Sabbath railway travelling. But what pen can describe the astonishment produced by this wondrous peroration? Countenances began to lengthen or shorten; the eyes of the sabbatarians brightened; and strangers from England, paralyzed with astonishment, seemed to ask, Can it be Scotland of which he is speaking? The orator then entered into the heart and pith of the argument, by investigating the nature of the Sabbath itself, for the purpose of showing that its obligations did not prohibit those indulgences which his party required. And here he spoke broadly out-so broady, indeed, that the hearts of his stoutest constituents must have trembled with the consciousness that the move was ir recoverable. " I tell the sabbatarians," he exclaimed, "that according to my opinions and convictions, and according to the convictions of the great majority of the people of Scotland, the fourth commandment is not a commandment imperative on Christians, and was abolished by the Saviour. It is no more binding and imperative than any mere ceremonial law of the Jews it is no more binding upon Christians than is the law of circumcision, or the law against eating pork, or the Sabbatical year. This can be proved." Prodigious! Scotland and the Christian world must have been lying under a strange hallucination for eighteen centuries, until this new prophet arose to set them right. It is no wonder, therefore, if the astonished audience shouted, 66 Proof! proof! To this demand, he replied, "I have read the Bible with that view-it is pointed out by numerous texts in the New Testament, which the sabbatarians never choose to quote or refer to." "Quote! quote !" thundered the audience in turn; but here discretion came to the aid of his valour, and he wisely abstained from the hazards of quotation — he merely repeated his strange assertion, and proceeded to build upon it a marvellous superstructure. 66 I have no hesitation," he said, "in giving it as my conviction, that the Judaical observance of the Sunday is not only inconsistent with, and at variance to, the New Testament, but that it is most injurious to the peo→ ple of Scotland." And how so, we pray you? He thus replies: "The consequence of attempting to bring about such a state of things is, that the young in Scotland, not being allowed to give way, during this only weekly holiday, to that exuberance of animal spirits, the accompaniment of youth and health, in open and innocent amusements, are too often drawn on the Sunday into degrading vices, accompanied by bare-faced profligacy in some, by gross hypocrisy in others." And thus the ingenuous youth of Scotland are to be reclaimed from "bare-faced profligacy" and " gross hypocrisy, by the mighty ministry of steam. The school-boy shall have a whole holiday every week, besides the half of Saturday, on which he may play at marbles, leap-frog, and foot-ball, or take a two hours' ride into the country, to indulge in the luxury of Sabbath birdnesting; while the rustic juveniles of strath and hamlet will have the same facilities of a Sunday trip to the city, that they may wander among the glories of Modern Athens, and study the wondrous devices of metropolitan life. And this is the process under which juvenile profligacy and hypocrisy are to disappear from Sabbath-ridden Scotland! Warming and kindling with his subject, as he rushes onward, he discovers that almost all the vices and crimes of the land are to be traced, not to Sabbath-breaking, as has been frequently supposed to be their origin, but to Sabbath-keeping! Yes, to Sabbath-keeping; and although we are not aware that, at this stage, the meeting again shouted "proof, proof," he generously volunteered to furnish demonstration after the fashion of Asmodeus in the Diable Boiteux. sabbatarians," he alleged. "are continually referring with exultation to what they call the quiet and staid appearance of our Scottish towns on the Sunday, as a mark of the morality of the people and the good effect of the Judaical observance of that day. But if the roofs were lifted off the houses, a very different scene would be perceived. It would be found that more profligacy and debauchery of every kind takes place "Our on the Sunday in the towns of Scotland, than in any other towns of equal size in modern Europe. And all this is the natural and inevitable consequence of the young being debarred from those innocent and healthful recreations which are followed in other countries, and condemned during a whole day in the week to listless inaction. Yes, I maintain it is the sabbatarians who are the true cause of the public-houses and brothels being filled on the Sundays." We are not so mischievously-minded as to quote further, but the speech, taken as a whole, was one of the most powerful and effective ever delivered at a public meeting. Our readers will be at no loss to appreciate the nature of the compliment. Like Samson, it pulled down its own cause about its ears, and thus settled the matter at once and beyond recovery. The advocates of Sabbath railway travelling made indeed a feeble rally; but what availed it when the house of Dagon had thus fallen? We trust that neither the victory will be foregone by the friends of the Scottish Sabbath, nor the defeat forgotten by its enemies, should the design be entertained of renewing the contest at any future period. END OF VOLUME FIRST. Academical course of Metaphysics. On American Presbyterian Church, (Old Antichrist? Who is, 35. Ancient Slavery, 480. Aspects of the Educational Question, 64. Buchanan. George, 171. Bull Fight. A Spanish, 373. Bunsen's Egypt in the history of the On the Evangelical Alliance, 81. No. I. Die Barmherzigen Schwes- No. II. Dusselthal Abbey, 437. Constance Lyndsay, or the Progress of Copts. The, Notes of a traveller, 311. Dirge of the flowers, 461. Doctrine and form in the Church, 131. Duty. The present, of electors in Scot- Edinburgh. What might be done for the Educational question. Aspects of the, 64. How to be provided for in present The Government scheme, 345. Educational scheme: Interim report on Lycia and its antiquities, 427. Madeira. Religious awakening and perse- Martyr's child. The, Scottish ballads -No. Month. Notes of the, 77, 249, and 506. Mythic theory of Christ's life. The, 361. Nineveh its remains and memories, 277 Notes of a traveller-the Copts, 311. Pascal's provincial letters, 446. Persecutions. Record of present and pass- Philanthropy. Universal-Modern popu- Planet. M. Le Verrier's, 184. Salaminian Triumph-song, 179. No. I. The Martyr's child, 205. No. III. Patrick Hamilton, 442. Population. Doubleday's theory of, 300. Record of present and passing persecu- Reformation. The German, of the 19th Religious awakening and persecution in Roman Catholic processions, 457. Salaminian Triumph-song, 179. Slavery. Ancient, 480. Spanish bull fight. A, 373. Traveller. Notes of a-The Copts, 311, Verrier's planet. M. Le, 184. Warkotsch. The plot of. An incident of Witness stones, The, of Rutherford, 268. |