Lord Shaftesbury is mellowing. He made a speech on Tuesday
t the good folks of Glasgow, who have just presented him with their citizenship, on the Sunday question, which must have greatly disappointed the Presbyteries. Instead of absolutely prohibiting recreation, his Lordship expressed his strong approval of Sunday walks—which, in great cities involve journeys by train or omnibus —declared that the best way to study the works of God was to study them out of doors, and defended the " Sabbath " as affording a break in the hurried unrest of our modern lives. He actually went so far as to say that he regarded the day as one "of holy physical and mental recreation," and to deny that he and his party desired "to impose upon others any ascetic observance." He called the Rev. Bee Wright and his supporters "fussy, misguided, foolish people," and defended the Act of Charles IL as "the charter of the working-man." On these terms we can all of us be Sabbatarians, for we doubt if there are a dozen men in England who do not believe that one day a week for rest and*meditation is expedient, that for all persons to use the same day is oonvenient, and that the convenience is sufficient to justify a statute. Only we think we remember a time when all those arguments would have been styled by the Calvinists weak apologies, and anybody who used them would have been called a feeble brother. And, after all, if God did decree the Sabbath amidst the thunders of Sinai, as Lord Shaftesbury thinks, they are rather impertinent surplusage.
Previous page
