witnessed their afternoon and evening employments? Has he seen the
eager and intelligent expression of those young faces, as the beautiful
story of Joseph and his brethren was read aloud to them; or that of
Daniel cast into the lions’ den; or how the servants of the living God
walked unhurt in the midst of the fire, whilst its flame slew those
men who cast them in; or the narrative of the wandering prodigal,
wretched and despised in a foreign land, whilst the meanest of his
father’s servants were living in abundance and comfort? Has he heard
their voices, each low but earnest; and then listened to the reading of
the Word of God? heard the reciting by turn, some beautiful hymns, or
reading some interesting chapter, or engaged in conversation familiar
and pleasant, though serious and instructive; children asking questions
of parents, and parents of children, concerning what they have been
hearing and reading during the day? And is not he who has been the
spectator of all this, convinced, that such a day is to the labourer
and his children, an inheritance of surpassing value; that it is
weekly adding a fresh impulse to their progress in improvement, and
preparing them to take advantage of whatever opportunities the week may
afford? Will not the Sabbaths of their childhood leave an impression
upon their future years, which will never be effaced; an impress of
superiority in intelligence and morality, and a consequent superiority
in circumstances?
One important advantage which is connected with the observance of the
Lord’s day, among the labouring population, is the influence which
it has in elevating the mind, character and condition of the female
portion of the community. Where Christianity and its weekly rest are
unknown, the condition of woman is abject in the extreme; but the
religion of Jesus raises her from her degraded situation, by calling
her forward to engage in the exercises, share the instructions, and
receive the influences of its Sabbath. The Lord’s day calls her
thinking powers into action, gives her a mind and conscience of her
own, cultivates her intellectual and moral nature, and gives her to man
a helpmate indeed, fitted to become, not merely his slave or his toy,
but the companion of his labours and his studies, his devoted friend,
and his faithful and judicious adviser; not merely the mother and nurse
of his children, but their intelligent instructor and guide--his most
efficient assistant in their intellectual and moral training. And if
we consider the influence which the training that man receives in his
early years has upon his character in after life--that, for the most
part, in the families of working men, infancy and childhood are spent
in the society of the mother, and therefore the impressions by which
the character is, in a great measure, formed, are made by her, we shall
feel convinced that the cultivation of the female mind and character
must have an incalculable influence upon the condition of the labouring
population.
It were worth ascertaining, how many of those who have risen up from
among the labouring population to adorn and bless humanity by their
talents and their philanthropy, to enlighten and benefit society by
useful and important discoveries in art and science, or by patient
persevering labour to advance mankind in virtue and intelligence--how
many of these had their minds awakened to activity, and their
principles formed, by the instructions which hard-working parents were
enabled to give them upon the Lord’s day, the only time they could
devote to such a purpose. And would it not shed a fearful light upon
this subject, could we possess ourselves of the history of the early
Sabbaths of those who have made themselves notorious by their crimes;
or of those, who, having sunk themselves deep in moral pollution, have
destroyed themselves, degraded humanity, and cursed society by their
vices? Would not such records give startling evidence of the ruinous
effects resulting from the abuse of the weekly rest, and clearly
demonstrate the truth of what has been already advanced, that, were
the Sabbath abolished, or given to working men as a day of mere bodily
refreshment and recreation, and not as a religious institution, they
would soon be reduced to a condition worse than that of the untaught
savage?
Yes; man is equally liable to degenerate as he is capable of
improvement--more so, for he must be aroused, urged forward, forced on
almost against his will: to take the downward path of degeneracy, he
needs only to be left unmolested to choose his own way.
Are there those who deny this--who look upon man as not a fallen and
depraved being, shorn of the glory of his primeval excellency, ever
liable to sink lower and degenerate farther, unless influences from
without reach him--but as a being who has raised himself by the unaided
exercise of the powers of his own mind, from a condition little above
that of the brute creation, to his present state? I ask them but to
survey the page of human history, to become convinced of the absurdity
of such an idea. Can they point to the records of any tribe of the
human family which, from a condition of rude barbarism, and shut out
from all intercourse with civilized nations, has ever raised itself
above such a state?[3] They cannot--it has uniformly been the entrance
of the missionary, the trader, the emigrant, from more enlightened and
civilized nations, which has changed the condition of such a people.
