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1951 lines
93 KiB
Plaintext
1951 lines
93 KiB
Plaintext
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30 page printout
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Reproducible Electronic Publishing can defeat censorship.
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The value of this 360K disk is $7.00. This disk, its printout,
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or copies of either are to be copied and given away, but NOT sold.
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Bank of Wisdom, Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
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**** ****
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LITTLE BLUE BOOK NO. 1329
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Edited by E. Haldeman-Julius
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FACING LIFE FEARLESSLY
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The Pessimistic Versus the Optimistic View of life
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by
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Clarence Darrow
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HALDEMAN-JULIUS PUBLICATIONS
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GIRARD, KANSAS
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FACING LIFE FEARLESSLY
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(Report of a lecture delivered at the University of Chicago,
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under the auspices of the Poetry Club, and the Liberal Club;
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revised by Mr. Darrow.)
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I had the pleasure of making the acquaintance of Mr. A.E.
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Housman in the Summer of 1927. I spent two hours with him, and
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before that I had been to the home of Thomas Hardy. Mr. Hardy told
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me how much he thought of Housman, before I visited Housman; and
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Housman was a frequent visitor at the Hardy home. Their ideas of
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life were very much alike; they were what the orthodox people and
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the Rotary Clubs would call pessimistic. They didn't live on pipe
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dreams; they took the universe as they found it, and man as they
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found him. They tried to see what beauty there was in each of them,
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but didn't close their eyes to the misery and maladjustments of
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either the universe or man, because they ware realists, honest,
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thorough, and fearless.
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Hardy himself had received the censure of all the good people
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of England and the world, who, in spite of that, bought his books.
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They all condemned him when he wrote his 'Tess;' so he determined
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not to write any more prose. He thought that people probably were
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not intelligent enough to appreciate him; certainly not his
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viewpoint, and he didn't wish to waste his time on them.
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Housman's viewpoint is much the same, as all of you know. He
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has written very little. You can read all he has written in two
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hours, and less than that; but everything is exquisitely finished.
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met him he was in his study in Cambridge. He is a professor of
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Latin. I can't Imagine anythINg more useless than that -- unless it
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be Greek! He has been called the greatest Latin scholar in the
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world, and he seemed to take some pride in his Latin; not so much
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in his poetry. He said he didn't write poetry except when he felt
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he had to, it was always hard work for him, although some of the
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things he wrote very quickly; but as a rule he spent a great deal
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of time on most of them.
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Bank of Wisdom
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Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
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1
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FACING LIFE FEARLESSLY
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I asked him if it was true that the latest little volume was
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what it is entitled -- 'Last Poems.' He said he thought it was
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true; that it had been published as his last poems in 1922 -- five
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years before -- and he had only written four lines since: so he
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thought that would probably be the last. Upon my asking him to
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recite the four lines, he said he had forgotten them.
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Both Hardy and Housman, and of course Omar, believed that man
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is rather small in comparison with the universe, or even with the
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earth; they didn't believe in human responsibility, in free will,
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in a purposeful universe, in a Being who watched over and cared for
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the people of the world. It is evident that if He does, He makes a
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poor job of It!
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Neither Hardy nor Housman had any such delusions. They took
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the world as they found it and never tried to guess at its origin.
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They took man as they found him and didn't try to build castles for
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him after be was dead. They were essentially realists, both of
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them; and of course long before them Omar had gone over the same
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field.
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It is hardly fair to call the Rubaiyat the work of Omar
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Khayyam. I have read a good many different editions and several
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different versions. I never read it in Persian, in which it was
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first written, but I have read not only poetical versions but prose
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ones. Justin McCarthy brought out a translation a number of years
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ago which was supposed to be a literal translation of Omar's book.
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There is no resemblance between that book and the classic under his
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name that was really written by FitzGerald. There is nothing very
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remarkable about the Omar Khayyam as found in Justin McCarthy's
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translation. It is probably ten times as expansive as the one we
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have, and no one would recognize it from the FitzGerald edition.
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The beauty of the Rubaiyat is Edward FitzGerald's. He
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evidently was more or less modest or else he wanted to do great
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homage to Omar, because no one would ever have suspected that Omar
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had any more to do with the book than they would have suspected
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Plato. But, under the magic touch of FitzGerald, it is not only one
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of the wisest and most profound pieces of literature in the world,
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but one of the most beautiful productions that the world has ever
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known.
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I remember reading somewhere that when this poem was thrown on
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the market in London, a long time ago, nobody bought it. They
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finally put it out in front of the shop in the form in which it was
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printed and sold it for a penny. One could make more money by
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buying those books at a penny and selling them now than he could
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make with a large block of Standard Oil! It took a long while for
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Omar and FitzGerald to gain recognition, which makes it rather
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comfortable for the rest of us who write books to give away, and
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feel happy when somebody asks us for one, although we suspect they
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will never read them. But we all think we will be discovered
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sometime. Some of us hope so and some are fearful that they will
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be. Neither Omar nor FitzGerald believed in human responsibility.
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That is the rock on which most religions are founded, and all laws
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-- that everybody is responsible for his conduct; that if he is
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good he is good because he deliberately chooses to be good, and if
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Bank of Wisdom
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Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
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2
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FACING LIFE FEARLESSLY
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he is bad it is pure cussedness on his part -- nobody had anything
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to do with it excepting himself. If he hasn't free will, why, he
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isn't anything! The English poet Henley, in one of his poems,
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probably expressed this about as well as anybody. It looks to me as
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if he had a case of the rabies or something like that. But people
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are fond of repeating it. In his brief poem about Fate he says:
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I am the master of my fate
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I am the captain of my soul.
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A fine captain of his soul; and a fine master of his fate! He
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wasn't master enough of his fate to get himself born, which is
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rather important, nor to do much of anything else, except brag
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about it. Instead of being the captain of his soul, as I have
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sometimes expressed it, man isn't even a deck-hand on a rudderless
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ship! He is just floating around and trying to hang on, and hanging
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on as long as he can. But if it does him any good to repeat Henley,
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or other nonsense, it is all right to give him a chance to do it,
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because he hasn't much to look forward to, any way. Free will never
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was a scientific doctrine; it never can be. It is probably a
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religious conception, which of course shows that it isn't a
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scientific one.
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Neither one of these eminent men, Hardy or Housman, believed
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anything in free will. There is eight hundred years between Omar
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and Housman, and yet their, philosophy is wondrously alike. I have
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no doubt but that Omar's philosophy was very like what we find in
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the rendering of FitzGerald. It is not a strange and unusual
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philosophy, except in churches and Rotary Clubs and places like
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that. It is not strange in places where people think or try to, and
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where they do not undertake to fool themselves. It is rather a
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common philosophy; it is a common philosophy where people have any
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realization of their own importance, or, rather, unimportance. A
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realization of it almost invariably forces upon a human being his
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own insignificance and the insignificance of all the other human
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atoms that come and go.
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Men's ideas root pretty far back. Their religious creeds are
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very old. By means of interest and hope and largely fear, they
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manage to hang on to the old, even when they know it is not true.
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The idea of man's importance came in the early history of the human
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race. He looked out on the earth, and of course he thought it was
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flat! It looks flat, and he thought it was. He saw the sun, and he
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formed the conception that somebody moved it out every morning and
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pulled it back in at night. He saw the moon, and he had the opinion
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that somebody pulled that out at sundown and took it in in the
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morning. He saw the stars, and all there was about the stars was,
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"He made the stars also." They were just "also." They were close
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by, and they were purely for man to look at, about like diamonds in
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the shirt bosoms of people who like them.
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This was not an unreasonable idea, considering what they had
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to go on. The people who still believe it have no more to go on.
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Blind men can't be taught to see or deaf people to hear. The
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primitive people thought that the stars were right near by and just
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the size they seemed to be. Of course now we know that some of them
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are so far away that light traveling at nearly 286,000 miles a
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Bank of Wisdom
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Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
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3
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FACING LIFE FEARLESSLY
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second is several million light years getting to the earth, and
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some of them are so large that our sun, even, would be a fly-speck
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to them. The larger the telescopes the more of them we see, and the
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imagination can't compass the end of them. It is just humanly
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possible that somewhere amongst the infinite number of infinitely
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larger and more important specks of mud in the universe there might
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be some organisms of matter that are just as intelligent as our
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people on the earth. So to have the idea that all of this was made
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for man gives man a great deal of what Weber and Field used to
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call "Proud flesh."
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Man can't get conceited from what he knows today, and he can't
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get it from what intellectual people ever knew. You remember, in
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those days the firmament was put in to divide the water below from
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the water above. They didn't know exactly what it was made of, but
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they knew what it was. Heaven was up above the firmament. They knew
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what it was, because Jacob had seen the angels going up and down on
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a ladder. Of course, a ladder was the only transportation for such
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purposes known to Jacob. If he had been dreaming now, they would
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have been going up in a flying machine and coming down in the same
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way.
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Our conceptions of things root back; and that, of course, is
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the reason for our crude religions, our crude laws, our crude
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ideas, and our exalted opinion of the human race.
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Omar had it nearer right. He didn't much overestimate the
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human race. He knew it for what it was, and that wasn't much. He
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knew about what its power was; he didn't expect much from the human
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race. He didn't condemn men, because he knew he couldn't do any
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better. As he puts it.
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But helpless Pieces of the Game He plays
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Upon this Chequer-Board of Nights and Days:
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Hither and thither moves, and checks and slays
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And one by one back in the Closet lays.
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Compare that conception with Mr. Henley's, with his glorious
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boast that he is the captain of his soul and the master of his
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fate. Anyone who didn't catch that idea from the ordinary thought
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of the community, but carved it out for himself, would be a subject
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for psychopathic analysis and examination. When you have an idea
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that everybody else has, of course you are not crazy, but if you
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have silly ideas that nobody else has, of course you are crazy.
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That is the only way to settle it,
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Most people believe every day many things for which others are
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sent to the insane asylum. The insane asylums are full of religious
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exaltants who have just varied a little bit from the standard of
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foolishness. It isn't the foolishness that places them in the bug-
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house, it is the slight variations from the other fellows'
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foolishness -- that is all. If a man says he is living with the
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spirits today, he is insane. If he says that Jacob did, he is all
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right. That is the only difference.
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Bank of Wisdom
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Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
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4
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FACING LIFE FEARLESSLY
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Omar says we are simply "impotent pieces in the game He plays"
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-- of course, he uses a capital letter when he spells, He which is
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all right enough for the purpose -- "in the game He plays upon this
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chequer-board of nights and days." And that is what man is. If one
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could vision somebody playing a game with human pawns, one would
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think that everyone who is moved around here and there was moved
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simply at the will of a player and he had nothing whatever to do
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with the game, any more than any other pawn. And he has nothing
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more to do with it than any other pawn.
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Omar expresses this opinion over and over again. He doesn't
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blame man; he knows the weakness of man. He knew the cruelty of
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judging him.
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The Moving Finger writes; and having writ,
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Moves on: nor all your Piety nor Wit
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Shall lure it back to cancel half a line,
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Nor all your Tears wash out a Word of it.
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Whatever the impulse calls one to do, whatever the baubles or
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the baits that set in motion many acts, however quickly or
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emotionally, the consequences of the acts, as far as he is
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concerned, never end. All your piety and all your wit cannot wipe
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out a word of it! Omar pities man; he doesn't exalt God, but he
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pities man. He sees what man can do; and, more important still, he
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sees what he cannot do. He condemns the idea that God could or
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should judge man. The injustice of it, the foolishness of it all,
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appeals to him and he puts it in this way:
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O Thou who didst with pitfall and with gin
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Beset the Road I was to wander in.
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Thou wilt not with Predestin'd Evil round
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Enmesh, and then impute my Fall to Sin!
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Nothing ever braver and stronger and truer than that!
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Preachers have wasted their time and their strength and such
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intelligence and learning as they can command, talking about God
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forgiving man, as if it was possible for man to hurt God, as if
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there was anything to be forgiven from man's standpoint. They pray
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that man be forgiven and urge that man should be forgiven. Nobody
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knows for what, but still it has been their constant theme. Poets
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have done it; Omar knew better. Brave and strong and clear and far-
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seeing, although living and dying eight hundred years ago. This is
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what he says about forgiveness:
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O thou, who Man of baser Earth didst make,
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And ev'n with Paradise devised the Snake:
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For all the sin wherewith the Face of Man
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Is blacken'd -- Man's forgiveness give -- and take!
