natural unity of the day, you break the numerical harmony of FOURrth Day. things. Accord, on the other hand, forty-eight hours of rest, after twelve consecutive days of toil, and you kill the man with inertia after having exhausted him with fatigue." The famous radical, Louis Blanc, in his vain effort to save the Louis Blanc's theory. Sabbath law of France, said: "The diminution of the hours of labour does not involve any diminution of production. In England a workman produces in fifty-six hours as much as a French workman in seventy-two hours, because his forces are better husbanded." Humboldt. To the same effect might be quoted the words of Alexander A. Von Von Humboldt, with regard to what he called the "dry, wretched, decimal system," which in the French Revolution was substituted for the seventh-day system of repose. But I will only add the testimony of our present Prime Minister, who shows by his activity in advanced age, the practical benefits to be obtained by that periodical cessation from toil which he thus advocates : Gladstone. "Believing in the authority of the Lord's Day as a religions Mr. institution," says Mr. Gladstone, "I must, as a matter of course, desire the recognition of that authority by others. But over and above this, I have myself, in the course of a laborious life, signally experienced both its mental and physical benefits. I can hardly overstate its value in this view, and for the interest of the working men of this country, alike in these and in other yet higher respects, there is nothing I more anxiously desire than that they should more and more highly appreciate the Christian day of rest." It is plain, then, that we may say with Michel Chevalier, the M. Chevalier. eminent French political economist-"Let us observe Sunday in the name of hygiene, if not in the name of religion." Considering that many Hindus and Muhammadans do already observe this day for their own advantage; and further, that the great body of Christians in this country regard the possession of this day as a right, it is evident that this is the most available of all times for the purpose of affording to the people a periodical release from toil. These fifty-two springs, as Coleridge has called them, evenly distributed over the whole year, are the most available of all expedients known to the world of politics for relieving the pressures, strains, and concussions of human FOURTH DAY. toil. It is carnestly to be desired, that the action of Lord Lytton will speedily be revoked, and the boon of a Sunday rest secured, as far as legislation can justly secure it, to the people of this great country. THE FORMATION OF A LORD'S DAY UNION FOR INDIA.Earl Cairns. Earl Cairns, however, truly said: "The institution of Sunday is only maintained because the vast majority of the people of this country, altogether irrespective of churches and denomi nations, are convinced that it depends, not on human law, but upon a higher and greater law, which we are all bound in conscience to obey." Apart, therefore, from all attempts to influence the legislaA Lord's Day ture, there is a duty which we owe to the people of India. Union. It is that of informing them as to the reasons, chronological, hygienic, social, and above all religious, which have determined the foremost nations of the world to observe the Sunday as a day of rest. This information should be addressed in the first place to the Hindus and Muhammadans who have already to some extent shown their appreciation of the institution. We must also revive the Christian sentiment in the minds of our own fellow-countrymen, who in this country are so apt to forget the reasons which have determined their fathers in the observance of the Lord's Day. For this reason I welcome the proposal of the Rev. F. W. Warne, that a Lord's Day Union should be at once formed to enlighten the uninformed, and to appeal to the indifferent, as well as to strengthen those who, amid discouragement and difficulties, are contending for their Sabbath privileges. I trust that one immediate outcome of this Conference will be the formation of such a Union. I well remember some years ago one Sunday morning, on my way to preach, seeing an Englishman accompanied by a number of native assistants busily engaged in the task of land surveying. A little further on I came to some rude little huts, the encampment of a number of Dhangars, or low caste men from Chota Nagpur, who were employed in digging drains and repairing roads. Though the majority had gone forth to work, some half-dozen of them were sitting in the encampment. On asking them the reason why, they replied that they were Christians, and that they could not work on Sunday. Though far from their land and their own people, they had not forgotten their faith. A young Englishman, brought up in this Fourth Day. country, once complained to me that when out snipe shooting Result of on a Sunday, he had come to a village with a church, Example. and that the people of this place refused to provide him with a canoe and ferry him over the swamps because it was the Lord's Day. He is now a constant attendant at Divine worship, and I feel sure can sympathise with the refusal which then so much surprised him. There is little doubt that many require enlightenment as to the obligations and the privileges of the commandment regarding a holy day. The Mission House at Dum Dum has always enjoyed the sense of Sabbath rest, which is in many parts of India so difficult to obtain. The Small Arms Ammunition Factory, which supplies the Indian Army with cartridges, resounds with activity during the whole week, and the musical note of the steam saws, the roll of the machinery, and the reports of the guns which test the cartridges are to be heard without cessation, until Sunday brings a day of respite to the swarm of toilers who throng the factory on the other days of the week. Thus the contrast has brought, every Sunday morning, that sense of the Sabbath in the very air which is so potent a means of blessing in the manufacturing centres of our native land. But latterly we have had an unwelcome disturbance in the establishment of a Golf Club by our Games on Sunday. side. The early Sunday morning brings from Calcutta a number of English gentlemen who spend their day in this sport, and