Part 3

It will be well here to remember that it is the _universal_ observance of the Sabbath which is commanded. The day was made for man—not for a portion of the human race—and it is consequently a general law, which, as regards at least public labour, {35} cannot be accommodated to suit the circumstances or peculiar dispositions of any class of individuals. This remark is extremely applicable to railway and other excursions on the Sabbath. We are fully aware that the above mode of reasoning is not congenial to the natural inclinations of man, and that some very apparently plausible objections are frequently urged to prove its fallacy. The only course, however, which the Christian can take to decide the question is by a direct reference to the Word of God. There is nothing contained in the Bible which is inimical to the welfare of mankind. The restraints which it imposes are in reality the most evident proofs of the love of God. Whatever He has commanded, we may rest assured is for the universal benefit of His creatures. The believer is experimentally acquainted with this fact, and he therefore considers a cheerful and strict obedience to the laws of God both a duty and a delight. Now, in reference to the great national and social importance of railways, it must be admitted that the most evident general beneficial proposition may be alloyed with objectionable considerations, the dismemberment of which is a positive duty. Such is the view which the Christian takes of railway and steam-boat excursions on the Sabbath. But it is said that they are indispensable for the preservation of the health of the labouring population. It is true that rational recreation and diversified scenes are essential to them, still, we must repeat the question, Why should the hours for labour be so protracted that the Sabbath must be almost exclusively devoted to temporal enjoyments? The poor man has no just right to work in this way until his strength is so completely exhausted that it becomes a ‘necessity’—in order to preserve his very existence—that he should violate the command of his merciful Creator. Is the Sabbath the only day when the labourer is to partake of the sweet fruits of his industry? Are all the endearments of life, the caresses of his children, and the comforts of the domestic circle, to be only enjoyed by him on the Sabbath? Is his little garden, should he happily possess one, to exhibit nothing but wild weeds throughout the year unless he cultivates it on the Sabbath? The evergreen and the beauteous flower would equally as well thrive in the soil that is attached to the humble abodes of the mechanic and labourer, provided they had time to attend to this elevating source of delight, {36} as they do in the ornamental parterres of the rich in this world. Again, we ask, why should every moral, intellectual, and social duty be reserved for performance on the Sabbath? Those who advance such false sympathy for the working classes are themselves supporting a system which perpetuates injustice and deprives the poor of true earthly happiness. Let the advocates of Sabbath railway and steam-boat excursions apply their minds more closely to the consideration of our social condition, and they will learn that the ‘necessity’ is to be solely attributed to the avaricious or thoughtless disposition of man, in despite of the intervention of a merciful Creator. The defence is a most wilful imputation on the wisdom and universal beneficence of God. A strict compliance with the Divine law, in any state of society, infuses peace and joy into the dwellings of the poor, and sheds a bright beam of hope across the rugged path they tread!

We cannot avoid here referring to a reply, and to a certain extent a just one, which is almost invariably made whenever any remark is offered respecting the desecration of the Sabbath either by labour, railway and steam-boat excursions, or by journeys taken in vehicles. Not to do so would be partial and unjust. The reference is to the number of carriages, belonging to the wealthy, which are seen in the metropolis on that sacred day. It is easy to understand the motives which govern the fashionable _élite_, who exhibit their splendid equipages in our beautiful national Parks on the Sabbath, but it appears and is altogether contradictory when we see the more reflecting and domestic portion of the Nobility and Gentry pursuing the same gay and sinful practice, and thus setting a baneful example to those around them who occupy a more humble position in life. “_They_ have,” it is said, “six other days in the week when they can take their salutary ‘carriage-airings’—it is not so with the poor mechanic.” Nor can we pass unnoticed the number of carriages which are seen every Sabbath at the entrances to our Churches and Chapels—even while some faithful Minister of Christ is sounding the trumpet of alarm to impenitent sinners—with the servants waiting outside, unconscious of the awful warnings which are being uttered within those sacred edifices. Can it be said, in all such cases, that bodily infirmity, age, distance, or even the state of the weather, renders it necessary? Does it not more resemble the boisterous and imperious swellings of the reckless wave than the gentle flowings of the calm waters? While such inconsistencies prevail, the infidel will exult for a time over his supposed triumph, the ribaldist will continue to sneer at the efforts of Christians, and the more cautious worldling will not fail to advance it as a justification for Sabbath desecration.

