SUNDAY, the REST OF LABOUR A CHRISTIAN, DEDICATED TO THE ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY. LONDON: T. C. NEWBY, 30, WELBECK STREET, CAVENDISH SQUARE. 1856. £>8 TO HIS GRACE THE LORD ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY. My Lord Archbishop, I feel that if I were to bring this volume be- fore the world as an attempt to illustrate the religion of God and the Wisdom of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and as an exponent of the feelings of one half of the British race, without a dedication to your Grace, — the acknowledged head of the British Churches, and the chief representative of the Na- tional religion of the country, — I should be wanting in courtesy, both to the dignity of your office and to the elevated position which you occupy in the commu- nity ; I therefore beg to present the volume to the favour and attention of your Grace, and in so doing I have the honour to be, My Lord Archbishop, Your Grace's Most obedient humble servant, A Christian. It has been asked by five millions of Britons, each of them of sufficient age to know his right hand from his left — Can we really be religions without going to church ? Can a man not be a Christian without going to a place of public worship ? When I was a youth, I also repeatedly asked this question, but without finding any one to give me an answer in any way sufficient to satisfy my mind. I determined therefore, to find an answer for myself, and not to be satisfied till I had gone through all the cir- cumstances and bearings of the question. Thousands of my countrymen desire a solution of this question, without either the disposition or the means of pursuing the same course to arrive at an answer. These I have no doubt will feel some interest in the perusal of the following papers. While they may not be without their use to others, as an humble attempt to give the world an explanation of the origin, nature, and conse- quences, of the greatest social phenomenon of our age. The religious observance of the Sabbath by no means results from the appointment of the rest of the seventh VI PR1 day. I!« stow and religious worship, are two totally distinct things. If therefore, there is no Divine ommanding the performance of public worship on the first day of the week, the Church observance of the Sunday is without any foundation in the "Word of God, and the eternal truth of things; and every man is at liberty to speud the day of rest according to the conviction of his own mind. "No man judging him E BBATHS." — Pail. London, August, 1856. CONTENTS. BOOK I. PAGE. GENERAL VIEW OF THE SUBJECT. I. The author's preparation for writing" the Book 1 II. The form in which the author's views are brought before the public ... 5 III.— IV.— V. The Ordination of a weekly day of Rest 10 VI. Origin of the Lord's clay as a season of Worship 22 VII. Modern British development of the Church idea of the Lord's day . . . 29 VIII. The Gospel and the Church, two distinctly opposite thing's . . .32 IX. The difference betwixt the Church and the Gospel, an original difference in the process of human culture . . . .40 X. Difference betwixt the Church and the Gospel in the prosecution of their work . . 51 XI. Revelation and inference compared . . 68 XII. The nature and influence of Sabbatarian Religion 88 BOOK II. THE DIVINE OBJECT OF THE APPOINTMENT OF A DAY OF REST. I. The importance of the subject . .117 II. The Rest of toiling man . . . 12P III. The Hebrew Rest of the Seventh day . . 143 IV. The Sabbath and the Synagogue . . 166 V. The Christ and the Sabbath . . .176 VI. Sunday and National Religion . . 195 VII. Conclusion of the Book . . . 222 b Vlll CONTINts. BOOK III. PAGE. ORIGIN OF THE BRITISH SABBATH. I. Origin of the British Sabbath . . 227 II. Public Worship . . . 238 III. The ordination of a ministry of Religion . 270 IV, Of Sanctuaries . . .296 V. Conclusion .... 310 BOOK IV. INFLUENCE OF SABBATARIAN RELIGION ON THE MASSES OF SOCIETY. I. Early training .... 317 II. Moral teaching .... 888 III. Class influences . . . 351 I V. Religious teaching .... 368 V. The results . . .387 VI. Conclusion .... 405 BOOK \ RELIGION AND THE GOSPEL OF JES1 I. The Religious life . . . 418 II The It.-ligious life of the Gospel . 440 III. I Ihemei . .472 1\ . < hn.-tian culture . . 493 V. Jesus the Exemplar of the Divine life in man 508 VI. The general principles and the end of the work . 518 ANALYSIS. BOOK I. GENERAL VIEW OF THE SUBJECT. I. THE AUTHOR'S PREPARATION FOR WRITING THE BOOK. Man, a labourer, who naturally wants rest . 1, 3 Author's infancy, youth, maturity ; plan of the work 2 to 4 II. THE FORM IN WHICH THE AUTHOR'S VIEWS ARE BROUGHT BEFORE THE PUBLIC. Doctor BelFs Family .... 5 Doctor Bell— Mrs. Bell— Their Daughter— Their Niece 6 to 8 First interview with the Family . . .9 THE ORDINATION OF A WEEKLY DAY OF REST. III. THE ORIGINAL DAY OF REST. Man in Eden required no rest from toil . . 10 Early observance of a weekly rest . . . 11,\ British division of time, Sunday a mythic holiday . 11 to 13 IV. HEBREW REST. The Sinaitic covenant . . . .14 No Public worship in Israel . . .15 Restrictions of the Law . . . .15 Simply a rest from labour . . .15 X ANALYSIS. V. THE RELATION OF THE GOSPEL TO THE REST OP THE SEVENTH DAT. The Gospel a spirifcuallife . • .16 Did not annul the Sinaitic covenant . . 17 Three classes of Disciples . . . .17 Does not adopt the Hebrew Rest . IB No Gentile weekly holiday in the Roman Empire 18, 19 Neither appoints nor annuls a weekly rest . 19,20 Acknowledges no Public worship . . 20 ; 21 VI. ORIGIN OF THE LORD r 8 DAY AS A SEASON OP WORSHIP. The Resurrection — Lord's day — Hebrew Rest 22, 23 Christian hospitality — Paul at Philippi . . 23, 24 Rise of the Catholic Church — Her Hebrew character 24, 25 Her establishment and her Gentile character . 25, 26 Constantinian holidays of the Church . 25 to 27 Precedence of the Resurrection feast . . 2? Not a rest from toil — A Church holiday . 28 VII. MODERN BRITISH DEVELOPMENT OP THE CHURCH IDEA OP THK LORD'S DAY. Moral condition of the middle ages . . 89 The Reformation a moral failure . . 29, 30 Sabbatic efforts, and their result . . . 80, 31 VIII. THE G08PBL AND THE CHl RCII TWO DISTINCTLY OPPOSITE THINGS. New Testament our sole authority 32 The Church system not found r The Gospel and the Church compared 33 to 36 The Chur B a fable . .38 These remarks apply solely to the system . 37 to 30 ANALYSIS. XI IX. THE DIFFERENCE BETWIXT THE CHURCH AND THE GOSPEL AN ORIGINAL DIFFERENCE IN THE PROCESS OF HUMAN CULTURE. Ancient culture, Wisdom and Ritualism . 40 The two systems compared . . . 40 to 42 In relation to the Person of Christ . . 42, 43 The process of the two kinds of culture . 43 to 45 Their different principles of activity . 45, 46 Their operation on man and society . . 46, 47 General view of forty centuries . . 47 to 49 The heads of the opposite systems . . 49, 50 X. DIFFERENCE BETWIXT THE CHURCH AND THE GOSPEL, IN THE PROSECUTION OF THEIR WORK. The Church begins with the infant man . 51 An infant dying out of the Church . . 51, 52 Living- and trained by the Church . . 52, 53 Confirmed as a Member — Life and death . 53 to 55 Characterof a good Churchman . . 55 to 59 A Christian — Saul of Tarsus . . 59 His Baptism — Labours — The Sacramental Supper 59 to 61 Founds no Church system . . 61 The Gospel a life of Wisdom ... 62 Teaches right principles — Not means of grace 62, 63 No outward worship — Conclusion . . 63 to 65 Folly and evil of violent changes . . 65 to 67 XI. REVELATION AND INFERENCE COMPARED. Professional feeling — Educational prejudice . 68,69 Inferred principles and Revelation . . 69, 70 The Church unsuited to the age — Unbelief . 70,71 Prevalence of unbelief in society . 71,72 b 2 Ill ANALYSIS. Good men in the Church — Monastic institutions . 72,73 Neither of these the offspring- of the Church 73,74 Distinction betwixt Inference and Revelation . 74 to 7ft Revealed Religion — Objectional term . 76 to 80 The benevolent character of the Gospel And the position of the unbeliever . . 80 to 87 XII. THE NATURE AND INFLUENCE OP SABBATARIAN UK LIU I Sunday legislation — Its object Lord's day — Inherent holii Folly and evil of Sunday legislation The world wants a better system The Father is {riving- the early promise Will the Church enter into the Divine work The Gospel all-sufficient to renew 9 The Church invited to the work of renovation This the object of the Gospel of Jesus The signs of a Divine call to the ministry ilt of ministerial labours for 3l>0 years Present state of British society Ought these to be the fruits of the Gospel t R»-;il fruits of the Christian life Character of popular Religion — Millenium 88,89 89 89,90 . 90 to 93 93 93 to 96 96 . 96 to 99 99 to 101 101 to 104 1<>4, 105 100 to 108 108, 109 109 to 112 11-2, 113 BOOK II. THE DIVINE OBJECT OF THE APPOINTMENT OF A DAY OF REST. THE IMPORTANCE OF THE SUBJECT. Population — Attendance on Public Worship . 117, 118 Census Report, 1861 — Extract on Public Worship 118, 119 vs of the writer of the Report . . 119 to 121 ANALYSIS. Xlll Sundayists act on definite principles . . 121,122 Number about seven millions — A social revolution 123 to 125 II. THE REST OP TOILING MAN. The Rest of the seventh day — First man . 126, 127 Man a labourer .... 127, 128 Rest of the seventh day — A physical benefit . 128 to 130 Rest — Object of hallowing and blessing the day 131 to 133 Toil, the only desecration of the day . 133 to 135 No Divine provision for spending* the day . 135 to 137 The curse of the ground — Remedy for lost day 137 to 139 Changes in the law of labour and results . 139 to 142 Was the Sabbath a memorial of Creation? . 142 III. THE HEBREW REST OF THE SEVENTH DAY. Sabbath — Rest — A common term . . 143 Rest of the seventh day a universal holyday . 143 An article of the covenant of Sinai . 144, 145 Entirely a physical provision for rest . . 146, 147 Notices of the Rest in the Law and Prophets 147 to 150 The physical benefit of the labourer . . 150, 151 A Hebrew Sabbath . . .151 to 154 Hallowing the day — Consecration for rest 154 to 158 Man the object of Divine care as man . 158 to 160 The Rest not devoted to public prayer . 160 to 163 Other Hebrew Sabbaths and their object . 163 to 165 IV. THE SABBATH AND THE SYNAGOGUE. The Synagogue a Court of Justice — and afterwards a place of Instruction . . . 166 to 168 Not a place of worship — The family . 168 to 172 Family education — The priests not teachers . 172 to 175 XIV ANALV8I8. THE CHRIST AND THE SABIIATH. The life of Jesus and the Hebrew Sabbath . 170 to 180 designed to b< tneflt man . . 180 The life of Jesus considered in two views • > f 181 Tlie practical life of Jesus — A Sundayist . 181, 1*2 The teaching of Jesus favourable to Sundayism 182 to 185 The life and teaching" of the twelve Apostles — and of Paul favourable to Sundayism 185 to 188 End of Hebrew economy— No Christian Sabbath 189 to 191 No appointed Memorial of the Resurrection 191 to 194 VI. SUNDAY AND NATIONAL RELIGION. Patriarchal Religion . . • 186*196 Demonism — Its origin and maturity . 190 to 199 National Religion a Political system . to 201 Opposed by the Gospel — renewed in the Church . 201, 202 Days of Worship, and a day of Rest The early Church — Her Hebrew character . 2o3, 204 Changes — The laws of Constantino . . 204. The Church established by law The Church Sabbath a day of Worship . 206 to 208 Dec': tional Religion in Britain . •!•. 210 National Religion * tOCUl evil . . 210 to 214 • religious being — I lis education Our Duty — The neglected masses of Society J 17 VII. CONCLUSION OF THE BOOK. Sum of the arguments, varieties of character 222 to 2 24 ANALYSIS. XV BOOK III. THE BRITISH SABBATH. I. ORIGIN OP THE BRITISH SABBATH. Ancient British culture . . . 227, 228 Heathen Feasts and Holidays . . 228, 229 Sunday — Heathen holyday— Church holyday . 229, 230 The fundamental principles of Ritualism . 230 to 232 Not invented by the Church — Babylonian Demonism adopted by the Church . 232 to 234 The Church opposed to the Gospel— One must fall 234 to 237 II. PUBLIC WORSHIP. Worship and Public Worship Public Worship not a Divine Institution — The Hebrew economy the Christian economy Christ appointed no form of Public Worship The Gospel opposed to public prayer Example of Christ and his Apostles the same Public Worship a human device . Babylonian orig-in — Adopted by the Church Public Worship and progress of Society The social revolution of the age The study of the Bible , Public Worship a Sunday entertainment An artificial instrument of cultivation The Natural culture of Man III. THE ORDINATION OP A MINISTRY OP RELIGION. No ministry of Religion from Adam to Christ 270, 271 238, 239 239 to 243 243, 244 244, 245 246 to 248 248, 249 249 to 252 252 to 255 255 to 258 259 to 262 262 to 264 264 to 267 267 to 269 AN W.VSlS. The Apostolic body not such a ministry — !ve Apostles— Paul— Not Ministers of Religion . . . . 271 to 273 The Apostles not a continuous order . 27:3, 27 i The Gospel taught like other systems . 274 to 278 Natural Endowments — Essay Preaching . 279 to 281 ress of the Gospel Divinely secured . 281, 282 Man Preaching — Christian Orator . 282 to 287 The Bible a Preacher . . 287, 288 A ministry of Religion and of Instruction . 288 to 291 The true mode of Christian teaching— Paul 291 to 295 IV. OP 8ANCTUA.RIE8. he Godhead a local dwelling? . . 290 No Temple from Adam to Moses . . 290 The Tabernacle and the Temple in Israel . 297 The Gospel repudiates a house of God . 297 to 299 Stephen— Paul— The Revelation— Christianity . 299, 300 »n of Paul— No house of God 301 to 304 Justin— Origen — No Temple to a.c. 250 Edict of Gallienus — Age of Diocletian . 304 to 300 Christian lmu.se of God a fiction . . 30*i. .due of Public Worship . . 308,309 V. CONCLUSION. : il view of Public Worship — Chrysostom 310 to 312 Artificial culture— No violent change desirable . 312 to 314 BOOK IV. IMI.I ENCE OF SABBATARIAN RELIGION ON THE MASS! ►CIETY. I. : V TRAINING. This Book explains a Religious . 317 ANALYSIS. XV11 Defection from Public Worship — Progressive . 317 to 319 The Sunday School as a Nursery of Worship 319 to 321 Especial fitness and failure of the institution . 321 Value of the Sunday School to society . 321 to 325 The cause and consequence of Sundayism 325 to 328 II. MORAL TEACHING. Expansion of British mind for 500 years No development of Social happiness . . 329 to 331 Religious system of Britain — Exotic Origin 331, 332 Resultant Evils— A Royal Religion . . 332 to 335 Influence on the People — Men equal Monasteries — Abuses — Destruction . . 335 to 340 Royal associates — Aristocratic property . 341, 342 Class teaching — Rich and Poor . . 342 to 344 Opposite teaching — The Law and the Church Examples— Opposition of the people . . 344 to 346 Debasing character of Church teaching . 346 to 348 Feeling of the people— Antipathy — Results . 348 to 350 III. CLASS INFLUENCES. False ground of Social distinction Gaining— Evils — Law of life British labourer becomes a Sundayist Clerical profession — No sympathy with the people A money monopoly — Enslaves the population Church Teaching — Difficulties — Popular feeling Honour the King — Saint Peter The office of King— Head of the Church Collegiate Institutions — Primeval — Medieval IV. RELIGIOUS TEACHING. Assumed principle of the religious life — Faith . A given faith and means of grace 351, 352 352, 353 353 to 356 356 to 360 360, 361 361, 362 362 to 364 364 to 367 368 368 to 370 XV111 ANALY8IS. The Religion of Self— Isolation . . 370,371 Gives no moral object to exertion . . 371,372 Has no foundation in the good of man No development of human activity . to 378 ilture of the inner life of man . . 378 to 381 All its benefit prospective . . 381 to 383 No blessing to Society — No interest to man . 384 to 386 V. THE RK8DLT8. Moral forces opposed to Public Worship . 387 to 389 of Religious life— Middle Ages . 389, 390 Benevolence— The good of man . . 390 to 393 imess and its effects on Society . . 303 to 396 Religion of Faith useless to man . . 395, 396 Gaining and the Gospel, see also p. 360 . 396,397 Influence of Religious systems on man . 397, 398 The Reformation a result of National Progress . 398 to 401 The principle of Faith unfolded . . 401 to 404 VI. CONCLUSION. Sabbatic Religion untrue to God — To Man . 405 to 408 To the constitution of things . . . 408 Repugnant to British feeling . . 408, 409 BOOK V. HI I I'. K)N AND THE GOSPEL OF JESUS. I. THE RELIGIOUS LIFE. Religion a Life — Not an Organism . 413, 414 Origin of man— Origin of nun twofold 415, 416 Man an erring being— Depraved 416, 417 Treated with as such by th«« Father 417,418 Relation of Man to God— Son— Father 418 to 420 ANALYSIS. XIX By nature an object of Divine care The Agent of the religious life The Object of the religious life The Process of the religious life . Original Sin 420 to 422 422 to 426 426 to 432 432 to 436 436 to 439 II. THE RELIGIOUS LIFE OF THE GOSPEL. Jesus the Christ— Redeemer — Teacher . 440 to 442 Deliverance from evil — Open to all men . 442 to 445 The Gospel and the State of Man . 445 to 449 Base of Divine operation — New energy . 449, 450 Self-renunciation— Following of Christ . 450 to 452 A new principle of spiritual life— Charity . 452 to 454 Her Divinity, nature and character . 454, 455 Her Generosity .... 455, 456 Her principle of Kindness . . 456 to 458 Her Gentleness .... 458, 459 Her confiding spirit . . . 459, 460 Her superiority in the Christian Economy . 461 to 464 Her enduring character . . 464 to 466 Likeness of Man to God — Divine culture . 467 to 469 Justification— Grace of Christ . . 469 to 471 III. CHRISTIAN THEMES. Provision of a Redeemer — The Christ . 472 to 474 The principle of Redemption . . 474, 475 Forgiveness— The conditions . . 475 to 477 Abstract notions — Ecstatic feelings— Love . 477 to 481 The Gospel a relative Economy of Faith . 481 to 483 The World— The Jew— The Gentile . 483 to 485 The Human Family— Their Eternal Destiny . 485 to 489 The Gospel not a proclamation of pardon to rebels 489 to 492 XX ANALY.v i IV. CHRISTIAN CULTl Human want— The Divine life . . 493. The Gospel a Revelation of Wisdom . 404 to 4fl(> N«t an Institution — Hebrew Economy • I Apostles— Baptism— Last Supper . . 498 I The One Religion— Patriarchs, Moses, Christ . 501 to 505 Tt.-timony of the Fathers, Formalism . 505 to 507 JESUS. THE EXEMPLAR OF THE DIVINE LIFE IN MAN. Jesus an example — Following the Christ . 508 to 510 In | variety of particulars— A prayer . to 515 Jesus a Teacher of Wisdom . . . 515 to 517 VI. THE GENERAL PRINCIPLES, AND THE END OF THE WORK. The End— General Principles stated . 518 to l>Q2 The Object and DestiDy of the Book SUNDAY, THE REST OF LABOUR. BOOK I. A GENERAL VIEW OF THE SUBJECT. SUNDAY, THJL.REST OF LABOUR. THE AUTHOR'S PREPARATION FOR WRITING THIS BOOK. The burden of our tale is that Sun of rest, whose weekly rising hath poured the balm of happy quiet into the aching breast of labour's slave, and blessed the hearts of the sons of toil with joy through many a weary age of sin and sorrow. Man is a labourer, from the necessary circum- stances of his being in this world, and by virtue of the natural constitution of that being, he is incapable of labouring always. The labourer must have rest. And no provision that we can imagine can be more suitable to the wants of the child of toil than the rest of the seventh day. A hallowed holiday in the mind of our race from the immemorial usage of our fathers who embalmed the record of its observance in the mythic name of the day. And Sunday will continue to be the holiday of toil revered in the breast of all but the selfish and the unfeeling to the latest ages of human labour. The feeling of nature declares that man must rest B from the pursuit of toil, but how shall he spend the day which the traditions of his country have hallowed ^t ? The voice of Infinite Goodness proclaims from the throne of eternity that one day in seven of the labourer's lift shall be separated from toil and devoted to rest, and leaves the labourer at liberty to spend the day according to the natural inclination of his own mind. But man, more wise than his Maker, lias discovered that the labourer ought to spend this day of rest in the reverential performance of the rites and ceremonies of a religious system which the wisdom of ages has invented as a substitute for spiritual feel- ing and the higher education of the mass of mankind. It is our object in writing this book, to inquire into the origin, progress, and utility of these observances, and the nature and extent of their claims upon the lion of mankind. e dawn of understanding poured all its ril beams on the author of this work in the fullest pleni- tude of Sunday religion. His infant feet were often taught to tread the temple's sacred courts, a I the on three different occasions of public worship in the course of the same day. But the tit- which bound his youth to the strict observance of the day st as a season of public worship was sometimes loosened, and his heart, naturally disposed to joy, was treated with a feeling of the softening glow of sunny scenes and the warbling melody of the song- THE REST OF LABOUR. 3 sters of nature when man had ceased to fill the air with the bustle and the din of toil. In that age of the buoyancy of spirit and the warmth of feeling, when the spring-tide of life is vanishing into the opening morn of summer hours, I spent my Sunday for some time as a teacher at a distance from my usual place of habitation. And it was on my way to the scenes of this labour either in riding along the roads or in walking over the flowery meads and the cultivated fields that I was first led to meditate on the heaven-appointed place which external nature is designed to hold in the pre- paration of man for the life of Eternity. And to con- sider both the softening and the elevating influence of the visible creation in connection with the divine teaching of the Prophet of Nazareth. After this, when the youth of life had fully vanished into the maturity of manhood and circumstances had changed the character of my pursuits, for nearly eleven years I had the entire management of the working of two Sunday schools in connection with the Church of England ; and it was while superin- tending these schools during the hours of service, that I was led to speculate more fully on the utility of our public worship and the grounds of its connec- tion with the Gospel of the Son of God. Then I spent some few years amongst the operatives of Lon- don. And here I had the opportunity of bringing 4 DAY, iiiv speculation^, to bear on the Sunday life of that tetl of all iratherin^s of human activity. I have. I believe, pPBO the OtOtt calm and unpre- judiced consideration to the whole subject. 1 have ctmsidi red it in its relation both to the honour of (iod and to the interests of man. 1 ! ■ ■fully nd ita relation to the claims of re. ml to the temporary, the local, and the universal condition of Society, and the nature of its connection with the history of the present life, and with the everlac iiy of man in the life of the future. En brinirin- this subject before the world, I intend — I irst, To give a general view of the whole question at issue. Second 1 nsider more particularly the nature Mid object of the rest of man from his usual round of toil. Thirdly, ToflhtfUale the origin and er of the modern British Sabbatarian principle. irthly, To consider the character and the in- due uce of Sabbatarian religion on the masse Society. lily, To illustrate the origin, and cha- racter of the religious life of man and its conn< with the Gospel of Jesus. THE REST OF LABOUR. II. BROUGHT BEFORE THE PUBLIC. I had been settled but a short time in the neigh- bourhood of London when I became acquainted with a gentleman of the clerical profession, a Doctor of Divinity, and the minister of Saint Mary's Church, in a suburban district. We had not met many times when our conversation turned upon the condition of the mass of the people amongst whom we are living in this great city. And, to my surprise, I found that his views of society very much coincided with my own. We had met but very few times when there seemed to be a growing feeling of interest in each other's company, and in a short time the Doctor invited me to call at his house (Weldon Lodge), and spend an evening with him and his family — an invitation which I at once accepted in the same spirit in which it was given to me. The Doctor's family consisted of him- self; Mrs. Bell, his wife ; Grace Bell, his daughter; and Rachel Waneley, his niece, who had been brought up amongst the Society of Friends, of which Society her father was a member until he married the Doc- tor's sister. But, though that event excluded him 6 from member^ lip. he itfll continued amongst this peopK- to the end oi hii I Bell is a man something i iddle stature, well made, and in a healthy eondit ion, rather inclined to a nervous bilious temperament, without any very strong feelings; a little irritable, hut withal kind and gentlemanly in hit behaviour and address, lie had an excellent routine education in his youth; he is a tolerable proficient in the dead Langui thoroughly master of the scientific theology of his class. He is by no means deficient in general scien- tific attainments, indeed, it would he difficult b I wanting in some know let I ence, but that which is of the greatest importance for us IOW — the science of man. In such a know of man as can he derived from hooks, the Doc r by no means wanting, but in that which is derived from the actual observation of human aci from the every-day experience of common life, he is about as wise now as he was on the day when he ved his last rock in the nur> Still, however, the Doctor has a theory oi human life. re are dispersed through the Bible a muni wise sayings respecting human nature under so> its peculiar conditions and circumstances, and .saying haw been taken by the Bages of the Doctor's school as general propositions respecting bun in every state and position in which human b THE REST OF LABOUR. 7 can exist in the world. Every one of these texts, the Doctor knows by heart, and they constitute the whole sum of his knowledge of the philosophy of man. The Doctor has held his benefice, I believe, for nearly twenty years, and this, from its situation on one of the great roads from London, has brought him into personal contact with the Sunday life of the great city. Mrs. Bell, the Doctor's wife, is a lady about the middle size, of a graceful form, easy manners, always accessible to those who know her ; of a good address, a kind and a gentle tone of voice. Altogether she strikes you as a person of very ladylike appearance and behaviour, wherever you see her. The greater part of her time is spent amongst the poor people in the neighbourhood, by whom she is most highly valued both as a friend and a benefactor. She is plain in her dress and appearance, feeling, as she often says, that those who profess to be the followers of Jesus Christ should not be the leaders of the fol- lies of the world. She takes a great interest in the welfare of society, is well read in the philosophy of common life, of strictly religious habits, and consider- able personal piety. Grace, the Doctor's daughter and only child, is a young lady of considerable personal beauty, fair complexion, dark hazel brown eyes, and a conn- 8 BAT, tcnancc < Dg with soul and good huninur. Like hot moth< | ihfl i- plain in her • access, and social in her manners. She i v reader, especially of Bngliafa tremely lil>eral in her opinions, and ?ery fond of her garden and | rs. . the Doctor's niece, is a young lady of about thirty years of age, an heiress, and an orphan. She has a very fine easy intellectual face. She is thoroughly graceful in all her movements, and with- out the smallest approach to formality or affectation, and very fond of select society. She is well read in ra] Literature, but more particularly in that of of friends, When she speaks it is always with a smile on her countenance, but soft incd by the combined influence of the feelings of melancholy and hope in a mind of great natural sweetness. She has been severely tried, and sin has come out of the fire of affliction with a mind elevated, exalted, and purified by its in flu the young ladies are of a \AT, symbol of mind and understanding. \I< icui\ . il.c ( tod of letters. The fourth called w i Im id g . from W Weden, the em- blem of oombat, woe, or war, answering to .Mars, the Gad i The fifth day (hey call day, from Ty. Tor, Of Thar, the image of rule and might, rreeponding to Jupiter the Thund< \th day they gave the name of from i . the symbol of derived 1>< and production, answering to Venus, th( of booty, generation, and affection. The se\ I hey called Saturday, from Sator or Sador, suflfi- ■y or wisdom. The accomplished plan, the finished work, corresponding to Saturn, the God of husbandry. Then followed the return of Sunday, and the accom- plished round they called an eighth, or octave — a weeth or wn lie images of creation's course in which the patriarchal wisdom and natural piety of our primeval ancestors instructed men in tin- to the Creator and Governor of the world. And under the feelings inspired by lessons such as these the fathers of our race were accustomed to celebrate the Sunday as the holiday of the week — the great resting place in the journey of toil— according to the culture of the age and the country in which it was observed. The Divine appointment was simply that the THE REST OF LABOUR. 13 seventh part of time should be a day of rest from labour. The historian of the creation says, l< God blessed the seventh day and set it apart, because that in it He had rested from all His work, which God created and made. " Its sole provision was economic — the rest of the labourer from the toils of the week. Rest and change are essential to the weal of man in this world, and the culture of his body is a matter of no less importance than that of his spirit. It is the full and perfect culture of the whole being of man, both body and spirit, and as well in relation to time as to eternity, which alone can raise man to the highest place he is capable of occupying in the scale of intelligent existence. We owe our own day of rest from the weekly pur- suit of toil to the mythic Sunday of our forefathers, a day which carries back in its name a traditional history to almost a cycle of ages before the Catholic Church ordained the holiday of the Lord's day. We now turn to the consideration of the Hebrew day of rest. 1 1 I\. THE HEBREW REST. of heaves to place man in this world, and it is the first care of tl. of our being to provide for our welfare as long as we have an habitation on the earth, and therefore we find the keeping of a day of rest from the pursuit of toil be benefil of the labourer amongst the first and the fundamental provisions of the Hebrew economy. When the Divine Creator had brought the house iael to Sinai, He entered into a covenant with the pconlc, and the observance of the weekly rest was one of its provisions. In the fourth article of this iant, the Hebrew is called upon to remember the rest day, to keep it holy or separate from labour and toil, both for himself, his family, his servants, and his cattle. I [on i h Labourer spent we are not told in the Divine record. But \\c know la- (lid not spend it in the perform] ublic worship, because there was no such thing as a w public worship in Israel, neither was there any place be performance of such worship. The Taber- nacle was erected for the offering of sacrifice, and not as a place for singing, prayer, an THE REST OF LABOUR. 15 had that been its object there must have been a tabernacle for every hundred families in Israel. There is no mention of a weekly public worship in the Hebrew economy from the epoch of the thunders of Sinai to the final destruction of the Temple by the Romans. The law enjoins on the Israelites considerable strictness in the observance of rest on the seventh day. He is even commanded to kindle no fire ; and of course not to cook his food on that day. But he is no where commanded to pray or to sing on that day any more than on any other day of the week. The restrictions of the law were carried to a great extent by the Pharisees on the day of rest. But however strictly they abstained from any form of employment, and from any sort of labour on the day of rest, there is no evidence that even they had invented any system of public worship to be observed on that day. It was customary for the Scribes to assemble the people to hear the law read and ex- plained in the synagogue on the day of rest in the last ages of the Jewish state, but for this there is no Divine authority, and therefore it can neither be considered as a precept nor an example to us. With the Bible for our guide we are fully authorised in concluding, — that in the Hebrew polity the rest of the seventh day was simply a rest from labour, with- out any Divine provision as to the manner in which the labourer should spend his time on that day. the i 01 i in oonn T<> I [ 01 THi; SBVENTH D.U. 'I'm: Gtoepd of Jesus is a Divine lite received into the heart of man through the agency of His own A\onl. and its operation is wholly from within. It is the good seed sown in a honest and good b bringing forth fruit with patience. The Gospel changes and moulds the outer life simply and entirely from the force of its internal operation. The king- dom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened. The word of J this Divine leaven, the great working principle of the Gospel, by which man is renewed. "The words which 1 speak unto you they are spirit and they are hte. Verify; verily, I say unto you, If a man my words he shall ne\er tee death." V here- fore prepared by the essential character of the Qoapd to find that it makes no kind of proriaion whari for tin keeping of a day oi > prescribe any form of outward activity to man, his inward lite by tin culture of Divine !om. The author of the Gospel did not appear in Israel THE REST OF LABOUR. 17 for the purpose of annulling any part of the Mosaic law. That was a work which was left for His second coming in the destruction of Jerusalem. And there- fore we are not to expect from the Prophet of Naza- reth any new law respecting the rest of the seventh day. But there is an evident design throughout the whole of the public life of Jesus to set His Jewish disciples at perfect liberty from any very strict obser- vance of the Jewish law of rest. And the Christian Jews continued for ages to observe the rest of the seventh day with more or less of strictness, according to the measure of the predominance of either the Mosaic or the Christian element in the culture of their religious life. In the first ages of the Gospel there were three classes of the disciples of Jesus, the Jew, the Pro- selyte, and the Gentile. The merely Gentile disciple had no connection whatever with the covenant of Sinai, nor any interest in its provisions • and there- fore to him the Hebrew rest of the seventh day, like any other command of the Jewish law, was a matter of no concern, and he never observed any of its pro- visions. There never was, nor ever could be, a greater mistake than the assumption that our Gen- tile Sunday has any connection with the Hebrew rest of the seventh day. The one is a written law of the Mosaic economy, and the other a remnant of one of the oldest traditions of the human race. 18 • DAY, Tin the seventh day as an; rther commi recommends the . ranee of that day by th< I Le discip] Jesus. And it nowhere transforms that 11 day of rest into a Christian rest to be observed by the Gentile Christians on the first day of tl use it neither ordains, con nor appoints rot to be observed by the Gentile disciple of Jesus in any form or manner \\ h When the Gospel was ti> :hedto the Gen- Roman empire, there was no general . iy holiday observed by the different nations of that empire. And in carrying the (Jospel to these nation^, the observance of a weekly lic age. textual preaching, its consecrated houses, its music and singing, its public prayers, and the administra- I sacraments, are so wholly and entirely a I c, that they have not a shadow of lation in cither the precept or the practice of the New Testament ; and yet, most assuredly, if it had been any part of the object of the Divine mis- THE REST OF LABOUR. 21 sion of the Son of God to found any such institution as the system of the ecclesiastical worship of Christendom, the New Testament would contain some intimation of the matter. But question that Divine Book however you may, it still maintains the most perfect silence on the subject. We shall now endeavour to trace the origin of days of worship in the church. NDAT, IV WORSHIP. We read in the Gospel history that early in the morn- ing of the first day after the Sabbath, the Son of God arose from His garden sepulchre and appeared to one of His followers, and that He appeared to tin a who were going from Jerusalem to Emmaus on the same day, to console their mind and to strengthen faith in the fact of His resurrection; and this is the shallow foundation on which the churchman grounds the observance of this day as a day of worship. Nearly at the close of the first century of the ( hL John the Divinr uses the tenn, " En rfi Irariake emcra" — oncerning t l But be « riter refers to a day of the week or to some to period of time, is a question which it is impossible to determine with any certainty. r calling • In the apostolic age the greater part of tin r_Jews or -pr oselytes I , and they observed the rest of the se\ THE REST OF LABOUR. 23 day with more or less of its purely Hebrew character. Some of the more zealous Hebraists even went so far as to endeavour to bind all their Christianized bre- thren to observe the Hebrew Sabbaths. But in this attempt at uniformity, they were resisted by Saint Paul, who decided that every man should act. fl sJie was persuaded in his own mind- It was the custom of the first disciples of Jesus to use great hospitality in their social intercourse; and, as the disciples of a city, generally met in the house of some rich believer on every evening in the week, they there broke bread, or had a temperate social meal together, at which they ate and drank one with another in testimony of their mutual union and equal brotherhood in one common Master. At these meet- ings they conversed and possibly sang together, and exhorted and instructed one another in the Divine life. But there is no ground on whi ch we can infer that audible prayer was offered up to either Christ or to God at these or any other meetings of the dis- ciples in the first age of Christianity. It is related that both before and after one of these social meals in the city of Philippi, Paul taught the disciples and their friends in the course of the Satur- day night, and continued his discourse until the break of the morning on Sunday. And Paul exhorts the disciples at Corinth to lay by what they could spare for their poor persecuted brethren at Jerusalem, on 2 1 HAY, the first day afl -that is, on our Saturday night. Hut there ii no ground for supposing that the dlioiplei • whether .lews or Gentiles, paid any form of religious respect to the first, or to any other day of the week during the first century of the pro- fession of the Gospel. In the second and in the former part of the third century of Christianity, there was a wide profession of the discipleship of Jesus without any real reception of the Divine wisdom and the spirit of the Qospfi) ; and to satisfy the ritual cravings of these half Jew, half heathen, and half Christian professors of the !, the Catholic Church arose out of a per?< conception of the apostolic teaching, and assumed an outward organization and a definite form on the sur- of society. Its ministers invented by slow degrees a form of outward devotion and an ordinal of religious service to suit the wants of its men, and the seventh, the sixth, the id the fourth of the week became the distinguished tin crformancc, but the pre! rally seventh as the day of the I Sab- bath. M re said and hour in the morning at the house of some disciple, when the belie\ hbours n and joined in \ercise of singing and prayer, the word of God was read and explained, or an exb n to and a holy THE REST OP LABOUR. 25 one of the number who was moved by the Spirit to perform such a work, and afterwards by a minister appointed for that purpose. After which, each one went to his usual calling or employment until the evening when the disciples, who lived near to each other, again assembled for evensong, and often kept up their meetings to the hour of midnight. No idea having yet entered into the consciousness of the merely Gentile disciple of Jesus of marking out any one of the days of the week as a holy day by an entire cessation from the pursuit of labour. But a great part of the Church being composed of Hebrew converts to the faith of Christ, much attention was given by them to the observance of the Hebrew Sabbath. And the Jews and proselytes, with their friends, rested accord- ing to the law and the covenant from their usual round of labour on that day. In the latter half of the third, in the fourth, and in the fifth centuries, the Gentile element in the Church increased to such an extent, that it attained a decided predominance, and the Friday and the Sunday be- came the chief, and the most distinguished days of religious service. The meetings of the professed fol- lowers of the Son of God began to be held in separate buildings towards the end of the third century, and before the fifth, the temples of paganism were conse- crated to the service of the Church. The Church itself became a duly and regularly organized body, DAY, and rose to the dignity of a high and important world beheld in the profit follower- Prophet of Nazareth, ■ well-defined and illustrious worldly society, to which it wa bottom to belong] and which might be used as an •\e engine of the .state in binding the people in the fetters of subjection to its arbitrary will and htcous authority. It is said by Sozomon, the Church historian, that Constantino the Great suspended business at the Courts of Justice, and in the other civil offices of the empire first on the Sunday, as the great feast of the church about the year 321, and soon afterwards on theJEriday, as the great fast of the faithful. That these days might be devoted with less interruption to the purposes of public worship, matins were nov later hour in the morning, to which the Euchar- istic service succeeded; and evensong was ehaunted earlier hour in the evening, to suit the eonveni- lperior classes of society, who now bowed Me altar urch, and listened with rfil to the studied essays of her eloquent preacher*. i had now two weekly holidays, and days of public worship in each week, for the GOter WOl">hipper; hi re devout DQ attended on the performance of thil system was invented for that numi ass of persons who wished to make an out waul profession of THE REST OF LABOUR. 27 piety, while they pursued their course along the high- way of life, without any particular effort of self-denial, and for that more numerous class of persons, whose ignorance and want of mental exertion, ever lead them to desire a place for their souPs rest in some institution of popular superstition. The well instructed Christians of those ages were seldom found in a house of worship. They spent much of their time at home and in the fields, in private prayer and Divine medi- tation ; while others assumed a retired, a recluse, or a hermit life, the greatest of church teachers main- taining, that the institution of public worship was not for them, but for the ignorant, the unlearned, and the outer worshipper. In the following ages, the first day of the week, as the feast of the resurrection, took the precedence of all the other feasts of the church, and became a general holiday, under the name of the Lord's Day. Labour was suspended in the countries of the church, and the intervals of worship were employed in such pur- suits as suited the different inclinations of the several individuals who on this day had their time at their own disposal ; and such it remains in all the continental countries of Europe to the present day. When the hours of worship are over, the day is a holiday : so it was appointed at the first, and so it has continued. But this Constantinian holiday of the church is a thing altogether distinct in its object from the rest of labour SUNDAY , ined by I tor. The Cm I the M-vcnth part of time from the pursuit of toil wholly and entirely, for the rconomic benefit of the m worn, and sweating labourer, that he might rest from his work and renew his strength. But the Const an - tmian holiday of the Lord's day was appointed for the sole benefit of the church, that she might have a ine in which she could drill the mass of the people into a form of outward piety, through the in- ■ Mentality of her system of public worship. bare now to trace a new development of the elum h idea of the Lord's day — a development of this idea altogether limited to our own country, and to the last three hundred years of our history. THE REST OF LABOUR. 29 VII. MODERN BRITISH DEVELOPMENT OF THE CHURCH IDEA OF THE LORD'S DAY. During the middle ages, the force of true religion, and the powers of the church superstition combined, had held the mind of the multitude of men in subjec- tion to some form of reasonable propriety, and some decency of outward action in the views of the more wise and virtuous of the community. But the ex- panding feeling of the fifteenth century, considerably loosened the hold of ancient associations upon the character and the activity of men. And the conflict of rival theories and opposing interests between Pa- pist and Protestant in the following age, gave the greater license to the prevailing evil, and the good men of that day, entirely mistaking the real character of religion, turned all their attention to public wor- ship as the great and effectual instrument of regene- rating society ; and fixing upon Sunday as the great day of worship, they first directed their attention to the outward correction of the manners of the people on that day. It was then, when the political atmosphere of the churches in Britain was cleared from the dark mc- 30 DAY, teor of papal influence, and the principle of faith was assumed to be the sum of the religious life of the Christian, that the law was first bro u ght in help-meet to the Gospel in promoting a due regard bo the itricter Sabbatical principles of the church, and an act of Parliament was passed in the reign of the youthful an 'l pious Edward the Sixth, to enforce the betttr obi of the LordVday. The more it of the following generations beholding with sorrow the continued failure of even Protestantism to produce that national regeneration which they had expected and earnestly desired. Their hearts sank within tl lie moral depravity of soci r souls turned with intense desire towards the sword of justice as an assisting agent capable of effect* ing that which the preaching of faith had not been able dene be accomplish, overlooking the important fact that in employing the law to extend the domi- t Christ, they were filling the atmosphere of the Gospel with the repulsive scent of the sulphurous lake instead of the attractive and beautiful aroma of the flowers of Paradise. M well- intended exertions produced at times the whitcd wall and painted sepulchre of out formity ; but, alas, for the hopes of deluded man, i there was nothing but the putrid dust of sin and corruption. And such has been our harvest of polluted fruit from this soil, that we behold the pro- THE REST OF LABOUR. 31 fessed minister of Christ far more intent upon the compulsive prostration of the outer man before the visible shrine of public devotion than in the diffusion amongst the sons of men of the heavenly principle of divine charity. The love of God and our neighbour* that inner manna of the heart which alone can give life to society ; that true leaven of the Spirit which can alone leaven the whole lump of fallen humanity. While the mantle of the true spirit of the Gospel appears to have fallen almost alone on the Philan- thropist of the world, to us the Gospel is no longer a message of peace, of love, and of life, but a mi- nistry of the sword of condemnation and of death, and Terror has become the watchword of religion. We have here arrived at a point in our subject at which it is quite necessary to admit either that the Gospel has entirely failed to meet the wants, the conditions, and the hopes of man, or that the Gospel and the Church are totally distinct things. It is our object now to consider this question. , Dia . VIII. THE GOSPEL AND THE CHURCH TWO DISTINCTLY OPPOSITE THINGS. In everything relating to the Gospel the New Testa- ment is our only authority; and if we study that Divine ISook with an unprejudiced mind we shall find that there is something so benevolent, so liberal, so generous, so true to human nature in the Gospel record; such wisdom, such truth, and such gooti in the teaching of Jesus; and something so pure, so disinterested, and so elevated in I lis spirit; such an overwhelming fulness of divinity in His life and character, that no good man can willingly doubt but that lie is really and truly all that He represe himself to be, The Word of God to man : and, as such, the Ihvine life of the world. And under the impression of this feeling we arc bound to admit that if the Gospel tails to effect all the good in society which from its character we might reasonably expect it to accomplish, it must be from some circumstance or accident connected with its propagation rather than from any essential defect in the nature of its Divine wisdom. While, on the other hand, we look in vain through the life and the teaching of Jesus, not THE REST OF LABOUR. %sj<. 33 only for the church itself, but for anything resem- bling the church. In the four Gospels we meet with nothing like the organization of an institution — no- thing like the institution of a system of religion — no constitutions of government — no canons of order — no ordinals of service — no articles of faith — no con- secrated buildings, nor any liturgy of worship. And yet if the Author of the Gospel were the founder of the Church, we ought to have His book of the law for all these things, as we have the books of Moses constituting, ordaining, and determining every par- ticular of the Sinaitic economy. And in the ab- sence of anything of this character we believe that we have every right to conclude that the Author of the Gospel is not the founder of the Church, and that the Gospel and the Church are two totally dis- tinct things. If we attentively compare the teaching of the Gospel with the teaching of the Church, we shall find that our subject is materially affected by the admission of the fact that the Gospel and the Church are not the same things, and that the Author of the one is not the founder of the other. The Gospel is the revelation of a Divine wisdom. Jesus, the Author of the Gospel, was a Teacher — " This is my beloved Son, hear Him." " He that heareth my [word and believeth on Him that sent me hath everlasting life." c 2 3 1 BUNIVW, Tin* Church is a system of religion, an institution of forms of \\. nodes of devotion, and theories lief. is a Divine life in man, the words of ing a new principle of life to the human heart. "The words that I speak unto you they are and they are life. Verily, verily, I say unto if a man keep my words, he shall never see flu* The Church life is an outward culture of ordi- nances, of beliefs, rites and observances, as means of grace. The Gotpd directs men to worship the Father in t lie spirit and in the truth alone. "When thou st, enter into thy closet, and pray to thy Father which seeth in secret." "The true worshippers shall worship the Father in the spirit and the truth."' The Church ordains a system of public worship, and directs men to pmy with a loud voice, that they may be heard of other men. And teaches men to pray in the hearing of others on all suitable occasions The Gospel discourages or forbids all audible wor- ship m public places, as in market-places, in corners of streets, and in public buildings, and als pic worship. u Jesus saith unto her," the woman 5 imaria, "Woman, believe me, the hour Cometh, shall neither in this mountain nor yet at tsalem worship the Father. Because God is a THE REST OF LABOUR. 35 spirit, and they that worship Him must worship in the spirit and in the truth." The Church erects temples for worship, and main- tains that the service of prayer and praise performed in a consecrated house is more acceptable to God thau such service can be when it is performed in any other place. The Gospel sets before men the example of the performance of worship in a secret, retired, and secluded place, and without any audible utterance in the presence of others, as the perfect pattern of all our worship. The Church ordains outward, visible, and audible worship ; makes it the great object of her labour to call men to the attendance on the performance of that worship as the chief duty of a religious hie. The Gospel appoints no body of teachers of its Divine wisdom, but leaves this work open to any man whose natural aptitude to teach, whose knowledge of the subject, and whose inclination, leads him to undertake such a work. The Church ordains a body of men to teach her principles, and to perform her rites, whom she endows with such a Divine influence, as to make their word while they are performing her work to be the word of God. The Gospel is so entirely a culture of the inner life that it ordains no one process or form of outward observance whatsoever. 66 sunimy, The Church is so entirely a culture of the outer life that iti whole system consists of forms of worship attendance upon ordini of grace. Such is the directly opposite character of the Gospel and the Church, that if one is truth, the other mu<\ be a fable. And if the Church is a revelation of truth, the Gospel must be a miserable failure, a cunningly devised delusion, and an infinite mistake. It the Gospel represents the character of the Creator more in accordance with His own manifesta- tion of Himself in the visible world ; if it repref the nature and the character of man more in accord- ance with our everv-day experience of human nature; and if the origin of the Gospel is an open and known fact, standing out before the world in all the simpli- city of the plain and naked truth of nam< and places, which may be comprehended by the humblest and the most unlearned; while the Church, in her system of creeds, constitutions, canons, ordinals, and liturgies, is so entirely mythic as to be able to DO actual fact of either person, place, or I for the origin of any one single link of her whole chain of constituent elements, noi e limb of whole body of fundamental jtrincipl nn])!« person must at once confess that the Church bears in her artificial frame the whole and entire character of a cunningly del ised fable. While Gospel, in all the reality of positive fact and THE REST OF LABOUR. 37 natural simplicity, presents to the mind, through every lineament of its Divine form, the living con- viction of its eternity of truth. Here the Doctor paused. For some little time he had slightly hesitated, and now he stopped as if to take breath for what was to come after. And Grace, as though she saw something in her father's mind which he was hardly prepared to digest, immediately remarked: — "I see nothing personal, father, in what you have read. It is not the persons who carry out the system of the Church, but the Church itself which is dealt with in this paper." Whereupon the family entered into the following conversation : — Doctor. — Whether the paper were personal or not, Grace, I feel so much interest in this subject, that I should wish to give the most patient consider- ation to its contents. Rachel. — Thou hast often told us, uncle, that it is quite necessary to distinguish betwixt a bad system and those who are engaged by their profes- sion in carrying out its objects and provisions. And I am sorry that it was thy destiny to occupy a posi- tion which renders it necessary for thee to do many things that are very disagreeable to thy better feelings. Doctor. — It is the feeling of my own position which affects my mind in the reading of this paper. I have long since come to the conclusion that our M 1UNDW. BvJ chirr. ■ not promote the real re of soei QlACB. — W« have all alike come to this con- clusion, father. Doctor. — Yes, hut I did not feel quite prepared M-iiss the subject in the way in which our friend has brought it before us in this pap Mr. Charity. — I am snre, Doctor, you are quite aware that I have no wish to hurt your feeling ' have written what I sincerely believe to be the truth, hut I have no wish whatever to convert you or any one of your family to my view of the subjec have no wish to put forth my opinions in any com- pany whatever, and I have no objection to drop the subject altogether in our future intercourse. Doctor. — On no account, my friend. I be I oak the sentiments of my family when I say, that we are anxious to hear anything you ham to say on this important question, and knowing my position, I am sure you will excuse any little ex | of my feelings, in op to your mode of del. — If I understand friend Ch rightly, he is not defending a set hut explaining his view of a great social phenomenon ; and nothing can give me more pleasure than to go quite through the matter. Doctor. — It is very difficult for a man to bn up all the old associations of his life. THE REST OF LABOUR. 39 Mr. Charity. — Yes, Doctor, I know what it was to do this at twenty-three, but I felt it to be a duty, and duty is my inexorable law. Mrs. Bell. — It requires a strong mind to sacri- fice the whole of our self-interest, and all the plea- sures of friendship for the good of society. Rachel. — It certainly does, aunt; but this self- denial has been more or less the distinctive cha- racteristic of the best men of every age, and it seems almost necessary in the nature of things that we should in some degree sacrifice ourselves if we would do any real good to others. Doctor. — I am certainly inspired with this feeling, whatever may be the opinion of my friends on the subject. I feel the good of my fellow-men to be an object far more worthy of attainment than the gratification of even my best personal feelings. Mr. Charity. — It has long been my opinion, that we cannot really glorify God in any other way than by making our whole life, conduct, and conver- sation, to minister to the welfare of our fellow-man, as a being both of time and of eternity. Doctor. — Next week, then, my friend, I shall feel great pleasure in proceeding with our subject. 40 BUN DAT, IX. nilFERENCE BETWIXT THE CHURCH AND THJ GOSPEL, AN ORIGINAL DIFFERENCE IN THE PRO< OF HUMAN CULTURE. The line of distinctive difference which we have drawn betwixt the Gospel and the Church, is a much older principle in the history of human culture than either the origin of the Church or the advent of the Gospel. For the last four thousand years two totally and entirely distinct views of human nature have pre- vailed amongst men, and the world has been divided between two altogether opposite views of human cult 1. One of these views may ; iminated Wisdom, and t i Ritualism; one Philosophy, and the other Superstition; the first is the wisdom of God, the < be invention of man. The Uitualist contemplates the individual man as an originally evil being, whose activity may be moulded, whose energies may be fettered, and whose may be directed by certain outward processes, and certain inspirations of Divinity communicated THE REST OF LABOUR. 41 to the mind through the medium of a course of visible rites, performed by a secretly appointed minister of heaven, endowed with divine powers and qualities not possessed by other men. Such were all the ancient religious systems of the world, and such is the Catholic church from its first foundation in the second century of the Gospel to the present day. This system in its original elements is unchangeable, however much its secondary principles may be varied. It has remained essentially the same from its first foundation in old Babylon on the Euphrates, to its last development by the saints of America. Its fundamental elements are — a divinely appointed ministry of religion, a system of public worship, and certain performances through the medium of which the Divinity is communicated to man. This culture is entirely human, of the earth earthy, and of the sense sensuous ; and, without a union with something better, its tendency is to extract every spark of Divinity out of the spiritual life of human nature. The man of wisdom contemplates individual human nature, as to a certain extent originally divine in every human being, goodness in the nature of every man continually mixed with evil ; he believes that from the first and smallest opening of the under- standing of man, the Divinity lives and moves within his being, as it once moved on the face of the mighty waters of the unformed earth, and he feels, moreover, DAY, tli.it this indwelling Divinity links man to the Infinite Divinity of the universe, md he looks upon men as the intelligent offspring of tlu- Infinite Intelligence: as the living, owned, and acknowledged ehildren of the Father of being. He feels that this inner divinity, like a diamond hidden in the grosser earth, is en- shrouded in a depraved nature, and surrounded by an evil world, and he believes it to be his province to assist this living spark of the eternal Spirit — this in- dwelling goodness, to unfold its energies, to subdue the grosser nature, to overcome the evil circumstances of its being, and to realize its union with the Fountain of goodness, the Father of its existence. Of this philosophy, the Gospel of Jesus is the perfection, and Jesus himself is the highest, the noblest, the most Divine of all philosophers. He is essentially the Word of the Father, the Wisdom of God : for Infinite Wisdom itself has hidden in Him, as the Teacher of men, all the treasures of wisdom and knowle. It was the pleasure of the Father to gather together in one all things in the Christ. To collect into one body all the sc a tt e red rays of Divine wisdom, wliieh had lighted up the conscience of universal man from the beginning of time, and had, to a more or lest extent, found their record in the poetry, the prophecy, and the philosophy of the world. To gather these rays together, as He once gathered together the diffused light of Creation; to form the luminous THE REST OF LABOUR. 43 bodies of our heavenly system, and to form them into one perfected whole in the Person of the Divine Word, and so to give to them the stamp of eternal Divinity through Him who is the Sun of righteous- ness to the whole moral world. Life and immortality were not created, but brought to light by the Gospel. They existed before, as light existed before the sun ; but in the teaching of Jesus, they are brought to the embodied daylight of Divine certainty, and eternal reality. The process by which these two systems of culture carry on their work, is as widely different as the systems themselves. The Ritualist, regarding the whole nature of man as evil, sees nothing in him but one vast mass of cor- ruption, continually unfolding itself from his youth upwards, as naturally as the bud is expanded into the leaf, he considers it to be his business to shrieve the soul by an outward culture of means of grace, a course of services and offerings to an ideal Divinity of his own creation, and by ingrafting in the mind a reverential faith in his operations, he communicates a new spirit of hope to the affections of the worshipper, through which his religious life becomes one con- tinued dream of some glorious felicity to come, to which he is to be transported after death. The cul- ture of his own heart and mind, and the welfare of humanity, are matters of as little concern to the man 44 :i\V. of rites and moans of grace, as if he had himself no individual being in tlic creation Of God, and DO in- |( in the life of his own m The teacher of the Divine wisdom, on the i regards the essential good as baying :i place in I man at his beginning. He looks upon the higher part of man as the direct offspring of a father infinitely pure and good; and hence he considers his own work to be, to bring out the latent germ of goodnesss into the whole life of man ; and as the spirit is the direct workmanship of the Fountain of goodness, he expects continual assistance from Him in the doing of this work. His business is not to put the good into the man, but to bring it out in his life; to promote the cultivation of that good which God himself has planted there. And he seeks to promote this cul- turc both by precept and by example, and to lead the man forth in the conquest of the evil, until the flesh is subdued to the spirit. If this work is neglected in th< infant man, and the divine life receives no early culture, he lx to a great extent, the \ictim of passion, appetite, and temper, but the good in some degree still remains. It is the work, ther ef o re, of the teacher of the Divine philosophy, to seek out the hiding place of this good, in the depths of the inner nature, and by a course of divine teaching, to b the hidden spark of divinity into a new state of life, to renew its communion with the lather, and by the THE REST OF LABOUR. 45 constant increase of its spiritual energy, to overcome the vicious life, until the man becomes a new creature, and the one principle of truth and divine affection becomes the fundamental element of his activity. The two forms of culture, also, assign to man a different and opposite principle of activity. The Ritualist makes all the activity of man to be governed by self, and all the actions of his life to ori- ginate in a principle of pure selfishness. He teaches us that man is so constituted from his birth, that the final resolutions of his will are always determined by that which he believes to be most conducive to his own enjoyment, his own good, or his own happiness, and hence it determines the constitution of his nature to be such as to bring the whole circle of his activity entirely within the bounds of his own personal interest, without any thing purely social in his nature. The whole man is an absolutely selfish being. The Divine philosophy, on the contrary, looks upon man as, from the instant of his birth, a social being. As having within him a higher nature than self. A principle which will prompt him at some times, and under some circumstances at the least, to do good to others, merely and simply from the love of doing good. A principle which will prompt him to do good without any reference to any benefit it may be to himself, and without any prospective gain or reward whatever. To do good solely and entirely because it is | part of his nature to do so. This is the feeling to which Christianity appeals. This is the principle of Christian life which it is the design of the Gospel to arouse into action. This is the prin- ciple which exists in the child, and which called forth from the Divine Teacher the sublime declaration — "Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not, for Of such is the kingdom of Sea There is something in the infant mind undepraved by an evil education which at once bespeaks the divinity of its better nature, and makes it the usage of that life into which it is the object of the (iospel to trans- form and to bring back the man. It is one of the most unpardonable of libels upon human nature to convict the loving, joyous, playful, smiling innoc of infancy of pure selfishness. The lower nature of the infant is naturally inclined to selfishness ; but if it ever grows up a purely selfish being, it will be the fault of its education, and not of its nature. these two systems of culture differ very y in their proposed method of ating man, and of reforming and renovatimr society. The Ritualist looks upon tin; irrown and matured man as having e\il by a necessary law of his c. Born an evil being, th. :h in •y, grows up with his growth, and ripens with his age. He sees no inward ground in the con- on of his being to work upon, no semblance of THE REST OF LABOUR. 47 an honest and good heart, in which to sow the seed of regeneration ; therefore he effects his object by- pruning the branches, and by grafting a new fruit on the depraved trunk of the tree. His aim is not to give new life and vigour to the supporting root, but to breathe a new spirit into the frail and transitory foliage of human activity, while the sap remains as base and degenerate as before. The Divine Philosopher, on the contrary, contem- plates in this evil world the triumph of the evil over the good in human culture. The education of the sensuous, the outer life, and the neglect of the inner, the spiritual and the divine life. And his first object, therefore, is to awaken the inner being to a new life, and to arouse its powers into activity. To teach the man to resist the evil, and to follow after that which is good. To teach him to renounce the old and sen- suous culture of his life, and to bring him to an entirely new course of life — the culture of the spiritual and the divine, And this he proposes to do by the process of an entirely new education. The teaching of new principles of thought and action. "The words which I speak unto you," said the greatest of all Teachers of wisdom, "the words which I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life." This is the wisdom which gives life to the man and renovates the world. For forty centuries the world has been divided 48 SUNDAY, i en those two rlniiwm of human culture. On the one Mb we have bad the minister of superstition og man as a wholly evil being ; a being uniting in 1 1 is one person the two natures of and a fond : a being w\ rity must be reined in and 'typed into form by an outward drilling of means of grace, rites, ceremonies, inspirations, incan- tations, and anointings : and by this most unnatural process of cultivating the unfolding manhood of our race, the human mind has been bound in the fetters ivcry, and consigned over to t; f a min- istry professing to he the subjects of an especial and secret call to their work from the Invisible and by virtue of that call to enjoy a closer union with the Divinity, and to exercise an authority in the world of a higher character, and to an extent above and beyond that of all the rest of mankind. At the head of this class of men are to be found the most distinguished priests and magicians of all t 1 systems of ancient rapersi \n\, to a certain extent, the fathers, doctors, and popular reformer Imrch. Though in a general way the min Of the church has uniformly maintained this superi- r the priest of anciem dam, that he has always united a certain amount of objec moral teaching with the culture of ritualism. And the measure of the benefit which the good but mis- taken minister of the church ritualism has conii THE REST OF LABOUR. 49 upon the world, and the measure of the evil which he has maintained and spread through society, is to be estimated entirely by the extent to which either the renewing principles of the philosophy of God or the rites of the Ritualist have prevailed in the system of culture which he has taught and practised amongst his brethren. At the head of the sages of the world, the teachers of wisdom, we may place the patriarchs, the great fathers of the human family. The poets who re- corded the deeds of their forefathers in verse to teach the moral lesson of their life, and lifted up the stan- dard of goodness, truth and beauty, as the moral beacons of human culture ; the philosophers of the more polished nations of the Mediterranean; the illustrious line of Hebrew prophets especially raised up by the Father to call that favoured nation from the follies and depravities of the public worship of their day to the practice of the more ennobling prin- ciples of spiritual piety and the culture of the higher qualities of justice, goodness, mercy, and a commu- nion with the Eternal and the Divine. And, above all these, Jesus Christ and His Apostles, whose great business it was to free the nations of the earth from every form of ritualistic training which then pre- vailed amongst men, and to bring the mind of the world to the highest possible state of freedom from the trammels of a ritual culture, and to give to the D 50 DAY, principle of the teaching of wisdom b solid founda- tion, a perfect development and a Divine sanction, :ik form of human culture - i the nature, the wants, the aspirations, and the d< of man. THE REST OF LABOUR. 51 X. DIFFERENCE BETWIXT THE CHURCH AND THE GOSPEL IN THE PROSECUTION OF THEIR WORK. In the prosecution of her labours the Church begins with the beginning of life. Let us look at the per- formance of her work. Here is a gentle, artless little babe ; a spirit just fresh from the Creator's hand, undenled by the work s of the flesh. This innocent image of purity, of love- liness, and of beauty, the Church in her ghostly wisdom assumes to be a child of the devil and the object of God's wrath, full of all uncleanness and depravity, vile and degenerate in the sight of the Father of heaven, who but one moment before had called it into being. But one moment before it was not — Infinite goodness gives it existence — and the next instant it is under the sentence of condemna- tion to eternal death. And in this state it becomes a fitting object on which the Church may exercise her mission of regeneration. But if the helpless child should die without the assistance of the Church most deplorable must be its condition. It may be the only child, the first born of a dying mother, another Mary, whose chastened spirit had sat DAY, at the feet of Jesus, and learned that the God of the < 1 is tlic Father of all — loving to every man. whose tender mercies are over all His works. The unsmiling babe is passing away before her fail eyes, and, according to the custom of the count 1 \ friends call in the minister of the Church. He comes with a reverend step — but, alas, it is too late. The tl of salvation can no longer drop their healing virtue on the living face. The spirit has fled — gone to eternity as it came, without a fault, without a stain. But that it had been united for ■ days to a body descended from the father of mankind. And for this one fault, which it could no more help than it could help its existence, the lovely innocent is gone to the fiery bosom of its father the devil, ci by the God of the Church, and cursed for ever in the place prepared for it by our holy mother from the foundation of her superstition. Let us now turn from the curse to the bless from the dead to the living child, and mark tin of our holy mother for his welfare. In a due time, the sooner the better after his birth, the living infant must be brought to the minister to be baptized, and in the performance of that act, he declares that the same child which he received from the mother as the child of the devil, has been new born in the waters of regeneration, and he returns him to her a child of God and an inheritor of the kingdom of with THE REST OF LABOUR. 53 this injunction, that as soon as he can say the Creed, the Lord's Prayer, and the Ten Commandments in the vulgar tongue, he shall be brought to the bishop to be confirmed in his own new relationship to the God of the Church. Whatever else she may recom- mend, this is all that the Church requires to be done in the education of a child of God from the day of his new creation in the waters of baptism, to the age when she treats him as fully capable of answering for himself before the tribunal of eternal judgment. His mind may be left without cultivation, his understand- ing may grow up without light, his heart may be without feeling, his temper may be unbridled, his passion without restraint ; he may be ignorant, vain, foolish, self-willed, malicious, and revengeful. If at fourteen he can say the Creed, the Lord's Prayer, and the Ten Commandments in his mother tongue, the bishop will confirm him in his right to an inheri- tance in the eternal kingdom of the Church, as a true and proper child of her God. And as a confirmed child of God, and a real and fully admitted son of the Church, he manifests his feelings of gratitude according to the character of his education, and is prepared to attend upon the means of grace which his holy mother has provided for his salvation. On the following Sunday he is admitted into a participation of the highest mysteries of her divine life, and from henceforth he has nothing to do but devoutly Bay his prayers and listen 1 ulay sermon, when tlic nhiming bell, the monitor oif liis !l call him to attend upon her public . and to take the bread and wine of her sacrificial sacrament whenever it is administered to faithful ; and having done this, she expects him «erve the COmmbll decencies of social life, and at least to keep the letter of the Ten Commandments, and then he will he safely hoarded in the ark of salva- tion. He may despise his brethren, hate his enemies, neirlret his friends, sharpen the sword of justice, rivet ifresh the bonds of tin . shut his doors on the hungry, turn away from the cry of the helpless, per- vert judgment to the widow and the opprc^ the fatherless to starve, and close his hand to the destitute ; all this will not endanger his eternal - if he goes to church on a Sunday and reverently obeys the minister. He may fill his barns with ill-gotten and lay up his thousands and tens of thousands easure on the earth; he may indulge himself in all the follies, the pride, the einulat ion. t he strife, and the ambition of the world, until he cannot under- stand the meaning of the taking up a c vim; Christ; he may lead the fashions and the fopperies of his age, and revel in all the luxury, the grandeur, and the glory of his gen< but tak'- the chief seat in the synagogue and i kneel at the altar of his religion. THE REST OP LABOUR. 