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"Man's forgiveness give -- and take!" If man could afford to
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forgive God, He ought to be willing to forgive man. Omar knew it.
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"Ev'n with paradise devised the snake." Taking the orthodox theory,
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for all the sin with which the earth is blackened, "Man's
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forgiveness give -- and take!" That is courage; it is science. It
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is sense, and it isn't the weak, cowardly whining of somebody who
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|||
|
|
is afraid he might be hurt unless he whines and supplicates, which
|
|||
|
|
he always does, simply hoping that some great power will have
|
|||
|
|
compassion on him. Always cowardice and fear, and nothing else!
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
|
5
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
FACING LIFE FEARLESSLY
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Omar was wise enough to know that if there was any agency
|
|||
|
|
responsible for it, that agency was responsible. He made us as we
|
|||
|
|
are, and as He wished to make us, and to say that a weak, puny,
|
|||
|
|
ignorant human being, here today and gone tomorrow, could possibly
|
|||
|
|
injure God or be responsible for his own weakness and his
|
|||
|
|
ignorance, of course is a travesty upon all logic; and of course it
|
|||
|
|
does great credit to all superstition, for it couldn't come any
|
|||
|
|
other way.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Housman is equally sure about this. He knows about the
|
|||
|
|
responsibility of man. Strange how wonderfully alike runs their
|
|||
|
|
philosophy! Housman condemned nobody. No pessimist does -- only
|
|||
|
|
good optimists. People who believe in a universe of law never
|
|||
|
|
condemn or hate individuals. Only those who enthrone man believe in
|
|||
|
|
free will, and make him responsible for the terrible crudities of
|
|||
|
|
Nature and the force back of it, if there is such a force. Only
|
|||
|
|
they are cruel to the limit.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
One can get Housman's idea of the responsibility of the human
|
|||
|
|
being from his beautiful little poem, "The Culprit," the plaintive
|
|||
|
|
wailing of a boy to be executed the next morning, when he, in his
|
|||
|
|
blindness and terror, asked himself the question, "Why is it and
|
|||
|
|
what does it all mean?" and thought about the forces that made him,
|
|||
|
|
and what a blind path he traveled, as we all do. He says:
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
The night my father got me
|
|||
|
|
His mind was not on me;
|
|||
|
|
He did not plague his fancy
|
|||
|
|
To muse if I should be
|
|||
|
|
The son you see.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
The day my mother bore me
|
|||
|
|
She was a fool and glad,
|
|||
|
|
For all the pain I cost her,
|
|||
|
|
That she had borne the lad
|
|||
|
|
That borne she had.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
My mother and my father
|
|||
|
|
Out of the light they lie;
|
|||
|
|
The warrant would not find them,
|
|||
|
|
And here 'tis only I
|
|||
|
|
Shall hang on high.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Oh let no man remember
|
|||
|
|
The soul that God forgot
|
|||
|
|
But fetch the county kerchief
|
|||
|
|
And noose me in the knot,
|
|||
|
|
And I will rot.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
For so the game is ended
|
|||
|
|
That should not have begun.
|
|||
|
|
My father and my mother
|
|||
|
|
They have a likely son,
|
|||
|
|
And I have none.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Bank of Wisdom
|
|||
|
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
|
6
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
FACING LIFE FEARLESSLY
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Nobody lives in this world to himself or any part of himself.
|
|||
|
|
Nobody fashions his body, and still less is responsible for the
|
|||
|
|
size or the fineness of his brain and the sensitiveness of his
|
|||
|
|
nervous system. No one has anything to do with the infinite
|
|||
|
|
manifestations of the human body that produce the emotions, that
|
|||
|
|
force men here and there. And yet religion in its cruelty and its
|
|||
|
|
brutality brands them all alike. And the religious teachers are so
|
|||
|
|
conscious of their own guilt that they only seek to escape
|
|||
|
|
punishment by loading their punishment onto someone else. They say
|
|||
|
|
that the responsibility of the individual who in his weakness goes
|
|||
|
|
his way is so great and his crimes are so large that there isn't a
|
|||
|
|
possibility for him to be saved by his own works.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
**** ****
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
The law is only the slightest bit more intelligent. No matter
|
|||
|
|
who does it, or what it is, the individual is responsible. If he is
|
|||
|
|
manifestly and obviously crazy they may make some distinction; but
|
|||
|
|
no lawyer is wise enough to look into the human mind and know what
|
|||
|
|
it means. The interpretations of the human judges were delivered
|
|||
|
|
before we had any science on the subject whatever, and they
|
|||
|
|
continue to enforce the old ideas of insanity, in spite of the fact
|
|||
|
|
that there isn't an intelligent human being in the world who has
|
|||
|
|
studied the question who ever thinks of it in legal terms. Judges
|
|||
|
|
instruct the jury that if a man knows the difference between right
|
|||
|
|
and wrong he cannot be considered insane. And yet an insane man
|
|||
|
|
knows the difference better than an intelligent man, because he has
|
|||
|
|
not the intelligence and the learning to know that this is one of
|
|||
|
|
the hardest things to determine, and perhaps the most impossible.
|
|||
|
|
You can ask the inmates of any insane asylum whether it is right to
|
|||
|
|
steal, lie, or kill, and they will all say "No," just as little
|
|||
|
|
children will say it, because they have been taught it. It
|
|||
|
|
furnishes no test, but still lawyers and Judges persist in it, to
|
|||
|
|
give themselves an excuse to wreak vengeance upon unfortunate
|
|||
|
|
people.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Housman knew better. He knew that in every human being is the
|
|||
|
|
imprint of all that has gone before, especially the imprint of his
|
|||
|
|
direct ancestors. And not only that, but that it is the imprint of
|
|||
|
|
all the environment in which he has lived, and that human
|
|||
|
|
responsibility is utterly unscientific, and besides that, horribly
|
|||
|
|
cruel.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Another thing that impressed itself upon all these poets alike
|
|||
|
|
was the futility of life. I don't know whether a college succeeds
|
|||
|
|
in making pupils think that they are very important in the scheme
|
|||
|
|
of the universe. I used to be taught that we were all very
|
|||
|
|
important. Most all the boys and girls who were taught it when I
|
|||
|
|
was taught it are dead, and the world is going on just the same. I
|
|||
|
|
have a sort of feeling that after I am dead it will go on just the
|
|||
|
|
same, and there are quite a considerable number of people who think
|
|||
|
|
it will go on better. But it won't; I haven't been important enough
|
|||
|
|
even to harm it. It will go on just exactly the same.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
We are always told of the importance of the human being and
|
|||
|
|
the importance of everything he does; the importance of his not
|
|||
|
|
enjoying life, because if he is happy here of course he can't be
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Bank of Wisdom
|
|||
|
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
|
7
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
FACING LIFE FEARLESSLY
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
happy hereafter, and if he is miserable here he must be happy
|
|||
|
|
hereafter. Omar made short work of that, of those promises which
|
|||
|
|
are not underwritten, at least not by any responsible people. He
|
|||
|
|
did not believe in foregoing what little there is of life in the
|
|||
|
|
hope of having a better time hereafter.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
He says, "Ah, take the Cash and let the Credit go." Good
|
|||
|
|
advice that: "Ah, take the Cash and let the Credit go." If you take
|
|||
|
|
the "Credit," likely as not you will miss your fun both here and
|
|||
|
|
hereafter. Omar knew better.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
It is strange how the religious creeds have hammered that idea
|
|||
|
|
into the human mind. They have always felt there was a kinship
|
|||
|
|
between pleasure and sin. A smile on the face is complete evidence
|
|||
|
|
of wickedness. A solemn, uninteresting countenance is a stamp of
|
|||
|
|
virtue and goodness, of self-denial, that will surely be rewarded.
|
|||
|
|
Of course, the religious people are strangely hedonistic without
|
|||
|
|
knowing it! There are some of us who think that the goodness or
|
|||
|
|
badness of an act in this world can be determined only by pain and
|
|||
|
|
pleasure units. The thing that brings pleasure is good, and the
|
|||
|
|
thing that brings pain is bad. There is no other way to determine
|
|||
|
|
the difference between good and bad. Some of us think so: I think
|
|||
|
|
so.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Of coarse, the other class roll their eyes and declaim against
|
|||
|
|
this heathen philosophy, the idea that pain and pleasure have
|
|||
|
|
anything to do with the worth-whileness of existence. It isn't
|
|||
|
|
important for you to be happy here. But why not? You are too
|
|||
|
|
miserable here so you will be happy hereafter; and the hereafter is
|
|||
|
|
long and the here is short. They promise a much bigger prize than
|
|||
|
|
the pagan for the reward of conduct. They simply want you to trust
|
|||
|
|
them. They take the pain and pleasure theory with a vengeance, but
|
|||
|
|
they do business purely on credit. They are dealers in futures! I
|
|||
|
|
could never understand, if it was admissible to have joy in heaven,
|
|||
|
|
why you couldn't have it here, too. And if joy is admissible at
|
|||
|
|
all, the quicker you get at it the better, and the surer you are of
|
|||
|
|
the result. Omar thought that: "Ah, take the Cash, and let the
|
|||
|
|
Credit go!" Take the Cash and let the other fellow have the Credit!
|
|||
|
|
That was his philosophy, and I insist it is much better, and more
|
|||
|
|
intelligent philosophy than the other.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
But Omar had no delusions about how important this human being
|
|||
|
|
is. He had no delusions about the mind, about man's greatness. He
|
|||
|
|
knew something about philosophy or metaphysics, whatever it is. He
|
|||
|
|
knew the uncertainty of human calculations, no matter who arrived
|
|||
|
|
at them. He knew the round-about way that people try to find out
|
|||
|
|
something, and he knew the results. He knew the futility of all of
|
|||
|
|
it.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Myself When young did eagerly frequent
|
|||
|
|
Doctor and Saint, and heard great argument
|
|||
|
|
About it and about: but evermore
|
|||
|
|
Came out by the same door where in I went.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
That is what Omar thought. Man evermore came out by the same
|
|||
|
|
door where in he went. Therefore, "take the Cash and let the Credit
|
|||
|
|
go!"' He put it even stronger than this. He knew exactly what these
|
|||
|
|
values were worth, if anything. He knew what a little bit there is
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Bank of Wisdom
|
|||
|
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
|
8
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
FACING LIFE FEARLESSLY
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
to the whole bag of tricks. What's the difference whether you were
|
|||
|
|
born 75 years ago, or fifty or twenty-five? what's the difference
|
|||
|
|
whether you are going to live ten years, or twenty or thirty, or
|
|||
|
|
weather you are already dead? In that case you escape something!
|
|||
|
|
This magnifying the importance of the human being is one of the
|
|||
|
|
chief sins of man and results in all kinds of cruelty.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
If we took the human race for what it is worth, we could not
|
|||
|
|
be so cruel. Omar Khayyam knew what it was, this life, that we talk
|
|||
|
|
so much about:
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
'Tis but a Tent where takes his one day's rest
|
|||
|
|
A Sultan to the realm of Death addrest;
|
|||
|
|
The Sultan rises, and the dark Forrash
|
|||
|
|
Strikes, and prepares it for another Guest.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
"Tis but a Tent where takes his one day's rest" -- is there
|
|||
|
|
anything else, if one could just make a survey of the human being,
|
|||
|
|
passing across the stage of life? I suppose man has been upon the
|
|||
|
|
earth for over a million years. A million years, and perhaps his
|
|||
|
|
generations may be thirty to thirty-five years long. Think of the
|
|||
|
|
generations in a thousand years, in 5,000 years, in a hundred
|
|||
|
|
thousand, in a million years! There are a billion and a half of
|
|||
|
|
these important organisms on the earth at any one time. All of
|
|||
|
|
them, all important -- kings, priests and professors, and doctors
|
|||
|
|
and lawyers and presidents, and 100 per cent Americans, and
|
|||
|
|
everything on earth you could think of -- Ku Kluxers, W.C.T.U.'s,
|
|||
|
|
Knights of Columbus and Masons, everything. All of them important
|
|||
|
|
in this scheme of things! All of them seeking to attract attention
|
|||
|
|
to themselves, and not even satisfied when they get it!
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
What is it all about? it is strange what little things will
|
|||
|
|
interest the human mind -- baseball games, fluctuations of the
|
|||
|
|
stock market, revivals, foot races, hangings, Anything will
|
|||
|
|
interest them. And the wonderful importance of the human being!
