“Now, it is plain to me that if Christ were here to-day, and pastor of Calvary Church, he would feel compelled to say some very plain words about the desecration of Sunday in Milton.  Take for example the opening of the fruit stands and cigar stores and meat markets every Sunday morning.  What is the one reason why these places are open this very minute while I am speaking?  There is only one reason—­so that the owners of the places may sell their goods and make money.  They are not satisfied with what they can make six days in the week.  Their greed seizes on the one day which ought to be used for the rest and worship men need, and turns that also into a day of merchandise.  Do we need any other fact to convince us of the terrible selfishness of the human heart?

“Or take the case of the saloons.  What right have they to open their doors in direct contradiction to the town ordinance forbidding it?  And yet this ordinance is held by them in such contempt that this very morning as I came to this church I passed more than half a dozen of these sections of hell, wide open to any poor sinning soul that might be enticed therein.  Citizens of Milton, where does the responsibility rest for this violation of law?  Does it rest with the churches and the preachers to see that the few Sunday laws we have are enforced by them, while the business men and the police lazily dodge the issue and care not how the matter goes, saying it is none of their business?

“But suppose you say the saloons are beyond your power.  That does not release you from doing what is in your power, easily, to prevent this day from being trampled under foot and made like every other day in its scramble after money and pleasure.  Who own these fruit stands and cigar stores and meat markets, and who patronize them?  Is it not true that church members encourage all these places by purchasing of them on the Lord’s Day?  I have been told by one of these fruit dealers with whom I have talked lately that among his best customers on Sunday are some of the most respected members of this church.  It has also been told me that in the summer time the heaviest patronage of the Sunday ice-cream business is from the church members of Milton.  Of what value is it that we place on our ordinance rules forbidding the sale of these things covered by the law?  How far are we responsible by our example for encouraging the breaking of the day on the part of those who would find it unprofitable to keep their business going if we did not purchase of them on this day?

“It is possible there are very many persons here in this house this morning who are ready to exclaim:  ’This is intolerable bigotry and puritanical narrowness!  This is not the attitude Christ would take on this question.  He was too large-minded.  He was too far advanced in thought to make the day to mean anything of that sort.’