{"collection":"philosophy-ethics","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_63746/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_63746","id":"gutenberg_63746","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/63746","summary":null,"tags":["Category: History - Modern (1750+)","Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Postal service -- Great Britain","Sunday legislation -- Great Britain","Vaughan, C. J. (Charles John), 1816-1897. Letter on the late Post-Office agitation"],"text":"Transcribed from the [1850?] James Nisbet and Co. edition by David Price\n\n\n\n\n\n                                 A REPLY\n                                    TO\n                              DR. VAUGHAN\u2019S\n                     \u201cLETTER ON THE LATE POST-OFFICE\n                               AGITATION.\u201d\n\n\n                                * * * * *\n\n                                    BY\n                        JAMES ROBERT PEARS, M.A.,\n\n          MASTER OF THE BATH GRAMMAR SCHOOL, AND LATE FELLOW OF\n                        MAGDALEN COLLEGE, OXFORD.\n\n                                * * * * *\n\n                                * * * * *\n\n                                * * * * *\n\n                                 LONDON:\n                           JAMES NISBET AND CO.\n                         BATH: BINNS AND GOODWIN.\n\n                                * * * * *\n\n                            _Price Sixpence_.\n\n                                * * * * *\n\n                   BATH: PRINTED BY BINNS AND GOODWIN.\n\n                                * * * * *\n\n\n\n\nA REPLY, &c.\n\n\nREV. SIR,\n\nThree years ago the Hon. GRANTLEY F. BERKELEY published a letter to the\nPostmaster-General in opposition \u201cto the attempt (as he wrote) which was\nmaking in Bath and its vicinity to prevent the delivery of letters on a\nSunday.\u201d  And we were taught by this publication that there were men, and\nperhaps many men, among our legislators, who were uninformed as to the\norigin, nature, and moral effects of that precious ordinance of a day of\nrest.  Such men needed to be instructed with kindness, and patience, and\ncompassion.\n\nWe must, indeed, be fearfully devoid of the best gift of God to man, if\nwe do not feel compassion for men who, in a land of open bibles, and\nprofessed obedience to the Gospel, have been deprived, by a vicious\neducation, a life of excitement, and the cold indifference of those about\nthem, of the vast enjoyment realized by the spirit of man when it rests\nin communion with the Almighty.\n\nBut when I undertook the easy and pleasant task of replying to that\nopponent, I certainly thought that the sentiments of that gentleman were\nconfined to men whose education had been so unhappily restricted.\n\nIt would have been to me utterly incredible, if I had been told that his\nviews would find sympathy and support in a man educated in the most\nliberal course, and trained to the full exercise of intellectual energy,\naccepted as a popular instructor of the rising Aristocracy, and even\naccounted an able preacher of the Gospel of HIM, who gave the day of rest\nand blessed it.  And here you must accept the assurance of my unfeigned\nregret if the following remarks necessarily assume somewhat of a personal\ncharacter.  My own feelings would lead me to limit myself entirely to the\ndiscussion of facts, principles, causes, and results: but that period in\nthe discussion is past.  The nature, obligation, privilege, and blessing\nof the Lord\u2019s day has been the subject of deep interest and enquiry to\nevery temper of mind, with an infinite variety of views, among all\nclasses of men from the palace to the workshop.\n\nNothing remains for us but to apply to individuals principles already\nadmitted, and arguments no longer disputed.  Nor is any exception to be\nmade in favour of a disputant, who has contrived to escape from all\nperception of the various stages of the enquiry, and with feminine\npertinacity repeats at the end the question which opened the discussion.\n\nThe debate has come to a close, and the question is now put to the vote.\nThe multitude catch at every leading voice which authorizes their\nself-indulgence, and neglect of duty, and our only effort is to make such\nleaders retract their vote with honest repentance, or to make the many\nashamed to follow them in palpable error.\n\nYour name and reputation make it indeed imperative on us to notice, in\nthe fulness of courtesy, the points you have brought forward; but I\ncannot conceal from myself that the only conceivable importance to be\nattached to the publication before me arises from your personal position\nand personal character: it begins and ends with yourself.