{"collection":"philosophy-ethics","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_62202/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_62202","id":"gutenberg_62202","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/62202","summary":null,"tags":["Category: History - British","Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Crystal Palace (Sydenham, London, England)","Sunday","Sunday legislation"],"text":"Transcribed from the [1853?] Arthur Hall, Virtue, & Co. edition by David\nPrice, email ccx074@pglaf.org using scans from the British Library.\n\n                      [Picture: Public domain cover]\n\n\n\n\n\n                                   THE\n                       SABBATH, THE CRYSTAL PALACE,\n                             AND THE PEOPLE.\n\n\n                                * * * * *\n\n               \u201cGO YE, AND LEARN WHAT THAT MEANETH, I WILL\n                      HAVE MERCY AND NOT SACRIFICE.\u201d\n\n                                * * * * *\n\n                                    BY\n                        JAMES BALDWIN BROWN, A.B.,\n                  MINISTER OF CLAYLANDS CHAPEL, LONDON.\n\n                                * * * * *\n\n                                * * * * *\n\n                                * * * * *\n\n                                 LONDON:\n                       PUBLISHED FOR THE AUTHOR, BY\n               ARTHUR HALL, VIRTUE, & CO., PATERNOSTER ROW.\n                                MDCCCLIII.\n\n                            _Price Sixpence_.\n\n                                * * * * *\n\n\n\n\nTHE SABBATH, THE CRYSTAL PALACE, AND THE PEOPLE.\n\n\nTHE relation between the Church of Christ and human society has long been\nill-defined and unsettled.  The Church has to present to society, in its\nstruggles and sufferings, an aspect in which the kindliness of human\nsympathy and interest is blent with the severity of truth; and this is\nalways difficult.  Between worldly compliances on the one hand, and\nbigoted formalities on the other, it is hard to strike the mean.  Between\nthe two extremes the Church is prone to alternate.  This question,\u2014\u201cThe\nopening of the Crystal Palace during a portion of the Lord\u2019s Day,\u201d\ndemands the statement of the feeling and thought of the Church upon this\nsubject at the present time.  The spirit of a party is quite as\nsignificant as its acts and expressions, for that spirit is a living\nfountain, out of which other acts and feelings will flow forth; and as\nthe utterance of the mind of the Church upon this great question will\nprobably determine the character of its relation to, and influence on\nsociety for some years to come, we should watch most carefully, not over\nour words and deeds only, but over the spirit in which we address\nourselves to this discussion.  We must be prepared either to reform or\nre-affirm our first principles, as to the relation between the Church and\nthe human world\u2014for this is, emphatically, a question of first\nprinciples; it has been dealt with too much in detail; we must look to\nthe foundations if we would settle it aright.  Nor is it a matter of\nmerely casual and momentary importance to which party we attach\nourselves, and what cry we raise.  The party will do more work on us\npersonally than we shall do for the party.  It is possible (it has been\nso before, it may be so again) that we may be taking for ourselves and\nfor the Church many backward steps, by joining ourselves unthinkingly to\nthose who, whether right or wrong, certainly are most loud and dogmatic\nin their tone.  It is possible, that by calmly taking our stand on a\nprinciple which has but few supporters, we may find ourselves, though we\nappear to stand alone on earth, in holy fellowship with the clear-eyed\nwatchers of all earth\u2019s transactions, who bend over heaven\u2019s blue cope to\nregard us, and with the God of truth and love.  Therefore let us watch\nand pray while we thoughtfully consider this question, for it is a solemn\nmatter, and affects the weal of the Church and the world, and our own\nwith them, far more deeply than at first appears.\n\nBefore entering on the argument, I may be allowed to state, in a few\nwords, the reasons which have induced me to place my thoughts upon this\nsubject before the public.  At the last meeting of the Congregational\nUnion, I took occasion to state my objection to a proposed petition from\nthe meeting against the opening of the Crystal Palace on the Lord\u2019s day.\nI was, at the time, wholly unsupported, but have since found reason to\nbelieve that there was a large amount of hearty and intelligent sympathy\nwith my objections which did not express itself.  I wrote to the editor\nof the _British Banner_, stating the fact, and developing more fully my\nviews.  Since the publication of my letter, I have been subjected, in the\npages of religious papers, to misconstructions and misrepresentations,\nespecially from anonymous correspondents.  This was, of course, to be\nexpected; but hardly, perhaps, the singular want of comprehension, both\nof my views and of their own, which some of the letter-writers displayed.\nHaving an intense dislike to a newspaper warfare, I felt it due to myself\nand many of my brethren to state calmly my views, and to advocate them to\nthe best of my ability.  Whence this address to Christian people, which I\noffer with sincerity and earnestness, trusting to their Christian charity\nand candour to give a fair consideration to the principles and\nconclusions which it sets forth.  I have thrown my argument into the form\nof an address, which, for many reasons, I prefer.\n\nThe question to be considered in the following pages is this:\u2014\u201cIs it wise\nand right for us, as Christians, to offer any opposition to the opening\nof the Crystal Palace during a portion of the Lord\u2019s day?\u201d  I trust that\nall into whose hands this may come, are of one mind as to the value and\nimportance of the Sabbath.  But there are those who take the negative on\nthis question, who are as loyal to the Sabbath, as honestly desirous to\nhave it better and more extensively observed, as the straitest of those\nwho have set themselves forth as its special defenders.  In making this\nclear, it will be needful to examine the views of the great parties who\nhave expressed themselves against interference in this matter, but on\ngrounds with which I cannot accord.\n\nThere are many who take no part in the protest of, at any rate, a large\nportion of the religious public, simply on the ground that an appeal to\nGovernment, on any subject involving religious principles and\nconsiderations, is undesirable in itself, and dangerous, inasmuch as it\nmay be made the precedent for future interference, in some more serious\nform.  Gallio is their model ruler, a man \u201cwho cared for none of these\nthings.\u201d  They hold that the State should have no thought and no voice on\nsuch matters.  That such a movement as that of the Crystal Palace Company\nmay safely be left to stand or fall by its own merits.  If it be good,\nthey are sure it will come to something; if bad, they have a happy faith\nthat it will come to nought.  No doubt, such theories have a strong\nintrenchment in the order of a ruling Providence.  Somehow, good things\ndo live, bad things do die, notwithstanding man\u2019s efforts to the\ncontrary; but still, bad things are long a-dying, and God expects us\nall\u2014rulers, too, according to the measure of their rule\u2014to help to end\nthem, and get them decently buried out of sight.  