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Untitled Article
way as to guard against these evils , and to participate as largely in the advantages as we can . It is particularly important , especially in large towns , to bring into active operation every principle which may tead the members of each vicinage to combine together as neighbours in promoting the cause of Christian charity ; and on the other hand , to adopt every means of drawing more closely together , in the bonds of mutual fellowship and brotherly affection , the members of the same religious society , however remote in residence , circumstances , or connexions .
Another point which appears to me to deserve some attention in balancing the evils and advantages of a religious establishment , is its connexion with the observance of a weekly day of rest . I do not propose here to enter upon the theological question as to the obligation of what is sometimes , I think injudiciously , called the Christian sabbath . It is a question upon which I should probably differ from your ingenious correspondent , since I am one of
those who cannot find in the New Testament any express authority for the religious observance of the Lord ' s day , and consequently place the obligation of it on the ground of expediency , and expediency alone . The custom , however , may be traced so high in Christian antiquity , and the expediency is so obvious and important , that notwithstanding the absence of any apostolic precept , the inference as to the apostolic practice seems almost
irresistible . Perhaps it was wise to refrain from any express injunction of an observance which it would have been difficult to carry into full effect during the prevalence of heathen laws and institutions . But waving this question , and admitting , upon whatever grounds ^ the importance of a suspensi on of ordinary employments on the first day of the week , for the purpose of de *» voting at least a part of it to religious duties , it seems to follow , that the civil institutions of the country ought to avoid throwing any difficulties in the way of this suspension . Now it is evident that , to a certain extent , this
would be the case , if all men were permitted to exercise their ordinary callings as usual on that day . In a country like this , full y peopled up to its present means of subsistence , the wagfes of the lowest kinds of labour can never be more than what is just sufficient for the maintenance of a family ; and hence , if it were customary or permitted to occupy the Sunday in the ) ordinary employments of the week , the remuneration for seven days' labour would not on the average exceed what is now received for six . The condition of the labouring classes would consequently be deteriorated precisely
in this proportion . In this manner the absence of any municipal regulation on this subject would amount to a premium on irreligion and indifference . Wages being adjusted to the supposition of seven days * labour , the consequence would be , that a man whose scruples , or rather whose desire of religious edification and instruction , induced nim to intermit his secular business on that day , would do it at the expense of one seventh part of his income . For these , among other reasons , I am not prepared to carry my notions of the non-interference of the civil power in matters of religion to such a length ? as to regret the legal enforcement of a : weekly day of rest . W . T .
Untitled Article
On Establishments . 1 ( 53
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1828, page 163, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2558/page/19/
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