55 When sickness or the prospect of death awakes his slumbering conscience into activity, and brings to his mind the vision of Him who said — " If any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me," — his spiritual friend is ready there with the balm of Gilead for his wounded soul, assuring him that " no man liveth and sinneth not/' He must take the sacrament of his salvation and look to the Saviour, and then his spirit will be at rest. No churchman can die eternally whose last act on earth is to eat the body and drink the blood of his dying Lord, the Christ of the Church. Whatever the churchman is more than this, that he is not by the requirement of the church, but by the private teaching of his own conscience and the word of God, and by the traditions and the circum- stances of his life, and the position of his being, What then are the credentials of the Ritualist, the man of Sabbatic religion, and of means of grace for the life of the future ? He has been baptized, but the Gospel no where commands the Gentile disciple of Jesus to be bap- tized. He has been confirmed in the faith and obedience of the church, but as Christianity knows nothing whatever of the baptism of Gentile children, it can know nothing of the confirmation of such persons in their riper age. 56 »\v. He haft i' 1 ::ul;irly attended his accustomed place of public worship on the Lord's day; but the (iospel knows nothing of a Lord's day, nothing of places of hip, ndthmg of public worship itself under any form, or in any position whatever. He has said his prayers night and morning from infancy to old age, but the Gospel says nothing about I morning prayers. Its only rule is, to pray without ceasing, and in every thing to give thanks. lie has regularly received the holy communion, but the Christianity of the Ni it knows nothing of the administration of a sacrifieial S) ment. It does indeed say, that when the Saviour ate the last Jewish passover supper with His disciples, He commanded them as oft as they ate that | to cat the bread and drink the wine in remem- brance of His sacrifice, until lie should come, to -alem, and terminate the M nomy. But what has this to do with a daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, or festal administration of M ine to the Gentile disciples by the minister of the Church? He hai ghen his property to support the cause of God, but the Gospel says nothing of tae of God except the suffering poor, who can be ben the assistance of his piety or his property. Be has faith, but faith will be of no - I the THE REST OF LABO bar of eternal judgment, where evei judged according to his works. He has called Christ his Master, but He says : — " Not every one that saith unto me Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father, who is in heaven." His hope has never failed him, and now he has no fear but that, when his blessed Lord comes, he shall be ready to go with Him to glory. But this hope itself will pass away when every man shall be judged, not by the greatness of his hope, but by the good or evil of the deeds done in the body. In one word, he believes all the articles of the orthodox faith. He has regularly kept the Sunday as a day of holy worship. He has been constant at the public and the private means of grace, and above all at the communion. He has assisted in maintaining the public worship of God in his neighbourhood, and set the example of regular attendance to his neighbours. He has devoutly kept away from the company of all infidels, radicals, publicans and sinners, whom he detests most fervently. He has called his household to morning and evening prayers, and he has taken care that all whom he could influence should do the same. But alas for him, not one of these things are com- d2 ,58 DAY, mandcd • km in the Ne* m, and .it- Of them CSD be of any avail, iii that • lay when God will judge the seen b by the I by faith, and sancti tied by the Spirit. 1 il in ng of the opposition of the wisdom of the 1 to the sacrificial system of the Sinaitic noiiiy, and its Pharisaical perversion. But d by Him who has the words of eternal It the Word of God is true, man il justified in coming to the Father by the death of Christ ; hut to In li( \ >rds of Jesus, and to keep His sag is the only justification of a Christian, either in this world Of the next, and so to receive the sayings of tj as that they shall become the purifying prin- ciple of a new life, a life in which the subdued, the disposition is changed, the temper is raided, the mind becomes generous! the spirit le, and the whole man is striving after truth, hi- nd goodness. This is the onfj -pel. Knowledge shall vanish a\ shall fail, and hope shall cease with the setting son fe. But goodness of feeling, kindm-s of d . generosity of spirit, and gentleness of mind i bear the soul of man over the threshold ot . mid chanty alone.be 'lasting fountain of ty of the future, as it is now ot" the happi- THE REST OF LABOUR. 59 ness of the present life. Whatever else a man may have of the gifts and the graces of the divine life, if he has not this charity, his claim to the kingdom of heaven has no foundation in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Let us now turn from this scene to the portrait of a Christian, and let the original of this portrait be Saul of Tarsus, the great founder of the Gentile pro- fession of Christianity. Saul of Tarsus was born and educated a Jew, and as a Hebrew Pharisee, he was converted from Judaism to Christianity ; and to mark his renunciation of the divine economy of Moses, and his belief in the divine mission of Jesus of Nazareth, and his reception of the wisdom of the Gospel as the teaching of the great Prophet who was to come, he was washed with water, and assumed the name of Paul. Up to this time he had been a true Pharisee, observing all the ordinances, and performing all the rites of the Mo- saic economy. Righteous to the last letter of the law, but without a single spark of the culture of goodness in the feelings and the activity of his reli- gious life. But we look in vain through the whole history of Paul the Christian, for any savour of the life of the Church ritualist. In relation to the Gen- tile disciples, he never so much as mentions baptism, and in connexion with the Jews who believed in Jesus, he thanks God that he only baptized a few of ft) MAY. them. : Christian b I the '<•■>. be was not sent to baptize, but to pi the Gospel \ to teach the wisdom of a heavenly life to man. Gentile Christianity knows nothing of baptist) I mark of diseipleahip in the school of Christ the cruel : We follow this great man through all his labours, without being certain that he ever offered up an audible public prayer, or ever taught any other person to do such an act. We never find him performing I public worship, or ever commanding or inviting any others to attend upon such a performance. He heathen countries, and carries the wisdom of God to strange lands, but he nc -\ mpts to establish among these people a Christian di rest, leaving these matters entirely to the discretion of the people; and v. hen his half Christian brethren endeavour to frighten the Gentile disciples of Jesus into the observance of the Jewish Sabbath, he forbids it altogether. With this injunction: " bet no man, therefore, judge you in meat, or in drink, or m re- of an holyday, or of the Mm, or of the bath, which are a shadow of things to come." As to that which we technically call the S; bread and wine administered to B act of worship by a mi n, we i ;< h a thing in the whole pro THE REST OF LABOUR. 61 of the Apostle's ministry. We never find that he administered such a rite, or that he was ever present when it was ministered by any other person. We never find him appointing its celebration, or either commanding or exhorting others to be present at its performance. And yet this man stands before ns as the only authorised founder of the Gentile profession of Christianity. For nearly thirty years he labours as the first missionary of the Gospel to the principal countries of the Roman empire, and yet he builds no churches, he founds no institution, he establishes no system of worship, he administers no sacraments; and this for no reason, either human or divine, but that such was not the object of his mission. The great teacher of the Gospel to the Gentiles was not the founder of a church. With him the Gospel and a church are two distinct and opposite things. The Apostle opposes all rites, all ordinances of men, all observance of days, and all exercise of authority by one Christian over another, because the Gospel is not an institution but an inward life. He opposed all temple religion, because it was the object of his mission to restore the worship of the Creator to that purity and spirituality in which it was exer- cised by his great ancestors the patriarchs, and the first fathers of mankind. He was not sent to teach men a new religion, but to teach them how to be religious in the most perfect form and in the most spiritual manner. Iii the life rod teaching of Paul tin i is a in, uo inner life, a new culture. As a Jew we sometiino find him conforming to the national ms of his race; hut as a Christian his whole culture is enti from anything that can enter • be peculiar characteristics of a churchman, li his whole life opposed to every principle of ritualism, but unlike the great church tcach< the succeeding ages, he courts no an from human authority in the prosecution of his ol He seeks no connection whatever with earthly i' ; he forms no society in which he himself is to have the place of pre-eminence ; lie propounds no articles of belief, no forms of public service, no ordinances of means of grace, nor any constitutions of an organized society. He never uses any influ- ence to raise money for the support of his object. Hut while engaged in the pursuit and the execution of the greatest and the most noble work that was ever intrusted to a mortal man, he labours with his la to provide his daily bread. In the execution of his mighty enterprise, with all the powt ■•. uni\( us at his command, he D the character of a popular orator, but is fully led with the simpler position of a teacher. The object of Paul is not to astonish tin world the rhetoric of learning, but to elevate tin of men in the principles of Divine wisdom through the eloquence of common e 1 the only d THE REST OF LABOUR. 63 he uses to insure the success of his undertaking is to make known to others in the most plain and simple style the great principles of truth with which his own mind is stored, and then to trust entirely to the force of their own intrinsic relation to the Eternal Divinity for their success in the world. It is the great purpose of the Apostle to teach men right principles, and then to trust entirely to the power of these principles to produce right actions. He lays the axe at once to the root of the evil, and clears away the rubbish that has grown up around the noble stem of human life ; he digs about its root and dungs it, and well waters the ground from the living fountain of Eternity, and then he leaves it to bring forth fruit of itself for the good of man and the glory of his Creator. Paul called the world to no houses of prayer, but to pray everywhere. He invites men to no hall of preaching, but he teaches in every place, when and where he had an opportunity — in the market places, in the street and in the synagogue, in the field and from house to house, everywhere and whenever he found an opening ; and the whole end and object of his teaching is so to instruct his hearers that they may become instructors themselves ; not that they may come to him every day and be ever drinking out of his vessel, but that every man may have within himself a well of the water of wisdom con- IUKB tinually springing up through hii whole nature to the formation of his life, the direction of his conduct, and the rule of his con\er>ati<>n in the world. The whole end and object of the A sion in the world was to sow that incorruptible of wisdom in the mind of man by which he should be born to a higher life, and in the working of which there would be an entirely new culture of his spirit, his temper, his passions, his affections, his app and his propensities. A change in the whole and entire disposition of the man by which lie would become a new creature in Christ Jesus, and the universal and entire principle of charity would become the ruling element of his life. This is the whole sum, object, and design of the Gospel, as it was propounded to the Gentile world by its only Divinely authorised teacher. A Law of the inner life entirely free from all forms, all i all rules of outward activity which do not grow out I own inward principle of transformation and production. Just as the blade, th. I the full corn in the ear, grow up out of the original grain of seed which the husbandman has hidden in the i Forms of worship, systems of religion, sacred da; professional ministry, places of worship, MOiami creeds, confessions, articles of belief, canons, litur- gies, const . and a professional psalmody, have nothing whatever to do with the Christian life and THE REST OF LABOUR. 65 the teaching of Paul, any more than they have with the Gospel of Jesus. They are altogether, and wholly, and entirely, the invention of men who perverted the teaching of the Prophet of Nazareth, and the Apostle of the Gentiles, into a national institution and a worldly profession ; and that insti- tution and profession it is their great object and business to maintain in the world and transmit to posterity as entire as they descended to themselves. Here the Doctor, turning to the writer of the papers, said — " I believe, my friend, however much you feel the church system to be wanting in a beneficial influence on society, you have no wish to bring it to any very sudden or violent termination. " Mr. Charity. — You are well aware, I believe, Doctor, of the nature of my sentiments on this part of the subject. If you wish to remove an evil weed it is of little use to break it off at the stem, you must destroy the roots; and so it appears to me, that if you wish to remove error from the mind of man, the best method you can pursue in effecting your object is to teach the truth. Grace. — You have no wish, Mr. Charity, to claim the homage of posterity as a hero of destruction ? Mr. Charity. — Nothing could be more opposed to my feelings than to attempt the sudden and violent removal of any ancient institution, however little may be its use to the world. Make an insti- 1 u , tution oi i the feelings of men and il perith like the yellow h ntumn, or the snow before (he "flftVfFf nut; Kwiiu.. — Thou appearest to have but little \vm- pathv, friend Charity, with the method of reforming pursued by the Reformers of the sixteenth century. made the old house a heap of rubbish] and built a hovel on the ruins. Mk. Charity. — I am a man of one idea on this subject, and I know of but one method of reforming society. -Mrs. Bell. — I have some interest in km what that is; I should like to see a reformation without destruction. Mr. Charity. — I am of opinion, that the best way to reform society is to teach men the truth in a kind and affable spirit, and to live according to the principles we tench; and then to leave the evil to perish under its influence as darkness flees before the rising sun. i. Bill. — However little, then, you regard the public worship of the church as a useful me*] spiritual culture, you have no wish to bring its per- formance to a sudden termination. Mr. Charity. — By no means. As long as then is any one who feels a want of that worship, I would have the service performed for his benefit, and I would not object to go myself on some occas THE REST OF LABOUR, 67 that I might manifest a social spirit towards my neighbour. Grace. — I think, Mr. Charity, yon have a very fair amount of confidence in the truth, the stability, and the final prevalence of your own views. Mr. Charity. — I feel it most important to teach my brother what I believe to be the truth, but when this is once taught, if it is not able to maintain itself in the world without my assistance, my own opinion is, that the sooner it fails the better. Rachel. — If the truth is duly taught and properly stated, there is no doubt but that it will finally prevail in every mind prepared for its reception; and I think that the mind of many of our brethren is now like an hungry appetite waiting to be filled. Doctor. — I believe we may now proceed with the next paper. 68 \iuv, \i. KCVELATION AND INFERENCE COMPARED. It is my impression that no one can be long quaint cd with the members of the clerical profc without feeling that the object which lies nearest their heart is their profession. That there is nothing for which a good clergyman feels so much concern as the well being, the dignity, and the perpetuity of his order. And why should not this be so ? Is it not a very natural feeling? Self-preservation is the first instinct of natural life. Why should it not also be the first feeling of professional existence ? And if so, it by no means follows that every man who defends the church should do that from a base or h motive. To a very great extent the general activity of men is determined by the character of their education, or by the force of prejudged conclusions, and is wry on the result of free and independent thought. And those persons who defend the system of the el mrch, may generally be supposed to do so from the force of prejudice. They have been trained in that system — their minds have been educated under its influence, and they have been taught to believe from their earliest vears that it is the truth of ( tod. And THE REST OF LABOUR. 69 whenever the real truth has been placed before them they have always maintained that everything they believe may be inferred from the Bible. And here lies their mistake, in supposing and maintaining that inference is revelation. Strange things may be inferred from the Bible, but it is what is declared in the Divine Book, and not what is inferred from it which we are to receive as the truth of God. Nothing can possibly be more fallacious than a system entirely dependent on infer- ences. And nothing can be more unreasonable than to suppose that the Creator of the world would make a revelation of a few abstract principles, and leave the whole law of human activity to be inferred from these principles, and then to make the whole eternity of the happiness of men to depend entirely upon their obedience to these inferred principles of belief and deduced laws of action. It is utterly impossible that such can be the intention of the Creator of the world. The whole analogy of His works precludes any possibility of such a supposition. Such a revelation as this could be of no service whatever to the mass of mankind, because the extent and the amount of the difference in these infer- ences, and the possibility of entire mistake, would be a greater evil than the want of the revelation itself. And most assuredly the Bible is not such a revelation as this. The wisdom of the Gospel consists of a few /() i>\V. plain and simple facts, aiul a small number of equally plain and simple rules of activity to bi d by the disciple of Jeans as a new culture of fa But these plain and simple principles of belief and laws of action contain the most perfi i wt was or ever can he propounded to mankind. And such a system of wisdom as may the wishes of the most liberal friend of man- kind, and the wants of the humblest mind, as well as the aspirations of the highest intellect which lias appeared amongst men. Let us, then, re the declarations of the Gospel as men of thought and Consideration, while we leave the whole system of red principles to those who are cither unwilling or unable to think for themselves. The church might be suited to the wants of nun when they would rather be governed by the laws of prejudice than act on the principles of independent lit. Hut this system is altogether unsuited to the wants and the conditions of men who have the Bible in their hands, and are determined to act on its simple principles rather than to rest upon the infer- ences of men whose whole interest on earth is centred in the continuance of that svstem which deri\ being from the inferences th< the simple n of ; is, and to judge of its meaning for our- selves thai the church will look 71 upon us as unbelievers, and give us the name of Infidel, and such, in the sense which the church attaches to the term, we really are. We are full and entire believers in the revelation of the Gospel, and equally as full and entire unbelievers in the right of any man or any set of men to draw a system of inferences from the Bible, and to impose that system on their fellow men as a revealed religion. We believe that every man has a right to draw his own inferences from the Bible according to the light and under- standing which God has given to him ; but we are unbelievers in the right of any man to impose these inferences on his fellow men, or to build them up into a system and to dignify them with the title of revealed religion. The unbelief of almost the whole body of the infi- dels of the last three hundred years has not been an original unbelief in the Gospel, but an unbelief in the principles which the Church professes to infer from the Gospel revelation. But very few of these unbelievers would have been enemies to the Gospel had they seen its Divine principles in their own pure and simple character. They were taught from their infancy to believe that the Gospel and the Church are the same thing, and it was their mistake and their misfortune never to examine the subject for them- selves, but so far to take the word of the Church on trust and to receive it as truth, and then to treat 7- both the Gospel ami the Chur le. lint the general diffusion of the New Testament has already done much to enable the world to distinguish vn the truth and the (able. And it will no doubt do much more in the course of time, in leading men to eschew the one and to receive the other; to turn away from the inventions of men, and to embrace the wisdom of God. In every age of the church there have been great and good men in her community who have been the actors of mankind and the ornament of the human race. J hit who can show that it was the church which made the men? Was it not rather the use of the gifts which God had bestowed upon them, and the circumstances in which it was His pleasure to call them into being which made them what they were to the world ? And the question ought rather to be — How much did their connection with a system of falsehood detract from the graces of their life, and lessen the amount of their value to society.' The ehureh lias contained Otero] men in her communion, but it would be impossible to show that the ehureh institution has ever conferred any original benefit on mankind in any of the ramble forms which she has assumed, from her first rise in the second century of the Gospel down to tin century of our era. There would he no difficulty in showing that the THE REST OP LABOUR. 73 monastic institutions of the middle ages conferred the most estimable benefits on the nations of Europe, but these institutions were by no means the offspring of the church as an institution. They existed in the Essenian hermitages of Palestine and the Druidic schools of Britain for ages before they became a part of the life and polity of the church. If the great and good men who have appeared in the community of the church had owed the cul- ture of that greatness and goodness to the creeds, the confessions, the public prayers, the sacraments, and the ordinals of the church, then she might well be considered as the benefactress of the human race. But these men were not good as a result of their connection with the church. They rose to that elevated position by the natural force of the culture of the good which God had planted within them, and not by the culture of the debasing ritualism of the church life. As well might we attribute the green- ness of the leaf, the verdure of the valley and the ful- ness of sap in the nourishing tree, to the shadows which float through the sky in the drought of sum- mer, but drop no refreshing rain on the thirsty earth, as to suppose that the lifeless rites and the dead forms of the church had produced the kindness, the liberality, the gentleness, the generous feeling, the integrity, the truthfulness, and the Divine humanity which has manifested itself in some of the members E ) I . DAY, q| her community. It h \ciy easy to EU ;!ic earth can produce all the beauties of vegeta- tion under the influence of a mild air, refreshing showers, and a genial sun ; and so it is easy to con- how a man may become heavenly and godlike under the I b\ ine operation of the indwelling Spirit of eternity in his mind; how his heart may be culti- vated by the working of a tender conscience and the \ation of the revelation of the Father through everything which lives and moves, and has a being ; how the mind may be instructed by the teaching of the records of Providence in the writings of Moses and of the prophets; and how the whole man may be purified, elevated, and perfected in the feeling of charity and the practice of godliness by tl; of Jesus, the imitation of His life and the practice of His teaching. Because in each of tl i the operating agent is sufficient to produce the result, and the effect might reasonably be expected to follow from the working of the cause. Here the Doctor was interrupted by his niece, and the following conversation ensued: — Rachel. — This distinction betwixt inference and fact in relation to the (id-pel and the Church is thing quite now to me, uncle; and y< t Li ap pears to be a subject of no small imp to the world. Allow me to ask if it fail i\er occupied thy ution to any extcn THE REST OF LABOUR. J5 Doctor. — Not in the way in which it is treated in this paper; but I feel it to be a question of the highest importance in the consideration of our subject. Rachel. — The whole matter appears to me to be hinged on this one point. Everything which the Church calls Religion is, I believe, entirely based on this sandy rock of inference. Grace. — Is it possible, father, that a principle can at the same time be both inferred and revealed ? Doctor. — Nothing in my view can be more dis- tinct than inference and revelation. That which a man infers from something else cannot be a revela- tion to him. And that which is revealed to a man cannot be his inference from some other thing. The one is the deduction of reason, the other is the off- spring of inspiration. Inference is the offspring of my own mind ; revelation is the communication of another mind to me. Grace. — How do you apply this to the Gospel, father ? Doctor. — The Gospel is the making known of the mind of God to man through Jesus, the Word of God. And therefore the principles of the Gospel are a revelation of wisdom. The sages of the ancient nations inferred the several principles of their wisdom from the constitution of nature, the phenomena of "the visible world, and the traditions of their fathers ; rt 8UNDAY, hut tlio teaching of Jesus is a direct revolution of the Blind of God to man. ELkCHBL. — This is a very plain definition, uncle ; but wisdom is not worship. Thou hast drawn the line betwixt inferred and revealed wisdom, wilt thou fa- vour us in applying this rule to religion or Divine ihip. Doctor. — Our friend will do that for u> Mr. Charity. — I would gladly comply with your request, Doctor, but I never could be made to under- stand the precise meaning which the Church attaches to the term — Kevealed Religion* If you will favour us With a definition of this well known term, we shall, I ha\e no doubt, much more easily understand the matter. Doctor. — By the term Religion, we generally inl- and the worship and service of God, by the offering up of prayer and praise, and all other thingi iiected therewith. Mr. Charitv. — This is religion in the common ptation of the term. What, then, are we to un- stand by Revealed Religion? Doctor. — The revelation of the fact that men ought to offer up prayer and praise to God, and the the form and manner in which that nd praise ought to be offer JIvchel. — But where, ancle, i^ such a revelation be found ? This has always been a matter THE REST OF LABOUR. 77 of some difficulty to me. Canst thou tell us in what part of thy Bible it is first revealed to man that he ought to offer up prayer and praise to the Father of his being ? Doctor. — I believe that is one of the points the Church assumes to be taught in the Bible without pointing out any particular text in which the principle is asserted. Grace. — But if the Church takes it for granted that the duty of offering prayer and praise to the Creator is a revealed truth, without being able to show any textual proof of the fact, surely there can be no difficulty in producing the words in which the manner and form of performing this duty are revealed. Mr. Charity. — I accept your bow, Doctor, and assure you that I feel no difficulty now in giving the ladies an answer to this question. In the Gospel we are told that all our prayer is to be private, that it is to be short, after the manner of the Lord's Prayer j that it is to be in the spirit, and not con- fined to any particular time, place, or circum- stance. This is the only revealed method of worship with which I am acquainted in the New Testament. Rachel. — Let me ask thee, friend Charity, then for thy definition of Revealed Religion. Mr. Charity. — I object to the term altogether, as one of those forms of expression which have no other 78 8UNDAY, use but to narrow the mind and to shut up tin of men in tin- temple of ignorance. Doctor. — What men commonly understand by iled religion is that economy of worship which the Catholic Church has deduced from the Word of God, and that system of faith and practice which Ought to distinguish the life of the worshipper. Mr. Charity. — Allow me, Doctor, to sum up the subject in a short sentence, and I would say that the religion of the Bible is the religion of nature and of ( iod, without art, without sophistry, and without sys- tem. But Revealed religion is the religion of the church as an ecclesiastical system, devised and fected by the skill and the craft of man as a reli_ profession. Grace. — Are we to come to the conclusion, I father, that the whole system of the church is nothing more than a body of inferences from a few simple s of the Bible ? Doctor. — Such, I believe, Grace, is the fact of case. I believe there is hardly a single doctrine or practice of the church which, in nt form, can claim any direct assertion of the G »r its idation. Mr. Charity. — It has always ap peared to me, Doctor, that the Bible was never intended to be a nwlatinn of rehgion to the world. It is most un- questionably the great object of th to make THE REST OF LABOUR. 7^ known to man the nature and the character of a re- ligious life, but not to reveal religion. Rachel. — And how wouldest thou define the life of the Gospel? Mr. Charity. — As the denying of ourselves, the taking up of our cross, and the following of Christ — a life which begins with self-denial and ends in charity, as described by the Apostle Paul. Doctor. — How very different would have been the condition of Europe, from the death of Marcus Antoninus to our own times, if the Bible and the Gospel had always been received in this light. Mr. Charity. — Most certainly, Doctor, and how very different also would be the history of Europe in the present century if the Reformers of the sixteenth had taught the Gospel to their fellow-men, instead of giving the world a new edition of the Constantinian Church under the name of Protestantism. Grace. — But if the Church is not the Gospel, father, on what ground are we called upon to believe her teaching ? Doctor. — The Church believes that she has a just right to interpret the Word of God upon a certain systematic plan, and that her whole economy is a legi- timate deduction from the Bible according to that plan of interpretation. Rachel. — I am astonished that a man of thy straightforward integrity, uncle, could embrace such 80 8UNDAY, a round-about system as that which thou bait de- scribed the chimb fed be. Doctor. — This was the result of my education, and not the choice of either my feelings or my judg- ment. Rachkl. — Then, the whole matter appears to come to this point— Does the Gospel anywhere authorise the Church to make these inferences? Doctor. — Circumstances have fully convinced me that no man, nor any set of men, have any right whatever to deduce principles or practices from the Bible, and to give them the name of rei religion. Mr. Charity. — I believe, Doctor, that we must begin our interpretation of the Gospel on an en new principle. Every declaration and every expres- sion of the Great Teacher must be interpreted ac- cording to the plain, common-sense meaning of the is, and in relation to the time, place, and eireumstances under which they were spoken. If we ever rightly understand that perfect treasury of Divine wisdom. Grace. — It is evident to me, though 1 have not thought much on this particular point of the sub- that there must be a great dinvrenee betwixt the faith of the Church and a belief in the Gospel. Doctor. — The difference is great, indeed, but not THE REST OF LABOUR. 81 greater in reference to the things believed than in the nature of the faith itself. We believe the economy of the Church, because we are taught to do so by the character of our education ; but we believe the Gospel from the conviction of our feelings. Mrs. Bell. — In charging men with infidelity, it has for some time appeared to me that the Church does not mean the same thing as our Lord did, when he accuses the age in which He lived of unbelief. Rachel. — It appears to me that many good, but, I think, mistaken men of the present day apply the the term Infidel to every man who has no faith in the ecclesiastical institutions of his country, and who does not attend a place of public worship on a Sunday. Grace. — If we are to believe those who claim to be the most religious of our age, almost all our best writers are infidels. Mr. Charity. — I have known hundreds of persons who are called infidels by the professors of our fashionable religious systems, though they are devout believers in the Divine mission of Jesus, and live in the daily practice of the principles of the New Testament. Doctor. — To understand our Lord rightly, it is necessary to understand the position of the parties to whom He spoke, and the circumstances under which He uttered the words. e 2 SUNDAY, Ml — I think the .lews must lered as bong in a rery different position to that of any other people in the world. :. Chabitt. — The Jews received a polil by miracle, and that political continued by miracle. If they acknowledged the Divine mission of Jesus, then their ; life would newed and continued on for an indefinite period ; but if they rejected Christ, that life would perish and their nationality would be extinguished. Rachel. — This opens quite a different view of the tory. But what have you to say about the reception of the Gospel by the Jews as a system of Divine wisdom? Mr. Charity. — The Jews were God's peculiar people by virtue of their obedience to the Divine provisions of a ritual culture ; but when Jesus ap- peared as the Great Prophet who was to come, this im no longer made its votaries the peculiar peo- ple of God, but this privilege became the right of those only who yielded obedience to the law of a spiritual life in Christ Jesus. And this change from a ritual to a spiritual culture is called "being horn again/' in the conversation with Nieodemus. ace. — Still we want this subject brought to bear he question of belief and nnbel Doctor.- There is no declaration in the (i< h makes the eternal happiness or the eternal THE REST OF LABOUR. 83 misery of either the Jew or the Gentile to depend on his faith in the mission of Jesus Christ. But the nationality of Israel, and the peculiar relation of the Jew to the Creator and Governor of the world, most certainly did entirely and altogether depend on this point. Nothing but the reception of the Gospel could save them from ruin and destruction. Rachel. — But does not Jesus Christ himself de- clare, " That he that believeth on the Son hath ever- lasting life ; and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him." Doctor. — He does so, certainly ; but the question is, what are we to understand by the words Zoen Aionion ? * the life of the ages," which our translators, according to the Church system of interpretation, have rendered everlasting life. Grace. — But does that mean eternal happiness ? Mr. Charity. — The expression, " life of the ages," appears to be used by our Lord as the specific desig- nation of the spiritual economy of the Gospel, in. opposition to the ritual economy of Moses, and to all ritual culture whatsoever. Mrs. Bell. — According to this view, this and similar expressions have no reference to the eternal destiny of either Jew or Gentile. Doctor. — No more than that no man can embrace the Gospel, and live according to its divine teaching, without being a better man in this world, and attain- 84 BUNim. ing to a higher state uf happiness in the life of the world to conic. Mr. Cii.mmtv. — Two things in the condition of !. at the advent of the Son of God, depen de d upon their reception or n jection of the spii economy of the Gospel, the life of the ages— Tin nomieal relation of the people to the Divine B< and the political existence of the race. Grace. — The first of these we understand, but what have you to say to the otl. Mr. ( ii mm rv. — If a majority of the Jewish nation had received the spiritual culture of the Gospel, its political life would have been saved; but as they re- jected the new economy of the Christ, and retained their adherence to that of Moses, they continued under the wrath or judgment of God, and their poli- tical life suffered that doom which was suspended on their faith. Mrs. Bell. — But did this rejection of the spiritual culture of the Gospel necessarily consign the whole csc Jews over to eternal punishment ? Mr. Charity. — There is nothing in the (luspcl which asserts this, and nothing whatever in tin irealed character of either God, or tin B id, to ty such a view. The Blbk represents the eternal f men as dependant on the life of each indi- vidual in the fulfilment of his relations to his fellow- men on the earth. THE REST OF LABOUR. 85 Rachel. — This appears to me to be a very satis- factory view of the subject, and to clear the Gospel of that most uncharitable declaration, That every man who dies without believing the Gospel, must suffer eternal punishment for his unbelief. Doctor. — It has often grieved me most deeply to hear the Gospel made the law of condemnation to the whole world of humanity in every age of time, with a very few exceptions, in one or two favoured lands out of all the countries of the habitable earth. Rachel. — I should not need a greater punishment to make me perfectly miserable, than the idea that a man, whatever may be the age or the country in which he lives — whatever may be his want of capacity to understand the subject — whatever may be the pre- judices of his education, or whether he has ever heard, or ever had the opportunity of hearing any thing of the matter, that such a man must suffer eternal punishment for not believing in Jesus Christ. Mrs. Bell. — And yet the people of Britain are told every Sunday, that this is the condition of the greater part of the world. I have heard it until my heart is sick of the tale. Grace. — For my part I would much rather believe the Gospel to be a fable, than believe that the Creator of the world, the Father of being, could make the eternal destiny of the human race to depend on their faith in Jesus, though I have the deepest reverence hat adorable name, and can I >nounce it without a feeling ofderotrt affection. Doctoh. — The enunciation of this principle i darkest blot on the religious character of our age, inasmuch as it is the grossest libel on the rev of the Divine Being — " God is la Mk. Charity. — This is a principle which gi\ character of barbarism to our religion and our God, before which, if we are rightly informed by a late le travclh t. e\i n the Devil worshipper of Africa Is aghast with horror. If the Creator of the rifible world is the ruler of the destiny of men, no sensible and unprejudiced man can doubt but what — that which determines the future condition of every human being must of necessity be some- thing, which every man can both know and under- stand. Rachel. — I have no doubt but that this doctrine has done more harm in modern society, than all the ical and the infidel books which have been written in this country during the last three hundred v< Mas. Bi I i.. — I fear from what I see of from the beggar to the noble, that our present n li gious system is of the very smallest social h and. Grace. — Why if we can believe even the mission- aries themselves, the introduction of our popular re- ligious system into the South Sea Isl; hout THE REST OF LABOUR. 87 any of the counteracting influences which exist in this country, is already producing its naturally bane- ful effects on the inhabitants. Doctor. — I have some time felt that the Godli- ness which is found amongst us exists to a very great extent rather in spite of the evils of our religious system, than as a result of its beneficial influence on society. Mr. Charity. — This, Doctor, forms the subject of the last of the series of papers which I have placed in your hands. Doctor. — That, then, will occupy our attention when we meet next week. Mr. Charity. — If you please, Doctor, and I think we sufficiently understand each other now to enable you to read it, without in any degree misunderstand- ing the spirit and object of the writer. 88 8UNI>\\, XII. THE NATURE AND INFLUENCE OF SABBATA1: UKLIGION. 1- kom the age of Constantine to that of Leo the Tenth, the principal object of the legal enactments in rela- tion to the Lord's Day was that of enabling dill classes of people to attend upon ti ice of the church, beyond this the day was not considered to be different from any other day. It was the service and not the* day which was the object of re Without the sendee the day had no claim to distinc- tion. But since that time, the object sought to be attained by British legislation is of a much hi order and of a very different character. It is now assumed by the British church that the Lord's Day has within itself an intrinsic excellence and a superiority over all other days, which lh lustre of holiness over all the religious acts of the worshippers, and gives an unction of divinity to their performances. Prayers and praises said and sung on this day are said to have an acceptability with derived from the holiness of the day, which they cannot have on any other day. And the excellence of the day is thought to give a sanctity and spin- THE REST OF LABOUR. 89 tuality to the preachers word, which we look for in vain at any other time or on any other occasion. The assumption of the positive holiness and the in- herently sanctifying influence of the Lord's Day, has made it the common foundation and the centre of the religious life of modern Britain. To assemble in the house of God, and hear God's minister say his prayers and preach a sermon on God's day, is almost the whole sum of the religious life of our age. When men have done this they feel that they have done that which is most required, and that the grace of God will do the rest in due time ; while all who do not do this are considered to be a part of that whole world which lieth in wickedness, awaiting the punish- ment which is the due desert of its iniquity. It is, moreover, assumed that this observance of the Lord's Day is the great development of national righteous- ness, and the only means of the salvation of the people. And this is the foundation of all the at- tempts of modern legislators to direct and restrain the moral activity of men on this day ; to compel men so to act that they may not contribute to the filling up of that cup of national iniquity whose whole and entire spirit of evil consists in- the supposed profana- tion of the sanctity of this day. But allowing all the hallowing influence to this day which has ever been assumed to belong to its Divine character, the important question still remains, how 90 DAY, ';>!• ;» compulsory observation of its highest claims can be in any degree beneficial to society, or to the smallest extent acceptable to Him who seeth not as man seeth. "For man looketh on tin appearance, but the Lord looketh OH the h< When then is the profit of all your laws for the religious observance of this day ? Nay more, where is the profit of the best and purest national religion, M that religion is the free and willing breathing of the individual heart of the worshipper to the her of heaven? O, man of God, the world feels that thou hast thil armour of fashionable hypocrisy too long; that sword of justice has now no comeliness on thy thigh. Let us hear no more of appeals to human authority in favour of public morality from Christian lips. Tell us no longer of the dependence of Christ on the arm of Caesar. Come not down from thy great work on the mountains of love to ex< vengeance of the law on the bleeding heart of the sons of men waiting in the valley of death for the balm of Divine affection, which is for the healii the nations. "How beautiful upon the mount an et of Him thatpuhlisheth peace, that saith unto . Thy God reignctli. Thou knowest the I of the Lord, then persuade men. Thy Master no tword but the words of love ; no power but that of the Spirit; no compulsion but that of the unction THE REST OF LABOUR. 91 from above, which boweth the heart to the throne of heaven. An expecting world awaits with anxious heart the advent of the Gospel of love ; the nations yearn for the outbreathing of the Holy Spirit of affection and fellow-feeling on all people. Sick at heart of the husks of a merely protesting faith, the voice of humanity cries to heaven for the fruits of the tree of life. In the very depths of our heart we cry for the great Physician. But you only offer us the balm of a selfish, cold, and unfruitful belief, the performance of a prescribed round of formal means, while we are perishing for want of the feeling of the healing vir- tues of the Divine cordial. With the deepest anxiety the soul turns from a heartless world and a fruitless faith, where man feeds on his fellow-man, and lan- guishes for a new spirit that shall pour into the sinking heart of humanity the healing balm of a universal sympathy. And shall teach the devouring wolf to dwell with the tender lamb, and the ravenous leopard to lie down with the helpless kid, and the calf and the young lion and the fatling to repose together* so gentle that a young child may lead them. In your teaching we ask not for you, but for the spirit of your Master. Utterly tired of the eloquence of words, we ask for the power of the Spirit. We pray you no longer to preach yourself, but the great Healer of the nations. Invite us not only to your prayers, DAY, !)ut also to our own, not only to hear the word of life, but to ponder it for ourselves. Call u.s not only to the temple to pray, but also to the silent com- munings of the closet and the secret outpourin. the heart. Inspire us not only with charity for our brethren, but with fervent affection for our 1 bour — the great family of our common humanity. 1 us no longer in the imitation of the world, but direct us, both by thy own life and teaching, to the earthly life of the one great Exemplar of all truth and simplicity. Recline no longer on the velvet of the pulpit, and quietly condemn the people for not coming up to your assembly, because they feel no awakening fervour in listening to your prayers, and no unction of interest in attending to your studied address. But go rather with your Master into the fields and the highways, the haunts and the dwellings of men, and invite them to become themselves the house of God and the dwelling-place of the Saviour ; for the spirit of life from God has already taught the world that the Most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands, inviting the presence of unnmg man at the sacred place to receive the smile of His Ikfour and the benediction of His revealed inani- tion; and assured the true disciple that the only earthly dwelling-place of the Lord is the heart of His people, and the only house of prayer the place in which he breathes the desire of his soul to heaven. THE REST OF LABOUR. 93 Tell us no more, we beseech thee, of the Gerizim and the Jerusalem of holy means, but lead our aching hearts at once to the holier hill of bleeding love, where we may drink for ever at the fountain- head of the streams of the waters of life for the healing of the perishing nations, and commune with the Father in the spirit and the truth, because the Father seeketh such to worship Him. And shall He seek in vain ? Shall they not come, and weary and heavy laden, and travailing humanity find rest ; shall not the captive of the selfish be free, and the down trodden be raised ? He that sitteth on the throne of the universe hath said to the yearning spirit of humanity, " Behold, I make all things anew." The still small voice has already breathed its first whispers of renovation from the throne of Jesus, and many hearts have felt the gentle vibration of the heavenly chord. The Healer of the nations has begun to pour out the morning dew of His spirit, and the friend of his fellow-man has tasted the genial draught of its refreshing waters. The anthem of heaven has already become the watchword of the wisdom of the future. The morning star of peace on earth and good will towards men has already spread its rising beams over the darkness of ignorance and the clouds of selfishness and conflict. But who shall hail the advent of the great Sab- bath of love ? Who shall be the leader in its me- 94 SUNDAY. lody of united affections and it- harmonies of fellow* feeling? If the eliildren of the kingdom shall hold peace, the King will animate the stones of the t in the day of His power. And they shall raise the loud hosannah of universal charity to the skies. until its sound lias reached the utmost ends of the earth, and the tabernacle of God is with men. Shall the nations cry for the shedding of blood to cease from the earth, and the servants of the Prince of peace not be the first to teach the murderer of his hnthren to turn his sword into a ploughshare, and his spear into a pruning hook, that his posterity may learn war no more? Shall statesmen despise the titles and honours of the world as the contemptible bubbles of a day, and the servants of Jesus be found among the first wrest- lers in the game of ambition for wealth, power, and the distinction of a name amongst men, and no voice be heard to tell the multitude that they cannot bc- who receive honour one of another, and seek it not from God only? And that as is the end of the wicked, so shall his be who lays up for himself trea- sures of riches and property, having no treasure in Shall men run to and fro in the earth to seek for ledge, that health may be restored to the bog disordered frame of society, and no instructor of the people be found from Him who sent out his disciples THE REST OP LABOUR to teach all nations those great social truths which are destined in the day of His power to change the face of the whole moral world — binding up the entire family of humanity in the band of mutual affection, when every man shall love his neighbour as himself? Shall the man of the world grow tired of the proud distinctions of class which have raised the barrier of envy, distrust, and contempt betwixt man and man, and sicken at the splendid pomp of unrighteous power which impoverishes a nation and makes the labourer a slave to the vanities of wealth; and the follower of the prophet of Nazareth be clothed in purple and fine linen, and fare sumptuously every day, while he looks down with complacency on the sweating crowd as an humbler grade of his species, too low for his friendship on earth — but, alas ! it may be too good for his associate in eternity ? Shall the legislator curb the amalgamation of pro- perty lest it should place the power of the land in the hands of a despotic few, and endeavour to raise the mass of the people from misery to comfort, from wretchedness to decency and respect, and from igno- rance to knowledge, that the nation may not decay in the sinews of its physical strength ; and the minister of Jesus not be the foremost to teach the world that all men are brethren, and that the distinctions of honour, of wealth, and of property, which separate men, are but the fruits of ii^quity, which make it SUNDAY, hard for those who hsfjB riches to cuter into the kingdom of heaven '." Shall the philanthropist of the world, in the eager- q| his soul for the promise of the life that now is. wander over eternity to seek for the happim his race, and meet with no messenger of heaven in kindly sympathy with his Divine object to direct his steps to the Redeemer of man and the Renovator of the world, as still the only though despised teacher of the wisdom he desires to possess? Oh, all ye that mourn and lament for the evils of society, and de>ire to spend and to be spent for the of ra&aang man, your brother — but, alai misery and distress; go ye to the Sealer of men; go undirected by man, unprejudiced by >y stems of opinion, and unfettered by theories of belief; go yourself to the Gospel, the living spring of truth, the philosophy of God; dig deep into nighty mine of renewing principles, and drink its world-derided spirit, and there you shall learn the only way to renovate society and to re the world. Oh, ye servants of the moM High (iod, ye who he Holy name of the only 11 nen, will yc not come forth from the bondage of ancient tonus and tl re of established opi] d be the leaden of all that is great and noble in the unfolding lage of the coming summer of eternal truth, THE REST OF LABOUR. 97 and be the foremost in the march of the nations to the future Sabbath of the world. To you ye say is committed the high and holy voca- tion of teaching every man to esteem his brother be- fore himself, not looking on his own interest but on the interests of his neighbour; not seeking his own welfare, but every man the welfare of another. Under the hal- lowing influence of these principles the eternal found- ation of the social system of your religion the oppressor shall change the fetters of slavery for the hand of friendship ; the master shall treat the servant as a brother ; and the employer shall meet the workman as an equal sharer in the product of their united labours; superior wisdom shall learn to forget the practice of cunning, and higher knowledge no longer delight in the arts of craft. And such shall be the beautiful light that shall cheer the vale of ignorance, that the serpent sting of sordid avarice shall be felt no more. Yours is the blessed calling to lift up the banner of social love over all people. To strip domi- nion of the scorpion rod of tyranny, to take oppres- sion from power and the raven's eye from the owner of wealth ; to teach the heir of riches, and the inhe- ritor of property, that their only use is to satisfy the requirements of nature, and then to swell the streams of benevolence for the refreshing of the parched deserts of suffering humanity. Go forth then into all the world and preach the ! » \ Y . Gospel of lov. more of the unbelief of the multitude, but carry them a faith whieh is worth believing; 1 faith whieh dissolves the distinctions of class, which breaki the barrier of ambition, lays low the mountains of pride, and to the earth the middle wall of partition which sin has made betwixt man and man, and sows the seed of unity and affection amongst all people. Let him that loves most be the most highly esteemed, and he that shews the most affection for his brethren be the most noble. Give the place to wealth and r yonr Master gave to them, and let the pre-eminence of self-denial be the only title to rank amongst men for those things which are most highly esteemed amongst men are an abomination in the sight of (iod. Then shall the wilderness of misery, and the barren wastes and solitary places of wretchedness and want sing and be glad because of you, and the desert of suffering and distress shall rejoice at voni approach and bloom with the sweetness of the rose of Eden. "Strengthen ye the weak hands, uphold the feeble knees; say to them of a fearful heart — Be strong and fear not." Go forth that the eyes of the blind may be opened, and the ears of the deaf may be unstopped ; tfiat the lame may leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing; and the ransomed of the Lord shall return from their prodigal wander- ings in wretchedness and woe. and come to Zion THE REST OF LABOUR. 99 with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads, and they shall dwell in joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away fom the earth. And are not these the very objects which the great Teacher himself proposed to accomplish by the revelation of the Gospel to man. "When thou makest a dinner, or a supper, call not thy friends, nor thy brethren, nor thy kinsmen, nor thy rich neighbours, lest they also bid thee again, and a recompense be made thee ; but when thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the blind, and the halt, and thou shalt be blessed; for they cannot recompense thee, but thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just." ' ' When the Son of Man shall come in His glory, and all the holy Angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the throne of His glory, and before Him shall be gathered all the nations, and He shall separate them one from another as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats, and He shall set the sheep on His right hand and the goats on His left. Then shall the King say to them on His right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. JFor I was an hungered and ye gave Me meat; thirsty, and ye gave Me drink ; I was a stranger, and ye took Me in ; naked, and ye clothed Me ; I was sick, and ye visited Me ; I was in prison, and ye came unto Me. Then shall 100 DAT, righteous answer Him, saying, Lord, when we Thee an hungered and fed Thee, or thirsty and Thee drink; when saw we Tli nger and took Thee in; or naked and clothed Thee \ or when saw wc Thee sick and in prison and came unto T 1 And the King shall answer and say unto t! Verily, I say unto you, inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these My brethren, ye have done it unto Me." And who, then, are these brethren of the Son of Man, and what is the present character of these hungry, thirsty, wandering, naked, sick, and im- prisoned friends of the Great King for whom the righteous are to perform all these benevolent acts, that they may be rewarded in the resurrection of the just. Are they the friends or the enemies of their benefactors? Are they brethren in one common faith, or strangers to Zion and enemies of the Holy One? Let us hear the King's own determination of this important question I — I haw beard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour And hate thine enemy ; But I say unto you, Love your enemies, Bless them which curse you, Do good to them that hate you, And pray for them THE REST OF LABOUR. 101 Which despitefully use you And persecute you ; That ye may be the children Of your Father in heaven ; For He maketh His sun to rise On the evil and the good, And His rain to descend On the just and on the unjust ; For if ye love the lover of you What reward have ye, Do not even the Publicans do this ? And if ye salute your brethren alone, In what are ye better than they, Do not even the Publicans the same? Be ye therefore perfect, Even as your Father in heaven Is perfect. Oh ! ye masters in Israel, all ye who believe that your education and especial call have given you the alone right and authority to be the teachers of the Gospel of Jesus, tell us, we beseech you, what are the signs of your apostleship ? Where are the living witnesses of your sole election to the ministry? How, and in what manner, have ye proven before the world, that ye alone are the messengers of mercy to perishing man? Tell us all ye who have declared that you espe- cially have been honoured by the Holy Spirit of 102 ItTMDATj Christ and of God to dispense the word of life to the people? Tell us, if you can, how far under your ministry the nation lias learned to forsake the works of the Gentiles, and to follow the steps of the meek and lowly Jesus, the pure and perfect Exemplar of all good, who came not to be served and ministered unto by a menial host, but to labour for the present happiness and future felicity of his humblest brethren, and to administer to their daily wants and common comforts. Come, and shew us the generation of men who have learned under your ministry to renounce the devil and all his works, to forsake all that lying and deception which mingles with the current and makes bitter the waters of the whole stream of society ; the men who have learned to eschew all that evil subtlety and canning, by which, in the secret of their heart, they work out their own profit and gain without weighing the influence of their duplicity and cunning oil the re of their neighbour. Let no man look on his own things, but every man on the things of another. Shew us the community of disciples whom you tanghl by your precept and by the example of* lite to lay aside the degrading pomps and the foolish vanities of the world, the purple and tine linen, the ^old and the costly ornamei it ^ of their api ials who minister to their luxury, their splendid entertainments and sumptuous goods, their THE REST OF LABOUR. 103 gorgeous equipages and idiot sports, and, above all, the pampered instruments of their debasing pleasures which eat the bread of the hungry and devour the food of the wretched. Nay, my friends, delight our souls by pointing to the time when you yourselves did not tell these miserable men in the name of the holy Jesus that the Gospel requires no man to sacrifice his position in society and to change the character of his worldly pursuits in following its heavenly calling. What is a man profited if he shall gain all the plea- sures, and honours, and wealth of this world, and lose his own soul in their pursuit? Where shall we find the community who have learned from your ministry to renounce the pursuit of the lusts of the flesh and to forsake the desires of the carnal mind, which is at enmity with God? Where are the fountains of avarice that the light of your teaching has dried up from the face of the earth ? The men who have renounced all the gaining of this world and given up all their labour and toil of anxiety after the life that now is, that they may gain the life to come. Where are the streams of benevolence which the influence of your doctrine has drawn from the heart of the covetous and the soul of the lover of gain that the mourning loser may be comforted, and the sorrow and the sighing of the unfortunate may be turned into joy and gladness? Rejoice our souls with a view of the 1 1 SUNDAY, men who have learned under your ministry to !:• longer upon the eartli as tin* creatures of time. fiBRmg the gratification of the perishing lite of the present day for the worth of the soul that never dies ; but, as the man of eternity, whose treason ii stored in bags which wax not old, a treasure in th< which faileth not, which no moth can corrupt, and which no thief approaches. The men who pant no longer like the ravening wolf of the forest, for that v. Inch, while it tills their own barns with the luxury of a hoarded store, must necessarily rob their humbler Iibourof the very crumbs which support his life; direct our view to the men of power whom you have lit to forget the pride of the tyrant in the br of the Christian — to be mild and gentle, kind and long-suffering to the enemies of their rule and the opponents of their exceeded authority. The ruler whom you have bound by the love of his race within the limits of his official power, and have taught to love the enemies of his dominion, to bless ra of his dignity, and to do good to the rebels ssumed rights and his unlawful com- mands Oh ! ye sacred men, who claim so high and holy a ug, we ask not for the number of praj have said to the people, nor how man; tenia ave administered, your commission says nothing ■•aver and sacraments, its voice of command is, THE REST OF LABOUR. 105 " Go ye out into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature." In the name of our common humanity, we beseech you to tell us where we may behold the blessedness of the influence of so Divine a race on the character of your fellow-men, every one of whom you claim as the objects of your heavenly care. What has been the result of your labours on the diversified life of the great mass of society ? How has misery and wretchedness hied away from the happy homes of your flock, and vice and iniquity shrunk abashed from the purer light of prevailing virtue. Does the tale of the pang of conflict and the bitterness of strife no longer darken the page of his- tory with visions of blood, while the spirit of peace, with dovelike beauty, broods o'er the dwellings of men, and love, the only mark of the true disciple of Jesus, inspires the energies and directs all the activity of the members of the Church which bears His holy name? " By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples if ye love one another." Behold, my brethren, in the mirror of your coun- try's story the state of society in the land when the Church began her sacred work of evangelizing the nation, and survey the world of our own generation after two hundred and fifty years of toil and labour in your divine calling. When our holy mother Church began her work under the hallowing influence of sovereign power, the f2 106* rDAYj master and the servant, the employer and the em- ployed, worked together as if they were all membeti of one family ; and the lord and the labourer sat down Be at the same table. In our enlightened day. the whole frame of society is broken up into classes and distinctions, and man stands aside from his fellow-man, fearing lest his contact with a 1 grade should sink his own rank in the irrcat family of humanity. Though God has made of one blood all the people that dwell on the face of the earth, and the Saviour has declared of every one of his dis- ciples, all ye are brethren. In our youth, I fifth man was a pauper, and poverty and want are now written in haggard lines on the face of half the sheep of your flock, with no consolation from you but that there will always be poor in the land, and that it is their duty to submit to the evils of the posi- tion in which Providence has placed them in this world. the fifteenth century, so little did abject poverty abound, that it had never sounded its trumpet in the ears of the legislator, nor asked protection from the laws of the land. To-day the nation treats p< as a crime, and punishes the unfortunate with the dissolution of family ties and affinities, the degrada- tion of class, and the contempt of society. When 1 hureh began her work, probably four out of five of the families of the rural population were owners THE REST OF LABOUR. 10/ of land, and the masters of domestic cattle, and every honest labourer had a cottage, and generally a garden of his own for his home ; but by the superior light of our religion, avarice has added land to land, and so little regarded the worth of a home to the poor, that barely one in a hundred of the working classes has any property in the land which God has given to all, though not in the same degree, nor yet to the same extent, and the poor unfortunate loser can hardly find sufficient labour to support his existence or a single room in which to hide his family from the inclemency of the weather. The piety of our fathers prepared an asylum in which the wanderer might wash the dust from his weary feet, and rest in comfort with all his earthly wants supplied. Our better faith sends him hungry to the companionship of the cattle of the stall, or drives him from the abodes of men, to perish in the shelter of a ditch. The Church of our ancestors placed the means of education within the reach of every family in the land. In the youth of our parents, our own diviner light had left the poorer families of thousands of villagers without the means of learning to read. For ages before our Church began her work, a Uni- versity education wasopen to every fifth man in the land. In our day it is the privilege of one in five thousand. In their day, the highest offices of the state were open as well to the offspring of the humblest as of the noblest 108 families in the country. Then tin t the Church was as open to the son of the bumbled fatter, as to the child of the hi- in the realm, the lather who wisbes his son to r the of thi> Holy Ghost in the Church, in; |m hundred pounds of his property to help his child over the threshold of the holy profession. Our fa: in the blindness and folly of their barbarian igno- rance, slew one another in conflict by scores and by hundreds, but our superior light has taught us to destroy our offending brethren by thousands, and by tens of thousands, and then to thank God, in the holy name of the Prince of Peace, that we tare been able so to love our enemies, as to hurt and to destroy them before our face, and to cover the earth with their blood. Ought these, my brethren, to be the fruits of your divine vocation — ought these to be the results of your holy calling, for which you ask the everlasting bene- diction of society on your labours? A the eta which the Holy Ghost has called you to ac- bab in the kingdom of the Son of God, Is the object of your calling? Is it really the u nation to sow the seeds of separation in the an family ? to erect a wall of envious distincl amongst men? and to divide tin redeemed of the Son of God into classes which may emulate each Other in the feelings of hatred and contempt? Is it really your commission to teach nine out of ten of THE REST OF LABOUR. 109 the sons of men to bow in meek submission to the avarice and luxury, the craft and the cunning, the emulation and the strife of the other ? Was this the object for which the Son of God became the Teacher of men ? Was it for this that He declared to His contending disciples, " One is your Master, even Christ, and all ye are brethren?" And was it for this that He laid the foundation of His teaching on that simple but sublime principle, l * All things whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, do ye even so unto them ?" Servant of Jesus, whatever may be your rank or station, whatever may be your office or profession in this world, at the peril of your eternity, this is your calling towards every man with whom you have to do, to place yourself in his position, and to set him in yours, and then, whatsoever ye would that he should do unto you, to do even so unto him. Disciple of Christ, this is your mission — this is your vocation on the earth, so to manifest your faith in the Gospel, and so to prove your love to your most adorable Master as to live to act and to teach this principle in your whole life, conduct, and conversation amongst men. To you it is given as the light of the world, to hold up the beacon of righteousness, truth, and benevolence, of life and action to every child of man, and as the salt of the earth to season all the bitterness of mortal toil with the sweetness of friendly SUNUU. help and the balm of fi n_. "i OUW L8 B calling bran than to bless those who blet and to ur them by whom you are yourself esteemed. It is your felicity to pour the blessings of kindnetl will on the man who scorns your company, and on your heavenly profession the mark of a contempt, while he looks upon yourself as the off- ring of the world. You are inspired with t lu- ng which enables and inclines you to smile with complacent benignity not on your friend alone, but on the man who derides the dearest hopes of your heart, and contemns the mission of the Master, whom it is your highest happiness to adore. It is your unspeakable privilege to be heard in heaven, not for the friends of the Divine King only, but for the direst rebels against His authority and the vilest blasphemer of His holy name; to you alone has heaven imparted the blessed gift of self-denying ie, not to live for yourself alone, but to spend life for the benefit of your fellow-man ; to mingle your tears with those that weep ; I with • pressed; to pour the healing unction of the spirit of kindness over the wounds of the broken- hearted ; to go to the dens of wretchedness and mi to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, and to fa .morant, to bridle the lawless, and to tame the villain. If heaven has lent you | artlily treasure, you :euderest regard to their wai it s, and you drop THE REST OF LABOUR. Ill a soothing tear on their misery and woe, and give instant relief to their distress. You have been taught on no account to throw away the property which God has only lent to your use on things you do not want, while one pang of human woe is left uncared for, and while one unpitied voice of sorrow meets the morning light unheard. The finger of heaven has unstopped your ear and rebuked its deafening disease that you may hearken and obey your Master's voice. "Be ye therefore perfect as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." Who maketh His sun to rise on every abode of the vile and the unthankful, and to shine on every dwell- ing of sin and on every hiding place of guilt, to cheer their misery and bless their sorrow if, haply, they might seek after Him ; and commands His clouds to drop rain on the lands of the ungrateful and the unkind, and to fertilize the fields of the guilty and the vile that they may behold His goodness and repent of their transgression, and find rest in Him. Go, thou disciple of the Son of God, and do likewise, and the words of Jesus shall be more glorious in the eyes of men than the light of the sun to the blind restored to sight, and the name of thy Master shall be no longer derided and held up as a mark of contempt and pointed at with the finger of scorn, but its sound shall be a voice of unutterable joy and gladness, and a savour of delight, and a way shall be prepared for the \\2 !»u. Lord Himself to reveal hit - mind of the sons of men shall be filled with visions of beauty and a feeling of delight as when the winter H passed and the rain is over and pme, the flowers appear on irth and the time of the singing of birds is come. Rachel. — Is that the end of the paper, one Doctor. — That is the close of this paper, and of this series of papers. Grace. — And a charming close, too. May I live to see this summer of the world, and to hear the sing- ing of the birds in its happy times. Mrs. Bell. — That will be the morning of the millenium, I believe. Rach el. — Yes, aunt ; but a milleni um somet h i n g d i t- fercnt from that of the popular millenarians of our age. Doctor. — I fear our popular millenarians would tremble at the idea of a millenium without a reli- gious day, and without a system of public worship. Rachel. — I believe, uncle, that the millenium of every popular millenarian is the millenium of his own sect and his own opinions; but what the world wants is a millenium of honesty, justice, humanity, godliness, and charity. \ce. — We have to thank Mr. Charity for directing our attention to a millenium of this cha- racter ; and I have no doubt my father has felt that he belongs to a class which has not been unjustly treated in these papers. THE REST OF LABOUR. 113 Mrs. Bell. — The professing Christianity of this world looks very fair at a distance ; but when you come as near to it as we ourselves have come, and look at it with a mind divested of prejudice, you find the savour to be much more like that of a gilded sepulchre than a garden of celestial flowers and divine beauty. Mr. Charity. — These papers are not the expres- sion of my own sentiments and views so much as my report of the opinions of the great mass of work- ing people with whom I have conversed from my boy- hood up to the present time; and the sentiments which they contain ought rather to be considered as the utterances of the feeling of the great mass of the working people of our country, than as the expression of my own individual opinion on the subjects of which they treat. Doctor. — In reading these papers I feel, myself, that I am tracing the shadows on the dial plate of social feeling in one of the most remarkable phases of its history; or rather, I should say, in that peculiar phasis which comes between the past and the future of its existence. SUNDAY, THE REST OF LABOUR. BOOK II. THE DIVINE OBJECT OF THE APPOINTMENT OF A DAY OF EEST. 117 THE IMPORTANCE OF THE SUBJECT. In this Second Book, it is our design to set forth, the object of the Divine appointment of the rest of the seventh day. There is no subject of greater importance to man, than the consideration of the extent to which his activity is in accordance with the will of his Creator, and there is no question on which the British race are so thoroughly divided in their opinion, as that of the Divine claims of public worship on the day of rest. From the Report of the Census of Religious Worship in England and Wales in one thousand eight hun- dred and fifty-one, we learn that the population of these countries was seventeen million nine hundred and twenty-seven thousand six hundred and nine, or, in a round number, eighteen millions. The reporter assumes, that out of this number there are about twelve millions and a-half capable of attending a place of public worship on the Sunday ; but out of these the returns only give an attendance of seven millions two hundred and sixty-one thousand and thirty- two, or about seven millions and a quarter on 118 DAY, the Census Sunday. This return leaves five millions bandied and eighty-eight thousand two hundred and ninety-four, or about five millions and a quarter, who do not attend anyplace of worship what If to England and Wales we add Scotland, and ex- tend our view to the whole population of the island, we shall have more than six millions of Britons ab- sent from any place of public worship on every Sun- day. But we shall let the reporter speak for himself: " The most important fact which the investigation as to attendance brings before us, is unquestionably the alarming number of non-attendants. Even in the least unfavourable aspect of the figures just presented, and assuming, as no doubt is right, that the 5,288,294 absent every Sunday are not always the same individuals, it must be apparent that ;i sadly formidable portion of the English people are habitual neglecters of the public ordinances of religion. " But while the labouring myriads of our country been multiplying with our multiplied mat prosperity, it cannot, it is feared, be itated tl. sponding increase has occurred in the attend- ed this class in our religious edifices, more es- lly in cities and large towns, It is observable how absolutely insignificant a portion of the congre- gation is composed of artisans. They fill perhaps in youth our national British and Sunday Schools, and there reeeive the elements of I religious educa- THE REST OF LABOUR. 119 tion, but no sooner do they mingle in the active world of labour, than, subjected to the constant actions of opposing influences, they soon become as utter strangers to religious ordinances as the people of a heathen country. For whatever cause in them, or in the manner of their treatment by religious bodies, it is sadly certain, that this vast, intelligent, and growing important section of our countrymen is thoroughly estranged from our religious institutions in their present aspect. Probably, indeed, the pre- valence of infidelity has been exaggerated, if the word be taken in its popular meaning, as implying some degree of intellectual effort and decision. But no doubt a great extent of negative inert indifference prevails, the practical effects of which are much the same. There is a sect originated recently, adherents to a system called secularism, the principal tenet being, that as the fact of a future is in their view at all events susceptible of some degree of doubt, while the fact and necessities of the present are matters of direct sensation, it is therefore prudent to attend exclusively to the concerns of that existence which is certain and immediate." Such is the reporter's view of the Sunday question, which we shall now follow out in detail. The reporter assumes that every human being ought to attend some place of public worship by virtue of the fact of his humanity, when neither in- I- 1 *) SUNDAY, fancy, old age, nor infirmr tendance, and therefore he finds great difficulty in explaining tin reason why five millions and a quarter of his countrymen should be away from the public worship of their country on every Sunday. But after well ■daring the subject, he comes to the conclusion, that their nasons are altogether of a local and tem- porary nature ; and he thinks that by a few changes in the present character of the system, the people may be brought back to a regular attendance at the several churches and chapels of the country. The reporter considers that a great part of the five millions and a quarter of the non-attendants at public worship are artisans and mechanics, and that nearly the whole number are of the working classes. He thinks, further, that the greater number of these per- sons were pupils in the National and Sunday Schools of the country in their youth, and therefore that they have had a religious education. And he concludes, that in the mind of much the greater part of these persons, there is no original opposition to public worship on principle. The reporter believes that there is no very i and wide-spread feeling of infidelity amongst the working classes of his countrymen, though he does think that many of them have fallen into a sort of involuntary secularism. But he feels that all this may be remedied in the course of time, and the pre- THE REST OP LABOUR. 