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Untitled Article
gressions . We are often told of those who suffer the last penalty of the law tracing all their criminality to Sabbath-breaking as its origin . The inference is not altogether that which is commonly deduced . There is a moral in the fact for preachers as well as for thieves . He who by the unauthorized announcement of a positive institution which he ascribes to the Deity , and the violation of which is in the highest degree probable , creates
a sin which sears the consciences of the ignorant , and hardens them for offences against society , is so far particeps criminis . There is much mischief very unintentionally produced in this way . Last-dy in ^ -speeches and confessions of the description now referred to , if they really come from the culprit ' s own mind , which is probably not always the case , should be regarded not as a trophy , but as a reproach : they hold forth a warning to the Sabbath-making priest , as well as to the Sabbath-breaking sinner .
Our next suggestion is , that the religious occupations of the Sunday should be rendered more interesting and attractive . Services should be shortened , better arranged , made more simple , comprehensive , and generally impressive and affecting , than they are at present . There is great room for amendment in the ordinary routine of worship , of the Dissenting not less than of the Episcopal service . We are for no increased attractiveness at the
expense of the ultimate object of assembling ourselves together , but for such as will conduce to that object , and render the service more efficient in the same degree that it is rendered more delightful . On some occasion we may probably go into particulars on this subject . Few persons can doubt , we think , that some improvement of this kind is practicable and desirable . Then , in the Church at least , the preaching may be immeasurably better and more useful than it is . Let the Establishment but do its duty by the people ,
and allow no man to hold the office of a public instructor who does not effectively discharge its functions , and more will be done than by any other means whatever for making a city Sunday a lovely and a hallowed day . The Bishop records a fact , the testimony of which is decisive . " Where opportunities are afforded to the poor of attending the service of our Church , under the ministry of diligent and faithful clergymen , the evils complained of are almost always found to be in the same degree abated . ' * Why , then , let every parish have a " diligent and faithful" clergyman . Try that first ,
ye recipients of millions of a nation ' s money , for purposes which are allowedly not accomplished . Dismiss your idle , feeble , sleepy , corrupt watchmen , and let there be a new moral police , which will do the duty for which it is so liberally paid . We have heard of schools in which , if a boy played truant , the teacher was held to be the culprit . Had he rendered school sufficiently interesting , the boy would not voluntarily have stayed away . So with our public schools of religion and morality . The teacher is in fault if the people play truant .
Another good thing would be ( we speak of London and its vicinity tnore especially ) to allow the use of the churches , in the intervals of Episcopal service , to Dissenting preachers , under such regulations as the number of claimants might render expedient . There is no need of new churches , and many which have been erected might have been spared . But great good might be done by the free and incessant use of those which exist . Much Sunday travelling is compulsory upon Nonconformists , of which a considerable portion might be avoided , if the preachers and worship of their choice could thus be brought home to them . Moreover , those who are so located , that a Sunday walk , ride , or sail , is to them almost the breath of their animal life , might thus find that they were not reduced to the alternative of
Untitled Article
394 Sunday in London .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1830, page 394, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2585/page/34/
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