drive away again to the metropolis as the church bells are calling the people to Evening Prayer. I cannot conceal my sorrow that so many of our countrymen in India, in this and similar methods, should show a practical contempt for the day which is consecrated to the service of their Saviour, and I do not doubt that if they were acquainted with the reasons which have made ours a Sabbath-keeping land, many of them would shrink from assisting to desecrate its sanctities and destroy its benefits. Let us therefore do what we can to enlighten those who are ignorant, and plead with those who are irresolute as to the observance of the Lord's Day in India. The 3 Domin ical Insti It is here that we find the highest sanction for the Sab- Fourth Day. And here I would go even further than Mr. Warne, regarding as I do the Sabbath, not only as a memorial of Christ in Redemption, but also of Christ in Creation. For the very first word in the Hebrew scripture sets forth Christ as the Creator. "The word BRESHITH in the beginning-I quote my honoured fatherrefers not only to time but to Him who is "the Beginning of the Creation of God." The word RESHITH is applied to princes, to firstfruits, to sacrifices, to the first-born; and every where denotes that which is "first in the sense of being principal or chief.” The Jerusalem Targam very significantly renders RESHITH here by "Wisdom," suggesting the MESSIAH, and for this the Targumist appears to have the highest sanction; for the Messiah Himself as the impersonation of Wisdom," discoursing of the creation, says: "Jehovah possessed me”—ınark, not in the beginning of his ways, but "the Beginning”—First, Head, Chief or Leader, “of his ways, before his works of old” (Prov. viii. 22), with this agrees the Gospel of St. John, where the word “Arche” expresses the idea of the FIRST in order or Prominence, while the "WORD" or logos is kindred to the WISDOM of the Book of Proverbs. This subject can only be glanced at here, but it is clear that if Christ be the Beginning of Creation, then the Sabbath which commemorated that creation was already the LORD'S DAY. Redemption has stamped the Day with a more glorious import, but we shall err if we think that this institute had not from the beginning that direct connection with the Second person of the Blessed Trinity which has become more manifest in the Resurrection of our Lord from the dead. It is this relation of the Day to CHRIST Himself which, above all minor considerations, makes it imperative upon every Christian missionary to pray and to labour for its fullest recognition in this land where we find ourselves the ambassadors of JESUS. Our Lord and the Sabbath. The meeting being now open for discussion, The Rev. I. W. CHARLTON, M.A., C.M.S., Nuddea, Bengal, said:-I cannot agree with what seems to be the opinion of some that our Lord intended to do away with the Sabbath, for if He had so intended He would hardly have taken so much trouble to reform it. We, as missionaries, owe a great deal to our Christian brethren here in India as, consciously or unconsciously, our actions are to a large extent moulding their future, and influencing for good or bad their position with regard to such questions as Sunday observance, and I do not hesitate to say that, in the evangelistic work which I have always done in FOURth Day, conjunction with, and through the instrumentality of, Native Missionary Christians, the looseness of some missionaries with regard to example the observance of the Lord's Day has proved one of the most imperative. serious stumbling-blocks. Only a short time ago, when staying with some voluntary helpers in a village in the south of Calcutta for the purpose of evangelistic work, I was astonished one Sunday to find that some of the leading workers had sent a boy to the bazaar to buy some refreshment. Some was offered to me, and when I refused on the ground that it was bought on Sunday, they seemed utterly unable to enter into my feelings. I proceeded to explain, but after a long talk the only answer I Bazaar got was that other sahibs thought differently, so it could only supplies. be a 66 matter of opinion" after all. It was the example of of "the other sahibs," whose habit it is to use Sunday trains, which made it easy for them to lightly visit the bazaar on the Sabbath! I once asked a Sabbath-breaking carpenter why he worked on Sunday, and he immediately threw in my face the fact that such and such a sahib always travelled by train on Sunday. The connection between the two may not be easy to trace from our point of view, but I venture to assert that our appeal to such a man is almost incurably weakened and an unnecessary stumbling put in his way by want of care on the part of the missionary to whom he referred. When in work in London it was my rule never to enter a public conveyance on Sunday; and about 10 years ago I proposed never to do so unless under the most urgent necessity. I may add that under the good providence of God such necessity has never arisen. They told me that in India things were different, and that here Sunday travelling Sunday could not be avoided, but as yet I see no necessity for more travelling. laxity in this respect. You can get to most places in India from first thing Monday morning to last thing Saturday night; and, if not, after having travelled six days, its time you rested one! I don't believe Sunday trains are a necessary part of God's plan for the conversion of India. On the contrary, I believe it would be a great help to our work if every Christian worker would promise, excepting under the most urgent necessity, never to use public conveyances of any kind on the Lord's Day. The Rev. H. C. STUNTZ, M. A., M. E. C., Naini Tal, N.-W. P., said :—We shall make a great mistake if we attempt to enforce Sabbath observance apart from the whole commandment with which God originally bound it up. The Sabbath portion of that commandment is but one seventh of the whole. We often forget this, and think of the fourth commandment as concerned only with keeping one day sacred, whereas its original purpose was to secure six days of honest industry, followed by one day of rest and worship, "Six days shalt thou labour" is as binding Six days' as that portion which we often regard as the whole of the labour. |