II.
WE are even tempted ourselves to curtail the sabbath rest because of some clamouring weekday work. I am told that there are offices in this town (Dunedin, New Zealand)—if you go down-town now you will find men in these offices working—stealing His Day from God and their fellows. Rest assured that that is not the way to save time—it is the
way to waste it, and to waste yourself into the bargain. It is the way to poverty and not to wealth. Lord Macaulay once told the British House of Commons on this subject. He said: “We are not poorer but richer, because we have, through many ages, rested from our labours one day in seven† That day is not lost, while industry is suspended—while the plough lies in the furrows, while the Exchange is silent, while no smoke ascends from the factory—a process is going on quite as important to the wealth of nations as any process which is performed on business days. Man—the machine of machines—the machine compared to which all the contrivances of workmen are worthless—man is repairing and winding up, so that he returns to his labours on Monday with clear intellect, with livelier spirits, with renewed corporal vigour. Never will I believe that what makes a nation stronger, healthier, and wiser, and better can ultimately make it poorer….And so the old-fashioned verse has a deep and profound significance—a significance which it behoves us well to ponder:
“A Sabbath well spent brings a week of content
And strength for the cares of to-morrow;
But a Sabbath profaned, whatsoever be gained,
Is a certain forerunner of sorrow.”
* See Vol. XLVI., page, 258.
† What does one day in seven mean in 50 years? It means about 7 years of rest.