[3] Such as desire further information on this important point, may
obtain it, at a very small expense of time and labour, by consulting
Dr. Doig’s “_Three Letters on the Savage State_,” addressed to Lord
Kames.--ED.
Had it been as they say, had man been formed the being they represent
him, and had the voice of God never reached his ear, had no celestial
visitant ever arrived upon our planet, man had never risen one step
above his first condition. If, then, as the history of mankind
abundantly proves, religion founded upon revelation be the only
really efficient means by which man can be raised to that state of
perfection he is capable of attaining; if, as we trace the progress of
Christianity among the nations, we find an advancement in civilization
following in her footsteps, and an amelioration of the social condition
of the people marking her progress, may we not reasonably attribute to
her seventh-day rest all the temporal blessings which, as she advances,
she is conferring upon the labouring population? And would not the
abolition of this institution, or the appropriation of Sabbath hours to
other than their proper use, be effectively to exclude those who obtain
their daily bread by the labour of their hands, from a participation
in the benefits which the knowledge of revelation confers upon man? No
more effectual step could be taken towards the demoralization, I had
almost said the brutalization, of the labouring population, than that
of inducing them to look upon it as a mere human holiday, which may be
occupied in any way fancy may dictate. Barbarous and degrading sports,
bull-baiting, cock-fighting, and such like; drunkenness, revelry,
and riot, would, with fearful rapidity, take the place of the solemn
assembly.
He who would seek to enslave and degrade the working man, could
not more effectually accomplish his object, than by persuading him
to regard and occupy the Sabbath as a day which he might spend
in amusement. Were the Lord’s day blotted out, or spent in mere
recreation--were the sons of toil no more to enjoy or avail themselves
of its rich provisions for their instruction and elevation--not only
should we soon see religion disregarded, that blessed light of heaven,
that sunshine of the sky which is chasing the shadows of ignorance, and
dissipating the mists of error and superstition; which is awakening
man to spiritual life, arousing to healthful activity in him all the
springs of moral feeling and intellectual energy; not only would this
morning beam be shut out from the sons of toil, those glad tidings
which Jesus so frequently preached to the poor in the weekly assembly
upon the Sabbath-day, be put without the reach of working men--but we
should soon see them deprived of those civil institutions which secure
to them personal liberty, and degraded to a condition of mere vassalage.
Let no one be startled when I affirm that it is the Sabbath which has
bestowed upon the labouring population the civil privileges they enjoy,
and raised them to the position they occupy; that it is the Lord’s day
which is the great, the everlasting bulwark of human freedom. It is
that moral force which intelligence and virtue bestow upon a people,
which unlooses effectually the iron grasp of the oppressor; which makes
their voice heard clearly and distinctly in the legislation of their
country, and blots pernicious, partial, and unjust laws out of the
statute-book; and it is, as we have already seen, the knowledge of God
obtained from revelation, which awakens man’s dormant powers of mind,
which leads him onward and upward in virtue and intelligence.
Deprive religion of its weekly rest, and by what means is it to gain
access to the ears and to the understandings of working men, and
their children? When is it to pour its light into their minds, and
the influence of devotion into their hearts? When shall the labourer
study the book of God, or working men gather together to hear, not the
teachings of erring man, but, with the Scriptures of truth in their
hands, to listen to the voice of that infallible Wisdom which was
with God when he laid the foundations of the earth? Shall it be after
a day of laborious exertion has rendered them unfit, by exhaustion,
for the close application of their minds to any serious study? Alas
for the advancement of the labouring portion of the community in
intelligence and morality! Alas for the refinement of manners, and the
cultivation of mind among them, if it is to be left to such seasons!