Had there been a\npetition to Government to open all the beer-shops in the kingdom all day\nand all night on the Sabbath, and the Government said yea, should we dare\nto sit calmly by, and trust that the evil would cure itself?  Is it not\nthe business of Government to help to protect, by governmental effort and\naction, the whole community from the effects of the worst passions and\nmost degrading views of the community?  Though, no doubt, the highest\ncondition of a State is that in which a healthy, moral, public feeling\nrenders such interference needless.  We have hardly yet arrived at this\nUtopia of politics, and this excessive jealousy of Government, in the\npresent condition of England, obstructs many useful measures.  The\nobjection to Government expressing itself on this subject seems to be a\nradically unsound one.  The question must be discussed on quite other\nprinciples, if a healthy settlement of it is to be made.\n\nThere is a second party, which refuses to join in the protest through\nindifference to the Sabbath, or latitudinarian views of its nature and\nclaims.  To them, the Sabbath appears to be simply a human institution; a\nthing invented by priests for priestly purposes; an enslavement of man\u2019s\nfree spirit; a formalism which mars the pure essence of devotion, makes\nit a thing of times and seasons, and desecrates every other day that it\nmay consecrate one.  \u201cEvery day is a Sabbath,\u201d according to this\ndoctrine; to attach holiness to any particular day, is to rob all the\nrest of the holiness which belongs to them.  To tell a man that he can\nworship best in sanctuaries in Sabbath seasons, is to fetter his right\nand liberty of worship at all times and places; and, in short, the\nSabbath is regarded as the very key-stone of that arch of formalism on\nwhich the Church rears the superstructure of her power.  Such is the\nlatitudinarian view of the Sabbath; and, of course, those who hold it,\nrejoice in the prospect of the opening of the Crystal Palace on that day.\nIn order to discern the falseness of their views, we must glance at the\ntrue idea of the Christian Sabbath.\n\nOf all the popular cants of the day, perhaps that is at once the most\npretentious, and the most heartless, which asserts a necessary antagonism\nbetween form and spirit, soul and body, the spiritual and the material,\nand sets itself up as the special champion of spirit and the spiritual,\nby maintaining that all forms and organizations, all times and seasons,\nall modes and habitudes, are systematic conspiracies against the\nliberties and rights of men.  This is the latest resurrection of the old\nascetic spirit, and must end\u2014as all attempts to emancipate ourselves from\nthe conditions of life and development which God has implied in the\nconstitution of our being and of all things\u2014have ended, in blank\nimmorality and shameless denial of all moral law.  This is the great\ndanger of our times.  It is not formalism that we have chiefly to fear.\nThere is more peril of our casting off all form and order, than of our\nbeing mastered and bound by any one.  The Sabbath is of God.  He who\ncauseth the outgoing of the morning and evening to rejoice, causeth the\noutgoing of the Sabbath morning to rejoice over the human world.  He who\ngives to the weary body the refreshment of nightly slumber, gives to the\nweary mind and spirit the rest of the Sabbath day.  We may steal the\nhours from slumber, but the wrong will in the end avenge itself; and it\nis at our peril, and to our certain detriment as men, societies, or\nnations, that we steal its offices from the Sabbath. The moon, the\nfairest and the benignest minister that attends our earth, marks out our\nweeks for us.  She chimes with notes of silvery clearness the sevens,\nwhile the sun intones the units on the bells of time.  In full tune with\nliving nature we keep our Sabbaths.  We enter into the universal harmony\nwhen we consecrate our seventh day.  This surface analogy rests on the\ndeepest principles; and if, to any, this orderly procession of the\nSabbaths seem a formalism, a yoke of bondage, then the day, the night,\nthe periodic mealtime, the Christmas festival, the birthday greeting,\nmust be to them a torment and an insult.  The arrangements of all things\nmust be, to such, a maddening discord.  Even the primitive simplicities\nof barbaric existence, if they could recur to it, would not emancipate\nthem.  But such an experience might, perhaps, convince them, that these\nconsecrations are the records of a vital progress\u2014that these seasons, cut\noff from the lump of untrained, untrimmed, unformed existence, are the\nstring courses of the masonry of that living temple of society, which\nmark the lines of its emergence from the dark ocean of primitive barbaric\nchaos and night.\n\nA tendency to think lightly of what has been consecrated by the religious\nfeeling of the pious for long generations, is by no means a beautiful or\ncommendable thing.  We may be sure that some deep reason underlies the\ndisposition of pious minds with one consent, through successive ages, to\nfall into a certain form or mode of action and thought.  God has other\nways of giving to the world commandments than by speaking or writing\nthem.  It is as distinctly a command of God to us to work by day and\nsleep by night, as if it had been written on the tables of stone; and any\norganized attempt to violate it exacts the penalties of a broken command.\nAnd God has given to all men an implicit direction to observe a Sabbath,\nin the instinct of its need which he has implanted in the constitution of\nhumanity.  This is witnessed even among the most degraded peoples, who\nhave wandered farthest from the first condition, and most injured the\noriginal constitution, by means of the miserable substitutes wherewith\nthey are fain to supply its place.  But the question might fairly be\nasked here\u2014\u201cIs this all the obligation of the Sabbath day?  Is it simply,\nthat as sleep is good for the body every night, so it is good for man\nthat, once in seven days, he should rest from his labours?  If this be\nall, where is the religious obligation of the Sabbath?\u201d  No, this is not\nall.  When we speak of a man resting from his labours, we speak of a\n_man\u2019s rest_, and not of a brute\u2019s.  A brute rests from toil that he may\nrenew the tension of his muscles; a man, that he may renew the tension of\nhis soul.  A _man\u2019s_ work is not the work of his muscles only, nor is a\n_man\u2019s_ life the life of a labourer, of a student, of a priest, but all\nthese in unison.  And when God said, \u201cThou shalt rest on the seventh day\nfrom all thy work,\u201d he said it to _man_\u2014to a being endowed with a spirit\ncapable of \u201clooking before and after,\u201d capable of looking up to Him,\nwhose natural and joyful employment, on his rest-days, should be to\nrefresh his higher powers, by special direction of them to their\nappropriate objects, lest he should become embruted by his needful daily\ntoil.  We cannot separate, even in thought, when we look at it in\nrelation to God, between the rest of the Sabbath and spiritual activity\nand devotion.  The fact, that it is a _man_ for whom God provides the\nSabbath, seems to indicate the kind of use which is to be made of it.