The Fundamentals - 1917: Vol.4

Why Save the Lord’s Day? 207 long as my doings affect no one else’s liberty, I may do as I choose, but the moment I cross some one else’s rights, I am not free to do as I choose. I am limited by the higher law of brotherly love. If you think you are at liberty to travel on the Lord’s Day or attend a ball-game or concert on that day, you are not conforming to the law of brotherly love in that you force your fellow man to work for you on the day that you enjoy your freedom. But you reply, “Those people who toil on the Lord’s Day receive extra pay.” Extra pay 1My friend, there is not gold enough in the bosom of the eternal hills to compensate a single toiler for his loss of the day of rest. EVERY MAN HAS A RIGHT TO HIS MAN­ HOOD, AND NO MONEY COMPENSATION CAN RE­ PLACE THE LOSS OF MANHOOD. “But the train of cars that I board on the Sabbath would run anyway, and I might as well go on it.” My friend, how does that cancel your share of the moral responsibility for having forced your brother man to violate the law of the Sabbath? “Well, I am so busy during the week that I have no other day for recreation. From Monday to Saturday I grind like Samson at the mill.” Yes, but you are no busier than the Sabbath-keeping toilers who manage to get their recreation at other times. If you honestly believe that you have no other day than the Lord’s Day for your pleasure seeking, I ask you in all solemnity, have you any other day for the culture of your spiritual life? When are you going to attend to your immortal soul ? Now is the accepted time, what are you do- ing with it? Some one has said, “The Lord’s Day is like a rented house; it belongs to the proprietor, it is occupied by the tenant, but the tenant has no right to say, ‘I will do what I please with this house, damage it, desecrate it, turn it into an evil resort.’ No, the house is his to use and not abuse. The Sabbath is ours in the same way; he who diverts it from its proper purpose is dishonest. Will a man rob God? If a tramp tells me a pitiful tale and I have seven silver dollars

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