{
  "schema": "tga.work.v1",
  "identifier": "dresden:vol-12:sabbath-superstition",
  "slug": "sabbath-superstition",
  "title": "Sabbath Superstition",
  "subtitle": "On the Sunday laws.",
  "excerpt": "An attack on the Sunday laws still in force in most American states — a case for a civil society in which no day is set apart by statute for religious observance.",
  "year": 1894,
  "volume": 12,
  "category": "Essay",
  "author": {
    "name": "Robert G. Ingersoll",
    "wikidata": "Q360326",
    "viaf": "44331023"
  },
  "isPartOf": {
    "title": "The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll",
    "edition": "Dresden Edition",
    "publisher": "C. P. Farrell",
    "year": 1900
  },
  "license": "https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/",
  "url": "https://thegreatagnostic.com/works/sabbath-superstition/",
  "wordCount": 1899,
  "body": "THE idea that one day in the week is better than the others and should\nbe set apart for religious purposes; that it should be considered holy;\nthat no useful work should be done on that day; that it should be given\nover to pious idleness and sad ceremonies connected with the worship of\na supposed Being, seems to have been originated by the Jews.\n\nAccording to the Old Testament, the Sabbath was marvelously sacred for\ntwo reasons; the first being, that Jehovah created the universe in six\ndays and rested on the seventh: and the second, because the Jews had\nbeen delivered from the Egyptians.\n\nThe first of these reasons we now know to be false; and the second has\nnothing, so far as we are concerned, to do with the question.\n\nThere is no reason for our keeping the seventh day because the Hebrews\nwere delivered from the Egyptians.\n\nThe Sabbath was a Jewish institution, and, according to the Bible, only\nthe Jews were commanded to keep that day. Jehovah said nothing to the\nEgyptians on that subject; nothing to the Philistines, nothing to the\nGentiles.\n\nThe Jews kept that day with infinite strictness, and with them this\nspace of time known as the Sabbath became so holy that he who violated\nit by working was put to death. Sabbath-breaking and murder were equal\ncrimes. On the Sabbath the pious Jew would not build a fire in his\nhouse. He ate cold victuals and thanked God. The gates of the city were\nclosed. No business was done, and the traveler who arrived at the city\non that day remained outside until evening. If he happened to fall, he\nremained where he fell until the sun had gone done.\n\nThe early Christians did not hold the seventh day in such veneration.\nAs a matter of fact, they ceased to regard it as holy, and changed the\nsacred day from the seventh to the first. This change was really made\nby Constantine, because the first day of the week was the Sunday of the\nPagans; and this day had been given to pleasure and recreation and to\nreligious ceremonies for many centuries.\n\nAfter Constantine designated the first day to be kept and observed by\nChristians, our Sunday became the sacred time.\n\nThe early Christians, however, kept the day much as it had been kept by\nthe Pagans. They attended church in the morning, and in the afternoon\nenjoyed themselves as best they could..\n\nThe Catholic Church fell in with the prevailing customs, and to\naccommodate itself to Pagan ways and superstitions, it agreed, as far as\nit could, with the ideas of the Pagan.\n\nUp to the time of the Reformation, Sunday had been divided between the\ndischarge of religious duties and recreation.\n\nLuther did not believe in the sacredness of the Sabbath. After church he\nenjoyed himself by playing games, and wanted others to do the same.\n\nEven John Calvin, whose view had been blurred by the \"Five Points,\"\nallowed the people to enjoy themselves on Sunday afternoon.\n\nThe reformers on the continent never had the Jewish idea of the\nsacredness of the Sabbath.\n\nIn Geneva, Germany and France, all kinds of innocent amusement were\nallowed on that day; and I believe the same was true of Holland.\n\nBut in Scotland the Jewish idea was adopted to the fullest extent. There\nSabbath-breaking was one of the blackest and one of the most terrible\ncrimes. Nothing was considered quite as sacred as the Sabbath.\n\nThe Scotch went so far as to take the ground that it was wrong to save\npeople who were drowning on Sunday, the drowning being a punishment\ninflicted by God. Upon the question of keeping the Sabbath most of the\nScottish people became insane.\n\nThe same notions about the holy day were adopted by the Dissenters in\nEngland, and it became the principal tenet in their creed.\n\nThe Puritans and Pilgrims were substantially crazy about the sacredness\nof Sunday. With them the first day of the week was set apart for\npreaching, praying, attending church, reading the Bible and studying\nthe catechism. Walking, riding, playing on musical instruments, boating,\nswimming and courting, were all crimes.\n\nNo one had the right to be happy on that blessed day. It was a time of\ngloom, sacred, solemn and religiously stupid.\n\nThey did their best to strip their religion of every redeeming feature.\nThey hated art and music—everything calculated to produce joy. They\ndespised everything except the Bible, the church, God, Sunday and the\ncreed.\n\nThe influence of these people has been felt in every part of our\ncountry. The Sabbath superstition became almost universal. No laughter,\nno smiles on that day; no games, no recreation, no riding, no walking\nthrough the perfumed fields or by the winding streams or the shore of\nthe sea. No communion with the subtile beauties of nature; no wandering\nin the woods with wife and children, no reading of poetry and fiction;\nnothing but solemnity and gloom, listening to sermons, thinking about\nsin, death, graves, coffins, shrouds, epitaphs and ceremonies and the\nmarvelous truths of sectarian religion, and the weaknesses of those\nwho were natural enough and sensible enough to enjoy themselves on the\nSabbath day.