parents into direct co-operation with their plans of work, their schedule of lessons, and labor incessantly for the daily home study which can transform the Sunday-school hour into a recitation, and an opportunity for wider truths inculcated by an able teacher. Let the church, through her Endeavor Societies, invite the co-operation of parents, by actual presence at the meetings, and by maturing plans to foster Christian endeavor in the home as a centre, thus encouraging the family to do its own work and devolop its own capabilities. Let our prayer-meetings become the place where the religious life fostered in the home can express itself, instead of an hour of aimless singing and wearisome speech-making. Let Christian parents vie with the church organizations in fostering family life to the utmost, instructing the children in the dangers, the blessings, and the opportunities of the rising generation. There should be more "Parents' Endeavor Societies" more "Young mothers' meetings," more consultations of fathers as to how the home might be made so much an attraction that it should be the place beyond all others where the young would delight to gather, and bless themselves with its joys and experiences. Let all of God's people feel, that upon the Christianizing of the family depends the future of the church, the welfare of every department of society, and the extension of the kingdom of our Lord. And while we are laboring for the individual, while we are seeking to gather into the church the masses which wander homeless upon the streets, let us also make a united effort to push the vital spark of spiritual life back into the bosom of the family whence these come, till the torch of Christianity lighted at the hearthstones shall kindle the flames of vital religion, and Christ reign in community, State, and nation, because he finds loyal, loving hearts in the families of those composing them. Such a conception would alter the attitude of the church towards the family, in that it would no longer be merely a field to work upon, nor a place of supply to draw from, but an institution to work through. In view of the importance of this subject to the interest of our churches, and the kingdom of our Lord, your committee would submit the following resolutions for your adoption : Resolved, That the name of this committee be so changed that hereafter it may be the committee on the family. Resolved, That the subject of the family should have place in 1 the deliberations of this Council, and in our other denominational assemblies, by the side of Sunday school and Endeavor topics, corresponding to its relative importance. Resolved, That a committee of three be appointed, who shall more thoroughly study this subject, seek to devise such practical measures for the development of the family as shall be likely to commend themselves to the churches, bring this matter to the attention of the churches and associations, and report at the next Triennial Council. (Signed) REV. WM. H. SCUDDER, REV. CHARLES H. RICHARDS, Committee. REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON SABBATH L. BLAKESLEY, CHAIRMAN. TWENTY years ago, when the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fé Railroad was pushing west across the Kansas plains, and all the vices of border civilization were accompanying the great enterprise, pari passu, keeping well to the front, a Topeka newspaper correspondent wrote home that when he got as far as Great Bend he found no longer any Sabbath, and when he reached Pueblo, farther on, there was no God. Our journalist evidently understood the relations and tendencies of things, for it is always true that when the Sabbath is left behind, we do not have to travel very far to find atheism and godlessness. It is a natural and logical progression. Hence Sabbath observance in our modern life becomes a matter vitally connected with religious prosperity and the life of our churches. Its neglect is becoming increasingly a source of anxiety among thoughtful Christians. The National Council wisely makes it a subject to which its attention, and that of the churches, shall triennially be called. no new theme. Ever since the days of Nehemiah neglect ' Page 41. of the ordinance of the Sabbath has been a chronic trouble in the church, a source of religious weakness and failure. The evils which we enumerate and deplore to-day, Sunday business, Sunday amuse ments, Sunday newspapers, Sunday railway trains, Sunday laziness, Sunday dissipation, are but the echoes of ancient transgression. Still, the importance of the Sabbath question is as vital as ever. The vigor and spirituality, if not the life, of our churches are involved in the solution of it. It is difficult to see how the church can be perpetuated without a Sabbath which shall afford time and opportunity to call the attention of busy men to the greater themes of life and destiny. Sabbath observance has much to contend with: (1) The money-making and pleasure-seeking spirit of the age. The inroads which these are constantly making upon the rest and sanctity of the Lord's day are ominous. In most of our large cities the haunts of amusement and dissipation are wide open, calling not only for Christian rebuke, but also for the intervention of law in the interest of the general good. Sunday reform has squarely to contend against the irrepressible encroachment of monied interests, and the inherent perversity of the human heart. 2. There are bindrances thrown in the way of a successful Sabbath by a faction of the Christian Church which is busily disseminating the doctrine that Christendom has been observing the wrong day, and that the present Christian Sabbath is of necessity a failure, and ought to be, and will continue to be, until we re-adjust ourselves upon the old Mosaic foundation. The influence of these teachings, industriously spread by means of controversial sectarian literature, and with show of learning, is of no inconsiderable weight, and is a great reinforcement to the adversaries of the Christian Sabbath. 