CHAP. 1.] CESSATION FROM TEMPORAL EMPLOYMENTS.

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That strong

new moons; and pronounces them to be alike "shadows." passage addressed to the Christians of Galatia is of the same import: "How turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage? Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years. I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain."* That which, in writing to the Christians of Colosse, the apostle called "shadows," he now, in writing to those of Galatia, calls "beggarly elements." The obvious tendency is to discredit the observance of particular times; and if he designed to except the first day of the week, it is not probable that he would have failed to except it.

Nevertheless, the question whether we are obliged to observe the first day of the week because it is the first, is one point-whether we ought to devote it to religious exercises, seeing that it is actually set apart for the purpose, is another. The early Christians met on that day, and their example has been followed in succeeding times; but if for: any sufficient reason (and such reasons, however unlikely to arise, are yet conceivable), the Christian world should fix upon another day of the week instead of the first, I perceive no grounds upon which the arrangement could be objected to. As there is no sanctity in any day, and no obligation to appropriate one day rather than another, that which is actually fixed upon is the best and the right one. Bearing in mind, then, that it is right to devote some portion of our time to religious exercises, and that no objection exists to the day which is actually appropriated, the duty seems very obvious,-so to employ it.

Cessation from labour on the first day of the week is nowhere enjoined in the Christian Scriptures. Upon this subject, the principles on which a person should regulate his conduct appear to be these:-He should reflect that the whole of the day is not too large a portion of our time to devote to public worship, to religious recollectedness, and sedateness of mind; and therefore that occupations which would interfere with this sedateness and recollectedness, or with public worship, ought to be foreborne. Even if he supposed that the devoting of the whole of the day was not necessary for himself, he should reflect, that since a considerable part of mankind are obliged from various causes to attend to matters unconnected with religion during a part of the day, and that one set attends to them during one part and another during another,—the whole of the day is necessary for the community, even though it were not for each individual: and if every individual should attend to his ordinary affairs during that portion of the day which he deemed superabundant, the consequence might soon be that the day would not be devoted to religion at all.

These views will enable the reader to judge in what manner we should decide questions respecting attention to temporal affairs on particular occasions. The day is not sacred, therefore business is not necessarily sinful; the day ought to be devoted to religion, therefore other concerns which are not necessary are, generally, wrong. The remonstrance, "Which of you shall have an ass or an ox fallen into a pit, and will not straightway pull him out on the Sabbath-day ?" sufficiently indi

Gal. iv. 10, 11.

+ [But if the Christian Sabbath on the first day of the week has been merely substituted for the Jewish on the seventh, and cessation from labour was enjoined on the seventh day, it is virtually enjoined on the first also. The distinguishing character of the day as a holv institution is essentially the same in each instance.-B.]

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TRAVELLING.

[ESSAY 2 cates that, when reasonable calls are made upon us, we are at liberty to attend to them. Of the reasonableness of these calls every man must endeavour to judge for himself. A tradesman ought, as a general rule, to refuse to buy or sell goods. If I sold clothing, I would furnish a surtout to a man who was suddenly summoned on a journey, but not to a man who could call the next morning. Were I a builder, I would prop a falling wall, but not proceed in the erection of a house. Were I a lawyer, I would deliver an opinion to an applicant to whom the delay of a day would be a serious injury, but not to save him the expense of an extra night's lodging by waiting. I once saw with pleasure on the signboard of a public-house, a notice that "none but travellers could be furnished with liquor on a Sunday." The medical profession, and those who sell medicine, are differently situated; yet it is not to be doubted that both, and especially the latter, might devote a smaller portion of the day to their secular employments, if earnestness in religious concerns were as great as the opportunities to attend to them. Some physicians in extensive practice attend almost as regularly on public worship as any of their neighbours. Excursions of pleasure on this day are rarely defensible: they do not comport with the purposes to which the day is appropriated. To attempt specific rules upon such a subject were, however, vain. Not every thing which partakes of relaxation is unallowable. A walk in the country may be proper and right, when a party to a watering-place would be improper and wrong. There will be little difficulty in determining what it is allowable to do and what it is not, if the inquiry be not, how much secularity does religion allow? but how much can I, without a neglect of duty, avoid?