\nThe man who deliberately holds himself back from a high exercise, of\nwhich God has made him capable, and prefers to make his Sabbath more like\na brute\u2019s than a man\u2019s, commits, in relation to it, that most heavy of\ntransgressions, \u201ca coming short of the glory of God.\u201d  There is a sin\nwhich no written law can touch\u2014an inward sin, a sin of life, which\nconsists in living below the idea which God has implanted; a sin which\nmay co-exist with the most perfect legal righteousness, and which can\nonly be denominated \u201c_a coming short of the glory of God_.\u201d  Human rulers\nmay separate in their legislation between the rest and the religious\npurpose of the Sabbath; they may say, \u201cThe first we will care for, it is\nwithin our province; the second we can take no cognizance of by formal\nstatutes;\u201d but the Divine Ruler can make no such separation.  To rest\nfrom toil, and to restrain the thoughts and the heart from going out\nthrough His creation and up to Him, is to commit that sin against Him\nwhich the Apostle specifies as the fundamental transgression\u2014a coming\nshort of His glory.  You see that it is a sin which may be committed in\nchurches and chapels, as well as in parlours, in Parks, in Crystal\nPalaces, and on sea beaches.  I fear, the Sabbath is not to any of us\nwhat it ought to be, in the measure in which it ought to be\u2014a season of\ninward renewing of strength for daily labour\u2014a height to which God\naffords us leisure and strength to climb, that we may look beyond the\nstars which watch our daily travail, to HIM.\n\nThus far we have hardly glanced at the Sabbath as a positive institution\nof the Lawgiver and Ruler of this world.  The view of the Sabbath which\nhas already been presented, seems to underlie all Divine legislation (and\nthere is such) upon the subject.  This is the foundation on which it\nrests, towards the realization of this it works.  We miss much of the\nmeaning of the old Jewish legislation, by not going deep down beneath the\npositive commandment, and studying, as we are able\u2014nay, if friends of\nChrist, bound to do\u2014the necessity out of which the law arises, the\nfeature of the original Divine constitution which it is intended to\nillustrate and guard.  This method will bring us into true tune with the\ncommandment, our observance will then be spiritual, that of a friend, a\nchild, not a slave.  Every law must have its reason in the nature of\nthings, must be intended to direct attention to, vindicate, or restore,\nsome reality which is in danger of being disregarded.  It is needful to\nsee what is behind the law, in order to understand it truly.  God saw\nthat there was in man a fearful tendency to deny the God that made him,\nby withholding himself from the higher exercises, the higher life, of\nwhich God made him capable\u2014getting rid of spiritual burden and care, and\nmaking his life as much like a brute\u2019s as it could possibly become.  He\nsaw, moreover, that the struggle between the higher element and the\nlower, the spirit and the flesh, which had broken loose from the spirit\u2019s\ncontrol, would be a long and sharp one, in each human soul, and in the\nworld at large; and, tenderly compassionating his afflicted and\ndistracted prodigal children, He came, even in the very hour of their\napostacy, to help the higher nature in its conflicts, and finally give to\nit the victory by allying it for ever with himself.  His purpose of mercy\nhad a methodic development\u2014first the germ, then the blade, then the ear,\nand after that the full corn in the ear.  He chose Abraham as the man\nthrough whom He would enter into relations with his descendants, the\nJewish people, constituting them the people through whom He would enter\ninto relations with the whole human world.  He gave to the Jews a law,\nthe purpose of which was to bring out the original features of the\nconstitution of man, and his primal relations to God and to all things.\nThat which had been lost in the fall was re-established by the Jewish\neconomy, and every ordinance of God, which man, the sinner, had trampled\nupon and spurned, was brought forth again, and sealed afresh, in the\nsight of all the people, and, through history, in the sight of all men,\nwith the seal of the Almighty and the All-wise.  The Jews, in this solemn\ncovenant, were the representative people, through whom God was addressing\nthe whole human race.  It was, above all things needful, to bring out the\nidea that there was power to support the original constitution of things,\nthough man had been suffered to attempt, for a time, at any rate, to\nviolate it.  God needed to bear most solemn witness before men, that no\nviolation of it could be successful; that it was girded with the living\nsplendour of His righteousness, and sustained by the terrible resources\nof His power.  This, man had forgotten.  \u201cAm I my brother\u2019s keeper?\u201d said\none, in wanton contempt of the law of that relationship of brotherhood\nwhich had been established by God.  \u201cThese be thy gods,\u201d said others, as\nthey danced around their golden calf, and, under the very shadow of\nSinai, made light of the living Lord.  Men were growing wanton in the\nunbounded license to sin, to break every Divine command without immediate\nand palpable penalty.  God had to tell this people, and through them the\nworld, with a terrible simplicity and sternness which even they could\nunderstand, that an awful sanction attended the original unwritten laws\nwhich He had established, and that the penalty of a systematic breach of\nthem must be death.  Let us take the legislation on the Sabbath as a\nspecimen.\n\nThe law is written thus, Exodus xx. 8, 9, 10, 11:\u2014\u201c_Remember the Sabbath\nday_, _to keep it holy_.  _Six days shalt thou labour_, _and do all thy\nwork_; _but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God_: _in it\nthou shalt not do any work_, _thou_, _nor thy son_, _nor thy daughter_,\n_thy man-servant_, _nor thy maid-servant_, _nor thy cattle_, _nor thy\nstranger that is within thy gates_: _for in six days the Lord made heaven\nand earth_, _the sea_, _and all that in them is_, _and rested the seventh\nday_: _wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day_, _and hallowed it_.\u201d\nThe comment on it is given in Exodus xxxi. 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17:\u2014\u201c_And\nthe Lord spake unto Moses_, _saying_, _Speak thou also unto the children\nof Israel_, _saying_, _Verily_, _my Sabbaths ye shall keep_: _for it is a\nsign between me and you throughout your generations_; _that ye may know\nthat I am the Lord that doth sanctify you_.  _Ye shall keep the Sabbath_,\n_therefore_; _for it is holy unto you_: _every one that defileth it shall\nsurely be __put to death_: _for whosoever doeth any work therein_, _that\nsoul shall be cut off from among his people_.  _Six days may work be\ndone_; _but in the seventh is the Sabbath of rest_, _holy to the Lord_:\n_whosoever doeth any work in the Sabbath day_, _he shall surely be put to\ndeath_.  _Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath_, _to\nobserve the Sabbath throughout their generations_, _for a perpetual\ncovenant_.  _It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for\never_: _for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth_, _and on the\nseventh day he rested_, _and was refreshed_.