{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_48182/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_48182","id":"gutenberg_48182","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/48182","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Religion/Spirituality","Sabbath","Scotland -- Religious life and customs","Sunday"],"text":"Transcriber's notes:\n\nText enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_).\n\nSmall capital text has been replaced with all capitals.\n\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n\n\n  THE SABBATH.\n\n\n  A PAPER\n\n  READ AT THE\n\n  CONFERENCE OF THE EVANGELICAL ALLIANCE,\n\n  HELD AT GENEVA, SEPTEMBER 2. 1861.\n\n\n  BY ANDREW THOMSON, D.D.,\n\n  EDINBURGH.\n\n\n  WITH PREFACE BY\n\n  THE REV J. C. RYLE, B.A., CHRIST CH., OXFORD,\n\n  STRADBROKE, SUFFOLK.\n\n  430th Thousand.\n\n\n  LONDON:\n\n  JAMES NISBET & CO., 21 BERNERS STREET.\n\n  EDINBURGH: ANDREW ELLIOT, 15 PRINCE'S STREET.\n\n  AND ALL BOOKSELLERS.\n\n  1863.\n\n  EDINBURGH: PRINTED BY JOHN GREIG & SON.\n\n\n\n\nPREFATORY NOTE BY REV. J. C. RYLE.\n\n\nI have been requested, as an English Clergyman, to preface Dr A.\nThomson's valuable paper on the Scottish Sabbath by a few recommendatory\nwords. I comply with the request with much pleasure, though I feel that\nthe paper needs no _imprimatur_ of mine.\n\nI am sensible, however, that there exists a certain amount of prejudice\nin many English minds against Scottish views of the Sabbath question.\nToo many Christians south of the Tweed are in the habit of regarding our\nnorthern brethren as \"legal,\" \"Judaizing,\" and \"extreme\" upon this\nsubject. In the matter of all the leading Evangelical doctrines, they\nprofess to admire their statements. In the matter of the Sabbath\nquestion, they say the Scotch \"go too far.\"\n\nI venture to think that this prejudice is not just. It is in fact a\nthorough \"prejudice,\" a judgment passed without examination, a prejudged\ndecision without any reasonable foundation. I believe that Scottish\nviews of the Sabbath are scriptural, reasonable, and practical. As a\nproof of my assertion, I earnestly request the attention of English\nChristians to the following paper. My own firm conviction is, that, in\nthe matter of Sabbath observance, Scotland has nothing to be ashamed of\nin her principles, and England has much to learn.\n\nI can only say that the paper which I have undertaken to preface appears\nto me to deserve a wide circulation and an attentive perusal. That it is\nwritten in a Scotch style, and is consequently not so well suited to our\nuneducated classes as a more popular and less argumentative production,\nare facts which I do not pretend to deny. But there are myriads of\nhard-headed, thinking English readers in the middle and upper sections\nof the lower classes--myriads of tradesmen in our great cities, and\nassistants in our great houses of business, to whom I think this paper\nis eminently calculated to be useful. It is to them that I heartily\ncommend it.\n\n\"My heart's desire and prayer to God\" is now, and ever shall be, that He\nwill bless this and every kindred effort to maintain the holiness of\nGod's day, and to raise higher the standard of Sabbath observance. The\nsubject is intimately connected with the best interests of the British\nchurches and the British nation. From a Continental Sabbath may Great\nBritain ever be delivered! There is but a gradual descent, after all,\nfrom \"No Sabbath\" to \"No God.\"\n\n  J. C. RYLE, B.A.\n  CHRIST'S CHURCH, OXFORD.\n\n  STRADBROKE VICARAGE, SUFFOLK,\n  _November 1. 1862_.\n\n\"The first creature of God in the works of the Days, was the light of\nthe sense; the last was the light of reason; and His Sabbath work ever\nsince is the illumination of His Spirit.\"--_Bacon._\n\n\"Men should not be idle, but busy on the Sabbath-day, about the soul as\nmen on the week-day about the body.\"--_Wycliffe._\n\n\n\n\nTHE SABBATH.\n\n\nI have been requested to make some statements to the Alliance in\nreference to the observance of the Sabbath in Scotland; and I think I\nshall best accomplish the task committed to me, by presenting, in as\ncondensed a form as possible, a view of general Scottish opinion on this\nvital subject, some details regarding our modern Scottish experience,\nwith notices of the principal dangers to which I believe the cause of\nthe Sabbath in Scotland to be at this time exposed. In doing this while\nI shall have to confirm the impressions of many brethren in other\ncountries, there are also some misapprehensions which I am glad to be\nfavoured with such an opportunity of dispelling.