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Title: Sabbath Defence Tactics
       a manual


Author: James Bridges



Release Date: May 22, 2020  [eBook #62200]

Language: English

Character set encoding: UTF-8


***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SABBATH DEFENCE TACTICS***


Transcribed from the 1849 Johnstone and Hunter edition by David Price,
ccx074@pglaf.org, using scans from the Bodleian Library, Oxford.

                        [Picture: Pamphlet cover]





                         SABBATH DEFENCE TACTICS,


                                A MANUAL;

                          BY JAMES BRIDGES, ESQ.

                                * * * * *

                                * * * * *

             “Be ye wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.”

                                * * * * *

                                * * * * *

                                EDINBURGH:
                 JOHNSTONE AND HUNTER, 15 PRINCES STREET;
                     AND 26 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON.

                               M.DCCC.XLIX.

                                * * * * *

                          RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED

                    TO THE OFFICE-BEARERS AND MEMBERS

                                  OF THE

                      LORD’S-DAY SOCIETY OF ENGLAND.

                                * * * * *




SABBATH DEFENCE TACTICS.


THE observance of the Lord’s day partook largely of the general religious
declension which characterised the conclusion of the eighteenth century.
Fresh invasions were constantly made on its sanctity; and practices which
a century before would have startled the most careless, were
unconsciously acquiesced in even by the religious.  England, as a nation,
never made the large professions of strictness which marked the north,
and its remembrance of the day, such as it was, became feebler as time
progressed; while in Scotland, which always had a name as a
Sabbath-keeping land, the evil influence grew visibly in its populous
towns, and was seen gradually diffusing itself throughout the country.
The Post-Office, with its mail-coaches, runners, letters, and newspapers,
and the hackney-coach, are among the standing memorials of this falling
away.  Happily, however, for the cause of every thing sacred and
expedient, a revival of religion took place in both ends of the island,
which, manifesting itself first in the Churches, did not fail speedily to
embrace within its action the great matter of the observance of the
Lord’s day.

To the honour of England, the practical Sabbath movement among the people
began in that great country.  A few pious men, taught by its religious
societies, of which they were distinguished members, the superiority of
united over insulated action, formed themselves into “The Lord’s-day
Society,” which has ever since exercised a very wholesome influence.  An
early step on its part was to establish a connection with Parliament,
through the medium of an influential member who might choose to be
officially connected with the Society.  After unsuccessful efforts in
different quarters, they were directed to the late Sir Andrew Agnew of
Lochnaw, Bart., then member for Wigtonshire, who, after many doubts and
fears, prompted by the modesty of his nature and his deep sense of the
responsibility attaching to every more prominent part in the cause of
God, consented to their application; and he soon became established, as
he continued to his dying hour to be, the rooted and grounded friend of
the Sabbath, and of every institution and effort, whether made by many or
few, for its observance.

The author had the happiness to renew an earlier acquaintance with this
excellent and distinguished person under the gallery of the House of
Commons in the year 1833, when, in the playful language which was a
characteristic of the man, he was “enlisted as a Sabbath recruit, the
smart-money being a cup of tea in Bellamy’s.”  From that night to the
last hour of this lamented gentleman’s active life, he had the happiness
of serving under him in the struggle; and having seen more intimately
than most persons the nature of his principles and policy, which were
eminently wise and practical, and their gradual systematising, he records
in these pages such particulars as may be of use to others; taking up the
pen, as he does, singly, because much that is valuable may otherwise be
lost, now that death has interposed.  If they be found to refer mainly to
the Railway question, this obviously is because the portion of the field
which has latterly engaged the chief attention of Sabbatarians, and has
demanded most largely their practical combination, is that important
point.  It will be felt by all, that while Sabbath desecrations of every
kind require to be sharply looked after, very many of them are so slight
or rare that they may be sufficiently met—as indeed all great as well as
small must be—by the blessing of God upon the faithful preaching of the
word, and upon the honest indignation of the people in their several
neighbourhoods.  But where great numbers are united, by selfishness or
any other bond, for the protection of any particular Sabbath wrong, they
must be met, or at all events they may most effectually be met, by an
opposite combination; and therefore these pages, leadingly devoted as
they are to the railway, and to the principles and practice of combined
acting there, will be found useful in every other serious Sabbath
question.

It is proper to add, in order to prevent misconceptions, that this paper
in no way bears on, or is affected by, the question of Establishment or
Voluntaryism, compulsion or free action.  In some quarters the name of
Sir Andrew Agnew has come to be so associated with Sabbath legislation,
that his general measures have too often been regarded with some
prejudice, even by good men yielding to an undefined alarm about
voluntaryism.  It is due, however, to his memory to say, that while
adhering to the last, with fresh constancy, to his original principles on
the subject of legislation, he freely, and as faithfully as freely, held
these in suspense in all those Sabbath enterprises where men of opposite
views on that point agreed to act together.  And, in regard to these
pages, let no doubt or suspicion arise in any quarter.  Their sole object
is to promote harmonious action on the part of lovers of the Lord’s day
in the practical promotion of its sanctity by means of moral suasion
efficiently directed.  The Churchman or the Dissenter who objects to
this, because it does not compel, or because it is suspected as
compelling, is no true friend of the Sabbath.

It has been stated that the agitation of the Sabbath question took its
origin in England.  It was soon, however, imported into Scotland.
Various causes had both delayed the measure there, and at length made way
for it.  Scotland had long, and for long deservedly, possessed the
character of a Sabbath-observing nation; and, notwithstanding its days of
declension, the people had been so accustomed to this character, that
they lived very complacently on the strength of it.  Nor was it till
circumstances had awakened them to the sense of the change that had come
over their dream, that it was felt necessary to do something in the north
actively, as well as elsewhere.  The publication of the evidence of Sir
Edward Lees, the secretary of the Post-Office, in regard to the Edinburgh
mobs which crowded Waterloo Place every Sunday in quest of their letters,
and which excited much surprise and not a little displeasure, but was all
the while too true, was one of those circumstances which stirred up the
Scotch mind to active resistance of the evil.  It may also be added, that
the very constitution of the Churches in the north tended for a time to
lull the people into quietness; for the popular character of these
Churches, with their parochial, provincial, and General Assemblies and
debates, might well be regarded as in some measure superseding popular
agitation.  Accordingly, when the English fire crossed the borders, it
did not spread at first with any exemplary energy, nor did it burst out
with force at all, till a movement took place within the Scottish railway
companies to run coaches on the Sabbath-day, in the face of the
long-settled convictions and habits of the country.  Then, indeed, was
shown the efficacy of the popularly constituted Churches in the north,
which, if a cause at first of delayed action by the people, speedily
proved themselves to be a stimulating force of no small energy.