\u201d  It has been said that this\nis a too tremendous sanction to a mere formal institution.  We have seen\nthat this is not a mere formal institution, a day appointed arbitrarily\nby the Lawgiver, as for wise reasons our lawgivers appoint days and\nseasons upon earth.  It is a part of the original constitution, a beam\nthrough the gloom of the first sentence, \u201c_In the sweat of thy brow shalt\nthou eat bread_;\u201d a station for man the wayfarer to rest and refresh\nhimself, as he ploughs and digs, and fights and forces his way through\nthe jungle of earth to God.  God, in this Sabbath institution, is\nbringing out a fundamental and primal law, and He gives to it the very\nhighest sanction, a witness to all fundamental laws that the breach of\nthem is death.  That God did not regard it as a mere formal institution\nis most evident, in that He himself protests against the mere form of it,\nwhen it was offered to him as a sacrifice widowed of the congenital soul.\nIsaiah i. 13\u201315.  \u201c_Bring no more vain oblations_; _incense is an\nabomination unto me_; _the new moons and Sabbaths_, _the calling of\nassemblies_, _I cannot away with_; _it is iniquity_, _even the solemn\nmeeting_.  _Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth_:\n_they are a trouble unto me_; _I am weary to bear them_.  _And when ye\nspread forth your hands_, _I will hide mine eyes from you_: _yea_, _when\nye make many prayers_, _I will not hear_: _your hands are full of\nblood_.\u201d  The Sabbath of the Jews was a perennial monitor, pointing\nbackwards to the earliest time.  \u201c_Remember the Sabbath day_,\u201d remember\nthe fountain of present and familiar liberties and joys.  The time came\nwhen the alphabet of morals had been conned and thoroughly mastered, when\nthe whole world was to be put into possession of treasure which had been\naccumulating in the hands of the Jews for ages.  It is a fine\nillustration of the manner in which Judaism in its living germs, which\nhad never been suffered to perish, expanded into Christianity, to trace\nthe transition from the Jewish Sabbath to the Sabbath of the Christian\nchurch.  It is more true, perhaps, to speak of growth than transition.\n\nIt seems very strange to some that a feature of Judaism so strongly\nmarked, has so little formal recognition and reinforcement in the New\nTestament.  What is the foundation of the Christian Sabbath?  On what\nground of reason or of law does it rest?  Of law, none whatever.  To the\nPharisees, the men who sat in Moses\u2019 seat, Christ appeared to be a\nSabbath breaker.  Whatever His estimation of it, His conduct with regard\nto it was such, that it could at any rate be said, with a colour of\ntruth, \u201c_This man is not of God_, _because he keepeth not the Sabbath\nday_.\u201d  On every occasion on which there is a question on the subject,\nChrist appears in strong antagonism to the Churchmen of his time; and on\none occasion he defends himself by an appeal to an irregularity of David,\nwhich he justified on the ground of necessity; a mode of defence which\nmust have greatly surprised them, which surprise he takes no pains to\nmitigate.  And yet, mark you, he never allowed that he violated the\nspirit of the Sabbath institution; nay, he charged the rigid Sabbatarians\nwith the violation, giving them a new lesson to learn\u2014\u201c_Go ye_, _and\nlearn what that meaneth_, _I will have mercy and not sacrifice_.\u201d  For\nthe rest, we have to gather the Sabbath law out of the New Testament in\nthe following fashion:\u2014\n\nOn the first day of the week, the Saviour arose from the dead, and laid\nthe foundation of a new creation.  On the first day of the week, Jesus\nappeared to his disciples, (John xx. 19 and 26.)  On the first day of the\nweek, the Apostles were baptized with tongues of fire.  On the first day\nof the week, the disciples came together to break bread at Troas, (Acts\nxx. 7.)  On this day Paul thinks a work of charity specially graceful and\nappropriate, (1 Cor. xvi. 2.)  There is little doubt, but no decisive\nevidence, that the assemblies of Christians alluded to \u201cpassim\u201d in the\nEpistles, are to be referred to this day; and John, in Patmos, \u201c_was in\nthe Spirit on the Lord\u2019s day_.\u201d  As far as the New Testament is\nconcerned, we believe that this is all.  Some, then, might say that it is\nsimply by implication and inference, and not by distinct commandment,\nthat the Church keeps a Sabbath.  The Jewish Sabbath, with all its awful\nsanctions, vanishes, and no one can quote any law of the New Testament\nwhich sets up anything in its place.  No one can show by what authority\nthe day was altered, nor tell how far the authority, which changed the\nday, could transfer the sanctions and penalties from the old day to the\nnew.  In mere word, this is true enough.  It is untrue enough, at heart.\nHow does the Sabbath come down to us?  As a day set apart, through all\nChristian ages, by the deliberate consecration of the whole Catholic\nchurch from apostolic times.  We must not rail too much at tradition.\nThe Lord\u2019s day is certainly more a tradition than a commandment.  And\nwhat, in the Christian church, is the office of the Spirit in relation to\nDivine things, and, among them, Divine laws?  Is it not the office of the\nSpirit to lead men to see from within the wisdom and goodness of the\ncommandment, and lovingly to adopt it; showing to the soul of man the\nwisdom of the Divine constitution in everything, and securing, not a\nformal, but a loving adhesion to it; abandoning entirely the system of\nformal prohibitions and penalties, as inconsistent with the method of\ngrace and of love?  Does the absence of a Divine testimony against theft\nor adultery, in Christ\u2019s epitome of the commandments, legalize theft or\nadultery?  And does the absence of a renewed formal announcement of the\noriginal Divine provision for man\u2014the Sabbath-day\u2014mean that God ceases to\ncare for it, that He annuls the first constitution, and leaves man to\nwork on till death like a brute?  On the contrary, it means that the\nSpirit of God, and not the law, has taken charge of the institution, and\nthat He will make its power felt and its worth acknowledged, wherever He\nbears witness within human souls.  But it is a very terrible sin to take\nit out of His charge, and make it law again, by presenting it in any\nother way than He presented it to the early Christian world.  Has not the\nLord\u2019s day come down to us just as we should have anticipated\u2014through the\nSpirit?  Was there not a deep reason beneath the old institution, Exodus\nxxxi. 17\u2014\u201c_It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever_:\n_for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth_, _and on the seventh day\nHe rested_, _and was refreshed_.\u201d  Is there not as deep a reason\nunderneath the new?  Is it not the _Lord\u2019s day_?  The Jewish day\ncommemorated a creation complete; the Christian Sabbath, a creation\nbegun.  The one a last day\u2014the finishing of a work\u2014looking backwards to\nthe original condition and constitution; the other a first day, with the\nweek days, the ages, the eternities before it, commemorating a new\ncondition and constitution, or the old one transfigured, to bear fruit\nthrough a future eternity.  For myself, I would handle as reverently the\nLord\u2019s day which the Spirit has delivered to us through the Church, as\nthe Jew his Sabbath, protected by the penalties of the law.  