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THE

UTICA CHRISTIAN MAGAZINE.

VOL. III.

Sir,

DECEMBER, 1815.

To the Editor of the Panoplist.

I am extremely happy to learn, from the minutes of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, and of the General Associations of Connecticut and Massachusetts, that it was resolved,

at the late sessions of these venerable bodies, to unite in petitioning Congress, to put a stop to the carrying and opening of the mail, upon the Sabbath. The plan of circulating copies of the general petition for signature, among all denominations of Christians throughout the U. States, is, I think, very judicious. It is calculated to embody and ascertain the strength of the good people of this country, and to bring their views and wishes, in regard to the importance of the Chrislian Sabbath, fairly before the national legislature. Anxious to forward this noble and patriotic design, by every proper means in my power, I have been induced to depart a little from the regular order of the discussion on which I have entered, and to send you a few strictures, which I had intended to make in another place, upon the existing regulations of the Post Office department. If you think an early insertion of them will be likely to promote, in any degree, the great and good object in view, they are at your service. Z. X. Y.

ON THE SABBATH. NO. 1V.

On carrying the Mail upon the Sabbath. Ir it can be made to appear, that the regular transportation and opening of the mail upon the Lord's day, interferes, unavoidably and extensively, with the appropriate duties of holy time; and that the practice cannot be justified by the plea of necessity; it will, I trust, be admitted, (nay more than admitted,) by all who have any regard for the Sabbath,

No. 6.

that it is a practice, which ought to be discontinued, Does the practice, then interfere with the religious duties of the sacred rest? This is the first point to be considered; and surely, there can be no room for doubt, where conclusive facts present themselves,

"Thick as the leaves, that strow the brooks, In Vallombrosa:"

It will be seen, at a glance, that in a country so extensive as ours, and one which is every where intersected by post-roads, it requires a very great number of drivers and carryers to transport the mails. All these persons have souls to be saved or lost. The law of God binds them, equally with others, to keep the Sabbath holy. It is their indispensable duty to make it a day of rest from worldly employments, and to spend it in the "public and private exercises of God's worship." But the ex||isting regulations of the General PostOffice render such an observance of the Sabbath, by them, impracticable. They are required to be on the road, when they should be in the house of God, in their families, or their closets.

Thus freed from the restraints, and deprived of the blessings of the Lord's day, they gradually lose whatever rev erence they previously had for its sacred hours, and divine requirements, The consequences are such as might be expected. The Sabbath being soon forgotton by them, other divine institutions are of course disregarded, and they are placed at a remove, almost hopeless, from the kingdom of heaven. How many persons are employed every Sabbath, as mail-carriers, in this exten sive country, I know not. The number must certainly be great. Probably from ten to fifteen hundred. And ought not their services to be dispensed with,

if possible? I am sure, that the answer, of Christian benevolence must be in the affirmative.*

disturbed, by the arrival and departure of stages, and the noise and bustle which they occasion *

But mail-carriers are not the only Nor do the evils complained of stop persons, who are prevented from sanc-here. For the sake of carrying passentifying the Sabbath, by the practice now gers on the Sabbath with impunity, under consideration. All the postmas-stage-coaches are employed, even on ters, who are required to open the mail those routs, where the mail might be on that day, are subjected to such inter-death. Neither the word of God, however, nor ruptions, as must be very painful to a se- his Providence, authorize any expectation that rious mind, and very prejudicial to reli- he will thus interpose. Quite the reverse. We insist not here, on the vastly greater gious improvement. By the arrival of the mail, during the hours of public number of persons, who are employed on the Sabbath in driving other carriages than those worship, many are prevented from in which the mail is conveyed, and who ould waiting upon God in his house. And not be thus employed, were it not for the cuswhere this is not the case, how painful tomary travelling of mail stages on that day. must it be, to those post-masters, who Let us suppose all other travelling on the Sab bath prevented, and all the inhabitants, except have any proper regard for the Lord's mail-carriers, in the happy possession of the day, to be interrupted by the arrival of Sabbath, and its various means of spiritual im the mail, when reading the Scriptures, provement. In that case, would it not be of, perhaps, in the midst of family or thought a great evil, that several hundreds of closet prayer, compelled to turn their at-persons should be so employed, as to be remov. ed from hearing God's word, from the ordinary tention, for hours together, to letters, means of grace, and the offers of salvation? newspapers, and wayy-bills. How much Would not the whole country be filled with also, in many cases, are their families | lamentations, on account of so melancholy a seclusion from the common blessings of christian

