,transcribed from the #ahej8 ,james ,nisbet and ,co4 edition by ,david ,price ,a ,,reply ,,to ,,dr4 ,,vaughan',s 8,,letter ,,on ,,the ,,late ,,post-,,office ,,agitation40 99 99 99 99 99 ,,by ,,james ,,robert ,,pears1 ,m4,a41 ,,master ,,of ,,the ,,bath ,,grammar ,,school1 ,,and ,,late ,,fellow ,,of ,,magdalen ,,college1 ,,oxford4 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 ,,london3 ,,james ,,nisbet ,,and ,,co4 ,,bath3 ,,binns ,,and ,,goodwin4 99 99 99 99 99 ,price ,sixpence4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,bath3 ,,printed ,,by ,,binns ,,and ,,goodwin4 99 99 99 99 99 ,a ,,reply1 c4 ,,rev4 ,,sir1 ,three years ago the ,hon4 ,,grantley ,f4 ,,berkeley published a letter to the ,postmaster-,general in opposition 8to the attempt 7as he wrote7 which was making in ,bath and its vicinity to prevent the delivery of letters on a ,sunday40 ,and we were taught by this publication that there were men1 and perhaps many men1 among our legislators1 who were uninformed as to the origin1 nature1 and moral effects of that precious ordinance of a day of rest4 ,such men needed to be instructed with kindness1 and patience1 and compassion4 ,we must1 indeed1 be fearfully devoid of the best gift of ,god to man1 if we do not feel compassion for men who1 in a land of open bibles1 and professed obedience to the ,gospel1 have been deprived1 by a vicious education1 a life of excitement1 and the cold indifference of those about them1 of the vast enjoyment realized by the spirit of man when it rests in communion with the ,almighty4 ,but when ,i undertook the easy and pleasant task of replying to that opponent1 ,i certainly thought that the sentiments of that gentleman were confined to men whose education had been so unhappily restricted4 ,it would have been to me utterly incredible1 if ,i had been told that his views would find sympathy and support in a man educated in the most liberal course1 and trained to the full exercise of intellectual energy1 accepted as a popular instructor of the rising ,aristocracy1 and even accounted an able preacher of the ,gospel of ,,him1 who gave the day of rest and blessed it4 ,and here you must accept the assurance of my unfeigned regret if the following remarks necessarily assume somewhat of a personal character4 ,my own feelings would lead me to limit myself entirely to the discussion of facts1 principles1 causes1 and results3 but that period in the discussion is past4 ,the nature1 obligation1 privilege1 and blessing of the ,lord's day has been the subject of deep interest and enquiry to every temper of mind1 with an infinite variety of views1 among all classes of men from the palace to the workshop4 ,nothing remains for us but to apply to individuals principles already admitted1 and arguments no longer disputed4 ,nor is any exception to be made in favour of a disputant1 who has contrived to escape from all perception of the various stages of the enquiry1 and with feminine pertinacity repeats at the end the question which opened the discussion4 ,the debate has come to a close1 and the question is now put to the vote4 ,the multitude catch at every leading voice which authorizes their self-indulgence1 and neglect of duty1 and our only effort is to make such leaders retract their vote with honest repentance1 or to make the many ashamed to follow them in palpable error4 ,your name and reputation make it indeed imperative on us to notice1 in the fulness of courtesy1 the points you have brought forward2 but ,i cannot conceal from myself that the only conceivable importance to be attached to the publication before me arises from your personal position and personal character3 it begins and ends with yourself4 ,the letter itself would be a harmless echo of the minute of ,mr4 ,,rowland ,,hill but for the ,preacher's name on the title-page1 and the advertisements of sermons1 by the same ,author1 on the cover4 ,to that sacred document1 8the minute10 you are willing to be indebted for facts1 principles1 and arguments2--an implicit submission to the written word of authority1 which in the sermons would be the wisdom of faith1 but in the present instance savours more of the simplicity of credulity4 8,you could wish that that minute had been more generally studied by those who pronounced a judgment upon the question40 ,a wish in which ,i heartily concur1 under the fullest conviction1 that every honest and intelligent mind would pronounce it to be as contemptible a piece of official mystification as ever proceeded from a public