So absolutely essential to the well-being of man does the Sabbath
appear, whether viewed in relation to his eternal or his temporal
interests, that, could we suppose it possible for man, destitute of
the weekly rest, to become conscious of the wants of his own nature,
we should conclude that he would have instituted, of his own accord,
a Sabbath for himself. Those who, either for worldly gain or the
pursuit of pleasure, profane the sacred hours of Sabbath rest, are not
only despising one of the most important institutions of religion, but
they are doing what in them lies to undermine one of the most enduring
defences of human liberty.
He who would take from the working man his Sabbath, would take with
it the mind-awakening influence of religion; would keep the gate of
knowledge, and forbid his entrance; would throw an impassable barrier
in the way of his progress in civilization, and leave him the slave of
the despot, the tool of the crafty politician, and the follower of the
superstitious zealot, or the religious impostor.
Let those, then, who would seek to transmit to their children that
liberty and those rights for which their fathers have struggled and
bled, rear them amidst Sabbath influences, fill their minds with those
subjects for the study of which the weekly rest was instituted, and
accustom them to Sabbath exercises; and, most assuredly, they will rise
above the oppression of the tyrant, see through the devices of the
crafty, the subtlety of the sophist, and the deceit of the impostor.
All the efforts which have ever been made by the rude arm of physical
force, to rescue mankind from oppression, have been utterly futile; and
if any one will survey the state of the nations at the present moment,
he will find the liberty and the privileges enjoyed by the people, to
be exactly proportioned to the extent to which general intelligence
and the knowledge of the word of God are diffused among them. What has
the sword ever effected for the redemption of mankind from tyranny? It
may have wrenched power from the hand of one party, but it has only
been to give it into the hand of another equally liable to abuse it.
Has it been torn from the hand of a lawless and merciless despot? It
has been given into the hands of an insolent and brutal soldiery, or
a superstitious mob, who soon trampled under foot that liberty which
had been purchased for them with the blood of their brethren. Every
revolution which has been effected by violence, affords proof of this.
It has been the blood of the martyr--the patient endurance and unshaken
fortitude of him who would rather yield up liberty and life itself,
than deny the truth--the peaceable, but persevering and indefatigable
missionary, whose exertions have been devoted to the spread of the
knowledge of God among men, who, by introducing religion and its
Sabbath, and bringing man into intercourse with his God, the great
Lord of all, to whom all are equally responsible, the governed and the
governor, the subject and the prince, the servant and his master; and
thus, by awakening in men a sense of their personal responsibility,
has aroused their minds to activity. It is the knowledge of their
responsibility--of the great truth that all must stand before the
judgment-seat of Christ, to give, each one, an account of the deeds
done in the body--which causes men to think and act for themselves,
and thus raises them above the subtlety and power of selfishness and
ambition.
Although the Sabbath comes laden with blessings for the sons of men,
yet let it never be forgotten, that he only whom the truth has made
free, he who has left the service of sin, to become the Lord’s free
man, doing the will of God from the heart, can fully appreciate or
enjoy, not only its spiritual, but even its merely temporal blessings.
He who has never tasted that God is good, who has never in joyful
confidence committed the salvation of his soul into the hand of Jesus,
will but abuse its benefits, neglect its duties, and despise its
privileges.
How often does Monday morning give painful evidence of the total
uselessness of the weekly rest to those who look upon it merely as a
day of rest from toil, and a season for recreation! Even the rest they
talk of is thrown away, and they are jaded and exhausted by folly and
intemperance. Monday finds them scarce fit for the labour of the day:
instead of the animal system being refreshed and health improved, the
body is abused, and disease engendered; while among those who, though
knowing nothing of the living power of religion, yet influenced by
the customs and opinions of society around them, show no small regard
for the Sabbath, how often are its blessed influences almost entirely
buried underneath the rubbish of mere ceremonial sanctity! No wonder,
if childhood, sternly commanded to assume the serious gravity of age,
through the long, weary, empty hours of an inactive Sabbath, should
imbibe a deep-rooted dislike to religion and its Sabbath. No wonder,
if, in families where it is thus observed, the minds of the young
should become disaffected to that religion, of which such an empty,
gloomy institution is viewed as a part; that, having received such a
false idea of religion, they should plunge headlong into the pleasures,
follies, and vices of the world, thinking that such lifeless and gloomy
exercises will better suit the weakness and infirmity of age, than
the fresh and buoyant activity of youth; and thus reap the results
of an irregular and intemperate life, in a shattered constitution and
depraved character. No wonder, if youth, coming forth from the bosom of
such families, should be easily deluded by sophistry, and, caught in
the snares of scepticism, should step into the ranks of unbelievers, or
sink to the fate of the criminal and the vicious.
