portunity of doing their duty to God, their own souls, and their families?

Formerly horses were abused, and the Sabbath was desecrated to an awful extent by the running of stagecoaches. But that practice is now nearly superseded by the introduction of steam-packets and railway carriages. As far as this change indicates the progress of science and mechanical skill, and diminishes the demand for animal and physical labour, it is cause of joy. But it sorely grieves us, that the inventions of genius, in connexion with the giant agency of steam, should be so generally prostituted to Sabbathprofanation. We grieve, because the evil has been increased in the same proportion as the new agency surpasses the old in splendour and in power; because its continuance, in this aggravated form, must bring down the curse of God with accumulated weight on our beloved country; because it has yoked a new class of men to the car of mammon, and made those the patrons of Sabbath-desecration who, if the thing had been foretold a few years ago, would have indignantly said, "Is thy servant a dog, that he should do this great thing?" But, alas! the abhorred event is accomplished. The sin of pandering to the Sabbathbreaking propensities of the worldly and the gay, is no longer left to men who make no profession of piety, and who live beyond the pale of the Christian church. The melancholy fact cannot be denied, that infidels, Socialists, drunkards, and all who are "lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God," now leave our large towns, by thousands, every Lord's-day morning, for distant tea-gardens, public-houses, and gaming-tables, in elegant carriages, fitted up and propelled at the expense of men whom fame describes as scientific, patriotic, friends of the

* We are happy to place it on record, that the present Lord Francis Egerton, with his Lady and

family, presents an example to the nobility and

gentry in the land; for, except when the weather is unusually stormy, they, with their servants, invariably walk from their mansion to the parish ehurch.

poor, advocates of national education, and communicants at the Lord's table. O"tell it not in Gath; publish it not in the streets of Askelon!" Christ is betrayed in the house of his friends! His law is made void by those who profess faith in his divinity, and who glory in the grace of his Gospel. Members, yea, officers, in his church, who in words admit the perpetual and universal obligation of the moral law, are trampling one of the plainest precepts of that law under foot; and, either through the fear of man, or ignorance of their duty, or the love of filthy lucre, they stand connected with one of the most daring systems of Sabbathprofanation that was ever set up in any Protestant country.

It will not avail these gentlemen -for many of whom we have a high personal esteem-to say, the evil complained of is the work of a Company. What is the Company, but a number of individuals voluntarily associated for the accomplishment of gainful ends, by the adoption of common and approved means? The individuals furnish the capital, reap the profits, share the responsi bilities, and appoint the executive. They, in fact, constitute the Company, which is nothing more nor less than an extensive partnership. into which they freely entered, and from which, by selling out, they may retire when they please. Nor will it avail the shareholders, who are the true proprietors, to throw the blame on the Directors, and the servants they employ. We ask, Who appoints the Directors? In whose name do they act? With whose property do they trade? Who are answerable for the liabilities into which they enter? Do those shareholders who wish to be regarded as sleeping partners, sleep when the profits are divided? Would they sleep, were the Directors to misappropriate the funds? or to divide the proceeds among their own purses? The guilt of the Directors, and the agents they employ, is great; but the shareholders are far from being innocent. The man who hires another to do an act

which he knows will issue in murder, is himself a murderer, as truly as he who administers the poison, or who uses the poniard. And so those who carry on trade on the Lord's day by deputy are, in His sight, Sabbath-breakers, to all intents and purposes. Confederation does not annihilate individual identity, nor cancel individual obligation. The accessary is, in law, responsible for the deeds of the principal. To consent when sinners entice, to cast in our lot, and to have one purse with them, in bringing evil devices to pass, -are acts expressly forbidden in the Scripture. Instead of constituting their excuse, it is mentioned as an aggravation of guilt, that " the Kings of the earth set themselves, and the Rulers take counsel together, against Jehovah, and against his Anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from

But it is said, "The Government of the country not only sanctions Sunday travelling, but enforces it by Act of Parliament." This is true, as far as the transmission of the mail is concerned. But, admitting, for a moment, that it is wise and proper in the Government to do this, why should their injunction be made a pretext for running trains at those hours when there is no mail to be transmitted? or for providing accommodation for multitudes, not one in a hundred of whom can plead either necessity or mercy in justification of his journeying? But we hold, that governors are as much bound to obey God, as the meanest who are under their authority; and that the best interests of nations are as intimately bound up with the conscientious observance of his laws, as are those of individuals. The almost lightning speed with which letters, passengers, and goods can now be conveyed from one end of the kingdom to the other, completely obviates the plea of necessity which was formerly urged in defence of Sunday travelling; and the arrangements into which the Government entered with some of the Scottish Compa

nies prove, that the mail-question involves no insuperable obstacles to the entire extinction of the evil. Our governors have no personal interest in the transmission of the mail on Sunday; it can afford them no personal pleasure to know that it is done; and it is our deep conviction, that were the Christian congregations in the land, with their Ministers, and the different Railway Companies, with their respective Boards of Directors,-to petition Parliament on the subject, the iniquity would at once be put down.

