Happy would it be for each of us if we possessed more of this necessary serenity of mind, and if all our efforts, whether in connection with politics, science, social improvement, or our daily pursuits, were conducted in strict accordance with the revealed will of God! The latter is an essential without which we can neither enjoy individual happiness or experience national mercies. Past and present events most painfully demonstrate that a country may abound with wealth; that it may be fertile in its productions and possess great resources, and that the philanthropist may gaze with delight on its many noble Institutions; still, if its inhabitants daringly attempt to abrogate the Divine law of the Sabbath, a dark cloud will assuredly be seen that will cast a fearful gloom over the most highly-favoured land. “There is none like unto thee, O Lord; thou art great, and thy name is great in might. Who would not fear thee, O King of Nations! for to thee doth it appertain: forasmuch as among all the wise men of the nations, and in all their kingdoms, there is none like unto thee.” Jer. x. 6, 7.
We will now proceed more in order with our subject, and, in doing so, it is necessary we should remember that we intend to confine ourselves almost exclusively to “the temporal advantages of the Sabbath to the labouring classes, and the consequent necessity of preserving its rest from all the encroachments of unnecessary labour.” This mode of procedure is in agreement with the contemplated object, viz. to procure from the sons of toil themselves an evidence of the mercy and love of God in commanding one special day in seven to be devoted for rest from labour. To contemplate and enforce the importance of the Sabbath, in a spiritual view, is a duty which is being continually discharged by the Ministers of religion.
1. The Sabbath is indispensable, as a day of rest, both to body and mind; without it neither could be exerted with natural vigour.
The BODY of man, although admirably adapted to perform the varied and arduous duties of life, is nevertheless compared in Scripture to the fading flower and the withering blade of grass. The material from which the Creator formed us, in his infinite wisdom, seems at once to convey an idea of its frailty and tendency to bend downwards, when overcome by excessive fatigue, to its separated component part. This is confirmed by experience, for we know that long continuous labour, without adequate rest, is certain to impair health, and to destroy the body before the allotted period for human existence. The usual hours for repose, excluding the Sabbath, are not sufficient to re-invigorate nature. We need not only to rest on our beds at night, but it is necessary that we should rest at suitable short intervals for an entire day. In thus reasoning, however, let it not be considered as encouraging slothfulness or inactivity in business. Honest labour is an essential duty, the proper discharge of which is incumbent on us as members of the community, in order that we may supply our absolute necessities and procure the conveniences and comforts of life, by doing which we promote the general happiness of mankind. Religion and reason equally enforce it. But slothfulness, or habitual idleness, is not justly attributable to the working classes. True, the number of those who are addicted to intemperance is very great, and it may be said of such that they are indolent men; yet, taking another view of them, they are the most slavish—and they endure more bodily and mental fatigue than any others of the human race—
“Labour dire it is, and weary woe;”
but our remarks have reference only to the excessive labour of the steady, industrious, and persevering man.
This leads us to notice the close connection between the LATE HOUR SYSTEM and Sabbath desecration—a system which has been justly denounced as “reducing man to a state little short of slavery.” When God divided “the light from darkness,” there can be no doubt that one of His merciful objects was to give us an opportunity to obtain suitable repose. Indeed, this is quite evident from many passages of Scripture which we might quote. We will merely select one single sentence from the Psalms, to shew that night work is contrary to the general tenor of the Word of God—“Man goeth forth unto his work, and to his labour, until the evening.” Here we see a clear and defined limitation to the hours of labour. To this it may be replied that the altered state of society renders it necessary that men should toil much longer now than in more primitive days. We are perfectly aware that there may be occasional periods, under peculiar circumstances, when this suggestion might be considered conclusive. It is not, however, to the occasional or accidental infringement on an extra hour or two that we object—it is to the system of compelling men, almost habitually, to labour far beyond the period which Divine Mercy has evidently intended. Is not this the course pursued in many of our workshops and in various retail trades? It is a well-known fact, as regards the former, that it is a common practice for the same men who have been toiling all the day to continue their labour until a very late hour, if not throughout the whole night, and not unfrequently during the entire Sabbath-day! What must be the melancholy condition of the men and boys employed in such places? The Sabbath is awfully desecrated; the doctrines and precepts of religion are rendered nugatory; public morals are totally disregarded; and the bodies and souls of youth and age are alike sacrificed as victims to the idol of the world—WEALTH! Let us now refer to the indisputable testimony of Dr. James Copland, who may be considered as one of the most eminent physicians of the present day, in reference to the latter class:—“It is well-known to medical men that the labour in shops, which extends to fourteen or fifteen hours a day, is the most fruitful source of disease which is furnished in the Metropolis. We are sure to see induced more or less slowly those insidious diseases which undermine the constitution, and which perpetuate themselves to the third or fourth generation. I believe that no less than three-fourths of the diseases to which human life is liable in the Metropolis actually arise from this cause.” What an awful subject does this afford for the serious consideration of masters, parents, and especially the Christian community! Nor is the magnitude of this source of sickness, sorrow, and death, attested and deplored alone by the Medical Profession.
Lord John Russell says, “It is, I think, one of the greatest evils of this country that toil has become so excessive, that all considerations of health—all attention to intellectual improvement, and even all that time which ought to be devoted to spiritual worship—is lost in that excess of labour which the people of this country are compelled to undergo.” Lord Ashley, in commending the efforts of “The Metropolitan Early-Closing Association,” [14] likewise most justly asserts, that “the struggle which is taking place at the present time is neither more nor less than a great conflict between materialism and spirituality. It is a struggle between things temporal and things eternal—it is a struggle between the creation of wealth and the objects for which wealth should be created.”
But let us briefly reflect on the melancholy statement made by Dr. Copland, and we shall see that late hours of business inevitably destroy the sacred character of the Sabbath, and cause many to spend it in some of those modes of desecration for which the facilities are now so numerous and so seductive. The Writer of this Essay has two sons who have been brought up to respectable retail trades; the youngest was compelled, some short time since, to attend a shop from seven in the morning until eleven at night, and on Saturday it extended frequently to one, making it nearly two o’clock before he could possibly retire to rest. When he came home, on the Sabbath, instead of being enabled to attend a Church or Chapel, it became absolutely necessary that he should again obtain additional sleep during the greater part of the day, thus completely depriving him of the opportunity to be present in the sanctuary of God. This youth formerly attended the Park Chapel Sabbath School, at Chelsea, and the conviction naturally is that to this iniquitous and baneful cause may be attributed much of the demoralization which is so painfully apparent in many of those who have been similarly instructed.
The present century has unquestionably presented some of the most mournful and singular anomalies which it is possible to conceive. We have seen the rich Indian Proprietor expending large sums of money in this country for general charitable purposes, and devoting his most powerful energies to obtain justice for every British subject, while, at the same time, the winds that howled around him, as he softly reposed on his luxurious couch, echoed an appeal from his more distant fellow-man to be emancipated from the chains of slavery! Nor has the conduct of some employers towards their workmen been less paradoxical, although the nature of their oppression has been of a widely different character. They seem not to understand that there are relative essentials, secondary only to the payment of wages, which it is their duty to encourage and not to oppose. As we shall, however, have occasion to refer to such instances, as we proceed, it is unnecessary now to dilate on them. It will be seen that the inconsistencies to which we allude are subversive to the best interests of masters, and are still more injurious to those they employ—they excite more debasing desires, which unfit them for labour, and they snap asunder the link of confidence and kindly feeling which ought ever to unite them. Alas! how many seem to consider the poor labouring man almost as a mere machine, without a frame susceptible of fatigue, destitute of the least intelligence, and without a soul to be saved!