Page images
PDF
EPUB

1

ning all the circumstances of such ex-|| saith the Lord, though the rich may not treme cases as that which I have sup-labor on the Sabbath, the poor may, in posed, and would no doubt have pro- certain circumstances?" I know it may vided for them in the law, had they ad-be said, that the poor man who works, mitted of being exceptions to the general prohibition, "Thou shalt not do any work."

has a better excuse for so doing than his rich neighbor. But what does this prove? Certainly not that the former Now the question is, has he made is blameless, but that he is not so crimany such proviso? Has he said in har-inal as the other. vest time you may work? No, but di- If the objector can find nothing in rectly the reverse. See Exod. 34, 21; Scripture to support his plea, but is oSix days thou shalt work, but on the bliged after all, to rest it upon his povseventh day thou shall rest; in earing erty, let him consider where this will time and in harvest thou shalt rest.- lead him. If he may violate one comWhy this emphatical and peremptory mand of God, because he is poor, why specification? The reason is obvious. not another? If the fourth, why not the It was to guard against that very con-eighth? If he may labor when God struction of the law, which is pleaded says Thou shalt do no work, and plead for in the very case under considera- poverty as an excuse, why not take the tion. God knew that the Israelites property of another, when God says, would be strongly tempted to labor on Thou shalt not steal, And-justify himthe Sabbath, just as men now are, in self by the same excuse? Indeed, the time of sowing and of ingathering, where will he stop? If he makes exHe therefore expressly required them ceptions to one command of the decato rest as at other times, without mak-logue in his own favor without authoriing one proviso for unfavorable sea-ity, why not to all the rest, whenever it sons, or the least exception in favor may suit his convenience! And if he may, why may not every other poor man at least in the world, and then what will become of God's law !

of the poor.

Further; if the poor man who has a small field of wheat, may labor on the Sabbath to secure it, what shall we say of the thousands who have no crop at all? May they work on the same day or may they not? Surely if it be necessary for him to lay up his grain for future use, it is quite as necessary for them to

Were the Israelites, then, to construc the command literally in this respect, and are we authorized to give it a different construction? Certainly not.We cannot urge a single argument in favor of laboring on the Sabbath, which they might not have urged with equal plausibility. The law which forbade them has never been repealed. It is therefore as obligatory upon us as it was upon them. This view of the sub-earn something for future support. Ifhe ject appears to be decisive. The poor may work because he has a crop, much man in the case supposed, must not la more may they because they have bor in his wheat field on the Lord's day none. If it be right for him to earn ten But it may be useful to examine the dollars, by gathering his wheat, it cancase minutely. The objector begins not be wrong for his poorer neighbor then, by alleging his poverty as an ex-to earn one dollar, by laboring in the cuse. This implies that if he were rich,|| same field for hire. If then the plea of he would think himself bound to rest, poverty which I am considering be and run the venture of losing the crop. || valid; if a man may work on the Lord's Is there then one moral law for the day because he has but a little grain rich and another for the poor? Let him and his family will want it; then evturn over every page-let him ready poor man in the country may every verse of his Bible, and see if he can find any thing like it. From what book or chapter can he adduce a“ Thus

work on the Sabbath, to earn something for his destitute family, especial¡y in time of harvest. Nay more, all

the poor who live by their daily earn-ting the sacred rest, he has wise and ings and find that they cannot obtain a good reasons for disappointing the excomfortable support in six days, may ||pectations of the proprietor. And who plead necessity, for laboring every does not know, that he can, if he pleaLord's day in the year; unless, indeed, ses, more than make up the loss in that comfortable kind of poverty which some other way? Can we be happy, leaves a man something to reap, is can we obtain any good thing without more urgent, (I might say more law-the blessing of God? And is the blesless) than absolute want. Admit the sing to be secured by breaking his comvalidity of the plea which I have been mandments; by working when he says considering and abide by the conse- we shall not? How easily, when we quences, and there is an end of the seem to suffer loss by obedience, can Sabbath. he open new sources of gain which we never thought of? With what perfect ease, on the other hand, can he blast our hopes and mar our comforts, when we attempt to benefit ourselves by an

