CHAPTER VI.

ADVANTAGES OF THE SABBATH TO NATIONS.

"I have lived long enough to know what at one time I did not believe-that no society can be upheld in happiness and honour, without the sentiments of religion." -Words of LAPLACE, not long before his death, to Professor Sedgwick.

"The Sabbath, as a political institution, is of inestimable value, independently of its claims to Divine authority."—ADAM SMITH,1

"WEALTH," says a popular writer on Political Economy, "is but one among a number of causes which conduce to the happiness of a people. Social happiness is the result of a pure religion, good morals, a wise government, and a general diffusion of knowledge.' Let us consider these and other elements which enter into national prosperity, with the view of ascertaining how much they are dependent for their existence and power on the Sabbatic institution.

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The welfare of a country is in no small degree promoted by its wealth, provided this be not limited to a few, but, while possessed in a larger share by some, be diffused in a competent measure among all classes. It is in such circumstances that nations are more industrious, and have more leisure as well as inclination for the improving and refining pursuits of science, literature, and general knowledge. These circumstances remove society farther away from the evils of disorganization and barbarism. The augmented capital and the higher standard of enjoyment connected with such a state of 1 "The baronet's next undertaking was a quarto essay against what he then considered a too strict and puritanical observance of the Sabbath in Scotland, but with singular conscientiousness he destroyed the whole manuscript on hearing this remark from his friend, Dr. Adam Smith, which was the more memorable as coming from the apologist of David Hume: Your book, Sir John, is very ably composed; but the Sabbath, as a political institution, is of inestimable value, independently of its claims to Divine authority.'"-Memoir of Sir John Sinclair, by Chambers.

2 Conversations on Polit. Econ., sixth edit. p. 24.

things supply increased stimulus to trade, and multiply the pro ducts of industry. And while a general plenty is a blessing, the affluence of individuals is a fund which can be drawn upon for large and expensive undertakings, and for any emergencies that may arise from unpropitious seasons or from prevailing disease. It has been remarked, that the kingdom of Judah was in all respects in its best state when its commerce was most extended, and its wealth most plentiful. A prevailing poverty, on the other hand, is in various ways injurious to society. It is one cause of the crime that destroys confidence, and entails a vast expense on a nation. It directly absorbs much of the capital of a country to the oppression of the industrious, and the prevention of many useful applications of money. It in many cases induces, invites, and localizes disease, whereby terror and death are spread all round. Of thousands thus made widows and orphans every year, the greater portion become burdens to the country, while the loss in productive labour by sickness and funerals, is immense. Add to this the destruction of property to which many in these circumstances are impelled, who are not under the control of intelligence and moral principle. And the evil ends not. with one generation, but goes down to a sickly and degenerate posterity.

The riches, which prevent so much injury, and secure so much good to a nation, are the fruits, in abundant amount, of its productive labour. The persons who labour and economize, are benefactors of their country,-the idle and the wasteful diminish its wealth. It has been shown in a previous chapter, that incessant toil is detrimental to the commercial interests of a community in the diminished amount and depreciated quality of its material and mental products, as the consequence of its demoralizing tendency, and the physical exhaustion of the workmen ; while, on the other hand, every kind of labour becomes, by the interposed rest of the Lord's day, more valuable, and therefore more remunerative. Connected with that day's rest, there are, we have seen, some remarkable provisions for benefiting both the labourers and the State. And it has appeared, that in point o❤ fact the wealth of nations graduates according to the measure in which the day is religiously respected and observed.

Akin to the element of wealth is another-a spirit of improvement and useful enterprise. Of this spirit, although on a small scale, a happy illustration has been supplied by the Morning Chronicle Commissioner, in the case of the Sabbath-respecting and energetic fishermen of one of the contiguous villages, mentioned in the preceding chapter. The same cause produces the same effect, and as in that village, so everywhere it will be found that the Sabbath well kept promotes a desire for social improvement. And it produces the effect in two ways, directly on its friends, and indirectly on their neighbours who are cold or hostile to its claims. So powerful is the institution that it operates beneficially, not only on its own adherents, but through them on individuals and communities that to a great extent disregard its authority. Many of our principal inventions, discoveries, and arrangements, our steam-engines, our railways, and telegraphs, our schools of art, our agricultural, manufacturing, and postal improvements, take their rise in Britain or America, those lands of the Sabbath; and other lands follow in their wake. France, indeed, sends over her contributions to our civilisation; but they abound in the frivolous and the effeminate, and when substantial, are much helped by foreign impulse. Italy excels in the fine arts, and we are sufficiently willing to learn of her in that depart ment, but we cannot forget that Rome, the seat of a government which ought, from the assumed infallibility of its head and church, to be the most enlightened and advanced on the face of the earth, is nevertheless found, as to all that is of the greatest importance to a country, lagging ingloriously behind. It will drain no marshes. It will introduce no subsoil plough into its Campagna di Roma. It abjures winnowing machines and iron bridges. It would form no railways, and strongly resisted the proposals of foreigners to introduce improved light into its dismal streets, and only the other day yielded to the pressure of universal opinion and example in these matters of obvious utility. Every attempted improvement, indeed, originated with English skill and capital. And "so effectually has the Pontifical Government deeloped its influence, as to have all but annihilated trade in the Papal States." In the other states, if we except Lombardy, matters are not much better, and even that fertile, well-watered