Only, as\nChristians, we are bound to go further back than the Jew could go, dared\ngo, even beneath and behind the commandment, and enter into the counsels\nof Him who gave to us the Sabbath day.  We are to regard the purpose and\nspirit of the Sabbath.  A man who goes to church twice and worships, and\nthinks that therein he has fulfilled the law of the Sabbath, and brands\nhim as a law-breaker _ipso facto_ who has never been to church at all,\nfearfully misunderstands the matter.  The thing is good; its goodness is\nnow its argument; and that observance which is not in full tune with its\ngoodness, may be worth much before men, but is worth nothing before God.\nA father who has children at home, in early years compels them by law to\njoin the family circle, and observe the laws and orders of the house.\nWhen they are full grown, he tries to make the home attractive, and\nleaves it to the sense of duty, love, and pleasure, to work conformity.\nThis Christian view of the Sabbath is the very opposite of that which\nmakes every day a Sabbath, and dishonours the one.  The endeavour to\nrealize every day a Sabbath feeling, if genuine and constant, will add\nfresh value to _the_ Sabbath of refreshment and repose; while a\ndisposition to slight the Lord\u2019s day, on the pretext of keeping all days\nholy, will end in exhausting life of its spiritual element, and\ndestroying the very soul of man\u2019s work.\n\nHaving laid down these principles with regard to the Christian Sabbath,\nin refutation of the rationalistic argument, let us proceed to the\npractical application of them to the matter in hand.  The case is just\nthis.  An institution is about to be formed and an exhibition opened,\nwhich must be regarded as the legitimate fruit of the forty years\u2019 peace\nwhich that stern warrior conquered for us, whom we have just attended\nwith befitting splendour to his burial, whose mourners were a million and\na half of men.  The Crystal Palace of last year was its direct result\u2014the\nWorld\u2019s Great Show\u2014the Jubilee of Commerce, celebrated with festal pomp\nin London\u2014the heart of the body commercial\u2014whence also had gone forth,\nforty years ago, the head and the hands which had torn the troubler of\nthe world\u2019s peace from his throne, and inaugurated the new era.  England\ngained the victory, and at the end of a long generation, unparalleled for\nactivity and enterprise in the history of man, she called the world to\nher capital to see and to taste the fruits.  Her grey old warrior was\nspared to see it.  The peaceful pageant of commerce passed by him and did\nhim homage, and then he was taken to his rest.  It is surely remarkable,\nthat Wellington was spared to see the crown of his labours\u2014the fruit of\ngenerations of peaceful activities, which will be marked in history by\nhis name\u2014and then was removed before the event was consummated which may\ncost the world another struggle, and the blood of her bravest men.  Such\nwas the Crystal Palace of 1851.\n\nThe Crystal Palace of 1853 will have another and profounder character.\nIt is an attempt to consecrate these fruits of the world\u2019s strivings to\nthe education and elevation of the great masses, whom commerce has too\nlong used up, and then flung aside to perish.  It is a deliberate effort\nto gather all the ripest fruit of the world\u2019s most earnest strivings,\nmost glorious victories, and present them, in order to minister to the\ndevelopment of the men, women, and children of the present generation.\nIt is no mere exhibition, except in the sense in which the whole world is\nan exhibition.  It is the grandest conception of a hitherto mechanical\nand money-loving generation, and has its root far deeper than in a desire\nfor 5 per cent. returns.  It grows up through the force of a conviction,\nwhich is now wrought into the mind of the community, that the intellect\nand wealth which commerce has developed, owe a ministry to the people of\nthe land; and that while the merchant princes can pillage the Continent,\nEgypt, Palestine, India, and China, of their treasures, to minister to\ntheir own vanity, amusement, or instruction, the united strength of the\nintellect and wealth of the country should build a Palace, far\ntranscending all private palaces, for the great people whose industry has\nmade our England the queen of the kingdoms of the earth.  It is\nemphatically a People\u2019s Palace, and the organization of it on this\ngigantic scale, by men of shrewd understanding, is certainly a sign that\nthe tide of public feeling has turned towards higher, more intellectual,\nmore elevating pursuits and recreations, than it affected some fifteen\nyears ago.  The fact that the keenest speculators are now ransacking our\nworld for the treasures of art, science, and the early history of our\nrace, wherewith to adorn this Palace, is a proof that the very class\nwhich has been most prone to renounce all the higher attributes of\nhumanity, and to make its life like that of the brutes that perish, is\nbeginning to resume the exercise of those higher attributes, and to waken\nto a sense of what a man\u2019s life includes.  It is possible that many may\nregard this view of the New Exhibition as overstrained.  Many expect that\npeople will go to the Crystal Palace to see the sight, and, when they\nhave seen it, will go to the public-houses and finish there.  Such a view\nis both shallow and faithless.  No doubt, those who like to think so will\nfind plenty which will appear to sustain their views.  \u201cThe people\u201d is a\nvague term.  It needs patient and intelligent observation, not on the\noutskirts, but in the centre of a great popular movement, to discern its\ncharacter.  The experience of the last few years does not confirm such\nanticipations.  The working classes, who visit the Museum in Great\nRussell Street, the Zoological Gardens on Monday, Hampton Court, and Kew,\nadd nothing to the disorder and drunkenness of the metropolis.  It is\nwonderfully rare, even in the more distant exhibitions and places of\nintelligent enjoyment which have been mentioned, to meet with disorder.\nCertainly, the drunkenness and disorder of London have been greatly\ndiminished by the opening of places of resort for the working classes\nwhere mind as well as body may be fed.  Every thing in the past justifies\nthe extension of the experiment, and on the grandest scale.  To the poor\nman, these things are not so much exhibitions as they are to us who can\nmore frequent them.  They partake of the dignity of events, stir up the\nfountains of manhood, perhaps long stagnant, and make him feel life\u2019s\nmeaning and life\u2019s worth, and thus they expand his soul.  Now, it is\nworth while seriously to consider\u2014Is this _different_ from the object\nwhich God proposed in the institution of the Sabbath day?  It stops far\nshort of that object; but, as far as it goes, does it not travel in the\nsame direction, and aim at the lifting man up from the brutish condition\ninto which a too slavish daily toil would plunge him, to feel how much a\nman is better than a brute?  God, in the Sabbath institution, seeks to\nmake him feel that man is so much better than a brute, that he can talk\nto God as a Friend, and love Him as a Father.  