He who blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, never meant that
that day, whose first morning beam fell upon the joyful activity of
a new and perfect creation; whose dawning light saw the _Son of man_
arise triumphant over death and the grave, should be spent in listless,
motionless silence, or in soulless, meaningless ceremony. No; holy
its hours indeed are, sanctified, set apart; not however to solemn,
gloomy, lifeless inactivity; but hallowed to rest and refreshment,
sacred to joy, set apart to active, cheerful, and strenuous exertion
for the improvement of ourselves and others in holiness, virtue, and
intelligence. Doubtless, thousands who have never felt the power of
the truth in an awakened conscience and a renewed heart, are reaping
many and important benefits from the Lord’s-day, in the more general
diffusion of knowledge, and the advancement of civilization, besides
the comfortable rest and refreshment it affords their bodies. But
they can only to a limited extent enjoy the beneficial influence of
the weekly rest, whether viewed as increasing their enjoyment in this
present life, or as fitting them for happiness hereafter.
While, then, considering it of the utmost importance, that this day
should be preserved from the encroachments of labour and amusement,
that working men should be protected by the law of their country in the
observance of it, and regarding it as of paramount importance, that
it be preserved in its unimpaired sanctity as the birthright of every
Briton,--I would earnestly, solemnly, and affectionately, urge upon
the attention of those who, seeking the improvement of the temporal
condition of the labouring population of our country, and aware of the
powerful influence which a proper observance of the Sabbath would have
in effecting their elevation, are endeavouring to call the attention
of the legislature to the subject,--that, here, legal enactments can
do but little; they may put down, to some extent, the more public and
glaring forms of Sabbath profanation, but this will only increase the
amount of secret desecration. Those who have no heart for the proper
observance of this day, may be prevented from spending it in certain
kinds of labour or amusement, railway travelling, pleasure excursions,
and such like: by being prevented from enjoying themselves in such
pursuits, however, they will be driven into the secret haunts of
dissipation and vice; and thus, although it is no doubt well, that,
where wickedness cannot be eradicated, it should be made ashamed to
show its head, yet comparatively little good can be effected by the
civil ruler, in promoting the cause of Sabbath observance. I would
entreat them to bear in mind, that it is only the truths of the Gospel
imparting spiritual life, implanting moral principle, bringing the will
of man into subjection to the will of his Creator, and awakening the
intellect, that can enable man to reap that full harvest of temporal
good from the weekly rest which it is so well fitted to afford him.
Let, then, all who would see man redeemed from ignorance and slavery,
vice and degradation--all who would see the working man refined in
manners and elevated in character and condition, exert their utmost
energy in the diffusion of knowledge, in the education of youth, but
above all, in calling the attention of men to Divine truth, to the
glad tidings of salvation; and for this purpose let them rejoice in,
and employ the Sabbath as connected with religion, as affording time
for spreading abroad the knowledge of God: this is the lever which is
to lift man from the degradation of the fall, and make him fit to be
the inhabitant of a new earth, wherein all the evils which at present
surround him shall be unknown.