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Housman knew the importance just as well as Omar. He has
|
|||
|
|
something to say about it, too. He knew it was just practically
|
|||
|
|
nothing. Strangely like him! The little affairs of life, the little
|
|||
|
|
foolishnesses of life, the things that consume our lives without
|
|||
|
|
any result whatever; he knew them and knew what they were worth. He
|
|||
|
|
knew they were worth practically nothing. But we do them; the urge
|
|||
|
|
of living keeps us doing them, even when we know how useless and
|
|||
|
|
foolish they are. Housman understood them:
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Yonder see the morning blink:
|
|||
|
|
The sun is up, and up must I.
|
|||
|
|
To wash and dress and eat and drink
|
|||
|
|
And look at things and talk and think
|
|||
|
|
And work, and God knows why.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Oh often have I washed and dressed
|
|||
|
|
And what's to show for all my pain?
|
|||
|
|
Let me lie abed and rest:
|
|||
|
|
Ten thousand times I've done my best
|
|||
|
|
And all's to do again.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Bank of Wisdom
|
|||
|
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
|
9
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
FACING LIFE FEARLESSLY
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
That is what life is, rising in the morning and washing and
|
|||
|
|
dressing and going to recitations and studying and forgetting it,
|
|||
|
|
and then going to bed at night, to get up the next morning and wash
|
|||
|
|
and dress and go to recitation, and so on, world without end.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
One might get a focus on it from the flies. They are very busy
|
|||
|
|
buzzing round. You don't exactly know what they are saying, because
|
|||
|
|
we can't understand fly language. Professors can't teach you fly
|
|||
|
|
language! We can't tell what they are saying, but they are probably
|
|||
|
|
talking about the importance of being good, about what's going to
|
|||
|
|
happen to their souls and, when. And when they are stiff in the
|
|||
|
|
morning in the Autumn and can hardly move round, the housewife gets
|
|||
|
|
up and builds the fire, and the heat limbers them up. She sets out
|
|||
|
|
the bread and butter on the table. The flies come down and get into
|
|||
|
|
it, and they think the housewife is working for them. Why not?
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Is there any difference? Only in the length of the agony. What
|
|||
|
|
other? Apparently they have a good time while the sun is shining,
|
|||
|
|
and apparently they die when they get cold. It is a proposition of
|
|||
|
|
life and death, forms of matter clothed with what seems to be
|
|||
|
|
consciousness, and then going back again into inert matter, and
|
|||
|
|
that is all. There isn't any manifestation that we humans make that
|
|||
|
|
we do not see in flies and in other forms of matter.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Housman understands it; they have all understood it. Read any
|
|||
|
|
of the great authors of the world -- any of them; their hopes and
|
|||
|
|
their fears and their queries and their doubt, are, about the same.
|
|||
|
|
There is only one man I know of that can answer everything, and
|
|||
|
|
that is Dr Cadman.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Housman saw it. He knew a little of the difference between age
|
|||
|
|
and youth -- and there is some. The trouble is, the old men always
|
|||
|
|
write the books; they write them not in the way they felt when they
|
|||
|
|
were young, but in the way they feel now. And they preach to the
|
|||
|
|
young, and condemn them for doing what they themselves did when
|
|||
|
|
they had the emotion to do it. Great teachers, when they grow old!
|
|||
|
|
Perhaps it is partly envy and the desire that no one shall have
|
|||
|
|
anything they can't have. Likely it is, but they don't know it.
|
|||
|
|
Housman says something about this:
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
When first my way to fair I took
|
|||
|
|
Few pence in purse hid I,
|
|||
|
|
And long I used to stand and look
|
|||
|
|
At things I could not buy.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Now times are altered: if I care
|
|||
|
|
To bay a thing I can;
|
|||
|
|
The pence are here and here's the fair,
|
|||
|
|
But where's the lost young man?
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
The world is somewhat different. The lost young man was once
|
|||
|
|
looking at the fair. He couldn't go in, and he liked it more for
|
|||
|
|
that; but now he is tired of the fair and tired of the baubles that
|
|||
|
|
once amused him and the riddles he once tried to guess, and he
|
|||
|
|
can't understand that the young man still likes to go to the fair.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Bank of Wisdom
|
|||
|
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
|
10
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
FACING LIFE FEARLESSLY
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
We hear a great deal said by the ignorant about the wickedness
|
|||
|
|
of the youth of today. Well, I don't know: some of us were wicked
|
|||
|
|
when we were young. I don't know what is the matter with the youth
|
|||
|
|
of today having their fling. I don't know that they are any
|
|||
|
|
wickeder today. First, I don't know what the word wicked moans. Oh,
|
|||
|
|
I do know what it means: It means unconventional conduct. But I
|
|||
|
|
don't know whether unconventional conduct is wicked in the sense
|
|||
|
|
they mean it is wicked, or whether conventional conduct is good in
|
|||
|
|
the sense they mean it is good. Nobody else knows!
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
But I remember when I was a boy -- it was a long time ago --
|
|||
|
|
I used to hear my mother complain. My mother would have been pretty
|
|||
|
|
nearly 125 years old if she had kept on living, but luckily for her
|
|||
|
|
she didn't! I used to hear her complain of how much worse the girls
|
|||
|
|
were that she knew than the girls were when she was a girl. Of
|
|||
|
|
course, she didn't furnish any bill of particulars; she didn't
|
|||
|
|
specify, except not hanging up their clothes, and gadding, and
|
|||
|
|
things like that. But at any rate, they were worse. And my father
|
|||
|
|
used to tell about it, and I have an idea that Adam and Eve used to
|
|||
|
|
talk the same fool way.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
The truth is, the world doesn't change, or the generations of
|
|||
|
|
men or the human emotions. But the individual changes as he grows
|
|||
|
|
old. You hear about the Revolt of Youth. Some people are pleased at
|
|||
|
|
it and some displeased. Some see fine reasons for hope in what they
|
|||
|
|
call the youth movement. They can put it over on the old people,
|
|||
|
|
but not on the youth! There is a Revolt of Youth.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Well, youth has always been in revolt. The greatest trouble
|
|||
|
|
with youth is that it gets old. Age changes it. It doesn't bring
|
|||
|
|
wisdom, though most old people think because they are old they have
|
|||
|
|
wisdom. But you can't get wisdom by simply growing old. You can
|
|||
|
|
even forget it that way! Age means that the blood runs slow, that
|
|||
|
|
the emotions are not as strong, that you play safer, that you stay
|
|||
|
|
closer to the hearth. You don't try to find new continents or even
|
|||
|
|
explore old ones. You don't travel into unbeaten wilderness and lay
|
|||
|
|
out new roads. You stick to the old roads when you go out at all.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
The world can't go on with old people. It takes young ones
|
|||
|
|
that are daring, with courage and faith.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
The difference between youth and old age is the same in every
|
|||
|
|
generation. The viewpoint is in growing old, that is all. But the
|
|||
|
|
old never seem wise enough to know it, and forever the old have
|
|||
|
|
been preaching to the young. Luckily, however, the young pay very
|
|||
|
|
little attention to it. They sometimes pretend to, but they never
|
|||
|
|
do pay much attention to it. Otherwise, life could not exist.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Both of these poets saw the futility of life: the little
|
|||
|
|
things of which it is made, scarcely worth the while. It is all
|
|||
|
|
right to talk about futility. We all know it, if we know much of
|
|||
|
|
anything. We know life is futile. A man who considers that his life
|
|||
|
|
is of very wonderful importance is awfully close to a padded cell.
|
|||
|
|
Let anybody study the ordinary, everyday details of life; see how
|
|||
|
|
closely he is bound and fettered; see how little it all amounts to.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Bank of Wisdom
|
|||
|
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
|
11
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
FACING LIFE FEARLESSLY
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
There are a billion and a half people in the world, all of
|
|||
|
|
them trying to shout loud enough to be heard all at once, so as to
|
|||
|
|
attract the attention of the public, so they may be happy. A
|
|||
|
|
billion and a half of them, and if they all attracted attention
|
|||
|
|
none of them would have attention! Of course, attention is only
|
|||
|
|
valuable if the particular individual attracts it and nobody, else
|
|||
|
|
can get it. That is what makes presidents and kings -- they get it
|
|||
|
|
and nobody else.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Then when you consider that it is all made up of little
|
|||
|
|
things, what is life all about, anyway? We do keep on living. It is
|
|||
|
|
easy enough to demonstrate to people who think that life is not
|
|||
|
|
worth while. We could do it easier if we could only settle what
|
|||
|
|
worth while means. But if we settle it and convince ourselves that
|
|||
|
|
it is not worth while, we still keep on living. life does not come
|
|||
|
|
from willing; rather it does not come from thought and reason. I
|
|||
|
|
don't live because I think it is worth while; I live because I am
|
|||
|
|
a going concern, and every going concern tries to keep on going, I
|
|||
|
|
don't care whether it is a tree, or a plant, or what we call a
|
|||
|
|
lower animal, or man, or the Socialist party. Anything that is
|
|||
|
|
going tries to go on by its own momentum, and it does just keep on
|
|||
|
|
going -- it is what Schopenhauer called the 'will to live.' So we
|
|||
|
|
must assume that we will live anyhow as long as we can. When the
|
|||
|
|
machine runs down we don't have to worry about it any longer.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Hotisman asked himself this question, and Omar asked himself
|
|||
|
|
this question. Life is of little value. What are we going to do
|
|||
|
|
while we live? In other words, what is the purpose, if we can use
|
|||
|
|
the word purpose in this way, which is an incorrect way? What
|
|||
|
|
purpose are we going to put into it? Why should we live; and if we
|
|||
|
|
must live, then what? Omar tells us what. He knew there was just
|
|||
|
|
one thing important; he knew what most thinkers know today. He put
|
|||
|
|
it differently -- he and FitzGerald together. It is a balance
|
|||
|
|
between painful and pleasurable emotions. Every organized being
|
|||
|
|
looks for pleasurable emotions and tries to avoid painful ones. The
|
|||
|
|
seed planted in the ground seeks the light. The instinct of
|
|||
|
|
everything is to move away from pain and toward pleasure. Human
|
|||
|
|
beings are just like all the rest. The earth and all its
|
|||
|
|
manifestations are simply that. Omar figured it out, and after
|
|||
|
|
philosophizing and finding that he ever came out the same door
|
|||
|
|
where in he went, he said:
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
You know, my Friends, with what a brave Carouse
|
|||
|
|
I made a Second Marriage in my house;
|
|||
|
|
Divorced old barren Reason from my Bed,
|
|||
|
|
And took the Daughter of the Vine to Spouse.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
That is one way of forgetting life -- one way of seeking
|
|||
|
|
pleasurable emotions: "I took the Daughter of the Vine to Spouse."
|
|||
|
|
A way that has been fairly popular down through the ages! Even in
|
|||
|
|
spite of the worst that all the fanatics could possibly do, it has
|
|||
|
|
been a fairly universal remedy for the ills of man. It would be
|
|||
|
|
perfect If it were not for the day after!
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
He says in his wild exuberance:
|
|||
|
|
Come, fill the Cup, and in the fire of Spring
|
|||
|
|
Your Winter-Garment of Repentance fling:
|
|||
|
|
The Bird of Time has but a little way
|
|||
|
|
To flutter -- and the Bird is on the Wing.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
|
12
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
FACING LIFE FEARLESSLY
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
There isn't much of it; but while it is fluttering, help it.
|
|||
|
|
It has but a little way to flutter, and it is on the wing!
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
To those who are not quite so strenuous, there is an appeal
|
|||
|
|
more to beauty, a somewhat more permanent although not much more,
|
|||
|
|
but a more beautiful conception of pleasure, which is all he could
|
|||
|
|
get:
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
A Book of Verses underneath the Bough,
|
|||
|
|
A Jug of Wine, a Loaf of Bread -- and Thou
|
|||
|
|
Beside me singing in the Wilderness --
|
|||
|
|
Oh, Wilderness were Paradise now!
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Well, if you get the right jug and the right book and the rest
|
|||
|
|
of the paraphernalia, it isn't so bad!
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
It is strange that two so different human beings have sought
|
|||
|
|
about the same thing. This physical emotional life that we hear so
|
|||
|
|
much about is the only life we know anything about. They sought
|
|||
|
|
their exaltation there, and Omar Khayyam pictured it very well.
|
|||
|
|
Housman again does as well. What does he say about the way to spend
|
|||
|
|
life and about life?