The English movement within the railways for Sunday coaching had long
preceded the Scotch attempt.  But coming in the rear of other prevailing
habits, it failed in exciting that indignation which was its rightful
due; and so long as the iniquity was limited to the south, the people of
Scotland, strong in their imagined security, and slow of uptake as to any
new thing—though quite learned enough to know the force and meaning of
the _Tua res agitur dum proximus paries ardet_—failed to take active
alarm for a very considerable time.  In regard also to England, it of
course must be allowed that the religious classes there did certainly
feel aggrieved, and took some quiet steps, even within the
companies—though of a very courteous, timid, and hesitating kind—to
induce these companies to abstain from their railway trading.  But with
that certain peculiar spirit in public religious things, which, pious and
excellent as in itself it is, so often evaporates there in mere
adjuration and protest, instead of embodying itself in earnest
“contending for the faith,” the _struggle_ in England, saving here and
there in the pulpit and press, ceased altogether as a public thing; and
the very men who had maintained the controversy for a time within the
railway companies, mistakingly deeming it Christian to cease from godly
strife, withdrew from that field whenever the first success was effected
by the enemy.  They sold out their stock, under the baseless notion that
they would become partakers of the iniquity by remaining at their posts
and endeavouring to bring their fallen shareholders to righteous dealing;
thus leaving these parties undisputed masters of the Lord’s day, and
henceforth acting on the gainsaying public merely by their Lord’s-day
Society’s very excellent tracts and meetings, though the very last things
of the very existence of which the Railway Stock Exchange was ever likely
to become cognizant.

Not so in the north.  When the first attempt was made to establish
systematic railway traffic on the Sabbath day, the country rose _en
masse_ against it, and to this hour the fight for the faith has been
maintained, if with various success, still with unvarying fervour and
firmness, not to cease, it is trusted, till the cause of truth shall
prevail.  General indignation was excited, and every where expressed
itself in debated remonstrances from public bodies, civil and
ecclesiastical, and from popular meetings.  It, at the same time, broke
forth most significantly in a “declaration” or pledge not to use the
railway at all, or at any rate, not while any other practicable
conveyance was attainable, so long as it continued to violate the
religious feelings of the country by desecrating the Lord’s day.
Whatever may be thought on the subject of the principle of this
declaration, the fact that it was adopted, and, at the risk of much
personal inconvenience, speedily signed by more than a hundred thousand,
is honourable to the religious zeal of Scotland; and that it was
steadfastly observed for years by multitudes till the change came, in the
face of great annoyance and privation, operated, we know, powerfully on
the minds of the English gentlemen who at length brought about that
change.

It has since been the general opinion, that the “declaration” rested thus
far on an erroneous principle, that, instead of addressing the
consciences of the violating directors, it assailed their selfishness,
and for the _good_ of the Sabbath did the _evil_ of interfering with the
business of the six days in which there is a command to work.  But it was
a noble, self-denying ordinance, and was so regarded by the honourable
baronet to whom reference has been made, by whom it was scrupulously
observed, though before its adoption, and in the face of opposition and
of some obloquy, he opposed it as not being within the legitimate line of
Sabbath operations.

The railway company addressed was deaf to remonstrance.  The evil was
established on one important line, and was likely to spread as new lines
were opened.  The efforts of the pulpit and of the press also were
redoubled; but while these served gradually to indoctrinate the land,
and, through the blessing of God, might stay the evil in the lapse of
time, still, on the other hand, the iniquity was in the mean time being
firmly established, the country was being familiarized with it, and no
reflecting person could fail to fear the effect of familiar habit in
undermining even the most rooted principle.  It became of importance thus
not only to meet it by the general pressure of religious principle, but
to encounter it within the walls of the offending companies, by arguments
addressed in their presence to the consciences and interests of directors
and shareholders, in the hope of prevailing on them, through moral
suasion, to abandon the obnoxious policy, and return to right dealing.
For this end, the writer of these pages submitted to his honourable
friend and leader—who, in his letters at this time, was constantly
grieving over his inability to work in the wake of the “declaration,” and
exclaiming every now and them, “False position! false position!”—the
scheme of purchasing as much railway stock as would give a voice in the
half-yearly meetings of companies, and there maintaining the cause of
truth and godliness.  A prompt and animated reply was the immediate
result, and a commission to purchase the requisite stock.

Was this not a proof of what the world did not know, the practical
business-like tact, no less than the deep-founded principle, of this
lamented man?  When the Lord’s day railway traffic was first sanctioned
in England, good men, it has been seen, ran away from the field, and left
it in the hands, and delivered it over to the tender mercies of
speculators, who sought with greed, and talked with complacency, of the
gains in prospect when “Sunday traffic should be fully developed.”  The
churches also, and the religious press, complimented the pietistic
self-denial of those estimable persons who sold out their stock, that the
enemy might retain an uncontroverted possession of the field; and to this
hour the Lord’s-day Society remains paralysed, {10} and the English
Sabbath railway cause prostrated, through the melancholy panic which
actuated this flight.  Not so the stout judgment of him who, strong in
his piety, gentle in his affections, and earnest in his zeal, but clear
in discernment and practised in business, at once saw that so long as the
constitution of the railway companies remained sound, and only their
voluntary actings were vicious, it was not merely lawful, but
praiseworthy, to join them for the purpose of bringing their impure
_actings_ into accordance with their pure _principle_; and it was felt
that the proposed stockholding afforded a legitimate and excellent
opportunity, as well as a right and privilege, to bring before all
stockholders the highest principles of moral and religious law, in their
bearing on a question of traffic which affects, more or less, all
trading, and is as much forced on a company of coblers or coal-heavers as
on a company of railway coach-owners; viz. that of determining whether
they shall pursue or abstain from traffic on the Lord’s-day—a question
and a discussion affording direct opportunity and lawful right, by moral
suasion, to influence the hitherto unreflecting or hostile to adopt the
course of truth and soberness.  And if, in so doing, honourable gentlemen
did convert the half-yearly railway meetings into capitally reported
Sabbath meetings, with the immense superiority of having a practical
question to discuss, and to discuss most religiously, which interests
even worldly men, instead of being limited, as in the others, to the
grave exposition of things general, abstract, and clerical, though
certainly most savoury, doctrinal, and eternally interesting—this was not
only not the fault of the Sabbatarians, but it was a mighty benefit
impressed on their policy by the nature and necessity of things, or
rather by the very will of God himself. {11}

The struggle began under the auspices of Sir Andrew Agnew in the
Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway Company.  It was continued—it was
successful.  It spread, as new Scottish lines opened, into the North
British under the charge of Mr Blackadder—the Caledonian (alas!), of Sir
Andrew Agnew—the Northern, of Mr Maitland Heriot of Ramornie—and the
Central, of Mr Campbell of Monzie.  It crossed the border, and it is now
maintained as an English question in the Newcastle and Carlisle line by
Mr Graham of Edmond Castle—in the North-Western by Mr Thomas Greig of
Manchester, the associate of Mr Cheetham of Staleybridge in the
deliverance of the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway from its Sabbath
bondage—and in the Eastern Union by Mr Andrew Johnston of Halesworth, who
was long Sir Andrew Agnew’s devoted coadjutor in Parliament.  These may
be little-looking things in contrast with the gigantic railway interest
which broods over the land, nestling within the palace of the prince as
well as in the cabin of the peasant, and in all that is between.  But
they are a beginning.  They have an existence.  They have secured a
standing for themselves in the country and in the companies.  They
possess an indestructible principle of life in their magic symbol,
“Remember the Sabbath-day, to keep it holy”—words which render the little
band as unconquerable as if they were cheered on by thousands and had the
command of millions, and as confident of success—unless the country be
under judgment—as the word and promise of the living God can make men to
be.

