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THE SABBATH QUESTION 
 ILLUSTRATED : 
 
 BY CHARLOTTE ELIZABETH, psen/i, 
 
 SEELEY, BURNSIDE AND SEELEY. 
 
 FLEET STREET, LONDON, 
 
 MDCCCXLV. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAP. PAGE 
 
 I. RENDERING A REASON 1 
 
 II. SCRIPTURAL SUGGESTIONS 9 
 
 III. THE traveller's FIRST STAGE 20 
 
 IV. THE yeoman's FIRESIDE 38 
 
 V. PEDESTRIAN GLEANINGS 58 
 
 VI. A RAILWAY DISCUSSION 74 
 
 VII. A DAY ON THE CANAL ' 88 
 
 VIII. GLEANINGS AMONG THE BOATMEN. . . 110 
 
 IX. THE QUESTION DEBATED 130 
 
 X. PEDESTRIAN GLEANINGS 151 
 
 XI. NEW FORMS OF EVIL 172 
 
 XII. CONCLUSION 188 
 
THE SABBATH QUESTION ILLUSTRATED. 
 
PRINTED BY t. SEELET, THAME3 DITTON, 8UKBET. 
 
THE SABBATH QUESTION ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 RENDERING A REASON. 
 
 " Do nothing for which you cannot render a rea- 
 son," said an old gentleman of few words to a 
 giddy young fellow who asked him for a short, 
 practical rule to set out with. The aphorism was 
 received with a smile, a shrug, and the remark, 
 * Then I must be content to do very little.' * Or, 
 per contra, to think a great deal,' was the re- 
 joinder. 
 
 Abstractedly, the rule was little worth : ren- 
 dering a reason, according to his own estimate of 
 the fitness of things, is an exercise, if not of the 
 reflective faculties, yet certainly of the speaking 
 organs, perfectly congenial to man. Were it other- 
 
2 RENDERING A REASON. 
 
 wise, how many a silent vote would stand recorded 
 on our parliamentary divisions, where now the 
 closely-printed column teems with matter over 
 which an impatient house has yawned, or a drowsy 
 one dosed, through the nights of needlessly pro- 
 tracted debate. Happily for the young man 
 alluded to, he took the suggestion in the spirit of 
 its originator. It fastened, perhaps, on his me- 
 mory as being the conceit of a noted humorist ; 
 and prepared him, imperceptibly, for habits of 
 investigation that touched with a new, and unex- 
 pected tint, the character of the man — the course 
 of his after-life. In fact, the old man's precept 
 had been addressed to supply the principal desi- 
 deratum in our friend's case. Reasoning facul- 
 ties of no contemptible order he possessed, but he 
 retained them too much in the ingot form, intrin- 
 sically valuable, yet inapplicable to every day 
 uses ; thus necessitating him to avail himself of 
 the small coin that other men carried loose in 
 their pockets. Metaphor apart, he was willing 
 to adopt such sentiments and usages as obtained 
 among his ordinary associates, rather than incur 
 the trouble of bringing his investigating powers 
 to bear on the multifarious trifles of daily and 
 hourly recurrence, where every man must pursue 
 some line of action, whether or not he may have 
 
RENDERING A REASON. 3 
 
 prescribed to himself any governing rule of 
 conduct. 
 
 Thus, when a conversation took place in his 
 hearing between two members of the House of 
 Commons, who seemed intent each to strengthen 
 himself and to encourage his friend in a course of 
 active opposition to a measure which they de- 
 nounced as a mischievous and foolish innovation 
 — an attempt to legislate for other men where 
 they ought to be left free each to follow the con- 
 victions of his own mind, and when all present 
 agreed in characterizing that measure as an un- 
 warrantable interference with the earnings of one 
 class, the profit of others, the harmless recrea- 
 tions of many more ; on what ground could Phi- 
 lander dissent from them ? Personally, he was 
 not concerned ; patriotically, he desired the good 
 of his country ; benevolently, the happiness of 
 his fellow-creatures ; and habitually he adopted 
 the sentiments of his daily associates, where no 
 moral principle appeared to be endangered by 
 them. 
 
 But there are two sides to every question ; and 
 many hours had not elapsed before he found his 
 opinion canvassed, and his support solicited in the 
 matter of petitioning in favour of this very pro- 
 ceeding. Disinclined to debate a point where he 
 
4 RENDERING A REASON. 
 
 felt no interest, he evaded the appeal by laughingly 
 citing the aphorism on which he had been coun- 
 selled to commence his pubUc Hfe, and remarking 
 that he was unable to render any reason for attach- 
 ing his name to such documents. *Then you 
 have probably never sought for one,' was the re- 
 ply. ' Admitted : and it would puzzle me to dis- 
 cover where to begin such a search.' 
 
 * Sir,' resumed the inquirer, a thoughtftd man 
 whose age nearly doubled his own, * there are few 
 subjects better worth investigating than this. I 
 heard you speak of a projected excursion, for 
 health and amusement only. What say you to 
 adding utility to these primary motives, and so 
 shaping your course as to render it a journey in 
 quest of a reason for keeping holy the seventh 
 day?' 
 
 ' Your idea is a novel one : but " though rea- 
 sons," to borrow a phrase from Falstaff, " were 
 plenty as blackberries," I could scarcely expect to 
 find them growing on the hedges, ready to be 
 plucked as I rode by.' 
 
 * Possibly you might glean a more plentiful 
 crop than you anticipate. Mark me. Sir: the 
 gist of this question, sooner or later to be solved, 
 lies here : God was pleased to deliver a law to 
 one particular people, spoken by His own mouth, 
 
RENDERING A REASON. 5 
 
 graven with His own finger, confirmed by signs 
 and wonders of such terrific grandeur that even 
 they who hved in the hourly contemplation of 
 miraculous manifestations, were unable to endure 
 the overpowering majesty of the transaction. 
 You and I, at our respective baptisms, entered 
 into a covenant to receive that law as a rule of life 
 to the end of our days ; but we were then infants, 
 incapable of judging or acting for ourselves : and 
 now that we are perpetually called upon either to 
 ratify or to disclaim the part that we then per- 
 formed by proxy, and while in our outward pro- 
 fession we certainly do ratify it ; inasmuch as we 
 should regard it as a dereliction of duty to omit 
 the introduction of our own children into the 
 bonds of the same solemn obligation, does it not 
 behove us to have our minds so far grounded and 
 settled on this point as to preclude the grave 
 charge of being found to palter with the acknow- 
 ledged laws of our Creator ? ' 
 
 ' In part, I admit the force of your argument ; 
 but this question arises, whether a law which as 
 we all know, was given to the people of Israel, 
 forming a part of the peculiar dispensation under 
 which they were placed, retains its obligatory 
 power under the milder reign of what some call 
 the gospel grace ; so as to involve in a necessary 
 
b RENDERING A REASON. 
 
 obedience those who never belonged to the nation 
 of Israel. You will not contend that any such 
 commandment existed previous to the giving of 
 the Mosaic law ? ' 
 
 * Pardon me, I do contend for it as having been 
 in force from the creation of the world ; as con- 
 stituting, in fact, a primal law of nature itself, 
 clearly deducible from what we see around, from 
 what we experience within us. This, my dear 
 Sir, is the point that I desire to see resolved, in 
 your case as it has been in my own, by sober, 
 dispassionate investigation. I know you to be 
 one who reverences the Bible as the revealed will 
 of God ; and who would not set in array against 
 it the presumptuous oppositions of science ; falsely 
 so called, in that it would falsify the declarations 
 of Him who cannot lie. I would give you, as a 
 starting point, that comprehensive declaration. 
 Genesis ii. 2, 3. " And 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 made. And God blessed the seventh day, 
 and sanctified it ; because that in it he had rested 
 from all his work which God created and made." 
 Leaving you to trace throughout the brief, the ex- 
 ceeding brief record of the Patriarchial dispensa- 
 tion occasional indications of its observance, by 
 
RENDERING A REASON. 7 
 
 the dmsion of time into weeks ; with an especial 
 note on the undeniable testimony afforded in the 
 incident of the sixth day's double portion, and 
 the seventh day's total cessation of the falling 
 manna ; I will then direct you to the fourth com- 
 mandment as a diiine explanation of, and com- 
 mentary upon, an established law of the Creator : 
 and placing wholly apart those peculiar enactments 
 which clearly appertained to Israel alone, I would 
 commend you to the interesting, the important 
 occupation of collecting and arranging such testi- 
 mony as would force itself upon you, in confirma- 
 tion of the revealed axiom, that all animal nature 
 calls for a seventh day's respite from bodily toil : 
 all intellectual nature for a similar suspension of 
 the world's distracting care : all spiritual nature 
 for a stated season of consecrated leisure, and 
 public, no less than private communion with God. 
 Here I take my leave.' 
 
 ' No ; you have awakened a new train of thought 
 which I should like to pursue a little further, 
 under your direction.' 
 
 ' Pursue it : but under the direction of your 
 own reasoning powers, placed in teachable sub- 
 mission to the Book that I know you honour, 
 and to the wisdom concerning which it is promised, 
 that to him that asketh it shall be given, and 
 
8 RENDERING A REASON. 
 
 liberally too. There is a wide field before you ; 
 explore it. Go through the length and breadth 
 of the land, not skimming the surface of society, 
 but diving into its recesses. Go with a definite 
 object, and be not diverted from it in any other 
 track. Ascertain in what sense, and to what in- 
 tent, the Sabbath was made for man ; contem- 
 plate him under the varied circumstances in which 
 you find him placed, as regards its wilful rejection, 
 its compulsory privation, its right enjoyment, and 
 its wanton abuse. Overlook not the inferior crea- 
 tures ; for He who made them overlooks them not. 
 Farewell : when next we meet, I trust our pre- 
 sent brief interview will prove to have been pro- 
 ductive of some more permanent advantage than 
 the mere acquisition of a name to the document 
 that I hold.' 
 
 Henceforward we must regard our friend as a 
 tourist, pursuing an object well worthy of attain- 
 ment. What his projected route might be, is of 
 small moment to the reader : suffice it that he set 
 out, in sincere earnest, with a cheerful temper, 
 an unprejudiced mind, a benevolent heart, and a 
 purpose that it is to be wished more of his class 
 were willing to engage in. He went forth as a 
 rational man in search of a reason. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 SCRIPTURAL SUGGESTIONS. 
 
 That " the Sabbath was made" by Him by whom 
 also the worlds were made ; and that it was made 
 " for man" generally, not for any nation or deno- 
 mination of men in particular, is a point contested 
 on various grounds, not one of which will bear 
 exploring on simple scriptural principles ; nor can 
 the fact, that so it is, be overthrown without also 
 casting down the authority of God's word. Pas- 
 sing by that rank of opponents whose assaults 
 on this or any other divinely-instituted ordinance 
 are but covert advances against the Bible itself, 
 we meet with another, and a very different class, 
 who, in their eagerness to resolve every thing of 
 Old Testament origin into a mere type of some 
 gospel blessing, would contend that the Sabbath 
 
10 SCRIPTURAL SUGGESTIONS. 
 
 also was of that description, and that, having 
 been fulfilled with others, its obligatory require- 
 ments have passed away. Another section of 
 antagonist forces take up a position which they 
 seem to occupy in common with the Jews of our 
 day; considering that to Israel alone was the 
 commandment sent ; and that we, as Gentiles, 
 have never been brought within its scope. They 
 argue that the world was, in a manner, created 
 over again after the deluge ; an entirely new dis- 
 pensation introduced, and the moral laws by 
 which it pleased the Most High that the universe 
 should be governed, apart from the peculiar 
 mission of the seed of Abraham, were then de- 
 livered to Noah ; the rainbow being set in the 
 cloud as a lasting token of that covenant. They 
 further assume that the Christian dispensation 
 wrought no material difference on this point, the 
 memorable ordinance issued by the Apostolic 
 Council at Jerusalem touching Gentiles who be- 
 lieved, being in fact a confirmation of that early 
 post-delmdan enactment, exclusive of any refer- 
 ence to a Sabbath, or day of rest. 
 
 To the latter, as the more popular line of argu- 
 ment, we would first address a few brief remarks. 
 Lamech, the father of Noah, lived in the days of 
 Adam, and Noah himself was bom not long after 
 
SCRIPTURAL SUGGESTIONS. 11 
 
 the death of our first parent. Now, the character 
 of Noah in the sight of God was comparative 
 righteousness : he shines as a distinguished 
 example of faith and obedience, and to this fact 
 is expressly attributed the favour shown to him. 
 " The Lord said to Noah, Come thou and all thy 
 house into the ark ; for thee have I seen righ- 
 teous before me in this generation." According 
 to this gracious word, he and his family were 
 preserved, when all the rest of Adam's race 
 perished by water; and we find Noah, so far 
 from awaiting any new revelation of the divine 
 will on points already made known, proceeding 
 immediately on his lea\dng the ark to build an 
 altar unto the Lord, and, like Abel, thereon to 
 offer animal sacrifices. The acceptability of this 
 act is beautifully expressed : " And the Lord 
 smelled a sweet savour, (or, as the margin has it, 
 a savour of rest) and the Lord said in his heart, 
 I will not again curse the ground any more for 
 man's sake." At the same time, permission was 
 first accorded to man to feed upon the flesh of 
 animals ; dominion over them was given to him ; 
 not as primsevally by the law of love, but by means 
 of a fear and a dread that he should be permitted 
 to inspire in creatures stronger than himself : and 
 a solemn prohibition was uttered both against 
 
12 SCRIPTURAL SUGGESTIONS. 
 
 shedding the blood of man, and against eating 
 the blood of any creature given for meat. The 
 Lord, on His part, graciously covenanted to 
 destroy the earth no more by a flood of waters ; 
 and in token thereof he appointed the magnificent 
 bow, which never appears but when a cloud is 
 brought over the earth. Such is the tenor of 
 what the Jewish Rabbies term the Noachic pre- 
 cepts, by the observance of which, the more 
 charitable among them judge, that God-fearing 
 Gentiles are saved : and on which many Chris- 
 tians stumble in a manner not so easily to be ac- 
 counted for. 
 
 Now, together with sacrifices, which we cannot 
 doubt were instituted as a typical ordinance at 
 the time of the first great promise made to fallen 
 man, Noah certainly observed every command- 
 ment of God, as known and practicable among 
 the Antediluvian family of Adam — the pious race 
 of Seth, including his own great grandfather 
 Enoch, whose translation to heaven was a recent 
 event at the period of his birth. Among other 
 things, it is quite certain that he di\dded time by 
 periods of seven days ; and equally certain that 
 no possible cause can be assigned for his so doing, 
 unless it were that grand division of six day's 
 labour and a seventh day's rest, so emphatically 
 
SCRIPTURAL SUGGESTIONS. 13 
 
 announced by the Great Maker of all things, 
 concerning whom it is declared, as if in elucida- 
 tion of this very point, " Hast thou not known ? 
 hast thou not heard that the everlasting God, the 
 Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, 
 fainteth not, neither is weary ? " No need had 
 He, the Eternal, the Almighty One, of rest ; but 
 that which by a single word He could, in a single 
 moment, have brought forth in full perfection. He 
 was pleased to protract for the space of six days, 
 in order to bless with a pecuhar sanctity of rest, 
 and consecration to heavenly things, the seventh 
 day — the Sabbath that He made for man, no less 
 than for man he had made the beauteous habita- 
 tion prepared to receive him as its tenant and its 
 sovereign-vicegerent of the King of kings. 
 
 Abram was the ninth from Shem, one of those 
 saved in the ark : how much was lost, and how 
 much had been retained of the knowledge pos- 
 sessed by his ancestor Noah, we cannot say ; but 
 we find Abram building an altar unto the Lord 
 on the plain of Moreh, where first the promise 
 was expressly made, that to him and to his seed 
 that land should be given. With this ordinance 
 of sacrifice, whether it had been all along kept 
 up, or whether it was anew prescribed to him, 
 we may be assured that the ordinance of the 
 
14 SCRIPTURAL SUGGESTIONS. 
 
 Sabbath was also perpetuated ; and hence we 
 find it mentioned as an existing, known, recog- 
 nized observance pre\aous to the giving of the 
 law on Sinai : when the rulers of the congrega- 
 tion came and told Moses that the people had 
 gathered twice as much manna on the sixth as on 
 any preceding day, his reply was not in the lan- 
 guage of a man who has just promulgated a new 
 decree, but of one who calls to mind an existing 
 fact. " Tomorrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath 
 unto the Lord." It is not to be supposed that 
 their Egyptian task-masters had permitted them 
 to enjoy a seventh day's exemption from the hard 
 bondage under which they were made to serve ; 
 and they were not prepared for so signal an in- 
 stance of the Lord's gracious provision for the 
 hallowing of his day of rest, now that they were 
 no longer Pharaoh's bondmen, but his own freed 
 people : nevertheless Moses had fully understood 
 and explained to them that thus it would be ; 
 and now his first words were — " This is that 
 which the Lord hath said " — said not only when 
 He promised the miraculous food, but also when 
 He rested from the work of creation, and blessed 
 the seventh day, and sanctified it. 
 
 We, therefore, decline to accept the exemption 
 accorded to us by our Jewish brethren, and too 
 
SCRIPTURAL SUGGESTIONS. 15 
 
 precipitately grasped at by many, who reck little 
 of the precepts given to Noah ; and who possess 
 small individual knowledge of that obedience of 
 faith which gave the patriarch favour in the 
 sight of God. 
 
 In reference to the first-named class of theo- 
 retical (they are not always practical) sabbath- 
 breakers, we consider their error as one among 
 many by which good men often suffer themselves 
 to be deluded. Pursuing too eagerly the chace 
 after t\^es and shadows, they not unfrequently 
 confound vdih them some of the most substan- 
 tial of the divine enactments ; and where there 
 results a foreshowing of heavenly things, of that 
 kingdom for the still future coming of which 
 we daily pray, they jump to a hasty conclusion 
 that the antitype is found in the New Testament 
 dispensation, rendering superfluous what they 
 pronounce to have become of no force. And 
 among the "old things" thus "passed away," 
 they venture to include the Sabbath. 
 
 But the kingdom of God is not yet come ; 
 " hohness to the Lord" is not yet engraven on 
 the bells of our horses, neither have men ceased 
 to hurt and to destroy, even in that which this 
 class of interpreters love to call the holy moun- 
 tain — the Christian Church. Enormous wealth 
 
16 SCRIPTURAL SUGGESTIONS. 
 
 still revels in wanton profusion, and abject poverty 
 groans under the burden of almost insupportable 
 toil. From this we cannot but draw the inference 
 that the Sabbath continues to be a necessary ad- 
 junct no less of the present than of any preceding 
 dispensation ; for one of its uses is thus distinctly 
 specified, " That thy servant and thy cattle may 
 rest as well as thou." The man in easy circum- 
 stances might argue, * I, for one, however willing 
 I may be to concur in the generally expedient 
 custom of meeting my fellow-worshippers on an 
 appointed day, for praise and prayer, do not feel 
 any existing necessity for this ceremonial observ- 
 ance, this total abstinence from wonted employ- 
 ment during the remaining hours of the day. I 
 may as well entertain a few friends at my table ; 
 or take an excursion by means of my own car- 
 riage, or such conveyance as I can hire; and this, 
 in the enjoyment of Christian liberty, I can do 
 without any qualm of conscience.' Nay, saith 
 the Lord, " The seventh day is the sabbath of 
 the Lord thy God : in 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 any of thy cattle, nor the 
 stranger that is within thy gates ; that thy man- 
 servant and thy maid-servant may rest as well as 
 
SCRIPTURAL SUGGESTIONS. 17 
 
 thou." " 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 thy 
 handmaid and the stranger may be refreshed.^* 
 Why, what manner of Christian privilege is this, 
 so manfully contended for, to deprive the weary 
 cattle of that rest, the servant and the labourer 
 of that refreshment, which the Lord God of the 
 whole earth hath pro\dded for them ? Provided, 
 not at our expence, but by a happy co-operation 
 in the scheme of bUssful repose, of private and 
 social communion with the spiritual world, of 
 abstractedness from the cares, and suspension of 
 the turmoil of mere animal existence, which often 
 savours as a foretaste of heaven to those who are 
 hastening thitherward. 
 
 Were this a human invention, were it an eman- 
 ation of the highest legislative wisdom and autho- 
 rity that man may attain to, we should concede to 
 it the merit that we are not slow to associate vdth 
 the worldly-wise decisions of a Solon or Lycur- 
 gus : and that, perhaps, the more readily because 
 conscience would whisper no keen rebuke, 
 would tell no tale of coming judgment in a future 
 state, when we claimed a personal exemption from 
 its obligatory demands. A custom does indeed 
 prevail of citing the law of Moses as though it 
 c 
 
18 SCRIPTURAL SUGGESTIONS. 
 
 owed its origin to him, who is called the lawgiver 
 of Israel. But whatsoever Moses in that charac- 
 ter spake was spoken by direct inspiration of God ; 
 and let it be remembered that the intermediate 
 position in which Moses was placed arose entirely 
 from the inability of the people to endure the ter- 
 rible majesty of the voice of the Eternal. The 
 ten commandments were spoken, in audible tones, 
 by that awful voice ; and in consequence of the 
 overpowering terror endured by guilty man in the 
 hearing of it a medium of communication for fur- 
 ther laws was graciously appointed. " And all 
 the people saw the thunderings, and the lightnings, 
 and the noise of the trumpet, and the mountain 
 smoking : and when the people saw it, they re- 
 moved, and stood afar oif. And they said unto 
 Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear ; 
 but let not God speak with us lest we die." After 
 this, Moses received the peculiar laws, the perfect 
 code of divine legislation ; and he wrote them, as 
 directed, for a perpetual statute-book through 
 all their generations : but not to his hand was 
 committed the task of recording those ten com- 
 mandments : by the finger of Omnipotence they 
 were deeply graven on tablets of hewn stone ; 
 and when in the strong excitement of holy indig- 
 nation Moses, on beholding the idolatrous revolt 
 
SCRIPTURAL SUGGESTIONS. 19 
 
 of his people, brake into fragments the precious 
 freight that he bore — the tables of a covenant 
 the first and greatest clause of which they had 
 already set at nought, the same Almighty, all- 
 merciful hand directed the miraculous impression 
 on similar slabs of the like material, without the 
 variation of a word : and that law, holy and just 
 and good, familiar to our ears from childhood, 
 and so commending itself to every man's con- 
 science that, do what he may, he cannot shake 
 off the strong grasp in which it holds him, whe- 
 ther of love or of fear ; that law remains, not 
 made void through faith, but through faith's 
 loving acceptance of the righteous rule, transferred 
 from tables of stone to the fleshly table of the 
 heart : a substance more imper\'ious to such an 
 impress than an adamantine block, until thus 
 touched by an omnipotent graver, even the finger 
 of the lining God. 
 
 c 2 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE TRAVELLER S FIRST STAGE. 
 
 England is not unlikely to become, ere long, in 
 great measure a terra incognita to her native race. 
 The singular facilities of transit, increasing beyond 
 computation the amount of travel, by the same 
 process renders travelling a flight over, not a pas- 
 sage through the country. As the intersecting 
 lines multiply, and the frequent train glances by, 
 traced for a minute or two by the plume-like pen- 
 non of white mist that waves above its indistin- 
 guishable compartments, in like proportion the 
 way-faring man may be said to cease ; for who, 
 ill this age of excited hurry, with gain or pleasure 
 beckoning him from a distant spot, will betake 
 himself to the plodding pace of an antique stage 
 coach, on some circuitous highway, when the 
 
THE traveller's FIRST STAGE. 21 
 
 magic power of steam can realize the fairy-tale of 
 his nursery days, and transport him in all the 
 dreamy quietude that a well-cushioned arm-chair 
 may afford, to the goal of his wishes, with a ra- 
 pidity out-speeding the flight of birds. 
 
 A few years will exhibit striking effects, the 
 consequence of this revolution in our locomotive 
 practices. Whether advantageous or not, it is 
 not our pro\ince to examine ; nor would it avail to 
 decide where the thing itself is inevitable. 
 
 Our tourist, however, having no distant point 
 of attraction to expedite his course, merely took 
 advantage of the railway to transport himself and 
 a favourite horse some thirty miles from town, 
 to a station whence he might turn off at once into 
 a perfectly rural district, there to look about him, 
 and to shape his course as circumstances might 
 direct. A small market town, ten miles from the 
 station, invited him to a halt : the next day was Sa- 
 turday, and he resolved to remain there, watchful 
 for any solution that might offer, touching the 
 great question that had been presented to his 
 mind. The long, straggling street, crowded with 
 shops — of which the greater number seemed from 
 the heterogenous character of their stores to have 
 been engaged in plundering their various neigh- 
 bours — was early alive with an influx of visitants 
 
22 THE TRAVELLER S FIRST STAGE. 
 
 from the scattered \illages around, intent on bar- 
 tering the produce of their week's industry, or 
 expending their week's earnings, to the best ad- 
 vantage. Eggs, butter and bacon ; deUcate fat 
 pork, with poultry in abundance, both h\dng and 
 dead ; roots, vegetables, grain and flour, came 
 in plentifully from every quarter ; Mobile an an- 
 swerable proportion of butcher's meat, quartern 
 loaves, groceries, hosiery, cotton and hardware 
 goods, went out. The scene was animated, the 
 occasional colloquies amusing, and to a looker-on 
 from town there was novelty enough to render it 
 attractive for a few hours. Towards sunset, the 
 traffic, which had previously seemed on the wane, 
 received a new stimulus : labouring men, and 
 some dozen of anxious, weary-looking women, 
 came trudging in, not with wares but small sums 
 of money, which they laid out charily and to 
 the best advantage that a market might aiford, 
 from which all the preferable articles had disap- 
 peared ; while not a few grumbling notes of dis- 
 satisfied comment on what they were obhged to 
 purchase — in fact the refuse of all — reached his 
 ears. 'They are rightly served,' thought the 
 looker-on ; * why did they not come, with their 
 more diligent neighbours, at early day ? ' 
 
 As if he had overheard Philander' s mental re- 
 
THE TRAVELLER S FIRST STAGE. 23 
 
 mark, an elderly farmer of respectable appear- 
 ance, just then said to his young son, * You here 
 see the bad effects of the system that I warn you 
 against. All these poor creatures have been kept 
 waiting till now for their wages ; and, hasten as 
 they could, they have only come in for the odds 
 and ends, where they might have had the pick, if 
 it had depended on themselves. Follow my 
 example, Tom, when you stand in my shoes : 
 pay your fellows on the Friday night ; its often 
 worth twice the money to their families.' Then 
 catching the stranger's eye fixed on him with the 
 expression of a man who has heard for the first 
 time a truth so palpable that he wonders how it 
 had so long escaped his penetration, the frank 
 farmer continued, addressing himself to him ; 
 * You see, Sir, the advantages of my plan are 
 many : paid overnight, my labourers send off 
 their wives to early market, when the best is 
 placed foremost, and priced moderately : they 
 themselves being at work the while, and so es- 
 caping the temptation that others are exposed to, 
 of getting drunk with the money overnight on 
 the strength of not having to get up and work 
 next dawn.' 
 
 * And the disadvantage, if they do spend their 
 wages properly, of having to content themselves 
 
24 THE traveller's first stage. 
 
 with such leavings as those poor women are now- 
 selecting from/ 
 
 * Which leavings, Sir, I am sorry to say, are 
 charged as high, or higher than the prime goods. 
 These shopkeepess, like the rest of us, will turn 
 a penny when they can ; and knowing that the 
 poor belated purchasers must needs take home a 
 supply, too many of them make an advantageous 
 bargain, by putting their own price on what they 
 sell.' 
 
 ' The shops, I suppose then, are all closed on 
 Sunday morning ? ' 
 
 ' Outwardly they are ; but I fear some trading 
 is privately carried on to accommodate customers 
 either too late or too lazy for Saturday evening. 
 That, Sir, is the worst part of the business.' 
 
 The traveller did not altogether think it the 
 worst part ; it seemed better than that the labouring 
 poor should go without their Sunday dinner : and 
 again, as if reading his thoughts the farmer met 
 it by a remark addressed to his son : * always 
 remember, Tom, *' Remember the Sabbath day, 
 to keep it holy." To do that rightly, my boy, 
 you must take care that nobody else is profaning 
 it through your fault or forgetfulness. Many a 
 man goes to church in his own person, while in 
 the persons of his dependents he is toiling, buy- 
 
THE traveller's FIRST STAGE. 25 
 
 ing and selling, getting drunk, and committing all 
 sorts of wickedness.' 
 
 A strange notion that ! Ay but it was a just 
 one : and so Philander' s better sense told him, as 
 musingly he pursued his walk. He had taken 
 part in an argument where a so-called fanatic was 
 talked down by force of numbers, for presuming 
 to enter a caveat against the family practice of 
 driving to Church, and leaving the servants to 
 account for their care of the horses to them ; for 
 their care of themselves to another Master. The 
 point had been ably and scripturally maintained, 
 in language suited to the polite society around 
 him, but without producing any impression. The 
 blunt farmer's homely phraseology was startling, 
 and rude ; but it was less easily warded off. 
 
 Advancing night bore tokens of such debauch- 
 ery as he had been led to expect among one class 
 of rustics. Drinking and smoking, singing, curs- 
 ing, and quarrelling over dirty cards, continued 
 till midnight in the various public houses ; and 
 Philander taking an early stroll in one of the 
 cross roads, fell in here and there with some 
 person conveying his Sunday purchases home- 
 ward, with evident traces of having passed time 
 enough at the ale-house to diminish greatly the 
 amount of his wages. Tempted by a lovely 
 
26 THE traveller's first stage. 
 
 morn, the traveller resolved on an excursion 
 among the surrounding villages, and ordered out 
 his horse just as the pleasant chimes of the little 
 church commenced their first peal. He spent 
 half an hour in examining some tumuli, described 
 as bearing marks of considerable interest, and 
 found his expectations fully realized. He then 
 took a round, among deserted fields ; traced the 
 course of an intricate little stream ; satisfied him- 
 self that it abounded with trout ; and finally can- 
 tered his horse over a smooth, fine track of 
 upland and vale, till a sharp turning brought him 
 full in view of a romantic old village church, 
 mantled in ivy, shaded by enormous yew-trees, 
 and at that moment sending forth its rustic con- 
 gregation from the picturesque porch and door- 
 w^ays. The horse was reined in, and walked at a 
 quiet pace, while an undefined feeling of self-re- 
 proach disturbed his rider, who could not help 
 contrasting his own appearance with that of the 
 simple company before him. 
 