* As we conceive this subject to be incalcuity? Is the evil less now, when the multitudes lably important, our readers will pardon us for involved in it are immensely greater, than in adding, by way of note, a few remarks on some the case supposed? and when its magnitude is of the topics, discussed by our respected corres-concealed by the extent and authority of bad pondent.

example? Would it be thought a small matter We must premise, that no salutary effect that a thousand or fifteen hundred men should can be expected to be produced, by this dis- be subjected to all the horrors of Algerine cussion, upon the mind of any person, who captivity without hope of deliveran e? Would does not regard religion with seriousness, and a humane man consent, that so many individ man as an immortal being, whose future destiny uals should be exposed to iminent danger of is to be fixed by the character which he forms such captivity, for the purpose of furnishing in this life. Infidels and scoffers are beyond him, and others Ike him, with papers and letthe reach of the most powerful and decisive ar-ters a day earlier than he would otherwise re guments on this subject. But we make a confi-ceive them? But how trifling an evil is Alge dent appeal to every person, who meditates rine captivity compared to an eternal confine. with sacred awe upon the value of the human ment in the great prison of despair. soul to every person, who believes, that with out holiness no man shall see the lord and that with the observance of the Sabbath are intimately connected all the ordinary means of grace and salvation. No such person will deem it a right thing, that a thousand or fifteen hundred men are statedly employed in such a manner, as to separate them utterly from public worship, and to transform them into heathens. We are of opinion, that not a single employment, which is tolerated among us in time of peace, is so perfectly hostile to everything of a serious nature, as is the employment of driving stage coaches on the Sabbath, which is an inevitable consequence of carrying the mail on that day. Let a young man be engaged one year in this employment, and it is almost certain, that he will be an inveterate Sabbath breaker through life, and that his soul will be lost forever. We say almost certain; for God may interpose and rescue such a man from eternal

Nor is the evil to be lightly estimated be. cause it may be volontarily incurred? How many of the sufferings of this life are brought upon men by their voluntary misconduct. Yet no man thinks lightly of these sufferings on this account. Men are too ready, it is true, to trifle with their eternal interests, and to squander away their all. But is this a reason why they should be encouraged to do so? We should rather argue, that the disposition of men to neglect their souls should make every christian community cautious how any practices are tolerated, which have an irresistible agency in strengthening this perverse disposition.

In our larger towns, each post master em. ploys from two to six clerks, who are occupied, more or less, on the Sabbath, in the common business of the office. In some towns, it is believed the business done at the post-office is little less on the Sabbath, than on any other day of the week.

conveyed with convenience on horse-go, to inquire for letters and to hear the back. The consequence is, that all the news. The stranger, if he is a man of stage-houses are subjected to more or piéty, answers with a sigh, These things less disturbance every Sabbath. Some-ought not so to be. body must be in waiting. Horses must We need not inquire as to the rest, it be changed. Passengers must be ac- being perfectly obvious what must fol commodated. The whole company of low. If news papers and letters, are, ta Sabbath breakers must breakfast at one ken out, they will be read; and, in nine inn, and dine at another. Have inn-instances out of ten, their contents will keepers no souls? Have they no reli- more or less engross the thoughts for the gious duties to perform? Is it not ex-rest of the day. Nor is this all many ceedingly to be lamented, that they of the letters demand, or are thought to should be subjected to all these inter- demand, immediate answers. Writing ruptions on the Sabbath, in consequence these answers occupies much of that of the transportation of the mails on that day ?*

time, which God claims as his peculiar property. By the fluctuations of our own and of foreign markets, new fields of speculation are opened, on which hundreds are eager to enter. Nor must the Sabbath be permitted to prevent, or to interfere with, the requisite calcula tions. All these evils, and many more, are directly occasioned every Sabbath, in a single town, by the arrival and

Let another thing be considered. The mail-stages canot travel, without making a great deal of disturbance. It is no uncommon thing, where they pass near houses of public worship, for the voice of the speaker to be wholly confused by their rattling, while the eyes of half the congregation are turned to the doors and windows. Thousands and thou-opening of the mail. sands of families, are much disturbed by the same means.

manner just mentioned. Let him consider likewise, that where the mail is merely carried through a place, without being opened, many are in the habit of collecting at the stage-house, to glean whatever news they can, from the dri ver and passengers. Then let him say, whether a practice, which is productive of so much evil, ought not to be discontinued.