It is impossible, and it would be most ungrateful, to overlook the
eminent services of “The Sabbath Alliance,” itself a fruit of the
agitation of the question of the Lord’s day, and a powerful agent in its
cause.  Its basis is thoroughly orthodox, recognising, as it expressly
does, the whole truth of God in regard to the Sabbath, its divine
institution, and the perpetual obligation of the Fourth Commandment of
the Moral Law.  While thus it excludes from its _membership_ all who deny
any portion of the truth, it includes in the matter of its _actings_ all
who differ on the point of the civil magistrate’s authority to interfere
in regard to the observance of the day.  It thus so far restricts its
_actings as an Alliance_ as to avoid all application to the law or the
legislature, save only to the effect of rescinding existing laws whose
purpose is to compel disobedience to the divine law.  Nothing can be more
pure or more catholic in constitution than this.  It has enabled Sir
Andrew Agnew, the advocate of legislation, to embrace excellent Mr
Henderson of Park on its platform, the originator and munificent endower
of the Workmen’s Sabbath Essay Scheme, and of every purely “voluntary”
effort, though the foe of judicial or state interference.  And that the
Alliance has been practically most efficient, is proved both by the
progress of the principle all over the land, and by the stir of hatred
excited among the enemies, as against all its actings, so especially
against that most sagacious, effective, and self-remunerating arrangement
whereby the whole services of two men have been secured for the working
of its work—the one resting at the centre and the other revolving round
the provinces, to concentrate at once and to scatter the light of the
principle, and bring the darkened masses to its enjoyment.  Let our
friends be assured, that the bitter derision and invective of the infidel
press directed against the “two secretaries and their salaries,” are the
transparent exhibition of the sense entertained in these quarters of the
power and efficacy of the labours of these two Christian gentlemen.  The
country ought to support this institution more effectually than it does,
and to make more true than the state of its funds and the generosity of
Dr Greville and Mr Lyon admit, their gibes at the “large and lavish (!)
allowances” voted to them.  The English localities likewise should, no
less than the Scotch, have their “Sabbath Alliances;” and it would be
honourable to the Church of England if it did not leave the work of
originating them to the unestablished communions.

And so these “little people” will go vigorously on, undismayed, even
though, in the inscrutable providence of Almighty God, their beloved
leader be taken away from their eyes with a stroke; or though an ungodly
Parliament decree, like him of old, that at what time the sound of its
Act shall be heard, all people who are firemen, and stokers, and
pointsmen, and railway directors, guards, or clerks, shall forsake the
service of God on his holy day, and fall down and worship their golden
image, and shall seduce all vagrant men and foolish maids to scorn the
Word of God and do the like; certifying whoso falleth not down and
worshippeth, that he shall, the same hour, be “fined the sum of £200 to
our Sovereign Lady the Queen!”  No, no; none of these things shall
influence the struggle.  Be it known, that the Sabbath observers will not
regard thee, O Joseph Locke, and thy bill!  Let your bill pass to-morrow;
still, not merely in our modern Babylon and over our whole land, shall
the God-fearing people rise up against you for the vindication of his
honour, but (be under no mistake) we will continue at our stock-holding
posts, and raise our voices in your companies as of old: we will in no
respect alter our tactics; we will only enlarge our position.  We will
continue to move in your companies—for no human legislature can abrogate
the divine law or compel conscience—‘that no systematic railway work be
done on the Lord’s day;’ and we shall, in addition, there also move,
‘that the companies do petition both Houses of Parliament to rescind’
your iniquitous law.  You thus will just duplicate our motions; you will
just enlarge the field of discussion.  Do your worst; “to this complexion
must you come at last.”

Seriously, it is earnestly to be hoped that religious shareholders will
take warning from the miserable experience of the past, and hold on,
should Mr Locke’s bill pass—not giving way to a second panic, and
betaking themselves to foolish flight, intimidated by the bugbear of an
anti-Deity act of Parliament.  And again, while we say this in reference
to the event of the bill becoming law, neither, we entreat, let the
friends indulge now in any false security that it never will pass.  If it
ultimately fail, it will fail only through the blessing of God on an
energetic pull from the religious world at large.  Who can doubt that, if
the country be quiet and seem acquiescent, the formidable minority of 122
to 131—one of the most successful openings of a new agitation ever
witnessed in Parliament—will soon become a majority?  O let our friends
be firmly persuaded, that no man will more please the adversary than he
who counsels to withdraw from the railway companies when the bill shall
pass into a law!  The great drift of the engineering interest, and secret
of their bill, is to drive strife and controversy (which tell awkwardly
on the share-market) out of the railway companies.  If the enemy once
believe that the good men will fly, their efforts will be redoubled for
its passing.  If they be given to understand that the good men will
continue, after it passes, to meet them at the railway Philippis as of
old, and will there treat them to two motions (and perhaps two
movers—fresh Richards in the field) in place of one as before, their
courage will cool, and the righteous indignation of the country against
their selfishness will have time to arise for the hiding of their
diminished heads, so that the truth may prevail.  Up then, we say, and be
doing.  The measure may be yet discomfited.  But let it pass; let it
become the law of the land—no matter; it will share the fate of Judge
Jefferies’ law and James’s proclamations.  It is contrary to God’s law;
it cannot stand.  It will be overthrown through the force of the
EVANGELICAL PRINCIPLE, which shall yet, steam-power-like, burst the bonds
asunder that may have been imposed on it by engineering artifice, and
stream forth on the right hand and on the left to hallow the day of
sacred rest, and to refresh the land with showers of blessing.

The fact itself of the bringing in of this bill ought to be regarded by
the friends of the Sabbath as a favourable indication of the state of the
question in the country.  Parliament is not troubled with bills about
trifles.  The Sabbath controversy was long regarded by the country, and
of course by Parliament, with indifference or contempt; and had its
advocates limited their efforts to the abstract question and to Exeter
Hall, and mere tractism and preaching, this would have remained the
prevalent mind of the country for a generation.  But so soon as the
spiritual principle came to embody itself in a practical measure—so soon
as the world met the Sabbath as an active agent in what is regarded as
its own department, its railway coaching—indifference became abhorrence,
and contempt fright; and feeling itself to be worsted from half-year to
half-year in argument, and seeing its proxy-power to be sliding from
under its feet, the evangelical monster came so to bulk, that it became
conquerable only through the brute force of parliamentary law.  What
better sign can there be than this of the stringent force of the internal
railway controversy? what higher premium on its prolongation!  And if the
House of Commons, on the first appearance of the hateful thing within its
walls, has been a bear-garden rather than a deliberative assembly,
reducing the Cowans and M‘Gregors, the Scottish representatives of the
Scottish religion, pretty much to dumb-show in their moving and
seconding—what is this but the Queen Street chambers of the old Edinburgh
and Glasgow Railway over again, where, amidst the din of strife, was to
be seen stout Macgill Crichton stretched to tiptoe height, that he might
elude the circle of infuriated anti-Sabbatarian fists which compassed him
about like bees, and straining his trumpet-like tones to the very crack
of eardrums that he might drown their variegated vociferations?—futile
attempt to ordinary-voiced mortals!  But let honourable members take
courage.  This was in the railway affair, the mere surf of the near shore
on the first launching of the Sabbath boat, which, once battled through,
conducted to the deep-founded calm beyond.  Such, no doubt, will be the
comfortable experience of the good men in Parliament, _if they will but
hold on and persevere_.  The railway lions after a time became lambs when
they were confronted in a lion-lamb like spirit; and now as _they_ have
become sober and well-behaved, so will also the worldlings of Parliament,
whether titled or trading, when they shall once have made their little
bully-like play.  They will soon condescend to be silent, if not to
listen.  Speeches, besides, made in Parliament, should they discontent
the honourable House, have the quality of telling on the country at large
through the pleasant echoes of the reporters’ gallery, and the cause
stuck to, will, like every other based on the rock of Bible truth, in the
wisely appointed time prevail.