121 sent system conveyed down to future generations unaltered and unimpaired. Taking the numbers of the report as they stand in the returns, we believe that there is this fundamental objection to the reporter's views, that they do not meet the case. If I am not a Sundayist myself, I entirely sympathise with many of the working classes on this important subject, and I am personally ac- quainted with the views of thousands, and tens of thousands of working people, both men and women, and I feel no hesitation in saying that, as far as these parties are concerned, the reporter has failed in his attempt to meet the requirement of the subject. I have no doubt but that the greater number of our countrymen who are not found at a place of public worship on the Sunday, are acting in this respect on a fixed and definite principle. However much they may be wanting in any really defined ideas on any other subject, on this they have thought much, and felt much, and formed an opinion for themselves, whether they can express it or not. They believe that all right and acceptable worship offered to the Divine Being is personal, individual, and private. They believe that all public worship is a human invention, only calculated to serve a human purpose. And they believe that the purpose it does serve is 122 not always the 1 highest, and the nol purpose of humanity. These arc the l I distinguishing principles of between six and seven millions of Britons of - cient aire, health, and Strength to enable them to attend a place of public worship on a Sunday. At the conclusion of his remarks the reporter assumes that, because this large number of his coun- tn men are absent from each and every form of the public worship of their country on a Sunday, they must be, by virtue of this circumstance, of no rel igion . To him it appears public worship and religion are the same thing. He appears to see no difference between a religious life and attendance at a place of worship on a Sunday. Such is the importance of the Sunday question at this moment to the people of Great Britain, and such is the practical manner in which they treat the subject. Very nearly half the population of the island arc opposed to the performance of public worship. These persons are chiefly of the working classes — hanics, artisans, clerks, and labourers. They have most of them had a school training and igious education. But their neighbours who go to a church or a chapel believe that they are without religion, be- cause they do not go to a place of worship on a Sunday. THE REST OP LABOUR. 123 Mrs. Bell. — I could not believe the number of Sundayists to be so large if the returns did not deter- mine the fact. Mr. Charity. — I have often endeavoured to shew my friends the extent of this great defection of the people from public worship, but I have generally failed to bring a conviction of the truth of the statement to their minds. Doctor. — I confess I did not believe it until I saw the Report, and yet I feel now that the thing is as clear as possible. Mr. Charity. — It is a thing to be seen in every part of the country ; you will find it, though not to the same degree, in almost every city, town, or vil- lage of the land. Rachel. — It appears to me that whatever the friends of public worship may do, the working classes are determined to make the Sunday a holiday. Doctor. — This is undoubtedly the case, and it is a matter of the greatest importance in whatever way we look at the fact. Mr. Charity. — Such a thing as this has not been known in Europe since the fall of the Roman Empire. Doctor. — It is a great question to me if seven mil- lions of people ever existed in any country of Europe under similar circumstances. Mrs. Bell. — What do you consider to be the pe- 124 DAY, euliarities of the position of the Sundayists which makes their case so very widely different from that of any known state of European society? Mr. Charity. — As far as our knowledge of soe; Is, either into the broad daylight or the m darkness of the past, the people of Europe have lived under some form of national culture, but this great body of our fellow-countrymen acknowledge no sys- tem of culture, no organised society, nor any class of leaders or teachers. Grace. — Then, this is really a case in which every man does that which is right in his own eyes. And w hv should he not do so if every man is to be judged according to his own works ? Doctor. — This may be quite true, but the form and manner of our intercourse with such a class of per- sons must be a matter of immeasurably more impor- tance than with those who are bound together by some known and acknowledged form of culture. .Mrs. Bell. — It is to me a most important ques- tion that we should examine the ground of our own standing, and sec what authority we have for the sys- tem in which we have been trained. B \chel. — It is rather remarkable that some one has not entered into the consideration of this sub- ject before it became a national question, and seven millions of persons had made the Sunday a holiday. THE REST OF LABOUR. 125 Doctor. — It is one of those remarkable social changes which from a small beginning, has gone gently on until it has become a mighty fact. The largest river in Europe begins its course in the gentle bubble of a fountain in a country farm-yard. Who is not ready to ask what shall be the end of these things ? Grace. — I am anxious to hear what more can be said on the subject by our friend, Mr. Charity. Doctor. — Then we will proceed with the next paper. 126 II NDAY, II. THE REST OF TOILING MW. The rest of the seventh dayis a Divine provision for the physical benefit of fallen man, constituting the results of the labour of six days a sufficient provision for the wants of seven, so as to give to man under the doom of continual toil the seventh period of time for the renewal of his strength, the recreation of his phv energy and the refreshment of his organic life. The highest, the most elevated, and the most worthy idea which the mind of man can form of the Divine Being is, that God is the fountain of goodness, and that whatever flows from that fountain is good, perfectly good in its kind. Hence, when man came out of his Maker's hand, he was good ; his nature was good, his condition was good; and his actions were good. He was perfectly satisfied with himself, and with all the conditions of his being, and in that happy state there was no toil. Man was employed, but that employment was not what we call labour ; there was no sweat of the brow, no weariness of tin mind, no wasting of the bodily strength, no longing rest. His employment was a part of the natural unfolding of the happiness of his being — a fountain THE REST OF LABOUR. 127 of ever-springing pleasure and delight to his mind. But when evil entered into the world, the relation of man to labour was entirely changed. Man curses himself by his disobedience, and though God inflicts no curse on man, yet He curses the ground for his sake, so that the great staple of life can only be raised by means of labour, and such is the present constitution of man that labour is even a blessing to him — a relief to the weariness of the great conflict of life with evil, and the pursuit of some useful labour is, of all earthly things, that which is the most condu- cive to the health and the happiness of human nature. Labour is a duty which every man is bound to per- form in this world if he would rise to happiness and felicity in that state where every man will be rewarded according to the deeds done in the body. Without exertion and labour, there can be no pre- paration whatever for the life of eternity, where the position of every man will be determined by the cha- racter of his activity in this world. He who will render to every man according to his works requires every man to employ his time on earth to some use- ful purpose. The possession of wealth and property is so far from excusing its owner from the useful em- ployment of time, that it only lays him under the greater obligation to be diligent in the performance of the duties of his stewardship. It is his business to lend assistance to the unfortunate, and to soothe 128 i>\v, the evil heart with the halm of charity; t< the hungry to feed them, the naked to clothe them, the afflicted to nourish them, the captive to loose his chains ;md the destitute to relieve their distress, or the Great King will say unto him on the day of retribution, however much he may have said, " Lord, Lord !" or professed to be His disciple — "Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire prepared for the deceiver and his angels." But though every man is bound to labour by virtue of his position in this world as an accountable b* and though by reason of the curse of the earth labour is a duty which every man owes to himself, to his i'ellow- man, and to his Creator; and though tl of mankind are compelled to toil for t the sweat of their brow ; yet the Creator appointed one day in seven to be a rest from the weariness of toil and a cessation from the burden of labour ; a day in which man may enjoy some faint feeling of that freedom from tire and weariness which are the characteristic of his original position in this world ; a day of refreshment to his whole nature, and of renewal to his wasted strength. The one original design of this appointment of a seventh part of time to be a season of rest, was to give refreshment to the near of food, and hence to the labourer of i form who has to toil for his daily bread. The curse of the ground compelled man to toil perpetually, but THE REST OP LABOUR. 129 the Divine Creator saw that labour without the intermission of rest would not be good for either man or beast, and therefore He appointed a period- ical season when that labour should entirely cease. God is good, and that goodness shines forth in all the manifestations of both His wisdom and His power to His sensible creatures. The measure of this intermission of labour was determined by the measure of the revealed periods of the process of creation. In writing the history of the creation Moses says — "Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. For on the seventh day God ended his work which He had made, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had wrought, and God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it ; because that in it He had rested from all His work which God had created and made." The Divine Creator was pleased to employ six distinct periods of time in the process of creation, and on the seventh of these periods He ceased to create, and when man was doomed to toil for his daily bread, the Creator determined that this toil should only continue for six days without inter- mission, and that the seventh should be free from that result of the curse of the ground, and therefore He blessed or freed the seventh day from the effects of the curse, and hallowed or separated it from g 2 DAT, labour as a day of rest for the refreshment of the labourer; tin ion of his strength, and the renewal of bis spirit, which must soon be wasted and broken down by continued toil without the intermis- sion of rest. Then is no ground from the Mosaic narrative to conclude at what precise period this blessing of the th day took place, for the historian simply that the Creator blessed it because He had rested upon it; hence we infer, that as the blessing and hallowing was entirely founded on the fact of the cursing of the earth through which man can only produce his food by the sweat of his brow, that this separation of the day was consequent upon that I nvnt. The curse of the ground doomed man to li eating labour for the production of his food, but so far as this labour was concerned the curse is fully removed on the return of every successive seventh day. The Divine providence so orders the govern- t of the world, that the earth shall produce a suilicicnt quantity of food by six days' labour to allow the seventh day to be a day of rest, and thus ith period of time was blessed OK entirely freed from the daily round of toil, and on this ground the day was separated from the othe days, hallowed for the purpose of rest. THE REST OF LABOUR. 131 The hallowing and the blessing of the seventh day. The Divine appointment of the seventh part of time to be a season of rest. At the period of the Creation every day was good, and every day was blessed, there was no day of man's life but what was a blessed day. God saw everything that He had made, and behold it was very good. But when evil had entered into the world every day was evil, and it was then, when evil had condemned man to toil, that the Creater blessed the seventh period of time by removing the result of the curse from that day. Every idea of the blessing of the seventh day is founded upon labour. God worked six days and the seventh day He ceased to work, and this ceasing of the Divine labourer from His work is the foundation of the blessing of the day, and the blessing itself is the provision of a day on which man may cease from his work; therefore the sole and entire object of the blessing of the seventh period of time is the providing of a day on which man and beast may cease from toil and rest from work. When man had made every day evil by sin, God blessed the day on which he had ceased to work, and by blessing it made it a day of rest for man and beast. The day was not first set apart as a day of rest for man, and then blessed to some other &AY, Hie, but by the act of Messing it the day became a •ason of i To hallow means to separate or devote to some object; and when anything is hallowed it i^ t from its common use and set apart for some other purpose. The curse of the ground, and the consequent doom of man to toil by the sweat of his brow for his daily bread, had given all the days of his life on earth to labour. But the Divine goodness interposed in his behalf and made the earth suffi- ciently productive to allow of one day in seven to be devoted to rest, and He therefore separated the ih day from all the other days and set it apart for refreshment, recreation, and rest. The kindness and the goodness of the Creator are especially mani- fested in this provision. He had cursed the earth for the folly of man, and thereby rendered toil and labour necessary to the production of its useful fruits; but in blessing and hallowing the seventh i >d of time He released man to that extent from the result of the curse; and He blesses and hallows \h\> day solely and entirely for the use of man. lie does not make the seventh day a day of rest and then appoint something else to be done on that day, but by the blessing and the hallowing of that day it becomes a day of rest to be employed by the labourer in renewing the strength of his body, in refreshing the energies of his organic THE REST OF LABOUR. 133 life, and in the culture and elevation of his mind, each of which is liable to waste, decay, and dete- rioration by continued toil without the intermission of rest. The pursuit of toil and the inducement or the con- pelling of others to toil on the seventh day, the desecration of the day, and the only -profanation of the rest. We have shewn that the Divine Creator and Governor of the world manifested His goodness to the labourer by the appointment of a seventh part of time, to be a rest from toil for the renewal of his strength and the cultivation of his faculties. Let us now see how this provision of Divine kindness may be abused. If a man performs his usual labour on the seventh day, and follows the customary employment by which he obtains his daily support, without any inter- mission so as to neglect the refreshment of his wasted energies and the renewal of his expended strength, by reason of the perverseness of his will, and without any sufficient cause or reason, he be- comes a desecrator of the day of rest, and a wilful despiser of the kindness of his Divine Father ; and such a man will, no doubt, meet with the reward of his ingratitude in that retribution of equal justice which eternal Providence metes out to every man, 1 I 1 SUNDAY, r in his own life, or in that of ■' -ard and evil posterity. It the employer of other men pays them so small an amount for their labour as to render it impossible for the Labourer to obtain a sufficient amount by the toil of six days, to serve for the support of his family during the seven days, so as to enable him to devote the seventh to rest,— that employer will be guilty of inducing these persons to desecrate the day of rest, and will render himself liable to the Divine retribution in proportion to the amount of desecration which lias ed from the abuse of his position in soc and not only will he make himself amenable to the Divine government for the abuse of his position in society, but he will also render himself guilty of the transgression of that law of eternal justice which requires every man's life at the hand of his fellow- man who has done him an injury without recom- se. If a man employs servants who are bound to serve him, and he compels those servants to work for him on the rest day, so as to take away from them the enjoyment of the heaven-appointed season for the rest and recreation of their wasted energies, that man mes a desecrater of the Sabbath, more guilty than all others, because he compels his fellow-man to despise the provisions of the Divine goodness for his welfare. He contemns the claims of his THE REST OF LABOUR. 135 brother man to a share in the common favours of heaven, and places himself betwixt the kindness of the Almighty benefactor and the helpless dependants on the bounty of his goodness. And his reward will be according to his deed of evil and the measure of his unrighteous works. The Divine Creator commands men to cease from toil and labour on the seventh day. But He has no where revealed His will to man that anything should be done on the day of rest. He has ordained that we shall not pursue our usual labour on that day; but He has left it entirely to our own choice to determine how the time shall be employed on that day as on all other days. If we do evil on any day we render ourselves liable to punishment for the evil, and if we do good, we shall be rewarded accordingly. But He has no where told us that the doing of evil on this day is any more a desecration of the rest day than of any other day, nor that the doing good on this day is any more acceptable to Him than the doing good on any other day. The day was made a Sabbath entirely for the use and benefit of man, and not that man might serve and glorify the rest. The Divine Creator requires the life of man to be regu- lated by the principles of goodness on every day, and not more on the Sabbatli than on any other day. Religion demands the attention of man on every day of his life, and not more on the day of rest than on 13G DAT, any other day. God the Father and the Judge of all has no where told us that prayer and praise will be in the ■niHirt decree more accci)table to llimon the seventh day than on any other day. And there- fore the negleet of the duties of religion on the Sabbath is no more a desecration of the Sabbath day than it is of any other day, and the performance of 0M duties of religion on the Sabbath day is no more a due observance of that day than it woidd be of any other day. The religious culture of man and the observance of the rest of the seventh day are two things altogether different in their character, and have never been especially united together by the Divine Being in any revelation of His will to man. Such was the Sabbath in its original institution, and as such we believe the sevenfold division of time attests its observance in the most ancient ages of the world. We shall next proceed to the consideration of the rest of the seventh day in connection with the nationality of Israel. From the era of the departure of Adam from Paradise to the Exodus of Israel from Egypt, we meet with no mention of the observance of tlii- rest in the Mosaic narrative; bnt we learn from the circumstance of the miraculous provision for the support of the Hebrew family in the Wilder- ness, that if they had not been accustomed to observe the rest they knew that it ought to be observed, and they were therefore prepared to find its THE REST OF LABOUR. 137 observance made one of the articles of that covenant whose performance assured to the Israelite the Divine protection and the supernatural preservation of the nationality of his race, until its object was accomplished in the advent of Messiah. Doctor. — On what ground, Mr. Charity, do you suppose that the earth yielded seven days' subsistence for six days' labour in the earliest age of the world? Mr. Charity. — I feel that if the Divine Creator cursed the ground that man might earn his daily bread by the sweat of his brow, and then appointed one day in seven to be a day of rest, the man must make that day a fast, unless there was some Divine provision for the supply of his necessities. Mrs. Bell. — Do we not find an example of this kind in the history of the Israelities ? The provision of manna was daily, but there was enough gathered on the sixth day to supply the want of both that and the seventh day • and thus the people were trained to the observance of the weekly rest just as early habits affect the activity of our after-life. Doctor. — I think this is a very probable view of the case, and I am inclined to believe that the con- stitution of the human frame is such that a man may do more work by labouring six days and resting from the pursuit of that labour on the seventh, than he could do by working continuously without rest. Mr. Charity. — And it is not improbable that a 08 DAY, man would do as much in l year by working twelve m he would hy working eighteen honri in i day. EUcHBL. — Of course, friend Charity, thou con- sidnvst that in tlic earliest ages of the world man i liferent ly situated in relation to labour to what he is now. Grace. — When there was only one man in the world there could be only one master and one ser- vant, and he combined the two in his one person. Mrs. Bell. — Then you think, Grace, that the mother of mankind did not cultivate the ground for her daily bread. 1!\< in. i.. — We shall take that for granted, aunt, until the contrary is proven to our satisfaction. I dare say our friend is now prepared to answer my question. Mr. Charity. — It is most probable that after the cursing of the ground it became to a great degree sterile and unfruitful, and that the produce of labour was so limited that every man had to toil with his hands to provide a sufficiency for himself and the helpless dependants on the fruit of hi- ns. Grace. — Why is not that the case now? Mr. Charity. — Because the labour of one man is sufficient to provide for the wants of several, or, in another view of the subject, the labour of one day will, under some circumstances, provide for the necessities of a week. THE REST OF LABOUR. 139 Rachel. — How is it then that there is so much labour now ? Mr. Charity. — Because the greater part of the labour of man is spent in providing the luxuries and ornaments, rather than the necessaries of life. Grace. — The ornaments of life are useful, and cannot well be dispensed with. Doctor. — But I believe we could very well manage to get through the world with quite as much hap- piness as we do now, with a very much smaller amount of the luxuries of life. Mrs. Bell. — If the position of man has been so. materially changed in relation to labour, that must in some degree alter his position in relation to rest. Mr. Charity. — Most undoubtedly the changes in the natural law of labour must have their influ- ence on the economic law of rest. The laws of the Creator are in no case arbitrary, but always have their foundation in the nature or the circumstances of the parties for whom they are made, and who are directly affected by their operation. The economy of a weekly rest is the direct result of the law of labour. They began together, they were intended to co-exist together, and while one endures the other must continue to lighten the burden of its existence. Doctor. — If then we follow out this train of reasoning to its results, we shall find that as labour is subject to modification the rest may be modified 140 DAY, also. If labour is subject to circumstances rest must also be subject to circumstances, and may be accom- modated to the time, place, and position of the labourer ; this one thing only remaining unchanged, that while men labour they must rest also. Rachel. — To whom does it belong to take the charge of that rest ? Who is the executor of that irreversible law of rest? Mr. Charity. — The same Power which orders the return of day and night, which directs the succession of the seasons, and maintains the universal law of life, that same Power ordained and executes the law of labour and of rest. Man can only endure a cer- tain amount of toil, and if he does not take rest at the proper stages of his journey he must come to the last stage by so much the shorter period of travel. Grace. — Is there any reason why one of these processes should not be as well as the other? May not a man wear himself out with work ? Mr. Charity.— Divine Providence has given to man life for a certain object, and in whatever way we short< «n the natural period of that life we are to that it guilty of despising the bounty of the (i and expose ourselves to the charge of self-murder; and whoever compels us to do that which is the means of shortening the natural length of our days is to that extent guilty of taking our life away, and of all the consequences which result from such an act. THE REST OF LABOUR. 141 Rachel. — In what way can human laws justly interfere in this matter ? Mr. Charity. — The proper object of human laws is the behaviour of man to man, and the regulation of the interests of man and of humanity ; and there- fore the only way in which human laws can justly interfere with the observation of a weekly rest is to take care that no man is compelled to work on that day, because he is the servant of another. Mrs. Bell. — Would it not be just to make a law that every man should cease from labour on the day of rest? Mr. Charity. — No human government can pos- sibly possess the power to interfere in such a matter as this; if it does interfere it must interfere unjustly. A government has just as much right to compel every man to work on each of the six days of every week as to make a law that every man shall cease to work on the seventh day. Doctor. — This is not a subject for human law, but for moral suasion. If you wish a man to rest you must not compel him to cease from labour, but per- suade him to do so, because it will promote his wel- fare, and because it is a law of the Divine constitution of human existence on the earth that the seventh part of the labourer's time should be devoted to rest. Rachel. — Then we may conclude, that as a man labours according to the circumstances of his posi- I DAY, tion, the time and manner of hifl rest must in some degree be determined by circumstances also. Mas. Bell. — AYhen I was a child I used to be told that the Sabbath was first appointed as a me- morial of the work of creation, but since I have grown older I have not been able to find any account of this in the Bible. Rachel. — It appears, aunt, that thou hast grown wiser as thou hast grown older. This memorial notion is a very grand idea, but it is far too gorgeous for the simple grandeur of the Creator. Grace. — My foolish imagination often wanders back to the bowers of Eden, and pictures to itself the idea of the first celebration of such a day. Mr. Charity. — I have no doubt but that some of our learned ritualists could supply you with a pattern of all the articles used in such a service. The temple, the desk, the hassock, the liturgy, the priest, and the solemn assembly, are, I daresay, all present at once to their mind. Doctor. — If any unprejudiced man will tool such an idea as this in the mirror of common s< he will feel heartily glad to turn his back on the tfmge ihape be has blindly followed tsthe image of truth. THE REST OF LABOUR. 143 III. THE HEBREW REST OF THE SEVENTH DAY. The term Sabbath is a Hebrew word which signifies Rest. """It is sometimes translated in our English Bible, and at other times the Hebrew word is simply- written in English letters. In the Mosaic economy- there were several appointed seasons of rest. „The rest of the seventh day, the rest of their feasts, the rest of the seventh year, and the rest of the fiftieth year; but the rest of the seventh day is the only one of these which is connected with the interests of universal man. This was we believe observed by man before the calling of Abraham, and will continue to be observed as long as man obtains his food by the sweat of his brow, and remains a toiling being on the earth. The formation of the family of Jacob into a dis- tinct nation had a particular end and object in the economy of the Divine government of the world, and every thing connected with it was made in some way or other to minister to this object; and therefore what was done in Israel in accordance with the Divine will, and in entire obedience to the Divine commands, cannot have the same significance to us DAY, which It had to them, because the relation in which they stood to the Divine government WM different to that of all other people in the past, present, or future history of the world, and therefore the 1; their moral culture can have no further relation to our activity than in so far as they are a part of the general moral code of universal humanity. That law in the Hebrew economy which is of any significance to us now was also a significant element in the moral culture of the world before it became a part of the He brew economy, or received the stamp of Divinity in the dispensation of Sinai ; but when we meet with any thing of this character in that economy, the very fact of its having received the seal of manifested Divinity makes it interesting to us to consider the assigned grounds and reasons of its performance, exhortatory command to observe the rest of the seventh day, which makes the fourth article of the Sinaitic covenant, is one of those principles of universal morality, and the ground and reason on which the observance of that article is founded, are worthy of our deepest consideration, and also of our most attentive investigation. The following is the whole article, as it is contained in the books of ius and Deuteronomy. " Remember that thou keep separate t ] lay : six days thou shalt labour, and do all thy work, but the seventh day is the Rest of the Lord thy God ; in THE REST OF LABOUR. 145 it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy man-servant, nor thy maid- servant, nor thine ox, nor thine ass, nor thy cattle, nor the stranger that is within thy gates, that thy man-servant and thy maid- servant may rest as well as thou : u For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day, and hallowed it. " And remember that thou wast a stranger in the land of Egypt, and that the Lord thy God brought thee out thence with a mighty hand and an out- stretched arm, and therefore the Lord thy God com- manded thee to keep the rest day." In the words of this article of the Divine covenant, we have two distinct reasons assigned for the ordina- tion of the rest of the seventh day, and the ground on which that rest should be observed by the Hebrew nation. Jehovah, the God of Israel, employed six periods of time in the work of creation, and on the seventh He ceased to labour, and therefore the human labourer shall work six continuous days, and the seventh shall be a rest from weariness and toil. The house of Israel had been servants in the land of JEgypt, and they were delivered by miracle alone, and this is made an everlasting memento to Israel, to observe the rest of the seventh day, for the benefit of the labourer. H 116 DAT, This fourth article of the Divine covenant is en- y taken up with ■ provision of rest from labour. It contains do rctrirnce whatever to any other sub- ject ; nothing \\ bafcever is appointed but rest, nothing is referred to but rest, nothing is implied in its lan- guage, but the Divine provision for the ph\ it of the labourer, and every care is taken that the party who really does the work shall be the party •ted by it. It is not a rest for the employer but tor the employed. It is not for the father only, who tints the work, but for the son and the daughter who perform it. It is not for the master only,forwhom the work is done, but more especially for the man- at and the maid-servant who do the work. Its whole and entire object centres in that part of man- kind who are likely to be the sufferers from ince- labour as the slaves of the selfishness and the avarice of their employers. The whole family of Israel had been delivered from perpetual toil in Egypt, and were about to enter into the Sabbath of Canaan, and the rest of the seventh day was now made a part of the mint on which the inheritance of Canaan de- ed, with the especial object of providing tor the rest and the recreation of the exhaust ad energies of that part of the nation who, in Deration, wen doomed to labour. The observance of the rest of the seventh day became a part of the Divine co\ enant for the self-same reason, THE REST OF LABOUR. 147 and for the self-same object as that which was con- templated in the original appointment of the rest, when man first became a toiling being, — that his physical energies might not be worn ont by continu- ous labour, and that he might have an oft recurring day of recreation and refreshment. In this appoint- ment of the rest as a part of the Hebrew economy, there is no reference whatever to the individual wor- ship of the Israelite, or to the temple service of the Hebrew nation . Religion and worship have no con- nexion whatever with this appointment : there is no word in the article relating to either : the provision is altogether limited to the physical benefit of the toil-worn labourer. The Divine goodness is equally as much interested in the physical and the temporal, as it is in the spiritual benefit of mankind. We shall now follow the iteration and reiteration of this Divine ordinance, through the various notices of its appointment contained in the Books of Moses, and the exhortations to its observance contained in the writings of the Prophets, to see how far they testify to the truth of our view of the object of its original ordination as a part of the covenant betwixt Jehovah and Israel. In the thirty-first chapter of the book of Exodus, Moses speaks to Israel in the name of God, and says, that the appointment of the rest in the Hebrew eco- nony is a sign betwixt Israel and Jehovah, that He 148 FDAT, had set I.m.'u 1 apart from the nations. He pronounces a curse upon all those who defile the rest: mi that defilement toeonsisl in the doing of work ou the rest day: asserts that the ceasing of the Creator from His work, after six periods of labour, if the ground of the appointment of the rest of man on the th day, and finally declares the refreshment of the labourer to be the object of the rest. In the twenty-third chapter of the Book of Le- viticus, the ordination of the rest of the seventh day is again repeated, and its whole observance made to t in the entire cessation of the households of Israel from labour, and in the employment of the day as a family fi In the thirty-fifth chapter of the Book of Bxodns, all work is prohibited on the rest day, and this pro- hibition is extended to the kindling of a fire on that day, a provision which would hardly suit the char of our northern climate. But a provision which wis evidently intended to give rest to the housekeeper, as well as the other members of the household. And in the fifteenth chapter of the book of Num hers, we have an example of the violation of this ordinance, and the punishment of the offender. A man was found gathering sticks to kindle a fire on tin day, and, in accordance with tins provision of the law, he was stoned to death for the offence. In the twenty-fourth chapter of the book of Le- THE REST OF LABOUR. viticus, and in the twenty-eighth chapter of the book of Numbers, the Sabbath of the seventh day is men- tioned in connection with the religious polity of the Hebrew race ; and here we find that the whole and entire amount of the connection of this Sabbath with the national religious life of Israel was, that the priest should perform the same daily service in the tabernacle on the rest days, as they did on the other days of the week. This is the sum of what we find in the law of Moses, relating to the appointment and observance of the Sabbath in Israel. We shall now turn to the Prophets, to see how far their exhortations to the observance of this rest, agree with the character which it bears in the law. In the eighth chapter of the prophecy of Amos, the Sabbath is mentioned in such a connection with labour, as to shew, that at that time it was under- stood according to the original design of its institu- tion — as a day of cessation from toil. The selfish among the people are represented as desiring the rest to be gone, that they may sell corn, and set forth wheat — make the ephah small and the shekel great, falsifying the balances by deceit. And in the fifty- fifth and the fifty-eighth chapters of the prophecy of Isaiah, the Prophet, who lived in the same age with Amos, and who is no doubt referring to these prac- tices, pronounces a blessing on those who refrain 150 DAY, from polluting the rest by their unrighteous deeds, and their selfish pursuits. In the tenth and in the thirteenth chapter of the book of Nchemiah, the prophet complains that the profaned the rest day, by offering their wares for sale on that day, and that the people of l 1 desecrated it, by performing all sorts of work on that day. "And I contended with the nobles of Judah," he says, " because they profaned the rest by labour of their servants." And then he makes the ming from this work and labour, to be the sanc- tifying of the day. Such is the witness of the Prophets to the character of this day. There is no reference whatever, in any of their writings, to this but under the character of a day simply and entirely devoted to a cessation from toil, for the refreshment and the recreation of the labourer. We have now, we believe, brought forth the whole niony of both the Law and the Prophets, to the nature, the object, and the character of the rest of the )ih day as an ordinance of the Hebrew economy. And in them we learn that its whole and entire object and purpose centred in the physical benefit of the la- bourer— t lie refreshment and recreation of the strength and energy of the man of toil— and that it hadnocon- >n whatever with the personal religion of the people, or with the public service of God in Israel. The THE REST OF LABOUR. 151 law makes no appointment of any thing that shall be done on the day of rest, and the writings of the Pro- phets contain no exhortation to the doing of any thing whatever, but the entire ceasing of the labourer from the pursuit of his daily toil. Let us endeavour to realize to our view the scenes of a Hebrew Sabbath as they appear to lie before us in the provisions of the Mosaic law, and in the Prophets. It is the household of a Hebrew husbandman. The sun is sensibly declining towards the evening horizon of an eastern clime in the afternoon of our Friday, and the sons and the daughters, the man-servants and the maid -servants, and the cattle, are ceasing to toil. Th e crib of the ox and the ass is well supplied with provender for the night, the goat is penned in his evening home, and the weary sheep has reached her fold. The golden tinge that played on the foliage of Carmel has passed away, and the light of day is just laying to rest his last beam in the bosom of the great sea. The household have all reached their father's home. The matron has prepared her food for the day of rest, and left the dying embers of her blazing fire to expire, without a new recruit of kindling fuel. The supper is prepared, and the whole household feast together. The family meal being ended, the father instructs his house in the great duties of reli- gion — explains the workings of Divine goodness, and the dependence of all things on the blessings of 152 DAY, a, and in so doing lie excites them to prayer for the good things they want and d< and to praise lor the benefits they receiTe. The words of the Divine covenant are carefully I I in and the various provisions of the law plained and pressed upon their attention. The family now retire for their night's repose. With tho- ng of the morning, the household are all col- lected together for their early meal, after which the day is spent in interchanges of friendship, in kind offices of assistance to the unfortunate and the dis- d, while the intervening hours are employed in relating the story of their fathers, in which Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and the Patriarchs, live over again in the mind of the Hebrew youth ; while every minute detail of that beautiful story becomes a new light to wake up the fervour of his piety, and anew incentive to imitate him in whose bosom it was thehig ration of every pious Israelite to rest in peace and heavenly felicity, when the frail thread of life had ended to its last span, and (he weary traveller had waded through the dark valley of the shadow of death, and had reached the bright and sunny shores land that is afar off. Nor did tl r erei forgt "in the hyssop on the wall to the lofty cedar on the tops of Lebanon, the earth and all that is therein is full of the praises and the glory of Jehovah, while the heavens also declare Hi- gr atness, and the THE REST OF LABOUR. 153 firmament sheweth His handy works. But beyond all these, he told of the miracles of Egypt, and the marvels of the Red Sea, the overwhelming glory of Sinai, and the terrible destruction of the nations of Canaan, when the homeless house of Israel was first blest with cities and lands of their own to dwell in. Such was the character of Hebrew life when its piety bore the highest lustre of the spiritual and the divine in the eyes of the Holy One of Eternity. Then it was that the fathers of Israel obeyed that word which says — " Therefore shall ye lay up these my words in your heart and your soul, and bind them for a sign upon your hand, that they may be as frontlets between your eyes. And ye shall teach them your children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thy house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down and when thou risest up. And thou shalt write them upon the doorposts of thine house, and upon thy gates. That your days may be mul- tiplied, and the days of your children, in the land which the Lord sware unto your fathers to give them, as the days of heaven upon the earth." The religion of the individual and of the family is essentially the religion of God. But the families of Israel soon degenerated into sloth and ignorance, and the Father of spirits was forgotten, while the gods of the nations became the worship of Israel ; and when the time of reformation came, we are called to witness a h 2 8UNI> on the day of rest in relation to both the •1 cultivation of the race and to the promotion oft): d the happiness of the people, I feel now that there can be no ;ibout the object for which a day of rest was appointed in the Hebrew economy, but I should like to hear something more about the word holy. Doctor. — The meaning of the word holy must be mined by its use. The original signification of the word is to set apart, to devote, to separate. The holiness of God is His infinite and perfect separation from all evil. The holiness of man is the partial and rfect separation of his life from the pursuit of ■ and sin. The holiness of all irrational and inanimate things consists in their devotion to some good object, or their being set apart to some divine purpose; and the holiness of a day consists in its separation from other days and its devotion to some dhine object. Grac r.. — What then are we to understand by the hallowing of the seventh day ? Mr. Charity. — The separation of that day from lays of labour, and its devotion to the divine purpose of rest. No mistake can be greater than the common notion that to hallow a day i apart as a season of public worship. Doctor. — If there had been any inch thing as public worship in Israel then • m ighl then be some THE REST OF LABOUR. 155 ground for this mistake, but as the Bible contains no account of the appointment of such an institution this becomes rather a misinterpretation than a mistake. Rachel. — When once the human mind has begun to take a false view of things, and men are interested in that false view, everything that comes under their observation assumes a new shape, and a colour just suited to their wishes. Doctor. — This I believe is quite true, and some such view as that is quite necessary to explain the origin of the notions of the religious world respecting the sabbath. Mrs. Bell. — The different notices of the day in the books of Moses ought to be considered as at once deciding the question. Mr. Charity. — We can go over some of these again to see how they affect the subject. Doctor. — Let us get our Bibles and do so. In Exodus xxxi. 15, the law says — " Six days may work be done, but in the seventh is the sabbath of rest, holy to the Lord ; whosoever doeth any work in the sabbath day he shall surely be put to death." Grace. — It appears very clear from this, that the only breach of the sabbath of which the Israelite could be guilty was working on that day at any kind of labour. Doctor. — In the two following verses it says further — " Wherefore the children of Israel shall 156 8UNDAY, keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations for a perpetual covenant. It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever ; for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day He rested and was re- freshed." Mm. Charity. — Here the intention of the rest is distinctly stated. In six periods of time the Lord created the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed after His work. The refreshment of the energies of the labourer by rest is then the one Divine end and object of the rest. This is the absolute law and tes- timony of God Himself as to what was His design and purpose in the ordination of the rest — the shment of the energies of the labourer. Doctor. — We shall now turn to Leviticus xxiii. S. — "And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them concerning the feasts of the Lord which ye shall proclaim to be holy convocations, even these are my feasts. Six days shall work be done, hut the seventh is the sabbath of the Lord, an holy convoca- shall do no work therein, it is the sabbath ett in all your dwellings/' Mk>. Bill. — The first thing which strikes me tn passage is the term — holy convocations. What is the meaning to be assigned to this term ? THE REST OF LABOUR. 157 Doctor. — A convocation is a calling together, and an holy convocation is a calling together, for some especial object or divine purpose. Rachel. — We wish to know next who were to be called together in this holy convocation. Doctor. — The members of the respective families of Israel. It was to be a rest, and a calling together in all their dwellings. Rachel. — Does not the passage appear to state the reason and object of this family gathering? Doctor. — The ground of this gathering was the six days' labour of the members of the family ; and its object that they might keep together the rest which the Creator had appointed to be kept on the seventh day. Grace. — Besides all this, there appears to me to be an intimation as to the character of this rest, and something which gives us a very pleasing idea of the interest of the Divine Father in the earthly happiness of his children. Doctor. — The object is most distinctly stated, it was to be a feast, and the first of all the Hebrew feasts, because its celebration was the most frequent. And it was to be a day on which all the members of the family were to be gathered together in the house of its head, to eat and drink together at his hos- pitable board, and to exchange the feelings of affec- tion and social intercourse. l.">- 8UNI>.\\, Mrs. BlLL, — Is this, then, the whole sum of the Divim oil for the spending of the day of rest? Doctor. — These two passages of the law contain the whole and entire amount of the legal proi on the subject. The Rest day was, as its name im- parts, simply designed to be a day of rest from Labour. This was the one and only object of its appointment. Mr. Charity. — It would be difficult to convey any just idea of all that is contained in this provision of the law of rest in the short compass of a few words of explanation. In order to be able to understand this t fully, we must be well acquainted with the i condition of the Hebrew people — with the Hebrew idea of a family — with the eircumst;i in which the Hebrew labourer went through his round of toil, and the distance at which the head of the family resided from the scene of labour. Much of this may be understood from a careful reading of the book of Ruth; and if we bring this vie* of Hebrew society into connection with the fourth article of the Sinaitic covenant, in which the persons for- bidden to work on the Sabbath are the matter, — a :i, his sons and his di • Ins man servant! and Ins maid-servants, and the foreign trader or the u r n slave that might dwell in the city, either in his service or under his protection, wc shall find that the one of these will illustrate the other, and from THE REST OF LABOUR. both together we shall obtain some just notions of the nature of the family feast on the day of rest. Rachel. — And here, I think, also, thou wilt be able to point out the reason why this family gathering was called a holy convocation. Mr. Charity. — The holiness of this meeting undoubtedly consisted in the separation of the la- bourer from the pursuit of toil, and the devotion of the day to the recreation of a friendly convocation, in which all the members of the family met together in rest and peace, to cultivate the highest and noblest feelings of humanity^ a common interest in each other's welfare — that charity which is the common bond of perfectness. Doctor. — It appears to me that our present popu- lar religious notions respecting the Sabbath are founded on two mistaken ideas concerning the Divine Being; — that the Creator has no concern for the earthly happiness and material welfare of man, and that He has an infinite delight in the vociferous laudation of the intelligent creation. Rachel. — This, I think, is the common mistake of the religion of our age ; but I cannot see how tliis can be at all reconciled with the true idea of the Crea- tor — that His manifested being is goodness. Mr. Charity. — The whole revelation of the Gos- pel teaches us that the Divine care is especially over 160 SUNDAY, man in this world. And the present welfare of man was the constant object of the attention of Him who went about doing good. Grace.— I believe it was the constant practice of our Divine Saviour to do some temporal good to men re he offered them any spiritual instruction. And Saint Paul says expressly, " That godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come/' Mas. Bell. — There is one other passage which I should like to hear something about, that is the fifty-eighth of Isaiah, which is so often brought forward by the Sabbatarians as a proof of the Divine authority of their system of observing the of rest. Doctor. — The fifty-eighth chapter of Isaiah is a Divine picture of popular religion, — the fashionable religion of Israel in the age of the Prophet. The Israelites professed to seek the Lord daily, to delight in knowing His ways, and in approaching to Mini in prayer. They fasted, and afflicted their souls, and complained that God took no knowledge of their They could afflict their souls, they could bow down their head like a bulrush, they could cover themselves with sackcloth ai of these things are acceptable to the Lord. . — And yet, uncle, we are often told that modes and means are ti. pal things of THE REST OP LABOUR. 161 which a religious life consists, and if they were left out, many good people would feel some difficulty in giving any account of the practice of piety. Doctor. — But the Divine account of a religious life in this chapter is quite a different matter. The Prophet tells us that the fast which God requires is, n To loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, to let the oppressed go free, and to break off every yoke; to deal our bread to the hungry, to bring the poor that are cast out to our house, when we see the naked to cover him, and not to hide ourselves from our own flesh." When the Israelites fasted, they found pleasure and exacted labour ; they fasted for strife and debate, and to make their voice to be heard on high. Rachel. — From all this we learn that, what God especially requires is a right behaviour of one man towards another, so as to secure the welfare of man in the present world, and the good of human society. Mr. Charity. — This is that disposition which, in the New Testament is called charity — an unselfish and friendly feeling of man to man, which the great Apostle calls the bond of perfectness. Grace. — But we want to know how this chapter affects the observance of the Sabbath. Doctor. — The blessing of Heaven is pronounced upon those who turn away their foot from the rest ; that is, upon those who refrain from labour, and who 162 DAY, exact no work on that day ; upon those who refrain from doing their pleasure on the holy day ; that is, upon those who neither transact business nor follow the pursuit of gain OH that day. And finally, upon those who do not utter words or make their voices to be heard on high on the Sabbath, that is, upon those who make no long and loud prayers on that day. Mrs. Bell. — This can hardly be said to demand the devotion of the day of rest to the performance of public worship, but I am not quite satisfied about the meaning of the expressions, " doing thine own ways, finding thine own pleasure, speaking thine own words.'' Doctor. — The first is doing those things which I have already described. " Finding their own plea- sure" was gaining by the exaction of labour, when the labourer ought to rest from his work, — con- demned in verse the third. " Speaking thine own words," is a gloss of the translators; the Hebrew is, iung or saying words, as in verse the fourth, " making their voice to be heard on high." Speaking or saying the public prayers whieh were uttered on audi occasions. ll\< n i:l. — Prayers said publicly, and with a loud , so as to be heard by others, never appear to have had much favour with our heavenly Father. Mrs. Bell. — I am quite satisfied now that the per- THE REST OF LABOUR. 163 formance of acts of devotion never formed any part of the object of the Divine appointment of a day of rest. Grace. — And I am satisfied that the earthly and present benefit of the man of toil is a constant object of the Divine care, and an end altogether worthy of snch an institution as the weekly rest of the labourer. Mrs. Bell. — I should like to know something about the other Hebrew sabbaths, and their objects. Mr. Charity. — The provisions of the law relating to these seasons of rest are of no little importance to a proper understanding of this subject. Rachel. — T think the paper which has been read this evening makes a reference to some other object beside the benefit of man in the institution of the sabbath of the seventh day. Mr. Charity. — It does do so, and if the Doctor will read Exodus xxiii. 12, it may be the means of opening the whole subject. Doctor. — This is the passage you refer to, " Six days thou shalt do thy work, and on the seventh day thou shalt rest, that thine ox and thine ass may rest, and the son of thine handmaid and the stranger may be refreshed." This passage gives a determinate object to the ordinance of the rest ; — the refreshing of the man whose position in life compelled him to be the servant of another, and the rest of the brute beast which is doomed to labour for the benefit of man. 164 SUNDAY, Mk. Charity. - You may now turn to Leviticus, wv. rersea l to 8 inclni Doctor. — "And the Lord spoke unto Moses, in Mount Sinai, >aying,Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye come into the land which you, then shall the land keep a sabbath unto the Lord. Six years thou shalt sow thy field, and thou shalt prune thy vineyard and gather in the fruits thereof: but in the seventh year shall be a sabbath of rest unto the land, a sabbath for the Lord, thou shalt neither sow thy field nor prune thy vineyard. That which groweth of its own accord of thy harvest thou shalt not reap, neither gather the grapes of thy vine undressed, for it is a year of rest unto the land. And the sabbath of the land shall be meat for you, for thee and for thy servant, and for thy maid and for thy hired servant, and for the stranger that sojourneth with thee, and for thy cattle, and for the beasts that are in thy land, shall all the inei thereof be meat.*' Mrs. Bell. — There is a Sabbath provided here for a number of things, which could hardly be to go to church ; and yet if observing the Sabbath means going to church, they could not well stay away without I- the law. Doctor. — Here the whole cultivated land of Israel, barley fields, wheat fields, and vineyards are THE REST OP LABOUR. 165 commanded to keep the sabbath, and this sabbath a sabbath for the Lord. Rachel. — While Man was the only subject of the provision of rest, we might speculate upon the object of the Sabbath without subjecting ourselves to deri- sion, but when oxen and asses, and fields and vine- yards, are commanded to keep a Sabbath unto the Lord, the idea of making the observance of the Sab- bath to be in its own nature the performance of public worship, is of all things the most ridiculous and absurd which can enter into the mind of vain and foolish man. Mr. Charity. — But if the observance of the Sab- bath is the rest and refreshment of him who labours and of that which produces, then the mist clears away, and the true light of godlike benevolence and heavenly goodness shines out in its own effulgence of Divinity over the surface of the whole subject. 8UNDAY, I\. THE SABBATH AND THE SYNAGOGUE. It is very probable that from the foundation of the Hebrew state there existed a class < called lawyers or scribes, whose business it w; write, explain, and execute, the provisions of the .ic law, and that one or more of these officers was to be found in every community of the people. And it is most likely that in the greater number of these communities there iU a place set apart for the purpose, in which the lawyer transacted his business as the teacher and judge of the people. And here, in the latter ages of the Jewish state, the publicly read to the people by the scribes when they ceased from the pursuit of toil on the several rest of the Hebrew year, and to this was afterwards added the reading of the Prophets. These places of meeting it is probable at the first were merely open courts, but in process of time they became houses of assembly, and when the Greek language prevail) ri in Israel thev wer e called sy n ag ogues. In these halls the people assembled t o receive iqjtrm*t.inn. and when the fathers of Israel had themselves forgotten the Divine law they were the only places in which the THE REST OF LABOUR. 167 Hebrew youth was likely to be ever instructed in the will of the God of his fathers and in his duty to his brethren. But the synagogue was not then a place of worship, it was simply a place of instruction, and as a place of instruction it was not of Divine institution, nor did it ever receive any Divine no- tice until the time of the appearance of the Great Teacher in Israel. The Law of Moses and the Pro- phets take no notice of such an institution, nor de- liver any exhortations to the people to attend upon its proceedings. The family was the only appointed institution for instruction in Israel, and no other was ever Divinely acknowledged in the Hebrew nation. The conversion of the synagogue into a place of wor- ship was the invention of that part of the family of Israel which was dispersed among the nations ; but we have no proof that this place of meeting was so regarded even by them in the first ages of their dispersion. Not only however did the later ages of the Hebrew polity entirely change the scene of instruction on the day of rest — when the various members of the house- hold were brought together — from the family to the synagogue, but under the hypocritical and formal cul- ture of the Pharisee the happy day itself was loaded with such a burden of restrictions, that it might be almost said of those who had to endure their galling yoke, that man was made to glorify the rest, instead 168 WAY, of tin* rot h d to inspire the labourer with the feeling of cheerfulness and felicity, and to renew the wasted energies of both his body and his mind by the enjoyment of that feeling* In the Pharisaical apprehension of the teaching of the Law and the Prophets every command of the one, and every exhortation of the other, Wf strained to the observance of the last letter of an ex- tremely literal interpretation, that the moral culture of the people became an insupportable burden, in which there was no allowance made for either the •ty of circumstances, the oft recurring divert of accident, or the necessary changes of position, and no consideration of the differences which sometimes happen between the understanding of the letter and of the intention of the Divine law. Mrs. Bell. — It cannot be expected that we should go into all these matters, and examine all the cir- cumstances of the question for ourselves, and there- fore we are generally obliged to take a very g dt al upon trust, and I am sure you will excuse me in asking for some further information on the subject of synagogues. Grace. — Why you surely know, mother, whet every child in the country knows, — that a synagogue is a Jewish place of worship. Mrs. Bell. — If I wished to know what gogu* ce, I could easily go and see for myself. THE REST OP LABOUR. 169 What I wish to know is what a synagogue was two thousand years ago. Mr. Charity. — To tell us, after reading the New Testament, that a synagogue is a place of worship, is one of those well-meant delusions which constitute what is not very properly called a religious edu- cation. If we were to call a synagogue an assembly room, or a town hall, we should be conveying a much more truthful idea to the mind, than in calling it a place of worship. Doctor. — The term synagogue is a Greek word which signifies a collection, or an assembly, a gather- ing together of persons or things, In Hebrew the corresponding term is " beth hacneseth," a house of meeting, or a moot hall, such a place as was once found in every town in England. Rachel. — We not only wish to know what the place was, but also what was done there. Doctor. — On this part of the subject we have no authority to appeal to for an answer. There is no contemporary Hebrew document to determine the subject. Hence there is no really authentic inform- ation on which we can depend for what was done in the synagogues of Canaan before the advent of our Lord. Mr. Charity. — The notices of these places con- tained in the Gospel narrative, incidentally explain their use in the age to which they relate. i 1 70 DAT, Mrs. Br: i. i.. — That narrative is of course open to each of us, but as you have made the subject an ial stmlv I should like to hear your account of the matter. Mr. Charity. — The only facts we learn from the Gospel history on this subject are these : — That i synagogue was to be found in almost every town of Canaan. That it was a place where the people were accus- tomed to assemble. That the law and the prophets were read there. That remarks were made and conversations held there by the people. That the scribes, or lawyers, or magistrates, read, explained, and applied the law to particular cases there. And that the Pharisees, who were accustomed like the Turks, to say their prayers anywhere, and in any place where they happened to be at certain hours of the day, sometimes said them in the syna- gogue also. This 1 believe is the sum of all we can know about the synagogues of Israel. They are not appointed in the law, and they are never mentioned in the Old Testament. Doctor. — The name is once mentioned in Psalm lxxiv. 8, but the rendering is doubtful ; and if it is true, it is most likely to refer to the family convoca- THE REST OF LABOUR. l7l tion mentioned in Leviticus. It is most probable, that the synagogue had its origin in the form in which it existed in the age of our Lord, some time after the Babylonish captivity. Mr. Charity. — Its present form is the growth of time, and is ^olly and entirely a human insti- tution. Doctor. — Nothing could more fully illustrate the prejudices of education than the feeling which always existed in my youthful mind, that the day of rest was a day of public worship in Israel, and the un- willingness of the mind to be undeceived on such a subject. Rachel. — There is no doubt, uncle, a very great reason to fear in this age, lest we should love our prejudices more than truth. Doctor. — When I first began to study this sub- ject my mind clung very hard to the prejudices of my education, and only received the truth bit by bit as it forced itself upon my attention. Grace. — I suppose the mind itself is so consti- tuted as to render us at the first sight much more willing to be entertained with a pleasing falsehood, than to receive a plain and simple truth. But when the mind attains to anything like a maturity of cul- tivation, it receives far more pleasure from the con- templation of naked and unadorned truth, than all the glittering tinsel of falsehood is able to inspire. 17- I>AY, Doctor. — And this is really the feeling with if My idea of t he Israelite retaining the ledge of the Creator from age to age, and of .: that knowledge down from gem ration to ration, without any professional system of te ing, is a far more noble and elevated fpeling than any which I could ever entertain towards the litish race. Mrs. Bell. — And nothing appears to me to have ocen more calculated to assist in accomplishing that object than the rest of the seventh day. Mu. Charity. — This view of the subject is very Datura] to us who have been trained up in the life of Sunday teaching, but this is very different from the Divine provision on the subject. The great Cr< himself appointed the method in which the Israelites should be taught, and in this appointment tin no reference whatever to the day of rest. The Divine method of instruction is fully set forth in the sixth and eleventh chapters of the Book of I teronomy, one of which the Doctor will be so kind as to read to us. Doctor. — Certainly. Deuteronomy, chapter the . verses sixth, seventh, eighth) and ninth: 1 these words which I command I s day Ibein thine heart. And thou sha them diligently unto thy children, and shah talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou THE REST OF LABOUR. 1/3 walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thine house, and upon thy gates/' Mr. Charity. — This is the only ordinary method of instruction which has ever been set before the world by Divine authority, and here we learn that the process of instruction is not the work of a fixed day or of a set time, but is a constant and continual operation to be attended to at all times and in all seasons. In the morning, in the evening, and at noon-day. At home in the house, and abroad in the fields. While we take our rest and when we are on our journey. Under all circumstances, in all places, and on every occasion when the opportunity can be made to serve the purpose of instruction. This is the only Divine method of giving instruc- tion to the mind, and of cultivating the heart of man. Rachel. — If this is the only Divine method of teaching man, we neither want professional teachers nor a day of teaching. Doctor. — The Divine Creator did not appoint any body of professional teachers in the Hebrew eco- nomy. Grace. — Were not the priests a class of teachers in Israel ? 1 , 1 SUNDAY, Doctor. — The priests were not appointed to the office of teacher in any form or manner what* nor are they OfBf known to have exercised the func- tions of a teacher. Mrs. Bell. — Is there nothing in the Bible which intimates that the Sabbath was intended to be an especial season for communicating instruction ? Mr. Charity. — Nothing whatever. The day of rest could only be especially used as a day of instruc- tion, in so far as it offered any especial opportunities for meeting the condition and requirements of the pupil. Mrs. Bell. — This is altogether opposed to our pre-conceived notions on the subject. "We have always been taught to believe that this was an i cial object of the appointment of the Sabbath from the beginning of its observance. Doctor. — In considering this subject it is neces- sary to lay aside all the prejudices of our education and position, and to sit down at once to learn fifem the declaration of the Divine word itself. Rachel. — However the real fact of the ease may be opposed to our interests and our prejudices, it is far better that the world should live in the light of tmtli than be left to wander without a guide in the night of ignorance, doubt, and mistake. Mrs. Bell. — If the Creator himself knows any- thing of the nature and the wants of man the great THE REST OP LABOUR. 175 business of teaching the rising world is to be done in the family, according to your account of the matter. Mr. Charity. — Most undoubtedly, all our teach- ing ought to be directed to the one object of enabling our pupils to become teachers themselves. But we shall have to return to this matter hereafter. . |.\Y. V. THE CHRIST AND THE SABBATH. thi: T.XAMPLE OF JESUS considered in relation to THE SABBATH LIFE OF ISRAEL AT THE ADVENT OF THE GOSPEL. The first mention of the seventh day in connection with the life of the Son of God is in the Gospel of Luke, where we are told that lie was_present_m the gogue according to the usual custom, at i he read * ing of the law and the prophets. And that He there assumed the character of a Prophet, and taught the assembled people, and ther eby participated in the then Jewish method of instructing the .multitudes of el. In the four Gospels we have several different accounts of the preaching of Jesus in the \arious synagogues of the Jews on the Sabbath day, and of nt persons coming and being brought to Ilini se synagogues to be healed of their van oni dis- eases ; and from what we read it appears to have invariable custom to heal those persons then and there; and this the Scribes and Phari looked upon as a direct breach of the Sinai tic cove- nant. And such it undoubtedly was in its literal THE REST OF LABOUR. 177 interpretation, and in this sense it was also a real profanation of the Rest. But Jesus shews these Scribes and Pharisees that by the provisions of the law itself the priests were commanded to profane the Rest by the offering of the accustomed daily sacrifice on that day. And therefore that this provision for the observation of the Rest was not absolute, and that as men attend to the wants and the accidents of their cattle on the day of rest, so they may perform any amount of temporal good to their fellow- men on that day. And hence He shews that the object of the appointment of the Rest was the phy- sical benefit of man, and that He acted in perfect accordance with the spirit of that appointment when He conferred temporal benefits on his afflicted bre- thren on the day of rest. In the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke we are told that the Great Teacher went out into the country on the Sabbath day with his disciples, that while they were out they went into the corn fields, and that the disciples being hungry plucked some of the ears of corn and rubbed the kernels out in their hands ; and when the Pharisees who went out with Him made complaint that in doing this the disciples profaned the Sabbath, He defends both himself and his disciples from the charge of breaking the Sabbath by shewing that the circumstances of the individual must sometimes modify the nature of obedience to i 2 SUNDAY, Divine covenant, which he illustrate* by what 1 did under such peculiar circumstances. This inly ;i lull and entire breach, oi 'the of the Divine law, and tfas without doubt in- eh the Scribes and the Pharisees that the object of the institution of the Rest was not the mere observance of a law, but the temporal benefit of all those who labour on the other six days of the ., and that when their welfare would be pro- moted by the breaking of the letter of the law, such ur.it ion of the Rett cannot be called a breach of the Divine command. The disciples were hungry, and they had no means of obtaining food but that of plucking the few ears of corn, and therefore they were justified in doing it even on the day of re In the fifth chapter of the Gospel of John we hare an account of a work performed by the Great Teacher on the Sabbath at the pool of Bethesda, where there lay a poor afflicted man waiting to be made whole, but who was unable from his infirmity to reach the the precise moment, when alone it had any efficiency to produce a cure; the Saviour immediately restored to the lame man the use of his limbs, and at the same time commanded him to rise ap and de- and take away his bed also. In tion t t Prophet not only broke the Sabbath day himself by curing the man of his infirmity, but dso commanded the poor man on whom the THE REST OP LABOUR. 179 miracle of healing had been performed to carry his bed, and thereby to bear a burden on the day of rest contrary to the most express literal provision of the law, but still by no means contrary to the spirit of that law. The law decreed that no man should bear a burden on the day of rest, in order that the fulfilment of the provision by which the labourer ceased from his toil on that day might be the more effectually secured ; but it was equally as much to the benefit of the man to carry home his bed as it would be for the labourer to cease from his toil ; and therefore the bearing of that burden was not a dese- cration of the Rest, because it was consonant with both the end and object of the Divine appointment. In the ninth chapter of the Gospel of John we read, that as Jesus was retiring from the Temple on the Sabbath day He met with a man who was born blind, and that when Jesus saw him He spat on the ground, and mixing the spittle with the dust of the earth He made an ointment, with which He anointed the eyes of the blind man, and then sent him to the pool of Siloam to wash his eyes that he might see. In this transaction the Great Teacher not only broke the letter of the Divine covenant by performing a miracle on the day of rest, but He also prepared the means through which the miraculous cure was ef- fected, and then sent the person himself, who was cured, to perform an act by which he also broke the 180 HAY, Divine law, at which the Pharisees were so highly rated that they cast the man out of their igogoe. X to our ty of instances in which the life of the ( bean any relation to the observances of the Hebrew and from them we learn : it the object for which the ltest of the Seventh- day was especially enjoined upon the Hebrew nation in the covenant of Sinai, was the temporal benefit of the man of toil. That the peculiar restrictions connected with the observance of this day in the law of the Sinaitic economy were altogether misunderstood by t In- scribes and Pharisees of the age of the appearance of the Son of God in the land of Israel. And that it was one great object of the mission of Jesus to expose the folly of the Pharisaical pa sion of the Sabbatic law, by repeatedly violating what they considered to be its Divine provisions, and by to shew to them and to us that there is no tever in the fulfilment of the law of rest, when that fulfilment does not provide for the phj t of the man of toil. In considering the life of th of man, it is necessary to look at it under two distinct vi, It was the object of his earthly life to set before the Jews an example of the perfect fulfilment of the THE REST OF LABOUR. 