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Loveliest of trees, the cherry now
|
|||
|
|
Is hung with bloom along the bough,
|
|||
|
|
And stands about the woodland ride
|
|||
|
|
Wearing white for Eastertide.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Now, of my threescore, years and ten,
|
|||
|
|
Twenty will not come again,
|
|||
|
|
And take from seventy springs a score,
|
|||
|
|
It only leaves me fifty more.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
And since to look at things in bloom
|
|||
|
|
Fifty springs are little room,
|
|||
|
|
About the woodlands I will go
|
|||
|
|
To see the cherry hung with snow.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
What else is there? So while the light is still on and while
|
|||
|
|
I can still go, and when the cherry is in bloom -- I will go to see
|
|||
|
|
the cherries hung with snow.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
That is the whole philosophy of life for those who think; that
|
|||
|
|
is all there is to it, and it is what everybody is trying to do,
|
|||
|
|
without fully realizing it. Many are taking the Credit and letting
|
|||
|
|
the Cash go. Housman is right about that.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Since to look at things in bloom
|
|||
|
|
Fifty springs are little room,
|
|||
|
|
About the woodlands I will go
|
|||
|
|
To see the cherry hung with snow.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
That is why I have so little patience with the old preaching
|
|||
|
|
to the young. If youth, with its quick-flowing blood, its strong
|
|||
|
|
imagination, its virile feeling; if youth, with its dreams and its
|
|||
|
|
hopes and ambitions, can go about the woodland to see the cherry
|
|||
|
|
hung with snow, why not? Who are the croakers, who have run their
|
|||
|
|
race and lived their time, who are they to keep back expression and
|
|||
|
|
hope and youth and joy from a world that is almost barren at the
|
|||
|
|
best?
|
|||
|
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
|
13
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
FACING LIFE FEARLESSLY
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
It has been youth that has kept the world alive; it will be,
|
|||
|
|
because from the others emotion has fled; and with the fleeing of
|
|||
|
|
emotion, through the ossification of the brain, all there is left
|
|||
|
|
for them to do is to preach. I hope they have a good time doing
|
|||
|
|
that, and I am so glad the young pay no attention to it!
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Of course, Housman and Omar and the rest of us are called
|
|||
|
|
pessimist's. It is a horrible name. What is a pessimist, anyway? It
|
|||
|
|
is a man or a woman who looks at life as life is. If you could, you
|
|||
|
|
might take your choice, perhaps, as to being a pessimist or a pipe
|
|||
|
|
dreamer. But you can't have it, because you look at the world
|
|||
|
|
according to the way you are made. Those are the two extremes. The
|
|||
|
|
pessimist takes life for what life is: not all sorrow, not all
|
|||
|
|
pain, not all beauty, not all good. Life is not black; life is not
|
|||
|
|
orange, red, or green, or all the colors of the rainbow. Life is no
|
|||
|
|
one shade or hue.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
It is well enough to understand it. If pessimism could come as
|
|||
|
|
the result of thought, I would think a pessimist was a wise man.
|
|||
|
|
What is an optimist, anyway? He reminds "Me of a little boy running
|
|||
|
|
through the woods and looking up at the sky and not paying any
|
|||
|
|
attention to the brambles or thorns he is scrambling through. There
|
|||
|
|
is a stone in front of him and he trips over the stone. Browning
|
|||
|
|
said, "God's in his heaven and all's right with the world." Others
|
|||
|
|
say, "God is love, love is God," and so on. A man who thinks that
|
|||
|
|
is bound to be an optimist. He believes that things are good.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
The pessimist doesn't necessarily think that everything is
|
|||
|
|
bad, but he looks for the worst. He knows it will come sooner or
|
|||
|
|
later. When an optimist falls, he falls a long way; when a
|
|||
|
|
pessimist falls it is a very short fall. When an optimist is
|
|||
|
|
disappointed he is very, very sad, because he believed it was the
|
|||
|
|
best of all possible worlds, and God's in his heaven and all's well
|
|||
|
|
with the world. When a pessimist is disappointed he is happy, for
|
|||
|
|
he wasn't looking for anything.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
This is the safest and by all odds it is the wisest outlook.
|
|||
|
|
Housman has put it in a little poem. It is about the last thing I
|
|||
|
|
shall give you. Housman is the only man I know of who has written
|
|||
|
|
a poem about pessimism. Nearly all the people who are talking about
|
|||
|
|
pessimism talk in prose; it is very prosy. Poems are generally
|
|||
|
|
written about optimism:
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
I am the master of my fate;
|
|||
|
|
I am the captain of my soul.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Those are the sort of poems. Of course there have been poems
|
|||
|
|
written about pessimism. Poetry is really, to my way of thinking,
|
|||
|
|
good only if it is beauty and if it is music.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
I don't mean tonight to discuss the question of free verse and
|
|||
|
|
poetry, or the comparative merits of the two styles, or of prose,
|
|||
|
|
but I do think that poetry is an exaltation and that you can't hold
|
|||
|
|
it for long. Poetry ought to have beauty and it ought to have
|
|||
|
|
music. It should have both. You can be the poet of sadness; sadness
|
|||
|
|
lends itself to poetry as much as gladness, although few poets know
|
|||
|
|
how to use it. Listen to this from Housman:
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Bank of Wisdom
|
|||
|
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
|
14
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
FACING LIFE FEARLESSLY
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
With rue my heart is laden;
|
|||
|
|
For golden friends I had,
|
|||
|
|
For many a rose-lipt maiden
|
|||
|
|
And many a lightfoot lad.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
By brooks too broad for leading
|
|||
|
|
The lightfoot boys are laid,
|
|||
|
|
The rose-lipt girls are sleeping
|
|||
|
|
In fields where raises fade.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
That is sad, isn't it? But it is beautiful.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
I remember once, years and years ago, reading Olive
|
|||
|
|
Schreiner's Story of an African farm, in which she describes the
|
|||
|
|
simple Boers of South Africa, with their sorrows and their
|
|||
|
|
pleasures. She used this expression: which it took me some time to
|
|||
|
|
understand, in describing pain and pleasure: "There is a depth of
|
|||
|
|
emotion so broad and deep that pain and pleasure are the same."
|
|||
|
|
They are the same, and I think they find their meeting in beauty.
|
|||
|
|
The beauty, even if it is painful, is still beauty. You find the
|
|||
|
|
meeting of pain and pleasure, and you can hardly distinguish
|
|||
|
|
between the two emotions.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Housman knew it; he knew how to do it. Here is his idea of the
|
|||
|
|
young lad who dies: not passes on -- passes off. He dies:
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Now hollow fires burn out to black
|
|||
|
|
And lights are guttering low:
|
|||
|
|
Square your shoulders, lift your pack,
|
|||
|
|
And leave your friends and go.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Oh never fear man, nought's to dread,
|
|||
|
|
Look not left or right:
|
|||
|
|
In all the endless road you tread
|
|||
|
|
There's nothing but the night.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Does it bring you painful or pleasurable emotions? It is
|
|||
|
|
beautiful; it is profound; it is deep. To me the painful and
|
|||
|
|
pleasurable are blended in the beauty, and I think the two may be
|
|||
|
|
one.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Housman, as I have said, is the only one I know who wrote a
|
|||
|
|
poem of pessimism; and this, like all of his, is very short, and I
|
|||
|
|
will read it. Somebody else may have written one; but Housman
|
|||
|
|
carries the philosophy of pessimism into poetry, perhaps the
|
|||
|
|
philosophy that I have given you. This poem is supposed to be
|
|||
|
|
introduced by somebody who complains of Housman's dark, almost
|
|||
|
|
tragical verses. For in every line that he ever wrote there is no
|
|||
|
|
let down. He is like Hardy; he never hauled down the flag. Life to
|
|||
|
|
him was what he saw; what the world saw meant nothing. This was the
|
|||
|
|
view in all of Housman's work. In all of his work there is not one
|
|||
|
|
false note; and when I say a false note I mean one that is not in
|
|||
|
|
tune with the rest. This is his idea of pessimism in poetry:
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Bank of Wisdom
|
|||
|
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
|
15
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
FACING LIFE FEARLESSLY
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
"Terence this is stupid stuff:
|
|||
|
|
You eat your victuals fast enough;
|
|||
|
|
There can't be much amiss, 'tis clear,
|
|||
|
|
To see the rate you drink your beer.
|
|||
|
|
But oh, good Lord, the verse you make,
|
|||
|
|
It gives a chap the belly-ache.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
We poor lads, 'tis our turn now
|
|||
|
|
To hear such tunes as killed the cow.
|
|||
|
|
Pretty friendship 'tis to rhyme
|
|||
|
|
Your friends to death before their time
|
|||
|
|
Moping melancholy mad:
|
|||
|
|
Come, pipe a tune to dance to, lad."
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Why, if 'tis dancing you would be,
|
|||
|
|
There's brisker pipes than poetry.
|
|||
|
|
Say, for what were hop-yards meant,
|
|||
|
|
Or why was Burton built on Trent?
|
|||
|
|
Oh many a peer of England brews
|
|||
|
|
Livelier liquor than the Muse,
|
|||
|
|
And malt does more than Milton can
|
|||
|
|
To justify God's ways to man.
|
|||
|
|
Ale, man, ale's the stuff to drink
|
|||
|
|
For fellows whom it hurts to think:
|
|||
|
|
Look into the pewter pot
|
|||
|
|
To see the world as the world's not.
|
|||
|
|
And faith, 'tis pleasant till 'tis past:
|
|||
|
|
The mischief is that 'twill not last.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Oh I have been to Ludlow fair
|
|||
|
|
And left my necktie God knows where,
|
|||
|
|
And carried half way home, or near.
|
|||
|
|
Pints and quarts of Ludlow beer:
|
|||
|
|
Then the world seemed none so bad,
|
|||
|
|
And I myself a sterling lad;
|
|||
|
|
And down in lovely muck I've lain,
|
|||
|
|
Happy till I woke again.
|
|||
|
|
Then I saw the morning sky:
|
|||
|
|
Heigho, the tale was all a lie;
|
|||
|
|
The world it was the old world yet,
|
|||
|
|
I was I, my things were wet.
|
|||
|
|
And nothing now, remained to do
|
|||
|
|
But begin the game anew.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Therefore, since the world has still
|
|||
|
|
Much good, but much less good than Ill,
|
|||
|
|
And while the sun and moon endure
|
|||
|
|
Luck's a chance, but trouble's sure.
|
|||
|
|
I'd face it as a wise man would,
|
|||
|
|
And train for ill and not for good.
|
|||
|
|
'Tis true the stuff I bring for sale
|
|||
|
|
Is not so brisk a brew as ale:
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Out of a stem that scored the hand
|
|||
|
|
I wrung it in a weary land.
|
|||
|
|
But take it: if the smack is sour,
|
|||
|
|
The better for the embittered hour;
|
|||
|
|
It should do good to heart and head
|
|||
|
|
When your soul" is in my soul's stead;
|
|||
|
|
And I will friend you, if I may,
|
|||
|
|
In the dark and cloudy day.
|
|||
|
|
16
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
FACING LIFE FEARLESSLY
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
"Luck's a chance but trouble's sure." The moral of it is to
|
|||
|
|
"train for ill and not for good."