Quitting preliminaries and generalities, it is now time to present to the
Sabbatarian soldier the manual of his exercise and tactics, to which all
that goes before is introductory.  The manual shall be narrowed within
the closest practicable compass.  “Be practical, be practical!” then—the
frequent exclamation of our departed leader—shall be our steady aim—_in
medias res_, our watchword.



I.  PRINCIPLES OF ACTION.


First of all, the strength of our position, the foundation on which we
rest, the star which is our guide, the stay in defeat, the hope in
adversity, the confidence in weakness, the power that makes invincible,
is the word of God: “Remember the Sabbath-day, to keep it holy.”  The
divine authority and perpetual obligation of the Fourth Commandment of
the Moral Law, is the creed and test of the true Sabbatarian.  This is
the _sacramentum_ of our legion.  None who does not take it is worthy to
contend in the Sabbath ranks, or will stand firm in the shock of
conflict.

2.  The Sabbath contended for is one natural day in seven, every single
portion of which is as sacred as every other portion; and no distinction
of canonical and uncanonical, or morning and evening hours exists, or is
to be listened to.  All the day is the Lord’s day.

3.  Works of necessity and mercy are not exceptions to the Sabbath rule;
they are a part of the commandment implied in its terms, and
authoritatively sanctioned by the Lord of the Sabbath.  But the necessity
must be real, and the mercy unquestionable; the one not such as prudent
foresight or patient waiting would supersede, nor the other mere trifling
or mawkishness.

4.  Such being the doctrinal test of the true Sabbatarian, it may not be
amiss to add, that there is a practical test which has been found
valuable, viz., that he repudiates all systematic Sabbath railway
traffic, whether morning or evening, and whether for man or mail—hating
post-office traffic equally with railway traffic.  He rejects the morning
and evening scheme both on principle and on policy—on principle, because
he holds all portions of the day equally holy; and on policy, because he
knows that the iniquity once insinuated into a portion of the day will
diffuse itself over the whole; and that the public, once swallowing the
little bait, and committing the little sin, will become familiarised with
the whole evil, and soon have neither moral principle nor courage left to
oppose its out-and-out establishment.  In regard, again, to the mail
train, this is certainly, in the Sabbatarian’s eyes, as bad; he probably
regards it as worse than the other.  The combination of both is just a
double iniquity, with this aggravation, that the post-office work is a
national offence, sending worldliness in all the infinite varieties of
correspondence into houses and families, which, but for it, might have
enjoyed the blessing of one day’s repose in seven from the destructive
tear and wear of life.

5.  It follows, as a portion of the Sabbatical principle, that it never
yields—no, not by a hair’s-breadth.  The command is exceeding broad, and
no apparent good is a real good which involves the slightest concession.
The absolute purity of the principle is the talisman of success, never to
be tarnished without ruin to the cause.

6.  It farther follows, in the memorable words of the departed Baronet,
“That we have nothing to do with success; that is in better hands than
ours.  We have only to do with means.”  The consequence of which is, that
we never trouble ourselves with the anxious inquiries of the timid—“What
chance is there of succeeding?  Have you got any more votes?  Is it worth
while to try?  Is it not hopeless?” &c. &c.  Contending for the command
and honour of God, these things affected our Sabbath course practically
in no way; they generally were the snare of the half-and-halfers alone.
No doubt we counted our numbers, glad of their increase; but the less
carefulness about these things, and the more confidence in the
impregnability of the principle there is, the better for the cause, and
the better for the man.

7.  Decided firmness thus is of unspeakable value in this work.  But it
is not all.  It must ever be tempered with courtesy.  Temper indeed and
courtesy, beautiful ornaments of the Sabbath defender, are powerful aids
to his argument—“Remember, gentlemen,” said our late leader, “these men
are just as well entitled to hold their opinions as we are to hold ours.
To be sure you know (smiling) they are wrong and we are right; but they
must be met fairly and respectfully.  Who knows but they may come round?”
Things did indeed now and then occur to stir up his indignation, but few
and far between were the rufflings of his benign heart.  To ordinary
mortals they are very rarely lawful.  The practice of a friend, with whom
the author was once associated in an important negotiation, is worth
following on occasions of trial of temper.  When an exceedingly
irritating or impertinent thing was said, he pulled out his very handsome
snuff-box, and, expending his wrath in a violent rap on the lid, and
noisy draught of its contents within his inflated nostrils, proceeded
thereafter to the reply, which was not the less effective for the pause.



II.  MODE OF ACTION BEFORE MEETINGS.


1.  Two men (or any greater number, _ad libitum_) thus principled, having
established themselves in a railway company by the purchase of (at least)
as much stock as will yield a vote, may proceed to action without fear.
The whole agitation in the railway companies so began; and, for many a
long day, it was carried on but by a handful. {20}  They were strong,
however, in the strength of their position and foundation; and the band
grew and multiplied.

2.  Let the men who enter the arena be assured that it is very good to
arrange with the clergy and religious classes of the town where railway
companies have their headquarters, to hold meetings for public and
private prayer, and to appoint these especially for the Sabbath preceding
the railway meetings; for it must be reiterated to satiety, that the
struggle is a religious one; and while there is even worldly policy in
ever keeping this prominently before the public mind, there is
undoubtedly a blessing on believing prayer.  It cannot fail.

3.  In the same way, the little band must meet before the hour of the
company meeting, and join in prayer.  The Edinburgh and Glasgow handful
never appeared in the Queen Street Chambers without having previously in
the Bath Hotel, or other rendezvous, prostrated themselves before
Almighty God, in earnest seeking of his guidance.  And then, come weal or
come woe, every thing came right.  This previous meeting is useful for
other than the business of prayer.  Here it is right to arrange the order
of battle for the day.  The parties to move and second, for instance,
must here be fixed, as well as the skirmishers who are to be ready to
support them.  The motion to be made must also be determined on.

4.  On this subject, it may, after all experience, be stated that the
best motion to make is, “That no systematic traffic be carried on on the
Lord’s-day.”  This form of words excludes the obnoxious thing, meets the
commandment, and leaves an opening for all needful arrangements for
“necessity and mercy” cases—a class multiplied and magnified to worldly
vision, but scarce known in fact and truth.



