That a weekly day of entire consecration to repose from secular labour, and to the immediate service of God, cases of necessity and mercy excepted, was at the creation of the world divinely appointed for man, was promulgated from Sinai in the Decalogue, and, being transferred by Jesus Christ from the end to the beginning of the week, was by Him recognised as an ordinance of the Christian dispensation, and as still under the rule of the Fourth Commandment, is a doctrine which it is the object of this volume to uphold, illustrate, and recommend. And in endeavouring to accomplish this object, it is our purpose,-First, to adduce proofs from reason and experience of the excellence, value, and Divine origin of such a holy day. Second, to present the testimony of revelation to its Divine authority, its divinely-prescribed duties, and its divinely-estimated importance. Third, to exhibit from history evidence corroborative both of the proofs from reason and of the testimony of revelation on the subject. Fourth, to vindicate the institution against opposing theories, schemes, and arguments; and Fifth, to enforce its claims against practical perversions and neglect. PROOFS FROM REASON AND EXPERIENCE OF THE EXCELLENCE AND DIVINE ORIGIN OF THE SABBATH CHAPTER I. PHYSICAL AND INTELLECTUAL ADAPTATIONS "I feel as if God had, by giving the Sabbath, given fifty-two springs in the year." COLERIDGE. "I am prepared to affirm that, to the studious especially, and whether younger or older, a Sabbath well spent-spent in happy exercises of the heart, devotional and domestic-a Sunday given to the soul-is the best of all means of refreshment to the mere intellect."-ISAAC TAYLOR THE requisites to man's physical wellbeing may be comprehended under food, air, exercise, rest, sleep, cleanliness, and a cheerful state of mind. Exercise is necessary, not only in many cases to the removal of disease, but in general to its prevention, and to the continued soundness and vigour of the entire animal system. To be beneficial, however, it must be moderate. Excess here is as fatal as defect. And it must be regular. There must be alternations of exertion and repose, the latter, particularly in the form of sleep, being needed for recruiting the nervous energy which labour has exhausted, and for abating the activity of the circulation which would else acquire a rapidity incompatible with life. Man ought. to go forth to his work and to his labour until the evening, performing with regularity and without oppression his daily task under the eye of day. Those who work must work while it is day. They that sleep, sleep in the night. It is then that deep sleep falleth on men. Nature itself, in its vicissitudes of day and night, instructs us when to labour and when to indulge repose. By But in addition to the sleep and refreshment of night, there is need, from time to time, of a day of rest. "Although the night apparently equalizes the circulation, yet it does not sufficiently restore its balance for the attainment of a long life-hence one' day in seven, by the bounty of Providence, is thrown in as a day of compensation to perfect by its repose the animal system." the periodical interposition of a day's respite from labour, a check is given to a course of toil, which would speedily destroy the workman, or, in other words, an opportunity is afforded for the rest which physiologists and physicians judge necessary for a season in many cases of disease, and recommend to be sought, at stated intervals, by all who would live long and see happy days. They tell us that the animal frame, whether in man or beast, can sustain only a certain amount of continuous exertion, and that the transgression of this limit, if persisted in, must, at no distant period, impair the constitution. "I believe," says Dr. Carpenter, "that it is the opinion of those who work many horses in coaching, etc., that it is better to work a horse (say ten miles a day) for four days, and to give him an entire rest on the fifth, than to work him eight miles a day for the whole five."2 In the case of human beings, the earlier decay, the more prevalent diseases, and the briefer average life of working men than of the upper and middle classes of society, together with the uniform proportion which these evils bear to the amount of unremitting toil, confirm the conclusions of science. Taking the whole of the French population, human life, according to the estimate of M. Villerné, is protracted twelve and one-half years among the wealthy beyond its duration among the poor. In England, too, the difference is greatly in favour of the former class, as appears from the Report of the Poor-Law Commissioners for 1842, where thirteen cases are adduced, showing the average life of three classes to be .as follows: 1 Dr. Farre in Evidence before a Committee of House of Commons (1832), p. 116 * Letter to Mr. Grainger, Woolwich Lectures on the Sabbath, p. 53. That a proportion of mortality so sad for the working classes is owing to a variety of causes, is not to be denied. Poverty, impure air, want of cleanliness, and vicious indulgence, contribute each its share of injury. But when we consider that unduly protracted labour operates with a twofold force, fostering these very evils as well as directly dilapidating the strength of its victims, we may well regard it as a principal cause of their physical deterioration. "My own opinion," writes Dr. Carpenter, "has long been very decided, that ten hours a day is the fullest amount that ought to be assigned to continued bodily labour, and where there is much mental tension, I should say that even this is too much." Mr. Grainger, who publishes this opinion, and affirms it to be concurred in by the highest medical and scientific authorities in this country, and confirmed by his own official inquiries in the manufacturing districts, adds, "If that limit be exceeded, the penalty must be paid in unnecessary sickness, in premature decay of the system, or, as constantly happens, in premature death." 1 Let the blame of these results be equitably distributed among those who, to gain their own ends, unwisely sacrifice the interests of their inferiors, and those who, with still more glaring folly, allow themselves, by vice and the neglect of Sabbatic rights, to be reduced to slavery. There is another kind of labour-that of the mind-which more speedily and powerfully than merely animal exertion affects the physical condition, inasmuch probably as it calls into action the entire system by means of the brain, and its ubiquitous nervous energy. The moderate and regular exercise of the mental faculties and feelings is even conditional to the possession of the highest bodily health, while fitful and aimless employment of the mind, or incessant anxious thought on any one subject induces idiocy, or insanity, and death : "But 'tis not thought (for still the soul's employed), No class of men enjoy better health, or attain more years, than those of calm studious habits. Persons, on the other hand, who overtask their mental powers, are prematurely sacrificed to their 1 Letter to Mr. Grainger, Woolwich Lectures on the Sabbath, p. 53. ardour or ambition. Few students are ignorant of the relief which some change, say a walk, the call of a friend, or a fresh topic of investigation, yields to the heated brain. Weber was aware of the effect and danger of intense uninterrupted thought, when he explained, "Would that I were a tailor, for then I should have a Sunday holiday!" By spending his evenings in soothing conversation with a friend after his daily labours on his great work, the Synopsis, Poole showed that he knew both his danger and the remedy. Nor was the eminent Dr. Hope, of London, less considerate in dismissing every evening at eight o'clock all interest about his patients, a practice to which he was wont to attribute his long-continued life and health. "I do not think," says Dr. Carpenter, "that more than eight hours a day can be given to purely mental labour."2 Cleanliness has so close an affinity to morals as to have been classed among the virtues. It has, also, an intimate connexion with health, both as contributing to the purity of the atmosphere which we inhale, and as promoting the circulation of the blood, particularly over that membrane, the skin, which performs so important a part in the complex and delicate economy of life. It was no arbitrary law which required of the Jews frequent ablutions. It was one founded in the necessities of men, particularly in eastern countries, and calculated to have, morally and physically, a salutary influence on its subjects. It were easy to prove that a weekly holiday tends to foster habits of cleanliness. Let it be sufficient to refer to the appearance of church-going people in Scotland or England, as contrasted with the following state of things in France after its first Revolution : "The moroseness occasioned by the want of a Sabbath in France, has an effect on the cleanliness of young men engaged in manual labour; they pursue their daily drudgery in their dirty working dresses, and habit renders them at length averse to a change of linen and clothes."3 A cheerful mind is held by physiologists and medical men to be one of the causes of health. For want of this all means fail; 2 Woolwich Lectures, p. 53. 1 Rose's Biograph. Dict. Article "Poole." |