 There were old men in smock-frocks as white 
 as the venerable locks that fell over their shoul- 
 ders ; with stooping yet sturdy gait, plodding 
 beside their tidy dames, attired in the fashion of 
 a by-gone generation. There were comely ma- 
 trons in the ])loom of life, and young children in 
 
THE traveller's FIRST STAGE. 27 
 
 its earliest blossom ; with men of all ages — seem- 
 ingly of all tempers too : yet over the whole con- 
 course of humanity there was shed an influence, 
 and a halo was spread around them, bespeaking 
 something that could not have pervaded an as- 
 sembly met together for the revel or the idle 
 lounge. A reflected Sabbath sometimes strikes 
 the careless beholder where the Sabbath itself 
 fails of impressing him ; and as the rambler still 
 checked his horse's pace, and fell back into the 
 rear of the main body, perchance the dust on his 
 garments, and the smoking flanks of his panting 
 beast were felt as a jarring note amid the harmony 
 of consecrated repose, where all besides was tuned 
 in excellent unison. 
 
 What appeared the season in his eyes ? he 
 surely might define it ; but somewhat seemed to 
 tell of a meeting-point between God and man, or, 
 at least, a drawing-off on the creature's part, from 
 the turmoil of mere earthly pursuits, the enjoy- 
 ment of a breathing-time that he could call his 
 own, available for any purpose agreeable to him- 
 self. In the present instance each individual had 
 seen good to apply it in the act of pubhc worship; 
 and not one among them appeared to regret 
 having done so. There rested a cheerful calm 
 upon the landscape, and its counterpart was 
 
28 THE traveller's first stage. 
 
 clearly traceable in the little groups that took 
 their various ways up the slope, down by the 
 mill-stream, across the field, through the winding 
 lane, or towards the few scattered cottages that 
 lay full in view. The very pace of the labouring 
 people bespoke a certain luxury of leisure follow- 
 ing on a night's refreshing sleep, that suppled 
 their stiff joints, relaxed their careful brows, and 
 gave a play to features and to faculties, incom- 
 patible with a season of bodily toil ; or even, 
 perhaps, with the presence of their week-day 
 implements in working order. Then, the hus- 
 bandman's eye took in, not only the thri\ing 
 growth but the beauty of the crop that he had 
 toiled to rear on ground broken up by the strength 
 of his arm : then, the village sempstress, and the 
 \illage laundress, might contemplate with honest 
 pride the goodly-effect of their respective handy- 
 works on the persons for whom they had wrought 
 them. It seemed as though the humblest might 
 claim a proprietorship in something, resulting 
 from the great Creator's proprietorship in them. 
 All had dispersed to their early dinners, and 
 still Philander loitered, musing as he passed 
 along. A mansion was near, about a mile from 
 the church, and in a paddock were several fine 
 horses, enjoying with exquisite zest the free 
 
THE traveller's FIRST STAGE. 29 
 
 range of its limits. Emerging from another 
 path, he saw the family party followed by two or 
 three livery servants, approaching the house. 
 That they had walked to and from the church 
 was evident ; and equally so was the fact that 
 their cattle were permitted also to rest — ^to enjoy 
 a rest according to God's appointment, who or- 
 dained the Sabbath not merely for an observance, 
 but for a delight. 
 
 Not far beyond, he passed a modest-looking 
 building, with rustic porch pleasantly shaded. 
 Here were assembled children of various ages, 
 awaiting the arrival of some one to unlock the 
 door ; and in the hum of happy voices were dis- 
 tinguishable texts of scripture and snatches of 
 hymns, conned for repetition, and thus kept in 
 mind. They were like bees at the entrance of a 
 hive ; equally busy, equally cheerful. Philander 
 loved children : he paused, and asked a pretty 
 little girl whose house it was. 
 
 * If you please. Sir, 'tis the Sunday School.' 
 
 * Don't you think it rather hard to be shut up 
 in school on a fine Sunday ? ' This query seemed 
 to occasion some demur among the children : 
 they whispered together ; and the traveller, de- 
 sirous of an honest answer, repeated it ; he saw 
 no cause for confining these blithesome creatures 
 
30 THE traveller's FIRST STAGE. 
 
 while horses were left to luxuriate in Sabbath 
 freedom. At length a spokeswoman was found. 
 * Please, Sir, we have time enough for play : we 
 like coming to school, to learn about God and 
 Jesus Christ. Some of us can't be spared on 
 week-days, because we are wanted to mind the 
 babies, or to earn a little help. We are poor 
 children ; and if it wasn't for the Sunday School, 
 we must be ignorant too.' 
 
 * But babies want minding on Sundays as well 
 as other days.' 
 
 * Oh, mother's not at work then ;' and 'father's 
 at home then ; ' and ' there's plenty at home to 
 mind them on Sundays ; ' came in a chorus that 
 satisfied the querist, who rode on. 
 
 " The Sabbath was made for man : " for all 
 men, and certainly not least for the poor man. 
 Rob these villagers of their Sabbath, and what 
 compensation can you render ? The very clean- 
 sing of their persons, and thorough change of 
 garments must be medicinal surely to them. So 
 thought our friend as he pursued his way : he 
 had already got hold of something available for 
 the manufacture of a sound reason on the point 
 at issue, though on lower grounds than he might 
 yet discover ; and as he rode back, the quiet 
 state of the suburbs of that little town harmo- 
 
THE TRAVELLER S FIRST STAGE. 31 
 
 nized better with his newly-awakened feehng 
 than the noisy bustle of its central point, where 
 stood his inn, and where a gaping company of 
 idlers had assembled round a handsome carriage, 
 laden with a good deal of heavy luggage, waiting 
 for four fresh horses in place of the miserably 
 jaded, distressed animals that stood panting and 
 smoking by the road-side. Within was a gentle- 
 man, intent on a newspaper ; and a lady with a 
 pamphlet, the illustrated green wrapper of which 
 certainly bespoke nothing of a scriptural cha- 
 racter : while in the dicky behind rode a footman 
 and maidservant, laughing with responsive levity, 
 at the jokes that some standers-by passed on 
 their sociable appearance. The postillion was 
 not easily pleased : in an under tone he cursed 
 the bony animals that were led forth ; and vowed 
 he would get such work out of them as both they 
 and their owner should remember. Hurry and 
 confusion reigned in all departments of the little 
 inn, under a hope that these grand visitors might 
 yet decide on alighting : and though in the whole 
 scene there was nothing with which the habits 
 of the tourist had not long familiarized him, it 
 scarcely needed the significant remembrance of 
 those church-bells chiming for afternoon service 
 to render it worse than unseemly in his eyes. 
 
32 THE traveller's first stage. 
 
 In every man's breast there dwells a witness- 
 bearer who may be silenced, may be almost slain, 
 but no more. Accusing, or else excusing, that voice 
 demands a hearing, sometimes in the persuasive 
 whisper, at other times in the deep, stern menace, 
 but always in accordance with the will of God, 
 when that will is known, unless it be so polluted 
 by allowed sin, or hardened in obstinate error as 
 to lose for the time its very nature. This must 
 be borne in mind: a defiled conscience and a 
 seared conscience are among the judgments that 
 perverse transgressors call down on themselves ; 
 and then the warnings of that inward monitor, 
 like those of an inaccurate clock, may lead the 
 listener wrong. "We hear in our youth instruc- 
 tion that causeth to err ; for who does not know 
 the dangerous stanza. 
 
 What conscience dictates to be done 
 
 Or warns me not to do ; 
 This teach me more than hell to shun 
 
 That more than heaven pursue. 
 
 This is, to be sure, stark nonsense at best ; and 
 the poem exhibits a compound of fallacy and 
 impiety not often compressed within an equal 
 space ; but public opinion has given a currency to 
 the thing, and woe to that man who suifers his 
 deceived conscience to usurp the judgment-seat 
 
THE traveller's FIRST STAGE. 33 
 
 of Christ ! An agent, not a principal, — an effect, 
 not a cause, — the natural conscience can suggest 
 nothing original ; it must be acted on, ere it can 
 act ; and he who has surrendered himself to the 
 service of mammon will often find even conscience 
 made the mouthpiece of his chosen ruler. This 
 being borne in mind, and the written law recog- 
 nized as that from whence is no appeal whatever, 
 conscience assumes the office appointed of God ; 
 and as a faithful remembrancer speaks that which 
 has been imbibed at the fountain of truth. Speaks 
 authoritatively, continuously ; uttering the pro- 
 mised direction, *'This is the way, walk ye in it," 
 when man turns to the right hand or to the left. 
 Then, a witness is borne, truly and consistently, 
 only to be silenced by drowning it in the encou- 
 raged din of passions and lusts, and prejudices 
 that cannot longer break the cords and bonds of 
 divine authority ; only to be stifled by the over- 
 powering rush of corruptions breaking loose from 
 all restraint ; and never to be finally got rid of. 
 The gentle guide who was rudely repulsed for a 
 time must become a stern upbraider through eter- 
 nity. So hath God decreed : memory and con- 
 science are immortal. The rich man in torment 
 forgot neither his purple and fine linen, his sump- 
 tuous fare, or the name and condition of the fel- 
 
 D 
 
34 THE traveller's first stage. 
 
 low-being who perished at his gate. Even the 
 anguish of hell could not obliterate sentiments 
 and feelings that are inherent in us ; or, if self- 
 ishness had prevailed to drown the pleadings of 
 nature in the day of prosperity, conscience now 
 told of evil example afforded to those who no 
 doubt inherited the sinner's wealth, and who 
 were likely to spend it in the purchase of such a 
 lodging as he at last occupied. How agonized 
 was the petition, how awful the repulse ! '* If 
 they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither 
 will they be persuaded though one rose from the 
 dead." Thus, by His authority, to whom all 
 power is committed in heaven and on earth, we 
 are referred to the existing standard of right — to 
 the Scriptures alone, by which even the fidelity 
 of conscience itself must be tested ; the fountain 
 of knowledge where it must learn ere it can teach. 
 To the absence of a right understanding on this 
 pomt must be referred the perplexity of Philan- 
 der' s cogitations, as, seated in the recess of a deep, 
 antiquated bow window, he looked down on the 
 fashionable travelling equipage, the bustling as- 
 sistants, and idle standers-by. * These people,' 
 thought he, * may be doing wrong, but if their 
 own conscience condemns them not, why should 
 I censure their proceedings ? They are not an- 
 
THE TRAVELLER S FIRST STAGE. 35 
 
 swerable to me for the employment of time and 
 money placed at their own disposal. Legislation 
 might interpose, unwarrantably I must think ; for 
 it is a matter where man cannot fairly be account- 
 able to any but God, nor dictated to by aught save 
 his own conscience. They please themselves ; no 
 one has any business to interfere — it is wholly 
 their own concern.' — At that moment the vehicle 
 rattled off at a round pace, over the uneven pave- 
 ment — for the postilhon, true to his threat, had at 
 once applied whip and spur with barbarous seve- 
 rity to the poor worn-out horses, putting them to 
 the utmost speed that his command over the rein 
 would allow them to exert. Resentment on the 
 part of their owner and his hostler vented itself 
 on the animals that still drooped by the way side, 
 reeking and raw. A kick under the belly of one, 
 a stroke across the face of another, sent them 
 trembling and starting into the stable ; and Phi- 
 lander bit his lip, for he was generous ; he loved 
 the noble horse, and resented gross outrages on 
 humanity, like this. In the next moment, the 
 sharp, shrill voice of a scolding landlady reached 
 his ear from the stair head. ^ Go to church in- 
 deed ! If those folks had'nt kept us expecting 
 them to 'light, and so put every thing at sixes 
 and sevens, one of you might have gone. As it 
 D 2 
 
36 THE traveller's first stage. 
 
 is, I wonder you aint ashamed to ask. Then 
 
 there's the gentleman's dinner to see to' the 
 
 remainder he did not catch. Some of the loun- 
 gers attracted by the travellers' stoppage, now 
 called for a pipe and a pot of beer: the boys 
 formed in a ring for a game of pitch and toss ; 
 and while the last, soft tinkle of the bell that had 
 altered its chime preparatory to the commence- 
 ment of prayer in the church, fell persuasively 
 on the ear, sounds of active, laborious employ- 
 ment within the house, mingled with alternate 
 burst of rude laughter and ruder altercation, be- 
 spoke that the service of a different master was 
 carried on beneath the inn roof from that which 
 was rendered to Him who appointed the Sabbath, 
 at once for a covenant and a point of communion 
 between Himself and the souls whom he had 
 made. 
 
 Philander felt unusually gloomy, and attributed 
 it to the loneliness of his position. ' This will 
 never do : I must have a companion, or society of 
 some kind.' He mused, but could not determine 
 on any course. If he got into thoughtless com- 
 pany, the object of his tour will be defeated at 
 once : and a solemn prosing fellow would to him 
 be ten times worse than solitude : he took his 
 silent meal, and inquired if there was an evening 
 
THE TRAVELLER S FIRST STAGE. 37 
 
 service at the church, to which the attendant 
 answered that there was none ; but that the cler- 
 gyman held a meeting at a place duly h censed 
 some five miles off, on the outskirts of the parish, 
 where the farming people and some of the gentry 
 attended. This being in a direction opposite to 
 his morning stroll, he resolved to walk thither ; 
 instructions being given as to the route, which 
 seemed to be altogether through fields, meadows, 
 and narrow lanes. It was at any rate, a better 
 way of finishing his Sunday than that in which 
 he had begun it ; and he started off in tolerably 
 good humour with himself. In truth he had not 
 been so since he stumbled on the village congre- 
 gation. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE YEOMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 The moon was bright when the party issued from 
 their place of meeting ; and while the tourist 
 stood in momentary hesitation as to which of the 
 numerous httle paths he should take to regain 
 his homeward road, he heard himself accosted in 
 frank tones that seemed familiar. ' I beg pardon 
 Sir, but seeing you a stranger here, afoot, and 
 alone, might I oifer my service in the way of di- 
 rection? the place is rather puzzling to new- 
 comers.' 
 
 Philander recognised the honest farmer, with 
 his son Tom a little in the rear. He told the 
 place of his abode, and his wish to find the shortest 
 cut homewards. To this the farmer rejoined 
 with a hearty invitation to partake of his evening 
 
THE yeoman's fireside, 39 
 
 meal, after which he would accompany him to the 
 high road leading direct to his inn. Philander as- 
 sented : * I am to penetrate the depths of society/ 
 thought he ; * and a little insight into the yeo- 
 manry class will be no unpleasant beginning.' 
 
 Behold, then, the polished gentleman from 
 town forming one in a party where unsophisti- 
 cated simplicity reigned as now it rarely does in 
 any circle. There were all the recommendations 
 that extreme neatness, cleanliness in a high degree, 
 good, though coarse cheer, a hearty welcome, and 
 a very rational tone of cheerfulness could afford. 
 On one subject each had a word of affectionate 
 commendation to utter : and that was, the dis- 
 course of their minister. Philander was surprised 
 to observe how attentively the youngest of the 
 children must have listened to it ; and even the 
 servant girl, as she placed another brown loaf 
 on the board, smiled a most intelligent assent to 
 an observation made by her mistress on the good 
 advice given to the young. ' Do you know him. 
 Sir ? ' was the next enquiry addressed to the 
 stranger. ' No, I am sorry to say I do not.' 
 * I am thankful to say, I do : ' exclaimed the far- 
 mer, leaning back in his chair, and surveying his 
 domestic group. * Yes, Sir, and all about me, and 
 others belonging to me whom you dont see, may 
 
40 THE yeoman's fireside. 
 
 be thankful that I know the good man. He has 
 taught me my duty Sir ; he has, by God's bless- 
 ing, put a root to the dry stick that I wanted to 
 grow without one.' 
 
 * I don't quite comprehend your metaphor.' 
 ' Why, Sir, I was one who wanted to do well 
 in the world in other ways besides making money : 
 a moral man, a charitable man, and all that. I 
 wanted to be a good husband, a wise father, a kind 
 master and neighbour, but I thought the very 
 determination to be so was enough to ensure it ; 
 and so I went on, mighty well pleased with my- 
 self, and in my heart despising others, like the 
 Pharisee of old, boasting of himself over the 
 poor Publican. I need not tell you that my 
 goodness was like the morning cloud, driven about 
 and away by any sudden puff of temptation or 
 provocation ; in short, I had no root in myself ; 
 and any good that I did to others, went no fur- 
 ther than their present circumstances, nor, indeed, 
 so far, if you view them rightly. I loved to no- 
 tice how matters went on around me ; to censure 
 what I knew was not right, and to lay better 
 plans of my own ; but. Sir, I did not begin my 
 improvements in the right quarter i I did not 
 first examine how I myself stood with God ; I 
 did not seek to be conformed to the image of 
 
THE yeoman's fireside. 41 
 
 Christ, before I set up as a standard for others. 
 Nay, I did not even make the Bible my ride of 
 judging myself or any body else. Need I tell you 
 what a blessing it was to me when that wise 
 teacher came to explain how I must make the 
 tree good before it could bear good fruit ? I was 
 like a dry stick stuck in the ground, and plenti- 
 fully watered, and looked after, but as to bearing 
 any thing, how should it ? The root was wanting, 
 Sir : the many little fibres, all diving deep into 
 the soil and sucking up the moisture, and making 
 sap, and causing fruit to grow. Poor, scanty, and 
 oft times sour it is indeed, and not worthy to be 
 gathered by my blessed Master ; but it is some- 
 thing — may His grace make it more and 
 better ! ' 
 
 There was a silence broken by a half sob from 
 a delicate-looking girl. The farmer's eye fol- 
 lowed his guest's towards her, and he resumed, 
 * x\y, poor lassie, she is a proof of the good-for- 
 nothingness of what I thought goodness. My 
 brother's orphan, I bound her to a dress-maker 
 in town, and when I heard of their wicked Sab- 
 bath-breaking, I passed it over as a necessary 
 evil, not to be helped. My first lesson, almost, 
 was on the sacredness of the Lord's day ; and 
 that was why I fetched her back instantly. I 
 
42 THE yeoman's fireside. 
 
 did not know till I saw her how the poor thing's 
 health had suffered by over-work ; nor did I 
 think how surely God vindicates his own law, 
 sooner or later, on them that break it. There 
 isn't a plainer truth, though, than that ; as the 
 very beasts in the stable would tell you if they 
 could speak. Nay, they do tell us so, by their 
 sleek coats, and plump sides, and the hearty 
 strength they show on the working days.' 
 
 * I dont dispute the excellent principle on 
 which you act,' said Philander ; * but, practically 
 do you really find a material difference in the 
 condition of your cattle, when allowed a seventh 
 day's rest ? I ask this, because it is a point on 
 which I am interested.' 
 
 * Sir, I am not a scholar, but I have sense 
 enough to understand what a learned physician 
 has said, and upon oath too : and I give you my 
 full testimony that every word you'll find there is 
 correct, and proved by facts under my own eye.' 
 He took down a small, thin pamphlet, and pointed 
 out the following passage. 
 
 " I have been in the habit during a great many 
 years of considering the itses of the Sabbath, and 
 of observing its abuses. The abuses are chiefly 
 manifested in labour and dissipation. The use, 
 medically speaking, is that of a day of rest. In 
 
THE yeoman's fireside. 43 
 
 a theological sense it is a holy rest, providing for 
 the introduction of new and sublimer ideas into 
 the mind of man, preparing him for his future 
 state. As a day of rest, I view it as a day of 
 compensation for the inadequate restorative power 
 of the body under continued labour and excite- 
 ment. A physician always has respect to the 
 preservation of the restorative power, because if 
 once this be lost, his healing office is at an end. 
 If I shew you, from the physiological view of the 
 question, that there are provisions in the laws of 
 nature which correspond with the Divine com- 
 mandment, you will see from the analogy that 
 " the Sabbath was made for man" as a necessary 
 appointment. A physician is anxious to preserve 
 the balance of circulation, as necessary to the 
 restorative power of the body. The ordinary 
 exertions of man run down the circulation every 
 day of his life ; and the first general law of na- 
 ture by which God (who is not only the giver, 
 but also the preserver and sustainer of life) pre- 
 vents man from destroying himself, is the alter- 
 nating of day with night, that repose may succeed 
 action. But although the night apparently equal- 
 izes the circulation well, yet it does not sufficiently 
 restore its balance for the attainment of a long 
 life. Hence, one day in seven, by the bounty of 
 
44 THE yeoman's fireside. 
 
 Providence, is throwii in as a day of compensa- 
 tion, to perfect by its repose the animal system. 
 You may easily determine this question as a mat- 
 ter of fact, by trying it on beasts of burden. 
 Take that fine animal, the horse, and work him 
 to the full extent of his powers every day in the 
 week, or give him rest one day in seven, and you 
 will soon perceive, by the superior vigour with 
 which he performs his functions on the other six 
 days, that this rest is necessary to his well-being. 
 Man, possessing a superior nature, is borne along 
 by the very vigour of his mind, so that the in- 
 jury of continual diurnal exertion and excite- 
 ment on his animal system is not so immediately 
 apparent as it is in the brute ; but in the long 
 run he breaks down more suddenly : it abridges 
 the length of his life and that \igour of his old 
 age, which (as to mere animal power) ought to be 
 the object of his preservation. I consider there- 
 fore that in the bountiful provision of Providence 
 for the preservation of human life, the sabbati- 
 cal appointment is not, as it has sometimes been 
 theologically viewed, simply a precept partaking 
 of the nature of a political institution, but that it 
 is to be numbered amongst the natural duties, if 
 the preservation of life be admitted to be a duty, 
 and the premature destruction of it a suicidal act. 
 
THE YEOMAN S FIRESIDE. 45 
 
 This is said simply as a physician, and without 
 reference at all to the theological question ; but 
 if you consider further the proper effect of real 
 Christianity, namely, peace of mind, confiding 
 trust in God, and good-will to man, you will per- 
 ceive in this source of renewed vigour to the mind, 
 and through the mind to the body, an additional 
 spring of life imparted from this higher use of 
 the Sabbath as a holy rest. Were I to pursue 
 this part of the question, I should be touching on 
 the duties committed to the clergy ; but this I 
 will say, that researches in physiology, by the 
 analogy of the workings of Providence in nature, 
 will establish the truth of Revelation, and conse- 
 quently shew that the Divine commandment is 
 not to be considered as an arbitrary enactment, 
 but as an appointment necessary to man. This 
 is the position in which I would place it, as 
 contradistinguished from precept and legisla- 
 tion ; I would point out the Sabbatical rest as 
 necessary to man, and that the great enemies of 
 the Sabbath, and consequently the enemies of man, 
 are all laborious exercises of the body or mind, 
 and dissipation, which force the circulation on 
 that day in which it should repose ; whilst relax- 
 ation from the ordinary cares of life, the enjoy- 
 ment of this repose in the bosom of one's family 
 
46 THE yeoman's fireside. 
 
 with the rehgious studies and duties which the 
 day enjoins, not one of which, if rightly exercised, 
 tends to abridge hfe, constitute the beneficial and 
 appropriate service of the day. The student of 
 nature, in becoming the student of Christ, will 
 find in the principles of his doctrine and law, and 
 in the practical application of them, the only and 
 perfect science which prolongs the present, and 
 perfects the future life." 
 
 ' Well Sir, how do you like it ? you have read 
 it with great attention.' 
 
 * And, with your leave, I must read it again, 
 for it is altogether new, strikingly, starthngly 
 new to me.' 
 
 * Put it in your pocket, Sir, 'twill bear more 
 than two or three readings, I promise you. Pray 
 don't hesitate ; I have another copy. You see 
 there is more of it, and every word carries weight 
 enough to make it important. That little tract. 
 Sir, containing the evidence of an eminent doc- 
 tor before the House of Commons, has conferred 
 greater benefits on me and mine, including the 
 poor beasts in the stable, than any book I know 
 — always excepting the blessed Bible. I hope 
 you may one day say the same.' 
 
 * If I cannot say quite so much, my good Sir, 
 it will at least be of considerable use to me ; and 
 
THE yeoman's fireside. 47 
 
 not the less valuable as calling to mind your 
 kind hospitality, for which I am greatly in- 
 debted.' 
 
 ' Not more to us than we to you, Sir : it is not 
 often that a man of fashion sits down to a poor 
 farmer's table so contented and friendly as you 
 have done. We don't receive Sunday visitors. 
 Sir, nor pay Sunday visits : but this was not a 
 breach of the rule, I trust. Not yet,' he added, 
 as Philander rose to take leave : * you won't re- 
 fuse to join us in giving thanks for the day's 
 mercies, Sir ; and after that I will attend you 
 towards your quarters.' 
 
 The serv'ants were summoned ; a chapter was 
 read, and a very simple, hearty, thankful prayer 
 put up by the good man of the house, after which, 
 the traveller took a cordial leave of his hostess 
 and her family, and set off, beneath a magnificent 
 moon, accompanied by the farmer and Tom. On 
 gaining the high road, he refused to take them 
 further from their home ; and with a warmth 
 not usual to him, repeated his acknowledgments. 
 * God bless you, Sir,' said the worthy yeoman, 
 as with one hand he heartily shook that of his 
 new friend, and with the other respectfully lifted 
 his hat from his head. ' Perhaps we shall never 
 meet again in this life : I will venture to give you 
 
48 THE yeoman's fireside. 
 
 a parting word for a token between us : " Re- 
 member the Sabbath-day, to keep it holy." 
 
 * Reasons by the road-side ! ' said Philander to 
 himself, as he pursued his way : * I little expected 
 to gather such a pocket full, when I strolled out 
 this morning. How comes it that I never before 
 considered the appointment in this light, as a day 
 of compensation for exhausted powers ? Possibly, 
 because I have never given it any consideration 
 at all, worth mentioning. My first dip into so- 
 ciety has been singularly successful, having 
 brought up this curious document, together with 
 a very pleasing illustration of my subject. But, 
 after all, if those strict Sabbatarians are right, 
 how tremendously wrong is the world in general ! 
 In my present mood, the Parks would possess 
 little attraction, in all the pride and glitter of 
 their Sunday display. Yet, those well-fed beasts 
 rarely, if ever, doing a good day's work in the 
 six, can scarcely want a compensation day ; and 
 if they did, it would be easy to afford it in the 
 course of the week, so as not to debar their own- 
 ers from the innocent enjoyment of a Sunday 
 drive. I presume it matters little or nothing to 
 a horse whether he takes a leisure day on the 
 seventh, or the first, or the third of the week.' 
 Thus soliloquized the young man ; struggling, as 
 
THE YEOMAN S FIRESIDE. 49 
 
 man naturally does, against a conviction that 
 jarred with his pre-conceived habits and opinions: 
 but the main question was considerably affected 
 by the coarse contrast presented in the inn-yard, 
 where carriers had now halted, and more tra- 
 vellers arrived. The condition of some horses 
 close to which he must squeeze a passage, was 
 really deplorable, and roused his indignation, no 
 less than the oaths and obscene discourse of their 
 human tyrants, half-drunk as they were, excited 
 his disgust. After personally investigating the 
 accommodations of his own steed, he entered the 
 house, from the rear, and witnessed the full state 
 of bustling emplojuient in which the estabhsh- 
 ment was kept, and likely to continue during the 
 night, as it had been since early morning ; though 
 the front wore a less business-hke aspect, owing 
 to the vigilant care of parish authorities, who, 
 directed by an excellent clergyman, suppressed, 
 as far as they could, the open breach of Sab- 
 bath propriety. Their power, however, was ex- 
 ceedingly hmited, and their remonstrances were 
 laughed to scorn. Our traveller felt little dispo- 
 sition to prolong his stay in such an abode : he 
 had done very well for a first stage ; and in the 
 hope of occasionally falling in with characters 
 whom he might best read alone, the project of 
 
50 THE yeoman's fireside. 
 
 seeking a compagnon de voyage was held in 
 abeyance. He resolved to pass on, overlooking 
 no probable source of information ; and we shall 
 come across his path at a future stage. 
 
 Had he made any considerable progress in his 
 especial mission ? In one sense he had. Trying 
 revealed truth by the standard of human reason 
 is vain and presumptuous ; but when in the fair 
 exercise of his reasoning powers, man discovers 
 somewhat more of the fitness, aptness, beauty, 
 and beneficence of certain divinely-appointed in- 
 stitutions, it savours neither of presumption or 
 of folly to acknowledge a strengthening of the 
 conviction already formed. True it is, that now 
 we must walk by faith, not by sight : our course 
 is to be regulated not by what we see, but by 
 what we believe ; still, such an exercise of sight 
 is frequently permitted as tends greatly to con- 
 firm and establish faith ; and this too is a legiti- 
 mate use and conclusion. God hath said, seed- 
 time and harvest shall not fail : this is believed 
 by the bulk of mankind without any reference to 
 the promise : they take it as a matter of course ; 
 a thing that will be because it has been ; or they 
 draw a right conclusion from wrong premises, 
 arguing an immutability that no where exists in 
 the laws of nature, a nonentity which they en- 
 
THE YEOMAN S FIRESIDE. 51 
 
 throne in the Great Creator's and Preserver's 
 place. But those who credit the assurance sim- 
 ply as a gracious declaration of the Most High, 
 gather from each punctual return of either sea- 
 son a new and a sweet lesson of confidence and 
 of thankfulness in Him by whose appointment 
 the alternation is secured. Here, sight strength- 
 ens faith ; a thousand encouraging influences and 
 illustrations are drawn from contemplating the 
 even work of God which never occur to the man 
 who forgets Him ; and reason stands on ele- 
 vated ground, exercising functions, enjoying pri- 
 vileges, by no other means attainable. 
 