\n\nThe letter itself would be a harmless echo of the minute of Mr. ROWLAND\nHILL but for the Preacher\u2019s name on the title-page, and the\nadvertisements of sermons, by the same Author, on the cover.  To that\nsacred document, \u201c_the minute_,\u201d you are willing to be indebted for\nfacts, principles, and arguments;\u2014an implicit submission to the written\nword of authority, which in the sermons would be the wisdom of faith, but\nin the present instance savours more of the simplicity of credulity.\n\u201cYou could wish that that minute had been more generally studied by those\nwho pronounced a judgment upon the question.\u201d\n\nA wish in which I heartily concur, under the fullest conviction, that\nevery honest and intelligent mind would pronounce it to be as\ncontemptible a piece of official mystification as ever proceeded from a\npublic office.\n\nWe have in one paper a desultory reference to every part of the\nPost-office duties; facts the most unconnected in their nature united\ntogether; and conclusions arrived at by a process peculiar to those who\nknow the credulity of the many; while the only thing which we learn with\nany degree of certainty, we ascertain from its ostentatious repetition,\nthat to compensate for the contempt of the command of Jehovah, and the\nruin of men\u2019s souls, we shall have a saving of \u00a3148 per annum _by the\ndiscontinuance of the Newport-Pagnell Mail-cart_.\n\nOne principle, however, shows itself in something like a definite form,\nwhich you have yourself adopted\u2014the principle of compensation in the\nmatter of obedience to the word of God;\u2014of striking a balance with\nJehovah.  It runs through the minute, it constitutes the only approach to\nan argument in your letter.  Is it possible, Sir, that your mind was not\nstartled by the train of thought which you permitted to pass through it?\nA man, whose whole energies have been unhappily devoted to secular\nbusiness; whose affections are wrapped up in questions of profit and\nloss; who forgets the eternity which is to come in the contemplation of\nthe saving of the Newport-Pagnell Mail-cart: such a man may, perhaps,\nthink that \u201cthe Lord is even such an one as himself.\u201d  But you know that\nthe Spirit of our Creator, and our Judge, has asked, \u201cWhat is a man\nprofited if he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?\u201d\n\nYou cannot go into your closet, and meet the God of your salvation there,\nwith an offer of a lesser sin instead of a greater.  You shudder at the\nthought, or smile at the absurdity, as your temper may be; but this is\nmerely the specious profession of Mr. HILL\u2019S minute, as adopted by\nyourself, stripped under the light of Divine truth.\n\nYou have yourself spoken with approbation of those in whom is \u201ca\ntrembling anxiety to be right for eternity, which forbids them to rest in\nthat dim unrealized twilight which satisfies the eye less intently fixed\non the future and the spiritual.\u201d {7a}  And if these words are anything\nbeyond an elegant close to a period, you will agree with me, that it is a\nfearful calamity for a teacher of God\u2019s truth to have vague and\nindefinite notions of duty towards God; and an awful offence in such a\nman to consent to and to authorize the prevalence of such uncertainty.\n\nMan, when once brought to a sense of responsibility, is too ready to\nescape from it under the cloudy varieties of opinion.  The poor country\nlabourer defends his carelessness by asserting that \u201cwe must do the best\nthat we can;\u201d and his educated fellow-man tells us that \u201cthe question is\nwhether, on the whole, the aggregate of gain or loss will preponderate.\u201d\n{7b}  No, Sir, that may be the question for Mr. ROWLAND HILL; but it is\nnot the question for you or me.  I earnestly entreat you to consider this\nmatter again.  The elegant poet of a heathen court declared of the\nvirtuous man, which his imagination delighted in, \u201c_Si fractus illabatur\norbis_, _impavidum ferient ruin\u00e6_.\u201d  We have repeated, as before God,\nthousands of times, \u201cThy will be done.\u201d  And what did we mean?  Less than\nHorace?  I trust not.  \u201cThy will be done;\u201d\u2014though all the conveniences of\nsociety are sacrificed,\u2014all the communications of friends cut off,\u2014all\nthe prosperity of nations overthrown:\u2014\u201cThy will be done.\u201d\n\n\u201cIf twenty-five _additional_ servants are required in the _London_ Office\non the Sunday, and _twice_ twenty-five can be _relieved_ on that day in\nthe Provincial Offices, the change, so far as it extends, is salutary.