181 whole Mosaic law, and to exhibit to the world a perfect example of justness, righteousness, goodness, and piety, a life of perfect self-controul and godli- ness. In the Gospel narrative it is only in relation to the Rest of the Hebrew economy that the life of Christ is ever set before us in connection with the Sabbath ; and, therefore, his example can have no direct connection with this part of our subject. But we have already shewn that there is sufficient ground for believing that the seventh part of time was de- voted to rest when man first became a toiling being. And it is on this ground that the example of Christ may be made to bear in an indirect manner on the subject of the observance of the seventh day as a day of rest. We shall begin our inquiry with the practical life of Jesus. If we make the most diligent inquiry we shall find that we have no direct example throughout the Gospel History of the observance of the Sabbath by Jesus Christ in any other way than that in which He observed most of the other days of his ministerial life. He taught on the Sabbath the same as He did on all other days, and He wrought .miracles on that day the same as He did on the other days of the week. The only difference being, that He appears to have taught the people and to have wrought mira • 182 8UNDAY, cles in the synagogues on the Sabbath-day, because He found the people assembled there to hear the reading of the law and the prophets. We have hewn that the Saviour was continually id by the Jews as a Sabbath-breaker, because id not observe the day with the same strict as themselves, and He always made such excuses for His conduct in this matter as tended to relieve the mind from any feeling of bondage to the strict- mess of their observance of that day. There is nothing then in the example of the life of Christ which either recommends or detracts from the ob- mce of the rest of the seventh day. His whole life and teaching was opposed to a Pharisaical observ- ance of the day of rest, but it leaves the obscn itself just where we find it before it becomes a part of the Mosaic economy. We shall now turn to the teaching of the Great Prophet to see how far that can be made to bear on the subject. The teaching of Jesus of Nazareth, either din or indirectly, embraces every subject which concerns the moral and spiritual cultivation of the human mind. But amid all the exhortations and injunctions of his several discourses there i> no one install* which He refers to the observance of the Sabbath. There arc no exhortations to obsc; and not the slightest reprehension of the conduct of THE REST OF LABOUR. those who do not observe it. The four Gospels are without a single instance in which the subject is re- ferred to, except in answer to the attacks of the Scribes and Pharisees upon his supposed profana- tions of the day. And on one of these occasions He lays down the first principle of all Sabbatical ob- servance in the declaration, " That the rest was made for man, and not man for the rest." In this declara- tion we have the fundamental rule on which every disciple of Jesus is taught to act in relation to the day of rest. The existence of a day of rest being admitted as a known and an established fact. This is the rule for its observance : That the rest was appointed for the benefit of man, and not man to glorify the rest. This is the principle on which the Saviourjiim self. .acted, and on this principle it is the duty of his followers to act also. It is the great end and object of the Gospel to promote both the temporal and spiritual benefit of man, and it was the uniform practice of the Saviour to confer the temporal benefit first as a medium through which the mind might be prepared for the reception of spiritual teaching and Divine instruc- tion. And on this ground is founded all the rela- tionship of the Gospel of the Son of God to the rest of the seventh day. It neither enumerates its claims nor commands its observance, but it directs that being observed that observance shall be made both 181 DAY, ieial to the labourer and perfectly five from all ictdoni which would make the duties of the day a burden to the man of toil. It is one great object of the Gospel to renew so- by delivering the multitude of mankind from the subtlety, the cunning, the craft, the covetousness, the pride, and the ambition of the few who are en- tirely governed by the principle of self, and these great principles of the Gospel, from the very fact of their adaptation to the accomplishment of this ob- ject, must be favourable to an institution which pro- that one day in seven shall be a day of rest to the weary and the down -trodden children of toil ; and, therefore, there is no doubt but that whei the Gospel finds such an institution in existence, it will give all the weight of its sanction to the promo- tion of its observance. But the cessation of a whole people from toil on one day out of seven, where nearly all the labourers are the bond-servants of their employers, is a matter which mu tially affect the civil and political institutions of a country; as it was not the object of thi to make any direct and immediate change in the civil in of the nations of the Roman Empire, but only so to instruct the multitude of the people, and to imbue their mind with its Divine teaching as to form ue a newpublic feeling in unison with itsownprin- institution nor the observance of a .ABOUR. 185 day of rest was ever made a prominent object in the proclamation of the Gospel to either Jew or Gentile. And this may account for the fact, that throughout the whole story of the life and teaching of the Son of God, the observance of the seventh part of time as a day of rest, is not only never enjoined upon his followers, but it is never recommended to his disciples, and nowhere referred to in his life and teaching except in connection with the facility which its Hebrew observance offered to the exercise of his ministry, and his miraculous labours for the benefit of the people. But the Sabbath is left entirely without observation. Let us now follow the account of the life and the teaching of the Apostles of Jesus, and see how far and in what way they carry out the character and the principles of the wisdom of their Master, in proclaiming the principles of Divine wisdom to the dispersed Hebrews and to the nations of the Roman Empire. The proclamation of the Gospel to the world was made by two distinct classes of agency, one of which was devoted principally, but not entirely, to the family of Israel ; and the other chiefly, but not altogether, to the Gentiles. The twelve Apostles were appointed by their Master to go out into all the nations of the world into which the Hebrew family were dispersed before the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple, 186 8UNDAY, to testify to them that the Messiah was come, and they had the especial promise of the risen Redeemer that He would be everywhere and always with them, unto the day of the close of their labours in the end of the Mosaic dispensation, and the termination of the Hebrew state. The Apostle Paul and his coadjutors, on the other hand, were especially appointed to carry the wisdom of the Gospel to the nations of the Roman Empire, though wherever they went they invariably made the first offer of that wisdom to the Jews. In the ministry of these two classes of men, then, we may expect to find some statements of every Chris- tian principle, some reference to every Christian duty, and the most fervent exhortations to the practice of the one and the performance of the other. But we look in vain through the records of the intercourse of the twelve Apostles with their dispersed brethren, through all their addresses to them in their syna- gogues, and through all their letters to the believing Hebrews, without finding a single statement of the obligations of the Sabbatic Law, a single call to the observance of the Sabbath, a single threatening pronounced on its desecrators, or a single exhortation to the observance of a day of rest. If, again, we follow the great Apostle of the Gentiles from Jerusalem to Damascus, and from thence to Rome, and listen to all his statements of Christian iXS T /*l THE REST OF LABOUR. & 187 truth in his recorded discourses contained in the Acts of the Apostles, if we examine all his several letters to the various societies of Christians in the different cities of the Roman Empire, his epistle to the general body of the Hebrew nation, and his epistles to his younger coadjutors in the mission in which he was engaged, we shall find statements of all Christian doctrine, and exhortations to all Christian practice, the con- demnation of all evil principles and all unworthy conduct among those who profess to be the followers of Jesus, but we find nothing in either of these in any way directly relating to the claims, the observance, or the desecration of the rest of the seventh day. The only way in which the subject in any form meets our observation is in the story of Paul the great Gentile missionary, in which we find that he took occasion from the assembling of the Hebrews in the synagogue on the Sabbath day for the reading and the expounding of the law and the prophets, to assemble with them in that place to perform the object of his mission. And as an Israelite, for the sake of pleasing his own nation* there can be little doubt but that he kept the Hebrew Sabbath in accordance with the requirements of the Sinaitic covenant, as he always lived according to the ordinances of the Mosaic law, where those ordinances did not directly disagree with the require- ments of the Gospel. But it was no part of the 188 !)\v, object of the on of tlic Gospel to teach the world to the rest of tli b day, though iraged the Jew from the observation of Sabbath of the Mosaic economy according to >m of his ancestors, and as Ik* had been wont himself to observe it before he became a disciple of Jr We, therefore, conclude that though the Apostles of Jesus observed the Hebrew Sabbath as Israelites, yet that the teaching of all the known facts of the the practices, and the principles of these Apostles and their coadjutors is entirely devoid of the smallest direct reference to either the Sabbath of the Hebrew economy, or to the restitution of the rest of the seventh day in the countries of the Koman Empire where its original institution was entirely forgotten, and its observance in any form had been for ages discontinued. Here, then, we close our view of the rest of the otfa day as an institution of the Mosaic dispen- sation and as a part of the national culture of the lit brew race. The dying Redeemer virtually ■mated the whole Hebrew economy by the consum- mation of his mission to the world at ire of all nations, in that hour when tl. trembled under the weight of his word, and the most holy place of pie was opened to the view of the unhallowed worshipper in the court of the multitude, THE REST OF LABOUR. 189 and iii that hour every peculiar characteristic of the Hebrew observance of the day of rest lost all its acceptability with the Divine Father from thence- forth and for ever. If we extend our inquiry from the close of the Apostolic age and the destruction of Jerusalem, we find nothing whatever in the writings of St. John, who for a quarter of a century survived that period, in any way referring either to the observance of the Hebrew Sabbath or to the institution of a new Christian Sabbath on the feast of the resurrection, though a great part of those writings are entirely devoted to the practical duties of the Christian life, but this last of the Apostles bears his almost dying testimony to the character of his Master as a Sabbath breaker, according to the Pharisaical view of the observance of a day of rest. In these ages Jerusalem was considered to be the chief seat of the followers of Jesus, for when the whole city was destroyed, the new towns of Pella and Helia became the seat of the successors of the ori- ginal Christian congregation of Jerusalem without any connection with the Gentile believers, and it so remained until the close of the reign of Hadrian in the one hundred and thirty-eighth year of our era ; and nothing could possibly be more opposed to the views of these Hebrew disciples of Jesus than the institution of a new Christian Sabbath in opposition to that of the Sinai tic covenant, and it was im- [90 I>AY, possible that such a thing could be done without iU being brought under our notice. The relief of the Gentile professors of the Gospel from the bondage to Jewish tonus was a matter of constant contention between even the Hebrew and the I i entile apostles, though they were both Israelites, how much more contention might we then expect to find if the Apostle of the Gentiles had attempted to supplant the Hebrew Sabbath which was celebrated on the seventh day, by a new Christian Sabbath to be celebrated on the first day of the week. And as the whole history of Christianity, from the first chapter of the Acts of the Apostles to the publica- tion of the Ecclesiastical History of Eusebius, is totally devoid of all reference to such an institution, we are fully justified in concluding that the promul- gation of any such ordinance was never either attempted or proposed. The original propagation of the Gospel was not a publication of ordinances, but a promulgation of principles. It is impossible to shew that the Apos- tles of Jesus ever proposed or established a single rite or ordinance of any form or description what- amongst the followers of Christ. Apostolic Christianity knows nothing whatever of either means of grace or ordinances of religion. The only means of grace in the Apostolic Church was the indwelling of Christ in the mind and heart of the worshipper, the only ordinances of religion the individual THE REST OF LABOUR. 191 offering up of the prayer and the praise of the disci- ple. And for the performance of this, there was no need of any especial day or of any particular times. The life of the Christian must be one continued act of prayer and praise, if he would fulfil the Divine injunction to pray without ceasing, and in everything give thanks. Mrs. Bell. — I must again call your attention to the memorial idea of the Sabbath. The seventh day, it is said, was a memorial of the creation, and the first a memorial of the redemption of the world. Doctor. — We have already shewn the folly of this notion in relation to the creation ; and I hope we shall be able to satisfy your inquiry respecting the relation of the first day to the work of redemption. Mr. Charity. — The redemption of man was effected on the sixth day of the week — on the Friday and not on the Sunday, and in so far as the death of Jesus was the efficient cause of our redemption, in so far this work was wholly and entirely completed on the Friday. And hence, in the early Church, the Friday was a greater day than the Sunday. Grace. — But it is said that the resurrection which happened on the first day was the finishing of the work of redemption, and therefore we ought to keep that day in preference of the other. Mr. Charity. — The resurrection was no more the finishing of the work of redemption than the ascen- 192 8UNDAY, sion, and neither of these had any more e< nnection with tliat work tlian the birth and baptism of the Redeemer. The whole memorial idea is a fable. Mas. BlLL. — 1 believe it is; but I should like to know whether yon have found any ground for that fable in the New Testament. Doctor. — It is better to settle this matter at once on the merits of its first principles. If the celebra- tion of the memorial is binding upon us, it must be a thing of divine institution, and if it is an institution of divine appointment, that appointment most be contained in the New Testament. Mm. Charity. — He must be a bold man, Doctor, who would come forward and tell us that the Testament contains any ordinance appointing the first day of the week to be kept by all Christian a memorial of the resurrection of their Master, and he must be an equally bold man who could assert that it ever was so kept in the apostolic age or the first century of our era. Mas. Bell. — If the celebration of the Lord's day is not ordained in the New Testament, we are told that our Divine Master celebrated his resurre< Himself on the first day of the week by repeatedly aring to his disciples on that day. 1 >uctor. — If He had so appeared to i pies, we have no right to assume that sue ought to be considered by us as the celebration of his resurrection. THE REST OF LABOUR. 193 Mr. Charity. — However that might be deter- mined, there is no evidence that He ever did appear to his disciples on any other first day than the actual day of his resurrection. Doctor. — It may not be amiss to examine the several recorded appearances of Jesus after his re- surrection. The first of these appearances was to the women in the garden. The second was to the disciples as they went to Emmaus. Both of these were on the first day of the week. The third of these appearances was to the disciples at Jerusalem, and this was in the evening after the first day of the week. The fourth of these recorded appearances was eight days after this, and must therefore have been on the third day of the week. Such is the ground on which it is asserted that the Founder of the Gospel kept the first day of the week as a me- morial of his resurrection. There is no evidence that He ever appeared to his apostles on that day at all. The evening of the first day had already set in when the disciples arrived at Emmaus, and there was the time they spent there and the time occupied in walking eight miles before the appearance of Christ at Jerusalem, and consequently that appearance must have been on the second day after the Sabbath, as the Sabbath ended with the sunset of the seventh day. Rachel. — I think, aunt, we may be fully justified K BM in burying this memorial idea of t lie first day of the Ian. It it was neither commanded nor cele* Itratcd by the Founder of the Gospel, who is our per- \ani])lc, it can be of but little concern to us or any other of his followers. Doctor. — This memorial idea is so entirely ground- less, that I should have a very humble opinion of any system which takes it into its service as a prin- cipal ground of support. Mrs, Bell. — I cannot part with the idea without a word for my friends. However it may be wanting in truth, there is still something very pleasing in the story to an over-sensitive mind. And there we may fairly leave the subject. THE REST OF LABOUR. 195 VI. SUNDAY AND NATIONAL RELIGION. In the first ages of the world when men were few, and the family of the great Patriarch was confined to the original seat of the race, the fathers of man- kind went out to their labour in the morning and returned in the evening from the pursuit of toil, with their mind cultivated by observation and reflection in following out the business of the day. The great principle of their intellectual life was the idea of a Power manifesting Himself everywhere at all times in every place and through all the changes of the natural world. They beheld His presence in the sun which gives light and heat for the support of life. In the moon which walks in silent brightness on the circle of the star-lit sky, and cheered the heart of the herdsman and the shepherd as they kept their nightly watch on the level plains of Shinar. They saw Him even in the moistening dew-drop as it glistened on the grass of the fertile glade, in the brightness of the 196 DAY, dawning day. While the change of the seasons, the successive course of day and night, and the constant and renewal of all animal and vegetable life proclaimed the presence of Him who worketh every- where, and never stayeth His hand. The circum- stances and accidents of every day revealed His goodness, and in the events of every night they felt the working of His mighty power. The eye trained to visions of beauty and the ear to the tones of melody which everywhere abound in the great temple of nature, and their cultivated mind believed in the power, it felt the presence and trusted in the providence of the great Author of their being. They were sensibly conscious of His dwelling amongst them, and to Him they continually raised the desire of their hearts to supply their needs from the over- flowings of His bounty and to satisfy their wants from the unfailing stores of His benevolence, and the song of their gratitude never ceased to rise from the feelings of a thankful mind. Thus the man was cultivated and the mind was id to receive and to cherish the divine impres- sions of virtue and goodness in that age when men first began to multiply and to fill the renovated earth with their offspring. And they dwelt together in righteousness, industry, and peace. But in time they began to build themselves cities to dwell in, where, in the course of a very few generations, many of THE REST OF LABOUR. 197 them became idle and depraved, and the strongest obtained the place of authority and became the ruler of his brethren. The idle sought an easy employ- ment in his service, the feeble depended upon him for protection, and the weak feared him and quietly submitted to his power. Every day he was applauded by his favourites ; they who sought his bounty came and knelt before him, and those who offended his pride bowed themselves to the earth to seek his clemency and forgiveness, while his flatterers adored him even in the presence of the multitude. When he died, as he surely did die, like other men, the mourners went about the streets with cries and lamentations, refusing to be comforted because their God was removed from the sight of their eyes, while they fondly believed that though they could not see him, he was still in their midst and still ready to shew them the favours they had been accustomed to receive when he went in and out in their midst, and smiled upon their fawning reverence. When the hero had passed away, the memory of his greatness and his mighty deeds remained in the mind of the people. And when the misty halo of tradition had magnified all his glory into an imaginary vision of excellence, he who was mighty on Earth was believed to be more mighty in the presence of the earth's Creator. The man was a hero on earth, and the hero now became a demon in the air, a 198 man, a mediating power between the great and awful Creator and the human cre a t u re — a man- . and the common centre of a | I religion. Afl mind of the people had degenerated from the natural and (lod-like culture of their fathers, and they me more and more sensuous in their ideas of the spiritual and the Divine, and they now required a visible image of the object of their adoration. An idol was formed, and a house erected to be the dwel- ling place of the God, and a person appointed to take care of the place, to receive the gifts of the wor- shippers, and to ofl'er them to the object of their reverence and devotion. Appointed feasts were celebrated in honour of the vements of the hero, and stated times determined upon by authority for receiving the gifts of the people. Every person in the city was invited to bring his presents, and to do homage to the image which had been set up in the house of their God. Amongst the foremost of those who promoted this work were the prince and the nobles of the city, who found in it the surest and most convenient of all methods of drawing the attention of the people to themselves, and of more fully establishing their own unrighteous authority over the debased and degraded multitude. Such was the origin of national religion. It began its mission of evil in the great cities of 1 1 d the THE REST OF LABOUR. 199 banks of the Euphrates, and was perfected in Egypt on the banks of the Nile. Erom thence it spread into Syria, Asia Minor, Greece, and Italy, and in some degree amongst the more distant nations of the earth. A national religion is a political instrument, in- vented and used by the ruling powers for shaping and forming the minds of the multitude. " Convinced," says the third article of the treaty of Verona, in the year of grace one thousand eight hundred and twenty- two, — " Convinced that the principles of religion con- tribute most powerfully to maintain nations in a state of passive obedience which they owe to their princes, the high contracting parties declare that it is their intention to sustain in their respective domi- nions such measures as the clergy may adopt for strengthening their interests, intimately connected with those of the prince." National religion is an essential part of the Govern- ment of every country in which the system has been adopted. It is the moral engine through which the Government carries out its objects and designs amongst the people, and the stereotyped form in which it desires the national mind to be moulded that the people may be obedient to its will and sub- servient to the exercise of its authority. And the ruler finds this moral engine to be much more effec- tive in establishing and maintaining the order and 200 SUNDAY, subjection of the people than any other force which he can employ in carrying ont his object. The systems of national religion have the founda- tion of their influence in the emptiness, the weakness, and the depravity of the human mind, and the con- sequent subjection of the people to a state of feeling in winch they may be brought at any time to dread the wrath of the invisible God and to tremble under the fear of eternal punishment. By these the multi- tude arc held in subjection, their mind is kept in awe, and the man, it is said, becomes a better citizen of the state and better prepared for the inheritance of a future life. " The ancients, therefore, did not act absurdly nor without a good reason," says Polybius in his fourth book of Roman history, u when they inculcated notions con- cerning the gods and the belief of infernal punish- ments ; but much rather are those of the present age to be charged with rashness and absurdity in endea- vouring to extirpate these opinions, for not to men- tion other effects which flow from such an institution, if among the Greeks, for example, a single talent only be entrusted to those who have the management of any part of the public money, though they give ten written sureties, with as many seals and twice as many witnesses, they are unable to discharge the trust reposed in them with integrity. But the Romans, on the other hand, who in the course of THE REST OF LABOUR. 201 their magistracies and in embassies disburse the greatest sums, are prevailed on by the single obliga- tion of an oath to perform their duty with inviolable honesty. And as in other states a man is rarely to be found whose hands are free from public rob- bery, so among the Romans it is no less rare to dis- cover one who is tainted with this crime." National religion is a system of state craft which will answer very well so long as you can keep the great mass of the people bound down to one general artificial type of thought, but if the mind should ever go back to nature for its fundamental culture, and the freed man should ever begin to think for himself, it would be more difficult to manage a national reli- gion than to manage the people without its assistance. Wherever the Gospel is fully received in its own spirit, it must in the very nature of things excite men to think and act for themselves and therefore eventually supersede the influence of a national religion, as the dawning light gradually and effectually supersedes the darkness of the night. But, unfortunately for the world, the Gospel was not received in its own spirit when it was first promulgated in the Roman empire, and when pagan- ism fell the professed follower of Jesus was ready there with the Catholic Church just sufficiently advanced in the process of formation to become a new and improved system of religion for the Roman k2 SUN DAK world. And that world has groaned under some form of the burden of that syst< me back to natnre and the first princi- <>f troth to tee tlie world and thfi Gospel for It is to this system we owe the religious lift of the countries of the Church in the west of Asia, Europe, and America. Sacred days — forms of worship — a Nsional ministry — and consecrated houses for the God of the Church to dwell in, and to receive the adoration of His worshippers. And above all. the weekly holiday of the first day, as the especial season hich the multitude may be drilled into the whole system. But this system was not the invention of a day. It began with very small beginnings, and by slow degrees to reach that perfect ^t ate of maturity in which, as in Rome, the head of the Church became the head of the State, or ai Britain, where the head of the State became the head of the Church. It is a contradiction in terms to con met the (iospel •f Jesus with the idea of a national religion, be< the one is in its own nature a system of spiritual wisdom, and the other is equally as much in tta own nature a system of visible ritualism. But it may not be out of place to sec DOT & the Gospel was merged into the organism of a national C lunch, and how that Church became the state reli- gion of the Roman world. In which we shall si THE REST OP LABOUR. 203 That the appointment of days of worship is distinct from the ordination of a day of rest. The first believers in the Gospel of Jesus were Jews at Jerusalem, and the first disciples of Jesus were Jews also from Jerusalem to Antioch, and from Antioch to Iconium, from Iconium to Illyricum, and from Illyricum to Rome. Parthians, Medes, and Elamites, dwellers in Mesopotamia, Cretes, Ara- bians, Egyptians, and Lybians; wherever the Jews resided, they and the proselytes to their economy were the first believers in the mission of Jesus. And as the Gospel was entirely a system of teaching, they mixed it up with the ordinances of the Mosaic law, in so far as those ordinances did not directly disagree with the principles of the Gospel. We have already shewn that the example of Christ, when looked at from a Hebrew point of view, is at least in an indirect sympathy with the syna- gogue medium of instruction in Israel, and that this synagogue teaching became amongst the Israelites of the dispersion a mode of public worship which was performed on the rest of the seventh day, and on the other sabbaths of the sacred year. Here, then, was a school in which the Gentile disciples of Jesus in the second century of the Gospel first learned the practice of regarding days and seasons, and first 204 SUNDAY, entertained the idea of a form of public devotion and of religion* Their social meal, or the breaking of bread toge- ther, which was the expression of Christian union and common fellowship soon assumed the form of a magical rite, the simple reading and teaching of the word became a Divine service, and days were set apart for the celebration of the rite, and for the performance of the sendee. At the first, by a certain amount of compromise with the Hebrew culture the Hebrew sabbath was the chief of these days, and next to that the sixth, first, and fourth days of the week as connected with the betrayal, passion, and resurrection of Jesus; but, in process of time, as the Hebrew element declined in the Church the regard to the Hebrew sabbath declined also, until it entirely wore itself out in the fifth century. In the second and third centuries, the rites and public service of the Church being celebrated and performed either early in the morning, or in the evening after the labours of the day were over. This caused no interruption either in the perform- ance of business, or in the exercise of labour ; for up to this time the Gentile Christians had no day of rest, except in so far as they observed that of the Hebrews. But when in the reign of Constantine the religion of the Church became the fashionable THE REST OF LABOUR. 205 religion of the Empire, the service being performed at a later hour in the morning and at an earlier hour in the afternoon, it became necessary to suspend the operations of business to meet the requirements of the change. But the laws of Constantine suspending the operations of labour on the first and sixth days of the week were not promulgated through the Empire with the object of making both or either a Christian sabbath, but simply for the purpose of enabling the people to attend the worship of the Church at an hour of the day which interfered with the usual process of labour. Both of these days had been set apart for worship for many years before the age of Constantine, but that worship had been performed at times which did not interfere with the pursuits of business and the duties of the toiling labourer. When the religion of the Church became the reli- gion of the Court of the Roman Empire, and its pro- fession became a mark of worldly distinction, the greater part of those persons who were employed in any office under the government must have been ex- cluded from any attendance on the public worship of the Church, unless there had been some days appointed in which the business of the government was suspended for that object; and, therefore, to meet this difficulty the Emperor is said to have issued two edicts, the one suspending work on the I DAY, M\tli. the other on the first day of the week, making each of these davs a Government holiday, that tlie ns employed mi:_ r lit have an opportunii :it t * 1 1< 1 1 1 1 _r upon the services of the Chnrcli. Hut we arc told that the Hebrew sabbath was observed by some of the churchmen of Constantinople down to the middle of the fifth century. AY hat Constantino had done for the officers of the ernment was imitated, more or less, by the - landowners and men of business of the Empire, until the l;i>t of the passion, and the feast of the n OH, had each become a civil holiday in all the countries of the Church. But neither of these days was ever considered as a re-institution of the pri- mitive sabbath, or as a new constitution of the Divine provision of a day of rest for the man of toil. Such a benevolent idea as this, entirely irrespective of its own interests, never yet possessed the mind of the Catholic Church. The Friday and the Sunday holiday, provided a sufficient amount of recreation for the faithful, and the Church never contemplated any extension of its benevolence to the onbelii world. ,ii the first rise of the Catholic Church until now there hare been especial days appointed for the performance of worship, but the object for which these days were appointed was altogether different from the original appointment of the sabbath of the THE REST OP LABOUR. 207 seventh day, and its re-ordination as a part of the covenant of Sinai. The ground of their appointment was solely and entirely the provision of a season of rest and recreation for the toiling animal both man and beast, but the setting apart of days by the Catholic Church was simply and entirely for the purposes of worship; the days were appointed as seasons of worship, and the labourer ceased from his toil on those days solely and entirely that he might attend upon the worship. They did not become seasons of worship because they were days of rest, but they became civil holidays because they were days of worship. Part of the day was devoted to worship, and the remaining part was spent in any agreeable pursuit. Such has ever been the character of the Lord's-day in the Catholic Church, and such it still remains in the countries of the Eastern, in the lands of the Western, and in the nations of the Northern churches, with the exception of Britain. In the Protestant and the Papist, and in the Greek and the Latin churches it still remains the same. It is a day of public service, and when that public service is over, the remain- der of the day is spent in the different countries according to the different tastes and different pur- suits of the people. The Lord's-day was first observed by the Catholic Churcli as a religious holiday, it was so in the beginning, it has re- 208 SUNDAY, mained so ever since, and it continues to be so now as the feast of the resurrection; and whan the business of the Church was over, the remaining hours at the first were devoted to labour, but afterwards became a time of social recreation and entertainment. The Best of the Church, then, is in its origin and nature entirely different from the primitive Rest pro- vided for universal man, and equally as different from the rest of the Sinaitic covenant designed for the use of the whole Hebrew race in Israel; inasmuch as the entire object of the appointment of these sabbaths was the physical rest and recreation of the labourer, without any reference whatever to public or private devotion, while the fundamental object of the appointment of the Sabbath of the Church is the provision of a day for the celebration of public worship. There is, also, an essential difference between the Church and the Gospel, inasmuch as while the Gospel fully recognizes and sanctions the original provision for the rest and recreation of all toiling men both bad and good, it neither appoints nor recognizes a day of Divine service, or a form of public worship, while the Church provides its da\ rest solely and entirely for the purposes of public ■e, and never contemplates any provision for the : of either man or beast beyond its pale, and of its sacred service. THE REST OF LABOUR. What might have been the condition of the world if the Gospel had been universally received in the Roman Empire, in its own spirit, as the element of a new spiritual life, is not for us to inquire in this place. Nor are we about to speculate upon what may- be the result of what is now taking place around us in our own country. But this we do know, that the report of the last Census is a material demonstration of the declining influence of our system of national religion. If that system ever had any especial mission in the country, that mission is most decidedly accomplished. With the great mass of the people the work of the Church is done. They have quietly left its altars. They have deserted its ritual culture, and they have forsaken its artificial economy for ever. In Britain, the National Church is no longer an instrument in the hands of the Government in forming and directing the public mind ; because that mind has already passed away from its influence, and lies beyond the pale of its operation. Seven millions of the people are absent every Sunday from the ministry of the national re- ligion, and have gone back to the original condition of mankind before a national religion was invented, and began its work in the world. Would to God that they had gone back no farther ; but, alas for the world, hundreds and thousands of them have dropped out of the hands of their nursing mother in such a state of ignorance, of distress, of degradation, of misery, -10 IAN, and of wretchedness, as hardly to bear about them any visible claims to the common character of humanity, Doctor. — There arc few subjects on which g< have been more thoroughly mistaken than that of the bcnelieial influence of a national religion. Mr. Charity. — The whole subject depends upon the question — Whether the man is to be educated or drilled 2 AYhether he is to grow like the noble tree q| the forest, or whether he is to be drilled, and cut, and shaped, like a box hedge? Rachel. — The man of wisdom educates man, and lets all the inner powers of his being expand naturally, and directs them in their growth as nature directs the branches and leaves of a tree into their proper form and order; and in so doing he has my perfect sym- pathy, inasmuch as I prefer the melody of the grove to the song of the caged bird. Mrs. Bell. — There must have been some el.. in men themselves before a national religion could gain any ground in the world. Mr. Charity. — A national religion mi. with persons whose minds have not been cultivated by a natural education. The mind which has been trained to observe the operations of nature, to feel its truth. Hid to admire its beauty, will never be among the first to embrace a system of national religion. Grace. — But you would hardly say that such men have never belonged to a system of national religion. THE REST OP LABOUR. 211 Mr. Charity. — By no means, where once a system of national religion is established, it is embraced under the influence of custom, and we comply with its provisions by the force of circumstances. Doctor. — And we generally remain under its in- fluences, until by the force of some opposite circum- stances we are led to question either its authority or its use. Rachel. — There appears to be then a natural reason why a national religion should have had its origin in a city. Mr. Charity. — There is nothing more detrimental to a proper development of the powers and faculties of man than successive generations of city life. Man is to a certain extent a sensuous being, and the be- ginning of all true education must be in the exercise of the senses, and the senses themselves ought to be first exercised on the objects of the visible creation. Doctor. — A citizen may see the sky, sun, moon, and stars, the hail, rain, frost, and snow j but these I believe are not the first things to strike his infant attention in the midst of a city. Mrs. Bell. — Children brought up in the city must necessarily be trained with more formality and with a great deal more artificial restraint than those who are reared in the country. And this will of course make them more ready to comply with the require- ments of an artificial system when they become men. 21- 8UNDAY, Grace. — The music of birds, the beauty of flov. and the varieties of form and colour in plants, the picturesque scenery of the country, and the habits of animals and insects, are more than all other things calculated to excite the observation and cultivate the fe elin gB of the infant man. Rachel. — The youth of a city ought certainly to be spent as much as possible in its parks and gardens, and more especially in the fields of the surrounding country on every available occasion. Mr. Charity. — And it was when men had been collected together in a great city, without the benefit of such an education as this, that a system of national religion first made its way in the world. It is the de- basement of man in city life which first prepares the mind for the influence of a national system of religion. And then that religion itself becomes naturally a new debasing power, until it brings the place to the des- tined doom of all cities in which there is not a con- tinual infusion of new blood from the country. The body decays for want of healthy e\ rating activity, and the mind withers like a blighted plant, until the race which once assumed the first place amongst the nations has dri?ded down into an object of scorn and contempt to the whole world. Doctor.— "Wherever man is destitute of a natural education, any system of national religion must be a positive evil, because it contracts the development of the natural powers of the mind. THE REST OF LABOUR. 213 Mrs. Bell. — It has been thought that a national system of religion, even if that system were the Poly- theism of Greece and Rome, would be better than no national system of religion at all. Mr. Charity. — This feeling has its origin in the notion that without a system of national religion there can be no religion in the world. Rachel. — If that were the case, we might reason- ably suppose that the Creator must have had some feeling towards man contrary to the goodness of His own nature, or else He would have instituted such a system from the beginning, and not have left the greater part of mankind in the world for six thousand years without any possibility of leading a religious life. Mr. Charity. — So far as a system of religion is concerned, He has not only left the greater part, but the whole of mankind from the foundation of the world to the present day in the same condition. For we have no record of the fact of the Divine Being having ever instituted a system of religion in any age, or in any country, from the beginning of time to the present hour. Mrs. Bell. — How then do you account for the existence of a system of religion at all ? Doctor. — Religion, and a system of religion, are two distinct and different things. Religion is the individual service of man to his Creator ; but a sys- I'll | DAY, trm of religion include! a public service, a professional ministry, and a place Cor the performance of worship. Qsai i:. — Then it ii quite possible for one to < without tlie oth Doctor. — Quite so; there may be true religion without the system, and the system without any true religion. M as. Bell. — Then I may as well modify the form of my question. If religion existed in the world from whence did it derive its being? How is it that it e\ n- found a place in human culture ? Mr. Charity. — Most undoubtedly religion is from God. Every thing good is from the Father of our being, the fountain of goodness. If man is a reli- gious being it is because God enables him to be so. There is no probability that God ever created a man without giving him the power to serve Him ; but like all other things which He has given, He leaves it to his own choice as to when and how he will use it, making him responsible for the use of that po just as he is for all other powers which his Cm has conferred upon him. Grace. — If this is the case how is it then that men are not religious always and everywhere ? Mr. Charity.— Because they make no use of the light and instruction which God has given to them to profit withal. Grace. — If a man is not religious is it his own THE REST OF LABOUR. 215 fault, or because God has not given him the power to be so? Doctor. — Most assuredly his own fault, else how could the Judge of all render to every man according to the deeds done in the body. Rachel. — It is a great consolation to feel that every man has an opportunity of serving God, and that he is not shut out from hope by the destiny of his position, or the more awful predetermination of the Divine will. Mrs. Bell. — Whatever good then we find in the world you attribute it to the natural working of a Divine principle in man. Mr. Charity. — Saint Paul declares it to be so in his epistle to the Romans ; and I have no reason to doubt the truth of his declaration. Doctor. — All the good which we find in any of the heathen nations must be attributed to the influ- ence of the external world in revealing the Godhead, and to the working of the Divine principle in the human mind, and not to the influence of any system of religion whatever. Mrs. Bell. — How then do you shew the need of a Divine revelation to man ? Mr. Charity. — Just as I would shew the need of the sun when we have the moon. In the night, how- ever fair it may be, we see objects but very indis- tinctly ; our vision is neither clear nor extensive, and 21 G SUNDAY, sonic things escape OUT attention altogether; just SO it is with man without the Gospel. It Mas not the object of the revelation of the Gospel to teach men to hi religions tor the first time, but to teach them how to be religious in the truest, the best, and the most God-tike manner. Mrs. Bell. — As we have a national religion in this country, what is our duty in relation to its opera- tion and performance ? Mr. Charity. — Most certainly our duty is to let it alone. Our duty to the Church, and our duty to the people, are two widely different things. Our duty to the Church is not to interfere with its per- formance. As long as any person thinks it is of any use to him, and that it is worth preserving, it is our duty to let it remain. Rachel. — But what is our duty to the people in connection with the Church? Mr. Charity. — To use our best efforts so to teach them the truth, that they may feci that they can de- rive no benefit from her artificial labours Doctor. — There will be no difficulty then in set- tling the question as to what will be done with the Church when we are so well instructed in the truth as to feel that we have no need of a National Church, the existence of the institution itself will soon be determined without any efforts of ours to remove it. Grace. — As far as the poor are concerned it may THE REST OF LABOUR. 217 now be said that her days are numbered and her appointed time is come. Mrs. Bell. — But there is still a great body of the middle classes who strenuously support the claims of a national religion. Doctor. — I believe a great deal may be done by making use of every opportunity to instruct the mass of the people both by vocal teaching and the circula- tion of books. But there is a large class to whom you have referred who need to be prepared for this process before it can be made available to their im- provement. Mr. Charity. — I would treat them just as I would treat a child. An uncultivated man is only a debased child of an older growth. Mrs. Bell. — There are only two things through which we can gain an influence over a child, and they are food and a noise. Mr. Charity.— And these are just the two things by which we can gain any influence over the wretched and miserable. We must manifest kindness and attention in relieving their destitute condition, and begin their culture by some kind of intellectual en- tertainment. Rachel. — But what is that entertainment to be, and how is it to be accommodated to their capacity ? Mr. Charity.— Mrs. Bell has already pointed out the nature of that entertainment. There is but one L - 1 B DAY, unfailing entertainment, and one winch will suit condition of a man's being, and that is music. There is something in music which has a charm for the highest intellect and the most debased and un- cultivated clown, for the savage barbarian and the refined citizen, for the filthiest wretch who claims a share in the heritage of humanity, and the purest and noblest spirit which has ever risen to a participation in the Divine nature. Doctor.— Then, you would try to collect the most degraded of the population together to listen to the performance of music ? Mr. Charity. — Yes, Doctor, if I merely wished to entertain them for an hour; but if I wished to im- prove them also, I would do something more. Grace. — Pray, let us know what that would be ; the very idea of supposing that they can be improved is a source of pleasure. .Mr. Charity. — I would have a musical perform- ance in the open air, where all classes could meet together to listen to its Divine charms; I would have plenty of room and no confinement, and I should like to have green grass and sunshine, and the shade of -hanging trees to beautify the scene ; and if you can add singing birds and flowers, and running water, and cattle feeding in innocent contentment, you would complete the requirements of a place of im- provement for the lowest and the vile. THE REST OF LABOUR. 219 Rachel. — All this is very good, but when wouldst thou find the time for its performance ? Doctor. — This is done now to some extent in every place where the people resort in the neighbour- hood of London on a Sunday. Mrs. Bell. — And I think it would be very useful, if it could be put under proper management, so that the whole affair should be conducted with propriety and decorum. Mr. Charity. — No greater blessing could be con- ferred on our great towns than the bringing out of the lowest class of the people to daylight and sunshine, and a free and open intercourse with their more cul- tivated brethren. Grace.— And I think the plan you propose would be especially calculated to effect this object. Doctor. — This kind of coming out must have a great influence on the mind of the lowest class of our countrymen. They would become better citizens, better men, and much better prepared to receive the good seed of a higher and purer life. Mrs. Bell. — We must not forget the influence it might also have upon their domestic habits, their family, and the whole of their home life. Mr. Charity. — The first thing to be done with many of these persons is to raise them to some dis- tinct feeling of fellowship with universal nature. The ruling idea of their mind is isolation, solitary self. 220 SUNDAY, And their first want is a feeling of fellowship with the great world in which they live. Rachel.— In this respect these persons are far below the standard of those races which we are accus- tomed to look upon as barbarians and savages. Skein is a low and degraded condition of society, but the lowest class of our great towns have lost the dis- tinguishing characteristics of humanity. Grace. — To feel no interest in what the eye sees and the ear hears abroad in the visible creation beyond the gratification of the lowest animal passions, is to sink a man to the level of the brute, but to live without feeling any pleasure in gratitude, affection, and kindness, and the interest of others in our wel- fare, is to sink the character of the man not only to the level, but far below that of the animal creation. Doctor. — It is so; but such is the condition of thousands in this Christian country, and yet humanity is not extinct in these men, it only lies dormant, the soul is still there, and the Divinity still dwells within though unseen: and I believe there is nothing more likely to arouse the prodigal from his lethargy than snch an out-door musical entertainment as thai which is here proposed by our friend. Mr. Charity. — There arc thousands of men bring in the world without any consciousness of the Divine Being. But there is no man living on the earth without the care and attention of our heavenly Fa- ther, " who is kind unto the unthankful and the vile." THE REST OF LABOUR. 221 Rachel. — And if these wretched and evil men are the objects of the Divine kindness they cannot be beyond the reach of improvement, if we attempt that work in a manner suitable to their position. Mrs. Bell. — We must learn to accommodate our efforts to their circumstances, if we would ever suc- ceed in raising them to a more respectable condition in the scale of society, a more thorough appreciation of the blessings of existence, and a truer and more noble idea of their position in the great brotherhood of our common humanity. IH SUNDAY, VII. CONCLUSION OF THE BOOK. Wl began this book with an inquiry into the Divine object of the appointment of a day of rest, and we had this question before us : "What was the end and intention of the Divine Father in appointing one day in seven of the labourer's life to be a day of rest ? This question we have endeavoured to answer wholly and entirely from the Bible, and we have found it distinctly stated in the Mosaic law that the one direct end and intention of a day of rest is the temporal benefit of the labourer and the producer of food ; — the renewal of his strength, the recreation of his energies, and the refreshment of the whole man. It therefore remains to every one to spend this day according to the bent and the inclination of his own mind — as one who will have to be judged according to the deeds done in the body. Every man ia bound to rest by virtue of the Divine constitution Of his organic nature, but every man also is left at bberty to spend his time on the day of rest by the same rule as that by which he acts on every other day. The Christian will spend every day of his life as far as possible in being good and doing good, because THE REST OF LABOUR. 223 this is the one object and end of his spiritual calling. And if the day of rest offers him more opportunity of manifesting this character of his Divine calling than any other day, he will seize this opportunity to the utmost extent of his power and ability for the benefit of society, and to promote the glory of his Father in heaven. The Ritualist, the man of sensuous rites and visible means, will see in this day a greater opportunity of carrying out the principles of his system than can be found on any other day. The thoughtful and reflecting disciple will go out like the Divine Jesus into the great temple of his Father's manifested presence to meditate on the varied subjects which occupy his mind and attention, and to cultivate a closer and a more intimate union with the Author of his being. The citizen will take up the opportunity afforded by the day of rest to breathe the refreshing air of the country, and to cultivate an acquaintance with nature in her purest and simplest forms, and in her grandest and her most glorious manifestations, that he may behold the works of God and rejoice in seeing the operations of His Divine hand. While others will follow a course which the vir- tuous will lament, and the good will endeavour to correct by their charitable effort, their precept, and the kind, the benevolent, and the godlike example of SUNDAY. their life. And there is work for every one to do wlbO can work and will work ; the British race is now passing through one of the greatest and the most important of changes which have ever happened in the history of human society, and it behoves every good man to come forward to the help of his fellow* man, remembering that the good of man is the glory of God, and that the well-being of the creature is the highest honour of the Creator. Let every man beware of attempting to do good for a selfish purpose. So long- as our object in pro- fessing to do good is to hold up a system and to strengthen and support a party, whatever that system or that party may be, so long we are only doing evil that good may come. We have but one Father, who is in heaven, who is kind to every man, and hateth nothing which He hath made. True goodness knows no system but universal truth and fellow-feeling, and no party but the welfare of human society. The Christian acknowledges no master but Christ, no system but that Divine charity which spring! out of a due reception of the wisdom of the Gospel, and no party but the good of universal man. One is your Master — the Christ. All of you are Brethren. If ye continue in My Word, Ye are My Disciples in truth. Jr.srs. SUNDAY, REST OF LABOUR BOOK III. THE BRITISH SABBATH. h 2 THE REST OF LABOUR. 227 ORIGIN OF THE BRITISH SABBATH. It is our object in this Book to examine the grounds of the Divine claim of the British Churches for the devotion of the day of rest to the perform- ance of public worship. In the early ages of the world the moral and the spiritual powers and faculties of humanity assumed a peculiar form of development and culture in Britain, and we have some ground for believing that this pe- culiarity extended to the observance of the weekly rest of the man of toil. In all ancient nations there were appointed seasons in which the whole people ceased from labour, and made a pause in the usual round of secular business ; and such seasons as these were observed at several times of the year by the ancient Britons, But beyond all other nations, beside the Hebrews, the British people have always divided time into periods of seven days each. And as this division of time has no foundation in the operations of nature, we arc authorized to seek for its origin in the records of tradition, where we It8 DAY, lean that the division of time into weeks is as old M the creation, and that in those nations when it did not prevail, there its memory had been lost in the lapse of ages and the changes of society. When Christianity was introduced into Britain, it found the week divided into days precisely in the same way as it is at this time. It was then a week of seven days, as it is now, and these days had then precisely the same designation as they now have ; with the exception of those alterations in the spell- ing and the pronunciation of words which the revo- lution of time is sure to produce amongst every people. The first day of the week had its name from the sun, the principal orb of light; the sup- posed visible symbol of the unseen Creator. And there is little ground to doubt but that Sunday has ever been a social holiday in Britain from the most remote ages down to the present time. And this, and other ancient holidays of the people were still continued when Christianity was introduced into the island, though it was directly opposed to the abuses of their observance. When the profession of the Gospel was merged into the ritualism of the Catholic Church, these holidays became a part of the ecclesiastical culture of the people. Their feasts of Sunday, Christmas Day, Epiphany, or Twelfth Night, Easter, All Hal- lows, and the other great feasts of the Church, THE REST OF LABOUR. 229 were each and all of them the continuation of the most ancient heathen culture of Britain. In the most remote times in Britain then, we be- lieve the Sunday was a social holiday; a day in which labour was suspended and the hours were de- voted to the physical, the mental, and the moral im- provement of the people. It is probable that in every town of the island, on some part of the day, the wizard left his sacred home in the grove and gave his instructions from the cross or the maypole to the assembled people; while at other hours, the bard united with the multitudes and mingled his music and his rhymes with their pastimes and their sports. And when the Church had established her authority in the island, nearly the same process was still con- tinued. The sermon of the monkish teacher suc- ceeded to the discourse of the heathen sage, while the heathen song of the minstrel was only exchanged for the legendary rhymes of the saint of the Church ; and the sport and the pastime still bore nearly the same character and the same relation to the day as before. For, if the mediaeval Church did not make men Christians by persuasion, she never attempted to make them hypocrites by assuming the garb of sanc- tity when they knew nothing of its renewing in- fluence. Those whose inclination led them to the enjoy- ment of sports and pastimes, engaged in them to 230 day, their hearts' content; and those who were inclined to a more culture, forsook the pursuits of a secular life for the retirement of the cloister or the cell. Bat when the monastic life became a scene of riot and abuse, the men of the world, under the name af religion, uniting with the really pious in the age of needed reformation, destroyed that which they pretended to reform, and entirely took away from the people a form of culture which the true reformer would have rejoiced to retain under a better mode of exercise: and the fatal consequence soon manif itself in a general declension of moral rectitude and a general inclination to depravity of life. The country had a better faith, but worse works. The change soon produced an unfriendly distinction of class, and that distinction created on the one side a cold and heartless faith, and on the other a feeling of emulation, strife, envy, and distrust ; which finally resulted in an icy churlish discontent and indif- ference. On the one hand, there was the working of subtle cunning and insatiable avarice, nnbles and unblessed ; and on the other, a nuking in sulky sullen sottish carelessness about everything but the satisfaction of the appetites of the animal nature. To cure these social diseases it was the misfortune of good, but mistaken men, to pass over the hallow- ing principles of the Gospel of Jesus, and to intro- luce a new and more spiritual development of the Church principle, which has its foundation in three theoretical propositions — God's day, God's house, and God's ministers ; and while faith was substituted for the whole life of the Gospel, these are assumed to be the only means through which that faith can be received, and the only medium through which it can find its proper exercise. These three principles are the foundation upon which the whole Catholic Church was reared, and on which she attempts to establish all her claims upon the attention of man- kind under every form of her development, and through every stage of her progress. The Church arose in the third century of the Gospel, with the assumption of visible means of grace, of a form of outward worship, of the Divine appointment of an order of men, inwardly and especially called by God to perform the rites of this worship, and of particu- lar times when this worship should be performed. And then she further determined that there are especial places of worship in which the Divine Being has condescended more especially to meet the wor- shipper. These are the original and unvarying principles on which the whole idea of the Church is founded. They are the foundation of the religious system of every organism of men which has ever laid claim to the name of a Christian church. Catholic and Heretic, Papist and Protestant, Churchman and DAY, Dissenter, if the body claims the name of a Church, tin M- principles are the base of its organic life ; and it is in the working out of these principles that the whole and entire sabbatic economy of the present religious system of Britain is founded, and on this ita all its claim to our attention and regard. If these principles form a part of the revelation of the Gospel, then that economy in its perfect state is the highest expression of the Wisdom of Eternity as led to man in the life and teaching of the Son of (iod; but if these principles are merely the expression of the misguided zeal of good men, who have mingled the waters of human folly with the pure stream of the fountain of life, then that sab- batic economy is a well-intentioned but cunningly devised fable; which, while it may demand our respectful attention from the character of the good men who have deluded themselves with the idea of its divinity, can never be contemplated by the friend of humanity as a useful instrument in the spiritual regeneration of the mass of mankind, or the new creation of the moral world in which truth alone can prevail. It is our object now to inquire how far these principles are contained in the teaching and the example of Christ, and in how much they form a part of the revelation of the Gospel. Racuel. — Are we to understand that the three foui fun THE REST OF LABOUR. 233 principles enunciated in this paper are merely the foundation of the Catholic Church, or are they damental principles of all Ritualism. Mr. Charity. — These principles are the founda- tion of all Ritualism from its first beginning in Babylon down to its last development in the world. Doctor. — They appear to me to be the essential elements of Ritualism, those things without which Ritualism itself could have no being. Mr. Charity. — Just as the trunk of a tree rises out of its roots, so the one universal body of Ritualism arose into being out of these three prin^ ciples. Grace. — As there are a great many forms of Ritualism, I should like to know how you connect each of them with this great trunk. Doctor. — It is possible that one main trunk of a tree may spring out of the ground for a very short distance, and then send out a number of diverging trunks, each of them deriving its life from the one original body. Mr. Charity. — And so it has been with the ritualism of the Church. Every national system of religion has a house for its God, a form of service to be performed in that house, and persons set apart to perform that service. Mrs. Bell.— Then the Catholic Church did not invent these principles. 184 :>\Y. Mr. Charity. — By no means. The work of the Catholic Church was to adapt the profession of the Gospel to the working of these principles. Rachel. — And this was not accomplished all at once, but in a general way, by a slow and al imperceptible process. Mrs. Bell. — Do you include the Protestant sects among the offspring of this Babylonian apostacy from the primitive mode of worship. Mr. Charity. — Every sect, or body of men, « system includes these three principles — a G house, a God's day, and God's ministers, is a natural offspring of the great Babylonian institution of Ritualism, and a scion of the national system of religion. Rachel. — Is it possible that the world ever will be delivered from this system? Doctor. — At the conclusion of the last century, we might have had reason to doubt on this subject. But when we see millions of people around us who are not unfriendly to true religion, while the] most devoted enemies to all Ritualism, we so h is possible in the moral government of the world to restore society to its original condition, and to elevate them far above that condition by the teach- ing of the Gospel. Mr. Charity.— Tn the Gospel of Jesus we have the spiritual instrument by which society may be THE REST OF LABOUR. 235 renewed ; and I have the most unlimited confidence in the final triumph of its Divine principles. Mrs. Bell. — With a kind of natural impatience, I have often inquired why the Gospel has not already- made this triumph in the world ? Mr. Charity. — The Gospel is a benefit offered to the world by the Divine Father, and every man who receives it is blessed in that reception. But we have no reason to infer that any other means will be used to make it universal than the gradual increase of its professors, and the gradual decay of that which has hitherto impeded its progress. Grace. — What is that which has hitherto impeded the progress of the Gospel in the world ? Mr. Charity. — The system of Ritualism which has prevailed in the Roman Empire from its first promulgation at Jerusalem to the present day, is the great earthly enemy of the Gospel. Rachel. — There has been a considerable differ- ence in the character of these systems. How does that affect the subject? Doctor. —The first form of Ritualism opposed to the Gospel was Judaism, the perversion of the Mosaic economy which received the stamp of Divine disapprobation in the destruction of Jerusalem. The second was the polytheism of the classic nations, which received its doom in the fall of the Pagan Roman Empire. The next is the Catholic Church 23 G 8UNDAY, iii all the varieties of form in which it exists in the countries of the old Roman Empire, and this may now be considered as standing on the brink of its destiny. The invisible hand has already written on its forehead, " Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting." Mr. Charity. — As the Catholic Church dies out of the culture of the world we have every reason to believe that Christianity will prevail. Mrs. Bell. — You have no fear, then, of a uni- |] spread of irreligion with the decay of public worship. Mr. Charity. — None, whatever. I believe the great mass of the people of this country were never more religiously disposed than they are at the pre- sent time. Rachel. — This view is by no means in accordance with the conclusions of the friends of our popular religious systems. Doctor. — This arises from the inability of these persons to convince the mass of the people that the general course of their life and actions is in harmony with the teaching of the New Testament. Rachel. — The working classes of this country arc an exceedingly shrewd people, with a keen sense of the ridiculous, and if you preach one thing to them and act another, you are not likely to receive much of their favour. THE REST OF LABOUR. 237 r. Charity. — The question of the condition of large classes of men without the influence of a system of public worship is now a matter of fact and not of speculation. Doctor. — The greater number of those who do not attend upon the performance of public wor- ship, are so little distinguished by any particular characteristics of irreligion, that they have not made themselves the objects of any especial mark or atten- tion by the religious world. Mrs. Bell. — I am often sorry to find that the man who regularly attends a place of worship does not bear so good a character as his neighbour who is seldom or ever found in such a place. Mr. Charity.— My own observation and expe- rience have not by any means convinced me that religion itself will suffer much from the decay of public worship. And if a system of public worship were as necessary as some men think to the spiritual welfare of human nature, my confidence in the wisdom and goodness of the Divine Ruler of the world is so great, that I believe He would have made some discovery of its importance during the past six thousand years of man's existence on the. earth. SINDAY, II. PUBLIC WORSHIP. tire now to direct our attention to the considera- tion of public worship, in order to ascertain to what it that worship is a thing of Divine appointment in any revelation of the will of God to man. W« ask the question, Has the Divine Father ever appointed a form or system of public worship to be observed by any people at any time or under any circumstances in any age of the world ? What we mean by worship is — Prayer and praise offered to a superior Being — a Being who is supposed to be capable of doing us good or of delivering us from evil. Prayer is the feeling of a wish or of a (K sire that He will supply our wants and deliver us from evil. Praise is a sense of gratitude and a ft (ling of thankfulness to Him for the satisfying of our wishes and the fulfilling of our desires. Public worship is the offering up of prayer and praise in some place in the pretehoe and hearing of others assembled together for that purpose. And if we examine the sacred history of the world from the first intercourse of God with man, down to the last revelation of his will in the teaching of Jesus of THE REST OF LABOUR. 239 Nazareth, and if we examine in detail every recorded instance of the especial intercourse of God with man, and the recorded culture of those who have been the subjects of this intercourse, we shall have then done all that it is possible to do to satisfy the demands of this question. If we begin our inquiry with the story of Creation, and continue it from Adam to Noah, and from Noah to Abraham, we shall find no revelation of any form of devotion nor of anything whatever relating either to the worship of the Divine Being or to the religious culture of mankind. And if we pass on from Abra- ham to Moses and linger over the circumstantial tale of Patriarchal life, we find no word or act or incident in the conduct of these men from which we can infer that such a revelation had ever been made to man. Yet these Patriarchal sages stand before us as the unrivalled examples of the most exalted piety, and the most sublime feelings of spiritual devotion which had ever been exhibited to the world. To Moses the Divine Creator was pleased to make a peculiar manifestation of His presence in the wil- derness of Arabia, to appoint a system of sacrifices and of offerings, of festal sabbaths, and of oracular responses to be a sacred economy in the Israelitish nation. These were designed to supersede the feasts and the oracles of the nations around, and to be a bond of union between the family of Israel and the 240 8UNDAY, God of Abraham, who had chosen the seed of the patriarch to be a peculiar people for the accomplish- ment of an especial object in connection with the blessing of the human race. But in the revelation of Sinai there is no ordination of public worship nor any constitution of a defined form of public devotion* The Mosaic revelation was simply the ordination of the economy of a sacrificial system and a temple service. But that economy was in no degree nor in any respect intended to be a revealed system of public devotion nor any part of such a system. It is a thing in its own nature and object entirely distinct from the exercise of worship and the practice of devotion. It was indeed an occasional divine service but totally distinct from that continuous feeling which teaches us to express the wants of our nature and our life to the Supreme Being, and to declare our gratitude for the bounties of His goodness, through the medium of spiritual prayer and praise, which is the only devotion that can elevate man in the Divine 1Mb, and bring glory and honour to the Father of Being. Let us now turn our attention to the Advent of the Gospel, and inquire in what way the manii tionof the Divine mind, which was made to the whole human race in the life of the Son of God, affects the object of our consideration. And here it is necessary in the first place to ascertain the exact THE REST OF LABOUR. 241 Laracter of this revelation. Was the revelation of the Gospel designed to propound the laws of an institution, or to make known and to give a Divine sanction to a system of principles ? Is it the object of the Gospel to establish in the world a Divine institution, or to disseminate through society a body of Divine principles ? If the Gospel is a Divine institution, and if the object of the Advent of the Christ was to promulgate the laws of that institution, then the Four Gospels ought to contain the history of the foundation of the one and the entire system of the other. But these Four Gospels are wholly and entirely devoid of any reference whatever to such an object in the mission of the Son of God. In fulfilling the object of that mission, they continually represent him under the character of a Teacher, and this He several times Himself declares to be the great purpose of His three years sojourn amongst men, and when He chooses his Apostles He appoints them to accom- plish precisely the same object. Not to found an institution, but to teach. Before the risen Lord ascended into heaven, He appointed twelve apostles the disciples of His doctrine and the witnesses of His works, to go out into all the nations of the earth into which the sons of Israel were dispersed, and to teach these dispersed Hebrews certain principles of faith and action, and on their belief of these principles I»\Y. ptize them with water, according to the Hebrew mi of rfct'iviii«rdisciples,in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching I to observe all thing! whatsoever He had taught them, and lie promises them that the Divine Spirit should enable them to do this by bringing to their mind all the instruction He had given to them, so as to brim: back to their remembrance everything He had to them whilst He was with them, and that He him- would be with them to the end of the age. If we turn our attention from the twelve Hebrew Apostles to Saul of Tarsus, the great Apostle of the (ientiles, we shall find that his commission — not from the risen only, but also from the exalt ed Jesus — til even more simple and more concise than that of the twelve who were sent to the dispersed Israelites. In condescension to the customs of the Jcv acknowledging a disciple, the twelve were commanded to baptize the believing Hebrews in water, and that in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. But the commission of Paul was limply and solely to preach the Gospel — to teach the Gentiles by oral instructions the living principles of the character and the precepts of Christ. Tin nothing, then, in either the mission of Christ ,or of his Apostles re] □ g the foundation of a religious utiom Thai miaaii i . in w far as H nected with religion, was wholly and ei THE REST OF LABOUR. 243 to the teaching of principles. The teaching of the Master himself is without any reference whatever to the foundation of a religious institution, and that object is equally distant from the commission which he gave to his Apostles, and our inquiry now resolves itself into this question : If the mission of Christ to the Jews and his com- mission to the whole body of his Apostles was alto- gether directed to the teaching of certain principles of faith and action, did the great Teacher, either Himself or by his Apostles, command or establish any form of worship, either public or private, to be per- formed by his disciples? What we understand by worship is the offering up of prayer and praise to a Being whom we believe to be capable of doing us either good or evil. And what we mean by public worship is the assembling of certain persons together for the purpose of the offering up of this prayer and praise either by themselves altogether, or by some one of their num- ber in the name of the rest, in which the minister either utters his own words or some form of words agreed upon and appointed before. If the perfor- mance of such worship as this is found in the Gospel story to be recommended by the precept and the example of the Christ and his Apostles, then we may be certain that such worship forms a part of the religious culture of the Christian life. But if 21 1 SUNDAY, ad the four Gospels with ever BO much attention, and with ever so much of the feeling of patient inquiry, we shall be under the necessity of coming to the most positive conclusion that the whole Gospel story contains no reference whatever to the perform- ance of any form or kind of public worship, and that not only because such worship forms no part of the religious culture of the Christian life, but because no such worship as this had ever existed in Israel. Such a person as a minister of worship never had either a name or a place in the Divine economy of Israel. The priest was a minister of sacrificiai vice, and the scribe was a minister of instruction, but a minister of the worship of Jehovah, in that sense in which we understand the term worship — as the offering up of the prayer and praise of a congregation of individuals at weekly intervals, WES never known in Israel from the foundation of the Hebrew nation to the destruction of Jerusalem. But the Gospel story not only contains no reference whatever to the exercise of a form of public worship, but it gives no sanction to public prayer of any sort, and indeed the only reference which is made to pub- lic prayer in the whole ministerial life of the Son of God, is a direct condemnation of t lie public prayers of the Pharisees — the great churchmen of Israel, which were offered up by individual members of that in the synagogue, in the market places, and in the corne THE REST OP LABOUR. 