\n\n1. _It is true, then, that our ministers and Christian people in\nScotland, almost without exception, believe in the Divine authority and\nperpetual obligation of the Sabbath-day._--They base their respect for\nit, not upon any ecclesiastical appointment, however venerable, or upon\nany time-honoured custom, however ancient, but upon the conviction that\nit is a benignant and unrevoked gift of Heaven to the human race. Ask\nany intelligent Christian throughout Scotland, no matter to which of our\nevangelical denominations he belongs, on what ground he keeps holy the\nweekly Sabbath, and he will tell you that he does this because he\nbelieves that it was given to man in Eden--an institution not for a\nnation or for a limited period, but for the world and for all\ntime,--that it was republished to the Jews from Mount Sinai, not in the\nmidst of transient ceremonial appointments, but \"enshrined amid the\neternal verities of the moral law,\"--and that at the resurrection of\nChrist, while the mere day of its observance was changed by apostolic\nsanction, it entered on a new course, and became linked with new\nassociations--the memorial, from that hour, of completed redemption as\nwell as of completed creation. And in this fact, more than in any other,\nwe find the secret strength of our Sabbath observance. From the peculiar\nconstitution of the Scottish mind, as well as from the social condition\nof Scotland, the Sabbath would not stand its ground for many years were\nit based upon a foundation less stable, or surrounded by a sanction less\nsacred than a Divine command; and I affirm with confidence, that one\neffect of the re-discussion of the whole question of the Sabbath, which\nhas been forced upon its friends in Scotland during recent years, has\nbeen to make the convictions of our Christian people regarding its\nDivine authority more deep, more intelligent, and therefore more\nimmovable.\n\n2. _A second distinguishing feature in the Sabbath-keeping of Scotland\nconsists in the fact, that we consider the entire Sabbath to be\nspecially and equally consecrated to religion._--The length of the\nsacred day we believe to be just the same as the length of common days.\nWe know nothing of the distinction of \"canonical hours,\" as if one part\nof the day were in any degree more hallowed than another; and all such\ndistinctions we are accustomed to regard as a pernicious and\npresumptuous tampering with Divine rule, a narrowing of our charter, not\nindeed of inglorious idleness, but of holy rest. But while we look upon\nevery part of the Sabbath as a dedicated thing, in the sense of our\nabstaining from all such secular employments and recreations as would be\nlawful on other days, its religious exercises are wisely and happily\ndiversified; and in this allotment of the Sabbath's holy work, very much\nis left to the discretion of individuals and of churches. This\nstatement, I believe, may do something to remove one injurious and\nprevalent mistake regarding our Scottish manner of keeping the Lord's\nday. Were I to describe a well-spent Sabbath-day, such as is spent by\nthousands of men in Scotland who are the salt of our land, and the life\nand glory of our churches--such as was spent by the best of the English\nPuritans two hundred years since, often leading them to confess, at the\nclose of such a day, \"Surely if this be not heaven, it must be the way\nto it;\"--I should paint it in some such manner as the following:--The\ngood man rises from his slumbers to realise the fact that it is God's\nday of sacred rest, and to open his mind to its devout associations.\nThere is an unwonted stillness in the streets, and in the fields all\naround him, which that day only brings. The care of the body is not\nunheeded, and there is even a double attention to cleanliness and to\ntaste in his attire; secret devotion is more prolonged than on other\ndays, as it is more undisturbed; the family is in due time summoned\naround the frugal meal, it being perhaps the only day in the week in\nwhich they all meet at the same board; kind words and of affectionate\ncounsels are interchanged; events in the family history are alluded to,\nand made the theme of edifying reflection; family-worship follows, and\non this occasion the little family choir is unbroken, and sends up its\nfull-voiced praise to heaven. The time has come for joining the\ncompanies that are already crowding to the houses of prayer. A brief\ninterval, and a second frugal meal follows, and there is another ascent\nto the temple to worship God. Then comes the happy Sabbath evening, in\nwhich the Christian parents gather their children around them for\nreligious instruction, and for recalling and reviewing the lessons of\nthe sanctuary. Domestic