But the man who takes up his wheat|| in the case supposed, rests his defence partly on other grounds. He tells us that it begins to sprout in the ear already. The first fair day is the Sab-infraction of his holy law! bath. It may rain again by Monday, and wholly ruin the crop, in which case his children will have to go with out bread. A bountiful God, he says,] has blessed him with this crop, and he asks rather triumphantly, what is to be done in such a case? I intended to gather it before, but the weather would not permit. Shall I lose all, rather than work a little for once, upon the Lord's day? Surely God never intended, that the law should be so strictly construed.

[ocr errors]

"But God has given me a crop, and this is a plain indication of his will, that I should gather it, on week days if I can,-on the Sabbath if I must.He surely cannot, after bringing it to perfection, intend that it shall be lost." I answer, how do you know that? Suppose he should put it out of your power to gather it. This certainly would be no uncommon event. Hundreds of acres are destroyed almost every year by winds and hail. Great quantities are not unfreqently swept off by Now let all that is here advanced be sudden inundations. And not a little candidly considered. Suppose then is consumed in the barn by lighthing. that it should rain on the following|It is not true, therefore, that God alMonday, and continue to rain till the crop is totally lost. What would that prove? That the proprietor ought to have secured it on the Sabbath? Nothing like it. To the law and the tes⚫timony we appeal, and we are sure no justification of labor can be found there. But his family will suffer, it is said, by his neglect. I answer, how does he know that? The Scriptures assure us that in keeping God's commandments there is great reward. 1 The reader will observe, that I have have, says the Psalmist, I have been thus far proceeded on the supposition, young and now am old; yet have I not that in the case now under consideraseen the righteous forsaken nor his tion, work must be done on the Sabseed begging bread. If God takes a- bath, or the field of wheat will certainway what he seemed about to give, or ly be lost; and I do most strenuously which is the same thing, if he brings a insist, that even this supposition furfield of grain to maturity and affords no nishes no sufficient excuse, for enopportunity to gather it without viola-croaching upon the sacred rest.

ways intends to have the precious grain secured and enjoyed when he has caused it to grow and ripen to the harvest. How then can you know what may be his will in regard to yours? If he preserves it from the destructive powers of the elements, and enables you to secure it without violating his law, then it becomes your duty to secure it. If not, your duty is to acquiesce cheerfully in the loss.

our main argument may be placed on bringing their sheaves with them; while much stronger ground. How does the those who would not trust their Maker proprietor know, that by leaving his but spent his holy day in doing their grain one day longer in the field, he own work, soon found to their cost, that shall lose it? I have it from the best they had hurried their grain in before authority, that in one part of the town it was dry, and that so far from saving of B― a considerable number of farm-any thing, they had incurred much aders, two years ago, took up and carted |ditional labor and expense! These in their grain upon the Sabbath. The facts need no comment. They speak next year, just before harvest, their for themselves, and the lesson which crops were destroyed by a hail storm, they teach, cannot, one would think, the ravages of which were mostly con- be easily misunderstood.. fined to that neighborhood! But I do Thus I have gone through with the not remember a solitary instance, nor plea which I proposed to examine, and after much inquiry have I been able unless I greatly mistake, the result of to find one, in which a field of grain the investigation is, that even in the has been lost, by its not being attend- extreme case supposed, manual labor ed to upon the Sabbath. In some in- in the field, on the Lord's day, is both stances it may have been injured, so as unprofitable and sinful. I will not not to make quite so good bread; but consume the reader's time in proving, who that thinks and acts rationally, what must be so obvious,, that if the would not prefer poor bread, with the plea wholly fails in an extreme case, divine blessing, to the most costly it must of course fail in all other cases, dainties, with the curses denounced a- where the alleged necessity is less urgainst Sabbath breakers resting on his gent. It cannot be necessary to prove, that if the poor man may not gather

head?