 So with the hallowing of the seventh day. 
 He who receives the commandment simply as 
 such, and as such habitually obeys it, is blessed 
 in his deed. He who, already obedient, also ex- 
 amines deeply into the subject, tracing link by 
 link the long bright chain of temporal and 
 spiritual benefits by this one ordinance conferred 
 on the whole animated creation, is, inasmuch as 
 he finds more abundant matter for trustful thanks- 
 giving, possessed of a richer blessing. Acknow- 
 ledging the supreme right of the universal Lord 
 to his time, himself, and all that belongs to him, 
 he is cheerfully wiUing to subtract a seventh, or 
 any other portion that God might have seen 
 
 E 2 
 
52 THE YEOMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 good to demand, from the days, months, years, 
 that he devotes to provision for the body, or to 
 any mere earthly pursuits : but when he finds 
 that the fraction so set apart is returned to him 
 with rich interest, including with lengthened life 
 a store of mental and corporeal refreshment, re- 
 newal of healthful vigor in himself, and increased 
 serviceableness in all that appertains to him, can 
 he fail more feelingly to adore the goodness that 
 has interwoven a blessing even in the most res- 
 training enactments — can he refuse a heart-warm 
 acquiescence in the Psalmist's wise conclusion, 
 that " In keeping His commandments there is 
 great reward." In keeping them there is, not 
 for keeping them there shall be. The reward is 
 present, substantial, enjoyable ; co-existent with 
 the act of obedience. 
 
 But among men and also among the beasts that 
 serve man, there are instances where no exacted 
 labour during the six days can be supposed to 
 call for a stated term of perfect rest. Confining 
 ourselves to the lower ground here assumed, that 
 of selfish advantage, we may concede some weight 
 to the objection ; but of how trifling a degree 
 will soon appear if we consider that mental excite- 
 ment produces as exhausting an effect on the 
 circulation as bodily toil ; and also that the frame 
 
THE YEOMAN S FIRESIDE. 53 
 
 enei'vated by a life of luxurious indulgence be- 
 comes incomparably more accessible to injury 
 from this very point. What, in fact, is the life 
 to which our objectors attach the character of 
 ease and luxury? Is it not the most laborious of 
 all occupations to be engaged in a perpetual war- 
 fare upon time ? Is not man's physical constitu- 
 tion fearfully taxed by such demands on its powers 
 of endurance as are the usual accompaniments of 
 affluence ? He loses the most bracing and \-ivify- 
 ing cordial pro\dded in advance for each day's 
 supply — the healthftd morning air : he excites 
 his digestive organs, ere yet they are roused into 
 a natural craving, by hot stimulating beverage, 
 and dainty morsels adapted to please the palate, 
 not to build up the robust frame, and nourish the 
 blood : or if early abroad, does he not purchase 
 a wholesome appetite at the cost of such prema- 
 ture excitement as the morning chace supplies ? 
 Not to follow him through the day — a day for 
 the stewardship of which he must give account, 
 though not to us — let us but glance at the even- 
 ing scene, in its most imblameable aspect, the 
 late hour at which the stomach receives its prin- 
 cipal supply in a heterogenous mass of artificial 
 compounds, highly spiced dishes, rich wines, and 
 luscious fruits, concerning which our long-lived 
 
54 THE yeoman's fireside. 
 
 forefathers propounded the homely aphorism that 
 they were gold in the morning, silver at noon, 
 and lead at night. Let us pause to compare the 
 amount of compensation afforded by the heated 
 atmosphere of rooms illuminated by man's device, 
 for the breeze and the sunlight excluded from 
 the morning chamber. Let us remember the 
 violence done to that universal craving of nature 
 for rest in sleep, even earlier than the evening of 
 fashionable life commences, and the pernicious 
 character of that despotism which the will of man 
 establishes over what he loves to call a law of na- 
 ture ; never to be violated with impunity, for it 
 is a law of God. Surely this sketch, which is so 
 drawn as to include both sexes, and to suppose 
 no idcious excess of profligate dissipation, exhibits 
 a case where the balance of circulation must in 
 no slight degree be disturbed ; and where one 
 day's interruption of the unhealthful career is a 
 boon that no sensible person would reject. 
 
 But view it otherwise, and admit that the en- 
 nui of remaining quiet would be to such a class 
 a burden more intolerable than any that is laid 
 upon them by custom, and welcomed by incli- 
 nation, we must remind them that such is not 
 the case with their servants. Their unbroken 
 leisure is purchased by the price which they pay 
 
THE yeoman's fireside. 55 
 
 to others for a life of unbroken labour ; and 
 though the duties of each servant in a large es- 
 tablishment may be and are greatly hghtened by 
 subdivision, still the work done by them is work, 
 and as such requires the interval of rest appointed 
 by divine authority. No station whatever is 
 more ensnaring than that of servants in great 
 houses : example above and around, temptations, 
 opportunities, and snares of every description 
 combine to lead them into evil paths ; and Oh 
 how precious to such, ere they be hardened in 
 sin, is the privilege, the duty, of drawing near 
 on one stated day, together with those whom 
 they serve, and those who serve with them, to 
 God, who is no respecter of persons. The Sab- 
 bath opens a well of refreshment to both parties : 
 they are then invited practically to remember, 
 the one, that they are continually watched by 
 Him who has commanded them to be faithful 
 and obedient to their employers, the other, that 
 they also have a Master in heaven, who requires 
 that they render to their servants that which is 
 just and equal. The house of prayer is the ap- 
 pointed meeting place on earth for those who, do 
 what they may to evade it, must and shall meet 
 at the judgment-seat of Christ. Our common 
 nature, sufficiently hardened as it is by sin, un- 
 
56 THE yeoman's fireside. 
 
 dergoes further a perpetual process of induration 
 through the usages of society, tending to beget a to- 
 tal oblivion of the mortifying fact that the master 
 was born into the world not one whit less naked, 
 helpless and miserable than his serving man ; and 
 the no less positive truth, that though the one 
 may be coffined in lead and mahogany, the other 
 in plain deal, corruption will achieve its ghastly 
 conquest alike over the flesh of one as of the 
 other. This leads to another and a more injuri- 
 ous act of forgetfulness, when the superior re- 
 members not that the soul of his attendant is 
 precisely as his own soul, utterly defiled by sin, 
 sold under natural corruption, into the hand of 
 Satan ; to be redeemed at no less a price than 
 the sacrifice of the Son of God ; to be cleansed 
 in no meaner a fountain than the blood of incar- 
 nate Deity ; to be kept clean, and safe, and sted- 
 fast in well-doing by no lower means than the 
 indwelling of the Eternal Spirit. Now, no man 
 can accomplish on behalf of his servant or of his 
 brother, or of himself, any, the smallest part of 
 this great work ; but he may in each case afford 
 many facilities, or oppose many obstacles ; and 
 in none so effectually as in that of the hired 
 menial whose time is at his disposal, and who, 
 in the discharge of a peculiarly difficult and en- 
 
THE YEOMAN S FIRESIDE. 57 
 
 snaring line of duties, needs more than any other 
 the encouragement that by a due exercise of au- 
 thority in these matters it is his to bestow. 
 
 Here, again, we see the condescending wisdom 
 and beauty of the assigned reason vouchsafed by 
 the glorious Lawgiver : " that thy serv^ants and 
 thy cattle may rest as well as thou." Unless the 
 master rests from his routine of worldliness, the 
 servant cannot rest from his routine of labour. 
 Be it heavy or light, it is his daily task ; as such 
 he regards it, and as such he is entitled to an 
 exemption, so far as to leave him free in follow- 
 ing the dictates of his own conscience. If with- 
 held from his share in the privileges of Sabbath 
 leisure for the public and private sernce of God, 
 he will, perhaps, wilhngly avail himself of the 
 excuse, and charge the sin on his master. A 
 common and a perilous delusion among that and 
 similar classes, which no man who feels his own 
 responsibility to the Lord of all would willingly 
 be found guilty of encouraging. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 PEDESTRIAN GLEANINGS. 
 
 Our travelling friend has partially changed his 
 plan. Although in many respects pleasanter, 
 journeying on horseback does not answer so well 
 the pui*pose that he is more than ever bent on 
 accomplishing, and he has adopted the pedestrian 
 style, with such occasional recurrence to public 
 conveyances as circumstances may point out. 
 Equipped as a way-faring man, with nothing to 
 denote the assumption of a higher rank in society 
 than that of some respectable yeoman, or trader 
 in a small way, with a wallet on his back, a good 
 club-stick in his hand, and in his pocket the little 
 pamphlet presented by the farmer, he has already 
 gained access to the confidential opinions of seve- 
 ral who would have carefully locked them up 
 
PEDESTRIAN GLEANINGS. 59 
 
 from the fashionably dressed horseman of a 
 former week. In point of amusement the ex- 
 change has been advantageous ; for almost every 
 day brings him into contact with some odd cha- 
 racter ; or rather with some odd variation of what 
 he finds to be the universal character of the pre- 
 sent race — money-getters, where money is to be 
 got ; and money-himters whether it is to be had 
 or no. 
 
 Until now. Philander was not aware to how 
 great an extent gain had become the god of his 
 countrymen. Educated among a class whose in- 
 comes are principally derived from the hoards of a 
 former generation, or from landed property, with 
 the management of which nobody has less to do 
 than the actual proprietors ; and placed among 
 official men, in a government department, not so 
 much for emolument as for the insight that he 
 would thereby acquire into affairs where he might 
 ere long assume an active part, the young man 
 had as much to learn as though he had lately 
 arrived from some foreign shore, where English- 
 men were strangers ; with the exception only of 
 his own especial class. This is not unfrequently 
 the case : indeed the contrary is rather the ex- 
 ception than the rule ; for just as eagerly as the 
 many pursue gain, do the few follow amusement ; 
 
60 PEDESTRIAN GLEANINGS. 
 
 and should the two paths happen at some point 
 to cross each other, the junction is momentary ; 
 the divergence immediate, wide, and lasting. In 
 fact, a prospect of being ultimately and abidingly 
 enrolled among the few, is the principle on which 
 the many keep themselves so perseveringly apart. 
 There is, to be sure, a middle path, once much 
 frequented, and by perhaps a happier branch of 
 the great national family than either of the other 
 two ; but it is of late yedrs well nigh deserted ; 
 travellers on the speculating line of road are 
 better pleased to toil and bustle there until they 
 have realized means to leap at once into the 
 ghttering path that accommodates only affluent 
 loungers. 
 
 We are now to rejoin our tourist, and find him 
 pursuing his way, in conversation with one whose 
 rude exterior, loud rough voice, and swaggering 
 gait bespeak little attractive in the man ; but 
 Philander has an object in view, and neglects 
 nothing that may aid him in acquiring informa- 
 tion : he had given a trifle to the fellow, who 
 pleaded loss of work, and poverty resulting from 
 it ; and then ascertained that he was one of a 
 large body of excavators on a railroad, who had 
 turned out for higher wages ; and assaulted those 
 who engaged in their stead, for which several of 
 
PEDESTRIAN GLEANINGS. 61 
 
 them, among whom Philander had no doubt was 
 his companion, had been committed to gaol for 
 some weeks. Here was a case of illegal combina- 
 tion, with its natural consequences ; and he 
 wished to discover whether it had any connexion 
 with the disregard of the Sabbath. *You tell 
 me,' said he, ' that you worked from day-break 
 on Monday morning till late on Saturday night, 
 with httle intermission. Separated as you must 
 have been on the Une, how did you find time to 
 arrange your plans for the strike ? ' 
 
 ^Why, sir, where there's a will there's a way. 
 We had meal times, and night time, and all 
 Sunday.' 
 
 ' Then the day that was given you for rest, 
 you used for a diiferent purpose ? ' 
 
 * Oh, we took plenty of rest, and had our pot 
 of porter at the skittle ground, over a good game. 
 We wouldn't have worked on Sunday.' 
 
 Here was a point unexpectedly mooted, the 
 importance of which our friend clearly compre- 
 hended, but where he by no means so clearly saw 
 his way. The principle seemed to be fully re- 
 cognized by his companion, that labour was to 
 cease on the Sabbath ; and how stoutly he was 
 prepared to maintain that principle, both his 
 look and tone indicated. But again, it was clear 
 
62 PEDESTRIAN GLEANINGS. 
 
 that the only servitude from which he claimed 
 exemption, was that imposed by his fellow-man ; 
 he had served a worse master for a worse pur- 
 pose, by gambling, by debauchery, and by ar- 
 ranging the details of a violent outrage afterwards 
 committed. In short, he had remembered the 
 Sabbath-day, but not to keep it holy. After 
 walking silently for a minute or two. Philander, 
 who would not willingly have committed himself 
 so far where he was known, assumed the monitor, 
 and said, * You must be aware, my man, that God 
 did not set apart the seventh day for such pur- 
 poses as you describe.' A sullen glance of sus- 
 picion was the only answer ; and he continued, 
 * Do you always pass the day in that way ? ' 
 
 * I do as my betters do ; that is to say, I 
 please myself.' 
 
 ' It pleases many among your betters and 
 among your equals too, to worship God, and to 
 be quiet on the Sabbath.' 
 
 * May be : every one to his taste, and so they 
 still please themselves, you see. But as to my 
 betters, were you ever in London, Sir ? ' 
 
 ' Yes, I have been there.' 
 
 * If all that wear better clothes are my betters,' 
 said the man bitterly, * you may see how they 
 are employed, by taking a trip to Battersea, or to 
 
PEDESTRIAN GLEANINGS. 63 
 
 Greenwich, or White Conduit, or any where at 
 all where boats, horses, steam, or their own legs 
 can carry them. Why, I've worked on the rail- 
 roads about London, and I know pretty well how 
 merry they make themselves on Sundays. But, 
 mayhap, you are thinking of the fine folks that 
 spend more in lace for a lazy footman's coat than 
 would keep an honest family from starving. 
 Well, at any rate you hav'nt been in the Parks 
 on Sundays, or you would have another story to 
 tell.' Then, raising his voice, he added, *I know 
 the commandment, and I know that nobody 
 keeps it.' 
 
 The man was evidently losing his temper, and 
 Philander knew that nothing would be gained by 
 irritating him : he therefore forbore to press the 
 matter, but said, * Will you answer one question? 
 I ask it for information only, and not to carry on 
 an argument. Rest from labour, you insist on 
 as a right, and so it is : but opinions differ among 
 learned men on the subject of resting — in what 
 it consists ; and my own mind is not quite made 
 up on the matter. What do you call resting ? ' 
 
 ' Lea\ing off work.' 
 
 * What I want to know is this : you go to 
 bed on Saturday night, and other nights, tired 
 enough no doubt, having spent your strength in 
 
64 PEDESTRIAN GLEANINGS. 
 
 a laborious employment, from early day. On 
 Sunday night you have not been at work, you 
 have had twenty-four hours' respite, and certainly 
 on Monday morning you ought to feel greatly 
 refreshed, quite a new man, full of strength and 
 cheerfulness for the work before you. I would 
 know whether this is the case with you ? ' 
 
 The fellow again looked at him suspiciously, 
 and was silent. Philander took out his pamphlet : 
 * Now here is something said by a clever physi- 
 cian, the truth of which I have had no opportu- 
 nity of testing ; for mine is not a life of labour. 
 I'll read you what he says, and you may answer 
 me or not, as you like.' He then read a few 
 sentences, bearing on the waste and supply of 
 physical power ; explaining it in simple language 
 to the labourer ; whose curiosity being excited, 
 he listened with attention and interest. * I see 
 what he means, sir, well enough ; and to my 
 mind he is in the right. The difference between 
 spending a day as I'm spending this, walking 
 quietly along, and talking at my ease, or spending 
 it Hke our Sundays, is just the same difference as 
 there is between taking a nap and taking a dram.' 
 
 * You have described it well ; and no doubt a 
 man feels more rested after a nap.' 
 
 * But he feels jolUer after a dram.' 
 
PEDESTRIAN GLEANINGS. 65 
 
 * That is what the doctor calls excitement, and 
 he thinks it injurious. You see, mind and body 
 both require rest in order to restore the wasted 
 circulation here spoken of: now man is composed 
 of two parts, body and mind ; if you work the 
 body hard all the week, and then for a day leave 
 oif to do so, but work the mind to the utmost, 
 and keep the blood at a fever height, there is no 
 real rest for the man. Besides, what tires the 
 body, tires the mind too, as you must often have 
 experienced ; and in like manner, what tires the 
 mind tires the body.' 
 
 * Well, after all you're contriving to preach me 
 a sermon.' 
 
 * No, for I have spoken as if we were composed 
 of perishable things oidy : body and mind will 
 both fail ; and I have not said one word about 
 the soul, which must Hve for ever. I am not a 
 minister ; but I begin to think that if I were so 
 I should not allow any sabbath-breaking among 
 my people.' 
 
 * You could' nt help it, sir ; all the parsons that 
 ever lived can't hinder men from pleasing them- 
 selves. That law that you talk of was not made 
 by the parsons, was it ? it was made by God 
 Himself, and yet you see nobody keeps it. Are 
 you more powerful than He ? No, no : you must 
 
66 PEDESTRIAN GLEANINGS, 
 
 make the world over again before you can make 
 it what you'd hke it to be. For my part, I 
 shall do as the rest do, and at the worst I can't 
 fare much harder than I see hundreds more do.' 
 ' Not here, perhaps ; but there is another life.' 
 ' May be so, sir, and the same thing holds 
 good ; I am no worse than my neighbours now ; 
 no nor than my betters ; and we shall go to- 
 gether, wherever we go. Sir, your little book is 
 right, as to the want of rest ; I feel it sorely 
 when I am in work ; but just now I have enough 
 of it to last me a good while. My service to 
 you. Sir, and thanks for your charity ; and I 
 wish you success in mending the world, for it 
 wants it enough.' This was spoken with a levity 
 that seemed rather forced : the poor fellow's 
 heart, or conscience, had been touched, and he 
 was fighting down better feelings. He sprang 
 over a stile by the roadside, leaving Philander 
 not only puzzled, but depressed. 
 
 The broad fact so roughly stated, that a law 
 known and admitted to be promulgated by the 
 Lord of heaven and earth was systematically set 
 at defiance by the great bulk of all classes, in a 
 country where the Bible was recognized as the 
 supreme source and standard of civil legislation, 
 had struck him with a force unfelt before. It 
 
PEDESTRIAN GLEANINGS. 67 
 
 was indeed so : it could not be denied by one 
 whose personal observation bore testimony to the 
 justice of a charge to which also his own con- 
 science pleaded guilty. London, the resort of 
 his daily steps, rose before his mind's eye in all 
 the gigantic enormity of its sabbath desecration, 
 with this aggravating feature, that above each 
 scene of whirling restlessness seemed stamped in 
 characters of fire the accusing words, " Defiance 
 of the ]\Iost High." This one idea superseded 
 all others, as in truth it ought to do ; for the 
 whole question lies compressed in it. God hath 
 said, *' Do this : " man replies, " I will not 
 do it." 
 
 ' To make the world over again,' thought he, 
 * would not avail ; for that in eifect was done at 
 the time of the deluge, when only one family was 
 spared, and that because the head of it was a just 
 man, a preacher of righteousness. There is 
 something in human nature that will go wrong ; 
 and unless we could take them one by one, and 
 implant a right principle in each, men will 
 still corrupt themselves and each other. Yet 
 surely God would not enact a law, without also 
 providing means for enforcing its observance 
 among such at least as profess to obey Him. 
 Every child who learns the catechism is taught 
 
68 PEDESTRIAN GLEANINGS. 
 
 to repeat it as a binding rule of life : every indi- 
 vidual who goes to church must hear it recited, 
 and be, seemingly at any rate, a party to the 
 response that contains a prayer for help to keep 
 the law. All this involves us in the heaiy guilt 
 of most wilful rebellion. I see no way out of 
 the maze.' His eye fell on the pamphlet, still 
 open in his hand, and he read with new interest 
 the question and reply : — " As a friend to hu- 
 manity you would desire some legislative protec- 
 tion to be given to the people of the country in 
 regard to the observance of the Sabbath ? — In 
 all that I have said, I have reference, in my views 
 of the Sabbath, to it as a sustaining, repairing, 
 and healing power : and I should rejoice if all of 
 every rank in this country could be protected on 
 this day of rest from over-excitement of body 
 and mind, by which even its medical purpose of 
 repose is defeated." 
 
 At the week's end the traveller found himself 
 quietly settled down for two or three days in a 
 respectable private lodging, the landlady's deport- 
 ment, and the care with which she watched and 
 ordered her young family, impressing him favor- 
 ably as to her principles. Here he resolved to 
 pass one Lord's day in retire;iient, attending 
 public worship morning and evening, and secretly 
 
PEDESTKIAN GLEANINGS. 69 
 
 hoping that he might meet with as eloquent a 
 preacher as on the last occasion. He was, how- 
 ever, in many ways disappointed, at once to the 
 hindrance and the furtherance of his purpose. 
 He saw more of the evil, and caught a clearer 
 sight of the remedy. 
 
 His parlour window, being low, afforded him 
 an unavoidable view of the street ; a broad clean 
 thoroughfare, wearing the aspect of Sabbath ob- 
 servance ; every shop closed, and few vehi- 
 cles abroad. However, a group of children, 
 some of them well-grown, gradually collected 
 near the house, and commenced playing at various 
 games, accompanied by language so outrageously 
 offensive that he was provoked at length to throw 
 open his window, and reprove them. This only 
 elicited a burst of laughter, followed by louder 
 and more disgusting discourse. The house was 
 small, and in every room their observations must 
 be heard. Meanwhile the widow had hurried off 
 her children from the adjoining parlour, to read 
 with her in another apartment : and welcome in- 
 deed was the sound of the Church bell, summon- 
 ing them to public worship. On their return, the 
 morning nuisance had grown to a more intolera- 
 ble height : men and loose girls were lounging 
 about ; and it was plain that preconcerted annoy- 
 
70 PEDESTRIAN GLEANINGS. 
 
 ances from -without were practised against the 
 peaceable inmates of the house. The landlady 
 coming in with some proffer of attendance, exhi- 
 bited on her countenance evident tokens of min- 
 gled anxiety and mortification : and Philander at 
 once enquired why she did not take means to rid 
 herself of such disagreeable invaders of her do- 
 mestic comfort. 
 
 * I cannot, sir : no breach of the peace is com- 
 mitted, to ground a complaint upon, and the 
 street is as free to them as to me.' 
 
 ' But so far as the children are concerned, 
 whose example is more likely to injure your own, 
 why not remonstrate ^vith their parents ? ' 
 
 ' Those who do not fear God, sir, seldom honour 
 father or mother. In this case I am sorry to say 
 the parents encourage their children. They know 
 that I try to train up mine in the way they should 
 go, and especially to teach them to keep holy this 
 sacred day. Not being able to tempt my little 
 ones into disobedience and sin, they delight to 
 come and contaminate their minds with talk that 
 I cannot wholly prevent their hearing : and when 
 I am trying to instruct them out of the Scriptures 
 they often have their attention divided, and are 
 even made to laugh outright by ridiculous jests, 
 and comic songs, uttered for that very purpose. 
 
PEDESTRIAN GLEANINGS. 71 
 
 They will go on so all day, one party or another ; 
 and get worse as night approaches. I am sorry to 
 say my next door neighbour always has Sunday 
 visitors, of a noisy description ; and they will sit 
 at the open door in the evening, drinking, smok- 
 ing, singing and talking in a way not at all calcu- 
 lated to discourage the rude persons now lingering 
 about. ' 
 
 ' But this is downright persecution : why don't 
 you remove ? ' 
 
 * I have a lease, Sir, which I could not dispose 
 of ; and I cannot be sure of escaping these trou- 
 bles, go where I will. I am not the only sufferer : 
 it is quite a common case, where a family wishes 
 to serve God. I know that He will over-rule it 
 for good ; and indeed I see something of that in 
 the disgust that my children cannot but feel 
 against sin, which, if it came in a more disguised 
 form might allure them. However, it is extremely 
 painful as you may believe, sir, to a lone woman 
 whose helplessness is taken advantage of.' 
 
 * It is too bad ; and I cannot believe that the 
 arm of the law would not reach it.' 
 
 The widow shook her head : * I should be glad 
 to find any law that, without hurting them, would 
 restrain those sinful children from such bad words 
 and ways. It is only on Sundays we are thus 
 
72 PEDESTRIAN GLEANINGS. 
 
 annoyed all day : and the three or four hours 
 that we pass in church are doubly precious to us. 
 At one time they used to disturb the congregation 
 by playing in the church-yard during divine ser- 
 vice, but that was put a stop to. We sometimes 
 hear of laws about to be made for keeping the 
 Sabbath more holy, and a great boon such a law 
 would be to many. But it is not made yet.' 
 
 Every succeeding hour increased the indigna- 
 tion of the lodger, not so much on his own ac- 
 count, though it greatly disturbed him, as on that 
 of the good woman ; more particularly as he 
 heard sounds occasionally that convinced him she 
 had some difficulty in preserving order among a 
 household so incessantly invaded by unseemly 
 noises. If one of her boys approached a window 
 he was sure to hear some scoffing allusion to lead- 
 ing-strings, apron-strings, and petticoat govern- 
 ment ; themes very irritating to young lads ; and 
 two or three ebullitions of impatience took place. 
 The case itself was rather an aggravated specimen, 
 but still it was a specimen of what a large, and 
 certainly the very best class among the inhabi- 
 tants of that and other towns are perpetually ex- 
 posed to ; and the nature of what Philander did 
 not until then rightly understand the meaning of, 
 
PEDESTRIAN GLEANINGS. 73 
 
 " legeslative protection," became as apparent to 
 him as its desirableness was unquestionable. 
 
 It is indeed, an unavoidable inference from the 
 plain word of revelation that the Magistrate, being 
 God's minister, using His authority for the punish- 
 ment of evil doers and for the praise of them 
 that do well, is as much bound to guard the 
 house of the wtuous and peaceable inhabitant 
 from the forcible entry of moral as of physical 
 outrage : as much bound to protect them in the 
 discharge of their parental and religious duties as 
 in the safe keeping of their worldly goods. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 A RAILWAY DISCUSSION. 
 
 Seated in the comfortable corner of a first 
 class carriage. Philander again found himself in 
 society better suited to his habits and tastes than 
 any that he had lately mixed in. His object had 
 been honestly pursued so far, and to one convic- 
 tion his mind had given free entrance — that enor- 
 mous evils existed, affecting the well-being of 
 classes if not the most conspicuous, still the most 
 numerous, and by no means the least important 
 of the community ; evils resulting from an abuse 
 or neglect of Sabbath privileges. But where to 
 find, or how to apply an adequate remedy was a 
 question beyond his power to solve. He had 
 nearly made up his mind to abandon the original 
 purpose of his tour, and after devoting the re- 
 
A RAILWAY DISCUSSION. 75 
 
 maining weeks to the gratification of his taste 
 only, to commence a sober investigation of those 
 theories in which his petitioning friend appeared 
 so well versed. On this point he was ruminating, 
 when two out of his three fellow passengers com- 
 menced, or rather resumed a conversation, inter- 
 rupted it would seem, by their stoppage at the 
 station where he had just joined the train. Both 
 were men of gentlemanly exterior, ; one, the 
 younger of the two, appeared peculiarly earnest 
 and energetic ; the other more cool and deliberate. 
 The fourth party was a quiet gentleman in black, 
 wholly absorbed in the contents of a volume of 
 sermons. Philander' s attention was first roused 
 by a remark having reference to something which 
 he had not heard : it was made by the elder of 
 the two. ' Your admission that the Sabbath was 
 made for man concedes all that I require. What- 
 ever is made for man is intended for his use ; 
 therefore the Sabbath among other things.' 
 * Granted : and if man were an animal only, the 
 admission might serve your purpose to a certain 
 extent, though even in that case I should contend 
 that its legitimate use was for rest and refresh- 
 ment to the weary beast ; not merely to this or 
 that individual of the species, but to the whole 
 race. I should maintain that the fact of your 
 
76 A RAILWAY DISCUSSION. 
 
 horse having thereby a claim to a day's respite 
 from toil, did not entitle him to be drawn about 
 in a carriage by one of mine. If made for any, 
 it is made for all, and that precludes the exaction 
 of labour altogether. Narrowing therefore, the 
 question within the scantiest bounds, viewing it 
 apart from the intellectual and spiritual branches 
 of the subject, I see not what you would gain 
 by the assertion of an indisputable truth.' 
 
 * Men, not horses, were the theme. The Sab- 
 bath was made for man ; for man's use and 
 benefit. A poor man whose daily support is 
 earned by the day's labour, prefers making use 
 of it to furnish him with the means, we will say, 
 of giving his family a good Sunday dinner, and 
 sending them properly dressed to church. His 
 thoughts, meanwhile, are free ; and if he likes to 
 say his prayers, or to con over texts of Scripture, 
 or to recal the last sermon he heard, while 
 guiding or feeding the engine, patrolling the 
 line, or otherwise performing his due part in the 
 railway business, who shall judge him — who 
 begrudge the well-spent remuneration that he 
 
 earns r 
 
 ?' 
 
 * Then it is optional with those under your 
 direction to work or to rest on the Lord's day ? 
 A man who refused to do so, and absented him- 
 
A RAILWAY DISCUSSION. 77 
 
 self from Saturday night to Monday morning, 
 would then be allowed to resume his post without 
 loss, or prejudice to his standing in your ser- 
 vice ? ' 
 
 * That is not the point.' 
 
 ' Pardon me, it is a very material point, vitally 
 affecting the whole question. Still, for argu- 
 ment's sake, admitting that the day was given to 
 man to use according to his own unbiassed will 
 and judgment, if you so fetter a man's will that 
 by pursuing a certain line of conduct he must 
 necessarily exclude himself altogether from the 
 service on which his daily bread depends, or en- 
 gage in it at a grievous disadvantage, you rob 
 him of his property in the general gift : you as- 
 sume that the Sabbath was not made for him, 
 but for you : not ordained for the refreshment of 
 his body and soul, but for the replenishment of 
 your purse. Your position is untenable, my 
 good sir : to establish your point you must alter 
 what God hath spoken : you must render it, 
 " The Sabbath was made for some men, and 
 other men for the Sabbath." ' 
 
 The railway director did not seem to rehsh his 
 antagonist' s line of argument : he dryly said, 
 * You take a very one-sided, and remarkably 
 speculative view of the matter : you assume what 
 
78 A RAILWAY DISCUSSION. 
 
 is notoriously opposed to fact ; that were it left 
 to their choice, the men would prefer six day's 
 wages to seven. On the contrary, those who 
 would do so are idle, drunken fellows, for whom 
 you must look, not in the church but the tap- 
 room ; while those who really love their homes 
 and famihes, would eagerly catch, as indeed they 
 do, at the advantage of an extra day's pay to in- 
 crease their comforts.' 
 