affection has time to expatiate and grow in that\nSabbath atmosphere; the Bible and other religious books are read; psalms\nand hymns are joyfully sung. Mercy joins her work with that of piety;\nthe sick and the sorrowful are visited and comforted; neglected children\nare taught in the Sabbath-school; unreclaimed masses are evangelised in\nthe mission district. The family once more re-assembles at the evening\nmeal, and the Sabbath is closed with family worship, meditation, and\nsecret devotion; and as the members of the household pass away to their\nnightly rest, it is felt that its hours have not been wearisome or\nunprofitable, but that they have in truth been all too short for the\nblessed work that was to be done in them.\n\n3. It will not be wondered at, after these details, that in Scotland we\nclaim the entire Sabbath for religion, not only because it forms part of\nour most sacred convictions that it has been so conferred upon us by the\nunrepealed act of Heaven, but also because _we are of opinion that,\nwithin narrower limits than this, the Sabbath must ever fail to work\nout, to its proper extent, all its beneficent designs_. Anything less\nthan this would be something like placing the sun under a partial\neclipse, which you yet expected to ripen the fruits of the world.\nSuppose the period of the Sabbath to be restricted, as some would wish,\nto the hours of public worship, and men suddenly to pass from business\nor pleasure to the sanctuary, and then to pass with equal suddenness\nfrom the sanctuary to business or pleasure again, even the benefit of\nthe season of public worship would be more than half lost. Nature in\nmost men is incapable of violent transitions; it must have its dawn and\nits twilight; and were our Sabbath to consist only of the time that we\nspent in the temple, the world would be far more likely to introduce its\ncorrupting and debasing influence into the Church, than the Church to\nsend out its healing streams upon the world. It is no mere theory or\nconjecture this; for the experiment was actually tried in England in the\nreign of our Sixth James, in the publication of \"The Book of Sports,\"\nwhen it was sought to make games and morris-dances alternate on Sabbaths\nwith public religious worship; and the effect was to neutralise the\npower of the pulpit, and to deluge the land with frivolity, irreligion,\nand vice. There must be the preparation and attuning of the mind for\npublic devotion and instruction, by secret prayer and meditation; there\nmust be the recollection and the holy repose of the soul afterwards;\nthere must be the hallowed intermingling of deeds of charity with\nexercises of piety, and room for the revival and the play of home\naffections, if the Sabbath is to shed all the good which the beneficence\nof Heaven has put into it, upon churches and nations.\n\nAnd if there is need for such a Sabbath in any country, and among any\npeople, even were they as pastoral and contemplative in their daily\nhabits as Abraham in Canaan, or as Moses when tending the flocks of\nJethro, it is immeasurably more indispensable to the intellectual and\nreligious wellbeing of men living in old countries such as Scotland or\nEngland, where over-population has unduly crowded the market of labour,\nand given rise to an unhealthy competition, in which men often need to\nstrain their wits and their energies to the utmost in order simply to\nlive. Nothing will save a people in such a community from an undue\nmental strain unfavourable alike to intellectual and moral health, and\neven from being wrought in great numbers to death, but the weekly\nrecurrence of a day which is fenced off and guarded by Divine\nprescription, and attachment to which is deeply rooted in the religious\nconvictions and the gratitude of the people. There are tens of thousands\nof our industrial classes, and even multitudes among our men of\nbusiness, who seldom see the younger members of their families, except\non Sabbath-day. And to what a debasing monotony of toil would the lives\nof these men speedily be reduced, were it not for the anticipation of\nthe coming day of hallowed rest, in which the artisan should know no\nmaster, and the master himself should be disturbed by no postman's rap\nor din of business, and should exchange his ledger for his Bible, and\nthe hardening influences of commercial competition and rivalry for the\nsoftening and purifying influences of home and of the house of God. On\nthis day, our sons of toil stand erect in the full consciousness of\ntheir manhood and of their heavenly birthright; and shall the day which\nbrings such privilege and blessing to man be described as a restraint?