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
If I had my choice, I would not like to be an optimist, even
|
|||
|
|
assuming that people did not know that I was an idiot. I wouldn't
|
|||
|
|
want to be an optimist because when I fell I would fall such a
|
|||
|
|
terribly long way. The wise man trains for ill and not for good. He
|
|||
|
|
is sure he will need that training, and the other will take care of
|
|||
|
|
itself as it comes along.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Of course, life is not all pleasant: it is filled with
|
|||
|
|
tragedy. Housman has told us of it, and Omar Khayyam tells us of
|
|||
|
|
it. No man and no woman can live and forget death. However much
|
|||
|
|
they try. it is there, and it probably should be faced like
|
|||
|
|
anything else. Measured time is very short. Life, amongst other
|
|||
|
|
things, is full of futility.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Omar Khayyam understood, and Housman understood. There are
|
|||
|
|
other poets that have felt the same way. Omar Khayyam looked on the
|
|||
|
|
shortness of life and understood it. He pictured himself as here
|
|||
|
|
for a brief moment. He loved his friends; he loved companionship;
|
|||
|
|
he loved wine. I don't know how much of it he drank. He talked
|
|||
|
|
about it a lot. It might have symbolized more than it really meant
|
|||
|
|
to him. It has been a solace, all down through the ages. Not only
|
|||
|
|
that, but it has been the symbol of other things that mean as much
|
|||
|
|
-- the wine of life, the joy of living.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
**** ****
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
THE LORD'S DAY ALLIANCE
|
|||
|
|
by
|
|||
|
|
CLARENCE DARROW
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
This veteran of the Courts, who has spent fifty years tearing
|
|||
|
|
deserved holes in the law, takes and swings his priceless irony
|
|||
|
|
towards these professional Christians. When do we rest and when do
|
|||
|
|
we play? Apparently we don't. What Price salvation? it's not worth
|
|||
|
|
it.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Among the various societies that are engaged in the business
|
|||
|
|
of killing pleasure, the Lord's Day Alliance of New York deserves
|
|||
|
|
a place of honor. If any poor mortal is caught enjoying life on
|
|||
|
|
Sunday its agents gleefully hie themselves to the nearest
|
|||
|
|
legislature and urge a law to stop the fun. Their literature and
|
|||
|
|
periodicals tell very plainly the kind of business they are in.
|
|||
|
|
This association of crape-hangers seems to be especially interested
|
|||
|
|
in the State of New York, which contains about one-tenth of the
|
|||
|
|
population of the Union, and among them an unusually large number
|
|||
|
|
of foreigners and other heathen who have not been taught the proper
|
|||
|
|
regard for the sanctity of the Sabbath.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
The activities of this Alliance in New York still leave them
|
|||
|
|
ample time to watch the sinners in the other states and bring to
|
|||
|
|
book the wicked who are bent on having pleasure on the holy Sabbath
|
|||
|
|
Day. In their own language, the work is "In the interests of the
|
|||
|
|
preservation and promotion of the Lord's Day as the American
|
|||
|
|
Christian Sabbath ... to oppose all adverse measures seeking to
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Bank of Wisdom
|
|||
|
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
|
17
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
THE LORD'S DAY ALLIANCE
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
weaken the law and to seek the passage of such measures as would
|
|||
|
|
tend to strengthen it." The Alliance informs us that "in the last
|
|||
|
|
four years it has furnished sixty-seven addresses per month, on an
|
|||
|
|
average. During this time over three hundred and twenty institute
|
|||
|
|
meetings have been held for the study of the Sabbath question.
|
|||
|
|
Several million pages of literature have been distributed." it
|
|||
|
|
"also furnishes press articles and syndicate matter for the
|
|||
|
|
newspapers." Imagine an institute spending so much time in the
|
|||
|
|
study of the Sabbath question! If they have learned anything on
|
|||
|
|
that subject it is not revealed, in their tracts.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
These Lord's Day folk seek to protect the day "in the interest
|
|||
|
|
of the home and the church," "to exalt Jesus Christ who is Lord of
|
|||
|
|
the Sabbath Day and to spread the knowledge of the will of God that
|
|||
|
|
His Kingdom may come and His will may be done." Though the
|
|||
|
|
organization is still young it points to a long list of glorious
|
|||
|
|
achievements. We are informed that "no adverse measure affecting
|
|||
|
|
the Sabbath has passed at Albany during this time, although forty-
|
|||
|
|
two such measures have been introduced in the legislature. ... A
|
|||
|
|
representative of our organization has been present on each
|
|||
|
|
occasion to oppose all such adverse measures." It boasts that it
|
|||
|
|
"opposed the opening of the State Fair in 1925 on Sunday, by
|
|||
|
|
vigorous protest to the members of the Commission and the Attorney
|
|||
|
|
General." The result was a ruling from the Attorney General
|
|||
|
|
sustaining the law. Of course, so long as no one could go to the
|
|||
|
|
fair on Sunday the people were obliged to go to church. It "has
|
|||
|
|
defeated annually an average of forty commercial and anti-Sunday
|
|||
|
|
bills in our legislature and has brought about the closing of the
|
|||
|
|
First and Second Class Post Offices on Sunday. ... As a result,
|
|||
|
|
thousands are in our churches each Sunday." It has been thanked by
|
|||
|
|
President Coolidge for the services rendered hundreds of thousands
|
|||
|
|
of government employees in the District of Columbia and elsewhere
|
|||
|
|
throughout the nation." What further honor could anybody get on
|
|||
|
|
earth? It has "accepted the challenge and in scores of places
|
|||
|
|
defeated ... commercial amusement forces which have declared a
|
|||
|
|
nationwide fight to the finish for Sunday movies and are even
|
|||
|
|
proposing to enlist the aid of the churches in their unholy
|
|||
|
|
campaign." It succeeded in "changing the date of the gigantic air
|
|||
|
|
carnival to which admission was charged, from Sunday, August 2, to
|
|||
|
|
Saturday, August 1, 1925, held at Belling Field, Washington." No
|
|||
|
|
one but a parson has the right to charge for his performance on
|
|||
|
|
Sunday. Through its request "the War Department issued orders on
|
|||
|
|
November 2, 1925, covering every military Post in the United
|
|||
|
|
States, banning Sunday public air carnivals, and maneuvers." It is
|
|||
|
|
now leading a country-wide movement for the enactment of a Sunday
|
|||
|
|
rest law for the District of Columbia. Washington needs and must
|
|||
|
|
have a Sunday rest law." It informs us that the "day must be kept
|
|||
|
|
above the Dollar, Christ above Commercialism on the Lord's Day, the
|
|||
|
|
person must have the right of way over the Pocketbook on our
|
|||
|
|
American Sunday."
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Surely this is a great work and deserves the active support and
|
|||
|
|
sympathy of all people who are really interested in driving
|
|||
|
|
pleasure-seekers from golf grounds, automobile trips, baseball
|
|||
|
|
parks, moving-picture houses and every other form of pleasure on
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Bank of Wisdom
|
|||
|
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
|
18
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
THE LORD'S DAY ALLIANCE
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Sunday. It is possible that for lack of any other place to go, some
|
|||
|
|
of them might be compelled to park themselves in church. If America
|
|||
|
|
does not succeed in bringing back the ancient Puritan Sabbath with
|
|||
|
|
its manifold blessings, it will not be the fault of the Lord's Day
|
|||
|
|
Alliance.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
As a part of this noble work the organization publishes
|
|||
|
|
various pamphlets and leaflets and scatters them broadcast through
|
|||
|
|
the land. As a rule, these pamphlets are the effusions of more or
|
|||
|
|
less obscure parsons. These preachers have special knowledge of
|
|||
|
|
God's plans and God's will. Their sermonettes are conflicting in
|
|||
|
|
their statements and utterly senseless in their assertions. The
|
|||
|
|
sentries of the Alliance on guard at the state capitals and in the
|
|||
|
|
national Congress, while these wise bodies are in session, have no
|
|||
|
|
doubt succeeded in coercing spineless members of legislative bodies
|
|||
|
|
to yield to their will and their parade of votes; and thus spread
|
|||
|
|
considerable gloom over the United States on the Sabbath Day.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
These Lord's Day Alliance gentlemen are not only religious but
|
|||
|
|
scientific. For instance, they publish a pamphlet written by one
|
|||
|
|
Dr. A. Haegler, of Basle, Switzerland, in which he says that
|
|||
|
|
experiments have shown that during a day's work a laborer expends
|
|||
|
|
more oxygen than he can inhale. True, he catches up with a large
|
|||
|
|
part of this deficiency through the night time, but does not regain
|
|||
|
|
it all. It follows, of course, that if he keeps on working six days
|
|||
|
|
a week, for the same time each day, he will be out a considerable
|
|||
|
|
amount of oxygen, and the only way he can make it up is to take a
|
|||
|
|
day off on Sunday and go to church. This statement seems to be
|
|||
|
|
flawless to the powerful intellects who put out this literature.
|
|||
|
|
Any person who is in the habit of thinking might at once arrive at
|
|||
|
|
the conclusion that if the workman could not take in enough oxygen
|
|||
|
|
gas in the ordinary hours of work and sleep he might well cut down
|
|||
|
|
his day's work and lengthen his sleep and thus start even every
|
|||
|
|
morning. This ought to be better than running on a shortage of gas
|
|||
|
|
all through the week. Likewise, it must occur to most people that
|
|||
|
|
there are no two kinds of labor that consume the same amount of
|
|||
|
|
oxygen gas per day, and probably no two human systems that work
|
|||
|
|
exactly alike. Then, too, if the workman ran behind on his oxygen
|
|||
|
|
gas in the days when men worked from ten to sixteen hours a day he
|
|||
|
|
might break even at night, since working hours have been reduced to
|
|||
|
|
eight or less, with a Saturday half-holiday thrown in. It might
|
|||
|
|
even help the situation to raise the bedroom window at night. These
|
|||
|
|
matters, of course, do not occur to the eminent doctor who wrote
|
|||
|
|
the pamphlet and the scientific gentlemen who send it out. To them
|
|||
|
|
the silly statement proves that a man needs to take a day off on
|
|||
|
|
Sunday and attend church in order that he may catch up on his
|
|||
|
|
oxygen. To them it is perfectly plain that for catching up on
|
|||
|
|
oxygen the church has a great advantage over the golf links or the
|
|||
|
|
baseball park, or any other place where the wicked wish to go. This
|
|||
|
|
in spite of the fact that in crowded buildings the oxygen might be
|
|||
|
|
mixed with halitosis.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
The exact proof that these patrons marshal for showing that
|
|||
|
|
the need of a Sunday rest is manifest in the nature of things is
|
|||
|
|
marvelous. If the need of Sunday rest was meant to be shown by
|
|||
|
|
natural law it seems as if this should have been clearly indicated,
|
|||
|
|
especially if the righteous God had determined to punish Sunday.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Bank of Wisdom
|
|||
|
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
|
19
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
THE LORD'S DAY ALLIANCE
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
violations with death and hell. There was no reason why the Creator
|
|||
|
|
should have been content to leave the proof to a revelation said to
|
|||
|
|
have been made in a barbarous age to an unknown man, hidden in the
|
|||
|
|
clouds on the top of a high mountain peak. humans would not have
|
|||
|
|
graven such an important message on a tablet of stone and then
|
|||
|
|
insisted that the tablet should be destroyed before any being
|
|||
|
|
except Moses had set eye upon it. Even God should not ask for faith
|
|||
|
|
that amounts to credulity and gross superstition.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
A deity could have written the Sabbath requirements plain on
|
|||
|
|
the face of nature. For instance, he might have made the waves be
|
|||
|
|
still on the seventh day of the week; the grass might have taken a
|
|||
|
|
day off and rested from growing until Monday morning; the wild
|
|||
|
|
animals of the forest and glen might have refrained from fighting
|
|||
|
|
and eating and chasing and maiming and have been made to close
|
|||
|
|
their eyes on the Sabbath Day, and to have kept peace and
|
|||
|
|
tranquillity. The earth might have paused in its course around the
|
|||
|
|
sun or stood still on its axis. It should have been as important to
|
|||
|
|
make this gesture in homage of the day as it was to help Joshua
|
|||
|
|
hold the sun in leash that a battle might be prolonged. If nature
|
|||
|
|
had made plain provision for the Sabbath Day it would be patent to
|
|||
|
|
others as well as to the medicine men who insist that the Sabbath
|
|||
|
|
Day was made for their profit alone.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
But let us pass from the realm of science, where pastors never
|
|||
|
|
did especially shine, into a field where they are more likely to
|
|||
|
|
excel. Here it is fairly easy to see what it is all about. The
|
|||
|
|
Reverend McQuilkin, Pastor at Orange, New Jersey, furnishes a
|
|||
|
|
pamphlet for The Lord's Day Alliance. Read what the Doctor says:
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
God claims the Sabbath for himself in a very unique,
|
|||
|
|
distinctive way as a day of rest and worship. He again and
|
|||
|
|
again commands you to spend its hours in the conservation of
|
|||
|
|
our spiritual power in the exercise of public and private
|
|||
|
|
worship. To spend this holy day in pleasure or unnecessary
|
|||
|
|
secular labor is to rob God. We have got to be careful how we
|
|||
|
|
take the hours of the Sabbath for secular study or work, for
|
|||
|
|
God will surely bring us to judgment concerning the matter.
|
|||
|
|
Church attendance is a definite obligation, a debt which we
|
|||
|
|
owe to God.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Here is where the Alliance seems to strike pay dirt! What
|
|||
|
|
reason has God to Claim the Sabbath for Himself, and why is God
|
|||
|
|
robbed if a man should work on Sunday? It can hardly be possible
|
|||
|
|
that the puny insects that we call men could disturb God in His
|
|||
|
|
Sunday rest. Is it not a little presumptuous even to parsons, to
|
|||
|
|
say that a debt to the church is a debt to God?
