In conclusion, therefore, I would, urge most strongly, that in all arrangements or proposals with regard to the land, we should throw aside altogether the idea of getting the highest possible rents, but should always aim at the maximum of well-being for the cultivators. By thus acting we shall best secure the equal well-being of the whole of the industrial community, and shall initiate that progressive improvement, with the diminution and ultimate abolition both of enforced idleness and of undeserved poverty, which is the whole aim and object of Land Nationalization. CHAPTER XX A COUNSEL OF PERFECTION FOR SABBATARIANS 1 ALMOST all the Christian Churches of Great Britain have adopted the Sabbath of the Jewish lawgiver as a divine institution, only changing the day from Saturday to Sunday, though many of the Nonconformists retain the Jewish term, Sabbath. Many, perhaps most, religious persons hold that to work on Sunday is an actual sin comparable in gravity with most other acts forbidden in the Ten Commandments; and the strong condemnation of Sabbath-breaking in religious tracts and Sunday-school teaching is a sufficient proof of the importance attached to a due observance of the day. An impartial onlooker is, however, somewhat puzzled by the circumstance that, notwithstanding this general uniformity of precept, the practice, even of the teachers, is exceedingly lax, since there is hardly a Christian family in the whole country, not excluding those of the clergy of the various denominations, where the Sabbath is not broken fifty-two times in every year. Now the fourth commandment, as read every Sunday in our churches, is either binding on Christians or it is not. In the latter case breaking it is no sin, and any observance of a seventh day of rest is merely a matter of expediency or of human law. It is, however, nearly certain that the majority of Protestant clergy do not accept this latter view, and I therefore propose to discuss the question-how Sunday may be most consistently and beneficially observed by those who believe it to be a divine institution; and my argument will apply equally to those who maintain that we are only bound by the spirit of the commandment, not by the letter, still less by the special interpretation of it adopted by the Jews. 1 This article appeared in the Nineteenth Century (October, 1894) under the editor's title "A Suggestion to Sabbath Keepers.” Let us then first inquire what is the spirit and purport of the law; and in this there can be little difficulty, because it is more fully explained than any other of the commandments, so that its whole meaning and purpose cannot possibly be misunderstood. This command is not given briefly, as so many others are ; not merely "thou shalt not work on the Sabbath,” as in “ thou shalt not kill,” or “ thou shalt not steal;" but with full and impressive reiteration and detail. دو First, we are told, " Six days shalt thou labour and do all thy work;" then, on the Sabbath, “thou shalt not do any work;" and then, to show how wide and complete is the law, there is added, "thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor the stranger that is within thy gates.' If ever there were plain words with a plain meaning these are such. They mean, as clearly as words can convey meaning, that each one's work during the week, that work which is the duty of our lives, and by which we maintain ourselves, is to cease on the Sabbath; and that the law is especially to apply to all servants of every kind, and to all beasts of burden, which are included under the generic term " cattle." This being the commandment, how is it obeyed by those who uphold the sanctity of the law; by those who are continually urging others to keep the Sabbath; by those who take every opportunity of putting in force human laws against Sabbath-breakers? Are not manservants and maidservants all at work on Sunday? Are not servants and horses employed by the thousand to take people to church on Sunday? Many persons, if asked why they go to church or chapel, will say that it is to save their souls or to please God, and yet they seem to think that they may break what they believe is God's own commandment week after week, without any chance of displeasing Him or of losing the souls they are so anxious to save. What makes the matter worse is that, while they are thus disobeying the scriptural commandment in the most flagrant manner, they are salving their consciences by abstaining, and trying to force others to abstain, from things which are not forbidden by the commandment, and which are not in any way opposed to its spirit. To walk for health or pleasure, to row in a boat, to play at cricket, or at chess, to whistle, or sing, to read amusing books, to look at great pictures in art galleries, or to admire the beauties and wonders of nature in museums or gardensall these things have been, and many of them are still considered by the more strictly religious to be " breaking the Sabbath," and are denounced as such in many a tract and sermon. And the good people who hold these views seem quite unconscious that they themselves are far greater sinners than the people they denounce as “Sabbath breakers; " for to direct Sabbath-breaking they add the sin of pharisaism, inasmuch as they condemn in others what is, at the worst, a far less offence than their own, and are guilty of impious presumption in venturing to add to and improve upon the divine commandment, while constantly and knowingly disobeying the commandment itself. Do not the words of Christ exactly apply to such, when He rebuked the Pharisees from the mouth of Esaias?"But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men." And when we inquire the reason for this strange and inconsistent conduct, we find only a series of excuses. They say, that the requirements of health and decency render a certain amount of work necessary on Sunday; that we keep a Christian and not a Jewish Sabbath; that we reduce the work of our labourers as much as possible ; and that we only recognize works of necessity and of mercy as permissible on the holy day. It is true that Christ justified deeds of charity and of mercy to both man and beast on the Sabbath, but He nowhere abrogates the law of rest for each labourer, whether man or beast, from his six days' work. To tend the sick and supply the wants of the animals which serve us in various ways is not to break the Sabbath; but all these things and much more may be done without infringing even the letter of the Commandment, if we choose to seek out the right way of doing them. Christ clearly emphasized the spirit of the law when He declared that the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath ; by which we are taught, that the essential principle of rest on the seventh day for all who have laboured during six days is what we must seek to preserve. How we may preserve this, and yet have everything done that is necessary for health, comfort, and refreshment of mind and body, I now propose to show. The whole essence of the Sabbath-question rests upon giving the proper meaning to the words "labour," " work," "thy work," as used in the fourth commandment. These words, as the context shows, do not refer to any particular acts, but to the work done by each one of us in the business or profession by which we live. To the summer tourist in the Alps the ascent of a mountain or the passage of a glacier is pleasure and health-giving recreation; to the guides who accompany him it is their work. A hired gardener works for his living in a garden; but though I do many of the same things as he does, to me they are not my work, but my recreation. So, a domestic servant's work is to cook or to prepare a meal, or to wait at table; but when a party go out for a picnic, light a fire, make tea, roast potatoes, arrange the meal, and help the guests, they are certainly not working but pleasuring. When a doctor attends the sick in a hospital, or the wounded on a battlefield, he is doing the work of his life; but if any one of us nurses a sick person or binds up a wound, we may be doing acts of mercy or of charity, but we are not doing "our work." Even if we take upon ourselves some of the work of others, carry a heavy load for a weary woman, or do an hour's stone-breaking to help an old rheumatic labourer, what we do ceases to be work in the true meaning of the term but is transformed into a deed of love or mercy; and such deeds are not only permissible, but even commendable, on whatever day they are done. We have here the clue to a method by which all that needs doing for health, for enjoyment, or for charity, may be done on Sunday without any one breaking the fourth commandment. Almost all this necessary work is now |