245 the corners of the streets. And though the Great Teacher delivered many recorded discourses in the streets, the fields, the mountains, and the synagogues of Israel, and in the temple of Jerusalem, there is no record of His having ever offered up one public prayer in any of these places before or after, or in connection with these discourses. And, moreover, there is no record of such a fact, nor any means of ascertaining that He ever offered up a single prayer, both in the hearing and in the presence of his disciples, or of any other person whatsoever. The whole sum of the teaching of Christ, with respect to the place of wor- ship, is that it should be private. His only general injunction on the subject is — when thou pray est, enter into thy closet, and shut to thy door. And we find the Divine Prophet himself ever acting in the most perfect accordance with the principles of his own teaching. He never attended upon any public wor- ship, because there was none to attend. Though as a Jew, and as being designed by one of the great pur- poses of his mission to fulfil all the requirements of the Mosaic Law, He attended on the temple service of the Hebrew economy. While at the same time He declared to the woman of Samaria the total and entire cessation of that and all other temple service, and the full and entire restoration of the whole ser- vice of God to its Patriarchal reality, and to its origi- nal spiritual character as the result of his mission. 1 1'*» Wa have repeated notices of the employment of time as seasons of prayer by the Divine Prophet during the period of his ministry; but th known occasion, there is no one single in>t;uice in which tibia prayer was ever offered up in a public manner, or in the presence and the bearing of other persons. Neither is there any recorded instance in which the Great Teacher was ever present at the of- fering up of prayer by others, unless that prayer was offered to himself. When He would set apart any portion of time as a season of prayer, He neither went into the house of a friend nor yet into the fields, to gather round him the company of his disciples, to pray with them and in their hearing, or to direct them to pray in the presence and hearing of each other. But when He would spend a season in prayer, lie- left his dearest friends and most beloved disciples behind, and separating himself from the dwellings of men, He retired into the solitude of the distant hill or the secluded grove, and there under the open and apart from society, where no eye but that of his Father was upon him, and no ear but that of his I- at her was open to the sounds of his voice, lie poured out the breathings of his pure and perfect soul in the most intimate intercourse with Him who is ever in- visible, but never far from the humblest of his crea- tures who call upon his name. The Divine Teacher attended the social feasts of THE REST OF LABOUR. 247 his friends ; He dined with Pharisees and Publicans, who listened to his instructions ; He sat down to a domestic supper with some of his disciples ; but in neither of these cases are we told of any audible graces being said either by Himself or in his presence ; or of any audible prayers being offered up either by Himself or by His disciples on any one of those occa- sions, in which He became our example in the varied intercourse of domestic life. If from the example and the teaching of the Mas- ter we proceed to the disciples who had been trained under His personal care, we find the selfsame principle carried out in all their recorded proceedings. We are told indeed that they went up to the temple at the hour of prayer according to the Jewish usage ; but we are not told that this was either to hear the prayers of others, or that they themselves might offer up prayer in the audience of the multitude. Indeed, audible prayer must in its own nature be altogether unsuited to the place and the occasion. If we follow out the story of the ministerial life of the Apostles of Jesus, we shall meet with no instance in which either the Hebrew or the Gentile Apostles offered up public prayer before the commencement of their discourses, no instance in which they assembled the disciples for public prayer, and no occasion on which the Apostles themselves offered up public prayer with their disciples. The first disciples of Jesus spent much of their time in private and secret 248 day, prayer. They often assembled at each other's houses to break bread, or to eat their social meal together, and in so doing they commemorated the .suH'crings and death of their Master. In these meetings they conversed together — beseeching, exhorting, reproving, and comforting one another. But there is no evidence that there was any offering up of either public or au- dible prayers, or any psalms or hymns especially set apart for public praise in these assemblies. The Gos- pel story and the Apostolic history are entirely des- titute of any intimation whatever of the existence of anything like a system of public worship in the Apos- tolic age. And therefore we are compelled to conclude that it formed no part of their religious life. We cannot conceive the idea of the Eternal Father either placing or continuing any number of his children in a state of probation, without giving them some means of knowing all the positive laws by which the character of that probation is to be determined. If then the present or the future destiny of any one of the children of the Divine Father dependa upon their attendance upon a form of public worship, the existence of that form of WOTthip must not only be a fact, which is capable of being inferred from some- thing else, but its observance must be the result of obedience to a positive law from the mouth of the Eternal father himself, of whose existence every child of man must be aware, whose present or future inter- ests are at all affected by its enactments. But we have THE REST OP LABOUR. 249 shewn not only that such a law as this has no exist- ence in the only known and written revelation of the will of God to man ; but moreover, that neither the existence of such a law, nor the practice of the duty resulting from its enactment, can by any possibility be inferred from any part of the sacred writings, or from either the precepts or the practice of any prophet or teacher, who has ever laid any acknowledged claim to the Divine Right of being the medium of convey- ing the will of God to man. We conclude then that public worship is altogether a human institution, the invention of man without any Divine foundation, or any Divine sanction. That it forms no essential part of either the law of righte- ousness or the practice of piety, and that it has never been set forth either by precept or practice, as a medium through which man may glorify the Father of being, receive the gift of eternal life, or cultivate this Divine principle in his renewed nature. The calling of men together for the performance of public worship, had its origin in the ignorance and degeneracy of the mass of society. It is most proba- ole, as we have before shewn, that it began at Baby- lon, in the patriarchal ages, from whence it spread over the countries of the Mediterranean. In Greece and Rome it was principally used as an instrument of political authority, but was verj r little regarded In- some of the philosophers and men of learning. m 2 250 SUNDAY, In the second century of the < Its obscr v i n to be transferred from the culture of the then to that of the Christian life. The ftocial and conversational meetings of the disciples of JettU D in that age to assume the character of D ings for public prayer, the chanting of psalms, and the singing of hymns. And the time which ought to have been spent in the teaching of the people, now began to be employed in the saying of public prayers and the reciting of hymns. And when we look at this public worship, as supplantirg the original mode of disseminating the Gospel, and captivating the mass of mankind with its visible rites and sensible ceremo- nial, while the worshipper forgets in performing these outward duties, all due regard to the healthy con- dition and the progress of the inner life, it becomes in our view a positive evil to society. In the absence of the Divine culture of spiritual instruction and inward piety, public worship 1 without its use as a medium of mental elevation and social improvement. Whatever brings men toge- ther, whatever links them into one bond in the chain of society, and whatever produces a tinner union in the diverse element of natural life with a moral motive, must necessarily exert some beneficial influence on the mass of mankind. When all the rent classes of society come together on common ground, and meet each other for the attainment of THE REST OF LABOUR. 251 one object, and that object within the reach of every one alike, without any respect to either persons or position, or to the diversities of character, it promotes in the whole mind of the people common sentiments, unity of interests, and mutual feeling for each other ; and so long as public worship maintains this cha- racter, so long it will be a popular institution, an instrument of moral training, and of social elevation, and it will be well attended by the mass of the people, because man is naturally fond of society. The rich consider public worship as a useful element in promoting what they believe to be the due balance of the scale of social life, and the poor are always gratified with whatever provides them an opportunity of meeting their richer neighbours on the common ground of equal prospects, equal rights, and the same object of attainment. The Church once gathered men together under the influence of the feeling that on her consecrated ground there was neither high nor low, rich nor poor, learned nor un- learned ; every one being received under the hallow- ing shade of her Divine mantle, not according to what he was in the world, but simply as a man in the presence of the great God, who looks at men as men, and not as citizens of the world arrayed in all the varied hues of social grades and class distinc- tions; and then the Church was attended by all classes, and public worship was the most popular in- )\V. stitution of the land. But during the last four hun- dred years these characteristics have been gradually dying out of the institution of public worship, and the Church is now no longer that sacred ground where all social distinctions cease, and every man meets his neighbour on the perfect equality of being a man like himself. The place of public worship, on the contrary, is now the ground where all these dis- tinctions are set forth with a Divine sanction, and sanctified by every act of the officiating minister of its perverted rites. To make way for the curtained pew and the cushioned seat, the poor man was first driven into the dirty corner of the common patri- mony, where he remained until his feelings were liar- rowed by the pride, the haughtiness, and the con- tempt of his brother who had chosen the upper seat, and then forsook it altogether, because that which was once a relative good had now become a positive evil. In the absolute relation of public worship to the progress of Society, to the cultivation of the reli- gion! life, and to the revelation of the Gospel, there has ever been a large measure of evil in the practice of public devotion, and it becomes us now to retrace our steps and return to that higher and holier wor- ship, and that spiritual piety which is set forth in the teaching, the life, and the character of the Son of God, and which formed a part of the patriarchal cul- REST OF Li ture before any form of public worship was intro- duced into society ; at this period the sacred history sets before us the religious character of some of the highest and the noblest of human beings that have ever existed in our world. Their worship of the Divine Creator and Governor of the world was en- tirely private, individual, and spiritual ; and such is the only character of the religious life which has the sanction of the wisdom of God in the revelation of the Gospel : " And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are, for they love to pray stand- ing in the synagogues and in the corners of the street, that they may be seen of men : verily, I say unto you, they have their reward. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet ; and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret, and thy Father which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly." This is the only form of worship which is either taught or sanctioned by the life and the teaching of the Gospel of the Son of God. But we have no wish to be the judges of any other form of devotion which the piety of our brethren may feel to be either useful to man or likely to exercise a beneficial in- fluence on society : though we do feel that it ought to be the object of all public worship to assist the weak and the ignorant in rising up to the spiritual piety of the Gospel, and also to enable those who 25-1 si \n.\v. now hang on the visible medium of public devotion to rise superior to these outward and human mi to tliat higher and more Divine piety which con in the personal, individual, and continuous inter- course of man with the ever present but ever on Divinity. Every time we pray — "Thy kingdom come, pray for the advent of that day when there will be no public worship, when every man in every land shall "worship the Father in the spirit and in the truth, because the Father seeketh such to worship hirn." And whatsoever He seeketh amongst men, He shall most assuredly find in his own time. bet us then be willing to acknowledge the worth of ( indication of the coming of this happy day, and be ever ready so to accommodate all our institutions to the changing features of human society as to sym- pathize with every stage of its progress, lest haply we should be found fighting against Clod, or con- temning the working of his Providence in promoting the happiness of his children and the final deliverance of human society from the powers of evil. The Gospel is as everlasting as the probation of . and as unchangeable as eternity itself; but the ins of men, however well devised or however venerable they may be from the stability of their character and the greatness of their age, must m 8arily grow feeble in the lapse of ages and wear out THE REST OF LABOUR. 255 with either the changes of time or the progress of society in their adaptation to the wants of mankind ; because that which is the offspring of the feeling of one particular state of society is incapable of so well expressing the wants of another. And that which is adapted to the peculiar culture of men of one cycle of ages will necessarily be wanting in its suitability to represent the feeling of human nature under a new form of the development of the facul- ties and the energies of the national mind; and such is the relation which the institution of public worship now bears to the national mind of the Bri- tish race. Public worship in the church arose as the ex- pression of human wants for something outward and visible in devotion, under the influence of a per- verted form of Christian teaching, and a very partial apprehension of the character of eternal wisdom as it is revealed to man in the living precepts of Jesus. And so long as the mind of men was bound by the chains of error on the one hand, and limited in its expansion on the other by the fetters of that imper- fect instruction, so long public worship was both useful to society and met the sympathies of the great mass of the people ; but that day of bondage and dependance is now passing away from the mind of Britain, and the great mass of her people will never more be brought back to the feeling of their former DAY, sympathies with public worship. The spirit of brotherhood which once bound man to man in the exercise of public devotion has long since evaporated from the sacred rite, and the saying of prayeri and the chanting of psalms has now become to thi perimental mind of the Briton a lifeless ceremonial. To him it is an image without the reality, and a body without the energy of the living soul of inspiration breathing vigour and beauty through its pallid frame. Society has been broken up into repulsive shreds, and every man has been driven to think for himself, as well on the culture of the spiritual as on the order of the political life of society; and the nation which has ever maintained its right to self-government against all the civil powers of the earth, is now as- serting its claim to the higher and more noble right of personal and individual intercourse alone with the powers of the invisible world. Unfettered by tems of human opinion, men have now determined to act entirely from their own convictions of tin nature and the claims of piety, rectitude and truth j and taking the Bible for their guide, with no other light to direct them but that of the indwelling Divinity, which is ever working in the mind of every living man who is willing to receive its instruction, they have very naturally arrived at this most im- nt conclusion, that however useful, however an- cient, however venerable, and however fashionable THE REST OF LABOUR. 257 public worship may be, neither its institution nor its practice has any place in the Word of God. This is an entirely new phenomenon in the history of human society. It owes its original to the essen- tial characteristics of the most ancient British culture, and it has been brought to its present state of deve- lopment by a variety of circumstances and concur- rent operations of the inner life, arising out of a general expansion of the British mind which has been working itself out in various forms during the last five hundred years. And if the decisive moral manifestation of this principle during the next thirty years should be at all equal to its progress during the late era of peace, public worship will have done its work, and its existence will have passed away as a national institution, while its practice will only re- main as the peculiarity of a few. Let us then endeavour by every possible means to meet this great social change in such a manner as becomes a wise and a Christian people, manifesting all forbear- ance and kindness of feeling both towards those who believe that our whole Christianity is dependant upon public worship, and equally as much of the same spirit towards those who feel the change, and sym- pathize with every step of its progress as the opening of a new and a better era of religious profession and Christian practice. It is impossible to contemplate this great change as the spread of some theory of individual or private DAY, opinion. It demands our deepest consideration as a gI6l! national fact, decidedly the greatest moral change which has taken place in the history of the race since the establishment of the authority of the Church in the British islands. It owes its origin and mu- ll prevalence to no individual effort. It is the result of the working of that selfsame principle of natural energy, objective utility, and persevering effort, which has moulded our political institutions and has established our unrivalled empire of useful industry. It is a decidedly natural effect of the ex- pansion of British mind, and as such it is the business of all wise men neither to oppose its progress nor to force its growth, but to mould its principles, and to cor- rect its false efforts by the light of that highest and purest revelation of truth which is made to man in the life and the precepts of Him who is essentially the Wisdom of God j and so long as it is the sole object of the Christian teacher not to establish forms of devotion and modes of worship, but to bring men to Christ, so long he will most undoubtedly he conferring the highest blessings on his race, while he brings the highest glory to his Master. And no man can ever better serve the highest interests of humanity, and bring the loftiest honours to the Divine Author of the Gospel than he who mani- fests the kind, the liberal, the gentle, and the for- bearing spirit of the Redeemer of man towards those whose sentiments and activity are opposed to his own. THE REST OP LABOUR. 259 Rachel. — These inquiries give a somewhat dif- ferent character to the profession of religion to that in which we have been accustomed to see it pre- sented to our attention. Mr. Charity. — When the Bible was in the hands of a profession, and the members of that profession were trained from infancy to a pre-judged interpre- tation of its contents, we can hardly be astonished at the consequences which resulted from so great an evil. Mrs. Bell. — And equally as little can we be asto- nished at the conclusion to which the working classes of our country have come respecting public worship, when we remember that they have read and studied the varied contents of the Bible without any pre-judged system of interpretation, simply receiving the princi- ples of that Divine Book in a plain, common sense way. Mr. Charity. — The idea of putting forth any Divine claim for the observance of public worship to a man with the Bible in his hand, and a mind unpre- judiced by a professional education, is a thing in its own nature so palpably absurd, that I believe many good men have been frightened at the absurdity itself as soon as they saw it ; and they have unques- tionably often left the subject, confounded at the startling truth of their own discovery, a state in some degree resembling that of a man who sinks under the feelings inspired by unexpected success. 260 day, Doctor. — It must have been some such feelin this which inspired the mind of the founders of the different sects of English Dissenters, for if those men had been believers in the Divine claim of public worship they could not have left the Church and commenced their different systems in the manner in which these systems have sprung into life at different times during the last three hundred years; and if they had not feared to carry their views to the full extent of their natural interpretation, they would, like George Fox, have left their systems clear of the observance of public worship altogether. Mr. Charity. — The whole matter was an anoma- lous compromise, and will not bear the smallest amount of investigation. It is very evident from the manner in which these men acted, that they were themselves satisfied of the want of any Divine foun- dation for public worship, but with one exception you have named, the prejudices of their education inspired them with some mysterious and undcfinablc fear of the consequences of sinking the whole system in their different religious economies, and therefore they gave up the larger part, and modified the remainder to suit their purpose. Grace. — I believe this fear is in some respects niton) to our feelings in certain conditions of our j, and it may not be without its use. Indeed* 1 think, from what you have said, that you have felt - THE REST OF LABOUR. 261 mething of tliis nature yourself in relation to this subject. Mr. Charity. — I believe I have told you that I would much rather occupy the place of him who explains the great moral change of our age than either be a prompter or a leader in the movement. I do not wish to be a worker myself in the early stage of such a movement, but rather to watch the working of Providence in the character of its progress ; I think it is far better to look on than to act under such circumstances. Rachel. — There are certainly a few occasions, and some circumstances, in which the highest wisdom is to wait, and I think this was one of that number, but the question is determined now, and determined for ever. Mrs. Bell. — The most important question which seems to present itself to my mind in the consider- ation of this subject is, What will the people do with- out the performance of public worship ? Doctor. — This question will be best answered in the answer to another. What do they do without it now? If seven millions of people can do without public worship twenty millions may do without it. And if one nation can do without it, all nations may do the same when they are prepared for the change. Rachel. — When we are doubtful how we shall manage without any particular order of things to which we have long been accustomed, it might not DAY, be out of place to consider what benefit we derive from their use, and to what purpose they are now devoted. Ma. Charity. — Public worship in the present day is decidedly a religious entertainment, and the church and the chapel a place of fashionable retort for the better class of the people. Doctor. — This is the natural result of the modern system on which it is conducted. Close pews and expensive sittings have limited the attendance to a certain class of the population, and our fashionable preachers have finished the work which the other evils began in the management of the service. Mr. Charity. — If you will take the trouble to attend the Opera on some Saturday night, and then to go to one of our fashionable church* chapels on the Sunday morning, you will find that the two places present much the same appearance ; dress is studied equally as much in the one as the other. You will see in each the same finery, the same display of fashion, the same artificial vanity, the same folly of appearance, and the same adorning of the person, and the one will be found to be the same butterfly's ball as the other. Grace. — And there is no reason why they should not be so, except that one professes to be ; figuration of Heaven, while it condemns the other as Milk of all evil ; ;, I with being what it is, a fashionable entertainment. THE REST OF LABOUR. '5" rs. i5ELL. — You think then that the reli^i instruction of the nation is not much promoted by the attendance of the people at public worship in the present age, and by the present mode of conducting its performance. Doctor. — It appears to me that the generality of preachers make no attempt to instruct the people. They seem to assume that they are already instructed, and that their business is not to teach the ignorant, but to give some new lustration to what is already known. Grace. — It is something to be able to entertain one half of society on a Sunday. Mr. Charity. — Undoubtedly it is, and while there are those to be found who wish to be entertained in this way, it is quite right that the entertainment should be continued for their benefit. Doctor. — And right also that I should continue my position as one of those who in some degree minister to the entertainment. Mr. Charity. — Yes, Doctor, I believe that is right also. While public worship lasts it is well that its management should be in the hands of those who will mingle instruction with its performance. Mrs. Bell. — Then you think there would be no necessity for substituting anything else for our pre- sent system of public worship to maintain the reli- «rious life of society ? SUNDAY, Mr. Charity. — None whatever, providing that system is left to continue to die out of the culture of the people, in the gradual way in which it lias been <1\ -in«: out for the last twenty years. Doctor. — To substitute any thing else for public hip would only be to continue the same artificial culture under a new form. This would be something like the substitution of the Protestant for the Papal system in the sixteenth century. Rachel. — What our friend contemplates is the entire cessation of all public worship as an artificial instrument of cultivation, and the return of man to that natural culture which the patriarchs practised, for which the prophets contended, and which is set before the world in its highest perfection in the life and the teaching of Jesus. Grace.— And like every other good work, this, I believe, must be a gradual process. The best things are always the offspring of the largest amount of consideration. Whatever we would do effectually we must do slowly and with deliberation. This is the secret of our friend's affection for the gradual process and the deliberate movement. Mr. Charity. — It is necessary in the nature of 1 that this movement should be the work of time. 11 ( husbandman often waiteth long and lookcth \\ i-t fully lor the coming of summer, but his impatii will not quicken the approach of the sunny season. THE REST OF LABOUR. 265 Doctor. — It always betrays great weakness of mind to attempt to precipitate the workings of eter- nal Providence. One of the first principles of a right trust in the Divine power is to wait the event with patience. Mr. Charity. — So long as there is a class of arti- ficial people in the country with a religious disposi- tion, they will require an artificial system of religious profession. And so long as there are persons who require such a system, so long there will of necessity be some system of public worship to meet their wants, and to satisfy the condition of their culture. Grace. — We are to consider, then, that an arti- ficial state of society requires a system of public worship, and that this system of public worship when it is once established promotes the continuance of this artificial condition of the people, until some opposing principle produces a new feeling in the mind of society. Mr. Charity. — This has hitherto been the cha- racter of the system of public worship in its origin, progress, changes, and continuance in the world. It is altogether an artificial economy, and only suited to an artificial state of society. Grace. — The British race are not naturally an artificial people. Their general culture is everything to the contrary, as it appears in their highest and best literature. N DAY, Mk. Charity. — By no means j and this naturalistic spirit is the foundation of their opposition to public worship as a system of culture. Rachel. — But this has not always been so; how do you account for the change ? Mr. Charity. — When once a day was thought to be a sufficient attendance on the service of the church, the majority of the people were found in attendance upon its performance. But when they were exhorted with threats of punishment to occupy the whole of the Sunday in the same way, it became a heavy burden, and the people very naturally began to inquire, why this should be? and this final] \ suited in a further inquiry into the reason why they should attend the church at all. Mrs. Bell. — If this is the feeling of the people, the friends of a system of public worship will do but very little good to the interests of their cause by pressing the subject of attendance on its observance. Doctor. — None whatever; every effort of that kind only serves to make new enemies and I the feelings of the undecided in its favour. Rachel. — It is so natural for people to speak out when they ought to be silent, an< ally when they arc in any apparent difficulty, that we must not blame the preacher if be. should be found too l n 'lling the people that they are bound by their duty both to God and man to be present at his THE REST OF LABOUR. 267 ministrations, and to take a part in the performance of the services of his God. Doctor. — I often feel that it would be much more to our interest to tell the people that we have no wish to see them at the church unless they feel an interest in the services. Mrs. Bell. — At the least there would be some- thing more independent and less appearance of self- interest in such a treatment of the people. Grace. — You define a system of public worship to be the artificial culture of society. How do you define the natural culture of man ? Doctor. — The natural culture of man is that which is suited to the natural constitution of his being, and that which is appointed by the Author of his existence. Mr. Charity. — The only Divine constitution of human society is that of the family, and the only Divinely-constituted cultivator of the powers, facul- ties, passions, and feelings of human nature is the parent. Rachel. — But what is to be done if the parent is not able to do the work which Providence demands at his hands ? Doctor. — It is the business of the preacher to give the parents such a course of instruction as will enable them to perform their duty, and to fulfil the object for which they occupy their position in the world. 268 i »AY, Grace. — In what way ought the parents to per- form this duty ? I say parents, for you very rightly include both in the same position. Mr. Charity. — The first duty of the parent is to train the child at home. The next, to take him out into the field, the garden, or the park, to unfold his powers of observation, and to open the book of nature to his awakening apprehension. And then to instruct the forming mind in the principles of wisdom, which are stored up in his own mind, and constitute the life-spring of his own heart. Mrs. Bell. — I believe nothing could possibly tend more to the improvement of society than the com- plete restoration of the family principle in some such way as that which you have placed before us. Doctor. — We know that this family principle is a part of the Divine constitution of human nature, and that it was a matter of direct Divine appointment in Israel, and therefore we must believe it to be the best of all forms of human culture. Rachel. — Thou thinkest, then, that the Father has made the phenomena of the visible world a school for the training of man for a higher life and a participation of the Divine natun. Doctor. — I think these arc amongst the means which help to form the "Honest and good heart" \\ liieh is necessary to a right reception of the Gospel. Mr. Charity.— Nothing strengthens and invigo- THE REST OP LABOUR. 269 rates the man more than a constant intercourse with nature, because this brings him at once to the natural culture of his own being. It presents the visible to his senses, and it manifests the invisible to his reflec- tive powers, while it brings a constant vision of truth and beauty to his mind. No man ever held a more thorough cod verse with nature than the Great Ex- emplar of all humanity Himself ; and in this respect, as well as in all others, He has left us an ensample that we should follow in His footsteps. 270 \DAT, III. THE ORDINATION OF A MINISTRY OF RELIGION. We shall now inquire whether any class of men have ever been set apart by Divine authority to perform the rites of public worship either for themselves or for others. Have any class of men been ever set apart in any age of the world, to perform acts of devotion either for themselves or for other men ? From Adam to Moses, the sacred history of the world gives us no intimation of the setting apart of men for any purpose or object whatever. In the economy of Sinai, one of the tribes were set apart, not to perform acts of worship either for themselves or others, but to offer sacrifices for themselves and for the whole people. When Christ, the one great sacrifice, appeared and took away sin by the offering up of himself, these sacrifices lost all their value, and the priestly class at once ceased to exist as a Divinely appointed order of men. And it became from hence- forth impossible that any such Divinely appointed order of men should continue to exist in the world, because there was now no longer any sacrifice for them to offer. If, then, there does now exist any THE REST OP LABOUR. 271 >ivinely appointed order of men, it must be for some purpose altogether unconnected with the nature and object of a priesthood. In the revelation of the Gospel we are informed of the appointment of an order of men, called Apostles, to perform certain objects connected with that reve- lation ; and hence our subject naturally assumes this form of inquiry : What was the object of the appointment of these men, and were these Apostles appointed to their work as individuals, or as the first of a successive order ? We have already shewn that the Gospel is not a system of religion but a revelation of Divine wisdom, designed to teach men how to be religious. And if we examine the appointment of the twelve Apostles and their commission when they were sent into the cities of Israel, we shall find that their commission contained no reference whatever to acts of religion. That commission was solely and entirely directed to the teaching of the Gospel and the working of miracles. And if we follow these men to the last modification of that commission, we feel that its objects are precisely the same, with this exception, that when they were first sent their whole commis- sion consisted of a command to teach and to work miracles. It now embraced these three particulars : to teach what Christ had taught them, to work -'7-* M \0AY, miracles in confirmation of their doctrine, and to baptize those who became their disciples. If we on from the twelve Hebrew Apostles to Paul, the great Gentile Apostle, we shall find that his only commission was to teach the Gentiles what his Master had already taught in Israel, and to work miracles in confirmation of the truth of what he taught. These are the only recorded objects of the appointment of either of the Apostles of Jesus. AYe have now to consider whether these men were the first of a continuous order, or whether their office ceased with themselves and their assistants. If we examine again the commission of either the Gentile or the Jewish Apostles, we shall find in that commission no mention whatever — not the smallest and the most distant, of the appointment of an order or a class. Their appointment is absolutely and positively personal. And in respect to the Jewish Apostles, their appointment appears to have been detcrminately limited, both in respect to their number, the duration of their service, and the extent of their operations. Their number we may presume to have been unchangeably fixed at twelve : for when then was a defection of one, another had to be appointed, before they were miraculously endowed by the gift of the Spirit, and that number twelve was never increased or made up afterwards. The ime of their service was fixed to the end of the age, THE REST OF LABOUR. 273 and the extent of their labours was determined by the measure of the dispersion of Israel. We have no record of more than one Apostle being divinely appointed to the apostleship of the Gentiles, though he appears to have had divinely appointed assistants in carrying out the objects of his mission, and his commission contained no refer- ence whatever to the continuity of his office beyond the term of his own life. It is a fact beyond all the power of dispute, that there is no notice, nor indication whatever, in the New Testament, of the appointment of an order of men for any object or work whatever. There is no record of such a transaction in the life of the Son of God. There are no rules for the constitution of such an order. There is no purpose set forth for which such an order could be appointed, nor any principles propounded by which their operations were to be directed, neither is there any statement of definite objects to which their official activities should be applied. The great object for which the twelve Apostles were appointed, as men supernaturally endowed for the performance of their work, was to preach the Gospel in all the nations of the dispersion of Israel, as a witness to the whole family of Israel, that God the Father had fulfilled, in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, the entire promise which He had made to Abraham of blessing all nations in his seed, N 2 274 day, and that object was fully accomplished before the destruction of Jerusalem. The high and the especial object for which the great Apostle of the Gentiles was called to the apostleship, and endowed with miraculous gifts and supernatural powers was, that he might be the ambassador of Jesus of Nazareth to the Gentiles and to the kings of the earth. And when he had delivered the Divine message of the wisdom of God to the principal cities of the Roman Empire, when he had borne witness to the mission of Jesus in the presence of various governors in the provinces of that Empire, and when he had finally delivered his message, and borne his testimony before Caesar himself, supported by all the supernatural powers with which he was endowed, he had then fulfilled the mission to which he was appointed, and consummated the object which he was especially called to accomplish, and he neither had nor required a successor in his Divine work. But if the Gospel is a revelation of Divine wisdom to the whole human race, and the Apostles ware not (irst of a continuous order of men divinely appointed to communicate that wisdom to the world, this question will naturally arise— How is it possible that the Gospel should find its destined way to the ends of the earth ? The only true answer to this question is of all THE REST OF LABOUR. 275 things the clearest and the most simple — Whosoever receives the Gospel in its own spirit, is bound by the very nature of that Gospel to make it known to others. No man can receive the Gospel in the spirit of the Gospel without feeling a wish to com- municate it to others, as the highest blessing which can be conferred on the human race. Hence no order or class of men is required to disseminate the wisdom of God, because every man who has received it in its own spirit, becomes by virtue of his own re- ception of that wisdom the teacher of his neighbour. Systems of human wisdom have been propounded to mankind, they have lived as long as the Gos- pel, and they have been propagated as extensively as the teaching of Christ without any appointed medium, or any continuous order of teachers through whom their principles should be conveyed from generation to generation. The philosophy of Plato was enunciated to a select few in the city of Athens, and from thence it has spread over the civilized world; it has existed more centuries than the wisdom of the Gospel, and the writings of its author are known and read in every nation which has translated the Bible into its own language; and yet Plato appointed no class of teachers to succeed himself, nor founded any order of men to disseminate the prin- ciples of his philosophy through the nations, and to make its precepts known to the world. And yet it 27 6 SUNDAY, is impossible to deny, but that if the four Gofi contain the preaching of Jesus, we should not b< wrong in saying, that the religious literature of the world contains equally as much of the philosophy of Plato as it does of the wisdom of the GospeL If the Gospel were the Divine institution of a system of religion, a continuous order of ministers would be an essential part of that system ; but as the Author of the Gospel was not the founder of a system of religion, but the Teacher of the principles and the practice of Eternal Wisdom. The Gospel is a Divine life, the revelation of a new life of the inner man, and its teachers cannot be a continuous class, a self- creative order of men; they must be the spontaneous production of the mass of society whose spiritual lump of individual life has been leavened by the working of the principles of that Divine Wisdom through all the powers of its inmost being. No teaching but the personal influence of the Spirit of Christ can make any man a teacher of the Gospel of the Son of God. Before a man can teach the wisdom of the Gospel to others, he must feel its working in all the plenitude of its Divine power in himself. Out of that fulness of the inner life which there is ever Living and ever abiding within himself he must speak to others. The true teaching of the (iosj)el is the breathing out of the overflowing spirit of the whole inner self of the teacher into the ears THE REST OF LABOUR. 277 nnd the heart of his hearers. A man must first feel himself, feel fully, feel intensely, feel to the very depths of his being, and to the very height of his capacities before he will be able to speak in the spirit and in the truth to others. " A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth good things." The very best teaching of man can no more make a true teacher of the Gospel than it can make a true poet. The Gospel is not only a series of facts to be believed, but it is a life to be lived. A triumph over passion, a remoulding of temper, a bridling of desire, a conquest over the propensities, a subjugation of the appetites, and a victory of Divine reason over the whole self of fallen human nature. And when a man has been enabled by the Divine Spirit to do this heavenly work within himself, he will then be enabled to tell others by what means it can be done in them. But there is still another way of preach- ing the Gospel, a way whose principles cannot be mistaken. "Ye," said the Divine Prophet to His disciples, " Ye are the lights of the world ; a city which is set on a hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick, and it giveth light to them that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." This is the Divinely appointed method of preach- 278 SUNDAY, log the Gospel of Jesus, and no man oan become a true Christian without becoming such a preac No man can obtain the victory over himself, nan can work out his own deliverance from the evil that is within him, and from the evil is in the world, without the results of that deliverance being known and seen by all with whom he has to do. It must shew itself in his intercourse with his friends, in his behaviour to his neighbours, in his demeanour to strangers, in the pursuits of his business and the exercise of his calling, in his treatment of those who act under him, in the discharge of all the duties of domestic rela- tionship, and in the whole course and tenor of his life, and unless a man so preaches the Gospel it will be better for himself, better for society, and much more to the honour of the Divine Author of the Gospel that he should not attempt to preach the Gospel at all. But when once a man so preaches the Gospel in his own life and character, he will find little difficulty in becoming its teacher in any other way in which the natural endowment of his mind and the cul- tivation of his understanding prepares him for activity. For, though every man who has received the el in its own spirit, must necessarily by virtue of that reception become a teacher of the Gospel to others, yet every Christian man will not be found equally fit for the office of a public teacher. THE REST OF LABOUR. 279 Every man is endowed by the Creator of all with certain natural gifts, and as the countenance of one man differs from that of every other man, so are the natural gifts of men different in every different individual. One man has the gift of genius, another of talent. The talent of one man is scientific, that of another is artistic. One man has the gift of poetry, another of oratory, and so of all other gifts ; every individual man has some peculiar endowment in which he excels above all others. Only a very few excel in more than one natural gift, and hence it must happen among those who receive the Gospel, that the natural endowment of some will give them a decided superiority over others in the power of communicating to the world that wisdom which they themselves have received ; and such persons, what- ever may be their worldly position, whatever may be their place in society, when they have given proof of the possession of their natural endowments in con- nection with the full development of the Christian cha- racter and an earnest culture of the Christian life, ought to be enabled by their brethren to spend their Hves as teachers of the Gospel to others. Yet such men will not, for that reason, become God's ministers in any different sense to that in which every true Christian is himself a minister of God, and an appointed teacher of the Gospel of Jesus. In the first planting of Christianity, those who 280 DAY, were expressly employed in the ministry were daily raised up and endowed with supernatural powers for their work, and were therefore in a more especial sense the ministers of God ; but this is not the ease now, and we have no reason to believe that it ever will be so any more in the future history of the world. But these first teachers of the Gospel were not preachers, in the modern sense of the word. Not one of them delivered his address in a place set apart for the purpose of preaching, not one of them ever occupied a pulpit, and not one of them ever took a text as the foundation of a pulpit essay and deli- vered a discourse from it, after the form of a modern sermon. The discourses of the first preachers were invariably a simple statement of a Christian fact or doctrine, or an exhortation to the performance of some practical Christian duty; while the modern sermon is a textual essay, totally and entirely dif- ferent in all its parts and in its whole structure from the simple discourses of the first teachers of the Gospel. Essay preaching is essentially a part of the original church system ; it had its beginning in the East, proba- bly at Alexandria, in the third century, in the teachiag of Origen in the Christian school of that city, and the two following centuries produced the most eloquent preachers. But preaching was much later in making its appearance in the West. Leo the First, in the THE REST OF LABOUR. 281 fifth century, being the first preacher of any note in either Rome or any part of the Western world. During the middle ages, the monks and the friars were the principal preachers, and the greater part of their ministrations was exercised in the open air on the steps at the foot of the cross, and in those ages one of these crosses was to be found in every town of Britain. But it is in the Reformed Church that the greatest preachers have appeared in Britain, and it is in modern ages only that preaching of this class has come to be considered as an essential part of public worship, and the office of preacher and minis- ter have been necessarily linked together in one person. And still there can be no reason whatever why textual essays should not be delivered either in a public room or in the open air, but it would be the highest presumption for either the preacher or the hearer to condemn his fellow man as a sinner against the God of heaven and the Saviour of men for declining to listen to such discourses ; since every man has just the same right to refuse to listen as the preacher has to preach, for there is neither precept nor practice in the word of God to authorize such preaching, nor any command or exhortation in that word to any man to listen to the preacher. The preaching of the Gospel is a thing of divine appointment, but not so the preaching of a textual sermon. The Gospel of Christ must be preached in the world because the word of Eternity is pledged 282 my, for its continuance amongst men, and the Providence of the Divine King will itself secure the continual fulfilment of His own determination in some part of the world and in every passing age of time. The Divine word is pledged to the infallible continu. of the Gospel revelation in every successive age of men, until it has become as universal as the human race, and as there is no doubt that this word has been fulfilled hitherto, so it will be fulfilled in all future ages. But the preaching of sermons and textual essays is a human device, and will no doubt continue as long as it can be of any service to mankind, and as long as it meets the position and wants of society. Though there is no ground on which to predict its continu- ance to the end of time. It is a duty imperative on any man, who has the means within his power, to become acquainted with the Gospel revelation, a duty which he owes to himself, to society, to the Divine Author of the Gospel, and to the Father of his being. But it cannot be a duty in any man to go and hi sermon. The preacher's essay, like the performance of public worship, is a religious entertainment, and it is not impossible but that every one of these essays may contain something of the (iospcl, but 'his is not the preaching which St. Paul had in his view, when he says, " It hath pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that be- lieve." The preaching to which the Divine Apostl e there dire THE REST OF LABOUR. 283 i ere directs our attention is a simple statement of Gospel truth, or an earnest exhortation to the practice of a Christian life, — a course of divine instruction, and not the textual sermon and the essay preaching of the Church, because this had no existence in the Apostle's day. Still we know of no reason why Christianity should not employ the highest powers of eloquence in the illustration of its reviving truths, and engage the most noble efforts of oratory in the enforcement of its hallow- ing principles, providing that it be distinctly un- derstood, and freely, fully, and frankly admitted on the part of the speaker that his work is a human device, and that it altogether depends upon the free choice of the people as to how far and in what manner they shall listen to his address. A true man will always find an auditory ready to listen to his address when he speaks to his brethren, but a mere artistic preacher, a mere learning-made orator, must be content with an audience who are merely shallow artistic men like himself, and a mere essay reader must not be astonished if he is neglected by all real thinkers and real actors, and the whole common-sense part of mankind. The true Christian orator is not the offspring of artistic learning or scientific instruction, however extensive may be the range of that learning, and however perfect may be the course of that instruction. 284 SUNDAY, Then must be in the real orator the inborn soul of eloquence, and he must be the true, simple child of nature, in love and unison of spirit with the whole creation around him. He must have a deep and full appreciation of all its loveliness, its beauty, and its godlike grandeur, continually revealing in its unceas- ingly varied face the ever- working presence of the Invisible Himself. As a Christian orator, he must be the renovated offspring of that higher and holiei nature which lives and works through all humanity. He must cultivate that higher and holier principle within himself to the full extent of his being, and lie must see and fully appreciate the fact of its whole being and working in his fellow man. He must know by personal experience how and in what manner to appeal to the sure but secret working of this living principle in the heart of his brother, and he must feel the force and certainty of the abiding truth that however low, however degraded, may appear to be the moral sensibilities and the spiritual faculties of his erring brother, there is still, as a general rule, to be found within his soul this unfailing principle of life. There is still a principle to which he may appeal and infallibly find some response. He must feel quite sure that it is not his business to give life, but to arouse the living principle into activity, to call the being into healthy action, and so to be the me- dium of giving new life, new vigour, and new energy to the dormant powers of the spiritual nature, the .ABOUR. 285 nobler part, the divine being of humanity. He must feel it to be his work to arouse the latent powers, to awaken the sleeping energies, and to heal the wounds of the diseased spirit of man. He must feel a generous and a glowing sympathy with our whole humanity, — with every individual man, however low, however base, however degraded, and however vile he may be, because he is a living part of that humanity, and because he is the offspring of the same Father, and the ransomed of the same Eedeemer. And the lower he finds the man sunk in wretchedness and sin, the more generous should be his feeling of sym- pathy towards his fallen brother, because he himself is the disciple of Him who " came to seek and to save that which is lost." The true Christian orator will make it the great end and object of all his labours to bring men to Christ. Nothing with him can possibly come between man and Christ, no observance of days, no attention on forms of worship, no assembling in sacred places, no medium whatever will rise up in his mind between the fallen being to be delivered from evil and the living Deliverer who alone can save the lost. His whole heart and mind and activity will centre entire- ly and altogether on two objects alone, the man to be renewed, and the mighty Creator who makes all things anew, — Christ the Redeemer of a fallen world, Christ the pattern of all human virtue and the ensam- 286 SUNDAY, pie of all human excellence, Christ the one universal Teacher, who, with the whole weight of eternity on his lips, declared, " The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life." Whatever is less than this is infinitely too little for the eloquence of the true disciple of Jesus. To bring this life-giving Word into the whole being of humanity that it may there become a new creating spirit, the successful Christian orator must be well read in the character of the inner working of man's nature, that he may know how to enter into the whole life, the whole activity, and the whole sensibi- lity of his brother man ; to feel with his feelings, to weep with his weeping, to sorrow with his sorrow, to breathe the balm of consolation through his whole soul, to elevate and purify his nature, to increase his happiness, to turn his night into day, and to bring the morning of his joys into the meridian of felicity, to raise the whole man from earth to heaven, and to elevate his entire humanity to God. Finally, the Christian orator must have a firm and invincible confidence in the ultimate and effectual success of the Gospel, both in renewing the individual and in renovating society; and he must feel an unshaken confidence in the final triumph of that Gospel in the world, because its Author is a Teacher whose wisdom can never fail, and a Prince whose power can never be overcome, and who is infallibly destined t THE REST OF LABOUR. 287 lestined to be victorious over all the opposition of evil that can be raised against the righteous progress of His sway, and the benevolent influence of His uni- versal dominion on the earth. Such a preacher as this is now to be found in the house of almost every man in Britain, It is the voice of the Master himself, and it is by no means improbable that eternal Providence has designed that the great Teacher of the future shall be a silent preacher — the living Word itself. There can be no doubt whatever but that if the common sense, the common thinking, and the common observing part of the great mass of the people of Britain should ever receive the Bible as the Word of God, and read it for themselves without any pre-judged system of interpretation, they would treat it in precisely the same direct experimental and realistic manner in which they have projected and carried out all those useful and.unrivalled works whose execution is so great an ornament to the industrious feeling and the useful effort of the British race. As they would cut a road through a mountain of granite, so they would listen to the word of Jesus. If the working Briton comes to learn the wisdom of God without any of the warpings of prejudice, without any blind drilling into systems, without any depend- ance on men equally as weak, and much more want- ing in common sense and common wisdom than 288 SUNDAY, himself, it must at once be expected that he will it in his own matter-of-fact way, without any qua about the inferences of learning, the deductions of reasoning, or the developments of ecclesiastical fancy. The great question with him will be, not what the truth may be, but what it is ; not what men think, hut what God has spoken. It will be a small ques- tion with him about truths which may be inferred, or principles which may be deduced. He will con- cern himself but very little about the dreams of fathers, the subtleties of schoolmen, the scientific divinity of Learned doctors, or the inspirations of the Church, the great question with him is, If the Father hath spoken what does He say? And if the wisdom of God declared to men is so simple, that a wayfar- ing man, though a fool, cannot err therein, is it not possible that he that runneth may read, and he that readeth may understand? This is the plain, simple, working method of meeting the subject ; not what does man say, or what does man teach, but what is the teaching of God himself. A true-bred Briton will never drink of the stream when he can reach the ion n tain, nor will he ever trouble himself about the servant whan He can at once go immediately to the Master, and when he has found Christ he will not linger at the gate with the disciple. Doctor. — In considering the subject of this paper it is necessary to observe the distinction be- tween a n THE REST OF LABOUR. 289 jen a minister of religion and a minister of in- struction. Mr. Charity. — It is quite necessary to understand this difference fully and entirely to arrive at any thing like a right view of the subject. The priests of the ancient system of Polytheism were simply ministers of religion ; the priests of the Hebrew eco- nomy were merely ministers of sacrifice and offering ; the priests of the ancient oracles were to some extent both ministers of religion and ministers of instruction. Mrs. Bell. — The Apostles of Jesus were called ministers, what was the character of their ministry ? Doctor. — Both Jesus and his Apostles were simply ministers of instruction, but the ministry of the Church is both a ministry of religion and a ministry of instruction. Rachel. — There is still a class of men to whom I think there ought to be a place assigned in this defi- nition of the ministry, that is the Protestant Dis- senters of Britain. Mr. Charity. — The ministry of every sect of Pro- testant Dissenters was originally a ministry of instruc- tion ; the name which they gave to their minister was that of preacher, and their place of assembly was called a meeting-house. These sects did not entirely give up the great ritualistic principles of the Church, but they modified them to the utmost possible degree, of simplicity. 290 day, Grace. — You say they did so — do you consider that any change has taken place by which these sects have become more ritualistic in their religious con- ventions during the period of their existence? Mr. Charity. — Decidedly so. During the pre- sent century the Dissenters, and a small section of the Church adopting their principles, have become the most strenuous supporters of the fundamental principles of ritualism of any class of men in this country. Mrs. Bell. — In what form does this change pre- sent itself to the people who attend upon their ministry ? Mr. Charity. — One half of a Dissenting minister's discourses may be considered as a continued series of homilies on God's day, God's ministers, and God's house. Abstract faith and means of grace are the two great subjects of all their discourses. Mrs. Bell. — As you believe our Lord and his Apostles to be ministers of instruction, you consider such a ministry to be useful to society. Mr. Charity. — Instruction is undoubtedly one of the fundamental needs of society, and therefore a ministry of instruction is one of our great social re- quisites in every state of society. Rachel. — I can sec no reason why a ministry of ruction should be a worldly profession, or an organized body of teachers. THE REST OF LABOUR. 291 Doctor. — The first and universal ministry of in- struction ought to be the heads of every family of Inch society is composed. So long as religion is a life, the parent ought to be its first and chief minister, both of training and instruction . Mr. Charity. — Our first efforts in teaching the world ought to be directed to the one object of enabling all our pupils to perform their proper duties as the parents of the coming generation ; because the instruction which will fit them for this, will also pre- pare them to fulfil every other social duty, and every other relation of life in a proper manner, both for their own good, for the benefit of others, and for the glory of God. Grace. — You think it is not necessary then to listen to four sermons in a week that we may be in- structed in the wisdom of the Gospel. Rachel. — Perhaps the worst part of the matter is, that the three sermons on the first day, and the one on some other day, have not been sufficient at present to instruct the people in the knowledge of the Gospel. Mr. Charity. — One instructive and useful sermon in a month would do far more towards teaching the people the knowledge of the Gospel, than our four in a week have ever been able to accomplish. Doctor. — The means which the Apostle used to instruct- the world were very different from those which we use to entertain a congregation. 202 SUNDAY, Mrs. Bell. — How do you shew this difference ? St. Paul says, " It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching, to save them that believe." Doctor. — There is an essential difference betw i\t the Apostolic preaching and our own sermonizing. Mr. Charity. — The object of the Apostle was to teach men certain principles of religious culture, our business is to talk for half an hour on some subject of religious interest to our hearers. The Apostle always speaks of himself as Gospelizing, but our business is to sermonize, a difference of a most important cha- racter. Grace. — I should like to hear a little more on this point. Nothing can be of greater interest to me than to arrive at something definite on so interesting a subject. Mr. Charity. — It is of the utmost importance to understand the Apostle rightly on this subject. The word Preach in our language signifies to talk about a thing, to discourse, to make a statement. But the work Kerussein, which the Apostle uses, signifies to proclaim or announce the will or declaration of ano- ther, after the manner of a herald or an ambassador, a thing totally distinct from sermonizing. The business of the Apostles was to teach men what their Master had taught them. The message which He had deli- vered to them, they were to deliver to the world. No two things can be more entirely different, than a dis- THE REST OF LABOUR. 293 course upon a certain text in which a man delivers his own individual opinion, and the delivery of a message sent by one person to another. These are two things which Paul puts in opposition in the first epistle to the Corinthians, when he says, ' When the world, through the sophia, or the discussing upon learning, knew not God, it pleased God, by the fool- ishness of the Kerussein, or proclamation, that is, by enunciating the Gospel, to save the believers." Rachel. — What difference is there, then, betwixt enunciating the teaching of Christ and Gospelizing? Mr, Charity. — It is most probable that the two things are nearly the same ; though if we were to draw a difference between them, I should consider that the Apostle, by enunciating the Gospel, simply means the making of a statement of its principles, and by Gospelizing, the explanation and illustration of those principles, and their application to the spiri- tual culture of man. Grace. — I see no reason why the world should not be taught the Gospel in the same manner now. Rachel. — I see a great deal of reason at present, Grace, why this should not be the case. There is a very vast difference between the humble position of the teacher of wisdom, and the titled and dignified teacher of religion, whose rites and means of grace . are thought to be necessary and all-sufficient to secure the eternal felicity of the human race. N ! DAY, Mb. Charity. — When t ho minister of the Church is willing to lay aside all his professional gear, and to come down from his high and holy place, and like the rounder of the Gospel, to gather his neighbours and his countrymen around him, and to sit down in their midst, and in a plain and familiar manner to open his mouth and to teach them the simplfl sublime truths of the heavenly Wisdom, the preacher will be the most useful of all teachers, and his in- struction will be the most useful of all lessons to society and to the world. Mrs. Bell. — Then you would take the example of our Saviour, and leave the singing and the praying out altogether, in connection with the preacher's dis- course. Rachel. — When the Divine Teacher taught the people it was invariably without cither singing or public prayers, and we are exhorted to take Him for our example. Doctor. — We are ; and I have no doubt bmt that we shall be under the necessity of accommod -ystem of instruction to the pattern of our Master, if we would gain the attention of onr fellow- men. ( iu.\< t.. — There are but few among the millions of our countrymen who do not attend public worship* who would not willingly listen to a discourse deliver* d according to the manner, time, place, and circum- stances of the Divine Pattern. THE REST OF LABOUR. 295 Mr. Charity. — If we call Christ our Master, and if He has left us an example, we cannot offer Him a greater indignity nor be more wanting in respect to the common sense of our fellow-men, than to act directly contrary to that ensample which we profess to follow. If, therefore, we profess to teach the Gospel at all, by all means let us take care that our teaching is according to the Divine Pattern and the example of our Master. 296 H DAY, IV. OF SANCTUARIES. We are now to consider the Divine claim of sanctu- aries and holy places as the scene of public worship. And in order to enter into this subject, we propose to make the following inquiry : — Has the Divine Father ever appointed any place or human building in which He has promised to mani- fest His invisible presence to man, more particularly, more fully, and more graciously, than in any other place, so as that this place, by virtue of such manifest- ation, should have so sanctifying an influence, on the acts of piety and devotion performed there, as thereby to render those acts more acceptable to Him than they could be when performed in any other place ? If we examine the sacred history of the world shall find no mention of any stated place in which either of the Patriarchs ever performed any acts of devotion — no house, tent, or tabernacle, dedicated to the service of the Creator. Such a place as thi- altogether unknown in the world till the age of Moses. To Moses the Divine command was first given to build a tent or tabernacle for the God of Israel. And when Moses did receive this command THE REST OF LABOUR. 2 ( J7 to build the tabernacle, he received no intimation whatever that the Divine Father would make that place the peculiar scene of the spiritual manifestation of His infinite presence, or that any acts of devotion performed there would in any sense or in any degree be more acceptable to Him than such acts would be when performed in any other place. The tabernacle of Moses was not at any time, nor ever was intended to be, the scene of any peculiar manifestation of the spiritual presence of the God of Israel. The whole object, end, and design, of both the tabernacle of Moses, and the temple of Solomon, as the dwelling place of God, was that these places should be the scene of the local, the sensible, and the material image of the manifestation of the Divine Father, in his revealed Hebrew character, as the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel. And as this tabernacle and the temple are the only places which the Divine Father has ever com- manded, or especially permitted to be erected, as the scene of His own sensible or spiritual manifestation on earth, we are bound to conclude, that no building ever has existed, or ever can exist in this world, in which the Divine Father will ever manifest his spiritual presence to the worshipper, with more heavenly grace, and more spiritual unction, than in any other place. Let us now hear how the Revelation of the Gospel deals with the important question, of temples of God, and houses of worship. 29S DAY, We have already shewn, that the object for which ibernack and the temple were erected, was not to make these buildings places of public devotion, but to constitute them houses of offering and of sacrifice. And that the presence of the Divine Father, which was manifested in these places, was not an invisible and a spiritual presence, but a visible and a material dwelling, in a shapeless form. And this dwelling entirely limited to the one individual tabernacle, and the one individual temple, and that presence was never intended either to be manifested in any other place, or to be continued beyond the advent of the Gospel. And hence we observe, that when the Divine Founder of the Gospel unfolded the spiritual character of his mission to the woman of Samaria, she not at all understanding the universality of that mi* spoke to Him of the difference of the temple m of the Jews to that of the Samaritans. And lie answered her by declaring that the hour had come when all divinely appointed temple service should cease, and when the true worshipper should no longer Worship in any sacred place whatever, eitln t in Sa- ia, or in Jerusalem, nor yet through the medium iv Divine or human form; but that heno ee that could be acceptable to the Father i be spiritual, without any visible medium, and truthful, or in reality, without any reference to either form or place. Here then we have a direct declaration « THE REST OF LABOUR. 299 from the lips of the Son of God, that no service would er be acceptable to the Father, from the fact of its being performed in any particular place, or according to any peculiar visible form. And hence the Founder of the Gospel erected no tabernacle, nor built any temple, nor ever performed any recorded act of devo- tion in any house particularly dedicated to the service of God. In the discourse of Stephen, one of the first Chris- tian preachers, delivered before the Jewish Council, he most expressly delares that the Most High hath no dwelling whatever in temples made with hands, because his presence filleth both heaven and earth. And he quotes the Prophet Isaiah as representing this to be an absolute and universal principle of truth, without any particular reference to the dispen- sation of the Gospel. In Saint Paul's visit to Athens he tells the Athen- ians that he found an altar or rather a temple in their city dedicated to the Unknown God, and then he further tells them that they had acted ignorantly in building an altar or a temple to the unknown God, inasmuch as He has no dwelling in such places — His dwelling-place being the entire heavens and the entire earth— the whole universe. And then he in- timates to them that one great part of the object of his visit was to make the knowledge of this unknown God familiar to their mind, and to teach them how 300 DAY, to serve and worship Him in a better way than by building houses of worship to his service. That temple worsl iip, which it was one great object of Christ and his disciples to destroy, it is the wisdom of the Church to make the first principle of all Christian culture. If we follow out our inqui into the relation of the Gospel to sanctuary worship, we shall find that the most glorious state of the followers of Christ is delineated in the book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ as that of a city without a temple. After describing this city in the most glowing language of Eastern d phor, the writer says : " I beheld no temple therein ; for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it." From this train of our evidence then we learn not only that Christianity acknowledges no local habita- tion of the Father in any tent, tabernacle, house or building, but that a principle of direct opposition to all sanctuary worship is made to stand out in the forefront of the Divine writings as a fundamental dement of the Gospel revelation. The smallest idea of a house of God is not only not found in the enunciation of Christianity a system of Divine wisdom, but it is utterly and . lutely opposed to the whole object, end, and design of the Gospel revelation; and the whole practice of the early teachers of the Gospel w. - in perfect uni- son with these principles, THE REST OF LABOUR. 301 We have already noticed the fact that the Son of God erected no sanctuary, no house of God, and no tabernacle for the residence or manifestation of the Divine Father, and that He gave no direction, no in- timation to his Apostles that this was any part of the object of their mission in the world ; and the whole body of the Apostles, whatever might be their failures in other respects, were, as far as our record of their work extends, perfectly free from this fault. We hear nothing of sanctuaries, of sacred places, of holy habitations, or of Christian temples in the re- cords of the Gentile Apostle and his fellow mis- sionaries. We have not only no account, but no intimation, the most distant and the most remote, of the building of a temple or the erection of sanc- tuaries under their direction, nor of assemblies in any house of God. We have already shewn that it was no part of the Divine mission of Saul of Tarsus to traverse the Roman Empire as the founder of a new system of religion and the architect of Christian sanctuaries. It was his great and only object to teach a new and complete course of practical Divine wisdom to the nations of the east of Asia and the south of Europe ; and he exercised this teaching in precisely the same manner as that in which he had himself been taught as a disciple at the feet of Gamaliel ; and also, precisely in the same way as the teachers of philosophy and science were accustomed 302 >w, to teach their disciples throughout the Roman Em- pire. The first Christian teachers of the Gentiles often went into some public place and began a tional discourse with the first persons they met, who were likely to attend to their teaching, on the prin- ciples of that Divine wisdom which it was their business to teach to mankind; then, either in their own house or in the house of some disciple in the city where they resided, they gave further instruction to those who wished to become th< Hence, in every city there were as many diffi classes of disciples as there were houses where in- struction was given, or teachers who gave that in- struction to the people; and this teaching \\ carried on precisely in the same way as the people were instructed in the various branches of human learning — by domestic instruction and conversational teaching. But the Gospel is a system of practical wisdom, and though the process of its teaching was similar to that of the teaching of the wisdom of this world, the fatahing of the Gospel had, among other things, 1 more directly social spirit. It was the design of the first teachers of the Gospel to bring the prin- ciples of the wisdom of eternity to the lower grades of society, as well as to the middle and the highest, and to form all classes of the disciples of Christ into THE REST OF LABOUR. 