office4 ,we have in one paper a desultory reference to every part of the ,post-office duties2 facts the most unconnected in their nature united together2 and conclusions arrived at by a process peculiar to those who know the credulity of the many2 while the only thing which we learn with any degree of certainty1 we ascertain from its ostentatious repetition1 that to compensate for the contempt of the command of ,jehovah1 and the ruin of men's souls1 we shall have a saving of #adh per annum by the discontinuance of the ,newport-,pagnell ,mail-cart4 ,one principle1 however1 shows itself in something like a definite form1 which you have yourself adopted--the principle of compensation in the matter of obedience to the word of ,god2--of striking a balance with ,jehovah4 ,it runs through the minute1 it constitutes the only approach to an argument in your letter4 ,is it possible1 ,sir1 that your mind was not startled by the train of thought which you permitted to pass through it8 ,a man1 whose whole energies have been unhappily devoted to secular business2 whose affections are wrapped up in questions of profit and loss2 who forgets the eternity which is to come in the contemplation of the saving of the ,newport-,pagnell ,mail-cart3 such a man may1 perhaps1 think that 8the ,lord is even such an one as himself40 ,but you know that the ,spirit of our ,creator1 and our ,judge1 has asked1 8,what is a man profited if he gain the whole world1 and lose his own soul80 ,you cannot go into your closet1 and meet the ,god of your salvation there1 with an offer of a lesser sin instead of a greater4 ,you shudder at the thought1 or smile at the absurdity1 as your temper may be2 but this is merely the specious profession of ,mr4 ,,hill',s minute1 as adopted by yourself1 stripped under the light of ,divine truth4 ,you have yourself spoken with approbation of those in whom is 8a trembling anxiety to be right for eternity1 which forbids them to rest in that dim unrealized twilight which satisfies the eye less intently fixed on the future and the spiritual40 #g;a ,and if these words are anything beyond an elegant close to a period1 you will agree with me1 that it is a fearful calamity for a teacher of ,god's truth to have vague and indefinite notions of duty towards ,god2 and an awful offence in such a man to consent to and to authorize the prevalence of such uncertainty4 ,man1 when once brought to a sense of responsibility1 is too ready to escape from it under the cloudy varieties of opinion4 ,the poor country labourer defends his carelessness by asserting that 8we must do the best that we can20 and his educated fellow-man tells us that 8the question is whether1 on the whole1 the aggregate of gain or loss will preponderate40 #g;b ,no1 ,sir1 that may be the question for ,mr4 ,,rowland ,,hill2 but it is not the question for you or me4 ,i earnestly entreat you to consider this matter again4 ,the elegant poet of a heathen court declared of the virtuous man1 which his imagination delighted in1 8,si fractus illabatur orbis1 impavidum ferient ruin40 ,we have repeated1 as before ,god1 thousands of times1 8,thy will be done40 ,and what did we mean8 ,less than ,horace8 ,i trust not4 8,thy will be done20--though all the conveniences of society are sacrificed1--all the communications of friends cut off1--all the prosperity of nations overthrown3--8,thy will be done40 8,if twenty-five additional servants are required in the ,london ,office on the ,sunday1 and twice twenty-five can be relieved on that day in the ,provincial ,offices1 the change1 so far as it extends1 is salutary4 ,now if this obvious principle be granted1 the question is decided at once10 #h is your own statement of the matter2 and though ,i utterly deny that such a relief can be realized1 or was expected1 ,i am willing to take it as a mere moral thesis of your own1 that ,i may remind you that very obvious principles in the matters of this world are not very obvious principles in our dealing with ,god4 ,you dare not go into the presence of ,god with this obvious principle in the face of ,his express and unqualified command4 ,you tell me that 8it is necessary to take a national view of such a question40 ,i answer1 that for us1 ,ministers of the ,gospel1 it is necessary to take a scriptural and spiritual view of this and every question4 ,and you must not suppose that ,i am assuming anything here as to the obligation of the ,lord's-day4 ,you admit that the increase of work in the ,london ,post ,office is an evil1 and you