374 STUDIES, SCIENTIFIC AND SOCIAL chap, xx 



great indeed, since it would at once bring about better 

 relations with the wealthy classes, and especially with 

 those who teach or profess religion. They would see, 

 what they had hitherto doubted or denied, that the 

 religion of the upper classes had some real influence 

 on their lives, by leading them, not merely to give away 

 a portion of their surplus wealth in charity, or to take 

 part in the public proceedings of charitable institutions, 

 but really to sacrifice something which they have hitherto 

 considered necessary to their comfort in order to obey 

 the laws of that religion. They would further see, 

 everywhere, men and women of culture voluntarily 

 undertaking various public and private duties, in order 

 to allow all kinds of workers to enjoy repose and 

 recreation on one day in seven ; and this great object- 

 lesson in brotherhood and sympathy would lead to a 

 general good feeling between all classes. The har- 

 monious relations which would be thus produced might 

 be of inestimable value when the time comes for those 

 radical reforms in our social organization which are more 

 and more clearly seen to be inevitable in the not distant 

 future. 



It is, perhaps, too much to expect that the " counsel of 

 perfection " here set forth for the consideration of the reli- 

 gious world by an outsider,will have much effect on conduct. 

 But even if it should influence a few here and there to 

 alter their mode of life on the day they hold to be divinely 

 instituted as a period of complete rest for all servants 

 and beasts of burden, and if it should render others less 

 severe in their judgment of those they term " Sabbath- 

 breakers," but who often less deserve that name than do their 

 accusers — and if it thus helps, in however small a degree, 

 to lower the barriers which now divide class from class, 

 and to remove one of the causes which lead many of the 

 workers to look upon the religion of the rich as little 

 better than hypocrisy, the object with which it was written 

 will have been fulfilled. 