303 one body; and for the attainment of this object, these disciples met together and manifested their union and brotherhood according to the customs of the East by eating and drinking together wherever they met ; and this social meal*was their great bond of brotherhood : while the bread and the wine which they ate and drank together was made to commemo- rate the great facts of human redemption. And it was to carry out this essentially social object of the Gospel that we find the Apostles in the early ages appointing servants and overseers over the individual classes of Christian disciples in the different cities of the Roman Empire. While there were especial reasons why from their intercourse with the new disciples each of these persons should possess some degree of aptness to teach ; but the Apostolic age presents us with no class of men, except the Apostles themselves, whose only business it was to teach ; nor with any places whatever among the Gentiles where this teaching was exercised, but the house of the teacher, or that of some disciple who entertained the teacher. When Paul was at Rome lie taught in his own hired house whosoever came to him for instruction, exactly in the same way as the teachers of phi- losophy, of grammar, of rhetoric, of music, of elo- quence, and of other sciences, gave instruction to their disciples and pupils. But we have no informa- tion that he ever gave public lectures in the forum of DAY, the city, or in any house, temple, portico, acidemia, or basilica, erected for that or any similar ob}< If, from the Apostles, we proceed to the first Chris- tian writer of the second century of the Gospel, we shall find that this mode of making known the wis- dom of God, continued to be practised at Rome long after the Divine Paul had finished his course and rested from his labours. When the Roman Prefect asked Justin Martyr the important question, " Where do you meet ?" the great Apologist said, " Where each man can and will. You believe, doubt said he, "that we all assemble in one place—but it is not so, for the God of the Christians is not con- fined to one spot, but his visible presence fills hi and earth, and in all places he is worshipped by the faithful.". And Justin then further adds, « That whenever he came to Rome it was his custom to reside in one particular place where those disciples who were instructed by him, and who wished to hear his discourses, were accustomed to assemble; other places of assembly," he said, "he had not vim Here, then, we find that one hundred y. rthe nee of Paul at Rome, the self-same system of preaching was pursued by the first Christian teacher of the day as had been practised by Paid himself in that ( m Justin Martyr we go on to Origen, the i great Alexandrian teacher, who. when Celsus re- THE REST OF LABOUR. 305 proached the Christians with having no temples, no altars, no images, replied to hirn, " That in the highest sense God's temple and image are in the humanity of Christ, and consequently in all believers who are actuated by the Spirit of Christ." And here we learn that in the time of Origen, two hun- dred years after the crucifixion of the Founder of the Gospel, the disciples of Jesus had no temple for worship even in the city of Alexandria, the great centre of the Christian profession of the second and third centuries ; and there are no means of ascer- taining that the disciples of Jesus ever erected any place of worship before the middle of the third cen- tury. But soon after this an edict of Gallienus mentions Christian places of worship, though this is no proof whatever that these places were separate buildings, and it is not until the age of Diocletian that we have any absolute proof of the existence of separate buildings for Church worship. Here then we find that Christianity had existed in the Roman Empire for more than two hundred years without any distinct and separate house of assembly, or any building consecrated to public worship. During the whole of this time Gentile Christianity was entirely a household system. How then can attendance on sanctuaries, meeting-houses and places of worship be an important Christian duty, when Christianity in its primitive and purest form existed without any 306 DAY, separate places of either teaching or worship for the space of more than two hundred v< It may be thought that the practice of this house- hold character of Christian li aching was forced upon the first race of teachers by the peculiar position in which the Christian system was placed in its relation to the Government of the Roman Empire. And if those persons who look at the question in this light can shew that any law of the Roman Empire now exists, or ever did exist, from the age of Caligula to that of Diocletian, prohibiting the building of places of worship by either the primitive disciples of Jesus or the founders of the Catholic Church, there would be some ground for such a view of the subject ; but as no such prohibition is known to exist and is 1 1 mentioned by the early Church writers, such a sup- position must be altogether out of the question. If places of worship had made a part of the Chris- tian economy, there is no reason whatever why the Prophet like unto Moses should not have rear new temple at Jerusalem. There is no reason why Paul should not have built a Christian sanetuai a house of God in Antioch, in Bphesus, in Corinth, or in Athens. And if to worship in the sanctuary is a Christian duty, then during the time when Raul liMtl in his own hired house at Rome, with the members of Nero's household among the prol disciples of the Prophet of Nazareth, there is no THE RES1 reason whatever why the great Apostle should not have directed the building of a temple to Jesus in the first city of the ancient world, and why he should not have left his name to posterity in sculptured marble by the side of the arch of Titus among the majestic ruins of that city. If the Gospel lias any connection with houses of worship why was it that such places were not erected by the Justins of the second, and the Origens of the early part of the third century ? And, finally, why was it left to the age of the almost universal diffu- sion of the Christian profession, through the Roman empire, to build houses to the worship of God, if all Christians are bound to attend such places? and if public worship in the house of God forms an integral part of the Christian's life, and is an essential prin- ciple in the economy of the Gospel, our only answer to these questions must be, with the word of God for our guide, that however useful may be the idea of calling the place of the assembly of the disciples of Jesus the House of God, the assumption of the posi- tion that the Most High has any other dwelling in such places than that which he has in every other place, and that devotions performed in any such place are any more acceptable to Him than the exercise of devotion in any other place, is the greatest of all the ecclesiastical fables, and the most utterly inde- fensible of either of the fundamental positions of the popular religious system of modern Britain. 308 SUNDAY. RlCSBL. — Wc have now arrived at that point of our inquiry in which we arc able to form a just view of the system of the public worship of our count Grace. — And I think, also, to weigh its just claims upon the attention of mankind. Doctor. — These claims, Grace, will be best repre- sented by a negative. Public worship by itself has no claim whatever on the attention of mankind. But there are many persons who have a claim upon public worship as an ancient religious institution of the country, and while they make that claim it is well that such worship should be performed for their benefit. Mr. Charity. — It is much better that an enter- tainment of an indifferent character should be re- tained as long as any one feels interested in its performance than that the want itself should be met by one of a more objectionable character. Age is a vast accession to the weight of an institution. Grace. — You consider then that the dispute' be- twixt the Sabbatarians and the friends of other forms of entertainment, is a dispute b< rind per- formers, as to whether one of them shall have the day of rest for their sole use, or whether they shall all stand on the equal ground of their respective I in the public favour. Mr. Charity. — Certainly. The performers of public worship have no more Divine claim to the day :st OF LABOUR. 309 of rest than the performers at any other entertain- ment, because neither of them have any Divine claim at all. Doctor. — It is quite evident from the result of this inquiry that whatever entertainment is lawful on the Monday that entertainment is also lawful on the Sunday, because there is no law on the subject, not even to make the Sunday a day of rest. Mrs. Bell. — It may be quite as lawful, and yet not quite so expedient, but that is a subject for the head of every family and every adult person to consider for themselves. Mr. Charity. — It is not my object in this series of papers to suggest any complete course of human culture. If I should ever attempt to do this the manner of spending the day of rest would form a part of such a subject. Grace. — I am obliged to you for shewing at least that one great means of culture — going into the fields on a Sunday, is a proper method of spending the day of rest, and one which received the sanction of the great Teacher and Exemplar of humanity. Mr. Charity. — This point of our subject will naturally arise out of the consideration of one of the papers in the next series ; and, with your permission, we shall leave its further consideration till we come to the reading of that paper. 310 DAY, V. CONCLUSION. We have now gone through the different parts of our proposed question in this book, and have con- sidered therein all their different relations. "We bate shewn, however useful public worship may be, that it lias no claim whatever to a Divine institution, and that whatever may be the benefit of a class of men devoted to the ministry of the rites of public worship, the existence of such a class is in no sense a thing of Divine appointment. And, finally, that how- ever beneficial it may be to have a separate house for the meetings of the disciples of Jesus, the whole spirit and object of the Gospel is opposed to any idea whatever of a temple, a sanctuary, or a house of God ; and we therefore conclude that the whole Sabbatic economy of modern Britain is entirely destitute, not only of any Divine appointment, but also of any the least Divine sanction, and that as a purely human m it has no other elaim to our regard but that of the free choice of the people, and that an atteud- upon its performance is only beuetieial to those who feci their want of such an entertainment. And so long as there are individuals in the land who feel THE REST OF LABOUR. 311 their want of public worship as the medium through which their religious culture may find a pleasurable expression, so long we would advise them by all means to attend upon its performance. Nothing is further from the object of our inquiry than any effort to induce such persons to neglect public wor- ship ; it is simply our object to shew that public worship forms no part of the life of the Gospel, and therefore that there is no Divine reason whatever why a disciple of Jesus Christ should either attend upon its ordinances, or observe any day, or time, or public place of worship whatever for its performance ; and that the doing or not doing of this has no con- nection with the question of his Christianity. But we feel that we cannot express the Christian view of our subject better than in the language of John Chrysostom, the ecclesiastical patriarch of Constan- tinople, in the beginning of the fifth century : " When Christ came," says this Father of the church, " He purified the whole world, so that every place may become a house of God." Again, " Know you that the whole world has been purified as it regards the place. We may everywhere lift up holy hands, for the whole earth has become consecrated, even more consecrated than the Holy of Holies. Wherever you may be you still have the altar, the instrument of sacrifice, and the offering with you, for you your- self are priest, altar, and sacrifice. Wherever you 810 DAY, are you may raise an altar by simply cherishing a devout and serious disposition. Place and time are no hindrance, though you should not bow the knee, though you beat not the breast, though you stretch not your hands to heaven, but only manifest a warm heart towards the Creator and the Redeemer — you haw all that belongs to prayer; the wife, while she holds in her lap the spindle and the pins, can with her soul look up to heaven and pray with fervour on the name of the Lord. It is possible for the man to offer up fervent prayer who is on his way to the market alone, and for the other to lift up his soul to God while he sits in his shop and sews leather ; and the servant who makes purchases, goes on errands, or sits in the kitchen, has nothing to hinder him from doing the same thing/' May this worship be our worship, this devotion our devotion, and this prayer our prayer unto the end of the world. But there are many of our brethren who cannot rise to the level of this natural and Divine form of devotion. From the very nature of their education and early training, their mental stature is lowered, its growth is stunted, and its health is impaired ; their mind is cast into an artificial mould, and their whole spiritual being is fixed in a cataleptic sleep. They enter a consecrated house, and de- voutly compose their mind while the minister says his prayers, and reads an entertaining essay suited to THE REST OF LABOUR. 313 their mental condition, and feel in the place an atmo- sphere of holiness, from which they retire in their own opinion better men. And why should we not treat such a feeling with respect? It is not the men but the system which deserves our scorn ; and the system can only be removed by the teaching of men a better way. Educate the man and the system will fall. The thorn and the thistle seldom grow on a richly cultured soil; make the tree good and the fruit will be good also. Public worship will die a natural death when the education of man enables him to rise to the dignity of an independent spiritual culture. But I would most earnestly entreat every one who reads this book never on any account to attempt to destroy the institution of public worship; I would entreat him, by the Author of his being, by the Word of eternal wisdom, by all the interests of our common humanity, by all his friendly feeling for his brother man, and by all his hope of the future welfare of his race, not to attempt to destroy this institution, but to instruct the people. He who destroys an institution, is always more or less an enemy to society ; but he who instructs his brother confers a blessing on the human race. Let me then again entreat every one who shall read this book to use all possible means to instruct his brother. I would say, educate— educate, and still educate your brother until he feels no want of such a system, but do not p 314 MAY. pull down the fabric so long as one who is halt, or blind, or lame, shall seek a shelter under its artificial shade. Perish it inevitably will, but not yet; it is a work of time, but the end must come ; the finger of etc rn ity has already written the irreversible doom of vital decay on its whole life, and left it to wither away like the bare and sapless oak of one of our ancient parks. SUNDAY, THE REST OF LABOUR BOOK IV. INFLUENCE OP SABBATAEIAN KELIGION ON THE MASSES OF SOCIETY. 317 EARLY TRAINING. It is our object in this Book to inquire, What bene- fit our popular religion is to society and to the world ? What relation does the religious system of modern Britain bear to the general welfare of the people, and how far and in what way has this system contributed to the preservation and increase of the general happi- ness and comfort of the British race ? In this inquiry, it is of the greatest importance that it should be distinctly understood that we are neither propounding a system of faith nor advocating a class of opinions. Our object is wholly and en- tirely to explain a religious fact, and to account for the existence of a great social phenomenon in the country. From my early years, I have observed a growing disposition in the minds of many of my countrymen to turn away from an attendance on public worship ; and from year to year the fact has pressed itself more and more upon my attention, that the greater number of individuals who, through their entire childhood had been nursed and trained in the bosom of that 318 8UNDAY, public worship in the Sunday School, were turn entirely away from this early training in their riper years. This appeared to me to be so entirely con- trary to that which, according to the common prin- ciples of human nature, ought to be the result of such a training, that it led me at once to the question : How far the prevailing religious culture of Britain is either founded in the principles of eternal truth or suited to the wants of human nature, and how far i* is either conducive to the happiness of the individual, or is at all calculated to promote the welfare of society ? In making this inquiry, it was my first object to make the widest and at the same time the most minute observations on the nature and tfte certainty of the fact itself, then to inquire with the utmost patience and diligence into the cause and original of its existence, and, lastly, to ascertain whether the existing institutions of the country are suited to meet the wants of mankind in the altered state of society, resulting from the entire revolution which I felt to be making rapid progress in the mental cul- ture of my brethren. And during the latter part of the quarter of a century in which my inquiries hare been proceeding, I have felt the progress of the change to be going on with an almost unparallele rapidity of course, until it is at length determined by actual inquiry that though nearly all the working men of London have been trained in Sundav Schools, THE REST OF LABOUR. 319 yet that not more than six in a hundred of these men are now found attending on that public worship in which they were so early trained and initiated. And yet many of these men are sober, honest, industrious, generous, and trustworthy members of the commu- nity. Here, then, we have before our eyes the very remarkable fact of a system which is continually defeating its own object, and the more it works the farther it is from attaining to that which it is its chief end and design to accomplish. It must be self-evident to every one acquainted with the nature and constitution of human society that the friend of public worship can never have a fairer field to work upon than the Sunday School of Britain has presented to him daring the last five-and-thirty years, and yet during the course of this period it may be fairly calculated that public worship has lost half the amount of its hold on both the number and the feelings of the great mass of the population of this country. A.nd it is not at all likely that any thing will be devised by the Church which is in its own nature so well fitted to bind the people to public worship as the Sunday School itself. What can be so calculated to enchain all the affections of the human heart to a system, and to enlist all the sym- pathies of the human breast in its favour, as to take the infant mind in its first opening, and the infant heart in the first budding of its feelings, and to nurse it 320 SUNDAT, in the very system itself, and to bring all its awakening sensibilities into the most intimate unison with those whose great business it is to explain, to enforce, and to perpetuate the claims of that system ? And yet we find these very infants, when they become men and women, continually forsaking that system, deny- ing its claims to their regard, and feeling no sense of gratitude whatever to those who laboured to unfold and to direct their baby thought, and nursed and cherished their infant feeling in its performance. Who that sees this can fail of being led to the inevi- table conclusion that these children have not been trained up in the way that they should go, or else when they grow older they would not depart from it. And every reflecting man must feel that one of these two facts must be true ; either that the mode of training is wrong or that the object for which they are trained is wanting in its adaptation to the con- stitution of human nature, in its fitness to satisfy the wants which the training itself has inspired, and in its sufficiency to promote the happiness and the welfare of the individual and of society. If public worship is in any sense a divine institu- tion, if that institution has its foundation in the eternal truth of the divine constitution of human nature, and if there is in that institution any fitness of medium through which the process of human ( -ly the condition to a greater or a less extent of the whole religious system of this country. The religious system of Britain is not in any sense the offspring of British feeling, nor yet in any degree suited to the wants of the British people. "We shall now inquire into the evils of this system. The first evil of our present religious system is, that it is a Royal religion. It teaches us to honour the person of the sovereign, because he is a sove- reign, independently of all his qualities as a man and a member of society ; and it thereby elevates him to the dignity of a God. But the true British feeling respecting the person of the sovereign is simply that of the highest responsible officer of the government, an officer created by the law, and amenable to the law, like every other individual of the state ; and that he is the object of personal regard solely and alone, according to the measure of the virtue or the vice of his actions, and his character. From the foundation of a National Church in Britain there have not been wanting men whose efforts have been directed to the setting up of the personal power of the sovereign above all earthly au- thority, and who have taught the people that the King is by virtue of his position as sovereign, the repre- sentative of God on the earth. But this principle made little progress in the Church of the middle ages, for although the circumstances of the accession of THE REST OF LABOUR. 333 the house of Lancaster considerably aided its pro- gress ; the spiritual elevation of the Sovereign to a position above all human law and authority, did not become a decided and acknowledged element of the constitution until a statute of the English Parliament constituted Henry the Eighth supreme head of the Church. From the foundation of a National Church jn this land until that time, the King and the Pope, the Church and the State, had borne a certain amount of balancing relation to each other, which, on the supposition that we must have a National Church, was decidedly beneficial to the country; but from the time that the law declared the King supreme head of the Church, this balancing power was en- tirely lost ; the several chiefs of the Church became the obsequious creatures of the will of the King, and the ready tools of the aristocratic element of the state; while the combined power of the sovereign, the aristocracy, and the Church, became through the influence and the operation of the church system, the working enemy of the great mass of the people j the Church of the middle ages was the friend of the great body of the people against all the evil powers of the state, which might array themselves against their interests; the constitution and the working of the church system of those ages was the grand vantage ground on which the great principles of social happi- ness triumphed over the tyranny, the ambition, and 334 sundav the avarice of the nobility, and the sovereign ; and through the medium of that church system the mate- rial welfare of the great mass of the people was able to maintain an ascendant influence in society. It is oulv under the development of the system of the Royal Church, and through the working of the mate- rial life of that system that we have to trace the degradation, the misery, and the wretchedness of our unfortunate countrymen in the present age. Our Royal Church may be considered to have had her origin in the reign of Henry the Eighth, and to have reached her maturity in the age of Charles the Second ; and from the period of her foundation to the present day she has kept one object distinctly in her view, the elevation of her head and the conservation of her own existence. As the infant hangs on its mother's breast, so the Church derives all her life from the person of her royal head; and hence, though many of the members of the Church have been among the best men in the land, yet the whole life of the Church, as a church, has been one conti- nual effort to preserve her own existence in opposi- tion to the welfare of the people. Her whole being has been a continual manifestation of one vast effort of selfishness ; and she has maintained her place in the country solely and entirely through the medium of her Sunday system, by making public worship the sole exponent of the whole outer life of Christianity. THE REST OF LABOUR. 335 To receive her sacraments, to hear her sermons, and to say her prayers, constitute in the view of our Royal Church the whole outer life of a Christian. The whole existence of the Church has been one continual effort to maintain her own power by setting up the royal authority above all law, and by preaching obe- dience and reverence to the person and to the indivi- dual authority of the King as to that of a God upon earth, and one continual, entire, and total neglect of the social welfare of the people : and she has felt and is now feeling the result of her work. The Church of the middle ages delivered over the whole popula- tion of the country into the embrace of the Royal Church, but she has been dropping her neglected children out of her hand from almost the first day of her existence until now. When only about one in four of the people still attend upon her deserted worship ; and half of these would leave her to-morrow if they could be relieved from the fear of the evil which her generosity is always ready to inflict upon her humbler enemy when he deserts her altars or opposes her authority. From the effect of the creation of a Royal Church in the head of the Commonwealth, we now turn to consider its influence on the base of the social column— the great mass of the population. It is the fundamental principle of the constitution of British society that every man is born with equal Btfl 8UNDAY, right*; and the truth of this principle remains the same, however much it may be practically opposed by the successful efforts of designing men, who have built up a system of tyranny to gratify their own self- ish purposes. It was, therefore, impossible to elevate the highest member of the state above his proper place, without sinking the lowest very much below his due degree in relation to the whole. And the Royal Church laid her foundation in debasing the poor equally as much as she did in elevaingt the prince. It is very probable that from the foundation of society in this country there had existed in it a system of college life into which the humblest mem- ber of society might enter, and through which he might rise by the force of genius, talent, and industry, to the highest offices of the State. This we have every reason to believe was the constitution of pri- mitive society in Britain. And that before the Roman invasion it was possible for the humblest child in the country to rise to the position of Arch- Druid, which was then the highest office in the state. When Christianity was introduced into Bri- tain, it assumed the form of this college life from the old Druidic culture, and conveyed it over to our National Church in the seventh century of our era, in which it became a monastic institution ; and such it remained through the whole period of the middle ages. The greatest social blessing of this vile and THE REST OF LABOUR. 337 troubled world. Into this institution the gifted son even of the bond- servant might find an asylum, and be trained up in all the learning of his age, and in his maturity find himself placed on a level with the son of the first nobleman in the realm. We may therefore look upon this college system as essentially the poor man's inheritance, and the common medium of the healthy intercourse of the great body of the people. It served two essential purposes in the State; it was the great balancing agent between the rich and the poor, and the commou centre of the unity of all the different classes of society. Here the prince and the peasant, the rich and the poor, the lord and the servant, all met together on a perfect equality, and through its medium every man was enabled to take that place in the commonwealth for which he was fitted by the gifts of Nature. Great abuses had, undoubtedly, arisen in this system during the middle ages, and there was much and very great need of a reformation ; and an entire reconstruction of the system was most desirable, so as to bring it back to its original character before it was perverted to the evil purposes of the Church. But instead of doing this beneficial work for the country, it was one of the first acts of the Royal Church to bring the institution to utter destruction, and thereby to reduce the British poor to , a far worse relative condition than they had ever occu- Q 33S day, pied from the foundation of human society in the land until that day. But the monastic institutions not only a balancing power between the rich and the poor, and a common medium through which all the different classes of society were brought toge- ther; they were also the seats of industry and philanthropy. They gave employment to those who were destitute of work, they formed an asylum for the unfortunate , and the woe -stricken, they were an unfailing home without expense for the traveller, the wanderer, and the homeless ; and their hospitable doors were ever open to the fatherless and the orphan. Such was the social character of the institut whose entire destruction was one of the first bles which the mass of the people received from the boun- teous hand of the Royal Church. But it was not only in the destruction of these institutions that the Church' manifested her gracious disposition towards the great body of the people. Her charity was more fully displayed in the absolute robbery which she perpetrated on the low and tin- poor of the nation through the medium of that destruction. In the middle ages, a monastic insti- tution was to be found -within the hounds of almost • very fifth parish in the country, comprising within itself an asylum for the studious, a school for the youth, an hospital for the stranger, and a common centre of industry and benevolence to the whole neighbourhood. THE REST OF LABOUR. 339 It is calculated that the property of all the monas- tic institutions of the country was then worth more than a million a-year of our money, and under the same form of management it would have been worth twenty times as much now ; and nearly the whole of this, it must be considered, would have been the available patrimony of the poor> for the rich gene- rally brought as much to the monasteries, and often more than Avas required to supply their wants. But in the sixteenth century of the Gospel, it was the pleasure of his Highness, the high and mighty prince, Henry, by the grace of God, King, Supreme Head of the Church, and Defender of the Faith, to rob the poor of the whole and entire amount of this patri- mony, and to take it to himself and further to apply it to such pious purposes as might seem fit to his most gracious wisdom. Thus from thenceforth the poor became a class distinct and separate from the rich, with different and divided interests. The la- bourer, the small farmer, the mechanic, and the artizan occupied the one side of the social scale, and the rich of all classes made up the other. The head of the Church had now fixed an impassable gulf between the rich and the poor, over which it was almost impossible for the lower grade to pass to the higher, except through the debasing process of a life devoted to the gaining of money. And had the other great elements of the social system done equally as 340 SUNDAY, much for the poor as the Church did through the medium of its Royal Head, British poverty would not only have been the badge of a class but the dial tion of a caste. It is strictly in a social point of view that we are now looking at these institutions, and whatever might be their religious character, it must be quite clear to every unprejudiced mind that it would have been very easy to remove the abuses without destroying the system. The college system contained within itself the fundamental element of social hap- piness, and without that or some similar system working in the social life of a people, society itself must essentially decay and fall to pieces, in as much as that system is the great assistant of nature in bringing into exercise the genius, the talent, and the energy of the entire people of a country to do its work throughout the whole system of its national life. Greatness of mind and ability to act for the good of mankind pays no respect to grandeur, power, or titles; it is to be found equally as much in the family of the servant as in that of the master — it abounds quite as much in the hovel of a peasant as 10 the palace of a king ; but unless it has the means of developing itself, and an open medium through which it may unfold its energies, the social barque mutl eventually be wrecked, because it sails down the ocean of time with its mariners asleep and without a compass to direct its perilous course. THE REST OF LABOUR. 341 But the foundation of the Royal Church was not only laid in king worship, in the destruction of the most ancient institution in the country and in the wholesale robbery of the people j the property which had been taken from the people was disposed of by successive sovereigns to their royal favourites, so as to form a rich and powerful aristocracy, who by becom- ing the associates of the head of the Church in spoil- ing the Church and robbing the people, might also become his lay-associates in the exercise of his newly- acquired authority. The unlimited power with which the king was now invested being so entirely contrary to the civil constitution of the country, it stood in great need of a body of lay supporters to hold up its unlawful authority over the great mass of the people, and this aristocratic support was both pur- chased and constituted by the gift to them of the property which the head of the Church had thought proper, in the clemency of his nature, to take away from the poor. And if we examine the property of the majority of the families who have been at the head of the government of this country from the foundation of the Royal Church to the present age, we shall find them almost without exception the re- ceivers of monastic property which the head of the Church had so graciously taken to himself when he was elevated to that most unenviable dignity. A man has only to walk through this land, and to inquire for 342 8 UN DAY, the names which have made the most figure in the ill's history for the last three hundred years, and there will be very few of these, indeed, which may not be found in some connection with priories, abbeys, nunneries, hospitals, religious houses, or some other form of the monastic institutions of the middle ages, from the haughty Percy, who planted his lion stan- dard on the walls of Sion House, to the ignoble North, the perpetual master of St. Cross Hospital. Such is the price which the country has paid for the the rebellions, and the revolutions which have disfigured our history, and for all the ignorance, the persecution, and the oppression, which has left its record in letters of blood in the religious story of our country from the days of the first royal head of the Church down to the present century. The true and legitimate consequence of the remo- val, instead of the reformation and the reconstruc- tion of the monastic institutions, and the result of the establishment of the Royal Church on such a foundation has been the breaking up of the whole body of British society into distinct and separate sections in relation to the teaching of the Church. It has been the universal practice of the royal ( hurch to teach the child of the poor to regard the rich man as his natural superior, possessing inh< rights and immunities superior to his own as sac as the inheritance of life itself, and however viciou THE REST OF LABOUR. 343 and however wicked may be the life, however inhu- man the activity, and however debased may be the character of the man of wealth and power, the poor man has been taught to honour him and to reverence him on account of his position, as he would the holiest saint or the most pure and virtuous of the sons of men. And if he bore any authority, civil or ecclesiastical, under the head of the Church, to do him as much homage and to obey him as promptly as the Father of Being Himself, whatever might be the unrighteousness and the iniquity of his commands. If he does wrong, it must be hushed up in the pro- found silence of respect for his position. If he acts unjustly, he must for the same reason be obeyed; if he is a tyrant, he must not be resisted, because he represents the anointed of God. Hence, in its essen- tial principle, the teaching of the Church destroys the moral foundation of society. If a man deserves respect from his fellow-men simply from the posi- tion he may happen to occupy, without any reference to the virtue or the vice of his actions, then there is an end of all moral rectitude and of all distinctions between right and wrong in human action. If a man is to be equally as much respected when he does wrong as when he does right, when he does evil as when he does good, when he is unjust as when he is just, when he is selfish as when he is generous, when he is the impersonation of all evil as when it is the 344 M M)vv, I object of his life to do justly, to low w and to walk humbly with his God, — morality is but an idiot's jest, religion is a fable, and the Gospel, a fanatic's dream. And yet the reverence for men, simply because occupy a position, entirely irrespective of the cl ter of their personal acts, is the fundamental princi- pal of the teaching of the Church, and is so far in opposition to all British feeling. The law tells me that it creates the King, and that though he is the chief executor of its own commands, he is still its subject, and it commands my obedience to the authority with which it invests him. But it never asks me either to honour or to reverence his person, and it tells me also when he ceases to fulfil the condi- tions on which it invests him with royal authority he ceases to be king, and that he no longer holds any authority which demands my obedience or rei But the Church teaches me that the king, its head, occupies a position above all earthly authority, inde- pendent of all law, and above all human judgment ; and that, not by virtue of his office, but in his sole and individual personality, he is God's repn on earth, and that I am bound to honour and obey ban as long as he lives, because of that fact and in that character, whether he is the impersonation of* all goodness or the incarnation of all iniquity. And the church not only connects this teaching with the THE REST OF LABOUR. 345 king, its head, it also tells me to honour and obey all that are put in authority under him. The law teaches me to honour the authority, and to obey the legal exercise of that authority with which it invests any man who holds office under the king, but as to the person of such an officer, or his individual position in society, it leaves me to treat him according to his personal worth, just as I would treat any other man. But the Church proceeds a little further in her tender care of these officers of the government and men in authority. It tells me to submit myself to all my governors, teachers, spiritual pastors and masters unconditionally, and without any regard to their personal character. If I am a servant, and these good governors and masters of mine should abuse their little authority to the hurt of my person, my feelings, my character, or my property, it is still my duty quietly to submit to the sufferance of their unchecked iniquity as well as to their just and lawful demands. If I am a free labourer, and these governors, or masters, should cheat me, abuse me, or ill treat me ever so much in my subordinate relation to them, the Church still teaches me not only to do my legal duty to them, but to submit myself to them with all deference, and to behave myself to them with all personal respect. If I am a subject, and the oppression, the cruelty, the injustice, and the iniquity of these governors is Q 2 9 M SUNDAY, Id great, the Church still teaches me to bow with reverence and respect, not only to the rightful authority, but to the persons of these holders of authority and office under its head. For more than two hundred years the British nation published its determination not to yield to this teaching of the Church in letters of blood, and twice removed her immaculate head from the exer- cise of his illegal and forfeited authority as the chief officer of the state. But the nation has now taken a surer and a much more decided step in dealing with this subject. The people are now acting upon a system which in its very nature insures infallibility and lasting success to the prevalence of their own views. The Bible teaches every person who reads, that there is no respect of persons with God. That every man, the king and the subject, the governor and the governed, the master and the servant, the teacher and the taught, the pastor and the flock, stand exactly upon the same moral ground, and that . man is to be judged according to his own s. llie nation demands a new moral code of society, and if the Church is not prepared to Ripply ;ln want, it will leave her to sink into a well-merited oblivion, and seek its better system of morality where alone it is sure to be found. But the Church, by her fundamental principle of social teaching, not only destroys all the judicial THE REST OF LABOUR. 347 distinction between right and wrong in the official life of the state, she carries that same evil principle into all the relations of society, when she tells me to order myself lowly to all my betters ; because she teaches me, at the same time, that every person who has more riches, more property, and more wealth than I have, is for that reason my better. If a man should happen to be more subtle, more crafty, more cunning, more knavish than his neighbours, and by that means becomes the possessor of riches and the owner of property, the Church teaches me to behave myself lowly and reverently to him because of his position. He has successfully played the game of gain, and has, therefore, become my better. If a man is born to more wealth and to more property than I am, whatever may be his moral character, however profane may be his conversation, however lewd his manners, however unjust his dealings towards his fellow-man, however much he may be a despiser of all that is good, however far he may be from all that is pure and heavenly, and however much he may delight to revel in all that is earthly, sensual, and devilish, the Church still teaches me to behave myself lowly and reverently to that man because he is my better. If a man occupies any office, place, or trust, above my own social position, however much I may feel that he fails to fulfil the duties of that office, however much he may appear 348 DAY, to me to act unworthily ; though I may know him to be a swearer, a liar, and a thief; though my own observation of his activity may impress me with the fullest conviction that he is a slanderer of his brother, a covetous man, a hater of all that it lovely, of all that is virtuous, and of all that is of good report, a promoter of all that is evil, and a lover of all iniquity ; yet the Church tells me, that I am to behave myself lowly and reverently towards that man because he is my better. To this teaching the mind of the shrewd and ob- servant Briton feels an invincible objection. There is a certain amount of the natural culture of the religious faculty in his mind, however low and how- ever degraded he may be, and this gives him an inbred conviction of the incongruity of all such teaching as this with every principle of truth, of goodness, of justice, and of piety. Independently of all outward teaching he feels certain of the truth of this principle — that which is a virtuous action in one person is also a virtuous action in another, whatever may be the difference of the position which they actively occupy in the artificial scale of society. lit is quite certain that profanity, licentiousness, and injustice, are equally, as much vices in the kiiiL r the beggar; that just dealing, upright conduct, and :rity of mind, are equally as much necessary bo the constitution of an honourable character in the THE REST OF LABOUR. 349 governor as in the subject ; and that kind and manly feelings, humane behaviour, a generous soul, a tender heart, and a good disposition, are equally as necessary to the foundation of a character that deserves esteem in the rich as in the poor ; and without these estima- ble qualities, he feels that neither kings, governors, teachers, spiritual pastors nor masters are worthy of any especial personal regard or esteem ; and, more- over, it is his decided conviction, that neither station, property, nor wealth, can constitute a man his better. He feels an inwrought persuasion, that the only way in which any individual can possibly become his better, is by acting more purely, more generously, more justly, more truthfully, and more God-like than himself. And reading the Bible for his own instruction, with a mind unprejudiced by systems of human authority and official selfishness, he finds his own inbred convictions fully borne out by its most solemn and most direct teaching. Here, then, finding the whole of the Sabbatic teach- ing of the Church directly opposed to both his own convictions, and to the teaching of that Book from which the Church professes to derive all her principles and the whole of her authority, that large class of our brethren, who have been driven by the force of the circumstances of their position to think at all upon this subject, have lost all their sympathy with both the public worship and the teaching of the church, and have 35 DAY, determined upon finding a different way of spending then time on the day of rest. Doctor. — The remarks which might be made here we will, with your permission, defer to a future time. Mr. Charity. — They will come under considera- tion equally as well at the close of our next paper ; and, as that is shorter, it will afford us the more time for our discussion. THE REST OF LABOUR. 351 III. CLASS INFLUENCES. We have shewn that one of the greatest evils result- ing from the establishment of the Royal Church was the definite distinction of the whole population into two great classes— the rich and the poor, with sepa- rate and divided interests. It is our object now to consider this subject in some of its relations and consequences to the welfare of society. That society may work freely and healthily in its whole body, it is necessary that every one of its members should work together, that every several part should work for the good of the other, so as to produce the greatest happiness of the whole ; but, by the original separation of the whole people into rich and poor in the foundation of the Royal Church, without any common medium of union, the principle of classification has gone on working through every part of society until every man is a class — and we have been imperceptibly brought to the universal reign of selfishness. The great end and object of man's activity is his individual self, and his own per- sonal welfare— his self gain. Hence, that which alone DAY, a man distinction amongst his fellow men is not in any sense his organic property and wealth — his natural energy as the member of a race, his dis- position to social activity and useful exertion, his natural ability, his talents or his genius, which con- stitute the only true and real property of a man ; and the right use of all these which alone can make him a true and proper object of the superior esteem and regard of his fellow men. His whole title to distinction is founded upon the amount or the cir- cumstances of his selfishness. His artificial wealth, the accident of his birth, his inheritance of pro] or his personal tact in the art of gaining, which mast in the nature of things as a general rule result in his greater proficiency in the art of gaining. Few honest men are overburdened with the increase of wealth. Thus the great principle of activity in the life of men is artificial gain calling into exercise all the worst qualities in human nature 1 . The man who possesses the greatest amount cunning, whose subtilty is deeper than that ofhii low man, and who is more thoroughly possessed of the principles of craft than his neighbour, and the man who can put these principles into execution with the most consummate skill and with the greatest appearance of fair dealing before the world, becomes by that means the great object of li is country's regard, and lays the foundation of a family who are taught by THE REST OF LABOUR. 353 the Church to expect the lowly and reverent regard of the great mass of the people, who must by the natural law of property be the suffering losers by the inordinate gaining of the man of wealth. If when such a man becomes a successful gainer, as was customary in the middle ages, he should devote the greater part of that gain to the welfare of his brethren, instead of the setting up of a family of un- fruitful capitalists, who are to spend this gain in useless luxuries, gain would then lose the greater part of its social iniquity, though its amount of moral evil would still be but little diminished. This principle of gaining has not been limited in its object to the individual gainer, but his ideas of the end — beginning with himself are extended on from generation to generation of his children, and his children's children, through all the future posteri- ties of his race. The conflict of life is a school which Providence has ordained for a useful object in connection with the process of human probation in this world. To labour either for ourselves, or for the good of others, is a Divine appointment; and this arrangement of Providence is quite necessary both to the happiness and to the welfare not only of the individual but of the society of which the individual forms a part. In a healthy state of society every one must be employed, and there is no original reason why one person should 354 DAY, live without employment, and another should not be able by the most ardent and persevering industry to obtain a sufficiency to satisfy his humblest wants. The untutored British labourer argues that we arc all the children of one common parent, that He has given the earth to one as much as to the other of His children, and he sees how the wealth is obtained which supports the unfruitful and the useless class who enrich themselves without adding to the wealth of the world, and he feels that their fortune has to a great extent been amassed by the exercise of princi- ples which are no credit to human nature, much more to the teaching of Him whose first social lesson is " All things whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, do ye even so unto them/* He has weighed the money-getting efforts of his countrymen by the side of this principle, and he believes the balance to be decidedly against the great gainers and their unfruithful descendants. And yet when he goes to a church on a Sunday, he sees these very persons whom he feels to stand condemned before God and man, for the breach of the first principles of the Gospel, elevated to the highest plaee in the sanctuary, provided with a cushioned seat— their prayers encased in morocco or velvet and edged and clasped with gold. AVhile it is evident that they not only enjoy the favours of worldly fortune, but also the most complacent smiles of the presiding divinity of THE REST OF LABOUR. 355 the holy place. And while from year to year he, as the humble bee of society, becomes more and more despised in that holy place, he meets the canker-worm of his country in the form of a gilded butterfly, with its summer colours growing brighter and brighter every season, until he tires and sickens at the con- trast, and resolves to stay at home in disgust with an ungenerous world. The bright summer sun invites him out into na- ture's own temple where everything is joyous and natural ; with some reluctance — he obeys the call, and finds himself at perfect ease from the unholy feeling which drove him from the ancient seat of his fathers in the parish church. The scent of the flowers, the beautiful foliage of the trees, the green grass on which he sits with ease, the music of the birds while man is at rest, and the glorious sky above him are more in unison with his feelings than the scenes of wealth and fashion in the temple made with hands ; because in this temple the whole multitude of the motley assembly are treated alike, there is no respect of persons with the God who makes His dwelling and manifests His presence here. The labourer still sends his children to the Par- son's school, because he feels that he cannot get learning for them by any other means, which is all he wishes them to receive. He takes care to educate them himself in a hereditary dislike to the service of the 8UNDAY, temple of human mould, and a love for the freedom, tin- natural equality, if not for the Divine beauty ami the more than worldly grandeur of that which is made without hands. And nothing that the Church can ever do is likely to fetch him hack to the perverted worship of his fathers. For him its glory has departed, its life has fled, it has become to the poor man and his family a desert, a cage of un- clean birds, an abomination of desolation for ever and ever. It must be clear to every one who has ever taken tin- trouble to consider the subject with an unpre- judiced mind, that in order to give life, stability, and vigour to a national institution like the organization of a State Church, the body of its ministerial agency should have a sympathy and a fellow feeling with the whole body of the people, and that the first prin- ciple of its constitution should be the employment of talent from every part of the vast edifice of society. But it was the fundamental mistake of the Royal Church to make scholarship instead of the posse of talent, the essential criterion of fitness to be> the agent of its work. Whatever might be the moral and the religious character, and however hum- ble might be the scholarship of the members of the organic system of the church of the middle ages; the monastic system enabled the church to make talent the foundation of the choice of her working THE REST OF LABOUR. 357 body, and to gather this talent almost equally from every class of its members. But when the Royal Church destroyed the whole college life of the coun- try, she in that act took away from the great mass of society the means of obtaining any amount of learning. And when she at the same time consti- tuted mere scholarship, the sole ground of eligibility for the ministerial profession, she at once shut out the great body of the people from all representation in the ministry of the Church. And by that means she removed all real and material ground of sympathy, of affection, and of fellow feeling between the people and their appointed teachers. While the ministry itself became from that time entirely a money mono- poly, because scholarship is a commodity which it is in the power of every one in the possession of common sense to purchase with money, while talent is the natural gift of the Father of nature, and cannot be transferred from one individual to another. There is hardly a trade or an art in the country but what requires more talent to make a man a proficient in its craft than is required to reach that measure of scholarship, which the Church makes necessary to render a man fit for the ministerial office. Hence every village in the country can produce its men of more general talent than is commonly possessed by the representative of the Church, and the general conviction of the greater part of the thinking people 358 i>\y, it, that all the minister is fit for is to read his lesson and to say the prayers, which the people believe they can do and say equally as well at home as he does it at the church. And they conclude therefore that it is of no use whatever to go to the church to hear what they can just as well read at home. While the known and remarkable want of aptitude in the minister for any part of the business of common lite, has made him, notwithstanding his scholarship, alto- gether contemptible in the eyes of the multitude, and to be as ignorant as the parson has become a universal byword with the great mass of the common people. From the origin of society in this country to the foundation of the Royal Church by Henry the Eighth, learning, such as it was at the time, was to a great extent confined to a class. But the individuals of this class were supplied from all the different mem- bers of the one great social body. Such was the Druidical system, the college life of the first Chri>- tian disciples, and the monastic system of the medieval church. The military class and the man of property, up to the king himself, was as likely to be unlearned as the bondservant, the husbandman, and the shepherd. But each of these classes bad its re- presentative at the seat of learning, and therefore its representative also in all those offices in both the ehurch and the state, which learning alone enables HE REST OF LABOUR. a man to fill ; and in all that business of the country which the man of learning is best able to transact. And the natural result of this form of society was that the poor held a decided preponderance in the social scale. All our seats of learning, our ancient schools, colleges, halls, and universities were founded for the express purpose of aiding the poor of each and every section of society in the obtaining of learning. But the Royal Church has cut off all the influence of the great mass of the people in the state by the destruction iustead of the reformation of the monastic institutions, and by the shutting up of the avenues of learning against the child of poverty. Whatever the generosity of individuals may have done to give the children of the poor such an educa- tion as would raise them to influence, and enable them to exercise a moral power in the conduct of society, the Royal Church has contrived by some means or other to turn to the sole benefit of her wealthy children. Hence ignorance and poverty have prevailed in this country to a far greater ex- tent during the past two hundred years than they did in any former period of the nation's history, and more especially during a state of internal peace and prosperity. It is probable that no institution, no organization whatever, ecclesiastical, christian or hea- then, has ever done so much to debase, to degrade, and to enslave the great mass of the British people 360 nUT, as the organisation of the Royal Church, such an organization is the crusade of an institution against the* interests of human nature. Doctor. — Do you equally condemn all gaining, O? only one particular form of the pursuit of gain. Mr. Charity. — There are two distinct forms of gaining. In the one the individual gainer alone is enriched by his labours, and some one or more of his brethren must lose equally as much as he gains — this is gain by buying and selling or the exchang- ing of wares. In the other form of gain, hot only the individual gainer, but the world also is enriched by his efforts— this is gain by the production of some- thing which did not exist before, or which did not exist in the same form and under the same circum- stances. Rachel. — There must be an essential diffei betwixt these two forms of the pursuit of gain. Mr. Charity. — The first of these forms of gaining irhen it is followed out to the amassing of wealth is entirely inconsistent with the principles of the Gos- pel, and the welfare of society. Tl. (1 is both conducive to the welfare of humanity and in sympa- thy with the teaching of the Author of the G< Because while the gainer is enriching himself he tl also enriching the world. Doctor. — I am quite certain thai I need not tell a churchman of your experience, that many good men THE REST OF LABOUR. 361 connected with the Church have felt a very great dif- ficulty in managing that part of her moral teaching which is dwelt upon in these papers. They have felt also how utterly incongruous this teaching is with the principles of the Word of God, and with the common sense of the people. There is perhaps no part of the Church system to which the great mass of the people have a greater objection than this teaching of obedience to the persons of those who are in authority. Mr. Charity. — From the miners of the north of England to the inmates of the cellars of London, I have had to meet the exhibition of this feeling. Everywhere there is a manifestation of a general willingness to submit to law and executive authority, and an equal unwillingness to submit to the per- sonal will and the individual authority of any man whatsoever. Mrs. Bell. — The Apostle Peter tells us that we arc to fear God and honour the King. How does this agree with your principles ? Doctor. — The same Apostle tells us that we are to honour all men. And it is very probable that the particular exhortation to honour the King arose from the fact of the existence in the Apostle's days of a feeling among some of the Christian Jews, that they had a call from Heaven to overturn the government of the Roman Empire, and to establish in its stead a R • DAY, temporal dominion of Jesus as the Messiah. And to thwart this object the Emperor Domitian proposed the extermination of the whole house of David. Ma. Charity. — The Gospel was undoubtedly des- tined to overthrow the government of the Roman Umpire, as it is all other governments of the same < haracter ; but this is to be done not by the strength of arms, but by the irresistible force of opinion, and therefore every Christian is bound to honour the authority of the civil governor as long as he e\( n that authority according to the laws of his office, and the conditions on which he exercises the functions of government. Mrs. Bell. — On what ground do you represent the organization of the lloyal Church as a greater evil to society than the organism of the Church of the middle ages ? Mr. Charity. — The Western Church of the middle ages was a federal republic, with an elective president m the person of the Pope; but the or- ganization of the Royal Church is that of an absolute monarchy, with UI hereditary autocrat RS its head and fountain of authority. (ii;\i:. — I thought the British government* limited monarchy. At falsi ire endeavour to make M-iw ■ believe so. Mb. Charity. — The office of King, as denned by our great legal authorities, from the u Mirror o* THE REST OF LABOUR. Justice," which reaches back to the age of Alfred, to the " Commentaries" of Blackstone, in the reign of George the Third, is that of the responsible head of the state. They represent the King as the chief officer of the commonwealth, and as bound to execute the functions of his office according to the laws of the country ; but the Eoyal Church represents the King as God's Vicegerent upon earth, as reigning entirely by Divine right, and as the fountain of all other right and authority in the nation. Rachel. — There is, then, a distinct difference between the position of the King as the head of the State, and the King as head of the Church. Doctor. — The two things are perfectly distinct in their origin. The King was head of the State many centuries before he was head of the Church, and he might cease to be the head of the Church now, and still be the head of the State. Mr. Charity. — If the organization of the Church itself is an evil to society, it must in the nature of things be better to have the head of that organism, a foreigner, at a distance, than to have him at home and at our own door. But, above all, it would be better that the interests of the head of the State and the head of the Church should not be centred in one and the same individual. Grace. — To strip the English Church of her gar- ment of royalty would be to rob her of all the glory n M>AV, and beauty in which she has beeD arrayed for three hundred yean. Mr. Charity. — I certainly have no wish to strip our spiritual mother of the diadem and the purple in old age and decrepitude; but I feel that the union of political and ecclesiastical supremacy in one ii , reigning by Divine right, is the greatest curse of human society, because it is the concentrated union in one individual of the two greatest evils that afflicted the world. Doctor. — And there is in some respects an addi- tional evil when that union is sought to be effected in the person of the sovereign of Britain, because in him the two elements are kept in a state of con- tinual conflict, the State teaching one thing and the Church another. Mr. Charity. — The history of British royalty for the last three hundred years is the story of one con- tinned conflict between absolute right and official authority — the teaching of the Church and the prin- ciples of the constitution. But the great mass of the people have now taken the side of the constitu- tion, and have determined the issue of the conflict at unci for e\rr. ;s. Bell. — You appear, Mr. Charity, to have some considerable favour for the monastic institu- tions, which we have been taught to look upon as the pests of society in the middle ages. THE REST OF LABOUR. 365 Mr. Charity. — I have no particular liking for these institutions as monastic institutions, but I have some considerable favour for the College system, which was the original of these institutions. Rachel. — But you would not entirely condemn the monastic institutions themselves, as cither useless or vicious. Mr. Charity. — By no means; on the contrary, I consider them the best institutions of their age, and more beneficial to the concurrent state of society than any institutions which have existed since their destruction. Mrs. Bell. — But what do you think of their character as religious institutions ? Mr. Charity. — I look upon them solely and en- tirely as social institutions. I know nothing of religion as an institution. The God of Creation and of the Bible, whom I profess to serve, has never treated religion as an institution. And therefore you will excuse an answer. Rachel. — Wilt thou favour us with some general idea of the college system out of which the monastic institutions arose, that we may judge of its merits for ourselves ? Me. Charity. — In ancient times a college was a sort of literary village, in which a number of indi- viduals or families were gathered together for the mrposes of learning and study. The members of the 366 DAT, institution appear to have spent part of their time in industrial pursuits, and the other part in the pursuit of learning, study, contemplation, and devotion. Their property formed one common stock, out of which every one received that which was sufficient for his wants and necessities, but none of them any individual property so long as he lived in the institution. Mrs, Bell. — Did you not mention families in connection with college life ? I have always under- stood that college life necessarily excluded the idea of a family. Mr. Charity. — The British college system in- cluded the idea of a family down to the seventh century of our era. Everything different to this is a foreign importation into the old national culture of the race. Grace. — That entirely alters the character of col- lege life, in my estimation of its use to society. But I must ask, Where did the families live? Mr. Charity. — The families connected with the college appear to have lived on the outskirts of the property, while those who were unmarried were boarded and lodged in the common hall of the institution. Doctor. — Do you think the re-institution of col- lege life would be beneficial to society in the pi age? THE REST OF LABOUR. 367 Mr. Charity. — This is a question which I shall be happy to discuss at another time. I think it would have been far better to reform the monastic institu- tions in the sixteenth century, than to destroy the col- lege system altogether. Grace. — The ministerial life of our Lord and his Apostles is a very beautiful example of the college system, in its itinerating form and its teaching character. Mb. Charity. — And as such it is worthy of our most attentive consideration. 368 sr\i).\v, IV. RELIGIOUS TEACHING. From the direct social teaching of the Church, and its natural results in respect to the character of man as a member of society, we now turn to the con- sideration of the social influence of the relationship in which the Church places man to the Divine Being ; to examine the working of that principle which the Church considers to be the sum of the religious life of the Christian ; and to inquire into the beneficial influence of the manifestation of this life in his con- nection with his fellow-man — that principle which the Church puts forth as the whole sum of the inner and outer life of the Christian. That which the Church of Britain considers to be the sum of the religious life of the Christian may be fairly expressed by the term Faith — faith, as the gift of God, and its whole outer Life by an attendance on means of grace. And it is our object now to in- quire — What benefit society can expect to derive from the system of Given Faith and of means of What has this religion of faith and of THE REST OF LABOUR. 360 means of grace done for man, or what can we expect it to do for society ? ' Those who teach this system generally maintain that faith is a something communicated to man by Divine influence, at some definite period of his existence. And that towards the reception of this principle the individual himself can do nothing but attend upon the public ordinances of the Church, in the doing of which it is expected that he will some day receive the communication of this Divine principle. And in that instant the individual becomes a be- liever. He who the instant before was a sinner under Divine condemnation, has now become a saint of God and lives in the favour of Heaven — and that entirely through the reception of this Divine principle of faith. It is expected that he who has received this principle will not steal, will do no murder, will not commit adultery, will be no fornicator or unclean person, will not swear; that he will neither be a drunkard, nor a man of mere worldly pleasure; that he will pay all deference and respect to his superiors, and all obedience to those who are in authority; that he will regularly go to church, and devoutly and reverently say his prayers, and attentively listen to the sermon of the preacher, as the word of God deli- vered to man by the especially appointed messenger of Heaven and the Divinely ordained minister of God to the world. Prom this view of the Christian r 2 370 DAY, life it is evident that it must have but a vt vy influence on society. Nearly the whole of its - m is already provided for by legal restraints; nearly the whole of its moral code is of the out wait I lite, and is mostly enforced on men by human i ments. But we must enter more particularly into the character of its social claims. The religion of faith and of means of grace is a religion of self — the isolated individual. It is in the nature of this principle to concentrate nearly the whole business of religion in the person of the indi- vidual believer, and in the Object of his faith. It teaches him to look upon himself, and the few who are, like himself, the subjects of this supposed Divine influence, as the only objects of the Divine The misery, the wretchedness, the degraded condi- tion, and the destitution of the great mass of the people, are of small concern to him, because they are the natural misfortune of those who have not re- ceived the like faith with himself. If men are in a state of slavery, it is the curse of their race. It' men are born to poverty and destitution, it is the ordina- tion of Providence that there should always be m the land. If men are in sorrow and affliction, it is because they are of the unbelieving multitude, who lie under the curse of a just and holy God. It is the believer's duty to provide that no believing brother shall be destitute of any of the common THE 11EST OF LABOUR. 371 necessaries of this life. But to feed the hungry and to clothe the naked sinner ; to assist the unbelieving sick, and the imprisoned criminal, makes no part of the life of a religion of faith and of means of grace. The religion of faith and of means of grace gives no moral object to human exertion. The voice of the religion of faith to every man is, Come to the house of God and hear the words of Heaven. Believe and be saved. The whole object of this religion is the deliverance of man from the wrath to come. And to effect this object, the great work to be done is to attend upon the means of grace, and there to stand still and see the salvation of God. The whole of this salvation is a thing to be done for the sinner, either without or within his own person. He can do nothing towards effecting his salvation himself. And when he shall appear at the judgment of the great day, it is not according to his own works he is to be judged, not according to what he has himself done, but according to what the triune God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost have done for him. When the believer appears at the bar of Jesus Christ, the judgment of the great white throne will not be pronounced upon the deeds hs has done in the body — will in no degree rest upon the right feelings of his heart and the right activity of his mind as a follower of Christ — but it will be wholly and entirely determined according to the DAT] measure of the righteousness of Christ he ha- eeived through the working of tlie Holy Spirit in his faithful mind. The religion of faith and of means of foundation in the good of man. Religion itself, which consists in the worship of the Divine Being, can have no reference to man whatever ; but the religious life cannot exist in that abstract form. It was not good to the mind of the Creator that man should live alone in this world. And as it pleased the Father to constitute man a social being, He has made his religious life to a for the most part in the due fulfilment of his social duties. God is the first and the last object of reli- gion, and the first object of the religious life is to glorify God; but in our present position in this world, we can duly fulfil this object only by a right behaviour to our fellow-creatures. Not only is it impossible to separate our duty to God from our duty to our neighbour, but it is impossible that we can perform our duty to God in any other v. ay than by doing our duty to man. We n for what we need, and we may give praise and I tion for what wc receive; but if these do not spring from a right mind, and a disposition to do y and to love mercy, the prayers and the praises will never either he heard in heaven or answered upon earth. However devoutly we may bring our gift to THE REST OF LABOUR. 373 the altar, if it comes from art ungenerous heart and an unfriendly mind it can find no acceptance with the Ruler of the world. If we only pray for our- selves and for our friends, and forget the evil world around us, the God of heaven will only mock our vain entreaties and scorn the selfish adoration of our uncharitable minds. If a man love not his bro- ther, with whom he passes his daily life, whom he sees, hears, and with whom he converses on the common business of the world, how can he love God, who is invisible, and whom he has never seen, but as He is manifested in His works ? The foundation of the culture of the Divine Life in every man begins with himself ; it then extends to his fellow-man, and finally reaches his Father in Heaven. But the religion of faith has no sympathy with the human ; it looks not upon the man ; it cannot stoop to the consideration of human relationship ; it finds no pleasure in the beginning of the religious life, with the denying of ourself, and the love of our brother. Pass- ing by such trifles as repentance, the control of self, and the culture of the Divinity — obscured it may be, but still really and truly there — the religion of faith, pluming her feathers and spreading her angel wings in the atmosphere of the means of grace, delights to soar at once from the lowest depths of human infamy to the highest heaven of righteousness and purity, and still to acknowledge that the man of faith is in SUNDA1 j himself, as unrighteous and impure as when be hud no faith at all. He is not righteous within himself, nor before his fellow-man ; but God has giten him the righteousness of another ; and because he is clothed with that transferred righteousness, God is pleased to account him righteous, however vile sinful he may be. The purity he has is not his purity, but it is the imparted purity of the indwelling of a Divine Being — the Holy Spirit dwelling within him. It is this fact of the believer's righteousness being wholly and entirely the righteousness of another transferred to him, and of the believer's purity being nothing more nor less than the purity of an Infinite Being given to him, which constitutes the uselessness of the religion of faith and of means of grace to society. Society does not want a man who is accounted righteous because he is arrayed in the righteousness of another, but because he is himself righteous — not merely accounted righteous, but who is really and truly in the upright, plain, common-sense meaning of the term, a righteous man. To be of use to society, 1 man must not only please himself with the idea that righteous, because he is clothed in the garment of the righteousness of another, but he must manifest a righteous activity in his whole dealing with his fel- low-men. 1 1 owever pure a man may dream himself to be, because he fancies that a holy being dwells within THE REST OF LABOUR. 3J5 him, who has no dwelling with the faithless and the unbelieving, the world will expect that he will let the light of his pnrity so shine before men, that they may see his good works and feel the purity of his life. And if these good works do not appear to bless the world with their heavenly light, society will justly scorn the pretensions of that man as a filthy dreamer, and cover him with righteous contempt in the merited ignominy of his own self-delusion. For ages the genius of social progress has stood before the Royal Church with extended hand and earnest heart, and prayed, and entreated her sons to come and work in her vineyard, but their only answer has ever been : i( Oh, my leanness, my lean- ness, my whole head is sick, my whole heart is faint/' When the Church has been asked for righteousness and integrity of life, her only answer has been : u Believe, rehearse the articles of thy faith, and come to my altar and be saved." When she is asked for the light of Purity, her only answer has been a con- fession of utter uncleanness and impurity. " We have no works of our own, meet for repentance to manifest to the world, for all our righteousness is as filthy rags. The heart of man is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked — a cage of unclean birds, there is in us no good thing whatsoever.'