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
To emphasize the importance of leaving the Sabbath to the
|
|||
|
|
preachers, we are warned of the fate of the sinner who profanes the
|
|||
|
|
Sabbath by work or play. The Lords Day Alliance has issued a little
|
|||
|
|
folder on which there is the following heading in large letters:
|
|||
|
|
THE IMPORTANCE OF THE DEATH PENALTY. Under it is printed this
|
|||
|
|
timely caution: "Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh
|
|||
|
|
day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, holy to Jehovah; whosoever doeth
|
|||
|
|
any work on the Sabbath Day shall surely be put to death. Ex.
|
|||
|
|
31-35." The pamphlet also states that a wealthy business man is
|
|||
|
|
furnishing the money for the distribution of this sheet. If this
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Bank of Wisdom
|
|||
|
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
|
20
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
THE LORD'S DAY ALLIANCE
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
barbarous statement represents the views of the Lord's Day Alliance
|
|||
|
|
then what is the mental caliber of the Congressmen, members of the
|
|||
|
|
legislatures, judges, and the public that are influenced by their
|
|||
|
|
ravings? Can anyone but an idiot have any feeling but contempt for
|
|||
|
|
men who seek to scare children and old women with such infamous
|
|||
|
|
stuff?
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Let us see what the Bible says on this important subject. In
|
|||
|
|
Exodus 19: 8-12 we find not only the commandment which was
|
|||
|
|
delivered to Moses in reference to the Sabbath, but the reasons for
|
|||
|
|
such a commandment:
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy. Six days shalt
|
|||
|
|
thou labor and do all thy work; but the seventh day is the
|
|||
|
|
Sabbath of the Lord thy God. In it thou shalt do no work,
|
|||
|
|
thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy man servant nor
|
|||
|
|
thy maid servant nor the cattle which is within thy gates; for
|
|||
|
|
in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sun and all
|
|||
|
|
that is in them and rested the seventh day, wherefore the Lord
|
|||
|
|
blessed the Sabbath Day and hallowed it.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
It is plain from this commandment that the Sabbath was not
|
|||
|
|
instituted in obedience to any natural law or so that man might
|
|||
|
|
catch up on his supply of oxygen, but because the Lord in six days
|
|||
|
|
had performed the herculean task of creating the universe out of
|
|||
|
|
nothing. Therefore, every man must rest on the seventh, no matter
|
|||
|
|
whether he has been working and is tired or not. This is made even
|
|||
|
|
more binding in Exodus 35: 2:
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Six days shall work be done, upon the seventh day there
|
|||
|
|
shall be to you a holy day, the Sabbath of the rest of the
|
|||
|
|
Lord. Whosoever doeth work therein shall be put to death.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
In view of the commands of God, certainly his special agents
|
|||
|
|
on the earth cannot be blamed for cruelty, no matter what ferocious
|
|||
|
|
doctrine they may preach. In Numbers 28: 9-10 in connection with
|
|||
|
|
various offerings that the Law required on the Sabbath, a provision
|
|||
|
|
is made for meat offerings and drink offerings. The meat offerings
|
|||
|
|
enjoin the sacrifice of lambs by fire as "a sweet savor unto the
|
|||
|
|
Lord," and then the Lord provides that the pastor shall further:
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Sacrifice on the Sabbath Day two lambs of the first year
|
|||
|
|
without spot and two-tenths of a part of an ephah of fine
|
|||
|
|
flour for a meal-offering, mingled with oil and the drink
|
|||
|
|
offering thereof: this is the burnt-offering of every Sabbath,
|
|||
|
|
besides the continual burnt-offering and his drink offering.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
It is evident that the lambs less than one year old, without
|
|||
|
|
spot, were to be burned because they were so young and innocent and
|
|||
|
|
would therefore make such a "sweet savor unto the Lord." Nothing is
|
|||
|
|
lacking in this smell but mint sauce. If Moses's to be obeyed on
|
|||
|
|
pain of hell in his command to abstain from work or play on the
|
|||
|
|
Sabbath why is the rest of the program any less sacred? How can the
|
|||
|
|
holy parsons release their congregations from the sacrifice of the
|
|||
|
|
two spotless lambs and the two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour
|
|||
|
|
mingled with oils?
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Bank of Wisdom
|
|||
|
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
|
21
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
THE LORD'S DAY ALLIANCE
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
In the Fifteenth Chapter of Numbers, it is related that while
|
|||
|
|
the children of Israel were in the wilderness they found a man
|
|||
|
|
gathering sticks on the Sabbath Day. The Hebrews were evidently at
|
|||
|
|
a loss to know what should be done with him for this most heinous
|
|||
|
|
offense, so they put him in "ward" to await the further orders of
|
|||
|
|
the Lord. It is then related, "and the Lord said unto Moses: The
|
|||
|
|
man shall surely he pat to death; all the congregation shall stone
|
|||
|
|
him with stones without the camp. And all the congregation brought
|
|||
|
|
him without the camp and stoned him to death with stones: as
|
|||
|
|
Jehovah commanded Moses." In spite of manifold texts like this
|
|||
|
|
there are persons who protest that they love this bloody,
|
|||
|
|
barbarous, tribal God of the Jews. The literature of the Alliance
|
|||
|
|
clearly indicates that its sponsors would follow this command of
|
|||
|
|
Jehovah at the present time if they could only have their way.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Dr. McQuilkin further tells us that the defenders of the day
|
|||
|
|
have often been too superficial in their contentions on behalf of
|
|||
|
|
this holy Sabbath; that they should soft-pedal the "thou shalt
|
|||
|
|
nots" and "we should thunder our 'thou shalts' into the ears of the
|
|||
|
|
foolish, wicked men who for the sake of pleasure or financial
|
|||
|
|
profit would rob their fellow men or themselves of the precious
|
|||
|
|
rest God had given them for the cultivation and nurture of their
|
|||
|
|
immortal souls." "Such men," he continues, "must be identified with
|
|||
|
|
murderers and suicides." The common punishment for murder is death,
|
|||
|
|
and suicide is death, therefore Dr. McQuilkin, with the rest of his
|
|||
|
|
associates and with his God, believes in the death penalty for
|
|||
|
|
working or playing on the Sabbath.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
How one involuntarily loves this righteous Dr. McQuilkin of
|
|||
|
|
Orange, New Jersey. He must be a man whose love and understanding
|
|||
|
|
oozes from every pore of his body. No doubt the people of Orange
|
|||
|
|
who are burdened with sorrow or sin bring their sore troubles and
|
|||
|
|
lay them on his loving breast. I am sure that little children in
|
|||
|
|
their grief rush to his outstretched arms for solace and relief.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
The Reverend Doctor McQuilkin makes short work of the idea
|
|||
|
|
that you cannot make people good by law. In fact, that seems to him
|
|||
|
|
to be the only way to make them good. Therefore people and
|
|||
|
|
enterprises that commercialize Sundays by baseball games and moving
|
|||
|
|
pictures, who "whine about the impossibility of making people good
|
|||
|
|
by law, ought to go either to school or to jail." Probably the
|
|||
|
|
pastor would be in favor of the Jail. The Reverend Doctor is very
|
|||
|
|
much exercised about his idea that the Sabbath should be spent in
|
|||
|
|
cultivating our "spiritual nature." From the gentle and kindly
|
|||
|
|
character of the doctor's utterances, one judges that he must spend
|
|||
|
|
several days a week cultivating his "spiritual nature."
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
The godly doctor is indeed earnest about the church-going. He
|
|||
|
|
says, "God will surely bring us to judgment in the matter of
|
|||
|
|
staying away from church, for church attendance is a definite
|
|||
|
|
obligation, a debt which we owe to God." The doctor has a naive way
|
|||
|
|
of mixing up himself and his private business affairs with the
|
|||
|
|
Lord.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Bank of Wisdom
|
|||
|
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
|
22
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
THE LORD'S DAY ALLIANCE
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Could it be possible that the Reverend Doctor McQuilkin's
|
|||
|
|
serious case of rabies might be due to vacant pews? Such cases are
|
|||
|
|
related in the following extract from a very disheartening
|
|||
|
|
paragraph put out by the Lord's Day Alliance in a folder entitled
|
|||
|
|
"Let's Save Our American Christian Sabbath."
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
A significant part of this falling away from old American
|
|||
|
|
ideals has been the neglect of the churches -- life among
|
|||
|
|
Christian people dropping to a lower plane on Sunday. The lure
|
|||
|
|
of pleasure and the drift to seven-day slavery within a few
|
|||
|
|
years have utterly changed the character of the day. The,
|
|||
|
|
average attendance at Sunday morning services, taken for all
|
|||
|
|
the churches of New York State -- counting large city churches
|
|||
|
|
as well as small country ones -- has steadily dropped until it
|
|||
|
|
has now reached only fifty-three persons. This amounts to but
|
|||
|
|
little more than one-fourth of their total enrolled
|
|||
|
|
membership! The old days of tithes are gone. Lack of support
|
|||
|
|
is making the situation more and more critical and many
|
|||
|
|
churches have had to be abandoned. Is the church to survive?
|
|||
|
|
Are we to remain a Christian nation?
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
This is indeed distressing. I can well imagine the feeling of
|
|||
|
|
chagrin that steals over the parson when he talks to fifty persons
|
|||
|
|
on Sunday morning. Here are the few parishioners, solemn-visaged
|
|||
|
|
and sitting impatiently in their pews while a joyous crowd rolls by
|
|||
|
|
in automobiles on their road to hell. I cannot help thinking of the
|
|||
|
|
parson on a Sunday morning, telling the same story over and over
|
|||
|
|
again to his half hundred listeners.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
I have seen this pastor and this congregation in the country
|
|||
|
|
church and the city church. What have they in common with the world
|
|||
|
|
today? Who are these faithful fifty? One-third of them, at least,
|
|||
|
|
are little boys and girls twisting and turning and yawning and
|
|||
|
|
fussing in their stiff, uncomfortable clothes, in the hard church
|
|||
|
|
pews. Then there are the usual fat old women, wearing their Sunday
|
|||
|
|
finery. Their faces are dull and heavy and altogether unlovely.
|
|||
|
|
They no longer think of the world; they are looking straight into
|
|||
|
|
space at the Promised Land. They hold a hymn book or a Bible in
|
|||
|
|
their time-worn hands. Perhaps there are ten full grown men in
|
|||
|
|
church; two or three of these look consumptive; one or two are
|
|||
|
|
merchants who think that being at church will help them sell
|
|||
|
|
prunes; the rest are old and tottering. It has been long years
|
|||
|
|
since a new thought or even an old one has found lodgment in their
|
|||
|
|
atrophied brains. They are, decrepit and palsied and done; so far
|
|||
|
|
as life and the world are concerned, they are already dead. One
|
|||
|
|
feels sympathetic toward the old. But why should the aged, who have
|
|||
|
|
lived their lives, grumble and complain about youth with its
|
|||
|
|
glow and ambition and hope? Why should they sit in the fading light
|
|||
|
|
and watch the world go by and vainly reach out their bony hands to
|
|||
|
|
hold it back?