III.  MODE OF ACTION AT THE MEETINGS.


1.  On this subject, it is of great consequence for the party to be well
versed in the forms of conducting the business of a public meeting.
These, in general, are borrowed from the admirable, and most just, and
time-saving forms of the House of Commons, more or less acknowledged,
and, it may be added, increasingly adopted at all public meetings in this
country.  The genius and principle of these forms is, and the duty of a
faithful chairman ever is, _the protection of the minority_.  A majority
is always safe, and can protect itself.  But the form of business throws
a shield over the minority by securing a hearing, or a standing at least,
for all, in spite of clamour and violence.  It is to be remembered that
on every new question there is a right to speak once; and it is advisable
that no friend should attempt to speak more than once.  He can thereby
better challenge the like liberty when taken by the obstreperous
opponents.  He may indeed “explain;” but a good chairman will rigidly
enforce the rule against multiplied speeches.  Where, indeed, a gentleman
says merely, “I second the motion,” he is not thereby exposed on rising
afterwards to the “Spoke, spoke,” which ordinarily shuts mouths; on the
contrary, he is understood as having reserved his fire for an adversary,
and must have his full swing.  But the great protection is, the right of
moving an amendment to any effect, and upon any motion; and, an amendment
moved and seconded, the chairman must allow to be debated and put.  Where
two or more amendments are moved, the two last are put against each other
till the ground be cleared of all but the original motion and amendment,
which are then voted.  This is not quite the House of Commons’ amendment
system; but it is a very good one, well adapted to Scotch ideas.  The
mover, it will be kept in view, has always a right of reply; and this
suggests the practical remark, that the party, having chosen a leader,
should always stick by him; for much depends on his judgment and tact as
to the time to speak or to be silent, the time to ask for more or to ask
for less, as the tide ebbs or flows, and so forth.

2.  Where the business of the meeting is conducted with fairness, it is
advisable to allow the directors’ report to be discussed and disposed of,
and to leave the secular business proper to be settled before the Sabbath
motion—which is the secular-sacred—be tabled.  But where there are
symptoms of unfairness, and of a disposition to suppress the discussion,
then the safe course is to move an amendment on the motion for approval
of the report, to the effect that it be disallowed in so far as it
sanctions Sabbath traffic.  A strictly courteous mover and seconder
cannot be overborne, even where there is force and unfairness.  A protest
tabled with the clerk, or, if rejected by him, taken (as once the Friends
were driven to) in the hands of a notary-public, will put all right.

3.  One thing to be added is, that the Sabbath party ought to make a
point at all meetings of dividing.  Generally the personal attendance of
friends is greater than their proxy strength; and it is very encouraging
to the friends to know one another by face.  On the contrary, there are
not a few of the opponents who feel themselves somewhat in an awkward
predicament—professors not quite relishing the exhibition of themselves
as enemies of the Sabbath; and who knows but that, where this feeling is
found, it is symptomatic of incipient change?  At any rate, the division
brings all the real friends into prominent action; and so, their names
being dotted down at the time by the whipper-in, they may be summoned
henceforth to the private meetings, and become doubly efficient; as much
more so than before, as a party of drilled soldiers are than an awkward
squad of recruits.

4.  And this leads us to say, that all friends should, where possible,
attend in person, instead of resting at home and flying their mere proxy
into the field.  The moral influence of the living man is great.  It
ought always, besides, to be remembered, that where directors fight
within a wall of majorities, personal and proxy-form, the defenders of
the faith are exposed to an overbearing pressure, which is to be met with
a serried strength on their side.  Their great point is, _to be heard_,
that they may speak the words of truth in the ears of the company and of
the country.  But this the adversary instinctively hates; and this,
therefore, he shifts where he can.  But where the Sabbath phalanx is not
only compact but strong, it makes itself to be respected and heard.
Therefore the friends are exhorted to come to the meetings.

5.  We add a word on the subject of the proxy system at large, which
gives an unlimited preponderance to wealth over number.  Bad as this is,
it would be tolerable if wealth must always hear before it strikes.  But
the proxy system acts without hearing.  Directors spending the monies of
companies in providing themselves with proxies, establish for themselves
a sort of despotic power, which, even after an argument that would have
reached the conscience of wealth itself had it been there to listen,
declares its pre-determination, and proceeds in its reckless course,
regardless of reasons.  This is a system which ought to be stopped by act
of parliament.  The power of granting proxies should be taken away; and
then the truth on every question, secular as well as sacred, would have
fair play.  For the wholesome effect would not be limited to the Sabbath
question.  There are many things coming home to worldly business and
bosoms which the ventilation of personal attendance would greatly tend to
rectify.

6.  The Sabbath party had better not generally incur the expense of
proxies; they should merely ask individual proprietors to send them in
extraordinary cases.  Their best general policy is, to request friendly
shareholders, prevented by necessary causes from giving personal
attendance, to address letters to the leader expressive of their
adherence to the cause, and adding the number of shares held by them.
These the leader will put in by way of exordium to his speech, naming a
few of the more influential and conspicuous.

7.  It is necessary to add, that the debate having proceeded, and the
motion being disposed of—it may for the present be assumed
unfavourably—the leader then publicly intimates that he will renew it at
the next ordinary meeting.  It will be right for him to see that this
notice is minuted, for thereby it enters the advertisement of the
following meeting.  He must, at the same time, give a public notice on
the adjournment, that there will be a meeting of the friends at a place
and hour to be then named; for in addition to the preparatory meeting,
before the assembling of the shareholders, already adverted to, it is
always good to hold another after their adjournment; first, for the
purpose of unitedly rendering thanks to Almighty God for what may have
taken place, confessing the sin that may have mingled itself, and asking
strength and counsel for the future; and secondly, for the purpose of
arranging the course of policy for the ensuing six months.

8.  One important point remains to be considered.  What ought to be the
subject-matter of the railway debate?  On this point it is proper to bear
in mind, that while, at the opening of the controversy, the discussion
most properly assumed a polemical form, embracing questions of Christian
faith at large as opposed to dissolute infidelity, latterly the field has
been considerably narrowed.  Whether the enemy were driven from the
infidel position by the power of argument or the force of shame, we know
not; but latterly the line of defence has fallen back very much on the
“necessity and mercy” plea, which of course assumes the divine authority
of the day of rest.  And most certainly it is advisable to follow their
lead, and address the argument as to Christians frankly and avowedly,
leaving all others to vindicate and vote for their Sabbath traffic at
pleasure.  This saves the necessity of a great deal of preaching; for if,
according to the standards of all evangelical churches, the Lord’s day is
to be kept as a sacred day of rest—the institution of God himself—then it
must be vain to argue with men professing to be members of these churches
who advocate its breach otherwise than as a question of mere necessity
and mercy; because, when they go farther, they in the very act violate
their own principles.  This pre-eminently applies to all members of the
Church of England, all of whom, after having read the fourth commandment
in its solemn particulars, are accustomed to exclaim on their knees,
“Lord have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep this law!”