 ' I admit that such a bait will take many who 
 would not for their own selfish advantage do vio- 
 lence to the dictates of conscience. It was so 
 with our first father, who, as Scripture tells us, 
 was not like Eve, deceived, and who must there- 
 fore have partaken in the transgression through 
 the force of some temptation to which even his 
 yet unfallen nature was accessible : probably, 
 that very same principle of conjugal attachment 
 out of which you weave a snare for his unhappy 
 descendants.' 
 
 ' I weave a snare. Sir ! ' 
 
 ' I speak of classes, not of individuals : if 
 those, be they many or few, who hold the remu- 
 nerating price of the poor man's toil at their 
 disposal tender it, I will not say exclusively but 
 even preferably to such as are willing to cast 
 God's word behind their back in a matter of 
 
A RAILWAY DISCUSSION. 79 
 
 worldly profit — to him the purchase-money of his 
 daily bread — they lay before him a temptation to 
 sin, powerful in proportion as the claims on his 
 earnings are numerous and urgent ; and often 
 rendered irresistible by the natural cravings of an 
 aged parent, a sick wife, a family of helpless 
 children.' 
 
 * Robbing on the highway, housebreaking, 
 murder, these I can understand to be sins ; and 
 to entice a man into their commission is doubt- 
 less a high crime : but really when you dignify 
 with the name of sin the railway trip of a few 
 harmless mechanics with their wives and little 
 ones, on a fine Sunday, to enjoy a change of air 
 and scene otherwise beyond their reach from one 
 year's end to another, I am at a loss to answer 
 charges founded on such mere phantoms of an 
 enthusiastic brain.' 
 
 ' Now you shift your ground again ; but I am 
 willing to meet you wherever you choose. Leav- 
 ing the case of those employed on the hne, your 
 hired servants, the engineers, stokers, conductors, 
 guards, porters ; together with the book-keepers, 
 waiters, and innumerable attendants at the various 
 stations ; leaving them, I say, to the hard choice 
 of working on the Sabbath, or starving all the 
 week, I turn to the travellers, whom you describe, 
 
80 A RAILWAY DISCUSSION. 
 
 merely premising a query whether your Sunday 
 trains are exclusively appropriated to such, or 
 whether you afford facilities of transit to men of 
 business and of pleasure ; persons whose time is 
 at their own disposal, and who, if you did not 
 offer to convey them on that day would select 
 another day for the trip ? ' 
 
 * Or more probably post it, or stage it, as in 
 former times.' 
 
 * No, because your rapidity would more than 
 overtake them, without encroaching on the Sab- 
 bath day. I, for one, should number it among 
 the highest advantages conferred by this mode of 
 transit, that if I was absolutely obliged to accom- 
 plish a distance of fifty miles between Saturday 
 night and Monday morning, I could, by starting 
 after midnight, arrive at my destination, and that 
 too by the easiest and pleasantest mode of travel- 
 ling, in ample time for my purpose. However, I 
 will not press my query, well knowing what must 
 be the answer ; but proceed to enquire into the 
 amount of benefit conferred on the class to which 
 you have alluded as availing themselves of the 
 Sunday train for holiday purposes. Take any 
 three hundred heads of families from among these 
 humble citizens, prepared to avail themselves of 
 your line, and tell me, first, how many, on an 
 
A RAILWAY DISCUSSION. 81 
 
 average do you suppose are both able and willing 
 to take their wives and children with them : 
 secondly, of those who do, how many have friends 
 to receive them into their houses at the place of 
 destination, and of the immense majority who 
 have not, what number escape the notorious pro- 
 fligacy of tea-gardens, houses of entertainment, 
 and other gatherings of a like character : thirdly, 
 of the men who go singly, how many avoid the 
 temptations of drink, bad company, and the 
 squandering of what their famiUes will want for 
 the next week's support?' 
 
 *And fourthly,' exclaimed the gentleman in 
 black, with an energy that, while it lighted up his 
 features into an expression wholly new, startled 
 all his companions — * And, fourthly, how many, 
 among those immortal, responsible beings, remem- 
 ber the account that they must give to the Judge 
 of all the earth for that Sabbath day's work V 
 
 No reply was given : the director leaned back 
 with folded arms, and looked through the side 
 glass : the others Ustened eagerly ; and the cler- 
 gyman resumed. 'We have a guide, which we 
 are commanded to follow in all our ways ; an ar- 
 bitrator of every difficult question, to whose deci- 
 sion we must of necessity bow. Bearing on the 
 subject generally of Sabbath observance or Sab- 
 
82 A RAILWAY DISCUSSION. 
 
 bath desecration, we cannot if we would escape 
 meeting in almost every page with something ap- 
 plicable to it ; and in the matter of individual 
 duty who shall evade the plain rule laid down for 
 all, " that no man put a stumbling-block nor an 
 occasion to fall in his brother's way :" or who 
 shall escape the force of that searching declara- 
 tion, '' It must needs be that offences will come ; 
 but woe to that man by whom the offence 
 cometh ! " ' 
 
 ' By your leave, sir,' said the director, ' the 
 principle for which you contend is not carried to 
 its legitimate extent. I perfectly well remember 
 that the command given to the Israelites was, 
 " Let no man stir from his place on the Sabbath 
 day." To be consistent, you should lock the poor 
 man's door upon him altogether, and forbid even 
 a walk.' 
 
 ' That command referred to the disposition of 
 the people to go forth and search for the manna : 
 an act of disbelief, as all disobedience is. A sab- 
 bath-day's journey was defined, and therefore 
 permitted among the Jews ; on Gentiles no fur- 
 ther prohibition was ever laid than that implied 
 in the fourth commandment ; the breach of which 
 at railway stations, posting-houses, and piers, leads 
 tens of thousands into the way of those multiplied 
 
A RAILWAY DISCUSSION. 83 
 
 transgressions which are even now drawing toge- 
 ther the thunder-clouds of God's wrath, prepared 
 to burst in a storm that shall scatter us each to 
 his own hiding-place.' 
 
 ' To my view the sky is clear enough,' said 
 the director, glancing upwards with a derisive 
 smile. 
 
 ' " The Lord seeth not as man seeth," was the 
 quiet rejoinder. * Believe me, sir, of those whom 
 you, kindly we will hope, though mistakingly, 
 assist to pollute the Sabbaths of the Lord, there 
 is not one who does not require all its restraining 
 and hallowing influences to arm him against the 
 evil men and seducers now abroad, working mis- 
 chief in the heart of our unsettled community. 
 This, I say, and I say it not on slight grounds, 
 or without a settled conviction resulting from 
 close, unprejudiced, personal enquiry into the 
 existing state of things, that her Sabbaths, her 
 Sabbaths alone now stand between England and 
 destruction.' 
 
 ' At any rate you are no party man,' again said 
 the director, in the same ironical tone. ' The 
 trifling distinctions of Popery and Protestantism, 
 Tractarianism and Dissent, are nothing in your 
 eyes. Let men but agree to set the seventh day 
 apart for religious purposes, shutting their eyes 
 G 2 
 
84 A RAILWAY DISCUSSION. 
 
 on all the things of this world, and no harm can 
 come, let what doctrine there may be uppermost.' 
 * Pardon me, sir. He who instituted the day of 
 rest has not left us in such darkness as to the way 
 in which we should observe it. Holy ; holy unto 
 the Lord, is its character ; and whatsoever mili- 
 tates against any one of the attributes that He 
 has been pleased to reveal as belonging to himself, 
 is inconsistent with the due observance of the day. 
 Examine in detail the precepts and practices of 
 any false system of religion, and you will assuredly 
 find involved in it a disregard of that sanctity 
 with which the Lord has invested his day of rest. 
 Need I refer you on this head to the *' Book of 
 sports," as a manual of Sabbath desecration, 
 stamping as abhorrent to the will of God any sys- 
 tem capable of sanctioning it ? Our way-marks 
 are so clear, so conspicuous, that nothing short of 
 wilfully closing our eyes, can shut them out from 
 view : and as if to leave us wholly inexcusable 
 under any such delusion as you advert to, the 
 sister island has exhibited recently such a flagrant 
 instance of systematic sabbath-pollution, and in 
 the very buildings set apart for public worship 
 according to the faith of Rome, that any such 
 amalgamation of the character suggested by you, 
 on the ground of Sabbath observance, is a sheer 
 
A RAILWAY DISCUSSION. 85 
 
 impossibility. Darkness and light are not more 
 irreconcilable ; I, therefore, without surrendering 
 one iota of my scriptural protest against error in 
 every shape, repeat that the Sabbath is England's 
 only remaining shield against impending ruin.' 
 
 * Of course you mean a Sabbath rightly kept : ' 
 observed the younger traveller. 
 
 'I do ; because if not rightly kept it is no Sabbath 
 at all. I know no Sabbath but of God's appoint- 
 ing ; and what harmonizes not with his appoint- 
 ment is foreign from his Sabbath. Call it Sunday if 
 you will, to distinguish it as coming between Satur- 
 day and Monday ; but call it not the Sabbath, un- 
 less you hallow it as such : call it not the Lord's 
 day, unless you therein honour Him, not speaking 
 your own words, nor doing your own pleasure, 
 nor seeking you own ways.' 
 
 * We agree then, to diifer there,' said the di- 
 rector : * I am content to call it Sunday, and to 
 treat it as a day of pleasant relaxation and refresh- 
 ment.' 
 
 Philander smiled : he thought of the price 
 at which a poor stoker, or other servant of the line 
 must purchase his share in the boon thus claimed. 
 
 ' But God has given you no such day,' said 
 the Clergyman in reply to the last speaker, ' Nay 
 he has expressly reserved that intermediate day 
 
86 A RAILWAY DISCUSSION. 
 
 to Himself, bidding you then draw nigh unto 
 Him for a renewal of spiritual life ; for a fresh 
 supply of the grace by which alone you can serve 
 Him acceptably through the approaching six — if 
 six more days be found in that number wbiich is 
 known but to Him, as your allotted portion of 
 human life. Ah, my friend, many a warning have 
 my lips been opened to speak, to my fellow sinners, 
 as strong in life's promise as you now are, who, 
 before the measure of seven days had been again 
 tilled, were beyond the reach of human admoni- 
 tion. Pardon me, then, if as a stranger I have 
 overstepped the bounds of conventional propriety, 
 in freely reproving. As a minister of the Gospel, 
 I must be faithful : as an Ambassador from 
 Christ, I must do my Master's bidding : knowing 
 the terrors of the Lord, I must persuade men to 
 flee from the wrath to come.' 
 
 It seemed to Philander as if he had not before 
 really entered on the subject. Such language as 
 this was new to him, and in a measure strange. 
 He was not sorry when, at the next station the 
 director left them ; and feeling the value of his 
 opportunity, he at once opened to the two remain- 
 ing travellers the purpose (so nearly abandoned) 
 of his journey ; with a brief sketch of its progress 
 thitherto. They both entered warmly into the 
 
A RAILWAY DISCUSSION. 87 
 
 matter, and the Clergyman said, ' Take up your 
 abode with me for a day or two, and I will point 
 out such a track as your feet never yet trod.' 
 
 ' The Boatmen ? ' said the other enquiringly, 
 the clergyman assented : * then go. Sir, by all 
 means with our reverend friend, and you will wit- 
 ness more, as regards this important subject, than 
 you can now form any conception of. Your past 
 steps have been merely preliminary : the gist of 
 the matter lies before you.' 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 A DAY ON THE CANAL. 
 
 The point of view at which every question may 
 be taken is twofold : hnes of approach, each by 
 itself distinct, yet harmonizing one with the 
 other, converge from diiferent starting points to 
 arrive at the same conclusion. Philosophizing 
 infidels may trace out an imaginary connection 
 between private vices and public benefits, and 
 unphilosophical simpletons may echo their jar- 
 gon ; but God's ways exhibit no inequality : 
 taken singly or in the mass, it is a fact demon- 
 strable from all past history, all present experi- 
 ence, that righteousness exalteth a nation, but 
 sin is the reproach of any people. Hence we 
 repeat the assertion that any two honest-hearted 
 men fixing their regard on a point in Christian 
 
A DAY ON THE CANAL. 89 
 
 ethics, the one only as affectmg man's welfare, 
 the other exclusively in reference to God's glory, 
 will find themselves proceeding step by step to 
 one and the same conclusion. 
 
 To conceive the possibility of a different re- 
 sult is an act of greater iniquity than at first 
 blush may appear. It is to arraign the consis- 
 tent wisdom and goodness of di\ine legislation ; 
 to infer that man may with advantage to society 
 oppose by his own wilfulness the will of his 
 Creator. He thus arrogates to himself certain 
 attributes of which his vain presumption would 
 divest the Almighty, and builds up theories 
 that serve no purpose but to bar his owti way 
 to happiness and to heaven. What is it to 
 the High and Holy One who inhabiteth eter- 
 nity, how the earth-born creature of a day ex- 
 pends a minute fraction of his uncertain span ? 
 Must silence reign in the courts of heaven if 
 the puny tones of man's voice fail to pene- 
 trate their walls ? or do the untold myriads of 
 cherubim and seraphim pause till we lead the 
 song of praise, '* Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of 
 Hosts ! " No, it is in tender compassion to the 
 exiled ones below that the Lord appoints one day 
 of especial training for the blessedness of which 
 He wills them to partake, if they thwart not His 
 
90 A DAY ON THE CANAL. 
 
 gracious designs ; one short respite from the toil- 
 some cares of life, the penalty of rebellious sin, 
 granted for the purpose of familiarizing them 
 with the ground-plan and various inspiriting de- 
 tails of the purchased inheritance reserved for 
 them, if they despise not the good gift, nor bar- 
 ter the birthright. 
 
 And such disparagement, such barter, men 
 will be tempted to contemplate, just in proportion 
 as they neglect the invitation to acquaint them- 
 selves with what is so far their own that every 
 man has it in his power to cast it from him. 
 When man glorifies God, he benefits himself: 
 when he departs from the Most High he forsakes 
 his own mercies. It must be marvellous in the 
 sight of angels to behold how the felon man hugs 
 his fetters, glories in his dungeon walls, and 
 struts proudly under the brand of ignominious 
 punishment : it must be terrible to see him 
 striking a pardon from the lacerated hand that 
 bled on the cross to obtain it from oifended Jus- 
 tice, and trampling it under his feet as a worth- 
 less thing. Yet this is the every-day spectacle 
 outspread before them ; thus, daily, is God pro- 
 voked ; and His most overpowering mercies made 
 the occasion of aggravated sin. 
 
 Hitherto our enquirer had confined himself to 
 
A DAY ON THE CANAL. 91 
 
 that single view of the subject in hand which 
 concerns the temporal welfare of our race : but 
 in the acquaintance last found he had discovered 
 one who regarded it in what appeared a different 
 light. At first, it seemed fitting, and a matter 
 of course, that a clergyman should regard the 
 matter theologically : but after a while. Philander 
 became conscious of standing at a relative disad- 
 vantage : inasmuch as his friend's view necessarily 
 embraced the other also, whereas his own stood 
 apart, narrow and incomplete. This led to a 
 deeper reflection, in the progress of which he 
 found himself continually humbled, while in a 
 like ratio his standard of right was elevated, and 
 the importance of the subject became increasingly 
 pressing, tending to the absorption of all others. 
 He had imperceptibly learned to look on human 
 beings as they crossed his path in the light of 
 pilgrims and sojourners, some seeking a better 
 country, others bound, though they heeded it not, 
 for one terrifically worse ; but in either case, to 
 find their future habitation a place of lasting 
 abode. The prolongation of mortal life became 
 a matter of greater moment, as affording in the 
 one case extended opportunities of spreading 
 light, and in the other a lengthened opportunity 
 of escaping from darkness. And thus he found 
 
92 A DAY ON THE CANAL. 
 
 his little pamphlet * of augmented value, because 
 it bore on the physiological branch of a subject 
 that, affecting as it does the twofold nature of 
 man, cannot be adequately dealt with by a partial 
 or exclusive line of argument. 
 
 * Now, Sir,' said his clerical friend, after the 
 lapse of a few days which Philander rightly es- 
 teemed among the most important of his life, 
 * You have seen among my little flock some fruit 
 of a blessing regularly insured — I use the word 
 advisedly — for each successive six days by the 
 right employment of one. You have also, alas ! 
 beheld some painful instances of the contrast, in 
 cases where persuasion and rebuke have hitherto 
 alike failed to enforce the duty and privilege of 
 following those examples : but still a certain 
 measure of decent restraint is maintained, repres- 
 sive of any flagrant outrage against the good 
 order that may be and will be enforced in a place 
 where the magistrate, the weekly employer, and 
 the spiritual guide are cordially united in a reso- 
 lution to maintain good order, even where nothing 
 more can be done. Tomorrow you will find your- 
 self among a class of persons wholly abandoned 
 to what visionaries call the light of nature. Be 
 
 * Dr. Farre's Evidence before the House of Commons. 
 
A DAY ON THE CANAL. 93 
 
 not discouraged, nor repelled. Remember that 
 the examination of this rankling sore, however 
 harrowing to your own feelings, will, under the 
 divine blessing, tend to promote a curative sys- 
 tem. Two days among the Boatmen will suffice ; 
 and be careful not to remain on board during the 
 night. Be as homely as you can in language and 
 manner, only taking heed not to aiford the encou- 
 ragement of even a smile to the eiil that you must 
 see and hear : for, believe me, the end of that 
 mirth which is excited by the sinful folly of 
 others is a heaviness able to weigh down the 
 stoutest heart when the day of remembrance 
 arrives. You will pardon this remark : I have 
 traced lamentable effects produced on the feehngs 
 and characters of the young and ignorant by the 
 laugh of those who should have been better on 
 their guard ; as the staggering gait of the drunk- 
 ard, the wild vociferations of the furious man, 
 the vain and wicked pretence of the gypsy-for- 
 tune-teller, or the antics of some wretched girl, 
 tricked out for street theatricals, awoke their 
 risibility. On such occasions, those of better 
 knowledge are closely watched by the ilUterate : 
 oh, beware of speech, or look, or gesture that may 
 tend to harden them in familiarity with sin — the 
 abominable thing which God hates.' 
 
94 A DAY ON THE CANAL. 
 
 Thus counselled, thus cautioned, and so habited 
 as to excite no suspicion of his rank in life, Phi- 
 lander pursued his way to the canal, which he 
 reached after some hours' brisk walking, and more 
 leisurely proceeded, following the course of its 
 stiff, close cut, uninteresting banks. On the op- 
 posite side was the towing-path, trodden by many 
 a weary-footed, ill-fed, and too generally ill-used 
 beast. He had of course, often seen the luggage- 
 boats gliding along near London ; but they had 
 never attracted his notice. What were they to 
 him, or what the freight, human or otherwise, 
 which they bore ? No doubt, his eye had fallen 
 on hundreds, for his daily ride lay across a canal ; 
 but he could not, if asked, have described the ex- 
 ternal appearance of such a vessel. We acquire 
 a strange power of obliterating from the face of 
 visible nature, objects that it does not suit us to 
 look upon : more especially when their tendency 
 is to excite emotions uncongenial to the selfish 
 principle within ; and no where is this faculty 
 more promptly called into being, or more habit- 
 ually exercised than in London, where sights and 
 sounds abound, sufficient to deaden the keenest 
 appetite for wanton luxury and selfish gratifica- 
 tion, had we not each at command an auxiliary 
 though intangible Police force, capable of remov- 
 
A DAY ON THE CANAL. 95 
 
 ing from our presence the host of ungainly ob- 
 structions. 
 
 It proved, therefore, a novel contemplation to 
 Philander, when his eye rested obser\angly on a 
 luggage-boat, emblazoned as it was with the fami- 
 liar name of Pickford. A long, narrow, heavy- 
 looking vessel, with as little as might be of a 
 boat's graceful curve upon its outline : a roof-like 
 excrescence occupjdng so much of the deck as to 
 leave but an edge, dizzily narrow, and scarcely 
 elevated above the level of the water. Over the 
 greater part of it was drawn a coarse, dusky, 
 patched, and much be-grimed tarpaulin, and 
 stretched at his length upon this, his face down- 
 wards, vacantly staring over his folded arms at 
 the boat's stern, lay as rugged a specimen of the 
 human race as Philander remembered to have 
 seen. A rope dragged heavily over the water, 
 frequently dipping with a sullen splash, the other 
 end of which was attached to a lean animal, 
 scarcely to be called a horse, whatever he might 
 have been in better days : and close at his heels 
 followed a child, a girl, clad in shreds so various 
 and so detached, that as her rags fluttered in the 
 wind they seemed intended rather for ornament 
 than use. The only serviceable article in her 
 possession was a stout horsewhip, mth which she 
 
96 A DAY ON THE CANAL. 
 
 incessantly belaboured the poor horse ; the slight- 
 est movement of whose heel in a retaliating mood 
 must have sent her headlong into the water. 
 
 They passed on, sluggishly, notwithstanding 
 occasional starts of activity on the part of the 
 horse : and soon another came, and another, 
 varjdng in detail as to the quality of the beast, 
 the sex and age of his driver, and sometimes the 
 number of faces appearing on deck : but one mo- 
 notonous sameness of character invested the whole 
 concern : without even the chance admixture of 
 a single attractive feature. Crossing a bridge. 
 Philander now made his way through a meadow, 
 by a well trodden path, that, as he expected, 
 brought him to a cluster of houses, among which 
 was a depot for parcels, rendering it a stopping 
 place for boats. Here the canal, having made a 
 bend, again met him, and as a number of boats 
 were shortly expected, an air of business prevailed. 
 A relay of horses partially refreshed, also stood 
 awaiting the next arrivals. 
 
 To mingle among the Boatmen was his object ; 
 easily accomplished, for they flocked to the porch 
 of the inn, near which he placed himself. Men 
 so lawless-looking he had not before seen ; but 
 their ferocity, so to call it, was less wild than 
 sullen. The absence of intellectual development 
 
A DAY ON THE CANAL. 97 
 
 formed a striking peculiarity among them : low 
 narrow foreheads, heavy eyes, and a taciturn dis- 
 position, seemed to regulate their classification. 
 Here and there, might be seen a countenance 
 indicating some openness of character : but these 
 were overcast with melancholy, or fired with a 
 restless activity that seemed to prey on itself for 
 lack of other food. Their conversation, if such 
 it might be called, admits of no description : the 
 lowest of the low could not have found a farther 
 depth to grovel in ; yet in this point the boys 
 greatly outvied the men, simply because they 
 were by so much the more talkative. Execrations, 
 blasphemy and indecency poured from their hps : 
 and whenever a combatant could be found prepa- 
 rations for a fight commenced. They were evi- 
 dently watched with no httle circumspection by 
 the more decent inhabitants of the spot ; and 
 other boys, issuing from a school hard by, were 
 withheld from mixing among them. None staid 
 beyond a few minutes ; but a succession arrived, 
 so perfectly uniform in aspect, deportment, and 
 language, that Philander scarcely noticed the sub- 
 stitution of different individuals : the species was 
 one. 
 
 Addressing himself to an agricultural labourer, 
 who was smoking a short pipe a little aloof from 
 
98 A DAY ON THE CANAL. 
 
 the rest, our traveller remarked that the Boatmen 
 seemed to have a dull life, and a troublesome set 
 of boys to manage. 
 
 * As to managing the boys, nobody thinks of it ; 
 they are shut up in their boats like wild beasts in 
 cages ; and the comfort is they can do little harm 
 there.' 
 
 * But as they grow older, and are placed out to 
 different lines of business' 
 
 ' Bless your heart,' interrupted the other, 'they 
 never go to another business. Boatmen they 
 will all be, to their lives' end. What else can 
 they be good for ? ' 
 
 * A little instruction might improve them, and 
 the hope of bettering their condition would encou- 
 rage them to make the most of it.' 
 
 ' True, Sir, ' said the landlord, who had drawn 
 near in the hope of a customer : * but they can 
 get none. All day and all night they are on the 
 water, as you see. Many of them are not to be 
 trusted even to leave the boats while the horse is 
 tackled ; and altogether they turn out so bad 
 that when we have a boy among us that nobody 
 can manage or get any good out of, the plan is to 
 send him to the boats.' 
 
 * But how do you account for this ? Their 
 way of life is dull, and comfortless enough ; yet 
 
A DAY ON THE CANAL. 99 
 
 I cannot see how it produces such hopeless ruffi- 
 anism. I should rather suppose them more out 
 of harm's-way than lads ashore.' 
 
 * I can't tell : I only know 'tis the fact.' 
 In every quarter confirming testimony was 
 yielded to the fact so stated : and Philander, 
 more desirous than before to investigate the phe- 
 nomenon, little as he relished a sojourn in their 
 society, made choice of a boat, where he was the 
 only passenger, and the appearance of which be- 
 spoke nothing above the most ordinary class, 
 taking his place for a town that they were to reach 
 late in the evening. He embarked after an early 
 breakfast, and found himself squeezed into a narrow 
 space, amongst a good deal of luggage, and seem- 
 ingly as little regarded as though he had himself 
 been a barrel of meal. The * Captain,' a stout, 
 determined-looking fellow, was issuing his orders 
 with as much brevity as might be : two men and 
 a boy formed his crew ; a woman with a child at 
 her breast was preparing to broil some bacon on 
 the cabin fire, and a little girl, bare-legged and 
 disgustingly dirty, sat on the floor, amusing her- 
 self with the torn fragments of what had been a 
 pack of cards. No conversation occurred ; all 
 was dull and dreary as the sluggish water around 
 H 2 
 
100 A DAY ON THE CANAL. 
 
 them ; all was mechanically conducted, with the 
 heavy monotony of a slow pendulum, measured 
 by the patter of the horse's hoofs on a stony soil, 
 and the grating of the towing-rope against the 
 boat's side. An hour thus passed, with no pros- 
 pect of variety, led Philander to apprehend that 
 he had adopted a wrong plan for investigating the 
 subject before him, when the stoppage at a lock 
 introduced a trifling change. The horse with a 
 nosebag thrown over his head, stood eating, while 
 the gates were thrown open, the water rushed 
 down, and having found its level, permitted the 
 boat to pass. A question or two was put and an- 
 swered ; a glass of spirits tossed off by one of the 
 men, to whom an acquaintance on shore handed 
 it, and an altercation commenced between him and 
 the captain as soon as they were again in motion, 
 from which the passenger learned that the habi- 
 tual drunkenness of this man had, not long before, 
 nearly occasioned the loss of a boat in passing a 
 heavy lock. On one side a stretch of authority, 
 on the other an utter contempt for it, and among 
 the rest an evident enjoyment of the bad language 
 that passed, marked the quarrel as one of frequent 
 occurrence. It produced just the effect on the 
 prevailing monotony that a sudden stir produces 
 on a stagnant pool. Much of an offensive cast 
 
A DAY ON THE CANAL. 101 
 
 was brought to the surface, and then all settled 
 again into its original inactivity. 
 
 Philander tried to draw the captain into con- 
 versation, but in vain : and two more locks were 
 passed without an incident or a remark. ' This, 
 in itself,' thought he, is sufficient to predispose 
 men for any excitement, however evil. Such a 
 life might do, where the mind has a store, how- 
 ever scanty, to draw upon : contemplation, or the 
 interchange of thought, no matter how homely, 
 on any subject calculated to raise man towards his 
 proper level above the brutes, would really work a 
 change in these automata. As it is, I don't see 
 how their ideas can reach beyond the range of 
 mere animal perception in its grossest forms. I'll 
 make one more trial. He addressed the cap- 
 tain ; ' Do you ever see a newspaper ? ' ' I see 
 the Dispatch, and sometimes a country paper.' 
 
 * Have you any books on board ? ' * There's none 
 but myself able to read, and I've enough to do to 
 mind the boat.' ' Whose is the horse ? ' * Mine.' 
 
 * Do you take him much further ? ' ^ To the 
 end.' * Indeed! that's a long stage.' No reply. 
 
 * How many hours may he work in a day ? ' 
 
 * Fourteen.' ' Without resting, or feeding ? ' 
 ' He stops at the locks, and eats out of his nose- 
 bag.' ' And works all the week round, Sundays 
 
102 A DAY ON THE CANAL. 
 
 and all ? ' * Yes/ Philander gave up in des- 
 pair : the immobility of feature, the gruff, unso- 
 ciable tone, the evident wish to discourage his 
 inquisitiveness, all tended to weary him of a 
 bootless effort ; and he remained silent. To his 
 surprise, however, the other presently volunteered 
 a remark which, of all others, he would have pre- 
 ferred. The captain did not raise his chin from 
 the tarpaulin that supported it, nor change the di- 
 rection of his eyes, from the distant line of horizon, 
 where no object appeared save the junction of a 
 brown moor with a cloudy sky ; but there was an 
 approach to earnestness in his tone, as he said, 
 
 * They've no right, though, to keep us working 
 on Sundays.' * I agree with you there : God 
 gave the seventh day for rest, and not for labour.' 
 
 * I don't care who gave it, but I know it's an 
 Englishman's right to have a day to spend as he 
 likes.' This was the extent of his feeling in the 
 matter ; he claimed it as a legal right, denounced 
 the withholding of it as an act of oppression ; 
 and wished he could see a spirit among the poor 
 to take by force what belonged to them. By 
 degrees, the boatmen joined in the discourse ; two 
 boasted of having set their mark to a petition ; 
 and all were evidently of one mind as to the value 
 of such a holiday ; but for any better purpose 
 
A DAY ON THE CANAL. 103 
 
 than idleness and debauchery they did not seem 
 to be aware of its use. The boy, who had been 
 driving the horse, now came on board, tired, and 
 threw himself down on the roof : the captain re- 
 marked that the lad's elder brother belonged to 
 a firm on another canal who never allowed their 
 boats to go on Sundays. ^ What sort of a chap 
 is your brother, my boy ? said Philander. ' All 
 one as a parson, I think : he talks mortal fine, 
 and can read you off without spelling a whole 
 book, and has a mighty conceit of himself.' ' A 
 canting methody of a fellow,' said one of the 
 boatmen ; * a regular psalm-singer.' ' One that 
 would n't get drunk,' added the captain, with a 
 significant glance at the last speaker, and ' there- 
 fore in your bad books ; but I know there is n't a 
 handier lad nor a more wilhng ; and I only wish 
 he was in my boat.' 
 