\nNow if this obvious principle be granted, the question is decided at\nonce,\u201d {8} is your own statement of the matter; and though I utterly deny\nthat such a relief can be realized, or was expected, I am willing to take\nit as a mere moral thesis of your own, that I may remind you that very\n_obvious principles_ in the matters of this world are not very obvious\nprinciples in our dealing with God.\n\nYou dare not go into the presence of God with this obvious principle in\nthe face of His express and unqualified command.  You tell me that \u201cit is\nnecessary to take a national view of such a question.\u201d  I answer, that\nfor us, Ministers of the Gospel, it is necessary to take a scriptural and\nspiritual view of this and every question.  And you must not suppose that\nI am assuming anything here as to the obligation of the Lord\u2019s-day.  You\nadmit that the increase of work in the London Post Office is an _evil_,\nand you look upon the relief from such work in the country offices as a\ncounterbalancing _good_.  As a minister of Christ, you must mean _good_\nand _evil_ in reference to the will of the God of the Bible; you must\ntherefore understand _positive_, _eternal_, _unchangeable good and evil_.\nYou incur a vast and fearful responsibility if you teach man that man\u2019s\nobedience, in regard to Divine declarations of good and evil, is left\nundefined, and dependent upon circumstances, or man\u2019s judgment.  You must\nnot teach them to seek a good of their own by a balance of disobedience\nand obedience, and such an approximation to the Divine will as they find\nconvenient.\n\nOf all the forms in which the perverseness of man\u2019s nature is exhibited,\nnone is so painful to contemplate as the incapacity of an acute intellect\nand cultivated mind for comprehending the nature and power of the\ncommunication between the Creator and the spirits of His creatures.  We\nread the clearest statements of the one truth that \u201cthe world by wisdom\nknew not God,\u201d and we submit to them rather as a salutary warning against\npossible error, than as declaratory of a sure result.  But when we see\nthe truth exemplified in an individual; when we look upon faculties and\nqualities which we are led to envy, to admire, and to love, and find the\nman even in one point closed against the communication of God; our spirit\nendures the most bitter disappointment of which it is susceptible.  We\nsee strength which defies our efforts, and a moral and intellectual\nposition above our reach, and yet feel that such strength is the\nintensity of weakness, and such a position the most slippery of those\n\u201cslippery places,\u201d of which the Psalmist was instructed in the sanctuary\nof God.\n\nFew years have passed since we rejoiced in the emancipation of minds from\nthe thraldom of the traditionary ideas of the past; men began, after a\nlong interval, to think for themselves.  We have already lived to see\nmany of the finest minds lost through their liberty.  It is better to be\nlimited to the well defined truths borrowed from other minds, than to\nwander in a wilderness of free thought, where truth and error, good and\nevil, are undistinguished but by the casual intuitive perception of the\nwanderer.\n\nIt is a matter of vast national importance that one of the first\ninstructors of youth should subdue his own mind to well defined\nconceptions of duty.\n\nSurely there must have been something which materially interfered with\nthe calmness of your judgment when you stated conspicuously that the\nalteration in the transmission of letters would cause a great diminution\nof the former amount of letters written and read in the country on\nSunday!  And when you intimated that the opponents of the measure, who\nwill not consent to the doing of evil that good may come, are chargeable\nwith the same folly.  You ask, \u201cAre you not, in _resisting_ the proposed\nrelief of the country offices, on the plea of regard for that of London,\ndoing, in fact, a great evil\u2014not that a small good may come; but that a\nsmall evil may not come?\u201d {10}\n\nWhence did you learn, Sir, that we resist the proposed relief of the\nCountry Offices, for which we have contended for years?  Who told you\nthat we dared impiously to resist any act of obedience to the Lord?\nNothing could be further from my mind.  Many of us, as I can venture to\nassert, whether right or wrong in our judgment, have a clear, defined,\ninvariable rule of obedience to the will of God, by which we desire to be\nguided, and desire others also to be ruled, as the best wish we can\nexpress for them.\n\nIt is impossible from your letter to conjecture what may be your view of\nthe ordinance of the Lord\u2019s-day.  You have indeed told us in another\nplace, in sufficiently general terms, that \u201cwithout that ordinance,\nindeed, without that weekly memento, visible in all things around us, of\nrealities unseen but eternal, no other memorial of God\u2019s love could, in a\nworld like ours, find room and scope for its operations.