Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 52, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 January 1893 — FAVORS AN OPEN FAIR. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

FAVORS AN OPEN FAIR.

DR. H. W. THOMAS DISCUSSES THE SUBJECT. the Eminent Chicago Preacher Give! Reasons Why the World’s Fair Should Not Be Closed on the First Day of the Week. Sava It’s Not Sinful. There is to be a combined effort on the part of those who favor an open Fair to have the Sunday-closing clause

of the law making the appropriation repealed. Strong influences are to be brought to bear, and, according to Washington advices, it seems altogether that a majority of Congress will yield to the pressure of the anticlosing poople. Some of the church-

es have now declared in favor of opening the gates seven days in the week. Among the most prominent clergymen who have thus expressed themselves is Dr. H. W. Thomas, of Chicago. In a recent sermon touching on this subject he said:

Imperfect as may be the present social order, the public Intelligence, liberty, justice, and general well being and doing of the nineteenth century are very far In advance of the first century. But almoßt every step of this progress has been resisted by an unwise, a narrow and dogged conservatism. Royalty and eoclesiastlcism have resisted liberty and deinooraoy; the new truths of science and religion have been contested at every step; and In the fierce battles radicalism has sometimes been destructive. In our most Intelligent and liberal age the extremes of radicalism are less violent and dangerous; and where lohurch and state are separated, ultra-conservatism has lost the power to enforce its demands. It can make ugly faces, call hard names, silence and expel soholars and preachers, but can no longer Imprison, banish, and bum heretics; but It still stands In the way of the larger life of man. An Illustration of this is seen in the meetings and discussions of the American Sabbath Union, and In the extreme conservatism in attitude of the churches opposed to opening the gates of the World’s Fair on Sunday. The mistake of these generally well-intending people Is In two things: they fall to see what this World Exposition is and what it Is for, and their Interpretation of the meaning and uses of tne Sabbath is too narrow. The nations of the earth have gladly consented to unite with our country In a great Columbian celebration of Its discovery. In this will be brought together the results, not of four centuries alone, hut of all the centuries—the results of learning, art, science, government, religion. Necessarily, the cost is large; but It is not a business, was not projected to make money, but was mado possible by the money given by the people of our own city, by the different States and the nation, and by the governments of the world. It is not a business for gain, but a great .and friendly gathering of the millions of earth, each land bringing its richest treasures, that all may rejoice In the peace and progress of these great years. It Is a school, a church, suoh as was never possible before, nor can soon be again. Its educational, Its moral, its religious value to those who look upon the galleries of art, the halls of machinery, the collections of antiquity, the results of all Industry and learning, and the growing beauty and good of the world, will bo Incalculable. It means for eaoh one a larger life, and for the millions of comparatively poor and laboring people this Is the one opportunity of their lives: a soeno to enlarge the life of the young, a vision to bless the aged before they go hence. And yet these conservative, puritanical Sabbatarians would close the gates of thlß world school and church oh Sunday, and In the name of Him who said, "It Is lawful to do good on the Sabbath day!"

Let the machinery be stopped Saturday night; let the morning hours of Sunday be for rest and worship; then open the doors, reduce the rates, and thus honor the rational observance of the Amerioan Sabbath by giving the poor and the laboring classes the best possible opportunity to see and enjoy this wonder of the ages. And the preachers and the educated classes could not do hatter than to go and mingle freely and kindly with the people, as guideß and teachers to explain the great works of art. The labor can thus be lightened, and the day be rich In blessings to all. And why objeot to the necessary work, and to receiving money at the gates? Is It not work to open the churches Sunday? And what Is the difference between asking the people for money at the gate, and asking them for money as soon as they get Inside the church? All time Is sacred; labor is as sacred as rest. The command to work six days Is just as binding as it Is to rest the seventh. Nature makes no change on Sunday, but (tod has appointed one In seven of man’s days for rest, and man hallowß the sabbath in thought and feeling and act by devoting It to bodily rest and the Improvement of the higher life, and hence a portion 6f the day should be given to worship; but “the Sabbath is for man,’’ to be used for his greatest good, and hence no cast-iron rules can be laid down for Its observance; there maybe times when it is more religious to work than to rest or go to chnrch. . Christianity is the liberty of the Spirit, and not the bondage of the letter of the law; and yet it Is for the letter, and not the spirit of the Sabbath, that these rigid conservatives are contending. We should all enjoy a quiet Sabbath day at the Exposition; but dosing the gates will not bring such quiet, nor will opening them add to the noise and confusion, nor much, if any, lessen the travel. If closed on Sunday, people will stay over Saturday and go home Sunday, or come Sunday to be hefe Monday. There will be two or three hundred thousand strangers here every Sunday for six months; we have to face this condition of things; and in no other way can there be found so much quiet, so few temptations to wrong, and so many opportunities and incentives for the good, as In opening the gates of the Fair. To my mind, it is not only narrow and unwise to dose the gates on Sunday but a great wrong. And we must all regret that the advocates of the Sunday closing have ceased to be reasonable, not to Bay gentlemanly and honest, In their methods. It is humiliating when ministers of the gospel declare that it were better to have the cholera In our land than to have the Fair open Sunday, and Bay that tbose;who are opposed to their views are "disreputable," and speak sneerlngly of thtfke-who observe the seventh Instead of the first day of the week as the day of rest.

DR. THOMAS