 Another lock broke up the party ; but Philan- 
 der soon contrived to ask the boy whether his 
 brother had been long on the water. * We were 
 all bom in a boat, and never followed any other 
 business.' Here was some information gained : 
 scanty indeed, but bearing on the main question. 
 Nothing more passed ; and, at the close of the 
 most disagreeable day he had ever yawned 
 through, our traveller left the boat, confident 
 
104 A DAY ON THE CANAL. 
 
 that nothing was to be gained there beyond an 
 insight into the wretched sameness of so low a 
 scale of animal existence. He went to a respec- 
 table inn, improved his personal appearance, and 
 sat down to a general table, where the conversa- 
 tion turned on a trial just over, implicating a 
 party of boatmen in a very aggravated case, 
 where two or three were convicted, and sentenced 
 to transportation for life. 
 
 ' They are altogether incorrigible,' observed one 
 of the company : * talk to them of moral respon- 
 sibility, it matters not what language you make 
 choice of — the plainest English from a dame 
 school, or classic Greek, you are just as compre- 
 hensible one way as the other. Talk of instruc- 
 tion ! they are incapable of receiving it.' 
 
 * My experience tells a different tale,' said a 
 lively-looking little man who sat by. * I have 
 been on board the boats hundreds of times, for 
 the purpose of awakening them to a sense of 
 their actual wants, and to the enormity of their 
 vices : and though often repulsed, I can on the 
 whole say that my mission was acceptable, my 
 person respected, and a fair measure of gratitude 
 excited for services that they knew were disinter- 
 ested.' 
 
 ' Oh, you agents of religious societies have a 
 
A DAY ON THE CANAL. 105 
 
 way with these people that keeps them decent m 
 your presence ; but your back once turned, there 
 is an end to their reformation.' 
 
 * In too many instances, I admit ; but to what 
 is it owing? The meal that replenishes your 
 stomach to-day will not yield prolonged suste- 
 nance : you must have a fresh supply to meet the 
 abiding demand. So it is with the mind and 
 spirit : each requires day by day its portion of 
 daily bread, whether material or spiritual. You 
 may set a person going in the world when you 
 have placed the means of subsistence within his 
 reach, and taught him how to use them : you 
 may expect a permanent continuance in the paths 
 of rectitude when you have in like manner trained 
 the mind to draw continual help from a source 
 open to all who repair to it for direction how to 
 walk, and grace to persevere.' 
 
 * You must then take those fellows from their 
 boats, and collect them in training schools, upon 
 one of the wildest speculations ever hatched in 
 mortal brain — that of making them moral and 
 rehgious.' 
 
 ' The scheme is impracticable, even were it 
 desirable : six days are allotted to man to labour 
 and to do all that he has to do ; and I only stip- 
 
106 A DAY ON THE CANAL. 
 
 ulate for the seventh, to be applied as God has 
 appointed it.' 
 
 * You don't mean to say, that a few hours so 
 spent out of a week would counteract all the evil 
 accumulated during the long interval ? ' 
 
 * I do ; because He who hallowed the seventh 
 day also blessed it. Look how far the light of 
 that single lamp prevails to banish darkness : 
 much more eifectual, much more extensive is the 
 enlightening power of the word that by its en- 
 trance giveth understanding to the simple.' 
 
 * Well, I cannot debate that point vdth you. 
 I only know that you certainly cannot accom- 
 plish the object for which you are collecting sig- 
 natures. Sunday trading on canals may be, and 
 probably is,, a great evil : but it is one of the class 
 called necessary evils, and therefore not to be re- 
 medied.' 
 
 * I protest against that phrase : I deny that 
 in a world made and governed by the Lord God 
 Almighty, any evil is necessary in the sense im- 
 plied — that is to say, that man hes under the 
 necessity of committing any act contradictory of 
 the law of God. I deny that the breach of the 
 fourth commandment is more unavoidable than 
 the breach of the sixth, or seventh, or eighth, or 
 any other: I challenge you to the proof.' 
 
A DAY ON THE CANAL. 107 
 
 This gauntlet was not taken up : the person 
 addressed looked at his watch, called the waiter, 
 paid his reckoning and departed. The little man 
 inwardly chuckled, with an amiable sort of 
 triumph ; and, casting his vivacious eyes around, 
 said, as plainly as looks could express it, * I chal- 
 lenge you all to the proof.' 
 
 One of the company, as it may be surmised 
 was loth to let the subject drop : he leaned across 
 two empty chairs intervening between himself and 
 the last speaker, and observed, * I have been all 
 this day in company with some of the class re- 
 ferred to, and I must say that extreme dulness 
 and stupidity appear to me to characterize them, 
 rather than the vicious enormities that you seem 
 to take for granted.' 
 
 ' You have seen them in a quiescent state, sir, 
 I presume : not as they appeared to-day in court 
 under strong excitement, and exhibiting enough 
 of sympathy with the worst of criminals to prove 
 their light estimate of crime. Or, perhaps, you 
 have fallen in with some of the privileged class, 
 condemned to suffer no greater disadvantages than 
 fall to the lot of every labouring man. I know 
 of one firm who afford a practical demonstration 
 that the commission of evil is not necessary.' ' I 
 heard of such a firm ; but my companions were 
 
108 A DAY ON THE CANAL. 
 
 of the unprivileged mass. The fact is,' he added 
 as they were left nearly alone, * I am an enquirer 
 on the very subject with which you seem to iden- 
 tify yourself, and any assistance that you can af- 
 fore I shall be thankful for.' 
 
 With much cordiality of manner, the stranger 
 immediately commenced explaining to him his 
 own mission, its origin and results. He was col- 
 lecting particulars on which to ground an appeal 
 for increased facilities of spiritual instruction for 
 this neglected class of men, without any direct re- 
 ference to Sabbath observance, but he had found 
 the crying evil of a desecrated Lord's day meeting 
 him at every step, and forcing on his mind the 
 conviction that all efforts would be vain until it 
 was done away with. It was no part of his in- 
 structions to propose an appeal to the legislature 
 on this point ; but he had done so, and his sug- 
 gestion had been met in a way that surprised him. 
 Philander mentioned the grounds on which they 
 seemed to crave it, partly as a matter of right, 
 and partly as an occasion for sensual indulgence. 
 This was admitted ; but the plain fact was also 
 pointed out that in their present state they were 
 wholly debarred from any possible participation in 
 the instruction sought to be provided. Theirs 
 was the case of a man heavily ironed, who if at 
 
A DAY ON THE CANAL. 109 
 
 liberty, might not choose to walk in the direction 
 you wished ; but who, whatever his will might be, 
 was physcially incapable of so doing until the 
 manacles should be knocked off. ' Meet me to- 
 morrow, and I will bring you among some who 
 shall explain in their own way, far better than I 
 can do, the detail of what you have this day 
 seen in dim and dubious outline.' 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 GLEANINGS AMONG THE BOATMEN. 
 
 Crime has gradations : they lead hke the 
 rounds of a ladder, by easy, imperceptible pro- 
 gress from the solid ground below to the height 
 whence man, being disappointed in his purpose 
 of a safe descent by the late discovery that its 
 summit rests on no adequate support, falls head- 
 long. Having placed his foot on the lowest 
 round, he feels an unaccountable, and ere long an 
 irresistble propensity to go further. In the boy, 
 true miniature of man, you may detect this ten- 
 dency whenever he is placed within reach of a 
 material ladder ; strengthening too in proportion 
 to the urgency of the prohibition received, for sin 
 takes occasion by the commandment ; and what 
 the Apostle Paul feelingly describes touching the 
 
GLEANINGS AMONG THE BOATMEN. Ill 
 
 e\il that wrought within him in reference to the 
 tenth, holds good of all the rest. Of none more 
 than the fourth. To keep holy the seventh day- 
 is what God enjoins : to pollute it more than any 
 of the remaining six is what man delights in. 
 Why should it be so ? In the case of benefac- 
 tions conferred by some high potentate of earth, 
 we do not find this backwardness to mingle at 
 court with the favoured few, to renew the pledge 
 of loyal attachment, and to be in the way of any 
 new honours the royal patron may from time to 
 time be pleased to confer. This line of conduct 
 is certainly the rule ; its reverse the exception, 
 all the world over : therefore we conclude that 
 some powerful impulsive enmity against God and 
 his service resides in the depths of man's heart, 
 outweighing what, in all other instances are the 
 dictates alike of natural feeling and of self interest, 
 rendering the general rule the exception here, and 
 vice versa. 
 
 The graduating scale is brought into practice 
 chiefly where education has introduced, if not the 
 principle yet the habit of decently observing the 
 Sabbath's rest : there almost every round of the 
 ladder has its occupant, each measuring his pro- 
 gress, not by the number of steps already taken, 
 but by those which he flatters himself he never 
 
112 GLEANINGS AMONG THE BOATMEN. 
 
 shall be induced to take. Happily, the extreme 
 is unattainable in England : no theatres are open, 
 no public assemblies held, nor games and sports 
 and shows legalized, as in the continental lands ; 
 and if there be some who would openly run to 
 such excess, and who in their private houses pro- 
 ceed as far as existing laws permit, the bulk of 
 well-ordered society stands plainly opposed to such 
 glaring desecration, gathering also food for self- 
 applause from the more forward zeal of their 
 neighbours in casting down the way-marks that 
 God hath set up. Still, it cannot be denied that 
 the tendency of men's minds is removed further 
 from, not to return towards the starting point ; 
 and the principle seeks to make its way covertly 
 under the guise of a benevolent concern for the 
 less affluent classes ; a desire to render the sea- 
 son of rest and devotion what they call, the 
 working-man's holiday : the phrase being indeed 
 perverted from its correct signification, and in- 
 vested with a conventional meaning sufficiently 
 removed from every exercise of body or mind 
 that can be termed holy. This spurious philan- 
 thropy is much on the increase among us ; to 
 such an extent that we may as a matter of calcu- 
 lation look for enactments the very reverse of 
 what the occasion calls for. The portion of need- 
 
GLEANINGS AMONG THE BOATMEN. 113 
 
 ful rest that should recruit the exhausted bodies 
 and refresh the worn out faculties of weak wo- 
 men and young children is withheld, because such 
 concession might endanger the loss of a fraction 
 of the employer's profits : it is contrary to the 
 laws set up on behalf of our great national idol, 
 accumulation, and can in no wise be permitted : 
 yet, many who start back from this proposition 
 are ready to entertain favourably another, of which 
 the object is to rob not man of his wealth, but 
 merely to rob God of his glory ; by stretching 
 to the utmost point of licentiousness the liberty 
 which cannot safely be invaded, and atoning for 
 six days' merciless extortion of unremitted toil by 
 a seventh day's carnival that should drown the 
 sullen reminiscences of a week's suffering in a 
 general whirl of exciting dissipation. At such 
 a point of self-deception do men arrive, when 
 substituting the theories of blinking expediency 
 for the sure oracles of God ! 
 
 But we are forestalling a branch of the subject 
 not yet under review : it is an abstract in brief of 
 remarks dropped by Philander' s new guide in the 
 course of a conversation as desultory as the ram- 
 ble which they took on the morning following 
 their first meeting. The little man was in quest 
 of a particular personage, a boatman of the hum- 
 
114 GLEANINGS AMONG THE BOATMEN. 
 
 ble class, whose testimony he considered more 
 valuable than his own, in directing the traveller's 
 mind to the root of the e\il. At length they 
 found him, and the subject was at once intro- 
 duced. * This gentleman came from , in one 
 
 of the boats : he had heard much of your disad- 
 vantages and the mischiefs accruing from them ; 
 but seeing only the quiet, droning sort of life led 
 on the canal, he does not comprehend how a 
 great amount of positive evil can arise from what 
 seems merely negative.' 
 
 * What does the fellow know of positive and 
 negative?' thought Philander, as he looked at 
 the coarse features and coarser habiliments of the 
 bargeman. He had miscalculated : the reply sur- 
 prised him. 
 
 ' Has the gentleman, sir, never happened to see 
 a fallow field, grown and flourishing with a full 
 crop of weeds, just because nothing good was 
 sown in it ? ' 
 
 * That, if applicable at all, applies to men in 
 general ; not more to yours than to any other 
 class. But I meet on all sides with complaints 
 of certain special ills belonging to your craft, and 
 these I would investigate root and branch : I saw 
 nothing but listless inactivity, varied occasionally 
 with a passing indication that passions natural to 
 
GLEANINGS AMONG THE BOATMEN. 115 
 
 mankind were not lacking among them — fuel ca- 
 pable of being roused into a flame ; but not 
 particularly inclined to spontaneous combustion. 
 They were rather wanting than otherwise in the 
 vivacity that usually indicates a turbulent dis- 
 position.' 
 
 No, sir, they are not turbulent : a duller set 
 of people you cannot meet. It is not that they 
 are naturally different from others, but their 
 
 habits may I ask, did not you find the time 
 
 hang heavy on your hands, sir, if you were alone ? ' 
 
 ' To say truth, I did, in an extraordinary de- 
 gree : I could not rouse the people about me into 
 conversation : as to books, there were none. 
 However it was not a regular passage boat : no 
 accommodation could be expected.' 
 
 * One day, sir, proved fatiguing to your mind, 
 because you found nothing to rouse or entertain 
 it. Now will you picture to yourself a being born 
 into the world with the same faculties and pre- 
 ceptions as yours, from his earliest age obliged to 
 pass every day, month, and year of his life, just 
 as you saw them yesterday ; brought up by per- 
 sons who had themselves been brought up in the 
 same manner ; surrounded by companions reared 
 as they were ; never having their thoughts directed 
 to any higher object than what can gratify their 
 I 2 
 
116 GLEANINGS AMONG THE BOATMEN. 
 
 bodily senses ; never tempted to any thing good, 
 and prepared to yield without a struggle to any 
 evil propensity that they have an opportunity of 
 gratifying : — I say, sir, what sort of an existence 
 do you call this ? Is it a preparation for eternity 
 or not?' Struck by the man's impassioned tone 
 and manner Philander felt he must make some 
 reply : he stammered, a common- place remark 
 about God's mercy, in making allowances, and 
 accepting according to that which a man hath — 
 not that which he hath not. ' Nay, sir, the most 
 ignorant among us, if he thinks at all of another 
 life, trembles and desponds, and drives it from 
 his thoughts as fast as he may. He feels no fit- 
 ness for God's presence, no desire to behold Him. 
 A load of guilt is on his conscience, he cannot 
 shake it thence ; and the way of deliverance he 
 does not know. While life and strength remain, 
 he fights off the convictions of his mind, and 
 when these fail, when eternity is at the door — oh, 
 sir, you should learn the rest at the bedside of 
 the dying Boatman.' 
 
 ' Still I cannot think that in a Christian coun- 
 try any class of persons must necessarily remain 
 in ignorance so deplorable as you describe. Surely, 
 in some way, every man must hear of his duty to 
 God.' 
 
GLEANINGS AMONG THE BOATMEN. 117 
 
 * In a country consistently Christian he must,' 
 said the agent : ' but here, for all practical uses, 
 the Sabbath is abolished, and with it the ap- 
 pointed means of man's approach to his Creator. 
 Recollect, " Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing 
 by the word of God." How is the written word 
 to reach those who cannot read it? how the 
 preached word those who must not pause to 
 listen to it?' 
 
 The boatman added, * The word does reach 
 many a one of them in the time of sickness, or 
 from some teacher who gets among them as this 
 gentleman did yesterday : but the more effect it 
 takes, the more do they feel the cruel compulsion 
 of flying in the face of God's commandment by 
 breaking every Sabbath ; and then. Sir, consider 
 how a soul must droop when its hunger and thirst 
 after spiritual things are baulked, and the means 
 of grace taken away without which no soul can 
 thrive. You must remember, Sir, that learning 
 to love the word of life does not enable a man to 
 read it, nor bring him a bit the more into the 
 way of hearing it.' 
 
 * And are there no schools, to teach your chil- 
 dren when young ? or do you never receive into 
 the boats boys who have had those advantages ? ' 
 
 * As to our own sons, we bring them up to our 
 
118 GLEANINGS AMONG THE BOATMEN. 
 
 own craft, where no learning is thought needful ; 
 and where any attempt is made to teach them, they 
 are found, like their unhappy parents, so dull as to 
 give ten times more trouble than other children. 
 This is a fact known to all who have tried : and it 
 is known also to themselves ; so that in many in- 
 stances, where the opportunity is given, they refuse 
 to go, because they don't choose to have their stu- 
 pidity laughed at by the rest. And these are the very 
 children who would like best to learn, and make 
 the most of it — they have feelings ; soon crushed 
 or turned into the worst channel. Then as to 
 other boys, none are sent to the boats that are 
 likely to be good for any thing : we keep the 
 business chiefly in our own famihes, and what 
 few strangers enter it are of a sort to introduce 
 more mischief, not to confer a benefit.' 
 
 ' This is a bad case,' observed Philander, turn- 
 ing to his companion : ' so bad, that the mere 
 concession of one day in seven would do little or 
 nothing in palliation.' 
 
 * Every thing,' answers the other ; and the 
 boatman echoed it. * Every thing, Sir, if the 
 same advantages were given to us as to others. 
 We should tie our boats up on Saturday nights ; 
 and Christian men would take advantage of it to 
 come to our stopping places, and teach us. I 
 
GLEANINGS AMONG THE BOATMEN. 119 
 
 don't say that all, or half our people would re- 
 ceive them willingly, or listen to their words — we 
 are too demoralized for that, through being left 
 so long in heathen darkness ; no doubt many of 
 us would use the Sabbath as a day of idleness 
 and sin; but even among these, good would 
 work ; for they must feel the shame of their 
 children's disadvantages compared with those 
 about them, and would make them learn some- 
 thing at the Sunday schools. You cannot calcu- 
 late on the good this would lead to : the Bible 
 would be on board many a poor man's boat ; and 
 out of the mouths of their ragged babes and 
 sucklings God would perfect praise.' 
 
 Here the little man turned his quick eye on 
 our traveller. * Don't you catch a gleam of light 
 breaking in on the thick darkness ? ' 
 
 * I do : faint, and probably slow in progress, 
 but a new element altogether. Now, my honest 
 friend, go on : you have an attentive listener, and 
 learner.' 
 
 * I have spoken of the children. Sir, as regards 
 their better teaching : now, as to the men, it is, 
 as I have told you, the case mth hundreds that 
 the light of their natural conscience serves to 
 show them what black darkness overhangs their 
 path, and its dreadful ending ; so that a vast 
 
120 GLEANINGS AMONG THE BOATMEN. 
 
 number make it their business to quench this trou- 
 blesome light, because they can see no way open 
 to leave the road of destruction. These men are 
 prepared to listen to such a one as should point 
 out a better and brighter way : they would come 
 to the true light, and having kindled their own 
 dark torch at it, consider how they would spread 
 it ; both by their own right walk and conversa- 
 tion, and also by persuading others to listen to 
 truths that had been blessed to themselves. You 
 may say that such an improvement is not often 
 seen among other working-classes where the Sab- 
 bath is left free, and they profane it from choice ; 
 but I should expect more good from perhaps a 
 worse class of men than they : these last are 
 sabbath-breakers now against their will ; and if 
 the choice was to make, the blessing and the 
 curse being plainly set before them, I believe. Sir, 
 a vast number would be found willing to hallow 
 the day by attending a place of worship. The 
 very novelty of the thing would draw others 
 there, to satisfy a natural curiosity : then would 
 come a time of refreshing — God would send the 
 word with power to their poor dark souls ; and 
 for His own Name's sake He would show what a 
 train of blessings follow when man obeys that 
 command, " Hallow my Sabbaths." ' 
 
GLEANINGS AMONG THE BOATMEN. 121 
 
 ' It is your own history,' observed the little 
 man. 
 
 * It is, Sir. I was one of that unhappy class 
 who know their responsibiUty, feel that they can- 
 not fulfil it, and see no escape from judgment. 
 Many a quart of ale I tossed off to drown 
 thought : many a filthy song I roared out to stifle 
 the still small voice within ; many a fearful curse 
 I uttered against others in the bitterness of tem- 
 per caused by the sense of being myself under a 
 curse. I wished for the Sunday privileges of 
 the pot-house and bowling-green, and few rejoiced 
 more than I when my employers, won by the 
 persuasions of a godly minister, decided on stop- 
 ping their boats, and braving the consequences. 
 I thought as others did, ruin would soon stare 
 them in the face, and compel them to run again 
 as before ; but we resolved to make the most of 
 our time, and laid many plans for dissipation and 
 sin. Through mercy, my boat was tied up not far 
 from the parish church where our principal master 
 attends : he met a party of us early that Sun- 
 day morning, on our way to a place of public re- 
 sort — " Well my lads, we have run a risk, that 
 you may have a share in our advantages : I hope 
 to see a good number of you at church, as a 
 proof that you feel their value." He walked on. 
 
122 GLEANINGS AMONG THE BOATMEN. 
 
 and our party divided ; some from policy, others 
 from gratitude, wished to please him ; the rest 
 would not be put off from their plans. I wa- 
 vered long, but went at last with the former, cal- 
 culating that we should gain more by it. My 
 gain that day was an arrow in my conscience, so 
 sharp that I never rested till it was removed, and 
 I found peace in believing that the blood of Jesus 
 Christ cleanseth from all sin — such peace as I 
 had never dreamed of; such joy as changed my 
 whole existence into another state of being. I 
 had scoffed at learning, as a useless incumbrance 
 to a boatman : now I devoted every spare minute 
 to it, that I might read on week days the glorious 
 things that I could at last hear freely on the Sab- 
 bath. I can speak for myself, that I was a bru- 
 tified being, made wretched by feehng that I was 
 so ; but having neither power nor will to raise 
 myself from that degraded state. Sir, the gospel 
 opens the blind eyes, enlightens the dark mind, 
 sharpens the blunted wits, shows a man the way 
 he should go, and gives him strength to walk in 
 it, and grace to continue therein unto the end.' 
 
 That a person capable of expressing himself 
 so correctly, sometimes in choice language, should 
 have commenced learning the Alphabet after 
 coming to man's estate among the degraded class 
 
GLEANINGS AMONG THE BOATMEN. 123 
 
 of Canal navigators, was a matter of wonder to 
 our traveller ; until his companion reminded him 
 that the many tedious hours of inaction insepa- 
 rable from their calling, became mighty auxilia- 
 ries in a pursuit after such attainments as these. 
 ' He has read the Bible through and through, I 
 know not how oft ; with a considerable number 
 of our good old books on divinity ; and some 
 volumes of history, and works of general infor- 
 mation. All have not the like thirst for know- 
 ledge, but there are few who do not listen with 
 interest when a book is read in their hearing, after 
 the habitual torpor of the mind has been shaken 
 off, and their attention directed to matters that 
 concern their eternal welfare. Now, permit me 
 to ask, have you made any sensible progress in 
 this quest since we started ? ' 
 
 * Very great, indeed. I recognize in the Sab- 
 bath observance the foundation of a fabric that 
 every man who loves his country and his species 
 must long to see firmly established. It does not 
 follow that where this foundation is laid, the 
 building must necessarily rise, and progress to 
 perfection ; but it is quite clear that without it no 
 such fabric can be erected. Therefore I say, lay 
 it down, as a necessary preliminary ; and for the 
 rest do what you can.' 
 
124 GLEANINGS AMONG THE BOATMEN. 
 
 * Always remembering that the foundation has 
 been laid by the hand of God Himself; that, 
 impiously and presumptuously, man has dared 
 to remove it ; and that our work is one of resto- 
 ration in a ease of sacrilegious theft. We have 
 no more right to wrest away the poor man's Sab- 
 bath than we have to extinguish the sun that 
 lights and warms him : but the latter we cannot 
 reach : the former we can, and at our peril we do, 
 to answer for the deed to Him whose law we defy, 
 whose mercy we frustrate, whose best blessing we 
 change into a direful curse.' 
 
 * Now you speak too strongly : men may hold 
 mistaken views, and act their theories out ; honest 
 in error, and not chargeable to the extent you 
 would imply. Surely there is such a thing as 
 being very sincerely and conscientiously in the 
 wrong, and therefore quite pardonably.' 
 
 * Sir, if the Almighty had given to each man 
 a carte hlanche, to fill up after his own taste 
 or convictions, or what you will, and then to 
 adopt it as his golden rule, your plan might be 
 admissable ; but is it so ? You know the con- 
 trar^\ Divine legislation is carried to a certain 
 point, within which and in subservience to what 
 is written, man may amplijfy, divide, and apply, 
 as occasion demands and as experience directs : 
 
GLEANINGS AMONG THE BOATMEN. 125 
 
 but virtually to cancel one word of the inspired 
 code, or daringly to forge an additional clause, 
 are offences that no earthly legislator would tole- 
 rate. Will the King and Governor of the whole 
 earth endure it ? ' 
 
 * Still I cannot divest myself of the opinion 
 that a certain discretionary power is left in each 
 man's hands, with regard to the observance of 
 that day.' 
 
 *Do you mean that man is free to choose 
 whether he shall keep the Sabbath holy or 
 not ? ' Philander made no reply : he was not 
 prepared to assert so much, neither to yield al- 
 together the unlimited submission that he felt 
 must be due when the decree was clearly and 
 peremptorily of God. ' Why do you hesitate ? 
 either the Sabbath is set apart, blessed, and hal- 
 lowed, by the Lord himself, and enjoined on man 
 as a perpetual observance, or it is not. If the 
 latter, no special blessing can be connected with 
 it ; no peculiar sanctity invests it ; no stain of 
 disobedience cleaves to its profanation — in fact, 
 it cannot be profaned, not being a holy thing. 
 x\re you prepared to go to this length ? ' 
 
 ^No.' 
 
 * Then I profess myself unable to discover the 
 bearings of your course. In the present instance, 
 
126 GLEANINGS AMONG THE BOATMEN. 
 
 the case of the boatmen, the Sabbath is so utterly 
 done away with that you cannot palhate the deed 
 unless by a broad assent to what you have just 
 negatived. Perhaps you would imply that al- 
 though we, as two individuals, hold the contrary 
 opinion, still there may be others, practical men, 
 who are sincerely persuaded that no such obliga- 
 tion exists : and that they violate no law of God, 
 commit no wrong against their fellow men, nor 
 strain a point of conscience, when thus quietly 
 removing the fourth commandment from the 
 decalogue.' 
 
 ' That is what, in charity, I must believe ; 
 for, hard as is the case in other quarters, 
 this of the poor boatmen imprisoned in their 
 floating dungeons, and absolutely shut out from 
 the possibility of any religious instruction what- 
 ever, while denied a respite from their dreary, 
 monotonous irksome toil, is so much worse in all 
 its features that I am at a loss to conceive any 
 justification for their employers' conduct, short of 
 a complete disavowal of the law itself.' 
 
 * A perilous justification that ! You had better 
 accompany me on my present expedition. I am 
 bound for the residence of an extensive carrier, as 
 we call them : a gentleman who has some fifty or 
 a hundred boats on the line, and with whom, or 
 
GLEANINGS AMONG THE BOATMEN. 127 
 
 one of his principal managers, I have to argue 
 this point. Will you go ? ' 
 
 ^Gladly.' 
 
 * I have another commission to execute on the 
 way thither ; to collect signatures for a petition 
 on this subject from the men themselves. Thus 
 you will be brought into contact with both parties.' 
 
 ' I envy your work, and the spirit in which you 
 do it.' 
 
 ' The work, my good friend, is uphill work 
 enough : for the powers around and beneath 
 are arrayed in a compact body of opposition. 
 The spirit, I humbly hope, is from above ; and 
 I counsel you to seek large supplies of that 
 grace no less needful in coming to a right under- 
 standing of the matter than in prosecuting the 
 work. I know of no single point on which men's 
 minds are so beclouded, their feet so entangled, 
 as on this. If I lacked evidence of its being the 
 cause of truth, I should find it in the desperate 
 hostility of the god of this world who stirs up 
 all his forces to resist it at every step. Men, un- 
 conscious whose agents they are, receive the sug- 
 gestions of Satan as the sage inductions of their 
 own minds from a train of reasoning independent 
 of God and his laws, from which no sane man, 
 acting under the dictates of natural conscience 
 
128 GLEANINGS AMONG THE BOATMEN. 
 
 and sound philosophy, would dream of dissevering 
 any subject bearing on the welfare and happiness 
 of mankind : and thus divorced from the only 
 true good, thus led by the concealed spirit of all 
 evil and mischief, our system-mongers in every 
 department, high or low, bring forth such mon- 
 strous births, or rather abortions, that he who 
 would encounter one of them really knows not to 
 what weapons the anomalous deformity may be 
 pervious. Few have courage to draw at once 
 and unreservedly the sword of the Spirit, encount- 
 ering all opponents with "Thus saith the Lord," 
 for they who do, must count on a storm no less 
 of derision than of opposition. Truth against 
 expediency ! it is a substance encountering a sha- 
 dow. The glittering blade meets no real obstacle ; 
 it passes through and through, exhibiting its 
 brightness on every side, in unobstructed freedom 
 of action ; but the thing is intangible, therefore 
 indivisible ; and repeat the dissecting process as 
 oft as you will, there stands the mocking phantom 
 in all its dull and dreamy immobility, facing you 
 as at the first. A something, an anything, a 
 nothing, so it smack exclusively of man's wisdom 
 and have no savour of life about it, will serve the 
 purposes of our theorists to supplant what they 
 may indeed pull down, but can never rebuild — to 
 
GLEANINGS AMONG THE BOATMEN. 129 
 
 supplant it with a Babel that will speedily issue 
 in confusion, division, dispersion, and the wreck 
 of every thing but their own disgrace.' 
 
 This was uttered in soliloquy, calling for no 
 reply. The speaker was one evidently inured to 
 * uphill vrork,' disgusted but not discouraged, and 
 now preparing for a fresh engagement with the 
 pertinacious shadows that, insubstantial as he 
 pronounced them to be, impeded his path. Our 
 traveller was gradually obtaining a juster view of 
 many actua lobstructions placed in the way of obe- 
 dience to God's command; but he had not acquired 
 the spiritual discernment indispensable for a right 
 investigation of motives and principles, and springs 
 of action yet deeper than either ; a spirit working 
 in the children of disobedience from the begin- 
 ning, and never more intent than now on defeating 
 the beneficent purposes of the world's Creator. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE QUESTION DEBATED. 
 