\u201d {11}  But this\ndoes not supply the want.  I cannot conjecture whether you look upon the\nobservance of that day as enforced by command, or instituted as a\nprivilege, or appointed as a type, or a mere human institution.  I reject\nthe latter supposition as impossible, for I cannot suspect a minister of\nour church of the base hypocrisy of using her services while he holds the\nLord\u2019s-day to be merely of man.  You therefore think that, in one way or\nother, it has a Divine sanction, and is a part of the Divine purpose.\nThe Word of the Spirit appears to give great latitude upon the subject,\nwhen we read, \u201cOne man esteemeth one day above another, another esteemeth\nevery day alike.\u201d  But we must read on, \u201cLet every man be fully persuaded\nin his own mind.\u201d  Yes, Sir, we have surely a right to expect from a\nteacher of Divine Truth a clear expression of _the full persuasion_ of\nhis own mind, when he publicly treats on such a subject.\n\nThere is nothing which irritates an earnest, intelligent mind more than a\nweak exhibition of moral duties upon untenable grounds, or by unsound\narguments.  It is possible that a vague outcry upon the subject of the\nPost Office desecration of the Lord\u2019s-day may have provoked you to make\nand print the inconsiderate reply, which is now before me.  And all who\nesteem your reputation will regret that any outcry, however vague and\nunreasonable, should have drawn from an instructed mind a reply without\none single definite statement of truth, or of duty.  You must pardon me,\ntherefore, if I state for you a few positions, which you certainly do\nhold in common with myself.\n\n                                * * * * *\n\nYou will not hesitate to assert,\n\n  I.  That no combination of circumstances can possibly make it right to\n  do that which is evil in the sight of God.\n\n  The contrary supposition necessarily asserts imperfection in His mind,\n  or His government.\n\n  II.  That our obedience to His will is no obedience, unless it be in\n  spirit and in truth, without even a desire for evasion.\n\n  III.  That each human being shall exist to eternity, in the blessedness\n  of the kingdom of Christ, or in the misery of the damned.\n\n  IV.  That they shall perish eternally who know not God, and obey not\n  the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.\n\n  V.  That God has mysteriously connected deliverance from eternal death\n  with the hearing of the Gospel.\n\n  VI.  That He has likewise connected obedience to His will, and His own\n  glory in His people, with the knowledge of His word.\n\n  VII.  That it is of _infinite_ importance that every man should hear\n  the Gospel, which is the power of God unto salvation to them that\n  believe.\n\n  VIII.  That the Lord\u2019s-day is especially set apart, under Divine\n  sanction, for the hearing of the word, and for the turning the mind of\n  men from the things of the world to God.\n\n  IX.  That it is better for \u201csixty thousand letters\u201d to be burned,\n  unopened, than for one Post Office Clerk to perish in hell for ever.\n\nI can venture, Sir, to tell the world that your mind is quite made up on\nall these points.  And the world will wonder that you should hitherto\nhave failed to use all your faculties and influence for the deliverance\nof those poor men, whom the requirements of a godless or thoughtless\nmultitude have shut up in the Post Office from the sound of the Gospel.\n\nYou have told us most truly of the effects of six days\u2019 worldly\nexcitement.  \u201cWho has not found himself, at the end of the week of hard\nwork, or of abounding excitements, left cold and almost lifeless towards\nGod?  Who has not found himself, at such a time, so tied and bound with\nthe chain of this world, that, without some change, some voice coming and\nspeaking to him, whether he will hear or no, he could not shake off the\nyoke with which he is fettered?\u201d {13}\n\nAnd what must be the effects of months and years uninterrupted by one\nreal Sabbath from such excitement and fatigue?  Practical men know the\neffect,\u2014they have seen one after another demoralized, degraded,\nbrutalized, in this life.  And what can they hope is to follow in the\nnext?  A liberally-minded man is disgusted at the idea of wearing out the\nlife of his horse, using him up\u2014as men say.  What do you think of\nwilfully employing fellow men in a work, which wears out physical energy\nand moral sense,\u2014which _uses up_ body, _mind_, and _soul_,\u2014and consigns\nthe poor exhausted wretch to destruction?  But I am met by these words,\n\u201cthat attendance, you will observe, is voluntary.