* The religion of faith, and of means of grace, con- tains within itself no devolopment of human activity. si \|)AV, The beginning of the life, of the religion, of faith, and of means of grace, is not an act of man, but the gift of an (indefinable something from the Divine Being. As the teachers of this religious system have never agreed upon what this something, which they call faith is — only that it is the gift of God, it would be the highest presumption in me to pretend to define either its essence or its qualities. What the world generally means by faith is the believing and the resting upon something which another has said or done ; and this is a common act of the mind, and can in no other sense whatever be said to be the gift of God than knowing, thinking, or speaking are Divine gifts. God gives to man a power to think, and to know, and an ability to speak, and in precisely the same way lie gives him the power to believe ; but He neither does nor can give to any man thinking, speak- ing, knowing, or believing — talk, thought, knowledge, or faith, because these are simply and absolutely the acts of his own being. But whatever faith may really be, we know this one thing about what it is said to be — That it is not the offspring, the Divine unfolding of the culture, of the inner life and acti- vity of man, but a something which God lias given to man entirely separate from his own spiritual being, and as such whatever present or future benefit it may be to the being who receives the Divine gift, it is of little benefit to society. A religious life, to be of )enefit to society, must have its foundation in the cultivation of the sources and springs of human activity. But the religion of faith also assumes one other gift to man besides the gift of faith itself. The Holy Spirit, we are told, is an Infinite Person which is given to man on his reception of the gift of faith. How it happens that an Infinite Person can be Infi- nite and not be in man, is a question which lies very much beyond the bounds of my comprehension. And how one Infinite Being can make a gift of ano- ther Infinite Being to any creature whatever, is a subject which my power of apprehension has no abi- lity to reach. But we do understand that the self- same Divinity is essentially present in every part of the Creation, so as that it may be said, in Him we live, and move, and have our being. And we do know that the Divine Father may manifest His presence to one part of his creatures in a very dif- ferent way to that in which He manifests Himself to others; and that though He may be working in each, it is very possible that this working may be of a very diverse character in different individuals, and that while one person is fully conscious of this working, and derives great happiness from that consciousness, the other may be altogether unconscious of any working of the Divine Father within him, and think nothing of his dependance upon the indwelling Divi- nity. And such a person can receive no feeling of 378 BUKDATj happiness from the indwelling of the Spirit of eter- nity in his mind. If the gift of faith is a principle which in its own nature as a gift constitutes a man Righteous, and if the gift of the Holy Spirit in its own nature as a Divine gift constitutes a man pure before God, by the mere fact of its indwelling; that religion, whatever benefit it may be to the individual, must in its very nature be of the smallest benefit to society, because such a religion is simply the gift of something to man, and not the working of any- thing in man or the use of anything by man. Such a religion as this treats man as a mere receiver, and not as a doer, as a passive agent, and not as an actor; but society wants a religion in which the religious man is himself a worker, so that others seeing his good works may glorify his Father which is in hea- ven. An agent, labouring with and amongst his fellow-men, like a city set upon a hill which cannot be hid. A lamp in a dark world — a light which sheds the lustre of its benign purity over all the surrounding darkness of human lite. The religion of Faith contains within itself no eulture of the inner life of man. It is impossible to look upon human nature with a mind unshackled by sy-tcms of human prejudice, and theories of human folly, and not to see that there exists in men a disposition to evil, and an opposite feeling prompting him to overcome that evil, and to THE REST OF LABOUR. 37 ( J keep this vicious principle in subj ction to a higher and better life. And there is no doubt but that under a proper education, without the contamination of a wicked world, the principle of self-control would be as likely to prevail in the mind of a man as the disposition to evil. This principle of self-control is a faculty natural to humanity, as natural and as univer- sal as the disposition to evil. The disposition to evil is the natural offspring of the imperfect organism, and the diseased organic life which every man receives from his parent in the natural course of generation, and the principle of self-control is a natural faculty of the spirit of man which he receives with the gift of his being from the Father of Spirits, from whom cometh every perfect gift. A religion to be useful to society must be a religion whose foundation is laid in the exercise of self-control. Society wants a reli- gion which teaches a man to control his tempers, to control his appetites, to control his propensities, his passions, and his prevailing disposition, his whole nature, and the whole energies of his being. A religion to be of use to society must also be a religion of self-exertion. The religious life of a man must be his own work . God has given to every man the power to lead a religious life, but that life itself must be the exercise of the power which God has given. God cannot live for him. He must work out his own deliverance from the evil that is within him, 380 SUNDAY, and the evil that is in the world, because God is continually working in him to give him power and ability to do this work. No man can save himself from evil, as no tree can bear fruit of itself, without the Divine Being giving him the power to doit; but when the Divine Being has given him the power, it is for the man himself to exert that power for his own deliverance, or he never will be delivered. Faith is the foundation of all social action, but hov strongly a drowning man believes he may be saved by the ability of his friend, he will never reach the shore without his own effort ; because without that, however much his friend may hold out his hand for his deliverance he must sink to the bottom at once. So, however much a man may believe in a deliverer, who is alike able, willing, and ready to save him, he will never be saved, but through his own effort to use the means which the deliverer places within his power. It is in the very nature of a religious life to be a life of exertion. God has already given the power to ererj man to lead a religious life, and it remains for man himself to use that power in order that he may ■■livered from evil. The work of a religions life i> a work which a man must be-in himself in the depths of his own heart, and the secret places of his own feeling. The Divine power is already there, hut the exercise of that power rnnst be his own work. Society wants a religious life, which begins in the THE REST OF LABOUR. inmost nature of man by changing his mind, by re- newing his disposition, and by ennobling and elevat- ing his spirit above the power of the flesh ; a religion which proceeds by a continual assimilation of the nature of man to the nature of God ; and a conti- nual participation of all the powers, the faculties, the feelings, and the activities of the human in the character of the Divine nature. With such a religion as this continually working as a living agent, a leaven in the great mass of society, Righteousness, Justness, and Integrity, Goodness, Piety, and Godli- ness, will continually increase in the earth, as the flowing river increases in its progress from the foun- tain to the sea, by the continual gathering of strength from affluent sources, until the small stream has become a torrent of mighty waters sufficient to over- flow the earth. The religion of faith and of means of grace carries all the hopes and the expectations of man beyond the bounds of the present life. No truth is more certain than that the existence of man is a state of interminable being. His immor- tality begins at his birth, and goes on in one un- broken continuity of existence, to the farthest age of eternity. Society wants a religion, then, which not only promises man immortal felicity in the future life, but which actually blesses him in this world. And a religion, too, which makes him an actual, sub- stantial, and real blessing to his fellow-man on earth. 382 sundw. The religion of faith may inspire a man with lino feelings of the invisible glories of the future, may fill his mind with the most exquisite sensibilities of the grandeur of white robes, palms of victory, golden crowns, and the melody of angelic songs, and it may give him a hope that he himself may strike the golden harp, that he shall occupy a royal seat, and drink of crystal fountains in the paradise of the great Kin- ; but society, with more prudent enthusiasm and a more sober fancy, wants a religion which tells a man that lie has duties to perform in this world — duties to himself, duties to his fellow-creatures, duties to Christ, and duties to God. A religion which sets him about doing these duties as the great business of his lite, so that it may be said of him, as it was said of the great Example of all religion, that He went about doing good. Society wants a religion which sees God, and ac- knowledges the constant working of God in the spiritual as well as in the natural world. A religion which sees God, beginning with man at his beginning, and going on with him as he grows up to maturity; a religion which makes the participation of man in the Divine nature the great end of his being. A man without God — if such a thing could possibly ha] in this evil world — would be to all intents and pur- poses a mere fiend. If Infinite goodness creates a man pure and free from all corruption, and that being becomes a rebel against the Divine benefactor, THE REST OF LABOUR. 383 there can be no sacrifice of justice in allowing him to remain so. But the religion of faith teaches us that men are born fiends, born under the curse of God, and created by His own hand under the sentence of eternal perdition; and that so they live, and so they die, unless God is pleased to give them faith through the means of grace, and thereby of His own will to bring them to everlasting felicity. It is in this world of unbelieving men, who are said to be born the children of wrath and damnation, and for the greater part of whom it is said the God of Love feels no regard — it is this unbelieving world that the believing priest and Levite, with his eye intently fixed on the heaven of his own imparted holiness, calmly passes by, dropping, it may be, a tear on its cursed fate, and thanks Heaven that he has been remem- bered in the covenant of redeeming love. The glow of charity has never warmed his heart for those who hate him and despise his Master. The felicity of a kindly affection has never led him to love those who neglect the Saviour and who do not love himself. His heart is a stranger to the happy feeling of the man who can do good to him that hates him, and pray for him that despitefully uses him and per- secutes him. These are vulgar matters, and below his consideration ; his thoughts are in heaven, far above all these earthly things. May he not be de- ceived in finding himself there. 384 n\Y, generating waters, sovereign grace, impa righteousness, the hearing of faith, the gift of an in- dwelling Divine Being, and the life-giving virtue of consecrated dements, may prepare the man of faith for the fancied glories of an ideal future, but they can never give to his religion the promise of the life that now is — they can never constitute hiin a real matter-of fact, beneficial member of society. They may elevate him to a place out of the sympathies of this life, but they can never make him the salt of the earth and the light of the world. And in this respect it is no matter to soc whether the gifts of grace arc conveyed to man through a regenerating baptism, or through the hearing of the preacher's word; and whether he justified and sanctified through the medium of eon- rated elements, or through that of a Divine faith. It still amounts to the same thing — that the religious life of a man is not a something which changes and renews his own spiritual nature, and brings him to the performance of righteous actions, and to think pure thoughts and to feel good feelings; but it is simply the righteousness of another, with which his own un- righteousness is covered before God, and the purity of another dwelling within bira, hiding the evil which is thereby in some degree prevented, but by no means removed. A religious life, to be of use to society, must not only be a something which prepares man iour. 385 for felicity in the next world, but a Divine culture which makes a man something in this world, a pro- cess by which a man awakes to exertion on earth, and rises to activity in following the motions of the Divine which dwells within him. A Divine culture, in the process of which a man controls the whole sense of his being, and brings it into subjection to the law of the Spirit. In the process of which the unjust becomes just, the unrighteous follows after righteousness, in which the impure struggles after purity j a process in which the evil cultivate good- ness, in which the selfish become generous, and the human is made in some degree like the Divine; a reli- gion working in man, and not merely given to man. Such a religion as this would make a very valuable impression on the great mass of society ; its influence would elevate the individual, would bless the family, would chase away the demon of social discord, would purify the whole stream of national life, and would finally renovate the world. But the religion of faith and of means of grace lays its cold and icy hand on the whole surface of society, dries up all the fountains of human pity for the evil that exists in the world, absorbs all the generous feeling of man for his fellow-man, and writes the curse of eternal perdition on the existence of nine- tenths of the intelligent creation, as the well-merited reward of the neglect of a Father to call them to 3S6 MAY, salvation, -who has revealed the moral character of government, ill that infinite generosity of feeling which makes His sun to rise upon the evil and the good, and His rain to descend in equal streams of bounty on both the just and the unjust, and His kind- ness to flow down to the unthankful and the evil. If such are the feelings produced by the prevailing religious life of the present religious system of Britain ; if such are the feelings with which the open and avowed professors look down upon the of mankind, who, then, can be astonished that the great wicked world should find no interest in its Sunday performances. It must give the great mass of mankind but little sympathy with its whole work. !i they enter the temple, if there is room at all found for them, it is in its meanest place. When the poor man meets his fellow-worshipper from its places, it is not to receive the outpouring of a kindly sympathy and a generous feeling, but either to meet the demand for a base and obsequious bow to the patronising dignity of a master of slaves, or the worse contempt of the superior of a degraded caste; and when he hears the voice of the priest, it > often only to palliate the vices and the follies of his betters, and to condemn him to unmitigated wrath and everlasting perdition for his own, as a man of an evil spirit and a reprobate mind. Charity covereth a multitude of sins. There is no respect of persons with (Jod. THE REST OF LABOUR. V. THE RESULTS. We have now stated what we believe to be the prin- cipal reasons, why the great mass of the people of this country have come in the course of time to neglect the public worship of the church, and to feel a repugnance to all public worship whatsoever in places consecrated to that pursose. We have shewn that as long as public worship acknowledged the fundamental principles of British society, and as such the great principles of nature ; the perfect original equality of men as members of society, and treated man as man, whatever might be the accident of his position ; and so long as public worship made the good of society the great end and object of its labours, eschewing all ideas of class and acknowledging the gifts of God to men wherever they were to be found, and under whatever circumstances the man existed who possessed these gifts — so long public worship was respected, and the people willingly and joyfully attended upon its performance. But when the whole system had entirely changed its character under the organism of the Royal Church, and when 388 SUNDAY. the religious life of the country had entirely changed the fundamental element of its development, then the people began to tire of the performance of public worship, and to grow weary of any connection with the manifestation of the popular religious life of the country. Such are the causes, on the side of the church, which have brought about the great social revolution of our age in the outer form of the religious life of the British race. Such are the moral forces which arc undermining the foundation of the whole Sabbatic system of the religion of modern Britain ; and these forces are undoubtedly designed to work on, under the guiding hand of Eternal Providence, until the name and the profession of Christianity is delivered from the awful burden of ecclesiastical organism, which has veiled all the Divinity of its character, and paralysed all the heavenly energies of its Divine life in different forms, from the age of Constantine down- wards to the present time. The feeling of the present day had its origin in a repugnance to the abuses of the system, but it lias long since taken a wider view of the subject, and a bolder step than this ; and it is now not with the abuses only, but with the system itself that it is pre- pared to wage a mortal strife, until the whole system is exterminated from the earth. Never had the British mind a more full and thorough appreciation of THE REST OF LABOUR. 389 the value of the Gospel itself, and never had the world such a thorough determination to the accom- plishment of any object as that which now possesses the British mind, to eschew all that which the church has falsely put forth as the religion of Jesus. The religious life has its foundation in the exercise of the religious faculty, which is as natural to the spiritual nature of man as the faculty of apprehension or judgment, and is as universal in man as the exist tence of human nature. Every man is naturally religious, though but few men are rightly so ; and therefore the foundations of the religious life are independent of the teaching of all religious systems. The object of the Gospel is not to give man a reli- gious life, but to correct, to renew, to elevate, and to perfect that which is natural to his spiritual being. In inquiring then into the essential principle of the religious life of a people, our chief business is not with the form of the outer profession and the organism of its public worship, so much as with that inner principle which gives birth to the will, and directs the activities of men, and it is the nature of this principle which constitutes the difference between the religious life of the present day and the religious life of the middle ages. Whatever might be the faith of the Church of the middle ages, and whatever might be the character of its public worship, the essential principles of its inner 390 8UNDAY, life most Undoubtedly exercised a better influence on ban the principle of the religious life of the last three hundred years. There was something in the un folding of the activity of the religious life of the middle ages, more civilizing, more kindly, more more generous, more noble, more humanizing, and more (iodlike, than in the general character of modern religious life. There was more feeling for the wretched, more sympathy for the vile and the able, more effort to raise the down -trodden and to assist the helpless, more regard to the inherent tfl of humanity, and a more thorough acknow- ledgment of the inborn genius and talent of the whole family of man. A more thorough acknow- ledgment of the truth that man is man, independent of all circumstances, all accidents, and all positions of his being, than has ever been manifested in the religious system of modern times* We may consider, then, that the great original and fundamental principle of the religious life of tin lie ages was — Benevolence — the Good of man. For this they planted their little monastic eol< in the uncultivated parts of the country, for this they cultivated their lands, and for this they pract and improved all the useful and many of the orna- mental arts, and for this they instructed the people in all that they believed to be beneficial or useful to society ; not to fit them for the station in life in THE REST OF LABOUR. 391 which they found them, but to improve their con- dition and to elevate them to something better. That great revival of the religious life in Britain in the seventh century of the Gospel, through the agency of the native northern missionaries, which was finally transfused into the medieval church by Roman influence, found the nation in the conflict of a political revolution which established a Saxon dynasty in the government of Britain. It triumphed over all the opposition of martial barbarism, and converted the half-blood descendants of these German pirates and hunters into the first men in Europe. It moulded the offspring of the governing foreigner and the governed native into one British family. It then sent out its missionaries of religion and social improvement, successively to humanise, to civilize, and to christianize the whole of the centre and the north of Europe, from the Black Forest to the Frozen ocean. It civilized and recivilized the Danes and the Northmen, from the north of Europe, as they settled in its country, and converted their sons into the most renowned men in the world. And much more than thi3, it brought up the whole of the great mass of the population from the ignorance, the degradation, and the bondage into which they had fallen, by long continued internal wars and social discord, to a high degree of refinement, to an unsur- passed artistic taste and skill, and to a general 392 DAY, lorn in every tiling but the utterance of ecclesias- tical opinion, on which later ages have made lmt little improvement. And though the generality of the people, either rich or poor, were not taught to read, yet their degree of mental refinement was far higher than ours is at the present time. We look in vain now for the artistic taste and the skill which raised and adorned our national buildings, and wrote and decorated our ancient manuscripts ; and we seek in vain for the same love of painting, sculpture, poetry, and music, among the mass of the people of this day, which formed the foundation of the merry England of the middle ages. But far beyond all this even, where do we find in our modern days the generous, the noble, and the elevating feeling of the great brotherhood of human- ity, as enunciated by Alfred the Great, when he declared that all men are born equal, and that he wished all his countrymen to be as free as their own thoughts. Where, in the religion of these times, shall we find the working of that Divine generosity, which not only fed the hungry, clothed the naked, and welcomed the stranger to the comforts of a home, but which also provided the means by which every man might find his just level in society; which edu- cated the poor equally as much as it did the rich, which gave to every man the power of attaining to that position in the social scale for which nature had THE REST OF LABOUR. 393 itted him, and which laboured to give to the ex- istence of every man a useful aim, by making him the owner of something himself. In the middle ages the great motive principle of the religious life was the good of man. The great object of that life was not the good of the individual self, but the welfare of society, the benefit of the great mass of humanity. And though the men of that day were far behind those of our own age in their profi- ciency in many of the useful arts, and in the knowledge of most of the sciences, and though the ecclesiastical organism with which they were connected might be ever so much inferior to our own ; yet in that most useful of all sciences the science of social happiness, and in that most valuable of all human arts the art of securing the welfare and of increasing the happi- ness of the mass of mankind, they were immeasurably our superiors, because the brotherhood of humanity, good will to man, was the fundamental principle of their religious life. Why has selfishness become the mainspring of our activity ? Why have we broken up society into se- parate distinct and divided interests ? Why have the poor no representatives in the temple of learning ? Why are the offices of the church, the government, and the army, the peculiar inheritance of the rich and their friends ? Why have the poor, the great pro- ducers of the wealth of the country, been robbed, de^ I 2 SUNDAY, spoiled, and trodden down, and their children cast out from all power and interest in the cornmon- - if nature had reserved all her bounties of OS and talent to bless the inheritance of property and wealth? Why, but that the staple of our religious life has degenerated from the high and noble charac- ter which it bore in the mind of our fathers. W hy when our arts increased ? Why when the tender sapling of our trade grew up into the noblest tree of the forest ? Why when our commerce expan- ded and covered the whole earth with its wide-spread wings? Why when our Island race increased and multiplied exceedingly and replenished the earth with her children ? Why when our national power has risen to the highest summit of human majesty ? Why when our profession of Christianity is acknow- ledged to be beyond that of all the other nations of the earth ? Why has not the increase of the social welfare of the great mass of the people kept pace with the increase of our national greatness? Why, but that we have entirely changed the fundamental prin- ciple of our activity, and have substituted a theoretic faith lor benevolence, as the working element of our ions life. Why is it that the science of social happiness baa not kept up a continual march onwards, commensu- rate with the gigantic progress of our national expan- sion? Why have we outraged every feeling of human- THE REST OF LABOUR. 395 and trampled upon every principle of virtue by enslaving one part of the great family of man to serve the purpose of our own unbridled selfishness, while we are daily exterminating another from the earth as the innocent victims of our cursed lust of gain ? Why with all the religious profession, the vaunted purity of our faith and the strictness of our Sabbatic observance, do several parts of our own island present us with scenes of filthiness, misery, wretchedness, and female degradation, unparalleled in the whole history of civilized society ; and before which the family of the barbarian of the forests of Africa or America would stand abashed and turn aside with feelings of horror, disgust, and contempt ? Why can all this have happened, but that our religious life has dege- nerated from the high and godlike character which it bore when its working principle was that which en- abled the child of fallen humanity to say, " I was an hungered and ye gave me meat j I was thirsty and ye gave me drink j I was a stranger and ye took me in ; naked and ye clothed me ; I was sick and ye visited mc; I was in prison and ye came unto me." For ages our religious life has been spent in saying Lord, Lord, instead of doing the will of our Father which is in heaven. We have believed, and in so far we have done well, but not so well even as the father of evil himself. The religion of faith alone does not rise to the dignity of that of the infernal hosts. Thou 396 SUNDAY, believest, oil man of faith, that there is one God and one Saviour, the Son of the Father, who came into the world to deliver man from evil, and in this thou doest well, but the devils also believe all this and feel the effect of their faith, whilst thou thinkest that thy faith alone will save thee; not remembering that faith without works is dead, and has no power to deliver from evil, and that there are three principles coexis- tent in the religious life of men, which must each be cultivated according to the measure of its Divine quality — believing, hoping and fellow-feeling — Faith, Hope, and Charity, and that the greatest of these is Charity. A right feeling, a godlike disposition, and a righteous activity towards our fellow men. Be charitable to your enemies, And do good and lend, hoping for nothing again, And your reward shall be great, And ye shall be the children of the Highest, For He is gracious To the unthankful and the vile. — Jesus. M its. Bell. — I do not quite understand your views of gaining. If a man labours he must gain. Mr. Charity. — My great objection to gaining is that our popular religion has sanctified gaining as a Iplr of human activity, and made wealth, the only medium through which a man can obtain any influence in society. THE REST OF LABOUR. 397 Rachel. — The entire devotion of the mind to the pursuit of gain is of all things most debasing to human life, because it calls into active operation the whole body of selfish principles which exist in the depraved nature of man. Doctor. — Do you equally condemn all gaining, or only one particular form of the pursuit of gain ? Mr. Charity. — There are two distinct forms of gaining : in the one, the individual gainer alone is benefited, and some one or more of his brethren must lose equally as much as he gains ; this is gain by buying and selling : in the other, not only the individual gainer is benefited, but the world is en- riched at the same time. The first of these is entirely inconsistent with the principles of the Gospel and the welfare of society ; the second is conducive to the welfare of society and in sympathy with the Divine teaching of the Founder of the Gospel. Rachel. — The whole of the papers in this book appear to me to involve an important question which you have already in some degree discussed, that is : Whether the system of religion makes the man, or the man makes the system of religion ? Mr. Charity. — If the religious feeling, or the reli- gious faculty, is a part of the Divine constitution of human nature, the unfolding of that feeling has a great deal to do with the making of the man, but 398 that foelil ver naturally unfold itself into a in. )Iiis. Uell. — Then it can never be said that a religious system entirely makes the man, though it may have a great influence in forming his character. Doctor. — If you were to take a man in his infancy and could make the whole of his culture entirely artificial, and at the same time keep him perfectly free from the influence of art, literature, and tradi- 1 wisdom, and every thing else, hut the training of a religious system, then that system might be fairly said to make the man. Grace. — And a very fine specimen of the man, I have no doubt he would be, who should be so made. A man who assuredly would neither be fit for heaven nor earth, for the presence of God nor the society of man. Mrs. Bell. — You have hitherto kept this question in the abstract : I must now bring it down to the practical, and put it into a new form. Did the Re- formation raise Britain to greatness, or did the early efforts of the British race to unfold the modern greatness of Britain produce the Reformation ? Grace. — I feel, mother, that I should like to D ijiiestion with another: [f the Reformation pro- duced the greatness of t lie British race what produced the Reformer THE REST OF LABOUR. 399 Rachel. — It has always struck me that those who believe that the Reformation produced the greatness of Britain, must believe also that the Reformers were Divinely inspired to enable them to perform their mission. Doctor. — Those who like to entertain such an idea as this, are, as far as I am concerned, quite welcome to do so, and to all the consequences which result from its adoption. If the Reformers were so inspired they were evidently the first set of men in the history of the world who were the subjects of such an inspiration, and I think we have every reason to hope that they will be the last of their order. Mr. Charity. — It would be impossible for us here to enter into the question of the nature of that move- ment of the British mind which produced Wiclif, Chaucer, and their contemporaries in the fourteenth century, and the succession of great me i whose labours have rendered Britain illustrious from the age of Edward the Third to the present time. Grace. — I fear, that as far as the ecclesiastical suc- cessors of Wiclif are concerned, we must consider their advent as an abortive production of the great national movement. Not one of them has been so forward a man as \Viclif himself. They have re- formed the Church, but he would have renovated the system of religious profession altogether. 400 8UNDAY, Doctor. — I believe all the really great men who appeared in this country were to some extent the offspring of the spirit of the age in which they respectively lived, and that this spirit was the mani- tion of some feeling or sentiment which ftl then working in the mind of the mass of society. Rachel. — Then, uncle, thou attributest the changes of the sixteenth century in the form of religious pro- fession, to a general movement which had been working in the mind of the people for a long time. Mr. Charity.— We may consider the Norman succession and the Crusades as the immediate Cfl of the manifestation of this movement, and that the movement itself assumed a definite form about the middle of the fourteenth century, in the reign of Edward the Third. Mrs. Bell. — And as far as I can understand the matter, you do not consider this as particularly a religious movement. Mr. Charity. — The great modern movement of the British race is a development of useful energy and persevering industry in the life of the great mass of the people. But the ecclesiastical organism of the country has hitherto stood in the way of its beneficial development for the promotion of the happiness of the social body. Grace. — It was perhaps to be expected that as the church organism is the greatest evil which the THE REST OF LABOUR. 401 spirit of progress has to encounter, so it will be one of the latest of human institutions which it will be able to overcome. Mrs. Bell. — I believe you consider that the Refor- mation of the sixteenth century was the means of producing a great development of the principle of faith, without which no man can be saved; how- ever little you may esteem a religion of faith. Mr. Charity. — The term faith is no where used in the New Testament to represent a principle, but invariably an act of the mind. And as such it was used before the Reformation as much as it is now. Grace. — But I believe the same prominence was not given to the term before the Reformation, which it has received since. Doctor. — At the Reformation the word faith was made a technical term of scientific theology, to re- present a principle which received a definite form in the writings of Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, in the fifth century of our era. Grace. — This is a matter which has always been in some degree incomprehensible to me. I can find nothing of this nature in the teaching of Jesus. Rachel. — Not more incomprehensible to thee than it is to those who profess to be the subjects of this faith. Nothing can be more painful to the feelings of a Christian than the nonsense which one 402 DAY, daily hears about faith in the © i >n of religious people. Mr. Charity. — By faith the generality of religious people mean a Divine influence, which is communi- cated to the mind of a man at a certain period of his life, by which he feels certain that Jesus Christ died on purpose to save him from the wrath to come, delivering him from the vengeance of Divine Justice for the punishment of his sins, and that when lie receive^ this faith he is in that instant saved, justified, and entitled to eternal happiness. Rachel. — Is this what Jesus Christ means by faith ? Is this the faith of the Gospel ? Doctor. — This is not faith at all, faith is an act, this is a feeling. Mr. Charity. — By the Gospel is meant the teach- ing of Jesus — the facts and principles of that Divine Wisdom which He revealed to man; and the faith of the Gospel is a belief in these facts and principles. Doctor. — The Gospel contains no reference what- ever to anv other faith than this. That which our w popular religion calls faith, is an August in ian lahlc, revived and improved by Luther. Mrs. Bell. — But the Au^ustinians rest this fable on a declaration of the Scriptures: "By grace are ye 1, through faith, and this not of yourselves, the gift of God." Mr. Charity. — If we read the chapter, in which THE REST OF LABOUR. 403 this sentence is contained, we shall find that the subject of the Apostle's address is Salvation ; he is impressing upon the Ephesian disciples the consider- ation of God's kindness to them in sending them the knowledge of the Gospel, and he assures them that He did this wholly and entirely from His own kind- ness. It was a pure manifestation of favour — tf By favour ye are saved through the belief, and this not of yourselves — the gift of God, not of performances, lest any one should boast ." We have only to ask then what the Apostle wishes the Ephesians to believe to be the gift of God : the salvation which came to them through His favour, or the belief of the Gospel by which they obtained that salvation. Rachel. — The common sense of mankind will at once determine the fact, that it is the salvation and not the belief which the Apostle declares to be the gift of God. Doctor. — Believing being wholly and entirely an act of the mind, it is impossible that God can be said to give that to us in any other way than by giving us the power and the disposition to believe, and there is no doubt but that every man who hears the Gospel has some degree of this power and disposition. Grace. — We cannot doubt this without calling in question the wisdom of Him who went through the cities of Israel, saying, "D THE GOSPEL OF JXE THE REST OF LABOUR. 413 1. THE RELIGIOUS LIFE. It is our object in this Book to inquire into the wants of man as a religious being, and to shew the sufficiency of the Gospel of Jesus to satisfy these wants, and to elevate man to a participation in the Divine nature. Religion is the expression of the individual feelings of man towards the Divine Being, and the religious life is the cultivation of the natural faculties of the human spirit, through the assistance of a certain measure of manifested Divinity imparted to its being, and dwelling in the mind of every living man. Reli- gion and the religious life are things totally inde- pendent of all institutions and of all organisms whatsoever, either human or divine. Religion is a life, and not an institution, not an organism of forms to correct the outer life, but an unfolding of the in- dwelling Divinity in the inner being of man, working out in his whole manhood. No connection with any religious organism or any religious institution can constitute a man religious, neither is there any reli- gious organism in existence, or that ever did exist, 414 DAY, to which a man may not belong and bo truly reli- gious. All religious institutions and all religious organisms that have ever appeared amongst men, li:i\( had their origin in the mistaken feelings and the misguided apprehensions of the religious men of some particular age or country. A Divine institution of religion and a Divine organism of religious life is a thing which never had any existence in our world. The Mosaic institution was not an institution of reli- gion, but of sacrifice, and an organism of sacrificial offerings. The Gospel lays no claim whatever to the character of a Divine institution, but declares itself to be a revelation of Divine wisdom. It never pro- fesses to be an organism of social worship, though it recommends a mutual union of disciples for the benefit of the individual and the welfare of society. llcnce in this book we are not entering upon the question of what is the best religious institution, or what religious organism has the best foundation in the principles of Eternal Truth. Our inquiry is, "What is the religious life of man, what principles of religion iost Divine and most fitted to purify and elevate humanity, and to bring it into the closest assimila- 1 ion to the manifested character of the Divine nature? What process of religious life is most fitted to bring the greatest good to man, and the highest glory to the Father and to the Redeemer of human nature? "What it is that constitutes a truly religious life ? THE REST OF LABOUR. 415 Before we enter any further into our subject, it is necessary that we should determine the nature of the actual relationship existing between the Creator and man. The Creator is a being of infinite perfection, and hence whatever comes from Him must be perfect in its kind and its degree j and therefore, if we believe in a creation at all, we must believe that man was placed upon the earth as a perfect being, whatever might be the state of imperfection in which we find him existing now. From our observation of the nature of man we learn that he must be composed of two distinct beings — a body, a system of organization which is continually changing its parts, and a spirit, a conscious power of originating action and of deter- mining its course of activity, unchangeable in its' nature, without parts, and continuing unalterably the same in the essential elements of its being, We learn, both from observation and reflection, that the organic being of the individual man is derived by natural process of generation from the parent, from the first of the race downwards to the present time, and that, as such, the offspring will partake in some degree and to a considerable extent of the cha- racter of the parent. And, on the other hand, we are equally certain that the other, the superior being of the individual man, is not derived from a human parent; that its essential nature is such, that it 41fi DAY, cannot derive its existence from any known or un- known process of generation or generative produc- tion, and, therefore, that the existence of c separate being of this class must in its very nature be an act of creation. Consequently every individual man has a two-fold origin : one part of his being he derives entirely and directly from his parent, and the other part as directly from the Creator and common Father of being. That which comes from the Father of being, like all other things which come imme- diately from His creating hand, must come into existence without any defect, and perfect in its kind; but being united to an imperfect, organic, and sensuous being, the result is an imperfect, fallible, and defective individual man. Such is human nature throughout the world ; and as such, according to the present economy of Divine government, the man, by the very constitution of his individual being, must necessarily be. And he is undoubtedly dealt and treated with, as he is in the very deed and truth of his nature, by the Creator and Father of his being. The Father of men knows that man is an imper- fect, fallible, and defective being, and the whole economy of His Divine government is formed, carried on, and executed on the foundation of the results which must inevitably follow from this condition of human existence, bflflOTM He is a God of truth. The Father knows that man has imperfection in his THE REST OF LABOUR. 417 nature, and He deals with him as if He expects that it will manifest itself in his life. The Creator knows that man cannot live without doing evil, and he treats with him accordingly. The Father does not blame man for being an erring being, because he knows that this is a neces- sary part of his nature. But He blames him for the evil which he does in his life, because it is equally as much a part of his nature, to feel that he ought not to do evil, but that he ought to strive against its power and to overcome its influence. The Creator has given to man the power to resist evil and to overcome it, and He expects him to use that power in the process of his life and in the course of his activity in the world. All the Divine activity, throughout the infinite di- versity of its operation, must be founded in truth, must be carried on in truth, and must terminate in truth. Men may assume a fiction as the ground of their activity, in order that by reasoning on that fiction they may the more easily approach the truth ; but there is no fiction with God. With Him every thing is substantial, everything is real, everything is true. The Creator can no more act upon a fiction or a lie, than he can cease to exist, because his nature is infinite and eternal truth. Therefore as lie creates the spirit of man without fault, and without evil, and as he unites that spirit to an organic being — a body T 2 418 SUNDAY, both faulty and depraved, containing the principles of evil within its own being, the result is an erring and fallible man, a being naturally inclined to evil. And by the absolute necessity of his own nature as a God of truth, the Divine Creator must deal with erery human being as an erring, fallible, and degene- rate man. * AY hen a number of such beings as man exist in the neighbourhood of each other, the results of their errors, their failings, and their degeneracy must vary, according to the different temperament and disposition of each individual. These natural results of the present condition of man constitute the whole body of evil which exists in the world, and every human being as he grows up to maturity is in a greater or less degree exposed to the influence of this evil. But this is the world in which it is the pleasure of the Creator to place every human spirit which he creates, and therefore by the absolute necessity of his own nature, as a God of truth, he must deal with human spirit as an erring, fallible and degenerate i sting under the influence of an evil world, the dawn of understanding to the day when that spirit returns again to the God who gave it. "With respect to the Divine dealing with fallen man, it is no question to us as to what the first man OT what lie became, because he was only the father of our flesh. In this inquiry we have nothing THE REST OF LABOUR. 419 to do with what that divine economy was, which the Creator established with the first man, inasmuch as we are each one of us individually the direct off- spring of the Father of spirits, and therefore that which principally concerns us is — What is the con- stitution of man now, and what is the present econo- my of the Divine dealing with man. God the Creator is naturally and truly the actual father of the spirit, the immortal nature, the accountable being of every individual man : He unites this spiritual nature to a degenerate and depraved body, so as to consti- tute the two beings one, united, indissoluble per- sonality during its earthly existence. He constitutes them one whole and individual man, with the dis- tinct knowledge and understanding, that this man will spend the whole of his earthly existence in an evil world, and as sure as He is a God of truth He deals with him accordingly. The whole economy of His divine government is founded, carried on and executed according to this present actual state, and condition of the existence of man in this world. The natural relationship existing betwixt the Creator and every individual man in the world, as an under- standing being, is that of a father and a family, a family of fallible and erring creatures, who by the very nature and constitution of their being are certain to do evil. Every man therefore comes into existence in this relationship to God, and He deals 420 DAY, with every man according to the principles of His divine character on the grounds of this relationship, According to the known and manifested character of the Creator, whatever He creates must be en for some object, and that object must be good in itself, and that which is created must have the power within itself of attaining to this object. In the creation of an intelligent and conscious being, by a God of perfect goodness, and perfect charity, the first object of its creation must be its own hap- piness* And therefore we conclude that every human spirit of every age of time, and of every country of the earth, has within itself by virtue of its creation a power of attaining to its own happiness, as the end and object of its being. And as the Creator is a being of infinite goodness and unbounded and ever- lasting charity, every human being of every age and of every clime must necessarily enter upon the stage of life as an object of the Divine care and regard, and also as an object of the Divine favour. To this end, we arc assured by the great Gentile Teacher of the Gtospelj in his discourse with the sages of Athens, that all the nations of the earth are of one kindred, and all of them equally the offspring of God the Father of the universe ; that iii the ordering of the Divine government of the world, the Father has deter- mined the bounds of the habitation and the time of the existence of every man on the face of the earth, %, r ^; THE REST OF LABOUR. so that every man may seek the Lord and find him, if haply he shall be led by any circumstances of his life to feel after him, who is not far from each and every one of us. In the creation of the human spirit, an intelligent and conscious being, whose spring of activity is within itself, by a God of perfect goodness and per- fect charity ; it is absolutely necessary that this being should be endowed with the power of judging of the integrity of its own actions, and of adopting that line of activity which its judgment determines to be right, and therefore we conclude that every human being in the world is able, by virtue of his creation, to discern betwixt right and wrong, and betwixt good and evil, and that he has the power of doing the right and of shunning the wrong, of choosing the good and of refusing the evil ; and hence we are told, that when the human spirit returns again from its earthly sojourn, to the presence of the Creator, every one shall be judged according to what he hath done in the body, whether it be good or bad. And finally, inasmuch as every human spirit is united to a degenerate body, by the Father of spirits, we are quite certain that as that Father is a God of perfect goodness and perfect charity, he must by the very necessity of his nature, endow every human being with the power and ability to overcome evil and to do good, according to his circumstances and his position DAY, in the present world. And therefore the Apostle declares that there shall be tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, as the most favoured, and also of the Gentile ; but glory, honour, and peace to every man that workcth good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gen- tile ; for there is no respect of persons with God. "We conclude, then, that the relation which every infant man now bears to the Father of his being is that of a child existing under the care and the favour of his parent. Hence the Great Teacher said, with reference to this position of the infant man and its results, " Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of God." If man begins his life under the Divine care, and the Divine favour, it must be the highest part of the business of his existence to cultivate this relationship to his heavenly Father, in the exercise of the powers and faculties of his spiritual nature, which is what we understand by the religious life. And we shall now pursue our subject by inquiring "Who is the Agent of Divine life in man? Is the agent of the religious life of man, God or man? Is the whole process and business of the reli- gious life simply God working in man, while man remain! altogether the passive subject of the Divine operation*/ or is it man working out his own deliverance THE HEST OF LABOUR. 423 from evil, by using the power which God has already given to every man, and which He is continually increasing in those who use what He first bestows? In one word, is man a responsible agent, or is he a mere system of mechanism under the absolute and irresistible direction of an Omnipotent hand? The feeling of man's responsibility is so universal in human nature, that it is made the foundation of all human intercourse, of all human laws, and of all human government; and to deny that the original spring of human activity is in the man himself, is not only to take away from him all claim to the charac- ter of a conscious being, but to reduce him below the state of the lowest form of organized existence. A tree or a plant has its spring of action within the limits of its own being. To assume that the Divine Being is the sole agent in the salvation of man from evil, would be to set God, the Governor of the spiritual world, in direct opposition to God, the Governor of the natural world. The Governor of the natural world sends rain in fruit- a ful showers, and genial suns, to enable the earth to bring forth the food of man : but He does not come down to cultivate it himself, the cultivation is entirely the work of man. The Creator gives the power to bear fruit, but He makes the bringing forth of that fruit to depend entirely upon the exertion of human agency j and this method of dealing with man is DAY, universal and impartial. It is the same to the evil and to the good, the same to the wicked and to the just. There is no respect of persons with God. Where there is nothing depending upon man's exer- tion, there man cannot be an accountable being. It is impossible for man to be accountable for anything but for Ins own acts and his own influence. If the deliverance of man from evil is entirely the work of God, then the blame of his doing evil rests entirely upon the neglect of his Creator to enable him to do good. If there is in the spiritual nature of man, an original and inherent disposition to do evil, he must have received this disposition from the Father of his being ; and if there is given to him no power to overcome that disposition, then it is not himself but his Creator who is guilty of all the evil that he does in the world. To make the deliverance of man from evil to be wholly and entirely the work of the Divine Being, would be to rob the Creator of all the glory of the Divine character which he manifests to man in the works of nature, and more fully unfolds to his view in the* Book of Revelation, Th< (iod of Creation and of the Bible manifests If to man as a Being of equal justice, goodness, and kindness,— a Father writing ft law on the tablet of the heart of every one of his children, by obe- dience to which he may attain to glory, and honour, THE REST OF LABOUR. 425 and immortality, and eternal life; and by disobe- dience to which, every soul of man inherits tribula- tion and anguish. Every man is treated alike. There may be difference of climate, soil, and production in the different ages of men, and there may be difference in their opportunities of education, and in the helps to their spiritual culture, and the unfolding of the Divine life. But in relation to the original means of attaining to happiness, and in their liability to sink into misery, every soul of man stands on the same ground. The everlasting and the unalterable law of human destiny is written in the heart of every human being. It begins with his beginning, it grows with his growth, and it lives on with his life, until the day of probation ceases, and his obedience or his disobedience has fixed his irrevocable doom in an eternity of good or evil. But what says the man who is more wise than his Maker ? what says our popular creed on this matter ? That the Creator is daily giving existence to innume- rable beings, without giving to either of them any power to do well, or any means of attaining to a life of felicity ; but that at some period after their crea- tion, of His own favour, He calls a select few to par- ticipate in His Divine mercy, and brings them to everlasting happiness: while He leavesthe rest to perish in their natural evil as he created them, without any power to do well, or any means of escaping the ever- 426 &a*j lasting infliction of punishment for their unhappy fate in doing the evil which by the very law of their crea- tion and position, they are compelled to do. Such a principle as this is the offspring of an infi- delity of a more dangerous tendency than any other which has ever been exhibited to the world in either ancient or modern times, and an error more detri- mental to the best interests of human nature than any other with which the human mind can be affected, because it gives to every man a sufficient and valid excuse for all the wickedness and all the evil which he may perpetrate upon his fellow men. If God has never given to man the power to do good, how can he be expected to do it ? But such a view of human nature as this is so repugnant to the feelings of uni- versal man that it would be idle to waste words in exposing its wickedness and folly. AVc shall assume, then, that man is the direct agent in the culture of the inner life, because he is a free and responsible actor, and because the Father has given to every man power to begin that religious and will give him power to carry it on and to finish it, if he uses the gifts lie has alread; id. To him that useth the gifts of God shall be given more, but to him that useth them not shall be taken away even that which he hath. If man, the individual, responsible actor, is the THE REST OF LABOUR. 427 agent of the religious life, we come now to inquire, What is its object, what is the business of the religious life, and how does it perform its work ? The religious life begins with the individual man, and in the inner nature of that individual. The cultivation of the good and the subjugation of the evil which exists in man. The process of a reli- gious life is the culture of the heart of the indivi- dual man. The inner being of man consists of two distinct parts; the unfolding of an imperfect organism and a diseased organic life, which every man derives by natural generation from his parents, and the operation of that measure of the imparted mind of the Divinity which dwells in the human spirit, the part of his being which every man receives directly from God, the Father of spirits. Good and evil, self and Divinity, the one to be followed and increased, the other to be denied and diminished, the one to be overcome, the other to be perfected, accord- ing to the light and understanding we possess, consti- tute the object of the religious life of man. And there never yet existed on this earth but one man whose life did not in some degree exhibit the opera- tion of both these principles. The existence of the principle of evil in man needs no illustration whatever, and every unprejudiced man, with any real acquaintance with human nature, will acknowledge that there is something good in every 428 SUNDAY, man born into the world, until it is worked out of his nature by an evil education and a long-continued train of thoroughly selfish pursuits. There is no man who can deny but that he has often done things which his own most secret feelings and his own better judgment have condemned him for doing, until he has hardened his heart against all reproof, and this can only be the result of the presence and the ope- ration of the Spirit of goodness in the mind. The indwelling light of the Divine Spirit spreads its beau- tiful beams over the dark places of the selfishness of man, and points to a better way, until he has quenched all its brightness in the perversity of his own will, and the God of heaven to a great degree leaves liim to the working of his own reprobate mind. There is hardly a man to be found in the world, whose heart has not at some time or other glowed with delight at the return of spring, the mild and genial air of an opening summer, and the richness and beauty of the wealth of autumn. "Where is the man that has never felt a pleasing sensation when he beholds the marvels of nature, and sees the image of all loveliness and beauty pourtrayed in her kindly face ? There is hardly to be found a man in the world whose breast never warmed into some feeling of sympathy for his fellow-man, and whose soul has never melted into a generous flow of kindly feeling towards his brother in pain and distress. The darkest parts THE REST OP LABOUR. 429 of the earth will furnish us with abundant instances of men who are ready to return kindness for kindness, honesty for honesty, truth for truth, and integrity for integrity. Did not the pretended Christians of Europe find the heathen barbarians of the whole continent of America much better Christians than themselves, except in the one article of faith in the person and work of Christ. Indeed there is no part of the earth where sober- ness, righteousness, and Godlike feeling may not find their response in the character and the conduct of men. If we cannot find these things in the earth, it is because we do not look for them, or because we seek for them in the wrong spirit. There is no part of the world in which we may not find men of elevated thoughts, of noble feelings, of a righteous life, men of truth, of integrity of action, of a gener- ous mind, and of a Godlike disposition, if we make our search for them without any preconceived ideas and opinions, and in the spirit of true charity. If then we do find the existence of this real good in men, from what source can they receive it but from the Father of lights, the Author of every good gift, and of every perfect gift ? There is none good but one, and that is God. Wherever therefore we find any good in men we are bound to conclude that that good comes from God. And whilst we observe that these things exist amongst men, we feel bound 430 DATj to acknowledge that there exists in man a spirit of goodness as well as ■ spirit of evil. There is a mea- sure of manifested Divinity, a measure of the Spirit of God vouchsafed to every living man on the earth, because the fruits of that Spirit may be found in the men of every nation, kingdom, people, and tongue, throughout the world, and with any other view of human nature it would be impossible to account for the continued existence of man upon the earth. If man has a rational nature, that nature must be the immediate and direct offspring of Infinite good- ness. The spirit of every living man throughout the world comes immediately and directly from the creative energy of the Father of Spirits ; and there- fore if there is in the spirit of man any inherent depravity, any natural disposition to evil, the God of goodness is the sole, direct, and absolute author of that evil. And if the spirit of man is created with- out any predisposition to either good or evil, and the man does evil continually because he is so created, and if the indwelling of the Spirit of God in man Mould prevent this evil, and that Spirit is not given to man, it is impossible for us to believe any longer in (it her the justice or the goodness of the Creator. Because to send a spirit into an evil world without giving it any power of either resisting the evil or of doing good, and then to punish it for the evil which by the very constitution of its nature it THE REST OF LABOUR. 431 cannot help doing, must appear to every reasonable being as a manifestation of the highest injustice, of the greatest folly, and the most malevolent disposi- tion. If then there is a spirit in man, and that spirit is the offspring of a God of goodness, there must be given to that spirit at its creation a power of doing good and an ability to answer the end and design of its creation — the attainment of happiness. If the spirit of man is united to an imperfect organism, and to a depraved and vitiated organic life, there must be given to that spirit a sufficient mea- sure of the indwelling Divinity to enable it to with- stand the influence of the evil with which it is connected, or its creation must be a manifest act of injustice. And in this respect it is of no use what- ever to plead the sin of Adam, as a reason why there should be in every human spirit a natural and an increated disposition to do evil. The sin of Adam directly and immediately depraved and vitiated his whole personal being. But it is utterly impossible that the sin of Adam can immediately and directly affect other men in any other way than as they are descended from him j and therefore as the spirits of men are not in any sense whatever descended from Adam, they can only be affected by his sin through their union with the organism and the organic life of the body. We conclude then that there is given to the spirit of man by the Divine Being sufficient •132 .MAY, power and ability to overcome the evil in which it is placed in this world, and to attain to happiness both here and hereafter, which is the end and object of its creation. If, then, the power of man's deliverance from evil is altogether and entirely from God, and if the ex- ercise of that pow r er is as wholly and entirely with himself, the whole glory of that deliverance mnst entirely belong to Him who gives the power, while the work itself is the business of him who receives the Divine gift. AVe shall next inquire what it is that God has given to man the power to do, and from what it is that every man has received ability to work out his own deliverance. If man is saved he must be saved from something. We cannot use the term without affixing to it some clear and direct meaning. Let us then take man at the unfolding of his being, and see what there is in him from which he needs to be delivered, what the evil is from which he re- quires to be saved. The first element of this evil is an opposition of the flesh, the body to the spirit, an antagonism of the organic activity to the proper influence of the Spiritual Nature. The awakening understanding of every man brings with it a feeling of unpleasantness, in the secret places of his inner being, when he does wrong. There is a something within him which accuses him of evil THE REST OF LABOUR. 433 the moment it is conceived in His mind, while at the same time there is working within his nature a disposition to quench the feeling of this accusation the instant it is made. The first step then in a man's salvation from evil is to use the power which God has given him in an effort to give this inner monitor the ability to act freely and without restraint. And so long as a man follows his unbiassed conscience he will not wander far out of the right path, although he will wander to some extent every day, because of the fallibility of his nature. The next step in man's deliverance from evil is the control of self; not indeed the next step in the succes- sion of time, though it must be in our contemplation of its process, for the one must be exercised at the same time with the other. The effort to preserve its whole being is an instinct of all organic nature. If you pull down the bough of a tree, and strain it out of its proper position without breaking the fibres, it will return again to the same upward direction it had before by the force of its natural constitution. But the inborn depravity of human nature gives to this instinct of self-preserva- tion a riot and excess of the flesh, which is the founda- tion of all the evil in human action. This it is which gives the character to the whole spirit and disposition of a man. This feeling manifests itself in desire of everj' sort, unbridled desire, and in what- u 434 ;DAY, ever way we satisfy this unbridled di feed the disposition which is at the foundation of all the evil of our nature. It is then one of the fundamen- tal objects of the Divine life to control the working of self, to bring under the body and to hold it in subjection to the spirit, lest we should be cast away as the filth and the offscouring of the earth. From the opposition to the Divine and the riot of self in the human mind, we proceed next to the deli- verance of man from the result of the working of these original evils — vicious appetites, evil propensities, violent tempers, and vile affections. These arc the natural manifestations of the working of the spirit of self in man, and the subjugation of these debasing principles to a higher and a better principle, and the deliverance of man from their dominion over his thoughts and activities, is the next step in the working out of his own salvation. The next thing from which man requires deliver- ance is the worldliness which results from the dominion of self in his mind. The worldliness of man leads him to rest all his thoughts on the good of the outer life, and to expect all his happiness in the pursuit of the things that are seen. The acthity of the higher and nobler faculties of his being is dormant, his culture is of the earth earthly. 1 Le basks like a worm in the sunshine rth, or grubs beneath its dirt in the filth : ness THE REST OF LABOUR. 435 of his baser soul. But his spirit feels no kindling of the Diviner life, no unction of communion with the spiritual and the unseen, no feeling of a kindred relationship with the Invisible and the Infinite. And a deliverance from this sensuous culture and this animal life is the last and the highest direct object, end, and purpose of the salvation of men from evil. The man who begins this divine culture from the beginning of the unfolding of his powers of under- standing, will feel every day that he is making failures in the doing of the will of his Father who is in heaven, and that there is a continual need of repentance, and the ever renewed communication of help from Him who has promised to give His Holy Spirit to them that ask Him. And he who has neglected this Divine culture will feci, whenever he is brought to consider his ways, that he has resting on him a load of guilt which he is unable to bear, and which can alone be removed by the Father of his spirit in that way in which He has Himself appointed. Such it appears to us is the present state of human nature, and such is the true process of the divine life in the present world. A continued and a life struggle with self to overcome evil and to do good, and a never-ceasing effort to use all the spiritual power which the Father bestows in rising above the things that arc seen, to a communion with the unseen and the Divine. And we believe that the Divine Being has given to every man the 436 rDAT, power to work out his own salvation from evil accord- ing to these principles, and in proportion to the extent of the light and the understanding which each indi- vidual may possess in the heaven-determined time of his existence, and the appointed bound of his earthly habitation; so that in the great day, when every man shall be judged according to the «deeds done in the body, whatever has been the position of any human being in this world, every man will be without excuse before God, because the state of every man in the future world will be just that which he has prepared him ,clf for, by the use he has made of the Divine gifts here ; and by the character of his thoughts and his activities in the present life. The opportunities of men for cultivating the Divine life, are as various as the variety of the circumstances under which the. bounds of their habitation are fixed in the present world, and every man will be judged according to the character of his activity, under the several circumstances of his position, when he returns to the bar of God. Mrs. Bell. — In describing the state of man. have made no reference to original sin, that which is gem rally thought to be the fundamental principle of all religion. (iu.vcE. — It has often struck me as very strange, that the principle which is considered to be at the foundation of all religious systems, should not have so much as even a name in the Bible. THE REST OF LABOUR. 437 Doctor. — Though the name may not be there, the principle itself may still form a part of the revelation of that Divine Book. Rachel. — The question as to whether the principle called original sin is revealed in the Bible, entirely depends upon what is understood by that term. Mr. Charity. — If the words original sin have any meaning at all, they must mean the first sin of the individual man now existing, or the first sin commit- ted in the world. Grace. — The preacher generally tells us that we are answerable for two sorts of sins, original and actual sin. Sometimes they are distinguished as the sin of our nature aud the sin of our life. The sin of the race and the sin of the individual. Rachel. — I can comprehend the idea of the sins of a life, but I have no notion of what is meant by the sins of nature, and the sin of the race. Doctor. — By the sins of our nature is generally meant the sins which we committed in Adam. The sin which the race committed in the person of its parent. Mr. Charity.— As I feel quite certain that I did not really exist in Adam, I think there is every rea- son why I should be excused for knowing nothing of such a sin. Mrs. Bell. — We have always been taught that the whole human race existed in Adam. 1.5^ 11 \ D Mh. Charity.— Then ifl DO doubt but that the body iy man [a derived from Adam. Hut tlic spiri- tual, tbe accountable, the immortal being ofcacli in- dividual man, had no more exi>tci ice in the At am than I in the Elephant of paradise. And then in of Adam can never be in any sense, manner, or form the sin of Adam's posterity, however much they may suffer from its results. Mas. Bell, — Whether that may be true or you, no doubt, believe that man is a sinner. Mm. (' n a it i rv. — I have no doubt but that all men arc sinners in the course of their life, but I have no idea of a BUUI being a sinner in any other sense. I -hewn that man is an erring and fallible 1 and as such he cannot help acting with some d« of error as long as lie is an understanding being in this world. And in that sense he cannot live without committing sin. Doctor. — As the term original sin is nowhere found in the Bible, and has no definite meaning, it would possibly be better to drop it altogether and substitute something definite in its stead. \ce. — It seems to be your opinion that the origin I m each individual is not in the spirit, but in (he body. Ma. Cimkity. — T am quite satisfied thai man is not (•! i evil being, nor yet a being with a direct inclination to do evil; and 1 can lind in the degenerate THE REST OF LABOUR. 439 condition of the body, every thing necessary to account for the disposition to do evil in the man. Rachel. — It is sometimes asserted that the origin of evil in each individual is in the defection of the will, but this I think is opposed to thy view. Mr. Charity. — The will is wholly and entirely a faculty of the spirit, and therefore there can be no original defection of the will j that defection must be the result of the union of the spirit with the body. Doctor. — It appears to me to be a mistake to affirm that moral evil must have its origin in the will; the will does not originate human activity, but only determines the fact and the character of the action, in some of the circumstances and the positions of our being. Mr. Charity. — Human action and moral evil have their first original in the organic life, in that part of the man which comes into actual being, in a state of inherent depravity. The flesh which lusteth against the spirit. And there is the original of all spiritual evil in man. •110 DAT, II. THE RELIGIOUS LIFE OF THE GOSPEL. It is our object in this paper to consider how far and in what way the Gospel is connected with the process of this Divine life in man. Jesus Christ, the Founder of Christianity, stands related to man in two distinct and fundamental cha- racters — as the second Adam, the Redeemer of man, and as the Saviour of men, the Author of the Gospel. As the Redeemer of man, Jesus is related to all men that ever did exist or that ever will exist. As the Author of the Gospel he is related alone to those who hear its Divine wisdom. As the Redeemer of man, he is the foundation of all the Divine favour which has.ever been manifested to mankind, or that ercr will he manifested to human nature to the latest ages of eternity. It is through this Divine work that nun of every nation, kindred, people, and tongue arc enabled to seek for glory and honour and im- mortality, and to attain to eternal life in every age of the world. No human being, from the first man that was created to the last that shall be born into the world, could ever receive any favour from the common Father of universal humanity, who is loving THE REST OF LABOUR. 