No human effort can teach\nman that;\u2014no Sabbath observance, even of the strictest sort, can make man\nobserve the Lord\u2019s day, as the Lord counts observance; but when men, in\nthe mass, are gone so far from the Sabbath that they systematically\nprostitute and pollute it, does God frown on human institutions, which\nwork, however slowly and dimly, towards the realization of the benefit?\nDoes He not say of all such, \u201c_Forbid them not_, _for he that is not\nagainst us is on our side_?\u201d  If through the unconscious influence of\nChristianity, which has leavened even our speculating fraternities, \u201cthe\nearth is helping\u201d the Kingdom; if the back-water of the mill-wheel of the\nChurch has come round, and is adding its strength to the current; let us\nlook on it lovingly and hopefully, as a state of things to be fostered\nand led onward to what is better, in no wise to be resisted and banned.\nAnd if men want to see this thing which is to elevate and educate them on\nthe Lord\u2019s day\u2014the great mass of the people being notoriously averse to\nthe Sabbath of the Church\u2014we should not say, roughly and fiercely, \u201cYou\nshall not,\u201d but recognize it, as far as it goes, as a sign of progress,\nhoping that, by all the humanizing influences which are brought to bear\non them, we may regain a hold on them, and lead them on to a true\nappreciation of the Christian idea of the Sabbath.  The gist of the\nmatter seems to lie here:\u2014at present, we have but slight hold on the\nworking classes; they care not for our Sabbaths, and find no pleasure in\nour worship.  Is it right, on the ground that it would be a formal breach\nof that Sabbath which is now really and flagrantly violated, to refuse\nour consent to a movement which will secure for them some portion, at any\nrate, of benefit on the Lord\u2019s day?\n\nWith many, much of the argument turns on this word \u201cformal\u201d breach.  It\nis worth while to consider more fully its meaning, and to inquire into\nthe real notions of Sabbath observance which prevail in the Christian\nchurch.  We are all agreed, that the highest kind of good was\ncontemplated by God in the institution of the Sabbath; we are not all\nagreed that, failing the highest good, a lesser good which is within our\nreach may lawfully be secured.  Many good people reason thus:\u2014\u201cThe\nSabbath is God\u2019s day.  It is the portion of man\u2019s time which He has cut\noff and consecrated to himself; the mere time is His, as well as the\nspirit of the worshipper; to recognize any secular employment of such\ntime, is to recognize a robbery of God.\u201d  \u201c_Remember thou keep holy the\nSabbath day_.\u201d\n\nTo this view of Sabbath observance it may be objected\u20141.  It recognizes a\ndistinction in _kind_ between the common day and the sacred day, which\nhas no warrant in the New Testament Scripture.  Is not \u201cwork\u201d a command,\nas well as \u201cworship?\u201d  And is not every commandment holy, and obedience\nholy?  Is it only on the first day that we are to be fervent in spirit?\nAre we not to be serving the Lord by diligence in business, with fervent\nspirit, every day in the week, in our places of business, and the haunts\nof men?  The idea that the Sabbath is a kind of tribute paid to God, to\nallow us to go free to work on week-days\u2014a sort of composition\u2014is foreign\nboth to the spirit and the letter of the teaching of the New Testament.\nThe Lord\u2019s day is to be a day of refreshing, of renewing of soul, that\nevery day may be a day of Divine service, and have more, not less, of the\nsacred element infused into it.  The idea of a tribute of one day out of\nseven, false as it is, rules very much of the feeling of the religious\npublic on this question, and perhaps in a measure affects all our hearts.\nBut a second objection, and a plainer one, to this view of the law of\nSabbath observance, is this:\u2014there is hardly a Christian to be found who\nprofesses practically to carry it out.  How much of our Sabbath is\nliterally spent in devotion, how much in cheerful converse with the\nfamily circle, how much in meals, how much in criticism of the sermon,\nnot always of a highly spiritual cast, how much in passing references to\nthe leading topics of the day?  Let us be honest and single-minded, and\nanswer from our consciences these questions.  If we were to try our\nSabbath observance by that law which _did_ consecrate the time in its\nunity and completeness, which of us could stand?  Do we regard this as a\nsin?  By no means; because we feel that Christian Sabbath observance is\nin the spirit, and not in the letter; in the direction of our thoughts\nand desires without hindrance from the work-day world to God; in the\nfeeling of rest\u2014of Sabbath calm\u2014of holy peace and joy\u2014which has possessed\nus, and made our Sabbath more a thing to be measured by the Spirit\u2019s\ninstruments, and registered in the Spirit\u2019s record, than by the clock.\nAnd if a man has no homage to render, no spiritual good to gain, because\nhe desires none, what does he gain, what does the Church gain, what does\nthe world gain, if he be compelled in some sort to recognize it, by being\ndebarred from a pursuit which would at any other time be beneficial to\nhim; provided always that his liberty be no detriment to those who have\nbetter ways of spending the day?  Bring him to church to hear the Gospel!\nBy all means.  I would that all places of pleasure were shut up on\nSabbaths, because men felt that they had better work on hand than to\nvisit them.  But if the man says, \u201cI will not enter your churches\u2014I hate\nthem;\u201d\u2014we ask, where is the gain to him, to any one, in saying, \u201cThere\nare the ale-houses, there are the tea-gardens\u2014you are a sinner for going,\nbut there they are; there is, moreover, a train specially provided by\nGovernment for you to travel; but this Crystal Palace, so grand and\nbeautiful, we can and will debar you from.  Whatever good it has to offer\nyou, you shall not get it on Sabbath days!\u201d  It seems very foolish to\nconfess that all attempts to make the masses devote the hours of the\nSabbath to devotion are futile\u2014that no serious limit can be set\nsuccessfully to the efforts of private speculators to tempt men to\ndemoralizing Sabbath desecration\u2014and yet, when a scheme is set on foot\nwhich aims at remedying in some sort the mischief, by elevating instead\nof degrading men, because it is so good and so complete as to be of\nnational importance, its progress is barred at once.\n\nThis is the true secret of much serious opposition.  The national\ncharacter of this act is felt by many to be the chief objection to it.\nNow let us understand what the word \u201cnational\u201d implies.  There is, no\ndoubt, a very true sense in which a Government represents a nation.  But\nit may represent truly or falsely; if falsely, does God regard it as the\nrepresentative of the national mind and will?  If the nation is bent on\nnot keeping the Sabbath in the highest manner, would the dictum of the\nGovernment against all other ways of spending it, constitute a national\nSabbath observance?  All that we could gain in that case would be an\nappearance\u2014an appearance how awfully contradicted in Clerkenwell,\nRag-fair, Lambeth, Chelsea, Greenwich, and in every place of dense\npopulation or public resort.  And does God care for this appearance?  Is\nit a cloak that hides any thing from his eye?  