\u201d {14}  And I read them\nwith feelings of the most hearty sorrow, that such words could have\nfallen from the pen of a brother in the ministry of the blessed Gospel of\nLove\u2014from his _pen_\u2014for I am sure that your heart never conceived\nthem\u2014your head never weighed them\u2014and yet what was a mere specious\nafterthought of Mr. HILL\u2019S, is put prominently forward by yourself\u2014_their\nattendance voluntary_\u2014their ignorance voluntary too?\u2014their ungodliness\nvoluntary too?\u2014their eternal ruin voluntary too?  One moment\u2019s thought\nwould have made you tremble at the consequences of this defence.\nMultitudes of the young prefer a course of idleness and folly which will\ninevitably lead to ruin.  Let them alone!  _You observe that it is purely\nvoluntary_.  Multitudes of our hearers prefer to live according to the\nlusts of the flesh\u2014let them alone! . . . their destruction is _entirely\nvoluntary_.  The hardened reprobate, who seduces the simple country girl\nby gratifying her taste for finery and idleness, may attempt to throw off\nthe guilt by the cruel retort that she was willing to sin; but he only\ncalls forth a double portion of indignation and contempt from every\nhonest man by the cold-blooded, false-hearted insult.  And yet he is\nguiltless in comparison with a man, who could deliberately see his fellow\nman destroying his hopes for eternity, and sacrifice his soul for a\ntrifling stipend; could make use of the poor wretch\u2019s suicidal labor for\nhis own little convenience, and satisfy his conscience with the thought\nthat _the man was willing_.\n\nNo, Sir, no man who has ever heard your name will suspect for a moment\nthat you ever weighed the expression you were borrowing; and what I have\nwritten, I have written not for yourself, but for many who need to be\nwarned of the guilt of their ordinary habits; who need to be taught that\nman can indeed form no calculation of the innumerable minute causes which\ncombine to produce the destruction of a soul; but that the INFINITELY\nWISE GOD sees every part of the load which presses downward the poor\nsinner, and attributes with unerring accuracy every particle, however\nimperceptible to us, to the hand which cast it upon the perishing wretch.\nBut I must submit to you that the inadvertent advocacy of this measure\nlays you under an obligation to make an honest effort to remove moral\nevils, which you now see that you have unintentionally encouraged.\n\nIf any one thing is essentially our business above all others, it is to\nresist, by the Word of the Lord, the _will_ of the man who chooses his\nown destruction.  And surely we may be content, if any men, to submit to\nthe vulgar retort, and mind _our own business_; for what can be a more\nglorious office, than that of a messenger who comes from God, to entreat\nthe rebels, over whose head the sword of vengeance hangs, \u201cbe ye\nreconciled to God.\u201d  Are we not called upon to use every means to turn\nthe sinner from the error of his ways?  In season out of season; by\nargument and example; by reproof and entreaty; by patience and by love,\nto endeavour to deliver our fellow sinners \u201cfrom darkness into light,\nfrom the power of Satan unto God?\u201d  And if God has indeed put us in trust\nwith the Gospel, we can testify that we also once were such, _willing_ to\nserve divers lusts and pleasures, walking according to the flesh, never\nturned _willingly_ to God, but converted by the sovereign efficacy of His\ngrace.\n\nI must not, however, close this letter without a few words on \u201cthe\nminute,\u201d in which you appear to place such entire confidence.\n\nYou ask, \u201cMay we not be permitted to learn the object of a measure from\nits author?  Are we justified in imputing to any man, I do not say\nmotives which he disavows, but motives of which he professes the very\nopposite, and against which his own previous and subsequent acts\nobviously militate?\u201d and I conclude, that you would imply your own belief\nthat the purpose of Mr. ROWLAND HILL was to relieve as many persons as he\ncould from labor on the Lord\u2019s-day.\n\nI wish from my heart that I could believe that the object of that\ngentleman was the glory of our God and Saviour in the promotion of His\nworship, and the saving work of the Gospel.\n\nBut it requires a mind above or below humanity to believe, that a man\ntruly desires and seeks the glory of God, who consents to occupy such a\npost in the one department of our Government, which is most conspicuous\nfor its desecration of the Lord\u2019s-day, and its contempt of the claims of\nthe Gospel.\n\nYou seem, however, to limit your attention to the one document before\nyou.  