Still, however, the plea is urged, his little harvest on the Sabbath, the that it has rained all the week and rich man may not gather his great harmay rain again on Monday, and then vest; nor that if grain may not be semy crop will be nearly ruined. I an-cured on that holv day, hay may not― swer, it may not rain on Monday, and nor finally, that if manual labor, on the then your grain will be much better Lord's day, is sinful in time of harvest, fitted for the barn or the stack, than it it is sinful at all times.

can be on the Sabbath. Very rarely, It will not be denied, that a subject indeed, is even a slight loss incurred, of such high and solemn practical moby abstaining from labor; not so often ment as this, demands the serious conit is presumed as by performing it.-sideration of every person in the comOn this point I will state two facts, one munity. If the reasoning and concluof which came under my own obser- sion on which I have relied in the prevation two years ago, and the other is ceding pages be correct, then it is cerfresh in the memory of some who tain, that a tremendous load of guilt will read this paper. The facts are incurred by profaning the Sabbath, similar. In both cases there had been lies on New-England; for it is a mourna long rain in the midst of harvest. In ful fact, that multitudes have of late both, the first fair day was Lord's day. years done their own work, in what In both, much grain lay in the swath. they have been pleased to call cases In both, some people went into their of necessity, on the Lord's day. It is fields; while others repaired to the high time to break off from this sin, by house of God. The Sabbath passed righteousness; to repent and do so no away; Monday came, and it did not more. Let all those who have quieted rain. Those who had trusted Provi- their consciences, by such pleas and dence, and spent the preceding day in excuses as have been stated and exthe service of God, went out, invigor-amined in this number, give the whole ated by rest, and returned with joy, subject a thorough investigation, and

beware that they do not rest on ground, || Sabbath, can be deemed such but that which will utterly fail them in the day which is demanded to save property of Judgment. from immediate destruction by fire, inundation, or other perils equally inevi table, and that even in some such cases, it would be expedient rather to suffer loss, than to set an example which would be pleaded as a pretext for real and extended violations of the Sabbath." Z. X. Y.

Let professors of religion, especially walk in the straight and safe path of revealed truth. How deeply have some such wounded the feelings of their brethren, what a reproach have they brought upon their profession in the eyes of the world, and how highly have they provoked the great Lord of the Sabbath, by going into their fields. to labor on that holy day!

If it were a doubtful question, it would be their plain duty to abstain,

SERMON II.

CONTAINING THE IMPROVEMENT.

FROM what has been said in the for

in all cases; for fear their example mer discourse, we may observe the folmight be injurious. They are requi-lowing things.

red to avoid even the appearance of I. God has not, at any time, either evil. How much more imperious then done or suffered any thing to be done is the duty, when the practice is plainly contrary to one of the express commands of the decalogue.

in vain, or without some design. We cannot conceive how a being of infinite goodness, and exalted immeasuPerhaps I ought just to remark, that rably above trifling, should ever do nothing which has been advanced, ei- any thing without design. God must ther in this or the preceding number, is necessarily attend to consequences, intended to condemn those exertions and have some aim in all he doeth, to save property, which may be sud-and in all he permits to be done. denly called for, on the Lord's day, by But here an objection arises of this the breaking out of a fire, the under-kind: "There are very many things mining of houses by a deluge, or the falling almost constantly under our nowreck of a ship in a storm. Such ca- tice, for which we see no use, they seem ses are very rare, and when they do oc-||of no consequence, and might as well cur, it may perhaps be doubted, wheth-never have been created, nor upheld er the efforts which they demand, for though they had been created. Instana few moments or even hours, can ces of this sort are too numerous to be strictly speaking be called work, in the mentioned,and too common to need it." sense of the fourth cominandment. At I answer, should we see some inany rate, they are cases totally distinct genious and complicated machine, with from common labor; not to mention, which we are unacqainted, scattered that if such exertions are work, they abroad in its several parts, is it at all are often works of mercy; that is, they probable we should see the suitableare necessary to relieve present dis-ness and utility of them all? Or, were tress, and therefore not liable to any of we to take a view of all the implements the preceding objections.