\nIt is such a restraint as the shutting of the door of the ark was to\nNoah, which kept the deluge out, and the patriarch safe. It is like the\nfence of flowers which we may imagine to have been drawn around Paradise\nwhen Adam dwelt in it; and to many a wearied and wasted labourer, when\nthis day has returned with healing in its wings, it has seemed as if the\nprimeval curse was suspended, and Eden threw open its closed gates for a\nseason to receive the wanderer back.\n\n4. It is true, then, speaking of the people of Scotland generally, that\nwe rest our Sabbath observance on Divine appointment, and that we cling\ntenaciously to a whole Sabbath. This is our crown, which I trust no one\nwill ever take from us, and which, indeed, can only be lost in a\ncommunity of free men, by being voluntarily and guiltily abdicated. But\nin what I have hitherto said, I have spoken more of our Scottish\nprinciples than of our Scottish practice; and when I come to speak of\nthis, _I find myself constrained to protest against two opposite\nrepresentations that have been given of our Sabbath-keeping_, the one in\nthe form of injurious caricature, and the other in a style of\nover-colouring that very greatly exceeds the sober reality. Of all the\nbold pictures in which certain of our modern novelists have indulged,\nthere is none in which they have allowed their imaginations a more wild\nand unwarranted licence, than in the pictures with which they have\nentertained their readers of a Sabbath in a Scottish family. These\npictures have been creations rather than caricatures. And there have\nbeen travellers who have become writers of fiction when they have\ntouched on this subject, and who have quite equalled the novel-writers\nin the liberties they have taken with the simple truth. One writer,\npresuming, we suppose, on the safe distance of his readers from the\nscene which he describes, gravely informs them that in the city of\nEdinburgh all the window-blinds are kept carefully closed during the\nwhole of the Sabbath, as if to attemper the gloom of the house to the\ngloomy state of mind of its inmates, and describes the little children\nas cowering under a vague sense of awe, and dreading to indulge even an\ninnocent smile. Men who write thus may safely be affirmed never to have\nspent a single Sabbath-day in a religious family in Scotland. That the\nSabbath is in no instance presented in a repulsive form before the\nyoung, by their rather being told what they are not to do, than of the\nblessed work to which the Sabbath summons them, it would be too much to\naffirm; for what institution of heaven does not occasionally suffer from\nhuman handling? But our danger, even in Scotland, in these days, does\nnot arise from over-restraint or scrupulosity; and we speak from long\nand happy experience, when we assert that our Sabbath-keeping in\nScotland is usually marked by a calm cheerfulness without frivolity, and\nthat on that day, above all others, streams of gladness flow through\nmyriads of hearts which have their secret and their fountain-head not in\nthe exclusion of religion, but in the more complete turning of the mind\nto religious thoughts and associations.\n\n          \"Then wisdom's self\n  Oft seeks to sweet, retired solitude,\n  Where, with her best nurse, Contemplation,\n  She plumes her feathers, and lets go her wings,\n  That in the various bustle of resort\n  Were all too ruffled, and sometimes impaired.\"\n\nHow is it but on this account, that Scotsmen who have emigrated to our\ncolonies have in so many instances written of their Sabbath evenings at\nhome as among the most \"sunny memories\" of their youth? And it is a fact\nof much significance that an old ecclesiastical law of Scotland\nexpressly provides that a religious fast shall never be held on the\nLord's day, for this special reason, that the Sabbath was intended to be\na day of joy.\n\n5. _On the other hand, we are bound to acknowledge that there have been\nforeign brethren who have visited our island-shores, that have traced\nthe picture of our Scottish Sabbath in colours greatly brighter than the\nreality._--They have only seen half the truth, and therefore they have\nonly told the half. As they have beheld the streams of our church-going\npeople crowding along the streets of our cities to our numerous temples,\nthey have failed to reflect how even the best gifts of heaven, the\nSabbath and the sunlight, are the most ready to be abused, and that, at\nthat very moment, there were thousands loitering at home in indolence,\nand even not a few, perhaps, rioting in intemperance. At the same time,\nwith all these sombre exceptions, that are necessary to be introduced as\nshadows into