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portion of Italy is far behind in the march of improvement. have seen that considerably more than a half of the inhabitants of Naples are without any fixed employment, yet the Neapolitan territory, which miserably maintains a population of between seven and eight millions, is capable of yielding abundant food for at least twenty millions of people, or three times the present

amount.

As with Italy, so in many respects it is with all other countries which are burdened with an exacting superstition, that yields no compensating return, and are encumbered with a multitude of holidays, without feeling the refreshing and animating influence of a weekly day of repose and religious instruction. These countries, however much they profit by the indirect influence of the institution coming upon them from other lands, and stimulating them by means of commerce to the exertions by which their natural capabilities are turned to some account, are yet low in the scale of material prosperity, for want of the direct impulse of the institution in exciting a spirit of improvement among the · people. While the manufactures of Portugal are inconsiderable, its agriculture is the worst in Europe. How lamentable is the state of Spain, where the great body of the people are abandoned to idleness and vice,-where, with a climate and soil admitting in some spots of three or four crops in the year, not above a fourth part of the surface of the country is applied to any useful purpose, and where, with excellent facilities for commerce, the exports are less than those of some of our leading commercial towns.2 "The Protestants of the United States," as Macaulay remarks, "have left far behind them the Roman Catholics of Mexico, Peru, and Brazil; the Roman Catholics of Lower Canada remain inert, while the whole continent round them is in a ferment with Protestant activity and enterprise."

It is so much easier for human nature to do evil than good that it is not wonderful that the Protestants on the Continent

1 It has been estimated that the sum lost to Spain every holy-day or feast-day by the suspension of labour is £166,666, 13s. 4d., making an annual loss of nearly seven millions.-Bell's Geography, vol. ii. 272, note.

2 Christian Treasury (1846), p. 379. The writer informs us that 400,000 quarters of grain, on an average, need to be imported every year to prevent multitudes from perishing by famine.

of Europe should, under the influence of Rome and of infidelity, have departed from the strict observance of the Sabbath which was for a long period maintained both in the Lutheran and Calvinistic churches. But when we bear in mind that this deviation, while at no time universal, has never proceeded to the same desecration of the institution as has prevailed among Romanists, and that those churches have always enjoyed in connexion with the Lord's day the means of Christian instruction, together with freedom from the burden of numerous holidays, we are prepared for the state of things which actually exists, a measure of enterprise inferior to that of British and American Protestants, and yet beyond that of their Roman Catholic neighbours.

In Switzerland what an improvement in every respect strikes the eye as you pass from Valais to Vaud, or from Lucerne to Zurich ! And how spiritless appears the town of Lucerne with its alternate shops of bijouterie and cigars, compared with the bustling Zurich, so like our Birmingham or Belfast, or with thriving Geneva, although all the three have the common advantage of being situated near noble rivers and lakes! "The Cantons of Zurich, Basle, Geneva, Neuchatel, Glarus, and Outer Appenzell, which are all Protestant, are distinguished above the rest by their industry. One circumstance is remarkable, namely, that almost all the manufacturing industry of Switzerland is found in the Protestant part of it, while the Catholics possess little or none. Very often, as in Appenzell, the line of demarcation is quite sharply drawn. Manufactures and Protestantism cease at once, and give way to the herdsman and the shepherd; and that, not because there is any sudden change in the natural features of the country, for the little Canton of Glarus, for instance, is a high mountain land, and yet it abounds in industrial activity. But the people of Glarus are Protestants; they have fewer fast-days and holidays; and Protestantism awakens the powers of the mind, abates the influence of the priesthood, and teaches men to rely on their own exertions." The writer observes that the same remark applies to Germany, where "of two villages close together, the Protestant community will be clean, industrious, and prosperous, while their Catholic neighbours 1 Mugge's Switzerland in 1847, vol.ʼL pp. 202, 203.

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