But, for my part, if I could detach my mind from previous events,\nand take up this single paper for judgment, I confess that I should be\ntotally unable to comprehend the connexion between the measures\ncontemplated and the care for the observance of the Lord\u2019s-day, which is\nput so prominently forward; and I should necessarily suspect, either that\nthe writer had in his mind a very strange jumble of heterogeneous\nsubjects, or that there was some underhand motive for his curious preface\nto the document.\n\nI cannot, however, forget that this minute comes out at the close of a\nlong series of earnest appeals to the Government for the removal or\ndiminution of Sunday labor in the Post Office; that the duty of such\nreform has been urged by numbers, which could not be neglected, and by\nindividuals, whose rank and station made some satisfactory effort, if not\nsome concession, imperative upon the authorities.  Promises have long\nbeen held out of such changes as, it was hoped (so they told us) would\nmeet the wishes of the Christian remonstrants.  And this minute is not\nthe spontaneous act of piety which you suppose, but the evasive reply to\nthe urgent and often repeated remonstrances of tens of thousands of\nthoughtful Christian men, and men deeply interested in the prosperity of\nthe country.  Instead of boasting of the \u201ctotal suspension of all money\norders on the Sabbath,\u201d it would be wiser and more becoming to endeavour\nto forget that disgraceful matter for ever.\n\nIt was not only an outrage of the Divine law, it was an insult on a\nChristian community, that when every bank and office was closed, and a\nrespectable tradesman would have been ashamed to look for gain on the\nLord\u2019s-day, the one place open in every town for petty traffic should be\nthe Government office of the British Empire.\n\nThe offence was totally unnecessary, and every respectable man was\nashamed of it.  And one cannot but smile at the pretty simplicity with\nwhich Mr. ROWLAND HILL informs us that \u201cit is very satisfactory to remark\nthat neither the announcement of the change, nor the experience of it\nthus far, has brought on the department a single complaint from the\npublic.\u201d {18}\n\nIt is not necessary to go through the details of \u201cthe minute,\u201d nor to\nnotice the fallacies, which have exposed themselves already in the\nexperiment.  The writer of that paper could not have been so ignorant of\nPost Office work as to suppose that twenty-five persons would accomplish\nall that was contemplated in London; nor had he any ground for promising\nany relief in the provinces worthy of the name.  It rather seems that in\nhis haste to attain to his ultimate object, he was peculiarly incautious\nas to the statement of minor details.\n\nWhat that object really is may easily be conjectured from a review of the\npast.  \u201cThis is,\u201d as you remark, \u201ca part of a more general scheme.\u201d\n\nFor years past a strong body of serious men have combated the Post Office\ndesecration of the Lord\u2019s-day, and their efforts have been firmly\nresisted by those in authority, with a few honourable exceptions.\n\nIn that contest the strong argument of the advocates for a cessation of\nPost Office work has been the closed office in London; and those who have\ndefended the profanation of that day have never been able to get over\nthat great and unanswerable argument.  The office in London has been\nconsidered as _uniformly at rest_, and always spoken of as such by both\nparties, the slight exceptions being not of a nature to be cited honestly\nagainst that position.\n\nSo that \u201cthe conscience of the Christian community has _not_ left these\npractices unchallenged and unnoticed until now,\u201d {19a} as you think; but\nas far as the cognizance of the Christian community goes, this is the\nfirst attempt at the sin in London, and is resisted as such.  And we\nthink that this is _the proper time for meeting the evils_, and act\ntherefore on your own advice. {19b}\n\n    \u201cPrincipiis obsta; sero medicina paratur,\n    C\u00f9m mala per longas convaluere moras,\u201d\n\nis not the less valuable advice because often repeated; and no man should\nknow the truth of it better than yourself.\n\nI need scarcely mention the _voluntary labors_ (which was a mere\npalliative afterthought): for he must be a very prejudiced man who calls\nthe poor clerk a voluntary agent in the matter, when he is enticed by a\nbribe, which his small salary makes an irresistible temptation, or\ncompelled by the fear of the loss of his only means of subsistence.\n\nAnd here I may leave the minute; for you now know how honest men value\nit, and why they resist it.  