any truthful picture of a Scottish Sabbath, we do not\nwonder that good and intelligent visitors from continental countries\nhave been impressed and delighted by the spectacle of such a day in\nScotland. These are but exceptions after all. And there is surely\nsomething of high moral sublimity in the sight of a whole people, once\nin every week, ceasing from their business and their toil to celebrate\nthe great facts of Creation and Redemption--\"the plough left to sleep in\nthe furrow,\" the loom motionless, the anvil silent, the mine and the\nfactory tenantless, and the whole monotony of common life turned and\nelevated into a kind of sacred praise. This solemn pause over the wide\nextent of Scotland, seen still more perfectly in her rural districts\nthan in her great cities, strikes us as the nearest approach we have\never known to national worship. And we do not wonder that all the great\npoets of our land,--our uninspired prophets, whose work it is to reflect\nand to idealise our purest national feelings,--should so often have\n\"sung the Sabbath,\" and that the Sabbath pictures of our national poet\nBurns in his \"Cottar's Saturday Night,\" though, alas, he seldom\nconsecrated his great gifts to religion, shine as the most beautiful\npassages in a poem that seems marked for immortality.\n\n6. It is not, however, as a mere sublime picture that we value at so\nhigh a rate the Sabbath-honouring habits of the Scottish people, but\nbecause _we are convinced that the practice nourishes and sustains the\nvery roots of our national life, and keeps pure and deep the streams of\nour national morality and religion_.--It is not the least valuable\nresult of the recent discussion of the Sabbath question in Scotland,\nthat it has served to elicit and accumulate a mass of statistics\ndemonstrating the close connection between the Sabbath observance and\nthe religious prosperity of our people, as well as illustrating in a\nmost interesting manner what has aptly enough been termed _the\nphysiology of the Sabbath-day_. Thus, if we look through three centuries\nof the religious history of either portion of our island, it will be\nfound that our Sabbath-keeping periods have uniformly been those in\nwhich the Church has been \"as a well-watered garden.\" The two things\nhave risen or fallen with each other, and have exerted mutual influence,\nas may be seen by comparing the age of Cromwell with that of either\nCharles. Inquiries on a very large scale, embracing all our principal\nprofessions and trades, were recently made in reference to the moral\ncondition of those connected with each; and it was found that, from the\ncostermonger and the bargeman upwards, the most Sabbath-breaking were\nalso the most morally sunken and degraded. And our superintendents of\npolice will tell you, that persons who are in the habit of honouring the\nSabbath, and frequenting a place of worship, are more careful in their\npecuniary transactions, \"more careful also in their language, more\neconomical in their arrangements at home, more affectionate and humane,\nand in every respect superior persons by far to those of contrary\nhabits.\" Some who do not look with favour upon our Sabbatic rest, are\naccustomed to point to the drunkenness which exists among a certain\nclass of our Scottish population; but it is not our Sabbath-keepers who\nare our drunkards. Some few years since, the moral statistics of certain\ncongregations in Scotland, including a membership of thirty thousand,\nwere collected, and it was found that an average of only two out of\nevery thousand of those members had in the course of a year been charged\nwith the sin of intemperance. And what is thus found to hold in the\ninstance of large communities, is equally true in the case of\nindividuals. So long as a Scottish youth respects the Sabbath and\nfrequents the church, there is good hope regarding him, for he is coming\nunder weekly influences that keep him right; but when these practices\ncease or become fitful, it is sure that virtue has begun to decay at the\nroots, if it be not indeed already dead; and Hogarth, one of our\ngreatest painters, was therefore true to nature and experience, when, in\nhis \"Rake's Progress,\" he represented him in his first downward step to\nruin as gambling on a tombstone in a churchyard while public worship was\nproceeding in the church near at hand. One of the sages of modern\ninfidelity, Voltaire, who at one time dwelt on the shores of your\nbeautiful lake, declared that he despaired of extinguishing Christianity\nso long as men assembled on a particular day of each week for Christian\nworship and instruction. And his remark shewed that he had discovered\nthe value of the Sabbath to the Church; for public worship will never be\ncommon among a people where there is not the recognised sanctity of a\nSabbath to preserve it. And let it never be forgotten, that it is far\nmore easily preserved than recovered, for when any portion of its time\nis invaded, the habits of a people soon shape themselves to the new\norder of things. A spadeful of earth may prevent the inundation in\nHolland, but when once the sea has broken in, the strength of a million\nof men may fail to roll back its destructive waters.