The habit which obtains with many persons of travelling on this day is peculiarly indefensible; because it not only keeps the traveller from his church or meeting, but keeps away his servants, or the postmen on the road, and ostlers, and cooks, and waiters. All these may be detained from public worship by one man's journey of fifty miles. Such a man incurs some responsibility. The plea of "saving time" is not remote from irreverence; for if it has any meaning it is this, that our time is of more value when employed in business than when employed in the worship of God. It is discreditable to this country that the number of carriages which traverse it on this day is so great. The evil may rightly and perhaps easily be regulated by the legislature. You talk of difficulties you would have talked of many more, if it were now, for the first time, proposed to shut up the general post-office one day in seven.. We should have heard of parents dying before their children could hear of their danger; of bills dishonoured and merchants discredited for want of a post; and of a multitude of other inconveniences which busy anticipation would have discovered. Yet the general post-office is shut; and where is the evil? The journeys of stage-coaches may be greatly diminished in number; and though twenty difficulties may be predicted, none would happen but such as were easily borne. An increase of the duty per mile on those coaches which travelled every day might perhaps

*The scrupulousness of the "Puritans" in the reign of Charles I., and the laxity of Laud, whose ordinances enjoined sports after the hours of public worship, were both really, though perhaps not equally, improper. The Puritans attached sanctity to the day; and Laud did not consider, or did not regard the consideration, that his sports would not only discredit the notion of sanctity, but preclude that recollectedness of mind which ought to be maintained 'hroughout the whole day.

CHAP. 1.]

PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS-HOLYDAYS.

97

effect the object. Probably not less than forty persons are employed on temporal affairs, in consequence of an ordinary stage-coach journey of a hundred miles.*

A similar regulation would be desirable with respect to "Sunday papers." The ordinary contents of a newspaper are little accordant with religious sobriety and abstraction from the world. News of armies, and of funds and markets, of political contests and party animosities, of robberies and trials, of sporting, and boxing, and the stage; with merriment, and scandal, and advertisements, are sufficiently ill adapted to the cultivation of religiousness of mind. An additional twopence on the stamp duty would perhaps remedy the evil.

Private and especially public amusements on this day are clearly wrong. It is remarkable that they appear least willing to dispense with their amusements on this day who pursue them on every other: and the observation affords one illustration among the many of the pitiable effects of what is called-though it is only called-a life of pleasure.

Upon every kind and mode of negligence respecting these religious obligations, the question is not simply, whether the individual himself sustains moral injury, but also whether he occasions injury to those around him. The example is mischievous. Even supposing that a man may feel devotion in his counting-house, or at the tavern, or over a pack of cards, his neighbours who know where he is, or his family who see what he is doing, are encouraged to follow his example, without any idea of carrying their religion with them. My neighbour amuses himself,my father attends to his legers, and why may not I?"-So that if such things were not intrinsically unlawful, they would be wrong because they are inexpedient. Some things might be done without blame by the lone tenant of a wild, which involve positive guilt in a man in society.

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Holydays, such as those which are distinguished by the names of Christmas day and Good Friday, possess no sanction from Scripture; they are of human institution. If any religious community thinks it is desirable to devote more than fifty-two days in the year to the purpose of religion, it is unquestionably right that they should devote them; and it is among the good institutions of several Christian communities that they do weekly appropriate some additional hours to these purposes. The observance of the days in question is however of another kind: here, the observance refers to the day as such; and I know not how the censure can be avoided which was directed to those Galatians who "observed days, and months, and times, and years." Whatever may be the sentiments of enlightened men, those who are not enlightened are likely to regard such days as sacred in themselves. This is turning to beggarly elements: this partakes of the character of superstition; and superstition of every kind and in every degree, is incongruous with that "glorious liberty" which Christianity describes, and to which it would conduct us.

*There is reason to believe that, to the numerous class of coachmen, waiters, &c. th alteration would be most acceptable. I have been told by an intelligent coachman, that the would gladly unite in a request to their employers if it were likely to avail. G

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OF THE UTILITY OF FORMS, ETC.

[ESSAY 2

CEREMONIAL INSTITUTIONS AND DEVOTIONAL FORMULARIES.

If God have made known his will that any given ceremony shall be performed in his church, that expression is sufficient: we do not then inquire into the reasonableness of the ceremony nor into its utility. There is nothing in the act of sprinkling water in an infant's face, or of immersing the person of an adult, which recommends it to the view of reason, any more than twenty other acts which might be performed: yet, if it be clear that such an act is required by the Divine will, all further controversy is at an end. It is not the business any more than it is the desire of the writer, here to inquire whether the Deity has thus expressed his will respecting any of the rites which are adopted in some Christian churches; yet the reader should carefully bear in mind what it is that constitutes the obligation of a rite or ceremony, and what does not. Setting utility aside, the obligation must be constituted by an expression of the Divine will: and he who inquires into the obligation of these things should reflect that they acquire a sort of adventitious sanctity from the power of association. Being connected from early life with his ideas of religion, he learns to attach to them the authority which he attaches to religion itself; and thus perhaps he scarcely knows, because he does not inquire, whether a given institution is founded upon the law of God, or introduced by the authority of men.