Now let the reader stop a moment, and consider how many large commer Further, the multiplied profanations of cial towns there are in the United the Sabbath,which are occasioned by this States, besides a vast number of smaller practice, ought not to be left out of the ones, where the mails are opened on general estimate. A stranger, who hap-the Lord's Day; and of course how pens to spend the Lord's day in one of many thousands of people, of all ranks, our large commercial towns, has his at-are induced to profane the day, in the tention arrested by crowds of people passing by his lodgings. His first thought is, that they must be going to public worship; but he soon recollects, that it is not the proper hour, and perceives that they are pressing not into the church, but the coffee house and the post-office. He enquires the cause of all this eager bustle, and is told, that the mail is expected, or that it has just arrived. But are the people of your There is one other point of view, in city in the habit of thronging the post-which this subject deserves to be seri office on the Sabbath? O yes, nothing ously contemplated. Merely seeing the is more common. Hundreds go thither mail-stages pass every Sabbath, tends directly from the churches. Whenever exceedingly to make the young think the mail arrives, people must and will lightly of that sacred institution: to embolden transgressors, and to increase Passengers in the stage, on many routs in the United States, are compelled either to trav-the difficulty of executing the laws. It el on the Sabbath, or to stop on the road three is extremely natural for children to sup. or four days. Such a delay cannot usually be pose, that what is sanctioned by high ausuffered without extreme inconvenience. But thority must be right. They soon learn if no stages travelled on the Sabbath, every pas-that the mail is carried by such authori senger in the stage could so arrange his jour ney, as to suffer no inconvenience ty. Their first deduction is, that there can be no harm in the practice. Thei

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second, that travelling for other purposes, llan express. The expense of sending expresses cannot be urged as an objection, because, in fact it would bear no proportion to the additional expense incurred by the regular transportation of the mail on the Sabbath. The public good, then, does not require the latter, in time of peace.

cannot be very criminal. And thus their reverence for the Lord's day is gradually weakened, and, in many cases, ultimately destroyed. The mail-stages being filled with passengers, and per mitted to go on, others think they have as good a right to travel in their private carriages, and the pressure becomes so 2. Does it in time of war? Here' great, that after a few efforts to stop the something more plausible may be urgcurrent, magistrates and informing offi-ed, in the affirmative. It may be said, cers are discouraged. that when a country is invaded, or

Such are the evils of transporting the threatened with invasion; when impormail upon the Sabbath. It takes off tant military operations are going on, at carriers and post-masters from the reli- many different points, the orders of govgious duties of the day; interrupts pub-ernment, especially in the war-departJic worship; disturbs thousands of fami- ments, must become very numerous; lies on the post-roads; induces men of that these require the utmost despatch, business and curiosity to profane the sa- as well as the official returns from comcred rest in many ways; injures the manding officers, to the head of that derising generation by bad example ;||partment; and that to keep up these strengthens the hands of Sabbath-break- necessary communications, the transers, and weakens those of magistrates.*portation of the mail upon the Sabbath In view of all these evils, I ask con-is unavoidable.

fidently, whether any thing short of the Now, I readily admit, that in time of plea of absolute necessity, and that war it may be necessary to transmit desplea well supported, can justify the prac-patches, on the Lord's day. But is there, tice under consideration? To the ques-permit me to ask, no way of doing this, tion of necessity, then, let me now call the reader's attention.

Does the public interest require the transportation and opening of the mail, on the Sabbath, either in time of peace or war?

1. Is it necessary in time of peace? For what purpose? facilitate the ordinary operations of government? Surely the public interest could not often suffer, by the short delay which the law of the Sabbath requires; and when there is danger of public injury, how easily might it be prevented, by sending off

The inroads which are made and making upon the Sabbath, by the arrival of the mail and the keeping open of post-offices, are astonishingly great. It is principally owing to this eause, that there is more conversation in regard to the news of the day, on the Sabbath, than on any other day of the week. Great multitudes in our large towns are entirely engrossed, during the whole Lord's day, by the news and their business. We do not believe that it is in the power of man to invent any other practice, which shall aim so directly, so powerfully, and so constantly, at the subversion of the Sabbath, and shall at the same time excite so little alarm, as the practice of carrying the mail on that day, as it is now tolerated in the United States.

without keeping all the mails constant-
ly going? How easily might expresses
be kept in readiness, at the seat of gov
ernment; and what hinders, but that
similar
arrangements might be made, in
each of the military districts? Such ar-
rangements would not only supersede
the necessity of transporting the mails,
in the manner complained of, but would
produce a very considerable saving of
expense. Nearly a seventh part of what
it now costs to carry the mail, would be
saved in the first instance, by letting that
establishment lie still on the Sabbath;
one seventh part of this saving, would
and it is presumed, that not more than
be requisite to pay all the neccssary ex-
presses.