The much-lauded expedient of keeping Sunday profits separate from the proceeds of the week-day traffic, that they may be refused, or appropriated to benevolent or religious purposes, implies something worse than trifling with great and sacred principles. We regard it as a direct compromise with mammon, a subterfuge for unquiet consciences, a snare to catch unwary souls, a new attempt "to wash the Ethiop white." Anciently the torn, and the lame, and the sick were debarred from the altar of God by a curse; and, to the present, no offering can find acceptance in his sight, which is not clean and unblemished. The popularity and commonness of this species of Sabbath-desecration afford no justification to its patrons. It is just as sinful to convey passengers on business-journeys and pleasure-jaunts, as it would be to carry cattle to Smithfield market; and it would not be a whit more criminal in the farmer, to drive manure to his fields on Sunday, in a common cart, than it is for Railway Directors to transmit bales of silk and chests of bullion in their waggons. is the transgression of the law;" and if the multitude do evil, we are commanded not to follow them. The sins of others are beacons for our warning, not patterns for our imitation. Our obligations to obey are based on the indissoluble and personal relations we sustain to God; and the misdeeds of millions will not excuse us, if, in a single instance, we belie these obligations, and resist his claims. His lawnot the worldly expedients and way

Sin

ward conduct of our fellow-menis our rule of duty; and as there is life in his favour, it is our highest interest to yield obedience, at all possible risks.*

If the practice we condemn were right, it would stand the scrutiny of that day. But what shareholder is prepared to stake his eternal destiny on the success of the following plea, which contains nearly every point of defence which can be urged by its most ingenious advocates? "Lord, it is true, our Company traded on thy Sabbath; but we did it on a magnificent scale, in a scientific manner, and in an age of extraordinary commercial enterprise. We did it to reduce the expense of travelling, to put down the cruelties of horse-carriage conveyance, to provide a profitable investment for our surplus capital, and to keep the trade and commerce of our country in advance of those of other nations. Had the concern been under our personal management, some of us would have suffered the amputation of an arm, rather than have desecrated thy day; but, having agreed to merge our individual opinions and scruples in the combined wisdom and conscience of the Company, we were obliged to submit to the majority. The whole plan was framed according to Act of Parliament; and, in carrying it out, we were favoured with the patronage of many who were accounted wise and pious. Though we furnished the capital, others did the work; and as for the Sunday profits, they were so small, that, after appropriating them for a short time to charitable purposes, we suffered them to mingle in the common stock. The convenience we provided was for others, not ourselves; nothing but necessity ever induced us to travel on thy day; and as for the thoughtless crowd who did it from choice, we pitied them, and promoted Town Missions, and tract-distribution, that they might see the error of

* Some of the preceding remarks appeared in a Memorial which the Wesleyan Ministers in Manchester addressed to the Directors of the Leeds Railway last year, and which was prepared by the writer at the request of his brethren.

their ways. Whenever it could be done, without incurring great loss, we stopped our trains during churchhours; and had our servants been religiously disposed, they might, in most instances, have heard one sermon at least. As for the workmen who wrought on Sunday at our tunnels, and such parts of the line as required dispatch, we encouraged good men to preach to them, and to distribute religious tracts among them, after they had finished their toil. Besides attending thy house ourselves, some of us frequented thy table; and deep were our searchings of heart while we prayed, Lord, have mercy upon us, and write all these laws on our hearts, we beseech thee.' Indeed, the Sabbath-breaking part of the concern never had the consent of our conscience; and, but for the immense sacrifice of property which the step would have involved, and a hope that the Company would some time or other abandon the Sunday traffic, we should have sold out, regardless of reproach."

We leave those concerned to imagine the overwhelming rebuke which such an apology, if presented, must draw down from the great Lord of the Sabbath. That practice which will not bear the light of truth now, cannot stand the scrutiny of the holy God then. The distinctions between right and wrong, truth and error, sophistry and argument, consistency and inconsistency, are essential and eternal; and God can neither confound them, nor allow us to confound them with impunity. The Judge of all the earth will do right. He has not abrogated the Sabbath-law; and woe to us, if, by word or deed, we bring it into contempt. There are limits beyond which He will not permit pride and profligacy to proceed, however they may be backed by genius, wealth, power, and public opinion. Those who profane the Sabbath, whether personally or by proxy, whether singly or in a confederated character, make God their enemy; and they can expect nothing else but that he will curse their blessings, and make their Sabbath-gains a consuming rust to the treasures