Of some ceremonies or rites, and of almost all formularies and other appendages of public worship, it is acknowledged that they possess no proper sanction from the will of God. Supposing the written expression of that will to contain nothing by which we can judge either of their propriety or impropriety, the standard to which they are to be referred is that of utility alone.

Now, it is highly probable that benefits result from these adjuncts of religion, because, in the present state of mankind, it may be expected that some persons are impressed with useful sentiments respecting religion through the intervention of these adjuncts, who might otherwise scarcely regard religion at all: it is probable that many are induced to attend upon public worship by the attraction of its appendages, who would otherwise stay away. Simply to be present at the font or the communiontable may be a means of inducing many religious considerations into the mind. And as to those who are attracted to public worship by its accompaniments, they may at least be in the way of religious benefit. One goes to hear the singing, and one the organ, and one to see the paintings or the architecture: a still larger number go because they are sure to find some occupation for their thoughts; some prayers or other offices of devotion, something to hear, and see, and do. "The transitions from one office of devotion to another, from confession to prayer, from prayer to thanksgiving, from thanksgiving to hearing of the word,' are contrived like scenes in the drama, to supply the mind with a succession of diversified engagements." These diversified engagements I say attract some who would not otherwise attend; and it is better that they should go from imperfect motives than that they should not go at all. It must however be confessed, that the groundwork of this species of utility is similar to that which has been urged in favour of the use of images by the Romish

* Mor. and Pol. Phil. b. 5, c. 5.

CHAP. 1.]

OF THE UTILITY OF FORMS, ETC.

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church. "Idols," say they, "are laymen's books; and a great means to stir up pious thoughts and devotion in the learnedest."* Indeed, if it is once admitted that the prospect of advantage is a sufficient reason for introducing objects addressed to the senses into the public offices of worship, it is not easy to define where we shall stop. If we may have magnificent architecture, and music, and chanting, and paintings; why may we not have the yet more imposing pomp of the Catholic worship? I do not say that this pomp is useful and right, but that the principle on which such things are introduced into the worship of God furnishes no satisfactory means of deciding what amount of external observances should be introduced, and what should not. If figures on canvass are lawful because they are useful, why is not a figure in marble or in wood? Why may we not have images by way of laymen's books, and of stirring up pious thoughts and devotion?

be apprehended of such things, or of "contrivances like scenes in a drama," that they have much less tendency to promote devotion than some men may suppose. No doubt they may possess an imposing effect, they may powerfully interest and affect the imagination; but does not this partake too much of that factitious devotion of which we speak? Is it certain that such things have much tendency to purify the mind, and raise up within it a power that shall efficiently resist temptation?

Even if some benefits do result from the employment of these appendages of worship, they are not without their dangers and their evils. With respect to those which are addressed to the senses, whether to the eye or ear, there is obviously a danger that, like other sensible objects, they will withdraw the mind from its proper business,-the cultivation of pure religious affections towards God. And respecting the formularies of devotion, it has been said by a writer whom none will suspect of overstating their evils, "The arrogant man, as if, like the dervise in the Persian fable, he had shot his soul into the character he assumes, repeats with complete self-application, Lord, I am not high-minded: the trifler says, I hate vain thoughts: the irreligious, Lord, how I love thy law: he who seldom prays at all confidently repeats, All the day long I am occupied in thy statutes." These are not light considerations: here is insincerity and untruths; and insincerity and untruths, it should be remembered, in the place and at the time when we profess to be humbled in the presence of God. The evils too are inseparable from the system. Wherever preconcerted formularies are introduced, there will always be some persons who join in the use of them without propriety, or sincerity, or decorum. Nor are the evils much extenuated by the hope which has been suggested, that "the holy vehicle of their hypocrisy may be made that of their conversion." It is very Christianlike to indulge this hope, though I fear it is not very reasonable. Hypocrisy is itself an offence against God; and it can scarcely be expected that any thing so immediately connected with the offence will often. ⚫ effect such an end.

It is not however in the case of those who use these forms in a manner positively hypocritical that the greatest evil and danger consists: "There is a kind of mechanical memory in the tongue, which runs over the form without any aid of the understanding, without any concur

* Milton's Prose Works, v. 4, p. 266.

+ More's Moral Sketches, 3d Ed. p. 429.