 We now meet the two adventurers in a hamlet 
 thickly inhabited for its size, and almost exclu- 
 sively by one class of people — the families of 
 boatmen. It lay at a short distance from a place 
 of considerable traffic, where great numbers of 
 boats stopped to load or unload : receiving and 
 delivering freight at a point where the land carriers 
 of an extensive district met them. There was 
 bustling activity on the banks of the canal ; and 
 a stir also in the heavy little village, betokening 
 expectation ; for the hour of arrival was come, 
 and supplies to the extent of their limited means 
 had been prepared for some of the expected nav- 
 igators. Now, Philander had a fair opportunity 
 for observing the marked separation of one class 
 
THE QUESTION DEBATED. 131 
 
 from all others : the exclusiveness in aspect, 
 habits, feelings, and interests that plainly distin- 
 guished the squalid race before him. The boats 
 arrived ; a crowd of men and boys leaped ashore, 
 and while some busied themselves in landing their 
 goods, others betook themselves to their poor 
 huts : and not a few to the alehouse. The land 
 carriers were somewhat behind their time, which 
 seemed to afford satisfaction to the boatmen, and 
 still more to Philander' s companion, who, making 
 himself as conspicuous as he could, collected the 
 stragglers around him, and drew forth a long roll 
 of parchment. Very little curiosity, however, 
 was excited among those whom he chiefly desired 
 to attract : the idlers of the place formed his 
 chief auditory, annoying him by their prying or 
 jesting remarks. At length he extricated himself 
 from them, and forced his way into a knot of 
 boatmen, who stood, gloomily impatient, about a 
 pile of luggage destined for the tardy waggons. 
 These he addressed : * My men, I've got some- 
 thing here that concerns you ; ' but little notice 
 was taken, until he, in a louder tone, proclaimed 
 that he held a petition for the Sunday stoppage 
 of all boats on the canal. This operated quickly 
 and widely ; every man within hearing pressed • 
 nearer, and his words being speedily circulated, 
 K 2 
 
132 THE QUESTION DEBATED. 
 
 a general gathering ensued ; the boatmen pushing 
 aside all intruders into a matter so especially 
 concerning themselves. Philander could not but 
 smile at the elated eagerness with which the little 
 man unrolled his document ; and mounting a 
 heavy trunk obtained sufficient altitude to make 
 the contents audible. It was a brief, sensible, 
 respectful appeal to the legislature for a privilege, 
 the value of which was feelingly set forth, and 
 the hardship of the poor man's privation forcibly 
 represented. Having concluded, he raised his 
 voice, and looking round on the now eager audi- 
 tory, asked, * Will any man sign this ? ' 
 
 ' Ay, to be sure : ' * Right, gladly ; ' ' Thank ye, 
 master, I'll do it;' ' I'll sign with both my hands ;' 
 ' We'll all sign it, every one ; ' these and many 
 similar exclamations responded : and when, by 
 hoisting another box over the first, a table was 
 formed, and the good man had spread the skin, 
 and produced his inkhorn, the scene became most 
 animated. Then Mas the want of education made 
 manifest : very few could write their names ; and 
 some who did, remarked that for want of time 
 they had never learned to do more, their signa- 
 rure alone being required to receipts, way-bills, 
 and similar documents. So many desired to sign 
 the petition, that not only the agent and Philan- 
 
THE QUESTION DEBATED. 133 
 
 der but two or three other hands were fully occu- 
 pied in taking down names, and attesting the 
 marks of the poor petitioners. Meantime, the 
 news had reached the detached little hamlet, 
 whence many men and lads were seen running 
 up to join in the work ; not a few women wath 
 children in their arms or at their heels, eagerly 
 pressing into the throng to be satisfied that the 
 report was true. So much dirt, so many rags, 
 and such a mass of stupid, yet momentarily ex- 
 cited faces. Philander had never before encoun- 
 tered ; neither, to say truth, had his heart ever 
 accompanied the movement of a pen as it then 
 did. The emotion — the devotion with which he 
 executed his rapid task was quite new to him ; 
 and his tone of cordial good nature when ques- 
 tioning the applicants as to names that rather 
 puzzled him, elicited many a grateful smile that 
 went to his heart like a sunbeam. The boys 
 were very urgent to be enrolled, and he had some 
 difficulty in repulsing them ; the agent being 
 scrupulously careful to admit no names but those 
 of adults, coming voluntarily forward ; while 
 numbers of the inhabitants, who also requested 
 permission to join, were with no less difficulty 
 convinced that it was not, on the present occa- 
 sion, allowable. All the boatmen having their 
 
134 THE QUESTION DEBATED. 
 
 names down, with a detected attempt on the part 
 of two or three to get them inserted twice, for 
 which they were reprimanded, the agent availed 
 himself of the prevalent good feeling, to say a 
 few words on the nature and value of the Chris- 
 tian Sabbath ; and having also distributed some 
 books among those who could read, he rolled up 
 his well-blotted document, and departed. Scarcely 
 were they clear of the crowd, when three hearty 
 cheers assured the travellers how well their work 
 was appreciated ; and after courteously acknow- 
 ledging the compliment. Philander remarked, 
 * I am not sure that I would exchange it for a 
 vote of thanks from the House of Commons.' 
 ' I fear,' answered the other, ' you must remodel 
 that assembly, before you would earn their thanks 
 for a work of simple philanthropy like this.' 
 
 * But have you not rather overstated the cases of 
 depravity among yonder men ? I saw much good 
 feeling, and heard remarks that impressed me 
 more favourably than I expected.' 
 
 ' You saw them under circumstances of unfre- 
 quent occurrence. They are men and Englishmen: 
 and when two persons of a rank above their own 
 come among them, solely, as they cannot but see, 
 to promote their interests by removing a very cruel 
 burden, in a just, lawful manner, what other re- 
 
THE QUESTION DEBATED. 135 
 
 suit can you look for but the manifestation of all 
 that is right, all that is manly, all that is gene- 
 rous, in their natural dispositions ? At this mo- 
 ment, evil is at work in the very group that we 
 have left : there are some watching an opportu- 
 nity to dispose of their stolen goods among ac- 
 complices, residing on the spot for the purpose of 
 receiving them : others, who will end the evening 
 in various acts of premeditated sin : and not a 
 few who, on the strength of this very petition 
 will presently devise new schemes of mischief, to 
 be carried into effect on the anticipated sabbath 
 of rest.' 
 
 ' That would seem to furnish an argument 
 against conceding it.' 
 
 ' Say rather it yields an awful testimony against 
 the guilt of so long withholding it.' 
 
 Their destination was soon reached : a substan- 
 tial range of buildings ; warehouses well stored ; 
 offices of various kinds, and a large dwelling 
 house. The agent enquired for one of the acting 
 managers, and a very intelligent, gentlemanly 
 man answered the summons. The subject being 
 broached. Philander thought that he looked 
 somewhat less agreeable ; but as neither tone nor 
 manner lost any of its suavity, he might be mis- 
 taken. The question, he said, was not new to 
 
136 THE QUESTION DEBATED. 
 
 him ; in fact, the firm had been deUberating upon 
 it for years, and had bestowed on it mucli at- 
 tention. 
 
 ' And what, may I ask, is the result of this 
 long consideration ?' 
 
 * That, however desirable, it is utterly imprac- 
 ticable.' 
 
 ' Not altogether : I have obtained the assent 
 of two firms on condition of persuading all who 
 traffic on this line to unite with them in a gene- 
 ral effort for enforcing the observance of the 
 Sabbath.' 
 
 A slight smile curled the lip of the other, as he 
 replied, ' I also might safely give in my adhesion 
 on those terms, well assured that such unanimous 
 assent is unattainable ; but, sir, I do not wish to 
 encourage any man in a delusion, and this, parti- 
 cularly, is doing harm by unsettling the minds of 
 Boatmen, rendering them discontented and diso- 
 bedient, and perhaps paving the way for some 
 dangerous combination. I, therefore, frankly 
 negative your proposition : I do so with regret, 
 for it would afford me pleasure to see the indulg- 
 ence enjoyed by most other classes extended to 
 our men, little as they are disposed to avail them- 
 selves of it for any good purpose : but the thing, 
 I repeat it, is impracticable.' 
 
THE QUESTION DEBATED. 137 
 
 * If you could convince me of that, it would save 
 me some fruitless labour,' said the little man 
 drily ; * for until I see the impracticabihty as 
 clearly as you seem to do, I must persevere.' 
 
 * I have already said that the subject is fre- 
 quently discussed in our firm : surely you will 
 admit the force of obstacles that we who are well 
 versed in the matter find it impossible to sur- 
 mount.' 
 
 ' But am I to understand that any of you are 
 really desirous to see the seventh day hallowed ? ' 
 
 * Of course, all of us : you do not take us for 
 heathens, I hope ? ' 
 
 *You recognize, as of divine authority, the 
 command to rest from labour on the Sabbath ? ' 
 
 * Doubtless ; as a general precept ; and we 
 place no bar in the way of its observ^ance where 
 it can be done. The boatmen are a separate 
 class, their work is a peculiar one ; and circum- 
 stances over which we have no control preclude 
 the possibility of extending the indulgence to 
 them. Neither, in fact, do they wish it, with 
 the exception of a few of the worst character, 
 who long for a day's riot, idleness and debauchery 
 on land.' 
 
 ' They must be a depraved set of fellows,' ob- 
 served Philander. 
 
138 THE QUESTION DEBATED. 
 
 ' They are so : a very ignorant and often 
 worthless race ; greatly inferior to others.' 
 
 * That ignorance being at the root of all the 
 evil ; ' interrupted the agent : * and therefore 
 pleading with us to aiford them advantages, with- 
 out which they can but go from bad to worse, 
 and perish.' 
 
 ' You take an extreme view, sir, there are 
 honest, well-conducted men among them, whose 
 example ought to reform the rest.' 
 
 * Pardon me, it has not room to operate. Good 
 example will often lead men on in pursuit of what 
 is right : for instance, it may engender in others 
 a disposition to attend public worship, to read the 
 word of God, and to refrain from open ^dolations 
 of His holy law : but here, neither your exem- 
 plars nor their observers can avail themselves of 
 the ordinary means of grace : nor can they avoid 
 the habitual breach of a commandment more 
 diffuse, more particular, and more frequently in- 
 sisted on than any of the other nine.' 
 
 * We cannot help it : the fault is not ours.' 
 
 * That is what I want to be convinced of.' 
 *Well, sir : in the first place you will allow 
 
 that a man cannot be fairly called upon to beggar 
 himself, his family and dependents : yet that 
 would be the first result of your visionary re- 
 
THE QUESTION DEBATED. 139 
 
 forms. Our business is, as you know, to convey 
 goods by water from place to place ; and those 
 goods being principally articles of barter, dispatch 
 is a necessary stipulation on the part of the 
 owners. You are not ignorant of the facilities 
 afforded by railway carriage, nor of the rapid in- 
 crease of railroads, and consequent competition 
 with all other modes of conveyance. Speeding 
 fast as they may, without an interval of rest, our 
 boats can barely maintain their own place as 
 carriers of goods, and if we were credulous enough 
 to try this new scheme, tying them up for twenty- 
 four, or even for twelve hours, with all the atten- 
 dant consequences of crowding, entangling, and 
 working heavily along an obstructed channel, we 
 should be fairly driven out of the field — compe- 
 tition would be at an end, boatmen and employ- 
 ers must together disappear in one wide mass of 
 pauperism.' 
 
 * A part of our plan aims to obviate that diffi- 
 culty ; Sunday trading would be prohibited no 
 less on Railways than on Canals.' 
 
 ' Your device would fall short of its aim : the 
 superior celerity of the trains would still give 
 them an immense advantage over us, eventually 
 issuing in the same catastrophe.' 
 
 ' It strikes me,' said Philander, * that even 
 
140 THE QUESTION DEBATED. 
 
 now the advantage in point of speed rests so de- 
 cidedly with the railway, as to prove that other 
 inducements must turn the balance in favour of 
 water carriage ; and I doubt whether the diiference 
 of a few hours in a week would suffice to reverse 
 your relative position.' 
 
 * I have no doubt at all on the point,' an- 
 swered the other somewhat pettishly : ^ but at 
 all events let your proposed security of a Sabbath 
 enactment precede our movement. Meanwhile, 
 survey a few more insuperable obstacles. If a 
 certain firm, or number of firms, agree thus to 
 deprive themselves of a day, depend on it, rivals 
 less scrupulous will presently start opposition 
 boats, which, gaining such a material advantage 
 in point of speedy deUvery, would obtain the 
 preference, and quietly thrust us from our own 
 line.' 
 
 * A powerful plea for Sabbath legislation,' ex- 
 claimed Philander, to his companion. The 
 speaker resumed: — *Sir, all tlie Sabbath legislation 
 in the world would not accomplish what you, be- 
 nevolently but erroneously, expect. Suppose the 
 boats all tied up on Saturday night, and the men 
 taking advantage of their holiday, whether accor- 
 ding to your plans or their own, who is to guard 
 the property ? We are accountable to the senders 
 
THE QUESTION DEBATED. 141 
 
 for every article transmitted; the men in turn 
 are responsible to us. Now, while your well-dis- 
 posed class were at Church, and our vagabonds 
 at the Beer-shop, would not pilfering, would not 
 robbery on a large scale, be going on in the for- 
 saken boats ? Who is to make it good ? Will 
 the owners of the cargo be satisfied with the 
 miserable fraction that the boatmen could contri- 
 bute, or are we to pay at such a rate as this out 
 of our own pockets, the price of their ill- starred 
 holiday ? The men know that they would be 
 obliged to remain in charge of the boats, and this, 
 with the loss of a seventh part of their weekly 
 profits, renders them indifferent if not opposed to 
 the innovations that you desire to make. Their 
 bread depends on the trade ; they are aware what 
 serious stoppages would occur, and how great a 
 loss of time must ensue, not only at starting, but 
 at the locks ; destroying all punctuality in de- 
 livering goods, and throwing them out of work 
 altogether. Are you satisfied, gentlemen, or will 
 you hear more ? ' 
 
 This was spoken with the air of a man who be- 
 lieves what he has said to be unanswerable. The 
 little Agent, who had stood immoveable, his eyes 
 fixed on the well sanded floor, now looked up, 
 and said, ' If you have any thing to adduce 
 
142 THE QUESTION DEBATED. 
 
 grounded on another plea than the hacknied and 
 most unsatisfactory one of expediency against 
 duty, I am ready to hear, to weigh, and to make 
 every fair allowance for it : but with a plain, posi- 
 tive commandment of God before us, and no 
 excuse for evading it but the possibility, say the 
 probability of temporal loss to individuals, you 
 must not expect to work any other conviction in 
 my mind than that of the corrupt state of feeling 
 and society unhappily prevailing, and calling for 
 a prompt remedy.' 
 
 * Some such remedy, I presume you have in 
 your pocket,' remarked the other with a short 
 laugh of disdain. 
 
 ' I have. Sir,' rejoined the agent, drawing forth 
 a small bible, which seemed at once to annoy and 
 to disconcert his opponent, * and believe me when 
 I say that in the spirit of this blessed book, not 
 in wrath, strife, or debate, I wish to discuss the 
 point with you. Give me your hand, sir, and 
 then listen to me ; patiently and courteously, as 
 I think I have listened to you.' This could not 
 be denied : and with a tolerably good grace, 
 though at the same time glancing significantly at 
 the clock over his head, the official man shook 
 hands with one whom he hoped the better to get 
 rid of by humouring him. 
 
THE QUESTION DEBATED. 143 
 
 ' I will not detain you long, my good sir, for 
 time with both of us, is precious ; but how much 
 more precious eternity ! Briefly touching on the 
 points advanced by you, I would first say that the 
 very surface of the matter shews at a glance, and 
 deeper investigation confirms, the absolute ne- 
 cessity of protective legislation, embracing all 
 branches of trade and commerce. That one class 
 of men should be allowed to take a worldly ad- 
 vantage of another, because the latter feared God 
 and kept His commandments, is a thing not to 
 be tolerated in a Christian land ; it is contradic- 
 tory of the assertion that '^ godliness is profitable 
 unto all things, having promise of the life that 
 now is, and of that which is to come." It is 
 therefore the undeniable duty of a government 
 professing to rule according to the divine word, 
 so to provide that no man shall suffer in body, or 
 estate, for squaring his practice by God's com- 
 mandments. As well might a premium be put or 
 permitted on theft, murder, or adultery, as on 
 Sabbath-breaking. You will admit this ? ' 
 
 * My admission or demur are alike irrelevent. 
 Facts, not theories are to be dealt with. As the 
 law stands, what you harshly term Sabbath-break- 
 ing is not merely at a premium : the first princi- 
 ple of nature, self-preservation, renders it un- 
 
144 THE QUESTION DEBATED. 
 
 avoidable. Yet do not mistake me ; I am not an 
 innovator ; existing laws satisfy me, and I, for 
 one, in compliance with the old adage, would 
 leave w^ell alone.' 
 
 ' Ah, my friend, a day is coming when we 
 shall all be compelled to feel that it was not well 
 to trifle with the holy law of our Creator and our 
 Judge ! Consider this point, I pray you ; for it 
 concerns you more nearly than any question of 
 temporal gain or loss. Transfer to the third com- 
 mandment the argument now pending on the 
 fourth : represent to yourself a direct pecuniary 
 profit placed within t?ie reach of the man who 
 shall bodly, openly and habitually blaspheme 
 God and perjure himself, while an equivalent 
 loss is inflicted on him who hallows God's name 
 and fears to swear falsely, would you not cry out 
 " Blot that impious law from the statute book ; 
 legislate without delay on an amended principle, 
 lest the wrath of God overtake us." Yet of the 
 two commands, one is every w^hit as imperative as 
 the other : both belong to the first table : both 
 are included in the grand precept, enforced by our 
 Lord Christ, to love the Lord our God with all 
 our heart, and with all our mind, and with all 
 our soul, and with all our strength : you cannot 
 separate what he has joined : you cannot bow to 
 
THE QUESTION DEBATED. 145 
 
 the authority of the one commandment, and 
 evade altogether the force of the other. 
 
 * These, Sir, are niceties of doctrine into which 
 a plain practical man of business cannot be ex- 
 pected to enter. You came to me, as far as I 
 understood, with a proposition for tying up our 
 boats from Saturday night to Monday morning ; 
 I have represented to you the impracticability of 
 so doing ; and now you seek to place me between 
 two horns of an unreasonable dilemma ; the one 
 mooting a point in theology, the other involving a 
 quarrel with the statute book. Can you favour 
 me with something more tangible, both these be- 
 ing beyond my province ? ' 
 
 * Perhaps/ suggested Philander, * ' you may 
 prefer to deal with the other table of the law, 
 comprised in the short precept, "Thou shalt love 
 thy neighbour as thyself." ' 
 
 * All neighbourly duties I am ready to fulfil : 
 none can lay it to my charge that I neglect the 
 golden rule. In what I owe abstractedly to God, 
 I decline the interference of any man. Suppose 
 we return to our starting point, and you confine 
 yourself to invalidating my proofs of the imprac- 
 ticability of your scheme.' 
 
 * Labour in vain, ' thought the agent ; * for 
 *^the natural man receiveth not the things of 
 
 L 
 
146 THE QUESTION DEBATED. 
 
 the Spirit of God," howsoever nearly they may 
 concern himself.' Had he known how deeply 
 those things were taking hold on a third person, 
 he would not have counted his labour vain. 
 
 ' I take you at your word,' he said to the pro- 
 prietor, * and leaving to your private convictions 
 the settlement of the higher, I proceed to the 
 lower ground. Pending the consideration in 
 parHament of what every Christian man is bound 
 to urge upon its gravest attention, and seeing the 
 weight of opposition brought to bear against it, 
 the question of individual responsibility becomes, 
 indeed, more urgent. I ask your co-operation with 
 some other benevolent employers who have agreed, 
 under a certain contingent proviso, to do that for 
 their servants voluntarily which they cannot be 
 compelled to do ; and to render back the poor 
 man's sabbath, of which he is now defrauded.' 
 
 * I object to that phrase : the men make their 
 terms with us, knowing what is before them, and 
 to tell them that their employers defraud them, is 
 to hold language alike inflammatory and untrue.' 
 
 ' I neither employ the term in conversing with 
 them, nor do T now use it in an offensive sense ; 
 nay, I will retract it, and say deprived ' — 
 
 ' Deprived by circumstances, not by us,' inter- 
 rupted the other, greatly ruffled. 
 
THE QUESTION DEBATED. 147 
 
 ' By circumstances then, which it is optional 
 with their employers to ameliorate greatly, if not 
 altogether to do away with.' 
 
 * At the trifling expence of utterly ruining 
 themselves, and, by consequence, these men also, 
 as I have clearly shown you.. Either disprove 
 my words at once, or allow me to attend to my 
 business.' 
 
 * You require too much,' said Philander. *The 
 facts are obvious enough, and no man can dispute 
 them ; you call on us to disprove your inferences, 
 denying us at the same time the use of the only 
 arguments available for our purpose. Hypothet- 
 ically you place before us a crowded stopping- 
 place, entangled boats, obstructed locks, success- 
 ful rivals, drunken bargemen, plundered cargoes, 
 with a visionary terminus of bankruptcy and pau- 
 perism. Now, all these things exist but in your 
 alarmed mind ; to our apprehension they are op- 
 tical illusions, that will vanish on a nearer ap- 
 proach. You have advanced in your own way 
 certain reasons for believing them real : we only 
 crave permission to state in our way reasons no 
 less cogent for doubting their existence.' 
 
 * In your own way, then, or in any way that 
 will bring this unprofitable discussion to the 
 speediest end ; for I must positively leave you.' 
 
 L 2 
 
148 THE QUESTION DEBATED. 
 
 * Briefly then, I ask you for a moment to dis- 
 entangle yourself from individual interests that 
 connect you with this traffic ; soar for a moment 
 into the regions of sobered imagination, and look 
 down upon a race of fellow-men condemned to 
 endure literally the terms of the primaeval sen- 
 tence, eating bread in the sweat of their face. 
 These men, thus bearing the curse, are they less 
 in need of the remedial blessing, are they in any 
 one clause of God's word placed further beyond 
 it, than you or I ? As for us, so also for them 
 did not God give His only-begotten Son, that 
 whosoever believeth in Him should not perish 
 but have everlasting life ? Is there any other 
 name under heaven given among men whereby 
 they, any more than we, may be saved ? Is the 
 world less ensnaring, the flesh less rampant, the 
 de^dl less active among them than among us ? 
 Will the rest of heaven be less welcome, the 
 flames of hell less torturing to them than to us ? 
 Hath not one God made us, one transgression 
 ruined us, one mighty ransom bought us back, — 
 have we not one battle to fight, one enemy to 
 vanquish, one awful assize to appear at, one un- 
 known, unfathomable, illimitable, unchangeable 
 Eternity to plunge into, naked, helpless, and suc- 
 courless as when we entered the world? Oh 
 
THE QUESTION DEBATED. 149 
 
 with what a grasp we shall then cling to the one 
 forlorn hope of a dying sinner, the mercy of God, 
 revealed in the only way in which He can be both 
 merciful and just, by the offering up on the cross 
 of a sufficient satisfaction for our sins! Now 
 look again, look stedfastly at the race of men 
 whom the providence of God has placed under 
 your control : they must eat, and the bread earned 
 from you is earned on terms of your dictating. 
 Do those terms preclude the setting apart of an 
 adequate portion of time for acquiring a know- 
 ledge of their position in reference to eternal 
 things, and of the duties connected with it ? Do 
 they involve the necessity of breaking any com- 
 mandment ? You know the sentence annexed to 
 such breach : — '* Whosoever," says the Apostle, 
 " shall keep the whole law, yet offend in one 
 point, he is guilty of all." Your objection that 
 the men do not desire the Sabbath, because it 
 would decrease the amount of their wages one 
 seventh part, only goes to prove how hghtly eter- 
 nity weighs in their balance against the things of 
 earth ; yet in that you mistake, for they do ear- 
 nestly desire it : some, perhaps, for a bad pur- 
 pose : but to be overruled for good by Him who 
 has blessed that day, and sanctified it, and who 
 both can and will make it a blessing if you restore 
 
150 THE QUESTION DEBATED. 
 
 it as an act of obedience to His commands. If 
 not, if in a spirit of sordid calculation, and mis- 
 tnist of His faithfulness you withhold it still, 
 what answer can you return to the Judge's de- 
 mand, " Shouldest thou not have had compassion 
 on thy fellow-servant, even as I had pity on 
 thee ? " Pity ! compassion ! they are words in- 
 separable from the Christian creed. Hear then, 
 the cry of souls, perishing in darkness, ignorance 
 and sin, shut in by lips that refuse to plead for 
 them ; dumb, because they are organs only of 
 the will, perverse, corrupt, alienated from God, 
 and stupidly acquiescent in the ruin of the soul. 
 Have compassion on those who, for the very bru- 
 tish ignorance in which they are kept chained, 
 have none on themselves ; and believe that while 
 working for God in the matter where He most 
 emphatically enjoins it, God will cause even tem- 
 poral things to work well for you — better than 
 while you set at nought His law, and virtually 
 deny his sovereignty.' 
 
 The person appealed to remained silent : con- 
 science was at work, and they judged it better to 
 withdraw, leaving him to his reflections. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 PEDESTRIAN GLEANINGS. 
 
 * Now I can render a reason/ said our friend as 
 he prepared to separate from one whose guidance 
 had been of no small importance in leading him 
 so far. * I can render a valid reason for demand- 
 ing express enactments on this head ; for it is 
 plain that the risk of loss in conferring a partial 
 boon, will not be incurred by one man in twenty. 
 Unscrupulous competitors must be restrained, on 
 a principle of bare justice between man and man, 
 if they recognize no higher plea. In fact, the 
 passing of such laws will but operate as the re- 
 peal of a penal code bearing heavily on men who 
 dare to act up to their honest convictions, and that 
 too, in a matter where they have scripture, and 
 the general spirit of our laws on their side. A 
 
152 PEDESTRIAN GLEANINGS. 
 
 man must now be just and godly at his peril : 
 the sabbath that he sets apart, according to the 
 commandment, is seized by a neighbour, and vir- 
 tually added to his own seven days. For instance, 
 a daily carrier refuses to ply his van on the Sun- 
 day : if the rule were general, people must refrain 
 from transmitting their packages on that day, and 
 he would start on Monday morning, himself and 
 his horse refreshed, and brisk at their work. But 
 another fellow, already in the habit of using the 
 Lord's day as his own, eagerly steps forward, 
 plies the customers of his more upright neigh- 
 bour, obtains his load, and thus transfers to his 
 own pocket the Monday's surplus that should 
 have belonged to the first.' 
 
 * Added to which, there is more of Cain's than 
 of Abel's spirit in the world : not a few look with 
 evil eye on a poor brother more righteous than 
 themselves ; and the transmitters of Sunday 
 parcels will frequently withdraw their week-day 
 custom from a man whose practice silently re- 
 proves them, to bestow it on a companion in sin. 
 In the long run, I have never known an instance 
 where the Sabbath-keeper did not obtain a signal 
 advantage over the Sabbath-breaker ; but it is a 
 severe trial of faith, and one where protection 
 ought to be extended and encouragement given. 
 
PEDESTRIAN GLEANINGS. 153 
 
 Men in authority cannot but know that all the 
 insurrectionary plots which harass them and un- 
 settle the country are hatched among Sabbath- 
 breakers. Common policy ought to teach them 
 the necessity of discountenancing what evermore 
 recoils on themselves.' 
 
 * But then comes the objection, the more idle 
 men are on Sunday, the more likely to congregate 
 for mischief.' 
 
 ' Always ready to deny practically God's go- 
 vernment of the world ; and to disbelieve His own 
 express declaration, *' Them that honour me I will 
 honour." We constantly find a temporal blessing 
 annexed to the devout observance of the Sabbath, 
 as a national act ; and I challenge the experience 
 alike of nations and of individuals to impugn the 
 faithfulness of that promise. Among those who 
 are in the habit of measuring themselves and re- 
 viemng the events of their lives by the standard 
 of God's word, I believe you will find it univer- 
 sally admitted that their week's peace and pros- 
 perity are very sensibly affected by the manner 
 in which the opening day of that week has been 
 duly hallowed or its sanctity infringed upon. 
 Worldly minds scoff at this ; but their sneer does 
 not invalidate the testimony that conscience 
 bears ; and if you look abroad throughout Chris- 
 
154 PEDESTRIAN GLEANINGS. 
 
 tendom, where do you expect to find stability of 
 character, uprightness in deahng, a freedom from 
 turbulence, and the general aspect of tranquillity, 
 in stormy times ? The fact of these being ever 
 the distinctive badge of a sabbath-keeping people 
 is acknowledged even by such as never dream of 
 referring it to its legitimate source, the blessing 
 attendant on a fulfilled law of God/ 
 
 * And a law that peculiarly honours him, by 
 tacitly admitting his supreme right to dispose of 
 us and of all that he has given us, according to 
 his own good pleasure.' 
 