What varied agencies is not the Sabbath calling into operation, to
press forward and give fresh impulse to the onward movement! Not
only is the stolid mind of the untaught workman aroused, impelling
motive and untiring energy imparted, to carry him on in the upward
path of self-improvement; but the sympathies of his nature are also
awakened, and, looking on the moral and intellectual degradation, and
the physical wretchedness around him, his heart is yearning over his
fellow-men, and the weekly rest affording him time, he is stretching
out the hand of a brother to those who are sunk in ignorance and
vice, he is pointing the upward path, and stimulating to the upward
movement. See that young man, whose daily earnings, perchance, are
needful, not merely for his own support, but it may be, for the support
of aged parents, or of young and helpless brothers and sisters; the
circumstances of whose early years had prevented his enjoying more
than the limited advantages of a common grammar-school education,
or, perhaps, not even allowed of his receiving so much as a common
school education, but whose knowledge has been picked up in Sabbath
classes, or at the fireside of hard-working parents, whose straitened
circumstances required that even in his boyhood he should strain every
nerve to assist them in supplying, by his labour, the wants of a young
and numerous family: he is not only walking steadfastly and firmly
himself in the path of improvement, but taking the lead, and urging on
his fellow-men, devoting his little hour of Sabbath rest, and Sabbath
leisure, not to mere repose, or sensual indulgence, but gathering
his fellow-men around him that he may reason with them out of the
Scriptures, or calling together, for instruction, a class of ragged,
untrained children, or wending his way to yonder wretched garret, or
that damp cellar, where want, disease, and vice have taken up their
abode together, that he may ascertain why that squalid child was absent
from the Sabbath-school class, and drop a word of encouragement to the
boy, or address a word of warning and entreaty to the parents.
Who has not felt convinced, on viewing scenes like these, agencies like
these called into operation, that it is the weekly rest in the hands
of living, active religion, which is destined to reach the very lowest
depths of society, to lift humanity from the degrading pollutions of
vice, and from the servile dependence and helplessness of ignorance;
and that to take from the children of toil the Lord’s-day, were to
take from them at once the means of self-improvement, and also the
opportunity of doing anything towards the improvement of others?
Let those, then, who seek the elevation and refinement of the labouring
population, do all that in them lies to spread among them the knowledge
of true religion and the observance of the Sabbath. Science may
advance, art and philosophy instruct those who have means and leisure
for their study; but of what avail would they ever become to labouring
men, did not Religion by her Sabbath open up the way for them? Yes;
Christianity is the pioneer, and they follow in its footsteps. Besides,
what is man, with his moral nature unimproved? His intellect may be
powerful and highly cultivated; he may be learned in art and science,
acquainted with all the properties of matter, and with every system
of philosophy, ancient and modern; he may be capable of bringing
creation, animate and inanimate, into subserviency to his pleasure and
convenience; the lightnings of heaven may, at his bidding, fly with
his message; and the hidden treasures of the earth may come forth to
the light of day: at the command of art and science, starting into
motion, he may be conveyed almost with the rapidity of thought, to his
desired destination; fire, water, and air, may accomplish his labour
for him; but, if his religious feelings are dormant or misdirected,
or if his moral nature is depraved, he is but the more capacitated to
spread destruction and misery around him; to be miserable in himself,
and a curse and a scourge to mankind. He can use, with more ability,
the subtlety and the arts of the impostor; he can, with more dexterity,
forge or use weapons of war, or set armies in battle array; or he may
be a more able and dangerous leader in riot and insurrection; a more
dexterous highwayman, robber, or assassin; but, without the cultivation
of his moral nature by religion, he is neither fitted to receive
happiness himself, nor impart it to others.
Religion not only awakens and cultivates man’s intellect, it also
subdues and governs his animal propensities, exalts and refines
his moral feelings, and by doing so, redeems him from much present
suffering, and opens to him inexhaustible treasures of enjoyment in
himself and others, impelling him to exert all the energies of his
nature, not in seeking merely his own, but in securing the well-being
of his fellow-men, making him more willing to impart than to exact,
more yielding than commanding, more ready to bear with, than to claim
forbearance--in a word, writing upon his heart, in living characters,
the truth that it is more blessed to give than to receive, and thus
putting an end to all strife, emulation, broils, and discord, and war
in every form, with all its attendant miseries.