9.  The question of necessity and mercy then, which alone remains, is
capable of much and varied illustration, and deserves and will repay
careful study.  In a few words, it may be stated as a question, Whether,
in order to provide for the few and far between real cases of this
description, it is necessary or expedient to entail on the railway staff
of the whole island, the tyrannical burden of a toil which knows neither
interval nor remission, from week to week and from year’s end to year’s
end, save the middle of the night—if that—and as completely deprives
unhappy railway officials of the moral and religious blessings of God’s
appointed Sabbath as if they were so many beasts.  London proclaims that
the land needs no Sabbath post.  Old Scotland proclaims that it needs no
Sabbath coach.  Where then is the necessity? where the mercy?  Echo
answers, Where?

10.  On the subject of motions for statistics bearing on the number of
Sabbath travellers, and the expense, and consequent profit (or loss) of
Sabbath traffic, let the Sabbath leader free himself as much as possible
of either.  The profit or the loss forms no portion of his principle,
just because it forms no part of the commandment; and he is apt, entering
into this walk of inquiry, to be ensnared into secularity, whereof the
enemy always takes strong and sometimes unfair advantage.  Besides,
through the process of “cooking” (using this technical term in the
gentlest and honestest sense of which it is susceptible), he can always
be defeated in his attempt to establish a loss.  He knows, that “in
keeping of the commandment there is great reward;” and that is his
strength even on the profit and loss account.

11.  It may be very right, however, for some skirmisher in his band to
call for Sabbath statistics; and it is believed that these, when
perfectly fair, will support the good cause.  But the less the leader has
to do with them the better.  The more indeed he can, in a missionary way,
penetrate into the dwellings of the stokers and switchmen, and there
learn, for the public good, the Sabbath statistics of the man, with his
declension from the washed face and decent garb, family worship and
patriarchal walk to neighbouring church with wife and children, downwards
to the greasy hand and clouded face, and cast clothing, and hasty meal,
and testy temper, and troubled wife and larking children, of the now
Sabbath-breaker—the more of this the better.  O, surely, as the Sabbath
was made for man, so pre-eminently was it made for the working man, for
the poor man!  To him, however, the railway director says: “Thou shalt
not remember the Sabbath-day; thou shalt not keep it holy; in it thou
shalt not only not do _no_ work, but thou shalt do much work.  To the
poor the gospel shall not be preached.”

_Lastly_.  One point of policy, resting on a solid truth, is, while
addressing shareholders and proprietors at large, to lay the
responsibility of all the Sabbath delinquencies of railways _leadingly on
the directors_.  There is not a doubt of the general fact, that where
directors take a righteous view of the matter, they easily carry the
proprietors, who relieve themselves by devolving responsibility on their
boards, and thinking by proxy.  Then it is to be remembered that the mass
of monied men, who invest for gain, covet Sabbath gains; and so whenever
a body of directors quietly have the same wish, but do not relish the
shame, they tell the shareholders that the matter is left to their
decision, and down comes the desired proxy power, to which they, “nothing
loth,” blushingly consent.  Now, were such a course as this adopted by
the Sabbatarians, they would be, in no measured terms, charged with
hypocrisy.  Good men, however, must use good words; and therefore all we
say is, that directors would be safer in their position, and more
respected, if they frankly avowed their opinions, whatever these might
be, and claimed the support of the constituency to them.  It is right,
therefore, that all talk about directorship impartiality, when the
Sabbath is left by them to the tender mercies of the Stock Exchange,
should be courteously rejected, and the charge of the evil fastened on
the right shoulders, and pressed on their consciences in the face of all,
even the most pathetic, disclaimers.

The office of the directorship is equally delicate and important; and it
is a singular fact that the chairmen, now or lately, of the whole line
from London to Aberdeen (Mr Carr Glyn, Mr Hasell, Mr Hope Johnstone, Lord
Breadalbane, and Lord Wharncliffe), are men of decided religious
profession.  Now, where the Breadalbanes and Forrests, the Hendersons and
the Grahams, the Greigs and the Campbells, take office with the purpose
of protecting the Sabbath, they merit the homage of the whole Christian
world for placing themselves on their vantage ground in the fore-front of
the battle; and we entreat them to allow no adverse circumstance whatever
to withdraw them from their post of influence and power.  To all others
who, like these, make a religious profession, but support the Lord’s-day
traffic, we say, “You have no call of duty compelling you to be railway
directors.  Your churches condemn the traffic which you maintain; you
paralyse their discipline, and greatly weaken them by your public
counteraction of their principles.  Put your practice in accordance with
your profession; protect the Sabbath in your place of power, or come out
from among them and be separate.”



IV.  MISCELLANEOUS.


1.  Careful regard should be had to the due reporting of the Sabbath
debates in the newspapers.  It is impossible to overrate the importance
of this department of the agitation.  Its difficulty almost equals its
importance; for generally the newspaper press is hostile.  However, if
the speeches be short, pithy, and pungent, seasoned with facts, at once
good-humoured and high-principled, the reporters will insert them; and,
as the question grows in intensity and in public interest, the debate
will command attention.

Expense ought to be liberally devoted to this branch of the work; and the
best way is, to order large numbers of such of the papers for circulation
as give tolerable reports.

2.  On this subject of newspapers, it ought not to be at meeting times
alone that they should be cultivated, but at all times.  Whenever any
matter of fact bearing on the question occurs, let it be communicated to
the newspapers; and in a quiet, impartial way, not in that inflated
partisan tone so natural to an ardent zeal.  Let the fact tell, and not
the way of telling it.  In this way the fact, if interesting at all, will
re-appear, through the excellent process of scissaring, in other public
journals, and possibly in some which would be scared by any high
seasoning, or what they would call cant.  Letter-writing is an excellent
and necessary thing in an agitation.  Sir Andrew Agnew used to say that,
when he lost his seat in Parliament and his franking power, his wings
were clipt.  Mr Rowland Hill has given wings to all men (and women) by
his penny postage; and there is not a moral or religious cause in the
land which has not benefited by his scheme.  But, if letter-writing be
good, paragraphing is much better.  In the Sabbath cause, when any thing
new occurs, people oppress themselves by writing numberless letters to
impart the intelligence.  They do well, for in this way they reach a
little circle.  But were they, for their many letters, to substitute one
considered “paragraph,” they would do better, for they would at once
inform a thousand correspondents; and not only so, but secure the
publication of their tale in newspapers by dozens, each of which might
have its thousand readers.  A letter slays its thousands, but a paragraph
slays its tens of thousands.  “Paragraph! paragraph! paragraph!” then,
say we to all the friends.  And not only paragraph the information you
yourselves possess; but when any misjudging friend sends you a letter
with his tale, paragraph it too, and without delay, ordering of course a
few copies of the paper to friends—themselves, in their turn, to become
new sources of light.  Should they get also from the paper a few _slips_
of the article (costing the mere paper and pressmen’s wages), they might,
with good effect, fly them off with their ordinary letters, and still
wider disseminate the truth.