 * Most true : a vast heap of imaginary difficulty 
 is built up by our opponents ; but when examined, 
 to what does it amount ? They say, One move 
 in the matter must involve you in an endless maze 
 of legislation : you would compel men to be idle 
 one day in seven ; you would debar them from 
 modes of passing it the most congenial to their 
 habits : you thereby stop up a great safety valve, 
 and must provide some defence, very difficult to 
 devise, against the natural consequences of a high- 
 pressure state of excitement, deprived of its ac- 
 customed vent. Well; all this we admit: the 
 governors and the governed have alike lost sight 
 of the higher purposes of a Sabbath institution, 
 and we fuUv admit the extent of road to be re- 
 
PEDESTRIAN GLEANINGS. 155 
 
 traced ere we find ourselves again in the good old 
 path originally forsaken. But should this deter 
 us ? God forbid ! Every step taken in the right 
 direction involves the removal of a positive evil ; 
 the superaddition of an undoubted good. Public 
 instruction on a greatly enlarged scale must be 
 provided for the hundreds of thousands now des- 
 titute alike of the means and of the will to receive 
 it ; and is it not for this very lack of knowledge 
 that our people perish? While with one hand 
 you create this sensible want, and with the other 
 supply it, are you not acting the part of a skilful 
 physician who stimulates the digestive organs of 
 a languishing patient that he may render grateful 
 the nutritious aliment needful to sustain life ; at 
 the same time removing beyond his reach the 
 tempting but pernicious trash that ministered to 
 his disease ? If the greatest of all legislators ; 
 the all-wise, all-powerful, all-merciful Ruler of the 
 universe has given us the clear draft of a law 
 which he deems essential to our well-being, shall 
 earthly politicians hesitate to carry it out, under 
 the assured blessing of His guidance and ap- 
 proval ? I much fear that, through the obstinate 
 corruption of our nature, the very fact of being 
 brought into such near communion with the Holy 
 One, in the capacity of administrators where he 
 
156 PEDESTRIAN GLEANINGS. 
 
 vouchesafes to issue laws and to direct their ap- 
 plication, is a hindrance where it ought to be the 
 most animating of encouragements. To he fel- 
 low-workers together with God is a priiilege too 
 high, where conscience murmurs, " Depart from 
 me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord !" ' 
 
 * Such may be the process in many minds that 
 are hardly, if at all, aware of it.* 
 
 * At this point, I believe we must separate : I 
 do so with regret, the greater because I see it is 
 mutual ; the less, because I am persuaded that 
 from a doubtful enquirer you have already ad- 
 vanced into a determined champion. Go on, my 
 friend ; for the path is one of pleasantness, and 
 its end peace. Coming to a right understanding 
 of the law's imperative force, you will be the less 
 likely to rest in the law. It coerces ; it cannot 
 justify you. Every attainment in the path of 
 obedience will open to you a clearer view of the 
 impassable gulf that separates you from a holy 
 God — impassable by any effort of your own. 
 The statute-book of God has a terrible summing 
 up : " Cursed is every one that continueth not in 
 all things that are written in the book of the law 
 to do them." Under this curse you must lie, all 
 your struggles for deliverance notwithstanding, 
 until you can by faith lay hold on the righteous- 
 
PEDESTRIAN GLEANINGS. 157 
 
 ness of him, even Christ, who *' hath redeemed 
 us from the curse of the law, being made a curse 
 for us." Set free by his Almighty hand, you 
 will then walk at liberty in the path marked out, 
 accepting as a rule of life that which you never 
 could so perfectly fulfil as to ground a single 
 plea for mercy on your sulHed and fitful, and nig- 
 gardly obedience. Tell me, do you comprehend 
 this ? But I Avill not press the enquiry : take, 
 as a parting gift, this compendious yet portable 
 " remedy," the production of which startled our 
 friend yonder. Armed with that, you may enter 
 fearlessly any field of contest ; taught by it, you 
 may render a reason for all that you do, and for 
 all that you hope. Farewell : when next we 
 meet it may be to celebrate a Sabbath that shall 
 know no end.' 
 
 It appeared strange to Philander, yet it was 
 certain, that he had never in his life parted from 
 a friend so reluctantly as now from a mere stran- 
 ger. He halted on the highway, following with 
 his eyes the quick short steps of his receding 
 figure, enclosing in its small dimensions a heart 
 of no ordinary bigness. A curve of the road 
 soon shut it out, and our tourist found himself 
 under some embarrassment as to his future route. 
 He had formed no plan ; nor could he decide on 
 
158 PEDESTRIAN GLEANINGS. 
 
 the fittest course. Pondering as he slowly walked, 
 he heard himself accosted in a feeble voice, with 
 a piteous appeal to his charity. The man whose 
 tattered fragment of a hat was held towards him 
 wore in every feature the impress of a deadly 
 disease ; and the hollow cough that impeded his 
 words bore testimony how far its ravages had 
 spread. Consumption, appearing in the shadowy 
 remains of a strong man, is perhaps more power- 
 fully affecting than when it throws its fearful halo 
 of delicate beauty around the young and lovely. 
 Philander took in at a glance the tale of past 
 suffering and approaching death; and his tone 
 bespoke a more feeling sympathy than usually 
 accompanies an alms, as he said, dropping a 
 liberal gift into the hat, ' My poor man, you are 
 very ill ; scarcely fit to be abroad.' 
 
 * God bless you. Sir, for putting it in my power 
 to stop under shelter for a day or two. This is 
 a fortune to me,' and he continued to pour forth 
 thanks and blessings till his cough silenced him. 
 
 * Have you a family ? ' said Philander when it 
 subsided. 
 
 * No, Sir ; but I think of marrying when I get 
 well.' 
 
 Strange delusion of a strange malady ! to in- 
 dulge it or to undeceive him appeared to Philan- 
 
PEDESTRIAN GLEANINGS. 159 
 
 der but a choice in cruelty : lie therefore only- 
 asked, * What is your business, when able to 
 work ? ' 
 
 * A boatman. Sir : I was born in a boat, and 
 have never belonged to any thing else. I'm like 
 a fish on dry land, while sickness keeps me here.' 
 
 ' Where do you lodge ? ' 
 
 ' Anywhere I like, now^^ said the poor fellow, 
 glancing at the half-crown ; * last night I slept in 
 a shed, but was turned out of it betimes, and 
 warned against trespassing any more.' 
 
 Philander' s hand was again in his pocket ; but 
 he checked himself, hoping by little further en- 
 quiry to discover a plan more permanently bene- 
 ficial. Slackening his pace to the slowest rate of 
 progress, he questioned the sick man further, and 
 found him unable to read, and in every respect 
 on a level with the most ignorant of his class. 
 By degrees he approached a higher subject : 
 * Sickness Hke yours makes a man thoughtful 
 sometimes ; do you ever remember that there is 
 a world to come ? ' 
 
 * I drive out melancholy thoughts as well as I 
 can. Sir : to be sure we must all die, some day or 
 other ; but my case is not so bad as to make me 
 think about death.' 
 
 * But, even supposing your health were good. 
 
160 PEDESTRIAN GLEANINGS. 
 
 still, as you say, we must all die ; and what do 
 you expect will become of you, when your time 
 arrives ? ' 
 
 ' Well, Sir ; I suppose I shall fare like other 
 people.' 
 
 * Other people are divided into two classes, of 
 whom one will go to heaven and one to hell : to 
 which of these do you think you belong ? ' 
 
 * Why, to be sure. Sir, I havn't thought much 
 about it : we never dream of such things in the 
 boats.' 
 
 * Still you know that there is a God who made 
 you, and who will judge you; and that he is 
 holy, merciful and just.' 
 
 * He may. Sir, for any thing I know. I have 
 nothing to say to the contrary of it.' 
 
 * Do you ever pray to Him ? ' 
 
 * I never learnt any prayers : I should seem 
 foolish like, not knowing what to say.' 
 
 * Are you not afraid of his anger ? ' No an- 
 swer was given to this. 
 
 * Did you ever hear the ten commandments ? ' 
 
 * I heard talk of some, in a place where I slept 
 once ; but I did not give much heed, as it was no 
 business of mine.' 
 
 * Now, my good fellow, tell me fairly, have you 
 ever done any action that your conscience told 
 
PEDESTRIAN GLEANINGS. 161 
 
 you was wrong ? I will mention a few such mat- 
 ters as I mean ; lying, swearing, cheating, thiev- 
 ing, drunkenness, keeping bad company ' — 
 
 The hollow cough, nervously aggravated, checked 
 him, and he paused ; still looking at the flushed 
 face that half shunned his gaze. 
 
 * Well, Sir,' answered the boatman, when his 
 cough ceased, ' all these things are bad, I dare 
 say ; but every body does them more or less, and 
 I am no worse than the others.' 
 
 ' Does it never come into your mind that we 
 have all an account to give for what we do ? ' 
 
 * To be plain with you. Sir, it does come up 
 now and then, and fidgets me for the time ; but 
 then what good will thinking do ? A while ago, 
 I was so bad as to be like to die any hour, and 
 then I got frightened enough, though I hardly 
 knew what at. Now I am better again, and I 
 shall be well as soon as this cough leaves me, and 
 
 get up a little flesh.' 
 ' And what will you do then ? ' 
 
 * Go back to the boats. Sir.' 
 
 ' And be as bad as the rest, to lay up fresh 
 cause for future alarm ? ' 
 
 Here the bright, shining eyes of the dying 
 man were turned upon him, and he said with 
 much feeling, * Sir, if I wanted to get into a 
 
 M 
 
162 PEDESTRIAN GLEANINGS. 
 
 better way, there's nobody to teacb me, nor any 
 time to learn. Other people hear their duty by 
 going to church on Sundays and the hke ; but all 
 that is out of our reach.' 
 
 Silence for a while again ensued : Philander 
 broke it. *When I gave you alms, you prayed 
 to God to bless me ; I therefore, hoped that you 
 knew both how to pray and also the value of 
 what you asked.' 
 
 ' Truth is. Sir, I always hear the beggars say 
 it when they get a halfpenny, and I could not do 
 less when you gave me a half-crown ; ' and again 
 he looked with delight at the broad piece that 
 glittered in his damp cold palm. 
 
 ' The money ^ill soon be spent, and carelessly 
 too perhaps,' thought Philander. ' I must not be 
 content to leave him so.' They were near a small 
 church ; beside it stood the parsonage ; and his 
 eager search was rewarded by seeing the Clergy- 
 man walking at a short distance from the latter. 
 Bidding the boatman wait, our traveller boldly ad- 
 vanced, and with a brief apology represented the 
 sick man's case, at the same time touching on the 
 wretchedly dark state of his mind. * Poor fel- 
 low ! ' said the clergyman, ' this two-fold illusion 
 often comes under my notice ; and in no class 
 more frequently than in his. I will see to his 
 
PEDESTRIAN GLEANINGS. 163 
 
 admission into our infirmary ; and will bear 
 to him the message -with which I am charged 
 — pardon and peace through the blood of the 
 cross. How exactly,' he continued, does my ex- 
 perience tally with that of the clerical brother 
 whose evidence before the ^ House o£ Lords I 
 suppose you have seen. He says, " I have found 
 that when the solemn hour of death arrives, and 
 they expect to depart from this world, that their 
 consciences are sometimes oppressed by the 
 thought that they have lived in the violation of 
 the day which has been appointed to be kept 
 holy." He tells of a man who, ha^dng been for a 
 short time in an Infirmary, sent for him, and told 
 him that he had often while there shed tears in the 
 night to think how many Sabbaths he had broken, 
 adding, " this Sunday trafiic is the first step to 
 destruction ; instead of cleaning ourselves to go 
 to a place of worship, as we know we ought to do, 
 we fly in the face and eyes of the Almighty by 
 going to work, and nothing but bad can come of 
 it." * You remember also the instance that he 
 mentions of a Boatman under sentence of death 
 for murder, who, on hearing the ten command- 
 ments read and explained, started up, crying out, 
 
 * Eridence of Rev. J. Davies. Report, p. 65. 
 M 2 
 
164 PEDESTRIAN GLEANINGS. 
 
 " Sir, I have broken every one of those com- 
 mandments." Another observed to a clergyman, 
 " I consider we Bargemen and Boatmen are worse 
 off than the Negroes in the West Indies, because 
 they know no better than to work on Sundays ; 
 but we do know better." To all this I can add 
 abmidant confirmatory testimony ; as also to that 
 touching instance where a dying man eagerly ex- 
 claimed, on hearing the gospel, "You do not 
 mean to say that the Saviour died for poor Barge- 
 men ? " ' These last words were uttered as they 
 reached the spot where the sick man had seated 
 himself on a sunny bank, and he heard them. 
 The clergyman proceeded to speak very kindly 
 and pleasantly to him, offering a bed in their 
 little infirmary for some nights : an offer that was 
 gladly accepted. Then taking Philander aside, 
 he remarked that the hand of death was upon 
 the victim, and not a moment must be lost. To 
 Philander' s offer of a sum to meet the probable 
 expence, he replied, * By no means ; we have a 
 little purse for such cases, my dear Sir. Reserve 
 your bounty for similar instances of destitution, 
 beyond our reach ; and forget not that the bread 
 of life is that for which their souls perish.' When 
 Philander kindly bade farewell to the poor man, 
 at the same time urging him to pay great atteii- 
 
PEDESTRIAN GLEANINGS. 165 
 
 tion to what he should hear from that gentlemen, 
 he answered, *Well Sir ; mayhap he will teach 
 me some prayers ; and if so, I'll pray for you ; 
 for you're the best friend I have met with, and 
 when I get my strength again, I'd be happy to 
 serve you, if a chance turned up to do it.' 
 
 Was Philander' s heart lighter after this bene- 
 volent action ? No, it felt unusually heavy. A 
 half-crown, and a little consideration had been the 
 means of saving a fellow creature from perishing 
 by the wayside — perhaps of rescuing a soul from 
 eternal death. The sums that he had wasted 
 on sheer vanity, the hundreds of suffering out- 
 casts who had crossed his daily path unrelieved, 
 or with a trifle flung carelessly to them, and not 
 a further thought bestowed on their wants and 
 woes : the days, months, years devoted wholly 
 to self, lea\ing no record of a deed that sprung 
 from any other than an earthborn motive — all 
 this weighed down his spirits painfully. ' Surely' 
 was his mental remark, ' I was not placed at an 
 elevation above many of my fellow creatures in 
 order to run riot on superfluities that would feed 
 and clothe them : I do not possess opportunities 
 of pleading their cause among the affluent and 
 the powerful without an answerable amount of 
 responsibility, not to be evaded. The Sabbaths 
 
166 PEDESTRIAN GLEANINGS. 
 
 that I am now bent on securing to them, as sea- 
 sons for bodily rest and for spiritual instruction, 
 how long, how systematically have I been pollu- 
 ting, to mislead those among them with whom the 
 observance is optional, and on whom the example 
 of their superiors operates with powerful influence.' 
 
 Thus reflecting he pursued his road, haunted 
 by the hollow, hectic cheek, lustrous eye, and 
 sepulchral cough of the poor Boatman, as fancy 
 pictured his last night's lodging under an open 
 shed, and the rapid strides that disease must 
 have made during those few hours : for he re- 
 membered to have been awakened in his comfort- 
 able bed by some extremely rough blasts of wind, 
 followed by smart showers which the sun had 
 dried away ere he descended from his chamber. 
 To this was superadded the certain knowledge 
 that thousands among his own countrymen, in- 
 cluding women and babes, were no better circum- 
 stanced ; nor likely to be so until death put a 
 
 period to their mortal sufferings, and then he 
 
 could not pursue the subject ; for he knew the 
 declaration, " The soul that sinneth, it shall 
 die." 
 
 How many pause, asking whether it is recon- 
 cileable with the justice of God that such as have 
 been shut out from the hearing of instruction. 
 
PEDESTRIAN GLEANINGS. 167 
 
 and whose portion in this hfe has been altogether 
 a bitter one, should be condemned to an hereafter 
 of misery unspeakable and eternal. We are not 
 authorized to arbitrate between the Judge of all 
 the earth and the souls that he hath formed ; but 
 this we know, that by closing against them the 
 door of scriptural knowledge and hope, by leaving 
 them under a seeming temporal necessity of trans- 
 gressing God's law, or by placing before them an 
 example that helps forward their self-delusion, we 
 cannot escape the charge of being accessories to 
 the crime of their destruction : neither can a 
 quiet neutrality, a complacent looking-on, or a 
 selfish averting of the face while the same process 
 is pursued by other hands, exculpate us from a 
 guilty participation. It were well, if, in place of 
 speculating on the future doom of our ruined mil- 
 lions, we laboured each to free his own soul from 
 the charge of their blood, by throwing each his 
 personal influence into the balance against the 
 weight that overpowers them. 
 
 Many miles were traversed by our friend Phil- 
 ander, and in almost as many various forms did 
 the reasons of which he was in quest start up be- 
 fore him. He visited prisons, and heard the same 
 tale from the lips of criminals of every grade, 
 deepening in guilt, from the bricklayer's labourer 
 
168 PEDESTRIAN GLEANINGS. 
 
 whose family were starving while he underwent 
 the punishment of limited incarceration for a 
 drunken riot and assault, to the man of compara- 
 tive education against whom the awful sentence 
 of blood-guiltiness had gone forth, and whose days 
 were numbered ere yet life had attained its meri- 
 dian glow. Evil association, connected with Sab- 
 bath-breaking, either as resulting from or leading 
 to it, was in all an integral part ; of many cases 
 the sole root. He looked into hospitals, and 
 found disease thence as from a starting point da- 
 ting its wild career. He explored the abodes of 
 poverty, and there the neglected wife, not un- 
 frequently defaced by the savage attacks of un- 
 manly violence, the sickly, frightened, famishing 
 child, the absence of all comfort, and presence of 
 wi'etchedness in every form, could bear bitter 
 e^ddence to the natural result of the week-day's 
 wages squandered in the Sunday debauch. A 
 Sabbath withheld or a Sabbath abused through 
 the remissness of the law, seemed to form in the 
 majority of cases the evil genius of the land — the 
 great master curse of its people. There were 
 auxiliaries in abundance : toil so exhaustingly 
 severe, so unmercifully protracted, as to unfit 
 alike the body and the mind for a right employ- 
 ment of the sacred season, prostrating the former 
 
PEDESTRIAN GLEANINGS. 169 
 
 in a listlessness of languor that produced in the 
 latter a craving for stimulants, pernicious in their 
 nature, destructive in their effects. There was 
 also an excess of vicious soHcitation on all sides, 
 the inevitable consequence of unbounded licen- 
 tiousness permitted, if not encouraged among the 
 labouring classes by the notorious laxity of morals 
 prevailing among their superiors. The young 
 female, seduced by some employer's understrapper, 
 becoming in her turn the misleader of her equals, 
 and spreading profligacy without limit on a soil 
 but too well prepared to yield a plentiful harvest 
 of crime. But in all these, and numerous other 
 instances. Philander traced the curse of a broken 
 Sabbath recoihng on the offenders, hardening 
 them in their first guilt, and perpetuating the 
 plague. * What a field is here,' thought he ; 
 * how great the harvest — the labourers how few ! 
 I can well imagine the difficulties of a devoted 
 man, who should set up in one of these demora- 
 lized districts the standard of the gospel, and 
 proceed to gather a congregation from among the 
 dissolute, the drunken, the abandoned populace 
 that would surround him and scoff at his invita- 
 tions. But difficulty is inseparable from great 
 achievements, and surely he who storms the ci- 
 tadel of Satan will count on no feeble opposition. 
 
170 PEDESTRIAN GLEANINGS. 
 
 Conquerors prize their laurels in proportion to the 
 odds against which they fought, and the obstacles 
 surmounted in the campaign, yet they combat 
 to destroy ; we to save. God's hand may be 
 with the warrior on his battle field, contending 
 for a kingdom's safety : yet there are occa- 
 sions where adverse hosts with equal confidence 
 lay claim to it. His hand and his blessing must 
 be on their side who wrestle against the powers 
 of darkness, not only for a vital principle, but 
 for immortal souls unnumbered. How is it that 
 our zeal burns so obscurely here ? Why are 
 words of encouragement so much wanting, and 
 helping hands so languidly stretched out, when 
 the battle is the Lord's, and the prize one worthy 
 of being presented to Him ! ' With such cogita- 
 tions was the mind of our traveller occupied, as 
 he held his way through the streets of the manu- 
 facturing town that presented to his eye one dense 
 mass of poverty, misery, and vice. He pictured 
 to himself the gradual gathering of these wretched 
 beings, first singly, then by tens, and ultimately 
 by hundreds into the folds of a few diligent pas- 
 tors, whose efforts should be seconded by legis- 
 lative restrictions on the open market of Sunday 
 vice ; and more than ever convinced that indivi- 
 dual exertion could achieve a great deal, he was 
 
PEDESTRIAN GLEANINGS. 171 
 
 doubly confirmed in the assurrance that without 
 answerable enactments, duly enforced by the arm 
 of public authority, what might be accomplished 
 would be but as the drop in proportion to the 
 ocean. 
 
CHAPTER XL 
 
 NEW FORMS OF EVIL. 
 
 * For Newmarket, sir?' cried the jolly driver of 
 a stage that seemed already to have exceeded its 
 licensed number of outsides, while the interior 
 exhibited an equally crowded appearance. Phi- 
 lander was quietly walking along, intending to 
 join the village congregation at a church some 
 five or six miles from his present sojourn : he had 
 been advised to do so by a taciturn fellow-passen- 
 ger on the preceding day, who had fathomed the 
 great object of his journey ; but gave no sign of 
 sympathy. To our friend any indication of his 
 short remaining course was welcome ; and without 
 further enquiry he had started early from his re- 
 tired little lodging, to accomplish the distance 
 without hurry. His path had now merged in the 
 
NEW FORMS OF EVIL. 173 
 
 high road, and greatly was he amazed at the dis- 
 play of equipages, principally of a respectable 
 appearance, and some betokening owners of rank 
 and opulence, that rolled along. He now recol- 
 lected his proximity to Newmarket, and that the 
 great road must lie in the direction of the church 
 named by this taciturn traveller. His first im- 
 pulse was to strike at once into a diiferent path, 
 but time would not admit of his returning, and 
 he knew of no other place of worship within reach. 
 A little reflection also shewed him that however 
 repulsive, the scene was a part of what he felt 
 bound to explore in its various ramifications ; he 
 therefore proceeded, negativing the repeated offers 
 of a seat, from drivers who were making up their 
 complement, and at last found himself close in- 
 deed to the church gate, but nearly as close to 
 the principal inn, a very extensive one, where 
 business seemed at its height, in such a state of 
 noise, bustle and excitement, that it surprised 
 him. ' Is this to go on during divine service?' 
 he angrily asked of the sexton, who loungingly 
 paced before the porch of the modest church. 
 
 ' This, sir ! why bless your heart, this is no- 
 thing. The afternoon is the time for seeing a 
 sight, if you like sight-seeing better than praying; 
 and for wishing yourself further off, if you don't.' 
 
174 NEW FORMS OF EVIL. 
 
 So great was the annoyance during prayers, 
 occasioned by the roUing of wheels and shouts of 
 postilhons, that Philander doubted the likehhood 
 of its being increased at any time : however, 
 when he heard the preacher pointedly allude to 
 expected interruptions, and earnestly entreat his 
 hearers not to be tempted by a scene of ungodly 
 display from the place of worship, but reverently 
 to use such opportunities as would be left to them 
 to unite in pubHc prayer, he was convinced there 
 must be an aggravation, and made up his mind 
 to see the worst features of the case. It surpassed 
 all that he had anticipated : throngs of country 
 people from the surrounding villages, some on 
 foot, others in carts, and every variety of vehicle, 
 assembled ; each striving to secure a post as near 
 the inn as possible. They lined the road for a 
 considerable distance, while fumes of tobacco, 
 hot spirits, and the steam from heated animals 
 altogether produced an effect on the fresh atmos- 
 phere, rivalling the worst parts of London. A 
 number of labourers were called in, to assist as 
 grooms ; the yard was literally crowded with 
 horses ; and such a din was kept up, that Phi- 
 lander wondered how the minister could expect 
 to be heard. 
 
 The attraction bringing this multitude together 
 
NEW FORMS OF EVIL. 175 
 
 consisted in the passing by of visitors to the 
 great Newmarket meeting to be held on the mor- 
 row. Lords and ladies, officers, private gentle- 
 men, and respectable gentlewomen there were in 
 abundance ; but far more numerous was a different 
 class. Gamblers of the lowest grade, with their 
 fraudulent apparatus, pickpockets, and abandoned 
 women in all the wretched stages of degradation, 
 together with hundreds of the destined prey on 
 which these three orders of vicious speculators 
 had calculated, were whirled past in their respec- 
 tive conveyances. There was also a long contin- 
 uous stream of waggons, vans, and light carts, 
 bearing the poles, canvas, tables, and other requi- 
 sites for booths : nothing was wanting that might 
 bespeak the minds of a multitude wholly absorbed 
 in schemes of worldly gain or dissipation, and as 
 utterly regardless of Sabbath observance as though 
 no such institution existed. Withui the church, 
 a scanty congregation assembled, having with 
 difficulty worked their way thither ; of these the 
 greater number hurried out the instant after the 
 clergyman had pronounced the blessing ; and 
 Philander noticed some of them eagerly elbowing 
 their way, to obtain a good stand among the 
 gazing crowd. An elderly woman of respectable 
 appearance, evidently anxious to pass as quickly 
 
176 NEW FORMS OF EVIL. 
 
 as possible, but not equally able, attracted his 
 notice : she had handed him a hymn-book in 
 the church, and he now returned the civility by 
 proffering his arm to assist her through the 
 crowd. It was gratefully accepted : * Ah, Sir, 
 this is a lamentable sight even to us who are 
 long accustomed to it : in the eyes of a stranger 
 it must be sad indeed.' Philander expressed his 
 unquaUfied indignation, observing that there could 
 not but be great remissness in some quarter. She 
 told him that until within the last few years the 
 scene had been incomparably worse : that cards 
 were lying about the road, temporary beer and 
 spirit shops erected for a considerable distance, 
 gambling carried on in the open air ; and all the 
 worst features of a public fair on a week-day 
 exhibited ; * and that principally during the hours 
 of afternoon service. * Those who pass in the 
 morning are chiefly persons who have to do with 
 the horses : noblemen, gentlemen, and others 
 concerned in the race : the crowd you see, and 
 similar crowds on other roads, flock to secure 
 quarters before they are otherwise engaged, or to 
 pitch their tents and booths on the ground. Very 
 few among the lower orders will rest under a roof 
 
 * See the Bishop of London's Evidence before a Select Commit- 
 tee of the House of Commons, Aug. 1832. 
 
NEW FORMS OF EVIL. 177 
 
 to-night : it is fine and warm : there will be a 
 vast encampment ; and what with drinking, dan- 
 cing, gambling, betting on the race, and leading 
 others into mischief, the short night will pass 
 over, and the rising sun find them where he left 
 them at his setting.' 
 
 * Many must have been on the road all day.' 
 
 * Yes, Sir, and not a few travelled all night, 
 and have been loitering away the first part of the 
 day at public houses on the road. All the way 
 from London this work is going on, more or less ; 
 but we being near the place itself have the con- 
 tributions of several cross-roads poured upon us 
 as you see. 'Tis a bad day for our labouring 
 people : many a simple lad and lass, who never 
 thought of leaving home, gets tempted by the 
 talk and example of strangers to start off at early 
 morning, and see the sport. Such as are in ser- 
 vice not unfrequently lose their places by going 
 without leave — they seldom get it, because their 
 employers know that they will probably come 
 back well instructed how to rob them. Thus 
 they are turned adrift ; and soon fall into the 
 worst ways, spreading vice through the place. A 
 man was transported last assizes, who, when a 
 decent, quiet, steady youth, was stopped on his 
 way to the church we have just left, and bribed 
 
 N 
 
178 NEW FORMS OF EVIL. 
 
 to lend a hand in the stables of that very inn. 
 There he was persuaded to go ofp to the race- 
 ground, with what proved a gang of sharpers : 
 he staid as long as it lasted, was turned out of 
 his place in a good farm near me, and having lost 
 his character, he followed his evil teachers to 
 London. He soon became expert in all their arts, 
 and for several years he excited the envy of his 
 former companions by the style in which he 
 dashed through his native \illage to the race- 
 ground ; not a few of them being induced by his 
 success to try the same path. Last meeting, he 
 came as usual, and set up a splendid booth, or 
 stand, on the course ; but attempting some great 
 fraud, a riot ensued ; one man was killed, and the 
 deed brought so home to him that he had a nar- 
 row escape from the gibbet. He is gone, or go- 
 ing, to a penal settlement for the rest of his 
 hfe.' 
 
 ' A wholesome warning to others.' 
 
 * I fear. Sir, it has taken no effect : I don't 
 miss one face that I have been used to notice at 
 these gatherings, but I see, alas ! many of my 
 young neighbours tempted out for the first time. 
 We talk to them of the sin of sabbath-breaking ; 
 and they reply, " If our betters think it no harm 
 to drive down on a Sunday, there can be none in 
 
NEW FORMS OF EVIL. 179 
 
 our going to look at them." * There are no 
 less than four meetings in a year, so you may 
 suppose the amount of one year's mischief is not 
 small : but, in fact, this is only a specimen of 
 what is going on almost every Sunday, in one 
 way or another, throughout the country.' 
 