But conclusive as this view of the subject is, why should I rest the question here, when every body knows, that expresses are now employed by the government, on those very routs, where the mails are most expeditiously car ried? This fact destroys at once the plea of necessity, so far as the public is concerned. If, then, it is still urged, it must be on the ground, not of public,

the state of the markets, &c. 2. Cases of sickfriends would be glad to receive early intelliness, &c. &c. may occur, in which relatives and gence from each other.

As to the first argument, it would be worse than ridiculous to pretend, that merchants are, of the Sabbath. But so far as merchants are to or ought to be, exempted from the general law

so far are they acting as if exempted from a wise general law, which was given for the ben

but private interest. And here, un- The plea of necessity, then, for trans doubtedly, we are to look for the mighty porting and opening the mail on the necessity, so earnestly pleaded. It is to Sabbath, cannot be supported on any accommodate the merchants, and other ground. The practice ought therefore men of business, who have agents and to be discontinued. Let every christian correspondents in different parts of the country, that the mails must be kept constantly in motion. But what claim have they to this iudulgence? What claim, I should rather have said, have they upon the public, which makes it necessary that a practice, most pernicious to the community, most destruc-profit by the arrival of the mail on the Sabbath, tive to themselves, should be continued. Is their business more important to them, than that of the farmer, or the meBesides, to assert that merchants derive even chanic, is to him? Must many bunan apparent benefit from the opening of the dreds of men, acting under the head of mail on the Sabbath, is altogether an unwarthe post-office department, be deprived ranted assumption. Suppose all the merchants of the rest and all the blessings of holy of Boston, for instance, to receive intelligence time, to advance the imagined private day morning instead of Sabbath morning. Is from their New-York correspondents on Moninterests of a part of the community? not the intelligence as new on Monday, as it Must the Sabbath, the main pillar of would have been on the Sabbath? Let the Sabour moral and religious institutions, be bath be perfectly removed from the days of thus gradually undermined? Must the business, as it was intended to be; let Monday great interests of the nation be sacrific-morning succeed Saturday evening, as to all ed, out of complaisance to the unreasonable wishes of a small part of its population? Surely, the most craving speculator alive will not say this.

And what is gained after all, by writing and receiving letters on the Sabbath? Was any man a loser, in the long run, by keeping that sacred day holy? Let it be remembered, that obedience to the commandments of the Lord, has the promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come. Men may seem to be gainers for a time by doing their own work on the Lord's day, but this making hasle to be rich undoubtedly will not leave them innocent, and probably will tend to poverty.*

* We have often been surprised to observe on what slender arguments the defence of the most pernicious practice is occasionally rested. Duelling, gambling, the theatre, and especially war and its consequences, are often defended by their respective advocates, in a train of reasoning, which betrays a union of childish imbecility and inveterate profligacy In a similar manner, the most outrageous violations of the Sabbath are too frequently palliated and even defended. The only arguments of a private nature, which we have ever heard used in favor of carrying the mail on the Sabbath, are these two: 1. The interest of merchants requires, that they should have early notice of

efit of all mankind.

worldly purposes, just as Tuesday morning succeeds Monday evening, and no inconvenience will be perceived. But why need we argue? Facts, irresistible facts, prove, that the imperious necessity of conveying the mail on the Sabbath is perfectly imaginary. Till the year 1801, or 1802, if we are correctly informed, the mail was not conveyed, on the Sabbath, thro' any part of New-England; perhaps not through any part of the United States. Did the com. few years past, during a great part of the time, munity then suffer? Further; within these there has been no southern mail at Boston, and consequently none at Salem, Newburyport, Portsmouth, &c. &c. on Mondays. Was this Far from it. If any thing was said about news arrangement deemed an intolerable grievance ? on Monday, the answer was; We have no mail to day; and the complaint ended. Yet at this very time, when the commercial world and the political world kept on in their usual courses without a Monday's mail, it would have been strenuously contended, that absolute necessity required the arrival of the mail on the Sabbath. But why not change the mail-day from the Sab bath to Monday? Indeed, that is more than we can answer.

While upon this subject, it is proper to state, that, to our certain knowledge, some of the mail-carriers would be gladly released from carrying the mail on the Sabbath. The stageproprietors, on a certain rout of 210 miles, were accustomed to carry the mail through the whole distance twice a week; viz. from Monday morning to Wednesday evening, and from Thursday morning to Saturday evening. This arrangement permitted drivers, post-masterėj

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