[merged small][ocr errors][merged small]

and conveniences in the labaratory of some artisan, to whose business we are strangers, would it be wonderful if we should find ourselves utterly unable to assign to each its proper place and improvement? Might not the greatest genius here find himself at a loss? Here the most penetrating philosopher might be confounded. Pere? Where? Why in the shop of some inferior mechanic. But yet a child as much in

ferior to the workman, as he is inferior || been evil, either natural or moral, in to the philosopher, might reduce eve- troduced, or suffered to come into the ry thing to its proper place, and shew world? Sickness, and pain, and disthe great importance of some seeming- appointment, and fear, and sin, are ly insignificant point. In such a case, great evils which can be no other than it would become the philosopher to so many instances of imperfection submit to the child as an instructor. in the world; and, consequently, they If these things be so, is it at all won- prove some imperfection in its author." derful that the works of an infinite Thus we reason in fact, though when mind should surpass our comprehen- we converse on the subject, we presion? Or rather, is it not to be ex- tend no more than modestly to query pected, that in a scheme of things plan- how the being of these things can be ned in boundless wisdom, to endure consistent with absolute perfection in eternally, and composed of next to an God. This reasoning has its root in infinite number of parts, such short the impious supposition, (which howsighted creatures as we are, should find ever lies in a great measure hidden) ourselves wholly outdone and con- that, since there are in nature seeming founded? difficulties which we cannot obviate, Indeed we should need no other ev-we may justly conclude they cannot idence that the scheme of God were be obviated by God himself. Thus we very little and very low, than this, that insensibly set ourselves on a level with men, with their present capacities, could the Deity, measuring his abilities by fairly understand, and fully compre- our own. When after thorough trial hend it. Our understanding is, at best, we find ourselves unable to reduce the but little and low; and we cannot ex-various occurrences in divine provipect to grasp an object whose author dence to a consistent scheme, would is infinite. We universally agree, there it not be wiser in us to say, I must, is nothing great or complicated in that indeed, confess the inequality of my which a child can comprehend, and yet there are many things quite abstruse to a philosopher, which are well understood by a child; and surely we will not deny that superiority to the Deity, which the philosopher ascribes to a child!

[ocr errors]

finite power to the infinite task; but I have the satisfaction to believe, and that on good grounds, that the author of nature is infinite in power, knowledge and goodness; and he has been pleased to give me understanding to know from these, that all things shall, II. God has never had any evil or at last, be reduced to perfect order and mistaken design, in any instance, nei-beauty; and that, notwithstanding the ther in doing nor permitting. To sup- present seeming inconsistency of one pose any mistake, is to suppose imper-part with another, all things are now fection of knowledge; and to suppose conducted as they go, because this is he has ever had any design which was the best method to bring about the evil, either in an absolute or compara- greatest good at last." Since the unitive sense, is to suppose imperfection verse is in such hands, it becomes us of goodness, to say no worse. Both to wait the event of things, and to alof which are respectively subversive of his divinity.

low the great master builder time to bring his materials together, and complete the edifice before we sit in judgment upon his work.

Here we find ourselves plunged; for although, to our understanding, this reasoning appears to be conclusive, yet The child follows his father into the we are apt, through the pride of our delightful grove where he loves to play. hearts, to take occasion, from many He sees his father fell the trees, destroy occurrences, to cavil against God.- the shade, and cumber the subjacent "Would it not," say we," have been green with boughs in irregular confubetter, much better, if there had neversion. Shall the lad at once declare

« PreviousContinue »