441 to every man and whose tender mercy is over all his works, but through the redemption of the human race by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. That redemp- tion, reconciling universal man to God and justifying by its one act, the whole human race in expecting and asking favour from the Father, and sanctifying all the efforts of mankind in every age and every land, to resist evil and to do good ; that redemption is as boundless as the existence of human nature, as extensive as time itself, and will constitute the highest glory of man through the ages of eternity. For by that sacrifice God was through Christ reconciling the world to himself. But there is no ground on which to predicate that every man who has been redeemed, and is thereby the subject of the Divine favour, will attain to eter- nal happiness, that entirely depends upon other cir- cumstances. As the Author of the Gospel, Christ becomes a blessing to mankind, only in proportion to their acquaintance with Him, as their exemplar and teacher ; redemption is a favour to the whole human race, as well to those who know it not as to those who are acquainted with its most glorious work. The Gospel is a favour to those alone, who have the means of living according to the principles of its heavenly wisdom. No man can arrive at eternal happiness without redemption, but men have been attaining to eternal life without the Gospel, from the u 2 1 L] si Mi.W, death of Abel to the present day. Redemption is the work of Christ for universal man, the Gospel is the teaching and the example of Christ, - d to set forth the religious life of man, in the hi character to which it can possibly attain in this pre- sent world. The Gospel is a Leaven thrown into the mass of society, designed to work its way under the operation of spiritual and invisible influence, until it has Leavened the whole lump of humanity, with the halloaing principle of its own Divine character — universal good-will amongst men. And the uni- versal participation of men in the Divine nature. have already shewn what man needs to have done for him, and what he must needs do himself, to constitute his activity a religious life; and we shall now endeavour to shew how the Gospel meets this need to its fullest extent and its most p« requirement. The phenomena of nature reveal to man his cou- niction with a Being of unlimited power and un- bounded goodness, and the Hebrew writers revealed this Divine Being to their countrymen, under the RCter of Jehovah, an Owner or and a Protector — .Jchovah-S;;baoth, a leader. But the Gospel knows nothing of the Divine Being under his Hebrew character of Jehovah. It is the chief glory of the Gospel revelation to reveal the Infinite to man under the character of a Father. A Father THE REST OF LABOUR. ; no wing and caring for his whole offspring, a Father seeking the good of all his children, and providing for their common welfare. Graciously bestowing on each one the means by which he may cultivate all the powers and the faculties of his being, and attain to happiness through the whole duration of his exis- tence. The Father of the whole human family pro- viding for the welfare of every individual, in every part of the world, as well for the just as the unjust, and equally as well for the evil as the good. The common Father of the civilized and the savage, of the refined and the rude, of the Greek and the bar- barian, of the Gentile and the Jew, of the ignorant and the learned, and of the bond and the free. The Gospel treats every man as the offspring of this com- mon parent, and every man as having in the beginning of his life the same relation to Him. The condition, the position, and the circumstances which have ren- dered men unequal in this world, are all the work of man. All men are originally equal before God \ with Him there is no partial favour. All men throughout the world, and in every age, are dealt with on the same impartial principle of justness and goodness; every one receives gifts from Him alike at the begin- ning; and to those who improve what He bestows He gives more, but to those who make no use of what He gives, He takes away what lie at first bestows. The God of the Gospel knows no bounds 444 bundav, to Hil favours but the bounds of tlie human and no partiality in the manifestation of His kindness but that which is the reward of the exertions of those who make the best use of His favours. The Gospel contemplates every man in the world as capable of attaining to present and CYerlasting happiness. It tells us that, in every nation, he that feareth God and worketh righteousness, is accepted of Him ; that in every part of the world He will give glory, honour, and peace to every man that worketh good ; and to every one who, by patient continuance in well-doing, seeketh for glory, and honour, and immortality, He will give eternal life, because He will render to every man according to his works. The Gospel makes the future destiny of every man to de- pend entirely upon himself. It tells every man that his position in the next world will entirely depend upon the nature of his activity in this life. It assures f well doing. Charity lielieveth all things— Hopeth all things. THE UEST OF LABOUR. 161 The next great feature of Charity is her relative superiority in the Christian economy, In the Apostolic days, the Christian character was dignified with the possession of wonderful gifts and virtues ; and among these, that which made the greatest appearance was the Divine gift of miraculous power, and in the foremost rank of these miraculous powers, was the gift of tongues, — the instant acquire- ment of a power to speak and to discourse in a lan- guage altogether unknown to the speaker before. Yet, however much this acquirement might be per- sonally useful to the gifted speaker, in enabling him to do good to his fellow-men, it was altogether inferior to the grace of Charity. If I am able to speak with the tongues of men or of angels, and have not charity, I only become by that gift as vain as sounding brass and as useless as a tinkling cymbal. Another of the great Apostolic gifts was that of Pro- phecy, or the authoritative power to teach the Gospel. When the Divine Teacher ascended to His celestial glory, He promised to give to the Hebrew Apostles the power of his Spirit, by which all things he had said to them on earth should be brought back to their remembrance, to enable them to teach the wisdom of the Gospel with Divine authority ; and when the great Apostle of the Gentiles was called to this ministry, he received both the instruction and the authority by special gift from Heaven, yet he declares that 46fl SUNDAY, this gift was altogether Fain and profitless to him, without the grace of Charity. Another great gift which the Apostles of Jesus possessed in a large measure, was the power to believe and to trust in the ability of their Master. Not only the power to believe in the Christ ;^ the Re- deemer of man and the Teacher of the Gospel, but also to exercise such faith upon the working of His invisible influence as enabled them to perform the most astonishing miracles in His name. Yet even this faith, in either of its aspects, was a vain and useless act, unless it was accompanied by the spirit of Charity. "When the Gospel was first made known to the world, so great was the effect of the teaching of its unselfish and generous principles, that the wealthy disciples of Jesus sold all their earthly possessions to minister to the necessities of their poorer brethren. But there were some found among them who did this for other reasons than because they were influ- .1 by the spirit of Charity, though that spirit must isarily lead to almsgiving, wherever those who possess it have anything to bestow, for the assistance of our fellow-creatures is the great manifestation of the spirit of Charity; yet the Apostle declares the possession of the principle itself to be far greater than the exercise of its manifestation, and that the il entirely useless without the other : — "Though THE REST OF LABOUR. 463 I give all my goods to feed the poor, and have not Charity, it pronteth me nothing." In the beginning of the Gospel, such was the enmity of the Jews especially to the name of Jesus of Nazareth, that a great many of His disciples were doomed to endure both persecution and death on account of their profession of fellowship with Him. But the Apostle declares that even the suffering of death for the Gospel would be of no avail whatever without the possession of this Divine principle of Charity, — " Though I give my body to be burned, and have not Charity, it pronteth me nothing." Such is the declaration of the greatest of the Apostles of Jesus of the comparative value of the principle of Charity in the Christian economy, and of its fundamental place in the revelation of the Gos- pel of the Son of God. It is the great object of the Gospel to assimilate the activity of man to the mani- fested character of the Divine activity, and as every manifestation of the Divine activity springs from a principle of pure friendship and benevolence, and is designed to effect the good of the creature, so the whole life of the Gospel is made to consist in the cultivation of this Divine principle, and in the opposition to everything in human nature which is inimical to its operation. It is the object of the Gospel to make men spiritually as well as naturally the children of their Father, who is in the heaven and Ihii it proposes to do by the culture of this principle of Charity, until it becomes the only founda- tivity of man towards his fellow-man, as it is t 11 of the whole manifested act of tli. Rldl his children. When the Divine Teacher has himself explained ■•■ and the extent of the manifestation of His dpk in the life of His true disciples, He makes the Divine activity the example of our own, and the onmnaHty and thoroughly impartial of the Divine benevolence ; and concludes with this remarkable exhortation, " Be ye therefore ftthefj which is in the heaven, is and the object, lie tells us, for -which we to cultivate this principle is, "That we may become the children of our Father, which is in the l the culture of this principle alone which 000 a man a child of God, and the true J ina Christ, and without which he cannot becon iiitnal child of his Father, and can have no part in the kingdom of heaven. thing we notice in the Apostolic defini- tion of Charity, is its enduring character, "Charity else connected with the Gospel, but Charity, is, in a greater or less degree, a human and will, therefore, pass away with the pre- sent transitory condition of human existence. But THE REST OF LABOUR. 4G5 Charity is altogether a Divine principle, a principle which existed before the creation of humanity, and will continue to exist in its own divinity of character when every thing transitory is swallowed up in the unchangeable eternity of future being.— Charity surviveth all things. The power of miracles and the gift of tongues, in a very few years had run their appointed course in the Christian economy, and ceased to be the mark of the disciple of the Prophet of Nazareth. With the Apostles themselves and their coadjutors, the authori- tative preaching of the Gospel failed at once, because it was no longer wanted, and the Divine wisdom was then left to work its way in the world by the ordinary process of instruction. When death performs its appointed work, and separates man from the earthly tabernacle, Divine knowledge itself, except in its effects, shall all vanish away in the fuller plenitude of a direct consciousness ; and when mortality is swallowed up in life, believing will no longer be the exercise of a human faculty. Divine Faith will rise up into a more perfect under- standing of that which is believed, and Hope, sustain- ing Hope, will find no place where probation is un- known, when change of condition has passed away, and immutability has fixed its irreversible seal on the destiny of man; but Charity never faileth. Charity never dies. Everything else on earth x 2 I) vv, shall lade and pfttt away, but Charity shall survive is of the nature of God. The migl ;icn. the majestic productions of art, and the noblest creations of genius shall vanish with the de- parture of time. Many of the most glorious and the most beautiful works of God himself are fading away daily with every departing season of existence, but Charity shall survive them all. Immortal principle and undecaying power, when thou hast established thy habitation in the human breast, when once thy influence is rooted and grounded in the spiritual life of man, when once thou hast acquired a firm dominion in the activities of human existence, Thou shalt live on through all hanges and vicissitudes of mortal being, a spring of purest satisfaction and delight unceasingly well- It in the mind. Thou alone shalt support the spirit of man in the hour of mortal dissolution, and shalt carry it upward from earth and everything earthly, and on and onward from this world to the of the Eternal Himself, the whole of whose I nat ure is Charity. God is Charity. And theft Uniting the spirit to the Father and the Son, in that one unchangeable and everlasting bond of < -empathy, Thou shalt remain to the ages and ages \ . the unfailing source of never-ending enjoy- ind the undying spring of never-ceasing felicity and perfect happiness. "Charity mm k iailetu." THE REST OF LABOUR. 467 Such is the Apostolic character of that principle which the Divine Founder of Christianity has Him- self declared to be the characteristic element of the Divine life of the Gospel. — The great distinguishing difference betwixt the wisdom of the Gospel and the principles of every other wisdom, which either the Hebrew sages or the philosophy of the Gentile na- tions had ever made known to man. " It hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you." The Divine Teacher assumes that the Creator is the common Father of universal man, and that all the Divine activity towards the great mass of man- kind in this world is founded in the principle of universal and impartial friendship and benevolence. And then He affirms that the cultivation of the feel- ing of the universal good-will of man to man, is the only means by which man can be assimilated to the Father, and that it is the great end and object of the teaching of the Gospel to promote the cultiva- tion of this principle in the human mind, and so to purify and elevate man to a likeness to his Father which is in heaven. And that in the effecting of this object man is raised to the highest per- fectuality of his spiritual life and his moral cha- racter. It is the great object of the Gospel to pro- 468 SUNDAY, ducc an entire change in the spiritual culture of man. The Gospel does not profess to add to the nature of man any thing which he was absolutely without before. It treats him as born with spiritual facul- and as being under spiritual influences from the first moment of the awakening of his understanding. Its great design is to cultivate these spiritual faculties according to the end and object of their existence, and to perfect the operation of this spiritual influence 1>\ redeeming all the powers and faculties of human nature from the dominion of self to an entire subjec- tion to its benign authority. And this it proposes to effect by the teaching of its Divine Wisdom, and by the constant operation of Divine influence in the mind. And then it sets the Author of the Gospel before His disciples as the perfect example of that new process of Divine culture by which it is designed to regenerate the man and to renovate the world. From the very nature of the Gospel, then, as an inward culture, it is self-evident that it rcquii f men, and all peoples and nations throughout the earth have manifested the existence of this principle by t heir sacrifices and propitiatory offerings to the Divine Being and to the Powers of the unseen world ; but it was reserved for the Christian revelation to make known to man the real nature and the true character of this phenomenon in the Divine Government of the Vniverse, and to determine the fact of the forgiveness of sin through this redemption as effected by Jesus the Christ. In considering the work of redemption as the ground of man's forgiveness, and the medium through which the Divine Father is pleased to mani- fest Himself to the intelligent creation as the propi- tious Parent of fallen humanity, we have to considei that there is a distinct difference between the revela- tion of the Gospel and the revelation of the work of nption. That it is necessary to distin between the fact itself and the history of that fact. And also between the phenomenon of redemption and the benefit which the individual man may derive from a belief in the revelation of the fact, and the ein-umstances of its accomplishment contained in the New Teetami THE REST OF LABOUR. 475 The want . of a redemption in the economy of human existence originated in the defection of the first man — his disobedience and his fall from the state in which he was created, by which he incurred the sentence of death and the termination of the race in his own person ; but the introduction of the principle of redemption prevented the execution of the sentence and restored mankind to Divine favour, as a race of fallen, redeemed, and imperfect men. The Divine Father accepted the price of redemption, restored the race to favour, and placed the work of redemption at the foundation of a new constitution of the economy of human existence, and constituted the Redeemer the head of the human creation, and finally, it is probable, the head of all finite existence. On the ground of this redemption alone, and solely and entirely for the sake of the price which the Redeemer paid to effect the work, the Divine Father forgives every man all the errors, the follies, the sins and the iniquity of his life who desires to be forgiven, and who seeks for forgiveness in a right spirit, and with a proper disposition. Any man may be forgiven, but the consciousness of the gift of pardon is the privilege of the believer, in the Christian revelation alone. He only knows how and in what way the sacrifice of redemption was offered by Jesus Christ, and that it was accepted by the Father, and being himself a true and faithful follower of the Lamb of 120 -DAY, Qod which takcth away the sin of the world, he feels an abiding consciousness that liis own iniquities are forgiven, and that his daily transgressions are pardoned through Jesus Christ the Righteous, who is the propitiation for the sin of the world. The only general condition of forgiveness set forth in the Gospel, is the cultivation and the exercise of the spirit of charity. The Disciple of Jesus is taught to pray to his Father in heaven, " Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us. For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you ; but if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive you your trespasses." The Church sets forth many conditions of fit- ness, but this is the only condition proposed in the Gospel of Jesus. In order that men may be forgiven, the Gospel requires that they should turn away from the evil of their life and acknowledge their trans- ions. "If we confess our sins, lie is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all Jitoousness." The true Disciple of Jesus of Nazareth wants no sacrifice for his sins but the d of bin Master, and no other medium of reconciliation en himself and the Father, but the person of his Master, for " He is the propitiation for the sins of the whole world.'' And "in Iliuiwe have redemption through His own blood, the forgiveness of sins f and THE REST OF LABOUR. 477 this forgiveness is offered to us freely, without the intervention of any priest or minister. Nothing can come between the sinner to be forgiven and the Re- deemer, by whom the price of redemption was offered, and of whom it was accepted by the Father for the life of universal man. " By the one offering of Himself he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified." Every Disciple of Jesus is his own priest and his own minister, and comes at once to the Shepherd and bishop of souls. The Disciple of Jesus needs no ministering mediation to bring him into the presence of his Father in heaven but his Master, for every Disciple of the Son of God is, by virtue of his dis- cipleship, himself a priest, called to offer up spiritual sacrifices, which are acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. AVe shall next consider the relation of the Gospel to metaphysical theory, speculative opinion, and ex- static feeling. "\Vc have already shewn that the Gospel is not an institution of religion nor an organism of worship, and it must be equally clear to the simple reader of the New Testament that the Gospel is not the reve- lation of a theory of religious opinion, a science of of Divinity, either in relation to God or to man. The revelation of the Gospel is solely and entirely connected with the manifested moral character of 17^ n>AT, and the spiritual and moral being of man. The spiritual relation of man to the Creator and of the Creator to man. It makes no revelation of the itial nature of either God or man, or of the physical constitution of either human or Divine It refers to these things at times, but then it uniformly assumes their troth as a known and acknowledged fact. The only natural principle which the Gospel professes to reveal is the fact, That Jesus, the Divine man who was born of Mary the Virgin of Nazareth, is really truly and properly the Son of God, in the same sense as any other man is the son of his father, and that this Divine man, in His real proper flesh and blood, humanity, is the Messiah of Israel, the Christ of God, in whom all the nations of the earth are blessed. All the metaphysical theories which the Church has at various times put forth in the form of en faisms, and confessions, have no more direct con- nection with the revelation of the Gospel of Jesus than they have frith the moral theorems of Confucius. The whole and entire direct object of the revel of the Gospel is to implant in the mind of man the seed of a new spiritual life, unfolding itself in the principle of Universal Charity, and by that means to glorify God as the Creator of human nature, and the Son of God as the Redeemer of mankind. The Gospel begin- k in man as a social being, with the tli: » lif THE REST OF LABOUR. 479 right culture of the relation of man to man, by setting man before his fellow-man as the great object of his care and affection. But the Gospel never sets the Father before man as the immediate and direct object of human passion. Affection to the Divine Being is far from being the end and object of the manifesta- tion of the life of true religion. The Divine Being is altogether invisible, and therefore he cannot be the object of personal affection. But the perfections of the manifested character of the Father as objects of our apprehension, may and ought to be the ob- jects of the highest human esteem and regard. Yet this is never once proposed by the Great Teacher as e end to be obtained by the culture of the religious ife. The teaching of the Gospel is so entirely prac- tical that it makes the whole end and design of the religious life to consist in the cultivation of the re- lation of man to man, and never directly looks to that which is the most certain result of this cultiva- tion, that is the proper behaviour of man to God. No man can really behave rightly to his fellow-man without at the same time behaving rightly to God. It is a very easy matter for any mistaken person to profess to love God, and to raise up his passions to a very high pitch of abstract piety, but the piety of the Gospel of Jesus is widely different from this unfruitful feeling. Here Charity aloue is the bond of perfectness. ISO IDATj In the days of tlic Apostles of Jesus tlierc w who, while tli wed most fully by their behaviour in the world, that they were a of their fcllow-mcn. Such men as these denounced by tlic Beloved Apostle of Jesus as vers and liars. There cannot be a greater prac- tical mistake than that which assumes that the religious life of the Gospel begins with the cultiva- tion of right feelings towards God. Even in the acts of religion itself the first thing to be consi- khe cultivation of a right disposition towards our fellow-man. The Great Teach " If thou thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee, leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way, first be riled to thy brother, and then come and offer : ift." This then is the beginning of the religious life of the Gospel, the cultivation of right feelings and of a right disposition of man towards his fellow- man. " For this is the message/' says John, u which ye have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another j we know that we have from death unto life because we love the bl lie that loveth not his brother abideth in death. If we love <• bher God dwelleth in as, and His love is 1 in us. He that loveth his brother abideth in light, and there is no occasion of stumbling in him. If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother THE REST OF LABOUR. 481 he is a liar, for lie that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?" The love of the Disciple of Jesus for his Master, after He had ascended to His glory, was no longer a love of personal affection, but a love of obedience to His Word as a Divine Teacher, and of reverence for His authority, as the Head of universal nature work- ing out a spiritual kingdom in the world. Ci Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven. He that hath my commandments and keepeth them he it is that loveth me. If ye keep my commandments ye shall abide in my love. If a man love me he will keep my words. Whoso keepeth His words in him is the love of God perfected. Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.'' We shall now consider the relation of Faith to the religious life of the Gospel. Faith is not literal knowledge, because that is the result of our internal and external sensations, but faith is the belief of something stated or done by another. Faith is either the belief in the being or the rela- tion of a fact, or a belief in the existence or the statement of a principle, and as such it enters into all the relations of human life, and is connected witli Y 482 >av, nil the accidents of human existence. And there- Christianity is a Revelation of facts and principles. Faith occupies a most prominent place in the culture of the Christian life. The economy of Moses was neither a revelation of nor an enunciation of principles, but simply a covenant of outward acts and external morality, and a law of sacrificial rites and formal observances, and all that it required from the activity of man was a prescribed round of outward obedience. In direct opposition to this merely national economy of out- ward obedience, the Gospel is essentially a universal economy of Faith. The whole economy of Chris- tianity consists of a revelation of facts to be received upon the credit of others, and an enunciation of principles to be believed. The revelation of the Gospel has no covenant of outward obedience, nor any law of ritual observance, it is entirely a principle of the inner life. And hence in relation to the Mosaic economy it is wholly and entirely an eco- nomy of Faith; but this by no means makes the ous life of the Gospel entirely a life of Faith. In the relation of Christianity to tin- economy is most undoubtedly the essential characteristic of the Gospel, but in the general character of it - \ elation, and in the view of its universal relation to the human family, Faith at once t; place in the rank of one of its subordinate elements, and Charity stands forth in all the fulness of her THE REST OF LABOUR. 483 own Divinity, as the one great absolute whole and entire eternal principle of the Heavenly life of Chris- tianity. We shall next consider the revelation of the Gos- pel in relation to the world. In reading the New Testament it is necessary ever to keep in mind the essential difference between the claims of the mission of Jesus on the faith of the Hebrews of the Mosaic covenant and on that of the Gentile world. To the Jews who heard the Prophet of Nazareth as a Teacher sent from God to His own nation, and saw the miracles which demonstrated the Divine Authority of His Mission, and to the Gentiles who saw none of these things, and who only heard the teaching of the Divine Wisdom through a servant of the Master, the fact of the Divine Mission of the Son of God must come with very different claims, as different indeed as the difference in the character of the respective hearers of the Gospel. To the one it was an object of sense, and to the other of pure and simple credit. To the Israelite the Gospel in its fundamental fact might justly be, as it was, a law of life and death. Jesus of Nazareth ap- peared in Canaan with all the authority for the Divi- nity of His mission, as the Great Prophet who was to come, which a Jew had any right to expect, and if he received that Prophet he was blessed of heaven, but if he received Him not he was justly doomed 484 DAY, to the irreversible om of God in time, and His unmitigated displeasure in eternity. Because sucli a rejection could only arise from a state of mind which rendered him entirely unfit for the enjoyment of that manifestation of the Father which constitutes the everlasting felicity of the Blessed. But not so with the Gentile world. The Gospel was presented to the world as a word of Ble both in this life and in the life to come, to every one who receives it in its own spirit, as a renewing prin- ciple, as the leaven of a higher spiritual life in the individual, and as an ultimate medium of uni\ renovation. There is no ground in the New Testa- ment on which the Gospel can be considered as a law of eternal condemnation to any man or to any body of men in the world. The Son of God came not to destroy men's lives but to save them. It was not the purpose of His advent to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be s; In all the representations of the coming judgment, in the New Testament, there is no word, no declara- tion which either affirms or intimates that the nal condemnation of a Bangle Gentile will in any case be pronounced for not believing the facts of the rl rev( hit ion. There cannot be a doubt but that the Gospel, as a revelation of facts as well as principles, when rightly received, is both a present and an eternal blessing to those who do receive THE REST OF LABOUR. 485 But there is nothing whatever in the Gospel itself which makes the eternal destiny of the Gentile world to depend upon its reception as a revelation of facts, though every man will be judged according to the obedience of his life to its spiritual principles. Because they are a revelation of the natural laws of the conscience of universal man. Did the Gospel in any way either assert or intimate that the eternal destiny of the whole human race is staked either upon a belief in the revelation of its Divine truths, or of the facts of redemption by the life and death of the Son of God, the Gospel could have no claim to any connection whatever with the Creator of the world and the Governor of universal nature. In the natural world every day proclaims the good- ness, the kindness, and the perfect equity of its Author, but no idea can be conceived in the mind of man of more terrible injustice, and of more awful evil than that which would make the eternal des- tiny of the human race to depend upon a Faith in the revelation of the Gospel of Jesus. That the Creator of the universe should call into existence a human spirit with rational powers and intellectual faculties, and make the felicity of the whole eternity of its existence to depend upon the belief of some- thing with which in thousands and thousands of mil- lions of cases it is utterly impossible it should ever be made acquainted in this life, would be an act of 486 DAY, tyranny more awful than anything we could imagine, unless, indeed, infinite malevolence were a natural perfection of the Father of Being, and the highest character of the Redeemer were that of the hater of mankind. The New Testament declares in the most positive and direct manner that the eternal destiny of every man entirely depends upon the character of his works, and not in any degree upon his faith. And that this will be the case as well with the Jew as with the Gentile, as well with the believer in the Gospel as with the unbeliever: every man will be judged according to the deeds done in the body. The judg- ment of a righteous God must be according to some principle which every one can understand, and according to a rule of life with which every one may become acquainted who is destined to endure the pro- cess of judgment, and the Gospel itself gives us reason to hope that there will be found in every land and in every age of the world, some few whose activity here may prepare them for an eternity of felicity in the unknown and unrevcaled life of the future. We have already shewn that the Gospel contem- plates the whole human family in the Christ as the Redeemer. Every one comes into the world in a state of redemption; for as the whole huma.ii race are depraved by the defection of Adam, so that same entire race are partakers with Adam in his restora- THE REST OF LABOUR. 487 tion to Divine favour through the redemption of Jesus the Christ. " For, as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation, so by the righteousness of one the free gift came unto all men to justification of life." For, " as in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive." No man can be born into the world in an unredeemed state, nor yet under the condemnation of our reconciled God and Father in Christ Jesus. The Father's favour is manifested to every child of man, because He is loving to every man, and His tender mercy is over all His works. The finger of eternal love has written upon the tablet of every human heart, independent of all outward culture, some disposition to piety and goodness, some sense of truth and rectitude of mind, and some feeling of moral beauty, which, under the quickening influence of the ever working Spirit of Eternity in the mind of universal man, has occasionally manifested itself amongst the various tribes of men through all the different ages of time. These are the flowers of the celestial Eden which have bloomed in the moral wilderness of this evil world for thousands of years, and are still blooming in the desert places of the earth. They may often be unseen, unknown, and unnoticed by any eye but That which looks with a benignant smile of complacent love on the patient and enduring struggle of man with evil, and the fruits of 488 DAY, tally affection wherever they arise and flourish in the heart of man, and gives them a place in the re- cords of eternity and a name in the book of life. And there they will bear an indelible character until the tale of human mortality is told, and the book of oafcthly existence is sealed in the change of the last man, and Death itself is swallowed up in the never-end- ing future. And may we not indulge the generous hope, that when the quickening sound of the Archangel's trumpet shall call the righteous dead to the resurrec- tion of the just, that the dust of thousands and of tens of thousands shall come forth to live for ever and ■TOT with the Lord of life, who have newr looked for the advent of the Messiah of Israel, nor ever be- lieved in the Divine mission of Jesus of Nazareth, because they have never heard the sound of that inef- fable name. And shall we offend Thy majesty, O King of saints if our faitli in the efficacy of Thy intercession, and in the clemency of that heart which once bled for the life of universal man shall lead us to hope even that Tl iy all prevailing prayers are accepted with the lather for many a good and righteous man, who when he hears of Thee, so hears that he can neither believe in Thy mission of truth and charity, nor feel any affect iun for Thy most adorable person ; and that these shall be called from the dust of the earth to join with unspeakable gratitude and joy in the i THE REST OF LABOUR. lasting hallelujah of the redeemed, who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality. " Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches, and wisdom and strength, and honour and glory and blessing." Grace. — The teachers of our religion generally tell us that the Gospel is a proclamation of forgive- ness to a guilty world ; this appears to me to be something different from the view of the Gospel con- tained in this paper. Rachel. — It never struck me that a mere procla- mation of pardon to a world of guilty rebels could be worthy of the character of the Author of the Gospel, or any especial benefit to society. Doctor. — It would certainly be a much greater benefit to change the character of the man from a rebel to that of a well disposed subject of the law, and having done this his pardon would not be a very difficult matter ; when a child has become thoroughly obedient and affectionate it is an easy and agreeable task to the father to pardon his past rebellion. Mr. Charity. — If we examine the commission of the great Gentile Apostle we shall arrive at the full and final decision of this subject; I have no doubt the Doctor will read it to us. Doctor. — Certainly. This commission is contained in the Acts of the Apostles, chap. xxvi. After relat- ing the attendant circumstances, Paul introduces y2 490 DAY, fail Master, as speaking to him from heaven, and saying, " I am Jesus, whom thou revilest, but od stand upon thy feet, for I have appeared unto thee to make thee a minister and a witness both of tilings that thou hast seen, and of things in the which 1 will appear unto thee, delivering thee from the people and from the Gentiles, unto whom I now send thee. To open their eyes, To turn them from darkness to light, And the power of Satan unto God, That they may receive forgiveness of sins And inheritance among them that are sanctified, By faith that is in me/' And then the Apostle says he went forth and ful- filled his mission ; shewing first to the Jews and then to the Gentiles that they should change their minds and turn to God, aud that they should bring forth such works as became this change of mind. \ce. — In this commission there is nothing I con- fess which looks like a proclamation of forgiveness to guilty rebels. Rachel. — But there is something altogether dif- : ;md there is a course pointed out by which the regenerated man may receive forgiveness. Doctor. — The commission consists of several parts which altogether form a process of renovation. The Apostle himself is to begin this process by teaching the Gospel to the people. The wisdom of the Gospel THE REST OF LABOUR. 491 when so taught, is to open their eyes and give them light in their mind ; this will have the effect of turning some of them from darkness to light — that is, from their old pagan culture to the life of the Gospel ; and then, as a result of this spiritual renovation, they will receive the forgiveness of their sins, and an inhe- ritance among those who are devoted to the culture of the Divine life by their reception of the heavenly wisdom of the Gospel. Mr. Charity. — If you attend to the Apostle's own account of the execution of this commission, you will find that his fulfilment of its object was in exact accordance with the commission itself; he went forth, he says, teaching men a new life and a new activity ; he shewed to both Jews and Gentiles that they should change their mind and turn to God, and that on doing this their outward activity must correspond to the change within ; their works must be such as belong to the character of a renovated man. Doctor. — If the proclamation of forgiveness to a world of rebels were the true object of the Gospel mission, Paul had certainly forgotten his errand in making this statement of the manner in which he did his apostolic work. Mrs. Bell. — I certainly feel that I have a much better notion of the Gospel and its Divine object than I had before these subjects were discussed; though I had but little idea that the discussion would close SUNDAY, with shewing that that system which makes the test pretensions to purity and perfection is i! tit ute of all foundation in truth and rcalit Mit. Charity. — The notion of setting forth the Gospel as a proclamation of forgiveness to a rein 1 world is worthy of the same credit as the stories of the Shastcr and the Koran. Rachel. — And has had, I believe, about as much beneficial influence on society. Mit. C ha hi ty. — The Gospel can never be expected to exercise a very deep and extensive influence on society until it is received as it was proclaimed by the Apostle, as the principle of a new inward culture and the creating power of a new spiritual life in man, as designed to give man a new mind, a new spirit, and a new disposition. THE REST OF LABOUR. 493 IV. CHRISTIAN CULTURE. The object of the religious life in man is the culti- vation of the Divine which dwells in his spirit, and the subjugation of the evil which dwells in his flesh ; and it is the great purpose of the revelation of the Gospel to shew to man how this object can be effected in the best way. It must be evident, from the nature of the thing itself, that the great requirement of man to assist him in the culture of his religious being is something inward, something spiritual, something that goes deeper than the action, something that goes even beyond the will — the spring of activity — something which affects those powers of the mind which deter- mine the character and activity of the will itself. The fundamental want of man as a spiritual being is spi- ritual light and spiritual power, Divine wisdom and the Divine Spirit. Man has to sustain a conflict with himself : the spirit has to support the dignity and authority of its own nature and position in the individuality of the man, and to resist the constant effort of the sensuous 494 i>ay, and organic flesh, to obtain a dominion over his whole personality, and the whole activity of his life. The Divine constitution of the economy of his being gives to every man some measure of assistance in performing this work, and so much assistance as would enable him, under all ordinary circumstances, to attain its Divine object, the participation of man in the Divine nature. But all this is only like a spiritual twilight, or a bright night of moon and stars gleaming in borrowed rays and distant splen- dour, through the atmosphere of humanity, until the light of the. Gospel rises with all the glory and splen- dour of perfect day on the mind of the disciple of Jesus, and gives him, in the life and teaching of his Master everything that is necessary, everything that is useful, everything that he wants, to enable the spirit to triumph over the flesh, and to raise his humanity to God. The Gospel is a revelation of wisdom, giving light aud understanding to the mind; a Divine seed, bring- ing forth the fruits of Godlike wisdom in the life ; a heavenly treasure hidden in the heart, working itself out through all the powers and faculties of man's na- t urc, and conforming him to the likeness of his Father in heaven. This is a work which no institution can perform; a process which no means of grace can carry on ; and au object which no organism can affect. No mistake THE REST OF LABOUR. 495 can be greater, no misapprehension so little grounded in truth, no fallacy more thoroughly baseless than that which represents Christianity as an organism of Church polity, and the Gospel as an institution of religion. The life and the teaching of Jesus, and these alone, are the Gospel of the Son of God. Nothing else whatever can lay any just claim to the name of the Gospel. It is the word of Jesus which gives life to the understanding, which influences the heart, which instructs the mind, and gives new life to the man. It is the word of Jesus which converts the soul, which changes the mind, and which sanctifies the being. Are men to be born again, it is by the Word ; are they to be sanctified, it is by the same Word. The whole process of the Divine work of the Gospel is a process to be effected by the Word and by the Spirit, and that Word itself is both life and spirit to all those who receive it. It unites the man to Christ — " Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you." This word is the bond of affection and communion betwixt the disciple and his Master : "He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me ; and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him." And, finally, this Word is the bond of union betwixt man and God. That which unites the human to the Divine, and elevates the manhood into DAY, a part ieipat ion of the Divine nature, and a commu- nion with the Divinity Itself: "If a man love me he will keep my words, and my Father will love him, and Wo will come unto him, and make our abode with him. lie that loveth me not kcepeth not my say- ings." If the Gospel is a Divine institution the New Tes- tament most assuredly contains no notice whatever of that institution ; and if the New Testament does not contain that institution in its whole and entire body, it is a matter with which we have no concern. As the followers of Christ the New Testament contains the whole of our religious >ystom ; and whatever is not found therein contained cannot be acknowledged by us as any part or parcel of the Gospel of Jesus. The economy of Moses, as contained in the Penta- teuch, is in every sense, and to all intents and pur- poses, a Divine institution. The Creator is its head under the character of Jehovah, and b His servant. Moses is called to a certain place in order he may be instructed in everything relating to undation and the working of the institution. I commanded to erect a building in which its object may be carried out, and its rites performed, and to appoint persons in perpetuity to carry out . and to perform these rites. He re- 1 the laws and ordinances of the institution; and he is commanded to appoint rites and ceremonies to THE REST OF LABOUR. 497 be perpetually observed. The days, times, and sea- sons are minutely and definitely determined on which every rite is to be performed and every cere- mony observed, and the nature and amount of all the elements to be used in every rite and ceremonial are set forth to the minutest particular. The whole eco- nomy was ordained with such exact perfection that it was capable of working on in one uninterrupted and unvarying course through all the changes and revolutions of fifteen centuries. Such is the nature and the character of the only visible Divine institution with which the world is acquainted. What has the economy of the Gospel to compare with this ? Where is there anything in the New Testament that bears any relation to such a process? What tabernacle of Divine worship was reared by the Founder of the Gospel, who declared to the woman of Samaria the end of all temple service ? Where is the appointment of the perpetual order of Ministers who should take the place of the sons of Levi, and work out the objects of the new institution? Where is the system of laws, ordinations, and ap- pointments, according to which the objects and the purposes of the institution are to be carried out and executed? Where is the perpetual appointment, the everlasting ordination of the rites, services, and ce- remonies to be performed ? Where is the new Exodus and Leviticus of the minute determinations of the 498 SUNDAY, process of a continual and universal economy of Divine service to be carried on through all the coming changes of human opinion, and all the future revolu- tions of human existence on the earth ? Read the New Testament without any of the prejudices of a Church education, and you will at once see that it not only contains no foundation of a religious or- ganism, but no intimation, no suggestion whatsoever of anything in the nature of a Divine institution. It has no perpetual laws, no perpetual rites, no per- petual institutions, no perpetual appointments, either by command, by recommendation, or by suggestion. It is wanting in everything that enters into the nature and the character of an institution. Twelve Disciples were appointed and endowed with extraordinary powers by the Great Prophet to preach the Gospel to the sons of Israel in every country of the world, as a witness to all the tribes that Mi had appeared before the coming of the Son of man in His power to terminate the Hebrew national polity, and to make an end of the Mosaic economy. And one Disciple was especially called, and peculiarly endowed to teach the Divine wisdom, and to proclaim the fact of redemption to the Gentiles ; but no suc- cessor was appointed to either of these Apostolic agencies, and it was not possible in the nature of tbingl that they could themselves appoint successors in their ministry, because they were themselves in THE REST OF LABOUR. 499 their own office especial agents, peculiarly raised up by Divine power with a specific appointment to an extraordinary work. The Hebrew Apostles were commanded to baptize their disciples as a visible sign and mark of their re- nunciation of Moses, and their reception of Jesus of Nazareth as the Christ of God. But the Gentile Apostle received no such command to baptize, be- cause the Gentiles were not called upon to renounce any especial Divine economy in receiving the wisdom of the Gospel. " Christ," says the Gentile Apostle, "sent. me not to baptize, but to preach the Gospel." Neither is there in the New Testament any command whatever to the disciples of Christ to be baptized. Baptism is not a general ordinance of Christ to His disciples, but merely the stepping-stone from Judaism to Christianity, and only ministered by the Apostles to either Jews or Gentiles in their Hebrew character. When the Redeemer had eaten His last Passover supper with his Hebrew apostles, and the bread and the wine were brought on the table according to the usual custom; as the Master of the table he invited them to eat and drink, and then he requested them as often as they did that — that is, as often as they ate bread and drank wine, after a Passover supper, to eat and drink that bread and wine in remembrance of Him until He Came — that is, until the destruction of Jeru- salem and the end of the Mosaic dispensation. In 500 DAY, this then there is nothing like perpetuity of ordina- tion; the thing is directed to be done, and the mil of doing it, and the time during which it was to be done, is limited to a certain fixed object. When Christ suffered, the Passover entirely lost its signifi- cance, but the tiling was allowed to remain for a few years, during which time the Memorial in- stitution was to continue with it as a sign of its end. But it is utterly impossible to find in the New Tes- tament any ordinance either commanding the erec- tion of an altar, or the setting up of a table cither of wood or of stone, from which some Divinely appointed officer is to dispense bread and wine as a rite to the disciples of Jesus the Christ. And equally as diffi- cult would it be to find in the New Testament the appointment of any officers to the duty of performing this work. Indeed, there is not to be found in the New Testament a single instance of any person whatever administering bread and wine in my place to any number of the Gentile disciples of Jesus; and t here is not to be found a single instance of the administration of the temporary memorial institution by any one of the Apostles of the Redeemer. We conclude then that there is nothing in the enuncia- tion of the Gospel of the nature of an institution* The Gospel is wholly and entirely a revelation of Divine wisdom, accompanied by a revelation of the THE REST OF LABOUR. 501 fact of redemption, and of the forgiveness of sins through Jesus Christ the Redeemer. From the beginning of the world there has ex- isted a succession of men in every age who offered up their prayers to the Father of the Universe for such things as they felt to be needed, either for the good of themselves or for the good of others, and who at the same time expressed their gratitude, and told forth their praises for the good which they re- ceived. This religion existed before Moses received the economy of Sinai ; it was the religion of Moses himself, and it continued to be the religion of the best men of the Hebrew nation as long as that eco- nomy continued to exist as a Divine institution. The revelation of Sinai was not only entirely distinct from the revelation of a system of religion, but it was also in no sense of the word a new revelation of the religious life. The whole and entire process of the Divine interposition at Sinai had reference to the national economy of Israel, miraculously founded and miraculously supported, and continued for the accomplishment of a particular object. There is nothing whatever in the law of Moses that can by any possibility be considered as the revelation of a new principle in the culture of the religious life of the Hebrew, in his individual relation to the common Father of humanity. The great principles of the religious life which had been known 502 SUNDAY, and practised by the Patriarchs, still remained as much in their full force after the miracles of Sinai, as they did before. They received no diminution, no confirmation, no alteration, and no addition. The religious life and the expression of piety, remained precisely the same after that event, as they did before. And when Jesus appeared in Israel as the Messiah, the Christ of God, He made no revelation whatever of a new religion or a new method of the expn of individual piety to the Father of our being. But in His life and teaching He uniformly sets before us an example of the same mode of expressing our reli- gious feelings, as that which had been practised in the life of the good men of all the preceding ages of the world. The Father has never made any revelation to man respecting worship as the constant and continuous act of the religious life, but that lie is the great object to whom it should be directed; and the Gospel of Jesus Christ makes no addition to this revelation, but that the Son of God as well as the Father u the Divine object of Christian adoration. " That all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the lather.'' The Gospel gh ample of the manner in which our feelings of piety ought to be expressed to the common Father of all, in that which is called the Lord's Prayer. And the Great Teacher all His disciples to offer np their prayers in THE REST OF LABOUR. 503 private, and not before a general assemblage of the people. The piety of the Gospel is spiritual, secret and unseen. The Author of the Gospel has given to His Disciples one direct and absolute rule of piety, one plain, unalterable, and never-ceasing law of prayer, in both a negative and a positive form. " And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues, and in the corners of the streets that they may be seen of men ; verily 1 say unto you they have their reward. But thou, when thou pray est, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut the door, pray to thy Father which is in secret, and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. And when ye pray, use not vain repetitions as the heathen do, for they think they shall be heard for their much speaking. Be not ye therefore like unto them, for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of before ye ask Him." The New Testament institutes no form of worship, no method of praise and prayer. The Gospel appoints no public place of prayer, no public assem- blage for devotion, nor any times of worship, either public or private. Tt treats with man in relation to the expression of piety and the performance of wor- ship solely and entirely in his individual character. The Gospel teaches men to pray at any time and in any place, at every time and in every place, when 504 >ay, and whore it is convenient, in the secrecy of their own heart, and in the depth of their own thou And it teaches men to retire at times entirely from business and the observation of the world for medita- tion and prayer. Hut nothing can be more repugnant to the heavenly principles and to the divine spirit of the Gospel, than the thrusting forward of devotional acts in a mixed company of individual- The Gospel neither commands nor forbids the private meeting of friends to pray together, one with another, and one for another, but it does most posi- tively reprehend and condemn, both by the precept and the example of its Divine Author, the perform- ance of all formal worship and of all kinds of devo- tion in a mixed multitude of men. This is a thing opposed to the whole end and purpose for which the great Prophet of the Gospel became the Teacher of For ages before the advent of Christianity, ►rid had been botind in the chains of a formal culture, which arose to maturity upon the ever increasing ignorance of the multitude, while the Uniform tendency of that formal culture itself was to and perpetuate the ignorance which had il into being, and reared it up to its v. To supersede this formal reli- and to restore the expression of piety to its individual and spiritual purity was one of the THE REST OF LABOUR. 505 great objects of the mission of the Son of God into our world. It is the first object of the Gospel to give to man, — the great mass of mankind, that instruction which enables every man to act in all his relations to God his Father, in his own individual character of a son in his Father's house. And thus to render all human priesthood useless in the life of men, and to remove everything in the nature of a ministry of worship from the religious life of the world. The Gospel of Jesus Christ entirely repudiates all other priesthood but that of the individual Disciple and his Master, and all other ministry, but that of the teaching and the exercise of the principles of Truth and Charity. The founders of the Church system themselves were so fully aware of this, that they deliberately declared that the public worship which they performed, and the formal culture which they were instituting in the world under the name of Christianity, were not adapted to the wants of those who were already Christians, but were designed only for the assistance of those who were in the process of conversion to the faith of the Church. Saint Jerome, who spent the greater part of his life in Palestine, and died in the year of our era, four hundred and thirty, says in his work on the Epistle to the Galatians, chapter the fourth : " That looked at from a purely Christian point of z 506 II HDATj view, all days arc- alike, finery day is to the Christian a Friday, to be consecrated by the remembrance of Christ crucified, and every day a Sunday, sinei every day he can solemnize in the communion, the fellow ship of Christ though risen. But festivals and meetings for Divine Worship at stated seasons, were appointed for the benefit of those who are not capable of rising up to this position, who are m>' so disposed and so trained as every day of their life, before engaging in the business of the world, to offer God the sacrifice of prayer." Such was the very insidious form under which public worship, the formal culture of the Church, first made itself acceptable to the ancient Fathers. They inoculated the mind of society with the wry disease under one form, which under another was to cure itself. Instead of instructing the inner man of the world in the great principles of the Gospel, they trained and shrove the outer man by means of the formal culture of the Church, to raise him above all forms into the atmosphere of the spiritual and the Divine. Why not throw oil on the fire to extinguish the flame ? if to train a man in sensuous rites, cere- monial formality, and means of grace will cure him of formalism. Christianity and formalism may exist side by side in the same individual, but the genius of the Gospel canno more intermingle with the spirit of public worship, than iron can be fused into one mass with THE REST OF LABOUR. 507 miry clay. They are absolutely, unchangeably and everlastingly opposed to each other in their origin, their character, and their object, and in their influence on the present condition of the individual and of society, and on the everlasting destiny of man, in the life of the eternal future. " God is a spirit, and they that worship Him, must worship Him in the spirit and the truth," 508 DAY, V. JESUS, THE EXEMPLAR OF THE DIVINE LIFE IN MAX. Wl propose in this paper to consider the character of the Author of the Gospel as the Exemplar of its Divine life. The Great Teacher not only revealed the Gospel to the world as a system of divine wisdom, He also presented Himself to the world as an object to be followed and imitated. He constituted His life as much a part of the Gospel as His teaching, and made the example of the one of equal importance with the principles of the other. What He did as an indi- vidual, as a member of society, as a public teacher, as a master, and as a subject, that He did for our learning and for our imitation. Whatever He * His character of a child under His parents, as a creature in relation to His heavenly Father, as a man in relation to other men, and as a Teacher sent from God to instruct his brethren, t hat He waa as our pattern and the exemplar of our life. This is that pe- ruliarity of the Gospel which constitutes its immea- surable superiority above all other systems which I era prevailed amongst men. THE REST OF LABOUR. 509 The Author of the Gospel was a perfect man, and not only a perfect man, but a Divine man — God manifested in the flesh — Eternity revealing itself in (ime. The Creator appearing in a visible form through the medium of a creature — The invisible Godhead dwelling amongst men in the person of a visible man, and yet the manhood still remaining in all the essential characteristics of humanity merely truly and properly a man, and nothing but a man. A man eating, drinking, walking and sleeping as a man — a man feeling, thinking, willing and acting after the manner of other men, but without any of the sins, the errors and the failings of human nature, and therefore a perfect example to all other men. And to be a Christian is to take Jesus of Nazareth for our Master, to become a follower of the Christ. The Divine Teacher, the Prophet of Nazareth, appeared among men as a teacher sent from God, exhibiting the whole system of His wisdom in the activity of His life, and speaking with divine authority. And to be a Chris- tian is to become a disciple and follower of Jesus. To learn the principles which he taught, and to frame the whole activity of our life according to these prin- ciples as they were manifested in His own life, so that these principles themselves may become the elements of a new inward culture, and the seed of a new spiritual life. The words of Jesus are to the activity of the Christian what meat and drink are to the animal body. 510 8UNDAY, The person, the flesh, and the blood of Christ, as the medium of the Divine communication of the Wisdom of Eternity to man is the spiritual food of the Chris- tian. Except — says the Divine Teacher in the meta- phorical language of the East — " Except ye eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of Man ye have no life in you. Nevertheless the flesh itself profiteth nothing," only so far as it is the medium of Divine communication. u The words which I speak unto you they are spirit, and they are life." That which the Divine Teacher taught his disciples as the elements of their spiritual life that II. lived Himself, and the example of His life is therefore as much an instrument of instruction to His disciples as the words which He spake, and the principles which He taught. Every precept was confirmed by His practice, and every recorded action of His life illus- trates some lesson of Eternal Wisdom which lie taught to the people. Docs He call man to the cultivation of the in- dwelling Divinity in the mind, we are told that in His childhood Jesus increased in favour both with God and man. — Does he teach men to deny themselves, ire never find Mini the victim of passions, propensity, temper or appetite ; hut in the whole tenor of His life M the uniform subordination of the animal to the spiritual life, and the good of His brethren uniformly miinating over any attention to Himself. THE REST OF LABOUR. 511 Does He direct and exhort men to take up their cross, and to meet the difficulties of their position, we find Him persevering in doing good amid all the opposition and contempt of His friends and brethren. Does He make the principle of Charity the distinctive element of the Christian life. His whole public life was one continued unfolding of a generous, kind, gentle, meek, and confiding spirit. Did He dis- courage a large acquisition of property by his disci- ples — the adding of house to house, and land to land, and the accumulation of great treasure — He so fully -carried out, both the spirit and the letter of this prin- ciple through His own life, that with all the powers of universal nature at His command, He had not a suffi- cient extent of property on which to lay His head. Does He recommend His disciples not to seek after the appearance of great riches, we find him invariably assuming the character of a poor man, and performing all His journeys on foot. Does He recommend His disciples to shew their relation to Him by feeding the hungry and clothing the naked ; we find Him almost invariably doing temporal good to men before He offers them any spiritual instruction. The welfare of the body was the more immediate and direct, and the welfare of the soul the ultimate object of His at- U'lition. Does he recommend a retired and secret devotion to His followers, we never find Him per- forming any aet of piety, offering any pray ers,or saying 512 8UNDAT, any graces aloud, either before the multitude or in the presence of His most intimate friends. Does He command His disciples to retire from the world for t prayer and intercourse with the Father, we find Him leaving the society of His most devoted disciples, and remaining all the night in the moun- tain for meditation and prayer, and secret communion with His Father. Does He declare in His own Mission the end of all ritual service ; we never find Him, though a Jew, giving any air of sanctity to the services of the temple, by making it a place for the offering up of prayer. Does He teach us not to receive honour one of another, and not to exalt the person of our brethren into any undue importance. "We find Him uniformly refusing all earthly honours, and all distinctions, and manifesting no personal deference, no courtly complaisance, no respect what- e\cr to the holders of human authority, but that which was merely and directly official. He did not overthrow the government of Herod of Galilee, but He spoke of His personal character in the most con- temptuous terms. He treated the office of Pilate with respect, but He offered no deference to his person beyond what it was worth. He patiently submitted to the exercise of authority by the High , but He treated I lis exercise of mere personal consequence with the silent scorn it deserved. The whole character of Jesus of Nazareth is to the THE REST OF LABOUR. 513 true Christian the object of his profoundest reverence, his highest admiration, and his most ardent affection. The words of Jesus are the life of his activity, the spirit of his behaviour, the moulding of his character, the expression of his feeling, the living spring of his wisdom, the immoveable foundation of his hope, the glory of his existence, and the eternity of his hap- piness. If then Jesus the Master built no sanctuary why should we think that the Most High dwelleth in tem- ples made with hands ? If Jesus neither observed, appointed, or recommended any form of outward worship, why should we make the first and greater part of our religion to consist in the chanting of Psalms and Hymns, and the saying of Public prayers ? If the Master neither appointed, observed, nor sanctified a day of worship, why should the disciple observe a particular time of public devotion ? To the Master, not one day but every day was alike a day of worship, every place was consecrated to devotion. To the Divine Jesus the silent breathing of the heart and the unheard utterance of the lips were the only forms of prayer. The mountain was His closet, the hills and the fields of Canaan were His pulpit, and the words of instruction and the in- ward breathing of piety the only consecration of the place of His ministry and His worship. And to deny himself, to take up his cross, and to follow Jesus to z 2 514 DAY, the height of that Charity which is the bond of per- fect ness, is the whole sum of the religious life of the Christian. O Thou most exalted Son of Man. Thou God of all iom. Thou most perfect image of all purity, all true greatness, and all moral beauty. Thou Living pat- tern of all loveliness, all generous feeling, all gentle- ness, all kindness, and all forbearance. Thou most high and Godlike example of all holy and all spiritual feeling, all noble and all elevated piety, all true worship and ail Divine devotion. Breathe into our hearts Thine own sense of Divine affection, and lead us forth in Thine own spirit into the great temple of Creation. Enlarge our minds and raise us up to that heavenly devotion, which once found its utterance in the mountains, the valleys, and the fields of Canaan, while the fowls of the air, the flowers of the valley, and the fruits of the field were continually shewing forth the kindness and attention of the Com- mon Father of all and hymning forth their praises to Him, who made them, nourishes them, and cares for them through every moment of their existence. So imbue us with Thine own mind that forgetting all the feelings of self, our sympathies with our fellow men may be as universal as human nature, and so fill us with Thine own spirit that our life upon earth may be one continued communion with all that is tted, beautiful and pure in the visible, and that it THE REST OF LABOUR. 515 may constantly increase in its approach to all that is perfect and Divine in the invisible world. Ever ex- tend to us the invisible hand of that Eternal Divinity which dwells in Thyself, so as to help our infirmi- ties, that we may rise above all the vanities, the am- bitions, and the pride of this present world, that our whole life and conversation may be devoted to the teaching and assisting of our fellow men to rise out of the bondage of ignorance, vice, and poverty, so that the whole race of man may acknowledge, but one Father and one Master, and form one universal family of equal and united Brotherhood. Rachel. — In closing this series of papers the strongest impression which they leave upon our mind is that Jesus Christ is not the founder of a system of religion. Mr. Charity. — This is a truth which I have en- deavoured more particularly to point out than any other which we have attempted to discuss. Doctor. — What then is that feature in the cha- racter of Jesus Christ to which you would give the greatest prominence? Mr. Charity. — That to which the Gospel itself gives the greatest prominence. There is one cha- racter in which our Lord appeared, and in which both the writers of the Gospel story, the first missionaries of the Gospel, and His own life and labours have placed Him pre-eminently before the world. 516 DAY, Mks. Bell. — And that wc may not mistake your view of the matter I should like to hear it delivered in the form of a direct and positive statement. Mit. Charity. — The character of Jesus Christ which the New Testament most clearly, most fully, and most dcterminately sets before the world is that of the Word of God, the Prophet that was to come into the world, the Teacher sent from God. This is the character in which Jesus represented himself to the Jews, the character in which he demanded their faith at the peril of their national existence, the character in which the twelve Apostles were to pre- sent their Master to the dispersed Israelites as the objects of their faith and the means of their salvation. The character in which the last Apostle pre-emi- nently sets forward his Master in his Gospel to the Jews of Asia, and finally the character in which he is represented in prophecy as the triumphant Victor over the powers of evil, where His name is called — The Word of God. Doctor. — It is in this character then that you expect Him to regenerate society, and to renovate the world ? Mr. Charity.— When that word which is life and spirit is believed and practised amongst men it will become the life of society and the Divine Spirit of the world. Rachel. — As the teaching of Christ has been THE REST OF LABOUR. 517 made known to the world for eighteen hundred years, how do you account for the little influence it has had upon society ? Mr. Charity. — From the opposition it has had to encounter in the world. Grace. — How do you characterize this opposition? Mr. Charity. — The two great powers which have impeded the progress of the Gospel in the world are the Jewish Economy and the Catholic Church. The first lost its influence in the fifth century of our era, the second still remains as the great unbelieving power at war with Christ and the Gospel, and op- posed to the welfare of the world. Doctor. — And you expect the present Sunday movement to be the great instrument which Provi- dence will use in taking away the influence of the Catholic Church ? Mr. Charity. — I expect that the great movement of the British race which has led the British work- man to question every institution of society and the utility of every organism, convention and economy of his country is destined by Eternal Providence to work on until it has spread itself from land to land, and from race to race, and undermined every system of evil amongst men, leaving the Gospel to contend with the evil of the individual man alone, and so to prepare the way for Him to work who will make all things anew. 518 SUNDAY, VI THE GENERAL PRINCIPLES. AND D OF THE WORK. My work, as the writer of "Sunday, the Rest of Labour," is now completed. It was my object to illustrate the fact, and to expound the princip] rigin and the nature of a great social phenome- non which is manifesting itself to the world, and is icd to change the whole character of the reli- gious life of the British race, and to shew that nun may be Christians, and true Christians, in the highest sense of the term under this change. In fulfilling my t, I proposed to consider the important ques- tion, whether man may not be truly religious without connected with any religious system. And win; her they may not be true Christians without being in communion with any religious organisi any Church system whatever ; and 1 have endeavoured try out this purpose in the book, by shewing Thtl a day o( Rot is apart of the Divine constitu- tion of the economy of human life. : f the physical benefit — the recreation of the energies of the man of toil was the immediate and tin direct object of the appointment of the rest of the THE REST OF LABOUR. 519 seventh day, and of its reappointment in the Hebrew economy. That a Sunday rest from labour was a part of the Heathen economy of Britain, and a remnant of the original Rest of the seventh day. That every man is at perfect liberty to spend the Rest according to the convictions of his own mind, subject to such restrictions as control his activity on every other day. That the observance of the Lord's day, as a day of worship is wholly and entirely an invention of the Church for her own purposes. That the rest of the Lord's day is a political pro- vision for the benefit of the Church, as the state reli- gion of the Constantinian Roman empire. That the sacred character of the Lord's day is in every respect, and to all intents and purposes, an invention of the British Reformed Churches. That the observance of the Sabbath, as a reHg day, has no connexion whatever with the religion of God and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. That the Church system 18 wholly and entirely a human invention, and that it was so regarded by the Fathers its foundi That Public worship is wholly and entirely a human device, with no Divine foundation, nor any Divine sanction whatsoever. That a Divinely appointed ministry of rel never had am 06 in our world. 520 SUNDAY, That all worship acceptable to God is spiritual and private, without any outward form or any public per- formance. That religion is a life, a being, and not an institution. That any man may be religious, without being connected with any institution or religious system. That the religion of God is the cultivation of that Divine principle which the Father has implanted in man — the subjugation of the flesh to the power of the Spirit, by the help of the Divine Spirit and the favour of God, and the continual assimilation of the human to the Divine nature. That our popular religion has failed, and does now fail to promote the spiritual welfare of society, and the Divine health of the world. That this religion does not pretend to cultivate the internal nature of man, but merely to throw a Divine covering over its impurity and corruption ; and therefore that we have no right to expect that society will improve under its influence, or that the world would really grow better under its operation. That selfishness, subtlety, cunning, craft, deceit, emulation, fraud, strife, and deception, are carried on and practised in the world now equally as much as they were five hundred years ago. l'h at the Gospel is not a system of religion, but a revelation of the principle* of Divine wisdom, de- signed to teach men to lead a religious life in the best way and in the most perfect manner. THE REST OF LABOUR. 521 That the Gospel is a system of spiritual principles, and not a religious organism, a church. That the Gospel is opposed to all consecrated places, and repudiates every idea of a house of God. That the Author of the Gospel did not appoint any successive ministering order of teachers of its Divine wisdom. That the Gospel is not a system of morality, but a revelation of spiritual principles constituting a new culture of the inner life or heart of man — producing a right activity both towards God and man. That the great end and object of the Gospel is to give to man a right disposition, and a right activity to- wards his fellow man, and so eventually to regenerate society and to renovate the world. That in the cultivation of this disposition, and in the performance of this activity, there is a continual approximation of the man to the likeness of God, and the whole preparation of his being for spending an eternity of existence with God. That Jesus Christ is the perfect example of all that is good, all that is excellent, all that is Godlike, and all that is necessary to make a man a Christian, and to fit him for the future life of the just, the good, and the blessed. That as the Gospel is a Divine provision for the culture of the heart, the inner being of man, his ap- petites, his propensities, his dispositions, his thoughts, 522 SUNDAY, and his will, we have every reason to believe that it will eventually regenerate the man, improve society, promote a feeling of universal friendship, happiness, and enjoyment, and renovate the world by establish- ing the kingdom of God upon earth. If, as I believe, we have established the truth of these positions, we must come to the conclusion that it is the duty and interest of every true disciple of Jesus, of every true lover of his country, and of every man who wishes well to the human race, not to oppose this change, nor yet to leave it to work its own way entirely alone, but so to accommodate the outer expression of the religious life of society to its nature and character, and so to direct its working as to enable it to lead the world to the semblance of that mystic City in which the great Gospel Seer beheld no tem- ple, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple thereof. In performing my chosen task I have uniformly sought to maintain a perfect neutrality in the pro- gress of the change. I have neither endeavoured to retard its steps, nor to hasten its progress. I am myself a churchman, and I feel it to be my duty at present to attend upon the public worship of my country. To say that I have no sympathy with the change would be to say that I am totally unfit either to inquire into its origin or to expound the principles of its character and the nature of its operation. THE REST OF LABOUR. 523 In the composition of this work I have done what 1 feel to be my duty, and I leave the book to do its own appointed work, while the writer remains what he wishes to be until that work is done, undistinguished and undistinguishable from his fellow men. If the principles of this book are false, it will fall to the ground beneath the weight of its own iniquity : but if the several positions of the work are true, it will be like a stone thrown into the ocean, silently but surely, spreading out its wavy circles wider and still wider, until the subject has moved the whole body of the universal waters of human society. The Kingdom of God is like leaven, which A woman took, and hid in three measures Of meal, till the whole was leavened. Jesus. THE END. (? UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY BERKELEY Return to desk from which borrowed. This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. FEB a 1948 3j a( \'58MHX REC'D LD DEC 18 1957 MAR 5 7980 Rtturrwd by APR 3 1980 KG. cm APR 3 J930 100m.-9, , 47(A57028l6)476 TB ^286 THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY IHSII .tflL'uUitC uj.m