\n\n7. _And if possible, the facts that have been supplied by the testimony\nof medical and other scientific men have been still more valuable and\ntriumphant._--Recent physiological inquiries have placed it beyond doubt\nthat man needs for repairing the waste of his body not only the nightly\nrepose which night brings him, but, in addition, the weekly rest of a\nseventh day; and it has been noticed that in many of the industrial\ndepartments, especially in the more skilled and delicate forms of\nindustry, there was a perceptible deterioration in what was produced in\nthe last days of the week. Travellers on long journeys who have \"rested\nthe first day of the week according to the commandment,\" have\noutstripped travellers who pursued their journey on the seventh day, and\nhave reached the end of their journey in far better health and spirits.\nThe railway system itself, which, with all its other high advantages,\nhas done not a little to disturb the integrity of our Sabbath rest, has\nstrangely supplied us with valuable corroboration on this matter; for\nduring the period in which our principal railways were in course of\nconstruction in Scotland and England, it was found that the work which\nthose who laboured on Sabbath executed in seven days was generally less\nin amount and worse in execution than that done by sober, orderly,\nSabbath-keeping men in six days.\n\nAnd the same remark is applicable to labourers with the head as with the\nhand; for in these days we must extend the phrase, \"working men,\" far\nbeyond the comparatively narrow region of the industrial arts. The\nstatesman or the barrister who does not allow himself the weekly pause\nin his round of mental labour which the Sabbath of God offers him, soon\nfinds nature punishing him for his disregard of its great laws; and\ninstances are not rare, and some of them stand out as beacons in our\nmodern biography, in which such a course has carried him that followed\nit, in the very noon-tide of his life, to the maniac's cell or the\nsuicide's grave; while many a noble mind has retained its spring and\nfreshness, and has been able to \"serve its generation\" to the last, by\nallowing the Sabbath to interpose its hallowed associations and\nexercises in the midst of its common and absorbing studies. Our great\nColeridge strongly and beautifully said, \"I feel as if God, by giving\nthe Sabbath, had given fifty-two springs in the year;\" and Isaac Taylor,\na very voluminous author, and one of the most popular and philosophical\nof our theological writers, gives the following as the testimony of his\nlong experience: \"I am prepared to affirm that to the studious\nespecially, and whether younger or older, a Sabbath well spent--spent in\nhappy exercises of the heart, devotional and domestic--a Sabbath given\nto the soul, is the best of all means of refreshment to the mere\nintellect.\"\n\nThere is a point, moreover, at which the physiology of this great\nsubject touches closely on its moral and religious bearings, for it has\nbeen found that physical weariness leads to mental lassitude, and that\nmental lassitude indisposes the soul to moral considerations. Nor would\nit be easy to calculate to what an extent the recurrence of the Sabbath,\nwhere its hours have been turned to their proper and appointed uses, has\nbeen of moral advantage to our commercial men and our merchant princes,\nchecking the fever of reckless speculation, restoring the moral balance\nof the mind, and \"winding up the soul, which the body had poised down,\nto a higher degree of heavenliness.\" \"A Sunday in solitude,\" said one of\nthe greatest English statesmen of the last age, \"never failed to restore\nme to myself.\" Facts like these, which might be almost indefinitely\nmultiplied, do more than demonstrate the inestimable value of the\nSabbath: they appear to me to suggest, on their own independent grounds,\nthat an institution possessing such wise and benignant adaptations to\nour complex nature, must have been appointed by Him that made us and who\n\"knows our frame;\" and that \"while the Sabbath was made _for_ man, it\nwas not made _by_ him.