\n\nSo universal became the Sabbath superstition that the Legislatures of\nall the States, or nearly all, passed laws to prevent work and enjoyment\non that day, and declared all contracts void relating to business\nentered into on Sunday.\n\nThe Germans gave us the first valuable lesson on this subject. They\ncame to this country in great numbers; they did not keep the American\nSabbath. They listened to music and they drank beer on that holy day.\nThey took their wives and children with them and enjoyed themselves;\nyet they were good, kind, industrious people. They paid their debts and\ntheir credit was the best.\n\nOur people saw that men could be good and women virtuous without\n\"keeping\" the Sabbath.\n\nThis did us great good, and changed the opinions of hundreds of\nthousands of Americans.\n\nBut the churches insisted on the old way. Gradually our people began\nto appreciate the fact that one-seventh of the time was being stolen by\nsuperstition. They began to ask for the opening of libraries, for music\nin the parks and to be allowed to visit museums and public places on the\nSabbath.\n\nIn several States these demands were granted, and the privileges have\nnever been abused. The people were orderly, polite to officials and to\neach other.\n\nIn 1876, when the Centennial was held at Philadelphia, the Sabbatarians\nhad control. Philadelphia was a Sunday city, and so the gates of the\nCentennial were closed on that day.\n\nThis was in Philadelphia where the Sabbath superstition had been so\nvirulent that chains had been put across the streets to prevent stages\nand carriages from passing at that holy time.\n\nAt that time millions of Americans felt that a great wrong was done by\nclosing the Centennial to the laboring people; but the managers—most\nof them being politicians—took care of themselves and kept the gates\nclosed.\n\nIn 1876 the Sabbatarians triumphed, and when it was determined to hold a\nworld's fair at Chicago they made up their minds that no one should look\nupon the world's wonders on the Sabbath day.\n\nTo accomplish this pious and foolish purpose committees were appointed\nall over the country; money was raised to make a campaign; persons were\nemployed to go about and arouse the enthusiasm of religious people;\npetitions by the thousand were sent to Congress and to the officers\nof the World's Fair, signed by thousands of people who never saw them;\nresolutions were passed in favor of Sunday closing by conventions,\npresbyteries, councils and associations. Lobbyists were employed to\ninfluence members of Congress. Great bodies of Christians threatened to\nboycott the fair and yet the World's Fair is open on Sunday.\n\nWhat is the meaning of this? Let me tell you. It means that in this\ncountry the Scotch New England Sabbath has ceased to be; it means that\nit is dead. The last great effort for its salvation has been put forth,\nand has failed. It belonged to the creed of Jonathan Edwards and the\nbelief of the witch-burners, and in this age it is out of place.\n\nThere was a time when the minister and priest were regarded as the\nfoundation of wisdom; when information came from the altar, from the\npulpit; and when the sheep were the property of the shepherd.\n\nThat day in intelligent communities has passed. We no longer go to the\nminister or the church for information. The orthodox minister is\nlosing his power, and the Sabbath is now regarded as a day of rest, of\nrecreation and of pleasure.\n\nThe church must keep up with the people. The minister must take another\nstep. The multitude care but little about controversies in churches, but\nthey do care about the practical questions that directly affect their\ndaily lives.\n\nMust we waste one day in seven; must we make ourselves unhappy or\nmelancholy one-seventh of the time?\n\nThese are important questions and for many years the church in our\ncountry has answered them both in the affirmative, and a vast number of\npeople not Christians have also said \"yes\" because they wanted votes, or\nbecause they feared to incite the hatred of the church.\n\nNow in this year of 1893 a World's Fair answered this question in the\nnegative, and a large majority of the citizens of the Republic say that\nthe officers of the Fair have done right.\n\nThis marks an epoch in the history of the Sabbath. It is to be sacred\nin a religious sense in this country no longer. Henceforth in the United\nStates the Sabbath is for the use of man.\n\nMany of those who labored for the closing of the Fair on Sunday took the\nground that if the gates were opened, God would visit this nation with\nfamine, flood and fire.\n\nIt hardly seems possible that God will destroy thousands of women and\nchildren who had nothing to do with the opening of the Fair; still, if\nhe is the same God described in the Christian Bible, he may destroy our\nbabes as he did those of the Egyptians. It is a little hard to tell in\nadvance what a God of that kind will do.\n\nIt was believed for many centuries that God punished the\nSabbath-breaking individual and the Sabbath-breaking nation. Of course\nfacts never had anything to do with this belief, and the prophecies\nof the pulpit were never fulfilled. People who were drowned on Sunday,\naccording to the church, lost their lives by the will of God. Those\ndrowned on other days were the victims of storm or accident. The nations\nthat kept the Sabbath were no more prosperous than those that broke the\nsacred day. Certainly France is as prosperous as Scotland.\n\nLet us hope, however, that these zealous gentlemen who have predicted\ncalamities were mistaken; let us be glad that hundreds of thousands of\nworkingmen and women will be delighted and refined by looking at the\nstatues, the paintings, the machinery, and the countless articles of use\nand beauty gathered together at the great Fair, and let us be glad that\non the one day that they can spare from toil, the gates will be open to\nthem.\n"
}