 Our traveller hastened back to his resting- 
 place, and fomid its quiet character quite changed. 
 Not only had many of the inhabitants flocked 
 during the afternoon to the general rendezvous, 
 but its street was in a state of commotion, through 
 a perpetual succession of vehicles, bearing visitors 
 and trafficking from interior districts towards the 
 great road. This produced a noisy Sabbath even- 
 ing ; greatly disturbing the worshippers at a late 
 service in the church ; and increasing as the night 
 wore on. Whatever might be the motive of his 
 adviser. Philander felt that he had gained no tri- 
 fling accession to his arguments by witnessing 
 this most flagrant violation of the Lord's day, 
 perpetrated with impunity by all orders of men, 
 from the Peer to the Pickpocket inclusive. He 
 now remembered having admired as a trait of the 
 innate piety of a Prince of the blood royal, long 
 since deceased, the fact narrated by an attached 
 
 * Bishop of London's Evidence. 
 N 2 
 
180 NEW FORMS OF EVIL. 
 
 biographer, that, when going down to Newmarket 
 on the Sunday, as was his custom. His Royal 
 Highness directed a bible and prayer-book to be 
 laid on the cushion of his carriage. Over this 
 circumstance he pondered long : it bespoke a 
 reigning delusion as to the intrinsic evil of the 
 act which he could scarcely hope to see dispelled 
 from the minds of the pleasure-loving great, 
 whose example would always throw a fearful pre- 
 ponderance into the scale of national disobedience. 
 Nor was that all : a survey of the parties hasten- 
 ing to the course, with a thoughtful view of their 
 business there, its nature, end, and consequences, 
 inflicted the pain inseparable from a consciousness 
 of having departed from the path of God's com- 
 mandments by being frequently a partaker in 
 what he now viewed in its genuine colours. The 
 gigantic proportions of the national transgression 
 that he longed to see put away, still grew in his 
 apprehension, and occasioned a degree of despon- 
 dency very unusual to him : he desired to meet 
 with encouragement, but found none ; and in this 
 mood he opened the little Bible of the little man, 
 where, after listlessly turning over a few leaves, 
 his eye fell on a very strong marginal mark, in 
 good black ink, drawn over against some verses. 
 He read as follows : *' And one of the multitude 
 
NEW FORMS OF EVIL. 181 
 
 answered and said. Master, I have brought unto 
 thee my son which hath a dumb spirit ; and 
 wheresoever he taketh him, he teareth him ; and 
 he foameth, and gnasheth with his teeth, and 
 pineth away : and I spake to thy disciples that 
 they should east him out, and they could not. 
 He answereth them and saith, O faithless gene- 
 ration ! how long shall I be with you ? how long 
 shall I suffer you ? bring him to me. And they 
 brought him unto him : and when he saw him, 
 straightway the spirit tare him ; and he fell on 
 the ground, and wallowed foaming. And he 
 asked his father. How long is it since this came 
 unto him ? and he said. Of a child ; and ofttimes 
 it hath cast him into the fire, and into the waters 
 to destroy him ; but if thou canst do any thing, 
 have compassion on us and help us. Jesus said 
 unto him. If thou canst believe, all things are 
 possible to him that belie veth. And straightway 
 the father of the child cried out, and said with 
 tears, Lord, I believe ; help thou mine unbelief." 
 Here the mark ended, but Philander read on to 
 the happy conclusion, and then marvelled whe- 
 ther the agent had drawn any encouragement for 
 his particular undertaking from the story, so 
 touchingly beautiful. ' Possessed with an evil 
 spirit/ thought he, * this country must be, so far 
 
182 NEW FORMS OF EVIL. 
 
 as tlie madness of habitual rebellion against God 
 proceeds ; and the casting out is a work in which 
 all have hitherto failed. Surely that zealous man 
 applied to himself the declaration, often repeated 
 and confirmed, and never, as far as I know, re- 
 scinded, that "All things are possible to him 
 that believeth." Perhaps those who are bent on 
 remedying the fearful state of things have not 
 looked high enough for help ; have not regarded 
 it as peculiarly the office of the Lawgiver to vindi- 
 cate his own laws ; and to give success where the 
 effort to uphold them is honestly made. How 
 seemingly insuperable are the obstacles arising 
 when men endeavour to deal with this deep-seated 
 and enormous evil! how impossible that God 
 should fail of accompHshing aught that He wills 
 to do ! And it is no trivial matter ; not the con- 
 cern of a single obscure individual ; it embraces a 
 mighty empire, involving the point of their fearing 
 God or despising him. Neither is it a stationary 
 evil, it progresses daily, spreading temptation 
 commensurately with the increase of locomotive 
 facilities ; widening the field of Sabbath labour 
 and of Sabbath dissipation with every advancing 
 step.' 
 
 Is it not so ? We hear on all sides of plans 
 for diminishing the modicum of respect now paid 
 
NEW FORMS OF EVIL. 183 
 
 to the day of God ; the pubhc pulse has been 
 felt in reference to Post-office changes ; and that 
 no responsive throb was perceptible, we cannot 
 attribute to unmixed reverence for a divine insti- 
 tution. It was, however, a powerful testimony 
 yielded to the value of a day's respite from care 
 and toil ; an acknowledgement that the abolition 
 of what, in one sense or the other, is felt to be a 
 privilege, would be held not as an emancipation 
 but a grievance. An idle day, where all concur 
 in making it so, is an admitted boon : a holy day, 
 in the proper acceptance of the term, might be 
 deemed burdensome by nine tenths of its obser- 
 vers ; and to humour this repugnance, to keep as 
 much as may be out of man's sight the embar- 
 rassing fact of his immortality, we are urged to 
 extend the range of earthward attractions, to 
 throw open our museums and places of worldly 
 resort, thereby augmenting the amount of labour, 
 exacted from the multitude of subordinate officers 
 and attendants, who would just enjoy the option 
 of relinquishing their Sabbath or forfeiting their 
 means of subsistence. To this alternative, multi- 
 tudes in other departments are reduced : the 
 boasted liberty of Englishmen is confined, in 
 these instances, to freedom of choice between 
 transgression and starvation. Sons with their 
 
184 NEW FORMS OF EVIL. 
 
 fathers, apprentices with their masters, do indeed 
 act under compulsion ; but the hired servant is 
 left to endure the responsibility of earning his, 
 and perhaps a young family's daily meal at the 
 price of what God made for him — the great chan- 
 nel of temporal and spiritual benefits : the levee- 
 day of heaven, when the King of kings throws 
 wide His palace doors that the poor no less than 
 the rich may draw near, present their petitions, 
 make known their wants, and realize the blessed 
 truth of being under the continued care of One 
 with whom there is no respect of persons : but 
 who hath rather chosen the poor of this world, 
 if rich in faith, to be heirs of the kingdom of 
 heaven. Of what do we rob our poorer brethren 
 when we bar this approach, and deprive them of 
 the very means by which according to divine ap- 
 pointment, this faith comes — hearing the Word 
 of God? The declaration is express. " So then 
 faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the 
 word of God,' ' is the conclusion drawn from those 
 striking premises, " How shall they call on him 
 in whom they have not believed ? and how shall 
 they believe in him of whom they have not heard ? 
 and how shall they hear without a preacher ? " 
 When, therefore, we lend our aid to place or to 
 perpetuate any hindrance that keeps our poor 
 
NEW FORMS OF EVIL. 185 
 
 neighbour from the worship of God, from the 
 hearing of the gospel, we work against the High- 
 est ; we walk contrary to him, to the fullest ex- 
 tent of that alarming phrase ; and are we pre- 
 pared to abide the consequences ? Can our hearts 
 endure or our hands be strong in the day when he 
 shall deal with us, according as we have dealt 
 with our brethren and with Him ? 
 
 Looking abroad, the scene is truly a disheart- 
 ening one : the disease has assumed a confluent 
 aspect, overspreading the surface where before it 
 was but speckled. What then ? shall we despair ? 
 That were to crown with infidel unbelief the other 
 sins that we deplore. The Lord's arm is not 
 shortened, that he cannot avenge his broken law ; 
 nor his ear heavy that he cannot hear the moan 
 of oppressed nature, the cry of ruined souls 
 pleading against the selfishness that destroys them. 
 Neither is his ear closed against the voice of re- 
 pentant supplication on our part ; nor will he 
 withhold his powerful arm from achieving a de- 
 liverance that shall embrace both us and our vic- 
 tims, if we honestly and with full purpose of 
 heart set about our branch of the work. The 
 descent is easy, rapid, and has proceeded far : to 
 retrace the path may and must be a toilsome ef- 
 fort, not to be accomplished without the putting 
 
186 NEW FORMS OF EVIL. 
 
 forth of every energy, mental and physical, ac- 
 companied with inflexible determination to suc- 
 ceed. But, happily, it is a work so subdi\ided as 
 to throw a comparatively Hght burden on each, 
 if all will combine in accomplishing it. The only 
 real bar to complete success is the spirit of self- 
 indulgence that cannot brook the sacrifice of a 
 habit, much less of an enjoyment, to the universal 
 good. * What can 7 do ? ' is the querulous de- 
 mand, when a man is hard pressed on the sub- 
 ject : * if indeed, you could bring a measure into 
 operation where all might work together, I am 
 ready to fulfil my part ; but in subtracting my 
 paltry drop from the bucket, I suffer a loss un- 
 balanced by the satisfaction of perceptibly dimi- 
 nishing the aggregate.' Press the matter on in- 
 dividuals, they tell you the initiatory step apper- 
 tains to the legislature : introduce a bill into the 
 House of Commons, you are assailed, overborne 
 by exclamations on the hardship to be endured 
 by these very individuals. Thus is the law of 
 God set at nought, spurned like a foot-ball from 
 side to side ; his beautiful order of government is 
 overthrown ; his merciful provision for the need- 
 ful refreshment of man and beast trampled on , 
 his righteous demand on a limited portion of our 
 time and for the public acknowledgment of our 
 
NEW FORMS OF EVIL. 187 
 
 dependence on Him rudely negatived ; and yet 
 how few among us give heed to, how small a num- 
 ber amongst those few tremblingly appropriate 
 the language of insulted Omnipotence ; " Shall 
 I not visit for these things, saith the Lord : 
 shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as 
 this ? " 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 Seated once more mth the friend who had sent 
 him forth in quest of reasons, our traveller was 
 better able to measure the distance that he had 
 traversed, in mind far more than in body. ' Pro- 
 ceed with your summary, my dear Sir,' said the 
 worthy man ; * these gleanings by the roadside 
 will furnish a sheaf for the harvest that, by God's 
 blessing, we shall still reap. What have you 
 seen ? ' 
 
 * I have seen man, made as he was in the 
 image of God, grovelling in debasement below 
 the beasts that perish, or towering in crime to 
 the standard almost of a fallen angel, through 
 the sin that ruined Israel, the placing of a tramp- 
 ling heel on the Sabbaths of the Lord ; but this 
 
CONCLUSION. 189 
 
 I am bound to say, that in almost every case 
 where the lower orders are thus brutahzed or 
 devilized, the cause and the cure of the evil were 
 manifestly within the grasp of those above them ; 
 influenced as these again undoubtedly often are, and 
 sometimes even coerced, by a higher grade ; and 
 these, perhaps again looking beyond their own 
 sphere. I know not whether to commence at the 
 higher or lower extremity of the social frame- 
 work ; but from either to the opposite extreme 
 the evil may be traced with precision and cer- 
 tainty.' 
 
 * Take the lowest scale.' 
 
 ' Passing on the high road, within some thirty 
 or forty miles of town, I have met the drover 
 with his charge. The tillage bells chimed sweetly 
 for divine worship, the peasant in his Sunday 
 array was leading his family to public prayer ; the 
 herds and flocks were peacefully grazing, or re- 
 chning within their pleasant hedge-row boundary, 
 and all bespoke, in the rich-toned eloquence that 
 reaches every heart, " It is the Lord's day — the 
 day of rest." But the poor drover, covered with 
 dust, heated and chafed, presenting a pitiable con- 
 trast to his more favoured fellow-rustics, still 
 trudged on, urging with the goad some limping 
 animal, scarcely able to drag its limbs along; 
 
190 CONCLUSION. 
 
 dispatching his dog to worry others, that tempted 
 by the verdant ridge of grass, or ghstening 
 streamlet, would fain have refreshed their parched 
 mouths with what was spread along their path. 
 I have heard the bitter curse, accompanying a 
 cruel blow, or stab, as he urged on the refractory 
 beasts ; and I knew that through the livelong 
 Sabbath hours he must travel and they must 
 parch, and smart, and bleed, enduring more from 
 his increasing irritation, as fatigue and suffering 
 exhausted, and the near approach to the great 
 Babel of noise and confusion, perplexed and 
 frightened them. The drover, I knew, had no 
 Sabbath : he might pass in succession many 
 churches with their assembling or dispersing con- 
 gregation, but against his foot every gate was 
 barred, just because on his undivided attention 
 ro his mute charge depended his livelihood. 
 They must be in Smithfield on the early morrow ; 
 custom has established the Monday market : and 
 rather than make so trifling a change in an old 
 act of Parliament;, the whole body of drovers 
 must be utterly excluded from any participation 
 in the privileges either of a seventh day's rest or 
 a seventh day's sanctification.' 
 
 * Add to which, the systematic, and indeed 
 almost necessary opening of eveiy public house 
 
CONCLUSION. 191 
 
 in the neighbourhood of Smithfield for their re- 
 ception on Sunday Evening ; the consequent 
 swarming of bad characters in that direction ; 
 the excess of various kinds for which their long 
 fatigue and privation furnish a plea, while the 
 absence of all restraining principle leaves them 
 a prey to every \ice. Add again, the open em- 
 ployment of the salesmen and their dependents, 
 in fixing up and preparing the pens for cattle and 
 sheep during several hours of Sunday ; and the 
 dreadful misery suffered by the poor animals, 
 crowded to suffocation, bruised and crushed, 
 agonized with drought, utterly unable through 
 close wedging to bend a limb for rest after their 
 long hard journey ; and all this because, through 
 the inequality of intervening time, the other 
 market day being Friday, custom has conferred 
 on the Monday the distinction of being by far 
 the more important day : so that on Thursday 
 night the pens are half vacant, which on the 
 Sunday night become so many instruments of 
 unutterable torture to God's poor creatures.' 
 
 * What is the objection to changing the day ? ' 
 
 * The butchers demur at it, saying that it is 
 more convenient to them to purchase on Mon- 
 day ; and the reason given bears strongly on our 
 main subject. Among the middUng classes, and 
 
192 CONCLUSION. 
 
 somewhat higher perhaps, Sunday dinners are 
 dressed, probably connected with Sunday visiting, 
 that serve the greater number of them for Mon- 
 day also. This leads to an extensive demand for 
 fresh meat on Tuesday ; and in order to supply 
 it, the butchers must have their cattle in the 
 market on Monday, at the cost of such sin and 
 wretchedness as we have seen.' 
 
 * So that the cure of this evil lies in a general 
 obedience to the commandment, refraining from 
 setting our servants to do any avoidable work on 
 that day.' 
 
 * And not servants only : the quantity of meat 
 sent to be baked on that day is prodigious : the 
 journeymen bakers are among the most oppressed 
 of all compulsory sabbath-breakers ; and their 
 complaints have resounded within the walls of 
 parliament. No sooner was a petition proposed, 
 than seven thousand signatures were affixed, from 
 these men alone. Their unlawful Sabbath toil 
 furnishes not only the Sunday but the Monday 
 dinner to a great multitude of consumers ; there- 
 by furnishing a plea to the butchers to perpetuate 
 the wrong inflicted on the drovers, the salesmen's 
 labourers, and the poor beasts : inclusive of the 
 wanton profligacy carried on in the open beer- 
 houses.' 
 
CONCLUSION. 193 
 
 * In fact, the entanglement of this vile web 
 has so much method in it, that you cannot cut 
 one mesh without loosing many knots.' 
 
 * True, and therefore Satan watches every 
 separate thread as a matter of moment in his 
 estimation.' 
 
 * I wish,' said Philander, * you had told me to 
 commence at the other extremity; we should 
 have traced the expansive benefits to be conferred 
 by the adoption of a single rule, accordant with 
 God's word, among the higher classes.' 
 
 * But you cannot intrude into their domestic 
 arrangements to enforce the adoption of such a 
 rule ; and this it is which renders legislation in- 
 dispensable. The highest class will not, it is to 
 be feared, stoop to examine the items of an ac- 
 count that they wish to persuade themselves does 
 not personally concern them. Those in the next 
 remove below them, will follow their track as 
 nearly as possible ; and this again operating on 
 the powerful spring of self-interest among the 
 trading community, must keep in motion every 
 branch of the machinery, allowing no respite 
 whatever. We are therefore compelled to lay a 
 restraining hand on the latter, thus, in a measure, 
 coercing the former ranks into a line of conduct 
 which they will not adopt from choice.' 
 
194 CONCLUSION. 
 
 * But, alas ! the legislative body to which we 
 look for redress is principally composed of the 
 very individuals whom you thus seek to coerce ; 
 and can you hope that they will forge a fetter to 
 bind themselves ? ' 
 
 * My dear Sir, the fetter is forged, and by the 
 hand of God Himself ; the question proposed to 
 them is whether they will wear it, an easy yoke 
 and light burden when assumed in cheerful obe- 
 dience ; or whether they are content to be num- 
 bered among the distinguished band, the kings of 
 the earth and rulers, who are described as making 
 a stand against the Lord and against his Anointed, 
 saying, " Let us break their bands asunder, and 
 cast away their cords from us." ' 
 
 * They do not wish to be addressed on ground 
 so high as that.' 
 
 * God forbid that we should take lower ground 
 than He has seen good to mark out for us ! If 
 the Sabbath was a human appointment, we have 
 good and sufficient argument to uphold it as a 
 general boon to all animated nature ; but being, 
 as it is, a peremptory law of the Eternal Creator, 
 Preserver, and Judge of men, it makes me trem- 
 ble to hear it bandied about as a debateable thing, 
 to stand or fall as man shall succeed or fail in 
 establishing its supposed expediency.' 
 
CONCLUSION. 195 
 
 * Confining ourselves, then, to this point, the 
 trifling change of a clay in Smithfield market, 
 holding it on Tuesday instead of Monday, what 
 would be the immediate consequence ? ' 
 
 ' The extension of Sabbath privileges, or at least 
 the absence of any breach of them, as regards the 
 the drovers : the cessation of work among the 
 pens on the Lord's day : the absence of an ex- 
 cuse for opening houses of entertainment through- 
 out a wide district ; and finally, the removal of 
 a fearful weight of suffering from the poor beasts, 
 by an equalization of the markets ; for this last 
 it is generally admitted would ensue. A much 
 larger supply would be required for the Friday, a 
 more limited number for the alternate sale.' 
 
 * Then the bake-houses ? ' 
 
 ' They would not be dealt with separately: a gen- 
 eral restriction laid on Sabbath trading would, by 
 including them, enfranchise in that department, 
 many thousands of slaves in London alone, now 
 forcibly withheld from public worship, and, de- 
 prived of that repose in their own homes, which no 
 one — again and again I repeat it — has a right to 
 wrest away. It would in like manner benefit a vast 
 number of servants similarly employed in other 
 branches of trade — the poulterers, fishmongers, and 
 others, whose employers compel them to w^ork, be- 
 o 2 
 
196 CONCLUSION. 
 
 cause by declining to receive and to fulfil orders 
 given on the Lord's day they would lose their 
 wealthy customers ; and having no statute to fall 
 back upon, they would see their places instantly 
 occupied by others.' 
 
 * Surely it is a grievous stain on the cha- 
 racter of such customers that they cannot is- 
 sue their orders in better season.' 
 
 * You must remember that the details of house- 
 keeping fall into inferior hands among our fash- 
 ionables. The cook, not his Master, — the house- 
 keeper, not her Mistress, issues these orders. A 
 bill of fare is prepared, presented, and decided 
 on : beyond this, all rests with the servants. 
 When, therefore, we hear the principle protested 
 against that would assume to interfere with do- 
 mestic arrangements, let us bear in mind the ex- 
 tent to which this interference would reach — just 
 to prohibit my lord's French cook, or my lady's 
 upper maid, from trampling alike on the personal 
 freedom and on the consciences of those who cater 
 to the sumptuous table. This matter-of-fact view 
 disposes at once of some unmerited censure, and 
 a great deal of superfluous delicacy, when the 
 higher classes are our theme.' 
 
 * Of the higher classes I do not much think ; 
 their opportunities are so great, their actions so 
 
CONCLUSION. 197 
 
 free, their responsibilities so well defined, that 
 if they transgress, it is with open eyes and a high 
 hand. My recent walk has been among the sim- 
 ple poor, from whom the very rudiments of in- 
 struction are withheld by the operation of these 
 baneful practices : or if, in childhood, some of 
 them may have been partially taught, such good 
 seed is quickly choked and destroyed by the 
 abundance of noxious produce that cannot but 
 follow their introduction upon the stage of active 
 life. For these I feel ; not indeed exclusively, 
 but more keenly than for the better informed. 
 I have weighed the importance of a saying that 
 no Christian should forget, seeing it was one of 
 the last that dropped from the lips of his Divine 
 Master : " The poor ye have always with you, 
 and whensoever ye will ye may do them good." 
 The want of that will would argue an absence of 
 the spirit most strongly inculcated throughout 
 the Bible ; and as to the nature of the good 
 to be done, the whole man must be included. 
 Neither body nor soul must be defrauded of the 
 gracious provision made for both : the mortal 
 frame must have rest and refreshment ; but shall 
 we stop there ? "We are better instructed — 
 " What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole 
 world, and lose his own soul 1 " Communion 
 
193 CONCLUSION. 
 
 with God is not less needful for spiritual life than 
 meat and drink, sleep and clothing, for that of 
 the body. Knowing this, can we dare to pause 
 on a track plain as the sunbeam can make it ? ' 
 
 ' And this,' thought his companion, * is the 
 giddy careless, apparently godless young man 
 who would fain have laughed off my first appeal 
 to his better feelings ! This is the result of 
 briefly applying his natural faculties to one of 
 the grand objects to which they were originally 
 adapted.' Philander, meanwhile, had taken out 
 his note-book, and was turning over its leaves. 
 ^ You have spoken strongly,' he said, ' on the evils 
 of the Monday Cattle-market : I found in the 
 course of my enquiries that Monday is also the 
 greatest market or show-day of the week in other 
 branches of trade ; necessarily involving a pro- 
 digious amount of Sunday travelling, otherwise 
 uncalled-for. Among these I have noted down 
 corn, coals, silk, and a few more, as being noto- 
 riously articles of Monday barter : so that what 
 between conveying the goods themselves, and 
 bringing up to town both sellers and buyers, whose 
 time is too precious to be lost, the Lord's day is 
 made a season of preparation, bustle and business, 
 beyond any other day in the week. This is a 
 point requiring to be strongly pressed on the legis- 
 
CONCLUSION. 199 
 
 lature : men are too much wedded to old customs 
 to combine voluntarily in effecting a change that 
 the greater number would demur at, as probably 
 injurious to their interests, by depriving them of 
 profits now enjoyed at the expence of many a 
 poor man's Sabbath. It is the becoming office 
 of national rulers to remedy these evils, on the 
 broad principle of obedience to the law of God ; 
 to say to the buyers and sellers, '* The day is not 
 yours ; it is the Lord's ; " and on that plea to re- 
 store what has been wrongfully taken away. As- 
 sume lower grounds, and you will find yourself 
 involved in an interminable argument ; one interest 
 clashing against another, and the sympathies of 
 the arbitrators unavoidably enlisted in favour of 
 a class to which not a few among them actually 
 belong. But take the Bible in your hand, an- 
 nounce " Thus saith the Lord," bring forward 
 existing evils only as illustrations of the universal 
 confusion, wretchedness and guilt following upon 
 a departure from those righteous commandments, 
 and though there may and will be found men har- 
 dened enough to refuse the voice of Him who 
 speaketh from heaven, I cannot bring myself to 
 believe that such men can form a majority in the 
 senate of my country. If it prove so, then fare- 
 well, a long farewell to all her greatness ! ' 
 
200 CONCLUSION. 
 
 ' You consider that we have hitherto failed by 
 taking up ground lower than that which the sub- 
 ject can command V 
 
 * I do : you have condescended to argue it as a 
 matter of expediency, yielding a point here, and 
 a point there, where every concession involves a 
 presumptuous lowering of the standard supplied 
 by God himself. Consider, my dear . Sir, the 
 terms of that law, announced every Sunday from 
 the communion-rails of every church in England, 
 to a kneeling congregation. " Remember that 
 thou keep holy the Sabbath day. Six days shalt 
 thou labour, and do all that thou hast to do ; but 
 the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord 
 THY God. In it thou shalt do no manner of 
 WORK, THOU, and thy son, and thy daughter, 
 thy MAN-SERVANT and thy maid. servant, thy 
 cattle, and the stranger that is within thy gates. 
 For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, 
 the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the 
 seventh day. Wherefore, the Lord blessed the 
 seventh day, and hallowed it." Then comes 
 the solemn response ; ** Lord, have mercy upon 
 us, and incline our hearts to keep this law.'* 
 This law ! Surely, if God is not mocked, the 
 whole proceeding is too awful for words to cha- 
 racterize. The law, set forth in language that no 
 
CONCLUSION. 201 
 
 stretch of human ingenuity can pervert or evade, 
 provided a day's respite from toil for every crea- 
 ture under the control of those who hear it ; spe- 
 cifying son, daughter, servants of both sexes, and 
 the very beasts of draught and burden ; adding a 
 clause that would effectually restrict us from vio- 
 lating it in deference to the claims of any guest ; 
 or encouraging the labours of any individual not 
 coming under the aforementioned heads. We, of 
 course, know that what is necessary for food, and 
 the decencies of life, must be provided ; but to 
 what do these amount in the sight of God ? — of 
 Him who again and again tells us that he is no 
 respecter of persons ; and who knows exactly the 
 hmit where necessity ends and luxury begins. 
 Oh what a change would come over the face of 
 society if each one were to resolve that he, at 
 least, would no more dally with the thunderbolt 
 that slumbers but to smite with tenfold terrors 
 the rebel who shall despise the long forbearance 
 that has delayed to launch it ! Then, indeed, 
 new churches would be called for, and ample 
 funds supplied to the demand, from what is 
 now the means of a curse, taught to become 
 the vehicle of a blessing that we cannot compute. 
 Hallowed as it ought to be by the highest in the 
 land, even the lowest would shrink from a pollu- 
 
202 CONCLUSION. 
 
 tion that, varnished over as it is in one quarter, 
 and filthily gross in another, forms in the eye 
 of God one undistinguished, overspreading na- 
 tional crime. The deserted Parks, deserted by 
 glittering equipages, and placed under strict 
 superintendence, would then but refresh the tired 
 eye of the six days' labourer amid the dense at- 
 mosphere and dreary brickwork of the streets, 
 with their pure green foliage and quiet blue skies, 
 inviting him to bless the Lord who has secured 
 to him the welcome respite, and spread out be- 
 fore him, though on a contracted scale, some of 
 his own bright handy work. The turmoil of the 
 kitchen would subside into the light brief task of 
 preparing such simple fare as comes under the 
 head of necessary refreshment for families whose 
 pleasant duty it would be to impose as little as 
 possible even of this easy work on their menials. 
 The very consciousness of so doing, in simple 
 accordance with their own prayer for the inclina- 
 tion itself, would be the groundwork of a tie, 
 met and cemented by the gratitude of domestics 
 so justly dealt with, which is now the desideratum 
 most loudly complained of when servants become 
 the topic of their employers. What a device of 
 the devil it is to blind our eyes where a blessing 
 so unbounded is set before us ! to tempt our hearts 
 
CONCLUSION. 203 
 
 into such barefaced profanation of the law that 
 we recognize as that which must both rule and 
 judge us ! ' 
 
 ^ You have placed the matter in a startling 
 light : would to God we could convince our coun- 
 trymen how correct is the view ! ' 
 
 ' Their consciences must convict them. Bring 
 forward a proposition to amend our public service 
 by expunging from the Book of Common Prayer 
 this decalogue ; or call for a vote of the senate 
 that it shall no longer be held binding on the 
 people of the land, and conceive, if you can, its 
 adoption by either House ! Yet every man who 
 scouted that proposition would be bound, on peril 
 of deUberate mockery of God and its fearful con- 
 sequences, to do his utmost to carry into effect 
 the provisions of any Bill having for its object 
 the due obsen^ance of the Sabbath-day ; in other 
 words, obedience to the commandment of God. 
 I know the loopholes by which some would es- 
 cape ; but I know not of one that can avail when 
 the judgment is set, and the books opened, and 
 the final account must be rendered in. It is easy 
 to talk of obligations binding on the Jew alone : 
 why, there is no other prohibition to be found 
 against idolatry, adultery, theft, perjury, blas- 
 phemy, save as they are enumerated in the deca- 
 
204 CONCLUSION. 
 
 logue, placed on a par with the sin of sabbath- 
 breaking ; or, by the voice of the Jewish prophets, 
 set before the Jewish people/ 
 
 * In the New Testament/ 
 
 * Ay, but the New Testament stamps with an 
 eternal imprimatur the law of commandments, 
 holy, just and good, as a rule never to be lost 
 sight of, never to be wilfully transgressed, though 
 as a covenant means of justification it no longer 
 terrifies the conscience of him who believes in the 
 Saviour of Sinners. That it is so, we have the 
 unimpeachable testimony of our own approved 
 formularies of public devotion, which you will 
 find the majority of our legislators as stiffly up- 
 holding as any men. Turn where you will, the 
 way is hedged up : and opposers must take refuge 
 in one or the other of these condemned classes : 
 they prefer the service of mammon to that of 
 their Creator; or they are lovers of pleasure 
 more than lovers of God.' 
 
 'You are aware that the strong-hold of our 
 opponents consists of sundry personal inconveni- 
 ences to which various individuals may be exposed 
 by legislating on this subject ? ' 
 
 * No man can expect to witness a complete re- 
 volution, in a matter affecting, more or less, every 
 limb and fibre of the social frame, without a 
 
CONCLUSION. 205 
 
 measure of embarrassment, of inconvenience, of 
 actual loss in some quarters. It is the penalty 
 incurred by a long continuance in doing evil, but 
 no sound argument against putting away the evil 
 of those doings. A needle buried in your flesh 
 cannot, probably, be extracted without a consider- 
 able degree of suffering; but you would not 
 therefore leave it to fester, or to work its way to 
 some vital part. Inconvenience, or temporal 
 loss to some few, is a strange plea to enter against 
 the present and eternal well-being of milhons — 
 the ^dndication of God's sovereignty over a Chris- 
 tian people. The ways of the Lord are always 
 equal ; the inequaUty of ours, perpetually diver- 
 ging from a straight line, must necessarily involve 
 us in frequent difficulty while we retrace our way- 
 ward steps to regain the point whence we last 
 started away, and shape out at our own cost a 
 better path, choked up by rubbish of our own 
 accumulating. We go too tardily, too timidly 
 about our work ; where is the zeal of Nehemiah 
 contending with the sabbath-breakers of his day? 
 More energy, determination, impetuosity if you 
 will, is called for : more of the spirit that of old 
 urged on the servants of the Most High to vin- 
 dicate the honour of His name. Why have we 
 not a body of young men in the higher class, 
 
206 CONCLUSION. 
 
 many of whom must surely be awake to the im- 
 portance of the thing, coming forward to plead 
 the cause of the poor and friendless, with the fire 
 of youth, never so brightly burning as when 
 touched by a coal from the altar of the Lord of 
 hosts ? This little tract, which I may call my 
 horn-book in the study of a subject now so dear 
 to me, this " E^adence of Dr. Farre before the 
 Select Committee," places the subject on a foot- 
 ing to invite the humane consideration of every 
 thinking mind; and, once heartily engaged in 
 the search, reasons will be found for prosecuting it, 
 so abundant, so weighty, so overwhelming both in 
 their interest and importance, embracing in their 
 scope not only time but eternity, that the man 
 whose eyes, like mine, have been unbound to dis- 
 cern them, will deem a long life well spent in la- 
 bouring to remove the bandage that erring sophis- 
 try has drawn across the eyes of his fellow-men.' 
 * Ay, and such a labourer, if he saw no present 
 fruit of his life's toil, might place his head on a 
 dying pillow, cheered by the testimony of con- 
 science that the cause in which he has been zea- 
 lous is that of righteousness ; that his work is 
 with the Lord, and his reward with his God.' 
 
 THE END. 
 
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