In 1692, an old writer states, "There is an admirable commodiousness both for men and women of the better rank to travel from London, the like of which has not been known in the world; and that is, by stage-coaches, wherein one may be transferred to any place, sheltered from foul weather, with a velocity and speed equal to the fastest posts in foreign countries; for the stage-coaches called 'Flying-coaches' make forty or fifty miles a day."
An English paper, bearing the date of January 1775, has this advertisement: "Hereford Machine, in a day and a half, twice a week, continues flying from the Swan in Hereford, Monday and Thursday, to London."
In the Scriptures we find Isaiah, with prophetic eye, looking over the centuries to these later times and penning down: "Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low; and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain;" and "swift passengers" are seen executing the world's affairs—no meagre description of the great means of intercourse in our day, the railway and the telegraph. The prophet saw in it a clearing of the way for the coming kingdom of the Redeemer, which is some time to spread over the whole earth as "the waters cover the sea." Men make good tools and instruments for themselves. They forget they are perfecting them for God also, who is using them, and who will use them, to make known the precious gospel of his Son, "peace on earth, and good-will to men."
What powerful preachers for the Sabbath are the railway and the telegraph, doing away with all necessity and every excuse for Sabbath travelling as they do! Long journeys and the most urgent business can be done between Sabbath and Sabbath, giving a rest-day to the nation. And this view of them is deserving of more and more regard.
The institution of the Sabbath was founded with the human race. It was meant to be the rest-day of the entire world. It was set up as a blessing: "The Lord blessed the Sabbath-day, and hallowed it." The bodies of man and beast need it. The muscles, bones, nerves, sinews, and brain cannot endure the strain of constant and uninterrupted work. It is the day for making up the waste of the animal frame caused by continual labour and excitement. Night rest is not enough. The God of Nature and of the Sabbath has fitted the one to the other.
When the knowledge of God had faded out of the earth, and he had chosen a people to restore and preserve it, besides a code of national laws particularly for them, he enacted from Sinai a code of moral laws for man. Among them was the rest-law of the Sabbath. It is the fourth commandment of the Decalogue, taught in all our Sabbath schools, pulpits, and homes: "Remember the Sabbath-day, to keep it holy: in it thou shalt do no work," man nor beast. Further, God promises a great reward to those who call "the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable; not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words, but delighting thyself in the Lord;" showing not only the rest-use of the Sabbath, but its soul-use, as a day of special intercourse with God.
"The Sabbath was made for man," says Jesus Christ; and the Christian Sabbath has incorporated into it the finishing of the great plan of our redemption, when Christ,
"Who endured the cross and grave,
Sinners to redeem and save,"
arose from the dead, according to the Scriptures. Thus it is appropriately called "the Lord's day;" the day when our worldly business is to be set aside, and when Christ presses his claims upon the hearts and consciences of men. It is a break in the hurrying whirl of this life's interests, to consider the solemn issues of eternity, and that atoning love which is mighty to save all who by repentance and faith accept its terms of mercy.