THE SABBATH. 19 



with commodities ' on Sunday, drops into a river : 

 God's retributive justice is seen in the fact. Wells 

 travelled far in search of instances. One Utrich Schroe- 

 tor, a Swiss, while playing at dice on the Lord's Day, 

 lost heavily, and apparently to gain the devil to his 

 side broke out into this horrid blasphemy : ' If fortune 

 deceive me now I will thrust my dagger in the body of 

 God.' Whereupon he threw the dagger upwards. It 

 disappeared, and five drops of blood, which afterwards 

 proved indelible, fell upon the gaming table. The 

 devil then appeared, and with a hideous noise carried 

 off the vile blasphemer. His two companions fared no 

 better. One was struck dead and turned into worms, 

 the other was executed. A vintner who on the Lord's 

 Day tempted the passers-by with a pot of wine was 

 carried into the air by a whirlwind and never seen more. 

 ' Let us read and tremble,' adds Mr. W T ells. At Tid- 

 worth a man broke his leg on Sunday while playing at 

 football. By a secret judgment of the Lord the wound 

 turned into a gangrene, and in pain and terror the 

 criminal gave up the ghost. 



You may smile at these recitals, but is there not a 

 survival of John Wells still extant among you ? Are 

 there not people in your midst so well informed as to 

 ' the secret judgments of the Lord ' as to be able to tell 

 you their exact value and import, from the damaging 

 of the share market through the running of Sunday 

 trains to the calamitous overthrow of a railway bridge ? 

 Alphonso of Castile boasted that if he had been con- 

 sulted at the beginning of things he could have saved 

 the Creator some worlds of trouble. It would not be 

 difficult to give the God of our more rigid Sabbatarians 

 a lesson in justice and mercy ; for his alleged judg- 

 ments savour but little of either. How are calamities 

 to be classified ? Almost within earshot of those who 