Let us now make a few consecutive observations on the religious, moral, and social divisions of our subject. At the commencement nearly of this Essay, we observed that it was the temporal advantages of the Sabbath to which our especial attention was to be directed; but true morality, social happiness, and even intellectual attainments, are all so closely blended with religion, or ought to be, that they cannot properly be separated. “It would be absurd,” says a popular author, “to treat first of the advantages of virtue, and next of those of justice or temperance, because the first head evidently comprehends the second.” So it would be if we were to attempt to exclude religion from the consideration of moral and social principles. Religion is the parent, and the others are the legitimate offspring. This has been most eloquently enforced by a writer well-known for his piety:—“Every thing which wants religion wants vitality. Philosophy without religion is crippled and impotent; poetry without religion has no heart-stirring powers; life without religion is a complex and unsatisfactory riddle: the very arts which address themselves to the senses, never proceed so far towards perfection as when employed on religious subjects.” May we not, then, fairly attribute the failure of many schemes, intended to improve the condition of the working population, to the entire absence of religious considerations? Such propositions may be congenial to the thoughtless multitude and the infidel, but they invariably terminate in disappointment—because the overruling providence of God is not acknowledged, nor are His daily mercies at all recognised.

We will now first notice the origin of the Divine obligation for ceasing from labour on the Sabbath. It is not essential that we should here discuss the question respecting the Christian or Jewish observance of it, nor is it absolutely material whether it is designated the Lord’s-Day, the Sabbath, or Sunday, although the two former appear to be the most appropriate. {40} There can be no doubt, notwithstanding all that may be advanced to the contrary, that the Sabbath was instituted by God at the creation of the world. “The heavens and the earth were finished, and on the seventh-day God ended his work which he had made; and God blessed the seventh-day and SANCTIFIED it.” If there is any intelligible inference to be drawn from this simple narration, it must be plain that it was the Divine intention to separate one day from the other six for sacred and devotional purposes, and to afford man an opportunity to obtain repose from labour. God not only blessed this day, but he _sanctified_ it, thereby imparting to it a peculiar heavenly and hallowed influence. We will pass over any intermediate passage in the Old Testament which might be brought forward to prove our conclusion, and quote the positive command given by God on Mount Sinai—“_Remember_ the Sabbath-day to keep it HOLY.” Here is a plain and indisputable enforcement of the original obligation, laid on man, to preserve the Sabbath as a previously _sanctified_ day. The same injunction, in a variety of ways, is enforced throughout the entire Word of God. If, in the New Testament, it is not so explicitly commanded, there are abundant instances where Christ himself inculcated and respected a proper observance of the Sabbath. The early Christians universally considered it as a sacred day, and nearly all the ancient writers testify to its being a day set apart for at least outward recognition. Josephus asserts, “There is no city or nation, Greek or Barbarian, in which the custom of resting on the seventh-day is not preserved.” Philo Judæus declares, “It is a festival celebrated not only in one city, but throughout the whole world.” Justin Martyr also says, “We all meet together on Sunday (_diem Solis_), on which God having changed Darkness and Matter, created the world; and on this day Jesus Christ our Saviour arose from the dead.” This last record particularly confirms our previous assertion respecting the origin of the Sabbath. These questions now naturally arise:—Shall the present generation impiously attempt to disannul the primæval law of God, which all ages have formally respected? Is the power of wealth to bid defiance to the eternal law of God? Are the pleasures and luxuries of this world to be held in higher estimation than the undescribable joys of heaven? Is infidelity, in a word, to triumph over Christianity? The Writer must here pause and seriously reflect, and he entreats the reader to do so likewise, on the melancholy if not awful consequences that have befallen individuals, even in this world, who have wilfully violated the Sabbath-day. TRUTH MAY WHISPER DIVINE MERCY RESCUED THEE. * * * If we have done so in an humble and contrite spirit, we ought at once to exclaim, with the penitent Psalmist, “Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy loving kindness; according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.”

The adoption of this course will assuredly lead to a great improvement in our present temporal condition. The testimony of Judge Hale, although so frequently adduced, seems to force itself on the memory:—“I have found,” said he, “that a due observing of the duty of the Lord’s-day hath ever joined to it a blessing upon the rest of my time; and the week that hath been so begun, hath been blessed and prosperous to me; and, on the other side, when I have been negligent of the duties of that day, the rest of the week hath been unsuccessful, and unhappy to my secular employments.” But what is the assurance and the promise contained in the Word of God? “Blessed is the man that keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it.” Isaiah lvi. 2. “If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable; and shalt honour him, _not doing thine own ways_, _nor finding thine own pleasure_, _nor speaking thine own words_; then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth.” Isaiah lviii. 3. God will bless us in this world, and we shall enjoy hereafter an eternal Sabbath in the Celestial City, where we ‘shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; for the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed us, and shall lead us unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from our eyes.’ Rev. vii. 16, 17.

