WE have received a communication from the news editor of a “Sunday” newspaper in which he says, “Sunday is the only completely free day which many of our working girls and boys enjoy, and there is a body of opinion in the country which feels that in view of this, Sunday games should be allowed in public parks.” We have no doubt that such “a body of opinion” exists, but we also have no doubt that people, however numerous, who are in favour of the desecration of the Lord’s day, are entirely in the wrong. Their opinions are thoroughly
opposed to the Word of God, and they ought not in any degree to influence those who reverence God and His Word. We are asked if we are in favour of “Sunday” games “provided they do not take place during the hours of Church services,” and if we are in favour of “Sunday” cinemas, “provided they are not open during the hours of Church services.” Evidently it is forgotten that the Lord’s day, divinely instituted at the creation, is a day of twenty-four hours. When God said, “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy,” He meant the whole day. We are not at liberty to desecrate any part of the day. The whole day is called by God, “My holy day,” “the holy of the Lord, honourable,” and we are bidden to “honour Him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words” (Isa. lviii. 13).
The “National Fitness Campaign” can never be advantageously promoted by disobeying the command of God, nor will the real good of girls and boys be promoted by encouraging them to desecrate the Lord’s Day. If we want them to grow up honest, upright, industrious citizens, the more we encourage them to honour the Lord’s Day and His Word the better. Those who break the Fourth Commandment are the people who are most likely to break the other commandments. Moreover, the young people of to-day have far more time for healthy recreation than our young people had many years ago. They have longer evenings, besides Saturday afternoons. Let them thankfully and wisely use their leisure opportunities on other days of the week, and not encroach on the Lord’s Day. Besides, are we not devoting too much attention to games? Regular daily exercise is no doubt good, but our young people need to read their Bibles more, and to read the history of their country more. How ignorant they are, for the most part, of their Bible, and of the history of the Reformation. The nation is flooded with novels, and these crowd out Biblical and other helpful reading. The mind, as well as the body, needs to be strengthened and made more fit.
As for the opening of cinemas on the Lord’s Day, it is our view that it would be a great blessing if they were closed every day of the week. We do not think that our young people are spiritually and mentally benefited by them. The multiplicity of such places of amusement seems to us to be a fulfilment of the inspired prediction that men would be “lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God” (2 Tim. iii. 1, 4). The whole tendency, it seems to us, is for people to concentrate all their attention on worldly wealth, worldly prosperity, worldly comfort, and worldly pleasure. But the solemn words of our Lord seem to be entirely ignored. He says, “What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” (Mark viii. 36).
With regard to daily exercise we think that bodily fitness would be greatly benefited if our young people were to walk several miles every day to and from their places of employment. Walking in the fresh air is an ancient and healthy exercise, and it would be a blessing both to body and mind if it were regularly practised.—Gospel Magazine.