3. Another subtle influence operating adversely to Sabbath keeping is the sentiment which would do away with the distinction between things secular and sacred. Under the gospel dispensation, it is claimed, all things ought to be sacred. Not one day, but all days, should be hallowed to the Lord; not a tenth of the Christian's property, but the whole of it belongs to God; not the sanctuary, but every place in God's great world should be holy. This is what the abolishment of Old Testament restrictions and the introduction of gospel liberty is alleged to mean. If this is true, it is not the phase of truth which needs emphasis at the present time, in connection with the prevailing evils of Sabbath desecration. It is easy to pervert truth, and to draw unwarrantable inferences from it, and the unfortunate tendency of this doctrine seems to be, not the rendering of everything sacred, but causing nothing to be sacred. 4. But perhaps the greatest hindrance of all to a satisfactory solution of the Sabbath problem is found in the wide diversity of views and practice among Christian people. There appears to be no acknowledged standard of what true Sabbath observance ought to be. All sorts of theories prevail, from those who refuse to partake of a warm dinner, or ride in a street car, or mail a letter on the Lord's day, on the one hand, to the easy-going Catholic priest up in Wisconsin on the other, who refuses to co-operate in a movement for the Sunday closing of the saloons, for the reason that he does not like to see his rural parishioners "drive into town on a cold wintry Sunday, and have no place where they can go and take something to warm them up before the church services begin." There is every sort of custom prevailing among representative Christian people, from the brethren at the Bible House, on the one hand, who by executive action last May enjoined upon our superintendents and missionaries the avoidance of Sunday railroad trains in reaching their appointments, to a prominent divine on the other hand, known the world over, who swooped down on a Western town on Sunday, preached to an immense crowd in a suburban park at the regular hour of morning service, thinned out the congregations of his ministerial brethren, pocketed his hundred dollars from the street car corporation who employed him as a financial venture, and then announced that he must take the first train after dinner in order to fill a Monday appointment several hundred miles away. To Christians of the old-fashioned type such a prominent occurrence seems demoralizing in the extreme, yet many of our latter-day saints show similar laxity in regard to the Lord's day. Such diversity of example among Christian leaders is sadly confusing to the conscientious inquirer concerning duty. Doubtless there is a rigid Sabbatarianism which the flexible spirit of our Christian institution does not require, and which savors more of the spirit of the Old Testament than the New. Unfortunately, the cause of Sabbath reform, so called, has in many instances fallen into the hands of extremists, whose ideal Sabbath is the Mosaic, and who insist with such fervor upon the Sabbath customs of former days, under the impossible circumstances of our present civilization, that many cannot heartily co-operate with them in the common cause. Their extreme views render unity of action among lovers of the Sabbath impossible. These are some of the difficulties which tion of the Sabbath problem among us. deplored. Still, they do not justify the pessimistic view which so many good people are inclined to take of the situation. beset the practical soluThey are greatly to be There is no reason why we should lose heart or faith. We hear the cry that the Christian Sabbath is in imminent peril; that there is danger of its complete overthrow; and the church must hasten and rescue it from extinction. Such despondency is not well grounded. This venerable institution of most ancient times, divinely ordained and guarded, is not going to be swept away. It has survived the ages and will continue through to the end. As long as He who has declared himself "Lord of the Sabbath continues at the helm of affairs Christians need not fear. The continuance and eternal stability of the Sabbath is something to rejoice over. Here among us the Sabbath is an established reality. It is acknowledged by law and everywhere recognized. It is abused, as all our blessings are, even by Christians, We need to make better use of it. But it is God's blessed Sabbath all the same. When it dawns, all over Christendom the great tide of business pauses. With the great majority the occupation of the week days are suspended. The day is different from all others, even from a secular standpoint. It is a blessed, longed-for day to the toiling millions. It is a great day for the church. Sanctuaries of worship are opened. Special opportunities are afforded and improved for the proclamation of the gospel. The day itself witnesses to the great facts of Christianity, and never a Sabbath passes that progress is not made toward the blessed consummation which the church is looking forward to. Hence misgivings concerning the future of the Lord's day are unworthy of our Christian faith. God will care for his own. Still, there are duties devolving on the church in connection with this subject of Sabbath observance which need constant reiteration. The misuse and degradation of the Sabbath should be opposed both by teaching and example. Right sentiments should be inculcated concerning its divine obligation and privilege, and its best use. Its relation, not only to the spiritual needs of Christians |