Think you, that it seems\nto Him a thing for the sake of which it is worth while to sacrifice one\ninstrument which may help man out of the pit of brutal degradation which\nthe Sabbaths of this metropolis disclose to us, yawning in the very heart\nof the wisest, the greatest, the richest, the most godly city in the\nworld?  Many remember fondly what Sabbaths once were, and willingly shut\ntheir eyes to the change.  In spite of the decent appearance of our\nstreets\u2014and God forbid that we should ever lose it!\u2014the reality is too\ndecisively the other way, for us to hope that a Government Act can give\nto us a character before man or before God.  The national thought and\nfeeling utters itself every year more loudly.  It will not help us, while\nthe fire is raging, to batten down the hatches, and step the deck as\ntrimly as if the cry of alarm had never been heard.  We may shut the\nCrystal Palace and be no nearer a national Sabbath keeping, nay, farther\nfrom it,\u2014as plagues pent up in the kilns of their own corruption but\ntaint the air more widely, and cover with their black shadow a broader\nsurface of the land.\n\nSome fear that the act of the Legislature will add a sanction to Sabbath\nbreaking by which many will be emboldened.  Alas! the balance is not so\ntremulous that the weight of Government in either scale will make it kick\nthe beam.  It is to be feared that many will frequent the Crystal Palace\non Sunday, who otherwise would be in the House of God.  This is, no\ndoubt, a very serious matter, but a simply preventive legislation will\nnot remedy the moral mischief out of which the evil springs.  For such,\nno system of safeguards can be successful.  Men are beyond the reach of\nprotection, who would use the term \u201cnational sanction\u201d as the cloak of\nsin.\n\nThus much on the opposition arising from views of the nature of Sabbath\nobservance and its claims.  We must now pass on to notice a class of\nobjections founded on the nature of the Exhibition itself, and its\nprobable influence on the heart, mind, and manners of men.  Many expect\nthat men will get more harm from the accessories than good from the thing\nitself.  Here, again, much is to be said on either side.  There will,\ndoubtless, be beer-houses, tea-gardens, skittle-grounds, and all the\napparatus of demoralization (though the licensing magistrates may do much\nto prevent it); but may we not fairly expect that large numbers will\nspend, on their travelling and admission, money which, if they stayed at\nhome, would be drunk or played away; that many will take their families\nwith them, which is always an elevating thing to the poor; that some, at\nany rate, who go for pleasure, may find deeper thoughts awakened, and\nturn with disgust from grosser amusements which, in other states of mind,\nwould delight them; and that, on the whole, an immense amount of vice and\nsensuality will be spared, though, alas, there will be enough to waken\nsorrow in all good men.  There will just be a battle between the interest\nwhich the Crystal Palace will awaken, and meaner, grosser things.  Will\nthe baser triumph, when both are fairly brought to bear on men?  There is\nenough in the history of public exhibitions, during the last twenty\nyears, to rebuke our faithlessness and teach us hope.  My whole argument\nrests on the fact of existing and increasing neglect of worship and\nchurch ordinances on the Sabbath day.  For how much of the existing\ndisaffection the Church is responsible, God only knoweth; but, certainly,\nobstruction and prevention come from us with singularly bad grace.\nAttraction is our one great power.  What we can attract and win, we keep.\nWhat we constrain we cannot attach, and our chains are but ropes of sand.\n\nOne fruitful source of Sabbath desecration is the unnatural condition in\nwhich men and women are compelled to live, in the heart of our great\ncities.  Every thing around them blights the gentlest and most gracious\nthoughts and feelings of our nature.  They live from hand to mouth\u2014they\nsnatch at each day\u2019s existence\u2014they have no rest, no sense of possession\nin the present, no hope for the future.  They are out of reach of true\nrest on the Sabbath.  It is mere mockery to talk about it.  Keep them at\nhome, and the Sabbath cannot be a delight, except when an enthusiastic\nspirit can wholly emancipate itself from circumstances.  God\u2019s ordinance\nseems to them a delusion and a snare.  Picture the miserable houses, the\nfoul air, the dirty, damp, mouldy walls, the reeking smoke, the\npestilential exhalations from the open sewer, the cries of drunkenness,\nand the curses of blasphemy, amidst which we expect half a million of men\nin our metropolis to pass the Sabbath.  No wonder that they fly from it,\nfly to the ale-house, and drown there their disgust and despair.  They\nare hardly within reach of our Christian instructions,\u2014alas, for the seed\nsown in such stony ground!  The circumstances of their life expose it to\nfearful peril; a broad change must pass over the moral and mental\ncondition of these people before, _as a class_, they can be expected to\nreceive gladly the Gospel and bring forth its fruits.  Let them get out\nto something they will care for\u2014something that will teach them\u2014God\u2019s\nclear air and sunshine, the violet odour, balmy to them as the breath of\nParadise, the bird song, the breeze among the boughs, the fresh clean\nmeadows, the sparkling wreathing river, and they are at once within reach\nof better and holier thoughts.  Or if no thoughts come to them, for\nimpressions shape themselves into thoughts but slowly in minds inept, yet\na genial refreshing dew has passed over their spirits\u2014they feel that the\ncity life, with its squalor and misery, is man\u2019s work not God\u2019s,\u2014and at\nlast, though the thought may be long in ripening, they may come to think\nthat it may be true after all, as the Bible says, that in God the poor\nman has a defender and keeper, and a remedy for all the ills which sin\nand selfishness have entailed upon the world.\n\nThose who see much of this class will be deeply convinced that we have no\nmeans of reaching them at present as a class, though the direct and\nearnest attention of the Church, in all its branches, to their condition\nand needs, is a most hopeful symptom; but looking at this great class,\nand their relation to society\u2014so benighted, so withered in soul, as to\nresist sternly the Divinest influences\u2014I confess it seems to me a\nterrible responsibility to keep them away, on any day, from anything\nwhich would do them even a little good.  It is but little that we can\nhope, and that little will be slowly realized.  With sorrow we open the\nway for them\u2014sorrow, that they will not choose a more excellent way.  We\nbelieve in God\u2019s high purpose in the institution of the Sabbath day, and\nfling wide the gates of our sanctuaries.  But if men pass scornfully or\nscowlingly, let us at least be thankful, tearfully thankful, if they are\nnot passing by our doors to dens of vice and crime.  Let us not tell\nthem, If you do not come here, the Lord does not care where you go.  Let\nus tell them that HE follows them everywhere with His care,\u2014that HE has\nspread abroad the expanse of nature for them,\u2014that He has given art,\nscience, commerce, and history to man;\u2014it may chance that many, hearing\nthis, may desire to know more of Him, and learn from himself what He\nmeans by a Sabbath day.