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Aside from the Lord's Day Alliance's way of appealing to the
|
|||
|
|
law to make people go to church, I can think of only two plans to
|
|||
|
|
fill the pews. First, to abandon a large number of the churches and
|
|||
|
|
give the parsons a chance to find some useful and paying job.
|
|||
|
|
Secondly, to get more up-to-date, human and intelligent preachers
|
|||
|
|
into the church pulpits.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Bank of Wisdom
|
|||
|
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
|
23
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
THE LORD'S DAY ALLIANCE
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
The literature issued by the Alliance shows great concern
|
|||
|
|
about Sunday newspapers. These papers consume a great deal of
|
|||
|
|
valuable time on the Sabbath Day. They are in no way the proper
|
|||
|
|
literature for Sunday reading. Automobile trips, too, are an
|
|||
|
|
abomination on the Sabbath. One pamphlet records approval of the
|
|||
|
|
conduct of the "venerable" John D. Paton who even refused to use
|
|||
|
|
street-cars on Sunday while visiting America. He kept his
|
|||
|
|
appointments by long walks, sometimes even having to run between
|
|||
|
|
engagements. This sounds to me strangely like work. Still it might
|
|||
|
|
have been necessary in order to get the proper amount of oxygen
|
|||
|
|
gas.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Playing golf on Sunday is a sacrilegious practice. A whole
|
|||
|
|
leaflet is prepared by Dr. Jefferson on golf. "No one ought to play
|
|||
|
|
golf on Sunday. ... The golf player may need oxygen but he should
|
|||
|
|
not forget his caddie." The doctor calls our attention to the fact
|
|||
|
|
that men in the days of Moses were mindful of even the least of
|
|||
|
|
these. How our parsons do love Moses and his murderous laws! We are
|
|||
|
|
told that a caddie works, that it is not play to trudge after a
|
|||
|
|
golf ball with a bag of clubs on his back. The leaflets say that
|
|||
|
|
the caddie does not work on Sunday for fun but, for money, and it
|
|||
|
|
"isn't a manly thing for the golf player to hire him to work on
|
|||
|
|
Sunday." We are told that "there are now over one hundred thousand
|
|||
|
|
caddies on the golf links every Sunday. These caddies are making a
|
|||
|
|
living." Of course this picture is pathetic. It is too bad that the
|
|||
|
|
Lord's Day Alliance cannot get these hundred thousand caddies
|
|||
|
|
discharged. Then possibly some of them would go to Church on
|
|||
|
|
Sunday. They might even drop a nickel in the contribution box.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Does anyone believe that if the caddies were offered the same
|
|||
|
|
money for going to church that they get for hunting golf balls they
|
|||
|
|
would choose the church? It takes a bright boy to be a caddie.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
The caddies do not inspire all the tears; we are told that
|
|||
|
|
Chauffeurs and railroad employees are necessary to take the players
|
|||
|
|
to and from the golf links. This is no doubt true. Still, we have
|
|||
|
|
even seen chauffeurs sitting in automobiles outside a Church where
|
|||
|
|
they had driven their employers to get their souls saved. On our
|
|||
|
|
suburban railroads there are many trains put in service on Sunday
|
|||
|
|
to take people to and from church, but these have not come under
|
|||
|
|
the ban of the Lord's Day Alliance. Its complaint is that so few
|
|||
|
|
trains are needed for this blessed work.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
There is some logic in this folder. We are told that "if golf
|
|||
|
|
is allowable on Sunday, then, so is tennis, baseball basketball,
|
|||
|
|
football, bowling and all other games which our generation is fond
|
|||
|
|
of." "You can't forbid one without forbidding the others," says the
|
|||
|
|
Alliance. We heartily agree with the Reverend Doctor on this
|
|||
|
|
particular question.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
No one needs to go to ball games or movies or play golf on
|
|||
|
|
Sunday unless he wants to spend his time that way. I have never
|
|||
|
|
seen anybody who objected to the members of the Lord's Day Alliance
|
|||
|
|
or any others from abstaining from all kinds of work and all sorts
|
|||
|
|
of play and every method of enjoyment on Sunday.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Bank of Wisdom
|
|||
|
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
|
24
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
THE LORD'S DAY ALLIANCE
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Dr. Robert E. Speer of Englewood, New Jersey, is very definite
|
|||
|
|
and specific as to the proper way to spend Sunday and the sort of
|
|||
|
|
recreation man should naturally enjoy on this holy day. Dr. Speer,
|
|||
|
|
says, "God wants the worship of the Lord's Day and he wants us to
|
|||
|
|
have the indispensable comforts and pleasure of It." One would
|
|||
|
|
think that Dr. Speer got daily messages from God. "We need the day
|
|||
|
|
for meditation and prayer and plans for better living." No one
|
|||
|
|
questions the good doctor's right to satisfy his needs in such way
|
|||
|
|
as seems necessary and pleasurable for him. All that I contend for
|
|||
|
|
is that I, too, shall decide these questions for myself.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Dr. Speer says:
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
There are some things deadly in their power to spoil it
|
|||
|
|
(referring to the Sabbath). One is the Sunday newspapers. I
|
|||
|
|
pass by all that may be denounced as defiling in it. ... There
|
|||
|
|
is harm enough in its "wallow of secularity." ... Look at the
|
|||
|
|
men who feed their minds and souls on Sunday with this food.
|
|||
|
|
They miss the calm and holy peace, the glowing divinity of the
|
|||
|
|
day,
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
It is just conceivable that one might read a Sunday newspaper
|
|||
|
|
and still have time for "the glowing divinity of the day," to glow
|
|||
|
|
long enough to satisfy every desire.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Dr. Speer condemns those who berate the quality of the sermons
|
|||
|
|
preached on Sunday and informs us that the wisest man can learn
|
|||
|
|
something from the poorest preacher, although he neglects to say
|
|||
|
|
Just what. He tells us that a country preacher's sermon is superior
|
|||
|
|
to the country editor's writings or the country lawyer's speeches.
|
|||
|
|
This may be true. It is, at all events, true to Dr. Speer and there
|
|||
|
|
is no reason in the world why he should not hunt up the "poorest
|
|||
|
|
Preacher" that he can find and listen to him on every Sunday. No
|
|||
|
|
doubt Dr. Speer might learn something from him.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Dr. Speer disapproves of riding on railroad trains on Sunday
|
|||
|
|
if it can be avoided. "Certainly no one should take long railroad
|
|||
|
|
journeys on Sunday." He tells us, "Sunday golf, newspapers, and all
|
|||
|
|
that sort of thing are bad and weakening in their influence. There
|
|||
|
|
are particular evidence of the trend of the man who thus abandons
|
|||
|
|
his birthright." The doctor is more definite in his beautiful
|
|||
|
|
picture of just what one ought to do on the Sabbath Day. On this
|
|||
|
|
subject he says:
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
I do not believe that anyone who grew up in a truly
|
|||
|
|
Christian home in which the old ideas prevailed can have any
|
|||
|
|
sympathy with this modern abuse of the old-fashioned
|
|||
|
|
observance of Sunday. There, on Sunday, the demands of the
|
|||
|
|
week were laid aside. The family gathered over the Bible and
|
|||
|
|
the Catechism. There was a quiet calm through the house.
|
|||
|
|
Innumerable things rendered it a marked day, as distinct from
|
|||
|
|
other days, and probably it ended with a rare walk with the
|
|||
|
|
father at the son's side and some sober talk over what is
|
|||
|
|
abiding and what is of eternal worth.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Bank of Wisdom
|
|||
|
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
|
25
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
THE LORD'S DAY ALLIANCE
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
We could hazard a guess that the reason that the mother was
|
|||
|
|
not present on this joyful occasion was because she was at home
|
|||
|
|
washing the dishes from a big Sunday dinner that she had prepared.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
It is entirely possible that Dr. Speer's picture of the ideal
|
|||
|
|
Sabbath is a good picture. Doubtless it is good to him. Still,
|
|||
|
|
hidden in my mind and recalled by Dr. Speer's alluring language, is
|
|||
|
|
the memory of his ideal Presbyterian Sunday. This was a day of
|
|||
|
|
unmitigated pain. No spirit or life or joy relieved the boredom and
|
|||
|
|
torture of the endless hours. The day meant misery to all the
|
|||
|
|
young. Even now I can feel the blank despair that overcame youth
|
|||
|
|
and hope as we children left our play on Saturday night and sadly
|
|||
|
|
watched the sun go down and the period of gloom steal across the
|
|||
|
|
world. Why should Dr. Speer and the other dead seek to force that
|
|||
|
|
sort of a Sabbath upon men and women who want to take in their
|
|||
|
|
oxygen gas in the baseball bleachers, or the golf links?
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
From Dr. Speer's picture of the ideal Sabbath I infer that he
|
|||
|
|
is a Presbyterian. This opinion has been confirmed by reference to
|
|||
|
|
Who's Who. I find that for long years he has been a Presbyterian
|
|||
|
|
preacher, not only in America, but be has carried the blessed
|
|||
|
|
gospel even into China that the heathen of that benighted land
|
|||
|
|
might not live and die without the consoling knowledge of eternal
|
|||
|
|
hell.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Dr. Speer's beautiful picture of the old-time Christian
|
|||
|
|
Sabbath describes "the family gathered over the Bible and the
|
|||
|
|
Catechism." I, too, sat under the ministrations of a Presbyterian
|
|||
|
|
preacher and was duly instructed in the Westminster Catechism. In
|
|||
|
|
spite of the aversion and terror that its reference inspired, I
|
|||
|
|
took down the book to read once more the horrible creed of the
|
|||
|
|
twisted and deformed minds who produced this monstrosity which has
|
|||
|
|
neither sense, meaning, justice nor Mercy, but only malignant
|
|||
|
|
depravity. A devilish creed which shocks every tender sentiment of
|
|||
|
|
the human mind. I am inclined to think from their internal evidence
|
|||
|
|
that most of the sermonettes circulated by the Lord's Day Alliance
|
|||
|
|
had their origin in the warped minds of the Presbyterian clergy. I
|
|||
|
|
would hazard a bet that the tender, gentle, loving Dr. McQuilkin is
|
|||
|
|
a Presbyterian I sought to confirm this belief by consulting Who's
|
|||
|
|
Who, but found that the editors had stupidly left out his name.
|
|||
|
|
Still I am convinced that he is a Presbyterian.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
In this ancient Westminster Catechism which few men read I
|
|||
|
|
quote question and answer number sixty:
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Question: How is the Sabbath to be sanctified?
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Answer: The Sabbath is to be sanctified by a holy resting
|
|||
|
|
all that day, even from such worldly employments and
|
|||
|
|
recreations as are lawful on other days; and spending the
|
|||
|
|
whole time in public and private exercises of God's worship,
|
|||
|
|
except so much as is to be taken up in the works of necessity
|
|||
|
|
and mercy.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Small wonder that these croakers should seek to call children
|
|||
|
|
from joy and laughter to spend "the whole time in public and
|
|||
|
|
private exercises of God's worship." The wonder is not that these
|
|||
|
|
Divines should seek to place their palled hands upon the youth but
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Bank of Wisdom
|
|||
|
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
|
26
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
THE LORD'S DAY ALLIANCE
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
that an intelligent people, who really do not worship a God of
|
|||
|
|
malignancy and hate, would ever let these lovers of darkness invade
|
|||
|
|
a legislative body. They have no more place in the sunlight and
|
|||
|
|
pure air than croaking frogs and hooting owls. Here is the first
|
|||
|
|
question and answer in this wondrous catechism:
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Question: What is the chief end of man?
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Answer: Man's chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy
|
|||
|
|
Him forever.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
What sort of a God is this in which these parsons believe? A
|
|||
|
|
God who can find no other work for man and no other use for the
|
|||
|
|
emotions that nature placed in him, except to spend his life in
|
|||
|
|
glorifying his maker? Imagine taking a child from play and the life
|
|||
|
|
and activity that nature has made necessary for its being, and
|
|||
|
|
seeking to make him understand something that no preacher can
|
|||
|
|
possibly comprehend.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Again, as to the simple nature of the Godhead, the catechism
|
|||
|
|
says: "There are three persons in the God-head; the Father, the Son
|
|||
|
|
and the Holy Ghost; and these three are one God, the same in
|
|||
|
|
substance, equal in power and glory." Imagine a family spending the
|
|||
|
|
whole Sabbath unravelling a mystery like this. It is evident that
|
|||
|
|
any child whose mind has been permanently twisted by this wondrous
|
|||
|
|
logic would later be found visiting legislative bodies and
|
|||
|
|
imploring them to pass laws to blot the sun from the sky on the
|
|||
|
|
Sabbath Day.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Here is Number 7:
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Question: What are the decrees of God?
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Answer: The decrees of God are His eternal purpose
|
|||
|
|
according to the counsel of His will, where-by, for His own
|
|||
|
|
glory, He has fore-ordained whatsoever comes to pass.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
After the child had been made to thoroughly understand how to
|
|||
|
|
harmonize freedom and responsibility of man with the statement that
|
|||
|
|
God had foreordained whatever comes to pass, he might then on pain
|
|||
|
|
of hell tackle number 8:
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Question: What is the work of creation?
