going to places where they soon become moral
out-casts. There can be no doubt that men
would become morally better if they had this
chance for amusement and recreation on a clay
which is now simply a day of restraint.
Popular free lectures on Sunday for the poor
would undoubtedly be better attended and do
more good than all the sermons which they
never hear or care to hear; a moral play at
the theatre or free music at the concert halls,
would be of more benefit to the great host of
poor than the fine services at our stylish
churches. But some of our conservative
churchmen are making special efforts to enforce
a more rigid observance of the sabbatical ordi
nances. They are opposed to opening the
public places of amusement on the only day
when the laboring classes have an opportunity
to visit them. They would stop 'all railroads
and street cars on the only day that large
classes of people can get out of the city. They
would prohibit the publication of Sunday news
papers on the only day when many of the
more intelligent tradesmen and laborers find
time to read. They consider the church-goers
the whole of humanity, and make laws accord
ingly. If they would take a more liberal view
of the whole subject, it would be better for
Christianity and humanity.
While we advocate the relaxation of the
Sunday ordinances in this direction, we would
have them more rigidly enforced in others.
The law against opening saloons on Sunday
cannot be too strongly executed. But in order
to effectually enforce this law, it is plain, you
must provide some other place to go, for the
men and boys, who have been accustomed to
find excitement there. You have driven them
there, and if you rigidly enforce the saloon
law, where have they to go ? The closing of
the saloons and the opening of the libraries,
etc., would work together in perfect harmony,
and would be a great step in the advancement
of morality and social reform,
The Sabbath was made for man and not man
for the Sabbath, is what Christ taught. This
THE FREE LANCE.
was against the Jewish mode of observing the
day, and it is also against the Puritan idea.
The principal thing with them is, to keep the
clay in a sacred and reverential manner. Chris
tian work was of secondary importance. They
observed the clay more for its own sake than
for Christ's sake. This is one of the narrow
points of their religion. Martin Luther took
a far broader and more liberal view of this
question. He said, " Keep it holy for its use's
sake, both to body and soul ; but if anywhere
the day is made holy for the mere clay's sake,
if anywhere any one sets up its observance
upon a Jewish foundation, then I order you to
work on it, to ride on it, to do anything which
shall reprove this encroachment on the Chris
tian spirit of liberty."
If the Christian people would only see that
Sunday in the cities, instead of attracting men
towards moral lives, actually drives them to
the worst kinds of sinfulness, and that the
present Sabbath regulations hinders rather
than helps the advancement of Christianity
among the masses of poor people, they realize
that a change must come, and come soon.
WHAT is the ultimate aim of a college
course ? First, we would say, to pre
pare for the higher and more abstract duties
of life. Second, to teach appreciation of the
higher and nobler aims of life, thereby stimu
lating a desire to attain that eminence which
has been reached by other men,
' Here arises the question : What relation
has social life or culture to a collegiate educa
tion ? We would say apparently none. You
search through the many catalogues of as
many different colleges, and you find one
offering special inducements in this branch of
science, another in some other branch, but no
where do we sec mentioned any social induce
ments. Rather, some go so far as to think it
SOCIAL LIFE AT COLLEGES.
H. R. L