It is taken for granted that, when a paper or other periodical will admit
a controversial article of argument, admission is earnestly to be sought
for it.  But facts shortly stated tell best, at least in the general
newspaper press; and particular care should be taken at all times to
suffer no hostile statement or article to pass without its correction or
answer.  It is always undesirable, in a labour of this kind, to allow any
evil impression to settle down undisturbed on the public mind.  It may
not look formidable at first, but it festers and ferments, and by and by
comes to bulk large, or explodes in a formidable way.  In an arduous
Edinburgh struggle some years ago, the author knows that three gentlemen,
in a manner, beat the town, by meeting every day, with every newspaper
laid before them, and following up every statement with an instant answer
and exposure—a sort of incessant battery against which nothing can stand.
So annoyed was one worthy opponent by the clatter, that, fastening on the
obnoxious three, he said, “There will be no rest for the toon, till H.,
B., and C, are hanged on a gallows on the Castlehill!”

The power of the newspaper press is infinite.  It is like the caloric of
nature; it overspreads the whole face of society; it insinuates itself
into the darkest and coldest, and penetrates the most obtuse, regions.
The ever-recurring “article” is like the water-drop, which, small and
light in look, will, oft repeated, pierce the hardest rock.  To the
religious press the obligations of the friends of this cause are
unspeakable; and the irreligious helps it too, if not by its violence, at
least by its constrained spreading of intelligence, for, with exceptions,
the newspaper press at large is fair.

3.  Let it be a rule at the headquarters of each of the contested
railways—the town where its meetings are held—to keep a list of the
Sabbath friends in all the other towns, in each of which it is very
important to have some one known leader, or medium of communication; {31}
and during the interval between half-yearly meetings, care should be
taken, by mutual interchanges, to keep them one and all in full
information of every important thing that happens, or suggestion that
occurs, in any place.  Lists also should be kept of _all the friends_ in
the different places; and the way to secure this is for every one, when
he hears of a new Sabbatarian, to dot down his name on the instant, and
send it every where.  This is an excellent freemasonry.

4.  It is, in one sense, needless to say—but it is most important—that
every effort should be made to prevail on friends to buy into railway
companies.  Let not the smallness of the purchase in any case lead to
indifference about making it.  Its true value may be great, though in
numerical worth it is little.  Sir Andrew Agnew fought the battle of the
Sabbath at Glasgow on a £50 stock certificate; and at periods of
depression the qualification may be acquired for much less.  Moral weight
ever tells; and, when it also has a tongue, it tells more emphatically.

5.  In this view, it would be of admirable effect if churches would
collect, and invest their clergymen with railway qualifications.  Where,
for example, a railway, in passing through a parish, annoys the clergyman
by the falling away of this good man and that good man, tempted to his
soul’s ruin by the holiday pastimes or comfortable berths thrown in his
way by the railway managers, how influential would it be if the bereaved
shepherd of the flock came to the directorship wolves, and upbraided them
to their faces—if conscience were too steeled for entreaty—on account of
their unhallowed leading of the poor into temptation!  And how impressive
is the doctrinal lecture of the godly minister at the meeting, as he
answers the flippant sophistries issuing from the chairs of railway
power, or from its monied benches!  Dr Mackellar, Dr M‘Farlane, Mr Leake,
and Mr Macnaughtan, have often sent the enemy away with that dart in the
heart or confusion in the face, which, through a blessing from on high,
may yet reach even an obdurate railway nature.

6.  Great good has been experienced from the presence of clergymen at the
railway meetings.  Some of them, indeed, shrink from the railway contest
as if it were out of their sphere.  But Parliament has consigned the
Sabbath to the keeping of the railway shareholders; and is there a solid
ground for doubting whether clergymen are in the way of duty when they
qualify, for the purpose of lifting their voice in its defence?  They are
not injured when worldly men speak all manner of evil against them for
the Lord’s sake, unless they revile again when they are reviled.  On the
contrary, their Christian graces are stirred up by the exercise; and they
shine more bright—their enemies themselves being judges—when subjected to
the friction of rough usage.  But of this they will experience little.
It is the laity who form the object of attack; and clergymen may be
assured that their respected presence less exposes them than it shields
the laity.  Clergymen speak authoritatively on points of doctrine, and
few even of the boldest laymen presume to controvert their doctrine
openly, or, if they do, they injure their own cause more than they shake
the truth.  Ministers thus preach the gospel in season and out of season.

7.  Parliament having taken up the Sabbath subject, it is well to bear
these two advices in mind.  _First_, To send petitions, not to the
Plumptres and Breadalbanes of either House because they are known
friends; but to the member for the particular locality petitioning, or to
any one of the lords who may be resident in the neighbourhood, and known
to, or interested in, the people.  And, _second_, to see that letters be
written to these noble and honourable persons by electors, or other
influential individuals of the district (_ladies included_), as
numerously as possible.  If similar letters be also written to the known
friends in Parliament, apprising them of the petition, and requesting
their attendance and support when it is presented, practical good will by
and by be the result.

_Last_, but not least, the doing of these things requires _money_.  It
shall not be believed, that if the doing of them be right, the means of
doing will be wanting; for they must be done by religious men; and
religious men will not withhold money where it is wanted for the service
of God.

                                * * * * *

Resuming this whole matter, we urge on the religion of the country, and
with equal earnestness and confidence, the conviction, that it is always
easy to establish an efficient Sabbath railway action in any railway
company, however cold or hostile the country may be.  If two gentlemen of
principle and determination take as much stock as will afford to each a
vote, and one of them give notice that, at the next meeting, he will move
against Sabbath traffic; if he and his second be at their post on that
occasion, and make their speeches—no matter how long or how short—calmly,
resolutely, and with imperturbable good temper; the thing is done.  They
lose, of course, at first; but the question is entered.  They renew their
notice quietly for next meeting after each defeat; the affair moves
forward, gathering strength as it goes; and there is a sort of awe about
the commandment, which tells on the most hostile: the motion becomes a
subject of talk, possibly of annoyance: but the leaven works; it appears
in the actings of other companies, spreading encouragement all around:
the power of reiteration is felt: the religion of England is roused, and
minds are indoctrinated with the truth which might never otherwise have
come in contact with it: the enterprise looks formidable at first; but
the Word of God prevails; and, if the triumph be long of coming, its
postponement is but a trial of faith.

Let our two imagined shareholders, thinking over the matter in their
homes, stir up themselves to see, that while England boasts, with
justice, of its May meetings, they may yet give it its Spring meetings
and its Autumn meetings.  They may, by their introduction of the Sabbath
question into the railways, be the instruments of establishing Spring
meetings and Autumn meetings, not less efficient in their own sphere than
those of May, in drawing out and diffusing and consolidating the
righteous principles of the country, and its holy practice in regard to
the observance of the Lord’s-day; that test, cause, and fruit of the
religious character of any people.  For the practical use of all such
devoted men, wherever they may be, they are here presented, within a
little compass, with



_A Summary of Railway Spring and Summer Preparations_.


1.  Let our two friends apply to the company for lists of the proprietors
of the railways on which it is meant to act.  Having obtained these (as
shareholders are entitled by law to have them),

2.  Let them prepare a general circular to railway proprietors, concisely
expounding the railway Sabbath question, and intimating that it is to be
brought forward at the ensuing meetings, and asking support.