These are, however, truths which but few seem to believe. No doubt the willing compliance of masters to make their men work on the Sabbath has created much scepticism. It conveys to the unenlightened mind an idea that religion is a mere speculative theory, and hence that day is treated with but little veneration, if not with perfect indifference. When such individuals are told, in justification, that “little differences about religion may occasionally be waived when business requires their attendance,” the effect must be, in a greater or less degree, to create a dislike for all subjects which have a religious reference. Do we not observe this in many working-men, who decry everything which relates to religion? Honesty and general morality they can clearly understand; but their souls are too barren and unproductive to appreciate the loveliness of those things which relate to another and a better world, and are consequently unable to discern the unsullied purity of the Divine character. Hence it is that we so frequently hear it asserted in the workshop that the Bible contains a strange admixture of virtuous principles and gross immorality. The best reply to such wicked and depraved assertions may be found in the words of a most distinguished Minister of the Church of Scotland, whose writings in defence of Christianity, together with the force and beauty of his compositions, have gained for him universal celebrity amongst Christians of every denomination:—“The Scripture is an exact portrait of man; if it shews the bright in his character, it also records the black; if it proclaims that which ennobles and exalts him, it discloses that which tends to depress and humble him. There is also, in the present day, what is thought delicacy of language, which was unknown even two or three centuries ago, and still more so when the Bible was written.” {44} To this we may add, that the Christian reads every sentence in the Word of God with the simplicity which denotes his profession, being too much influenced by the many precious promises which it contains to cavil about the expediency of accommodating the ancient custom of phraseology to suit that of modern times. It is the sceptic and the sensual who alone raise the objections. We may remark, as regards the Bible containing the details of the depravity of man, that they were placed there in order to warn us, and to remind us of the justice as well as the unbounded love of God. Let us illustrate our meaning by a reference to fading creation. How often do we view with ecstacy some lovely garden, admire its varied compartments, and gaze with pleasure on the choice flowers which adorn it, yet, at the same time, see many obtrusive blades of grass, or straggling weeds, which are intended to convey a silent but serious reproof to us? The scattered blades of grass, if united in close compact, would excite our admiration. Who can behold the simple but beauteous appearance of a lawn, or the grass that covers the distant hill, and not feel emotions of delight? It is their isolated and estranged position that creates our censure. Just so it is as regards the Bible. The sinner, while living apart from God, is compared to the weeds and stubble, and is threatened, unless he repents and believes in the Saviour, as ‘willing and able to save all that come unto Him,’ to be also condemned and to receive that awful sentence which awaits the impenitent. When pardoned, however, he is brought into close communion with God, and, being united, becomes a lovely plant in the garden of the Lord. If our hearts were more fixed on the entire purity of God, we should peruse the Scriptures with an emphatic earnestness which would elevate us far above sensual and infidel conclusions.

The real character of many of the declaimers against the Bible is thus portrayed:—“In the middle classes, among the half-thinking, half-instructed young men, a sort of infidelity is not unfrequent, which, after deducting something for the influence of worse motives, is attributable to affectation more than to any other cause. It is a mere impertinence, and indicates a want of sense, or profligacy of manners.” {46} And, now, what says the late eloquent and pious Robert Hall? “Settle it in your minds, as a maxim never to be effaced or forgotten, that infidelity is an inhuman and bloody system, equally hostile to every human restraint and to every virtuous affection—that, leaving nothing above us to create awe, nor round us to waken tenderness, it wages war with heaven and earth; its first object is to dethrone God; its next to destroy man.” Would that these sentiments, so forcibly expressed, could be engraven on the hearts of the rising generation throughout the world!

The greatest researchers after truth, and the most eminent philosophers, have borne witness to the exalted worth and power of the Holy Scriptures. “I thank God,” says Mr. Locke, “for the light of revelation, which sets my poor reason at rest, in many things that lay beyond the reach of its discovery.” Lord Bacon observes, “It was only by the light of Scripture, and the exercises of devotion, that I attained to that acquaintance with God, which I had sought for in vain amidst the hurry of secular affairs, or in the course of my philosophical pursuits.” And yet there are some men—possessing very extensive knowledge on nearly all other subjects—who impugn the truths of Christianity without anything like close and serious investigation. They possess a Bible, but, with the exception of a few abstract and familiar sentences, they are entirely ignorant of its contents. Is it surprising that such individuals merely consider the Sabbath as a day for cessation from labour, altogether irrespective of its being first sanctified by God, and afterwards enjoined to be kept as an holy day? Such persons are naturally, when interest or desire prompts them, willing either to labour or to seek worldly pleasure on the Sabbath.