\n\nIt may be said, and with justice, that the majority of the frequenters of\nthe Crystal Palace will hardly be of the class which has been described.\nNot the poorest, but the class above the poorest\u2014the well-paid artizans,\nthe shopmen and shopwomen, the mercantile clerks and the kindred classes\nwill furnish at any rate a large proportion of the visitors to this\nExhibition.  It is worth one\u2019s while to consider thoughtfully whether we\nare prepared to apply the same rigid rule, as regards the measure of time\nto be devoted to public services on the Lord\u2019s day, to the poor workman\nand shopman confined to the hot dense air of the factory or shop during\nall the disposable hours of the week, and living probably in a home but\nsparely visited by the light and air of heaven,\u2014between which home and\nthe sanctuary he ought, according to the present theory, to divide his\ntime on the Sabbath,\u2014and to the rich man who, in the afternoon or\nevening, can walk in his own garden, pluck the fruit of his own vine and\nfig-tree, ventilate his lungs in the purest and balmiest air, and, being\nrefreshed in body, can go down to God\u2019s house in comfort and refresh his\nsoul.  We must beware, lest we make the lot of the poor more bitter by\nthe yoke of our law of ordinances which are in themselves beautiful and\nbenignant, lest he take the name of his God in vain.  Many hold forth a\nrest day in the week as the remedy.  This simply means, in most cases,\nthe sacrifice of four or five shillings a week.  Six days\u2019 labour can\nhardly supply the needs of a poor man\u2019s family, especially its higher\nneeds.  The loss of some shillings is certainly the loss of some books,\nsome schooling, some innocent amusements for his children, and is, not\nseldom, the loss of bread.\n\nThe last, and in the estimation of a large number of religious men, the\nmost serious aspect of the question which I will refer to is this:\u2014\u201cThe\nopening of the Crystal Palace,\u201d it is said, \u201cis but the door to the\nopening of the national institutions, the theatres, and, finally, the\nfactories and shops on the Sabbath.\u201d\n\nBut there is evidently a limiting principle at work, recognized by the\npublic, and expressed by the Government.  The limitation of the hours,\nthe clause against the sale of spirituous liquors, and the close of that\nportion of the building which would involve actual handiwork, are\nrecognized by the public at once as right and seemly.  There is a public\nfeeling in England which will care for these things, which are supposed\nto be imperilled; a public feeling which, during the next years, it will\nbe the office of the Church to nurture and unfold.  If that public\nfeeling fail us, then, unquestionably, our condition will be most\nserious; and the question must be argued, how far a Government may\nmaintain, in the face of public feeling, a system of preventions and\nprohibitions?  That it has the right, up to a certain point, most people\nfeel; that there is a point beyond which it is most unsafe, all are\nagreed.  But that point will never be reached in England, while the\nChurch is faithful to her country and to her Lord.  If that point ever be\nreached, on us will be the sin.  Ministers of the Church of Christ! there\nhas been too long a schism in the army.  The shepherds have been battling\nfor precedence and prerogative, and the sheep have strayed.  The call to\nus now is for work; work\u2014not by platform crudities, vanities, and\nfalsities; not by protests, preventions, petitions, and bills of\nspiritual rights;\u2014but by earnest, manful, godly, spiritual effort to make\nthe Gospel known and felt as the power of God unto salvation.  The power\nof the Gospel is not felt as it once was.  Admirable sermons are\npreached, and with admirable emphasis and theatric art, but power does\nnot go forth from them.  Men look at us, hear us, admire us, but our\nprehensile power is gone.  We do not lay hold on men.  We have dealt too\nmuch in a religion of exclusions and negations.  We need to take hold on\nmen, and say,\u2014\u201cWe have good news\u2014good news of God.\u201d  The cry, \u201cGood news!\nlight! bread! life!\u201d should be heard more loudly from our pulpits.  We\nshould not lack hearers, if we could make them feel that we had good news\nto tell.  Were our Master among us at this crisis, He would not work by\nprotests and prohibitions.  Wherever the people were, there would He be,\nvehement against organized hypocritic wickedness, but patient, gentle,\nmerciful to the souls gone astray in their darkness and misery.  Oh, that\nour hearts could catch that tone of touching human tenderness wherewith\nHe would address this weary and burdened generation, \u201c_Come unto me_,\n_all ye that are weary and heavy laden_, _and I will give you rest_.\u201d\nBut He is with us alway, and, by ways that we little discern and\nsympathize with, He may be leading this generation to himself.  Let us be\nhumble-hearted and full of charity; let us work, work harder and more\nlovingly, with more oneness of heart and voice, to make men feel that it\nis God\u2019s good news to them which we have in charge, and then will our\nSabbaths return to us, fresh and pure, beautiful and blest, as that\nGeorge Herbert wrote of.\n\n\n\n\u201cSUNDAY.\n\n\n             \u201cO day most calm, most bright,\n    The fruit of this, the next world\u2019s bud,\n    Th\u2019 indorsement of supreme delight,\n    Writ by a friend, and with his blood;\n    The couch of time; care\u2019s balm and bay:\n    The week were dark, but for thy light:\n             Thy torch doth show the way.\n\n             \u201cMan had straight forward gone\n    To endless death: but thou dost pull\n    And turn us round to look on one,\n    Whom, if we were not very dull,\n    We could not choose but look on still;\n    Since there is no place so alone,\n             The which he doth not fill.\n\n             \u201cThe Sundays of man\u2019s life,\n    Threaded together on time\u2019s string,\n    Make bracelets to adorn the wife\n    Of the eternal glorious King.\n    On Sunday heaven\u2019s gate stands ope;\n    Blessings are plentiful and rife,\n             More plentiful than hope.\n\n             \u201cThe rest of our creation\n    Our great Redeemer did remove\n    With the same shake, which at his passion\n    Did th\u2019 earth and all things with it move.\n    As Samson bore the doors away,\n    Christ\u2019s hands, though nail\u2019d, wrought our salvation,\n             And did unhinge that day.\n\n             \u201cThe brightness of that day\n    We sullied by our foul offence:\n    Wherefore that robe we cast away,\n    Having a new at his expense,\n    Whose drops of blood paid the full price,\n    That was requir\u2019d to make us gay,\n             And fit for Paradise.\n\n             \u201cThou art a day of mirth:\n    And where the week-days trail on ground,\n    Thy flight is higher, as thy birth.\n    O let me take thee at the bound,\n    Leaping with thee from sev\u2019n to seven,\n    Till that we both, being toss\u2019d from earth,\n             Fly hand in hand to heaven!\u201d\n\n                                * * * * *\n\n                                * * * * *\n\n         J. UNWIN, Gresham Steam Press, 31, Bucklersbury London.","title":"The Sabbath, the Crystal Palace, and the People","tradition":"philosophy-ethics","translated_text":null,"word_count":10068}