It is one move in the contest for the\nmastery, wherein the question is, whether the will of the Lord or the\npetty gains of the Government shall rule in the Post Office on the\nLord\u2019s-day.\n\nIt is scarcely possible that the writer of that minute could have\nabstained from laughing when he read the first two paragraphs of his own\npaper, and saw with what ingenious affectation he was entrapping his\nreligious adversaries.  But the craft is too transparent; and he has\nneither evaded their vigilance by the mystery of his statements, nor\ndisarmed their opposition by his specious profession.\n\nNeither the minute, nor your own letter, enters upon the question of\n_works of necessity_, and _of mercy_; and I am, therefore, not called\nupon to meet those hackneyed and misapplied expressions.  I must,\nhowever, be permitted to lay down one or two points, as necessary\nelements in the discussion whenever these terms are used.\n\nNothing can be necessary which is not in accordance with the will of the\nOmnipotent Ruler of all things.\n\nNothing can be an act of mercy which does not emanate from the God of all\ngrace.\n\nWhen men find necessity, or mercy, militate against duty, it must be from\ntheir own ignorance.\n\nMen persist in deceiving themselves by mixing together things essentially\ndistinct.\n\nYou may show me ten thousand acts of mercy which seem to you connected\nwith the maintenance of Sunday labor in the Post Office; but you can\nnever show that it is an act of necessity, or mercy, to shut up one clerk\nwhere he shall be kept away from the sound of the Gospel,\u2014the one sound\nwhich can call him from eternal misery to eternal peace.\n\n                                * * * * *\n\nAnd here, Sir, I must close this hastily-written letter; hastily written\nfrom the pressure of necessary duties: but containing opinions most\nmaturely weighed, and principles on which I have long endeavoured to act.\n\nIf I appear to treat your letter with severity, I beg to assure you that\nI do it with extreme regret.  But, however anxious I may be to show all\npossible respect for the writer, I cannot forget that errors, in\nthemselves trivial, receive importance from the character of him who\npropagates them.\n\nThe greater his merited reputation may be, the more needful it is that\nhis errors be unsparingly dealt with.\n\nWhere I cannot comprehend a good motive, and cannot suspect a bad one, I\ndo not venture to assign any; and, in fact, I should rather conjecture\nthat some works are so hastily undertaken, that their author himself\ncould scarcely assign his own motives.\n\nIt is, indeed, an unhappy coincidence when the favor of this world is, by\nany accident, associated with the maintenance of Divine truth.  The most\nsingle-hearted men are unable to engage in that holy duty without\nincurring a suspicion of sordid motives.  But when men of unblemished\nreputation, by an unhappy eccentricity of mind, are led to uphold the\nquestionable theories of those who dispense worldly wealth and\nhonor;\u2014when they exhibit in their support an unusual dulness of\nperception of Divine truth;\u2014we can only (as the kindest alternative)\nattribute their conduct to some unaccountable infatuation, or intemperate\nhaste.\n\nThe judgment of charity is best expressed by speaking the TRUTH in LOVE.\n\nMany Christian men have looked, with sanguine expectation, for a blessing\nupon the country from your labors at your important post.  Those hopes\nhave been for a moment disappointed, but will not easily be abandoned.\n\nThere is no hope for the country but from men of master minds, and\npowerful talents, submitting their powers to the guidance of the Holy\nSpirit, and devoting their energies to the services of their God and\nSaviour.  That this may be your high and happy calling, is the prayer of\nmany, as it is my own.  I hope, and believe, that you will yet know the\npower and enjoyment of that _Sabbath_ which the children of the kingdom\nenjoy in the finished work of Jesus, even here on earth.  And will be\nenabled to look with confidence to an abundant entrance into that rest\nwhich remaineth for the people of God.\n\n                      Yours, in Christian fidelity,\n\n                                                       JAMES ROBERT PEARS.\n\n                                * * * * *\n\n                                * * * * *\n\n                   BATH: PRINTED BY BINNS AND GOODWIN.\n\n\n\n\nFOOTNOTES.\n\n\n{7a}  Nine Sermons, &c., p. 60.\n\n{7b}  Page 9.\n\n{8}  Page 9.\n\n{10}  Page 10.\n\n{11}  Nine Sermons, p. 203.\n\n{13}  Nine Sermons, p. 202.\n\n{14}  Page 7.\n\n{18}  Minute, 2.\n\n{19a}  Page 8.\n\n{19b}  Page 14.","title":"A Reply to Dr. Vaughan's \"Letter on the Late Post-Office Agitation\"","tradition":"philosophy-ethics","translated_text":null,"word_count":5392}