Fancy the pleasant scene.
Throngs of people, pouring out from the lanes and alleys of the
metropolis, to various places of common resort at some short
distance from the town, to join in the refreshing sports and
exercises of the day--the children gambolling in crowds upon the
grass, the mothers looking on, and enjoying themselves the little
game they seem only to direct; other parties strolling along some
pleasant walks, or reposing in the shade of the stately trees;
others again intent upon their different amusements. Nothing
should be heard on all sides, but the sharp stroke of the bat as it
sent the ball skimming along the ground, the clear ring of the
quoit, as it struck upon the iron peg: the noisy murmur of many
voices, and the loud shout of mirth and delight, which would awaken
the echoes far and wide, till the fields rung with it. The day
would pass away, in a series of enjoyments which would awaken no
painful reflections when night arrived; for they would be
calculated to bring with them, only health and contentment. The
young would lose that dread of religion, which the sour austerity
of its professors too often inculcates in youthful bosoms; and the
old would find less difficulty in persuading them to respect its
observances. The drunken and dissipated, deprived of any excuse
for their misconduct, would no longer excite pity but disgust.
Above all, the more ignorant and humble class of men, who now
partake of many of the bitters of life, and taste but few of its
sweets, would naturally feel attachment and respect for that code
of morality, which, regarding the many hardships of their station,
strove to alleviate its rigours, and endeavoured to soften its
asperity.
This is what Sunday might be made, and what it might be made
without impiety or profanation. The wise and beneficent Creator
who places men upon earth, requires that they shall perform the
duties of that station of life to which they are called, and He can
never intend that the more a man strives to discharge those duties,
the more he shall be debarred from happiness and enjoyment. Let
those who have six days in the week for all the world's pleasures,
appropriate the seventh to fasting and gloom, either for their own
sins or those of other people, if they like to bewail them; but let
those who employ their six days in a worthier manner, devote their
seventh to a different purpose. Let divines set the example of
true morality: preach it to their flocks in the morning, and
dismiss them to enjoy true rest in the afternoon; and let them
select for their text, and let Sunday legislators take for their
motto, the words which fell from the lips of that Master, whose
precepts they misconstrue, and whose lessons they pervert--'The
Sabbath was made for man, and not man to serve the Sabbath.'
The End.