We have made the above somewhat lengthened remarks because the entire question of Sabbath desecration, after all, rests on a firm belief in the Scriptures. The Divine commandment is contained therein, and if the Bible is rejected, or believed only in part, our main argument must fail to produce conviction; but, if implicit credence is given to it, then, we assert, the law of God is absolute and universal.

In order to confine our observations within a limited space, although our subject is as prolific as it is important, we must now shortly bring them to a conclusion. The effect of an abrogation of the Divine law of the Sabbath would be most fatal, as we have already proved, to religion, morals, the advancement of intellectual knowledge, and even the existence of man. Who can depict the horrid condition of the poor factory children if they were deprived of a Sabbath? Why, our manufactories—wherein are produced some of the richest fruits which emanate from refined taste and from rapid progression in the arts and sciences—would then become national nurseries for prostitution and general profligacy, or else the infected receptacles of emaciation and disease! Such a supposition may be ridiculed by the tolerants of infidelity, and even the pure and tender feelings of sympathy may suggest a doubt as to the possibility of such an awful event, but the same iniquitous motive that lately consigned children to twelve and fourteen hours labour each day—until the voice of Christian humanity declared it should no longer be tolerated—is equally likely, if not resisted, to deprive this infantine section of the community of the spiritual and temporal blessings of the Sabbath. Besides, it is just in proportion as we permit the rest of the seventh-day to be taken away from the adult, that we weaken the barrier that protects youth from its encroachments. But we may extend these considerations to the children of the entire population. Were it not for this blest day they would be reduced—in civilized England, with the lull and benign beams of Gospel light shining now in every city, town, and village—to as low a state of degradation and barbarism as the unenlightened savage. The latter are totally uninstructed, (what a powerful incentive is this fact for increased Missionary exertion!) and they therefore roam about in the wildness of their natural state. In this country crime is progressive. The boy who is a pickpocket to-day may become a burglar to-morrow; the youth who purloins from his master’s till not unfrequently commits afterwards a more daring offence; and the once little innocent girl, who was permitted to roam in the streets, becomes too often the future companion of thieves, and herself branded with infamy. It was as remedial measures that Sabbath and Ragged Schools were established; yet, with all these and other Christian efforts, the number of juvenile offenders has immensely increased. What would be the condition of children, and more advanced youth, were it not for the instruction afforded to them on the Sabbath? Every species of crime would be considerably augmented, and life and property still more endangered.

How appropriately might we here dwell on the value and importance of Sabbath Schools! They would afford almost an endless theme for the most consolatory and sublime considerations. But our space will not allow us to enumerate the many temporal advantages which such institutions confer on society, and man can never pourtray the heavenly bliss of the myriads of once otherwise neglected children, who, having been first taught in these Schools to lisp their Saviour’s praise, are now singing continually “the song of the Lamb” in the kingdom of their God!

“On harps of gold they praise His name, His face they always view; Then let us followers be of them, That we may praise Him too!”

It is impossible adequately to estimate the temporal advantages of the Sabbath. The opportunity which it affords for parental and social intercourse is most important. The industrious classes have scarcely any time, unless it is on that day, to discharge their responsible duties, and consequently their children are exposed to every species of depravity. It is true that a Christian mother is daily with her children, and, possessing perhaps a greater natural warmth of affection, is more likely to be a blessing to them than the father; still, how very desirable is it that the latter, particularly as they advance in years, should exercise a judicious superintending control, and thus strive to maintain the discipline, and carry out the instructions, which have been so anxiously and affectionately imbued by the mother during the six days? Deprive us of our Sabbath, and fatherly influence is as unproductive as the soil of the desert! We lose one of our greatest privileges—the natural right to assist in the formation of the religious, moral, and intellectual characters of our offspring.

Again, as respects the adult population, has the preaching of God’s Word, and the congregating of all grades in society on the Sabbath, no effect on the mass of the people? Does it not, leaving out of consideration the eternal results, create deeds of charity which impart temporal relief to the poor? The Sabbath is the peculiar day when the streams of benevolence flow rapidly through the land. It is principally by the contributions then given that our humane and benevolent Institutions are sustained.

We might also prove that civil governments rise or fall in proportion as the people venerate and observe the Sabbath, but it is assuredly unnecessary. If it is an institution of paramount importance to a family, it must be equally so to a nation.

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