THE SABBATH. 319 



blinded by a moral cause to those exquisite pencilings, to those unob- 

 truded vestiges, which furnish their clearest testimony to this insti- 

 tute." A third writer charitably professes his readiness " to admit, in 

 reference to this and many other duties, that it is quite a possible thing 

 for a mind that is desirous of evading the evidence regarding it to suc- 

 ceed in doing so." A fourth luminary, whose knowledge obviously 

 extends to the mind and methods of the Almighty, exclaims, "Is it 

 not a principle of God's Word in many cases to give enough and no 

 more to satisfy the devout, not to overpower the uncandidf'' It is 

 of course as easy as it is immoral to argue thus ; but the day is fast 

 approaching when the most atrabilious presbyter will not venture to 

 use such language. Let us contrast with it the utterance of a naturally 

 sweet and wholesome mind. " Since all Jewish festivals, new moons, 

 and Sabbaths," says the celebrated Dr. Isaac Watts, " are abolished 

 by St. Paul's authority ; since the religious observation of days in the 

 fourteenth chapter to the Romans, in general, is represented as a mat- 

 ter of doubtful disputation ; since the observation of the Lord's day 

 is not built upon any express or plain institution by Christ or his apos 

 ties in the New Testament, but rather on examples and probable infer- 

 ences, and on the reasons and relations of things I can never pro- 

 nounce anything hard or severe upon any fellow-Christian who main- 

 tains real piety in heart and life, though his opinion on this subject 

 may be very different from mine." Thus through the theologian radi- 

 ates the gentleman. 



Up to the end of the eighteenth century the catalogue of Mr. Cox 

 embraces three hundred and twenty volumes and publications. It is 

 a monument of patient labor ; while the remarks of the writer, which 

 are distributed throughout the catalogue, illustrate both his intellectual 

 penetration and his reverent cast of mind. He wrought hard and 

 worthily with a pure and noble aim, I had the pleasure of meeting 

 Mr. Cox at Dundee in 1867, when the British Association met there, 

 and I could then discern the earnestness with which he desired to see 

 his countrymen relieved from the Sabbath incubus, and at the same 

 time the moderation and care for the feelings of others with which he 

 advocated his views. He has also given us a rapid "Sketch of the 

 Chief Controversies about the Sabbath in the Nineteenth Century." 

 The sketch is more compressed than the catalogue, and the changes of 

 thought in passing from author to author, being more rapid, are more 

 bewildering. It is to a great extent what I have already called a clat- 

 ter of small-arms, mingled with the occasional discharges of mightier 

 guns. One thing is noticeable and regrettable in these discussions, 

 namely, the unwise and undiscriminating way in which different Sun- 

 day occupations are classed together and condemned. Bishop Blom- 

 field, for example, seriously injures his case when he places drinking 

 in gin-shops and sailing in steamboats in the same category. I re- 

 member some years ago standing by the Thames at Putney with my 



