very erroneous notion, that there must have been a great deterioration of the public morals.—If the words of the aged are to be received as true, the very reverse is the fact. ”

“ Although most men, even if they have no regard for the Divine Being or the welfare of society, when they know that Sabbath-breaking is offensive to the great body of the community, will, from regard to themselves, refrain from it, yet there are some abandoned individuals, who are so lost to all proper regard even for themselves, as well as their Maker, and their fellow-men, that in violation of laws, human and Divine, and in direct opposition to the wishes of the community, they still continue to travel and labour upon the Sabbath. ”

“ It seems to us that the only way to have Sunday properly observed is for those who are influential to make some little personal sacrifices, if need be, to attend the Sunday services, and do all they can to promote the most cheerful views of religion and make the services interesting. ”

“ He deprecated the going to public worship to have the brains tickled in hearing a particular man, and maintained that this was in no sense 'public worship.' He emphasized strongly the fact that those who say they can worship in the fields do not, in fact, worship at all. He urged that in worship the musical and devotional services should become more prominent, and the sermon become frequently but subsidiary. ”

“ A great change has taken place in some of our towns within a few years in reference to the Sunday mail. Twenty-five years ago it was rare to see a person belonging to one of the Evangelical sects at the post-office at the time of the opening of the mail on Sunday noon; whereas now it is not uncommon to see deacons and numerous other members of such churches hurry from their several places of worship to get their letters and papers with as much eagerness as "heretics." ”