The Sabbatarians, Here and Elsewhere
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THE SABBATARIANS, HERE AND ELSEWHERE.
It is interesting to watch the progress of the Sabbatarian movement, both at home and abroad. The conflict between the ultra-Puritanism of the few, on the one hand, and the sturdy common-sense of the many on the other, grows daily more interesting and affords more food for reflection to the student of human nature.
In London they are still agitating the vexed question as to whether the Crystal Palace,1 with its treasures of art and shapes of usefulness and beauty, shall or shall not be thrown open to the shareholders on the only day when the majority are at liberty to view them. A late London paper informs us that an adjourned meeting of the shareholders to receive the report of the scrutineers on the result of the ballot demanded at the last meeting was held at the Palace; the report of the scrutineers was opened, and the result was declared as follows:—The resolution of Mr. Addiscott2 for the opening of the Palace and grounds to the shareholders on Sunday afternoons, was carried by a majority of 24,075, the numbers being, in favor, 43,480; against 19,405. It now rests with the directors to carry out the resolution. With such an overwhelming majority in favor of the liberal side, they surely cannot hesitate.
On the other side of the Atlantic, indeed, the people have to contend with even greater disadvantages in this connection than here. There, the Sabbatarians are just as set and inveterate in their narrow views as they are here, and possess an additional advantage in the fact that there they possess more substantial power to enforce those views. Here, where the voice of the people is the voice of God, unpopular measures cannot long prevail against the indignant clamor of the “sovereigns.”
In this vicinity, the pharisaical clique who would dictate to the majority the manner in which they must spend the day of rest, are reduced to their last shifts. Lately, as our readers are aware, they made a valiant descent on the poor little newsboys for committing the enormity of selling a Sunday paper, and actually succeeded in depriving a few of them of their hard-earned coppers for a day or two. Wonderful achievement!—most righteous crusade!—worthy of the large hearts and expansive brains of those who originated it. The Sunday car business was nothing to be compared with it. It was bad enough to deny the poor man his five-penny ride on Sunday, but to cut him off from his three cent’s worth of Sunday reading was a master-stroke that will not easily be surpassed.
On the whole we think it as well, perhaps better, that these fanatical, anti-republican and anti-common sense attacks upon individual rights have been made. They have shown the people the danger they are in from the encroachments of a class which is as nothing, in point of numbers, in comparison with the noise it makes, but who would measure everything by their own particular standard and would cut everything and everybody down to the level of their own Procrustean bed. If people have eyes in their heads, they can now see the difference between religion and cant, between the wise toleration suited to this 19th century of light and knowledge and the gloomy asceticism and narrow bigotry which might have befitted the Dark Ages.
Taking for granted, then, that the advocates of the revival of the Blue Laws will soon be out of employment, and that they will doubtless be anxious to find something to do, we would make a suggestion or two for their especial benefit. In the great city of New York there are thousands of vile haunts where innocence is robbed of its bloom and made a loathsome thing; where health and virtue and happiness fly from whomsoever enters their fatal doors; where souls are murdered and no man says nay. Once in a while horrible revelations come out concerning these dens of horror and infamy. Some poor imprisoned victim puts an end to her wretched life, or some Pete Dawson is arrested, and for a moment we have a revelation that startles the public, but that is all. No practical steps are taken to do anything for the forsaken wretches who live in horror and die in despair. Now, to whom should we look for the mitigation of this evil but to the religious and the philanthropic? Their religion teaches them that every soul is alike precious in the eye of Him who gave it;——surely, then, none are beneath their notice, none too far removed from their sympathies. We suggest, then, to our sabbatarian friends, the propriety of doing something to succor and Christianize some of these poor dregs of society, and grapple with some of these giant wrongs that now cry out from the black deeps of our social system and still are unredressed. We advise them to leave off, for a moment, their prating about Sunday cars and newsboys, and do something for the poor souls that are perishing within sight of their gilt-edged pews. We would call their attention to the fact that Africa is not the only benighted place where philanthropy may find a field for its exercise, and that when they chance to turn their attention at home at all, there are greater reforms needed and greater abuses to be corrected than any against which the “Sabbatarians” have turned their batteries.