This history of the divergence from continental custom may be written in two sentences. Puritanism obtained power to legislate, and made recreation illegal on Sunday. By laws of great severity it established new customs which have now, by lapse of time, become rather old customs; and these have completely obliterated from the ordinary British mind all traces of any recollection that the still older British customs were like those of the continental nations.
Development of Opinion.
The Violin.
Opinion has gone even beyond legislation itself, by a process of growth and development. Here is an example. An amateur violinist was staying in an English house for a few days, including the first day of the week. He took his violin out of its case and began to play a little in private. The lady of the house immediately entered the room and begged him to desist. “I am playing sacred music,” he answered; “this is a part of Handel’s Messiah.” “That does not signify,” was the rejoinder, “the music may be sacred, but the instrument is not.” Here is a new development in the distinction between sacred and profane instruments, and a very subtle distinction it is. The organ, the harmonium,—in default of these, even the commonplace piano,—these are sacred instruments, but not the voice-like violin. Yet the violin is but the lyre—“Jubal’s lyre”—made capable of far more perfect expression.[61]
Rowing and Sailing on Sunday.
When I lived in Scotland I had occasion to observe another very subtle distinction. It is forbidden to labour on the Sabbath-day, yet I found that the toilsome work of rowing was looked upon as innocent in comparison with sailing. This was because a white sail had rather a festive appearance. I was especially blamed for not removing the flag from my sailing-boat, for the same reason, though it might be argued that there can be nothing unholy in the crosses of St. Andrew and St. George. In France, sailing regattas are usually held on Sunday, with the full approval of the Church.
Effect of the Sabbath on Literature.
French Ignorance of the Bible.
English prepared for German Criticism.
The establishment of Sabbatarian customs in Great Britain had an unforeseen effect on literature. It prepared the way for the success of theological books and periodicals by leaving the day, in the most pious families, without any other recreation than religious reading. The British read ten times as much about theology as the French, and therefore have a much more extensive knowledge of the subject. In France pious people read the Imitation, the mass-book, an abridgment of sacred history, and some printed sermons by the most celebrated ecclesiastical orators; but this is not to be compared with the range of English theological reading, both in the Bible itself and in all kinds of elaborate commentaries. As for French unbelievers, who are very numerous, they live outside of theology much more easily and completely than their English brethren, and often know so little about it that references to the Old Testament familiar to every Englishman would be unintelligible to them. The modern English political use of the cave of Adullam puzzled Frenchmen exceedingly, as they did not know anything about Adullam. One very curious and unexpected result of Sabbath strictness in Great Britain is that the British are much better prepared for German exegetic criticism than the French; so that the British often arrive at unbelief by laborious theological reading, whilst the French, as a general rule, come to it with much less trouble through Voltaire, and retain the Voltairean spirit. Of late years, however, certain scientific influences, especially that of Darwin, have been common to both countries, and the effect of theological studies counts for less, relatively, even in England.