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Answer: The work of the creation is God's making all
|
|||
|
|
things of nothing, by word of His power, in the space if six
|
|||
|
|
days, and all very good.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Any child could understand how God, as the catechism says, is
|
|||
|
|
a "spirit" and could make all things out of nothing, Himself
|
|||
|
|
included. God's justice to man is lucidly explained in the
|
|||
|
|
Westminster Catechism which tells the Sabbath Day student that "the
|
|||
|
|
sin whereby our first parents fell from the estate wherein they
|
|||
|
|
were created, was their eating the forbidden fruit."
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Question 16 and answer make this a living issue:
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Question: Did all mankind fall in Adam's first
|
|||
|
|
transgression?
|
|||
|
|
Bank of Wisdom
|
|||
|
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
|
27
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
THE LORD'S DAY ALLIANCE
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Answer: The covenant being made with Adam, not only for
|
|||
|
|
himself, but for his posterity, all mankind descending from
|
|||
|
|
him by ordinary generation, sinned in him, and fell with him,
|
|||
|
|
in his first transgression.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
The answer to the seventeenth question says: "The fall brought
|
|||
|
|
mankind into an estate of sin and misery."
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
There are thousands of generations between the first man, if
|
|||
|
|
there ever was one, and the boy who likes activity and play on the
|
|||
|
|
Sabbath Day. Unless the boy is perverse and wicked he should
|
|||
|
|
understand the justice of being condemned to an estate of sin and
|
|||
|
|
misery because Adam made a covenant, not only for himself, but for
|
|||
|
|
all his posterity. It is not worth while to quote further from the
|
|||
|
|
Westminster Catechism. This brutal creed runs on for 107 questions
|
|||
|
|
and answers. And this is the shorter catechism!
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
It is amazing to think that any human being with ordinary
|
|||
|
|
intelligence would accept such doctrine now. It is still more
|
|||
|
|
amazing that in spite of the brazen effrontery of the Lord's Day
|
|||
|
|
Alliance, legislative bodies should help to enforce such teaching
|
|||
|
|
upon the young. But even this is not sufficiently terrible for a
|
|||
|
|
Sabbath Day diversion. In answer to Question 19 we are told, "All
|
|||
|
|
mankind, by their fall lost communion with God, are under His wrath
|
|||
|
|
and curse and so made liable to all the miseries in this life, to
|
|||
|
|
death itself, and to the pains of hell forever." Of coarse, no one
|
|||
|
|
would believe this today except on fear of eternal torture. Does
|
|||
|
|
the fear never enter the minds of those parsons that God might
|
|||
|
|
punish them eternally for believing that He is such a monster?
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
When one thinks of this organization with its senseless
|
|||
|
|
leaflets, its stern endeavors, its blank despair, its half-shut
|
|||
|
|
eyes blinking at life, one is reminded of the frogs in the green
|
|||
|
|
scum-covered pond in the woods who sit on their haunches in the
|
|||
|
|
dark and croak all day. No doubt these frogs believe that the germ
|
|||
|
|
infested pond is a sacred pool. They are oblivious of the rolling,
|
|||
|
|
living ocean that lies just beyond.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Dr. Speer, like the other members of the Lord's Day Alliance,
|
|||
|
|
is very sure that one of the chief occupations of Sunday should be
|
|||
|
|
attending church. Bat what church, pray? We are informed that any
|
|||
|
|
preacher is better to listen to and read from than any Editor,
|
|||
|
|
lawyer or other person, Most of us have heard all sorts of
|
|||
|
|
preachers. We have listened to some whose churches could only be
|
|||
|
|
filled if the lard's Day Alliance should succeed and make it an
|
|||
|
|
offense punishable by death not to go to church. We have heard
|
|||
|
|
preachers who had something to say and could say it well, There is
|
|||
|
|
as much difference in the views and ability of preachers as in
|
|||
|
|
other men. Would Dr. Speer think that we should go to hear the
|
|||
|
|
Fundamentalists or the Unitarians? Should we listen to the Holy
|
|||
|
|
Rollers or the Modernists?
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
There are few men outside of the Lord's Day Alliance who would
|
|||
|
|
care to listen to their favorite preacher for a full day and there
|
|||
|
|
are few preachers who would undertake to talk for a whole day.
|
|||
|
|
What, then, must one do for the rest of the time? One simply cannot
|
|||
|
|
sleep all day on Sunday.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Bank of Wisdom
|
|||
|
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
|
28
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
THE LORD'S DAY ALLIANCE
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
In all this literature we are constantly urged to preserve our
|
|||
|
|
"American Sabbath." Is there any special holiness that lurks around
|
|||
|
|
an "American Sabbath"? Are not European Christians as competent to
|
|||
|
|
determine the right way to employ their time on Sundays as American
|
|||
|
|
Christians? The Lord's Day folk say that reading the Sunday
|
|||
|
|
newspapers, playing golf, riding in automobiles, and witnessing
|
|||
|
|
baseball games and movies is "un-American." This compound word has
|
|||
|
|
been used to cover a multitude of sins. What it means nobody knows.
|
|||
|
|
It is bunkum meant to serve every cause, good and bad alike. By
|
|||
|
|
what license does the Lord's Day Alliance call its caricature of
|
|||
|
|
Sunday an "American Sabbath?" On what grounds does it urge it as
|
|||
|
|
against the European Sabbath? Is this nightmare which the Lord's
|
|||
|
|
Day Alliance is so anxious to force upon the United States a
|
|||
|
|
product of America? Everyone knows that Sunday, with the rest of
|
|||
|
|
the Christian religion, came to us from Europe. The weird ideas of
|
|||
|
|
the Lord's Day Alliance are European. When and how it came to us is
|
|||
|
|
worth finding out.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Jesus and His disciples did not believe in the Jewish Sabbath.
|
|||
|
|
They neither abstained from work nor play. St. Paul, specially,
|
|||
|
|
condemned the setting apart of days and said to his disciples, "Ye
|
|||
|
|
observe days and months and times and years. I am afraid of ye lest
|
|||
|
|
I have bestowed upon ye labor in vain."
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
The early fathers did not approve of any such day as the
|
|||
|
|
Lord's Day Alliance insists shall be fastened upon America. St.
|
|||
|
|
Jerome and his group attended church services on Sunday, but
|
|||
|
|
otherwise pursued their usual occupations. St. Augustine calls
|
|||
|
|
Sunday a festal day and says that the Fourth Commandment is in no
|
|||
|
|
literal sense binding upon Christianity. Even Luther and Calvin
|
|||
|
|
enjoined no such a day upon the Christians as these moderns wish to
|
|||
|
|
fasten upon America that the churches may be filled. The righteous
|
|||
|
|
John Knox "played bowls" on Sunday, and in his voluminous preaching
|
|||
|
|
used no effort to make Sunday a day of gloom wherein people should
|
|||
|
|
abstain from work and play. It was not until 1595 that an English
|
|||
|
|
preacher of Suffolk first insisted that the Jewish Sabbath should
|
|||
|
|
be maintained. The controversy over this question lasted for a
|
|||
|
|
hundred years and resulted in a law proscribing every kind of
|
|||
|
|
Sunday recreation, even "vainly and profanely walking for
|
|||
|
|
pleasure." England Soon reacted against this blue Sabbath and
|
|||
|
|
permitted trading, open theaters and frivolity in the afternoon and
|
|||
|
|
evening. Under the leadership of the Church of England the Sabbath
|
|||
|
|
no longer was a day of gloom and despair.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
The real American Sabbath was born in Scotland after the death
|
|||
|
|
of John Knox. It fits the stern hills, the bleak moors and, the
|
|||
|
|
unfriendly climate of this northern land. It was born of fear and
|
|||
|
|
gloom and it lives by fear and gloom. Early in the Seventeenth
|
|||
|
|
Century, Scotland adopted this stern theory of the Jewish Sabbath
|
|||
|
|
and applied it ruthlessly. The Westminster Confession was adopted
|
|||
|
|
by the General Assembly of the Kirk of Scotland in 1647 and has
|
|||
|
|
remained the formal standard of faith to the present day. Ordinary
|
|||
|
|
recreations were disallowed. Books and music were forbidden except
|
|||
|
|
such as were recognized as religious in a narrow sense. No
|
|||
|
|
recreation but whiskey-drinking remained, This Presbyterian Sabbath
|
|||
|
|
of Scotland was brought to New England by the early settlers of
|
|||
|
|
America and is, in fact, a Scotch Sabbath -- not an American
|
|||
|
|
Sabbath.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Bank of Wisdom
|
|||
|
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
|
29
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
THE LORD'S DAY ALLIANCE
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Even in spite of the natural gloom and cold of Scotland,
|
|||
|
|
Sunday strictness has been greatly modified there in the last fifty
|
|||
|
|
years. It is not the present Scotch Sabbath that these modern
|
|||
|
|
Puritans insist on forcing upon America. It is the old, ferocious,
|
|||
|
|
Scotch Sabbath of the Westminster Confession. It was brought from
|
|||
|
|
a land of gloom into a land of sunshine, and the Lord's Day
|
|||
|
|
Alliance prefers the gloom and hardness of this outworn, out-lived
|
|||
|
|
Scotch Sabbath to the sunshine and joy that comes with a fertile
|
|||
|
|
soil, a mild climate and natural human emotions.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
It is almost unbelievable that a handful of men without reason
|
|||
|
|
or humanity, should be able to force their cruel dogmas upon the
|
|||
|
|
people. Not one in twenty of the residents of the United States
|
|||
|
|
believes in the Sabbath of the Lord's Day Alliance. Our cities,
|
|||
|
|
villages, and even country districts, protest against the bigotry
|
|||
|
|
and intolerance of the lard's Day. Alliance and their kind. Still
|
|||
|
|
in spite of this, by appeal to the obsolete statutes, religious
|
|||
|
|
prejudice, crass ignorance and unfathomable fanaticism, they carry
|
|||
|
|
on their mighty campaign of gloom.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
After long years of effort, with the lazy, cowardly public
|
|||
|
|
that does not want to be disturbed, the Legislature of New York, in
|
|||
|
|
the face of the opposition of the Lord's Day Alliance, managed to
|
|||
|
|
pass a law providing that incorporated cities and towns should have
|
|||
|
|
the right to legalize baseball games and moving picture shows on
|
|||
|
|
Sunday after two o'clock in the afternoon and charge an admission
|
|||
|
|
fee for seeing the entertainment. Why after two o'clock? The answer
|
|||
|
|
is perfectly plain: It is possible that someone might be forced
|
|||
|
|
into church in the morning if there was nowhere else to go. Were
|
|||
|
|
the hours after two o'clock any less sacred in the laws of Moses
|
|||
|
|
and the Prophets than the hours before two o'clock? Or was
|
|||
|
|
Legislature induced to pass this law simply to give the minister a
|
|||
|
|
privilege that it grants to no one else?
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Ours is a cosmopolitan country, made up of all sorts of people
|
|||
|
|
with various creeds. There should be room enough to allow each
|
|||
|
|
person to spend Sunday and every other day according to his own
|
|||
|
|
pleasure and his own profit. In spite of the Lord's Day Alliance
|
|||
|
|
and all other alliances, it is too late in the history of the world
|
|||
|
|
to bring back the Mosaic Sabbath. Regardless of their best
|
|||
|
|
endeavors it will probably never again be a crime punishable by
|
|||
|
|
death to work or play on what they are pleased to call the Lord's
|
|||
|
|
Day. Those ministers who have something to say that appeals to men
|
|||
|
|
and women will be able to make themselves heard without a law
|
|||
|
|
compelling people to go to church. If the Lords Day Alliance can
|
|||
|
|
provide something equally attractive to compete with the Sunday
|
|||
|
|
newspapers, golf, baseball games, movies and the open air, they
|
|||
|
|
will get the trade. If they cannot provide such entertainment, then
|
|||
|
|
in spite of all their endeavors the churches will be vacant. It is
|
|||
|
|
time that those who do not believe in intolerance, but in freedom,
|
|||
|
|
should make themselves heard in no uncertain way. It is time that
|
|||
|
|
men should determine to defend their right to attend to their own
|
|||
|
|
affairs and live their own lives, regardless of the bigots who in
|
|||
|
|
all ages have menaced the welfare of the world and the liberty of
|
|||
|
|
man.
|
|||
|
|
**** ****
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Reproducible Electronic Publishing can defeat censorship.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Bank of Wisdom
|
|||
|
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
|
30
|
|||
|
|
|