3.  This circular being printed, may be addressed inside, in manuscript,
to each individual, specifying all the railways in the lists of which his
name is found.  Being addressed outside to him, one postage will cover
many railways.

4.  This circular should be issued early, without waiting the fixing of
the day of railway meetings; the parties being requested in it to advert
to these as they are notified to them or advertised by the companies.

5.  Let them arrange previously with the movers of the question on each
railway; and, if possible, name them (with their addresses) in the
circular, requesting _interim_ communications as to each railway, to be
addressed to the movers before the meetings.

6.  In the circular inclose a slip (marked private) _to known friends_,
containing an intimation that the friends of the Sabbath will meet to
consult one hour before, and also immediately after the ensuing railway
meetings, at places named.  Let this slip also state, that the circular
is issued in sufficient time to enable friends to get others to buy stock
for the meetings, and let it ask a reply containing the number of shares
held.

7.  Let the slip farther contain lists of the directors of the different
railway companies operated on, and let the friends, male and female,
before the meetings, be urged to write to such of the directors or
officials as they know (or whether they know them or not), pleading with
them against the desecration of the Sabbath, assuring them that they, not
the shareholders, are the real authors of the evil, and intreating them
to desist.

8.  Let this good system be systematically persevered in from half year
to half year; and it will soon bear fruit in a wide array of Sabbath
defenders, and a general diffusion of Sabbath principles.

                                * * * * *

In conclusion, this manual of policy, which, from its very nature,
assumes a worldly aspect, cannot close without one general observation of
an important character: That while there is ever much liability to
forget, in the active use of means, the earnest exercise of faith, so
there is a faith which underrates means, and is, in fact, a tempting of
God, and a foolishness.  When Æsop told his waggoner to help himself and
Jove would help him, he showed the cloven foot of his heathenism, and
despised God.  But when Oliver Cromwell told his men at the fosse of
Newark, to pray to God and keep their powder dry, he not only violated no
principle, but put himself in thorough accordance with the Scripture
principle.  In like manner, under the deepest conviction that all which
poor mortals can do is to use the means and pray, while the success of
the means used rests entirely with God, it is trusted that in these pages
not a sentiment is breathed, or a department of policy recommended, which
is not based on this great principle.  Nothing gives such boldness and
confidence in a religious struggle, as an abiding sense of man’s
impotence and God’s omnipotence: nothing so fortifies against reverses,
and gives such light in darkness; and nothing, we will add, so disturbs
the enemy as to see the insignificant little band, bolder without visible
strength amidst all their littleness, than he is amidst all his
Xerxes-like grandeur and profusion of numbers.

Let us hear, however, the conclusion of the whole matter.  “Remember the
Sabbath-day, to keep it holy.”  “Contend earnestly for the faith.”  “My
grace is sufficient for thee; for my strength is made perfect in
weakness.”  “When I am weak then I am strong.”  “I can do all things
through Christ, which strengtheneth me.”  “Therefore will not we fear.”
“The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge.  Selah.”

                                * * * * *

_P.S._—The London _Railway Record_ of 7th July, contains the following
important acknowledgment _by an enemy_, of the value of the Railway
agitation:—“Let us admit, however, that the present Sabbatarian movement
is remarkably practical in its character, and in its working, if not in
its objects.  Sir A. Agnew agitated the question originally by public
declamation, with zeal and enthusiasm but without method.  It was not
till the Sabbatarians hit upon the plan of buying up railway stock, and
proposing and seconding, and sometimes carrying, practical resolutions at
railway meetings that any success was achieved.  The originator of this
plan, we find from an essay reprinted from the _Free Church Magazine_,
was Sir Andrew Agnew’s _fidus Achates_, Mr J. Bridges of Edinburgh, who,
in the essay referred to, recounts the exploits of his party with
emphasis, and who certainly deserves credit for a suggestion which has
done so much to serve his cause.  How far we differ—in degree—from those
who hold the uncompromising tenets of the ultra-Sabbatarian School we
have already stated.  Nevertheless we sympathise with the railway station
clerk, who in the _Times_ of yesterday so bitterly denounces the slavery
which denies him, and 4000 others, one day of rest from the 1st of
January to the 31st of December.”

                                * * * * *

                                 THE END.

                                * * * * *

                                * * * * *

                EDINBURGH: JOHNSTONE, BALLANTYNE, AND CO.




FOOTNOTES.


{10}  The Lord’s-day Society’s recent efforts in the Sabbath Post-Office
question have been very excellent.

{11}  Now that death has withdrawn my honoured Friend from the field of
mortal strife, it may not be uninteresting to quote a letter from him,
written on his death-bed, which may truly be regarded as containing his
dying testimony to the truth of these principles, having informed him
that the Rev. Dr Begg a powerful friend of the Sabbath, but doubter
hitherto as to the soundness of the principle of stockholding, had seen
cause to adopt it, Sir Andrew wrote—

                                                        “5 RUTLAND SQUARE,
                                                           22d March 1849.

    “MY DEAR MR BRIDGES.—Many thanks for your kind letter of sympathy and
    frequent enquiries.  I have had the scarlet fever in all its
    severities, primary and secondary, and I do not quickly revive, but
    feel exhausted by the slightest exertion.  I rejoice to hear of Dr
    Begg’s adherence to the national railway war.  I am confident 7000
    more will be raised up to see that the directors are the grand
    offenders (shareholders their cat’s-paws), and that it is a great
    privilege to meet the offenders face to face every six months,
    according to law.  With much gratitude, yours very truly,

                                                             “AND. AGNEW.”

He died on the 12th of April.

{20}  It may not be unacceptable to state, that for long Messrs Charles
Philip, Smyttan, and Macgill Crichton, with the author, formed the whole
of Sir Andrew Agnew’s Sabbath railway band.

{31}  For example:—

  Aberdeen—Alexander Thomson, Esq. of Banchory.

  Belfast—John Lytle, Esq.

  Bath—Melmoth Walters, Esq.

  Birmingham—

  Brighton—

  Bristol—

  Carlisle—T. H. Graham, Esq., Edmond Castle.

  Cupar, Fife—D. M. M. Crichton, Esq. of Rankeillour.

  Derby—

  Dublin—

  Dundee—William Hay, Esq.

  Edinburgh—Dr Greville, 6 York Place.

  Folkstone—Alexander Swan, Esq.

  Glasgow—W. Guthrie, Esq., West George’s Street.

  Greenock—... Macfie, Esq.

  Ipswich—Andrew Johnston, Esq., Halesworth.

  Leith—Charles Philip, Esq.

  London—Joseph Wilson.  Esq.  Clapham Park.  Rev. T. S. Baylee, 2 Exeter
  Hall.

  Liverpool—

  Manchester—Thomas Greig.  Esq., Cornbrook Park.

  Newcastle-on-Tyne—T. G. Bell, Esq.

  Paisley—Archibald Gardener, Esq.

  Perth—Alexander Campbell, Esq. of Monzie.

  Southampton—

  Stirling—Peter Drummond, Esq.

  York—

Volunteers for the blank towns (and the names of omitted towns with
_their_ volunteers) may be sent to the publishers.




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