A day of rest it is by the laws of the land, and ought to be by the
laws of God--let us be thankful when we thus find them in agreement;
but a day wholly dedicated to devotion it was not intended to be by
either, nor in the nature of things can it possibly be so. The greater
part of it must be spent in the quiet enjoyment of domestic life, or in
out-of-door recreation, or in idleness. In the former and better manner
it is passed by the majority of the middle classes; it is the day on
which friends and relations meet, whom business keeps apart during six
days of the week; and the stoppage of stage-coaches within twenty miles
of London on the Sunday would take away more moral and wholesome
enjoyment than any act of the legislature can produce. But supposing
public worship were duly attended by all persons, as, according to what
has now become a fiction of the law, it is designed to be, how are the
remaining portions of the day to be disposed of by those who have no
domestic circle to which they can repair--no opportunities for that
refreshment both of body and mind, which the Sabbath, when wisely and
properly observed, affords? Or who, if belonging to or placed in
religious families, are not yet at years of such discretion as suffices
to repress their natural activity and the instinctive desire of
recreation? Rigorous gamelaws do not more certainly encourage poaching,
than the puritanical observance of the Sabbath leads to
Sabbath-breaking.--_Quarterly Review._
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