\" A great writer on natural religion has founded a\nbeautiful argument for the existence and unity of God, on the adaptation\nof day and night to the physical nature of man: might not an argument of\nequal soundness and force for the Divine origin of the Sabbath, be\nfounded on its adaptation to our physical, intellectual, and spiritual\nnature?\n\n8. But while it is unquestionable that the Sabbath argument has gained a\nlarge and permanent addition to its force from the experience and\ndiscussions of the last twenty years in Scotland, I have already said\nenough to apprise you that _this divine and truly beneficent institution\nis not without its enemies and its dangers_. I shall be forgiven when I\nexpress my fear that the increased influx of persons from other\ncountries in which \"the day of the Lord\" is less honoured and hallowed,\nhas had some effect in lowering the standard of its observance among\nourselves.--I do not think that the arguments of ultra-spiritualists,\nwho tell us that every day should be a Sabbath, has had much effect in\nmisleading any who were not already willing to be misled. The device\nwas too transparently shallow to do much harm where it had the\ncharacteristic shrewdness of the Scottish mind to deal with it. For why,\nit was answered, on the same principle, might it not be said that men\nshould be always praying; and that therefore it was unnecessary to have\nfixed times and places for our secret devotions, and that we ought to\ndispense with the use of words. It was noticed, moreover, that if things\nwere not sometimes solemnly done, they were likely to be never done, and\nthat \"every day a Sabbath\" came practically to mean \"no Sabbath at\nall.\"--At one period the railway system, which attempted to introduce\nwith it railway travelling and traffic on the Lord's day, threatened to\ndo violence to our religions convictions and national habits, and to\nintroduce among us a wide-spread and constantly-growing mischief. But\nthis plague was speedily stayed. The religious traditions of our\ncommunity proved in most instances too strong for the cupidity of men\nwho seemed prepared to sacrifice the highest interests, and to trample\non the most sacred feelings of a whole community, for the sake of a\nlarger annual dividend. The majority of our railways in Scotland do not\nrun trains on Sabbath at all; and this is found to operate with immense\ngain to the public morals, with no inconvenience to trade or commerce,\nor even pecuniary loss to the proprietors of those stupendous\nundertakings.\n\n9. But there is an influence at work which has already in some degree\ninvaded our Sabbath-keeping in Scotland, and which I fear is working far\nmore extensive and serious moral havoc in England. _I refer to the\nattempt which is made in so many places, and by so many parties, to use\nthe day which has been given for sacred rest and religious worship, as a\nday of entertainment and amusement._--Picture galleries, Crystal\npalaces, museums of nature and art, or romantic scenes to which men can\nbe carried in crowds by Sunday excursion-trains, are sought to be\nsubstituted for visits to the house of prayer, and for Christian\ninstruction and worship. The argument for this insidious and perilous\nexchange is sometimes put in a kind of religious phraseology, as if\nthese visits to beautiful scenes in nature were only the introduction to\nanother kind of worship, and as if gazing upon the master-pieces of\nhuman art in painting, or sculpture, or architecture, exercised a\npurifying and elevating influence on the mind; and sometimes again it is\ndressed in the form of a spurious philanthropy, though it is found that\nthose who are the most earnest advocates for the Crystal Palace or the\nSabbath excursion-train, generally expect to derive pecuniary advantage\nfrom the practice. There never was an argument more triumphantly met by\nsound philosophy, or more completely refuted by experience. There is no\ndenying, indeed, that visits to high works of art, to objects of\ncuriosity, or to beautiful scenes in the natural world, may at their\nown time, and in their own place, be beneficial to the busiest and the\npoorest. But those who imagine that any of these things are capable, in\nany degree, of being a substitute for the weekly-recurring exercises of\nChristian worship, and instruction in the great truths of divine\nrevelation, are strangely ignorant of the greatest wants and necessities\nof man. Who ever heard of looking upon pictures and images, however much\nthey might breathe with genius, transforming the vile to pure, the\nearthly to divine! It is not by such appliances as these that the heart\nof any man has ever been made anew. The fact is, it is rather the\n\u251c\u017dsthetic than the moral part of our nature that is influenced by them\nat all. They refine, but they cannot transform. They may \"form the\ncapital of the column, but not its base.