business is from the church members of Milton. Of what value is it that
we place on our ordinance rules forbidding the sale of these things
covered by the law? How far are we responsible by our example for
encouraging the breaking of the day on the part of those who would find
it unprofitable to keep their business going if we did not purchase of
them on this day?

"It is possible there are very many persons here in this house this
morning who are ready to exclaim: 'This is intolerable bigotry and
puritanical narrowness! This is not the attitude Christ would take on
this question. He was too large-minded. He was too far advanced in
thought to make the day to mean anything of that sort.'

"But let us consider what is meant by the Sunday of our modern life as
Christ would view it. There is no disputing the fact that the age is
material, mercantile, money-making. For six eager, rushing days it is
absorbed in the pursuit of money or fame or pleasure. Then God
strikes the note of his silence in among the clashing sounds of earth's
Babel and calls mankind to make a day unlike the other days. It is his
merciful thoughtfulness for the race which has created this special day
for men. Is it too much to ask that on this one day men think of
something else besides politics, stocks, business, amusement? Is God
grudging the man the pleasure of life when here He gives the man six
days for labor and then asks for only one day specially set apart for
him? The objection to very many things commonly mentioned by the pulpit
as harmful to Sunday is not an objection necessarily based on the
harmfulness of the things themselves, but upon the fact that these
things are repetitions of the working day, and so are distracting to the
observance of the Sunday as a day of rest and worship, undisturbed by
the things that have already for six days crowded the thought of men.