\" The city of Munich contains\none of the grandest picture-galleries in Europe, and it is also one of\nthe most demoralized and debased of our European communities. The\nbrigands around Rome were accustomed at the Carnival to visit the\npicture-galleries in that city, and many shewed high appreciation and\ndiscrimination in judging of the works both of ancient and of modern\npainters, but these influences never succeeded in wooing one of them\nfrom his life of violence and crime. And if the history of ancient\nGreece in its decay reads one lesson to the world more loudly than\nanother, it is this, that refinement of taste may be associated in the\nsame individual and people with the greatest debasement and corruption\nof morals.\n\nAnd experience in our own island confirms us in the assertion, that\nthese things are impotent for the regeneration of a people; and that\nwhen they are engrafted on the Sabbath, and made the substitute for its\nreligious and proper services, they tend in the reverse direction. The\ngin-palace soon plants itself around these places of public\nentertainment and amusement, and finds in them a smooth and fascinating\npathway to its snares; and few spectacles in our land are more riotous,\nmore debased, more miserable, or more alarming as regards the future of\nour country, than a Sunday excursion-train, when it comes back and\nempties upon a city its pleasure-seekers and worshippers of nature. It\nis well known to masters, that such men, depressed by the reaction of\nriot and excitement, seldom return to their labours on Monday along with\nthe tradesman who has turned his Sabbath to its proper and sacred uses.\nNor is it difficult to foresee that if once the Sabbaths in Scotland and\nEngland were generally given to pleasure-seeking, they would ere long be\nbought up by commercial cupidity and enterprise, and the career of the\nworking-man would resemble that of Samson, first sitting on the lap of\npleasure, then bound and groaning in intellectual darkness and moral\nnight, and ending his retributive course by drawing down upon himself\nand upon those who had enslaved him the pillars of our social edifice.\n\"The mere animal,\" says the late Hugh Miller, \"that has to pass six days\nof the week in hard labour, benefits greatly by a seventh day of mere\nanimal rest and enjoyment: the repose, according to its nature, proves\nof signal use to it, just because _it is_ repose according to its\nnature. But man is not a mere animal: what is best for the ox and the\nass is not best for him; and in order to degrade him into a poor\nunintellectual slave, over whom tyranny, in its caprice, may trample\nroughshod, it is but necessary to tie him down, animal-like, during his\nsix working-days, to hard, engrossing labour, and to convert the seventh\ninto a day of frivolous unthinking relaxation.\"\n\nBut we believe that the heart of Scotland generally is sound and\nenlightened on the Divine authority and the inestimable value of the\nSabbath-day. To our minds it stands sacredly associated with the\ngreatest events in human history, and in the intercourse of God with\nman--the completed handiwork of Almighty power, when God looked around\nHim upon the young and unfallen world, and pronounced all to be\ngood--the giving of the Divine law from the sacred mount amid the signs\nof the present Deity--and the rising of our Redeemer from the grave, and\nthe rising with Him of the hope of our world. We are a free and happy\npeople, we have conquered the ruggedness of our soil, and coped\nsuccessfully with our ungenial climate; but it is to our religion that\nwe owe our freedom, for who can enslave a people that fear God? and we\nregard our Sabbath as the bulwark of our godliness. It is our Tabor, on\nwhich we ascend weekly and meet with celestial visitants; our Jacob's\nladder on which we climb to heaven's gate; the shield and nutriment of\nour domestic affections, it keeps the heart of our households warm and\npure. It is not to be abolished, but extended; and even when it passes\naway at the end of time, it will not go out in whirlwind or tempest, but\n\n      \"As sets the morning-star, which goes\nNot down behind the darkened west, nor hides\nObscured among the tempests of the sky,\nBut melts away into the light of heaven.\"","title":"The Sabbath: A Paper Read at the Conference of the Evangelical Alliance, Held at Geneva, September 2. 1861","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":6258}