look upon the relief from such work in the country offices as a counterbalancing good4 ,as a minister of ,christ1 you must mean good and evil in reference to the will of the ,god of the ,bible2 you must therefore understand positive1 eternal1 unchangeable good and evil4 ,you incur a vast and fearful responsibility if you teach man that man's obedience1 in regard to ,divine declarations of good and evil1 is left undefined1 and dependent upon circumstances1 or man's judgment4 ,you must not teach them to seek a good of their own by a balance of disobedience and obedience1 and such an approximation to the ,divine will as they find convenient4 ,of all the forms in which the perverseness of man's nature is exhibited1 none is so painful to contemplate as the incapacity of an acute intellect and cultivated mind for comprehending the nature and power of the communication between the ,creator and the spirits of ,his creatures4 ,we read the clearest statements of the one truth that 8the world by wisdom knew not ,god10 and we submit to them rather as a salutary warning against possible error1 than as declaratory of a sure result4 ,but when we see the truth exemplified in an individual2 when we look upon faculties and qualities which we are led to envy1 to admire1 and to love1 and find the man even in one point closed against the communication of ,god2 our spirit endures the most bitter disappointment of which it is susceptible4 ,we see strength which defies our efforts1 and a moral and intellectual position above our reach1 and yet feel that such strength is the intensity of weakness1 and such a position the most slippery of those 8slippery places10 of which the ,psalmist was instructed in the sanctuary of ,god4 ,few years have passed since we rejoiced in the emancipation of minds from the thraldom of the traditionary ideas of the past2 men began1 after a long interval1 to think for themselves4 ,we have already lived to see many of the finest minds lost through their liberty4 ,it is better to be limited to the well defined truths borrowed from other minds1 than to wander in a wilderness of free thought1 where truth and error1 good and evil1 are undistinguished but by the casual intuitive perception of the wanderer4 ,it is a matter of vast national importance that one of the first instructors of youth should subdue his own mind to well defined conceptions of duty4 ,surely there must have been something which materially interfered with the calmness of your judgment when you stated conspicuously that the alteration in the transmission of letters would cause a great diminution of the former amount of letters written and read in the country on ,sunday6 ,and when you intimated that the opponents of the measure1 who will not consent to the doing of evil that good may come1 are chargeable with the same folly4 ,you ask1 8,are you not1 in resisting the proposed relief of the country offices1 on the plea of regard for that of ,london1 doing1 in fact1 a great evil--not that a small good may come2 but that a small evil may not come80 #aj ,whence did you learn1 ,sir1 that we resist the proposed relief of the ,country ,offices1 for which we have contended for years8 ,who told you that we dared impiously to resist any act of obedience to the ,lord8 ,nothing could be further from my mind4 ,many of us1 as ,i can venture to assert1 whether right or wrong in our judgment1 have a clear1 defined1 invariable rule of obedience to the will of ,god1 by which we desire to be guided1 and desire others also to be ruled1 as the best wish we can express for them4 ,it is impossible from your letter to conjecture what may be your view of the ordinance of the ,lord's-day4 ,you have indeed told us in another place1 in sufficiently general terms1 that 8without that ordinance1 indeed1 without that weekly memento1 visible in all things around us1 of realities unseen but eternal1 no other memorial of ,god's love could1 in a world like ours1 find room and scope for its operations40 #aa ,but this does not supply the want4 ,i cannot conjecture whether you look upon the observance of that day as enforced by command1 or instituted as a privilege1 or appointed as a type1 or a mere human institution4 ,i reject the latter supposition as impossible1 for ,i cannot suspect a minister of our church of the base hypocrisy of using her services while he holds the ,lord's-day to be merely of man4 ,you therefore think that1 in one way or other1 it has a ,divine sanction1 and is a part of the ,divine purpose4 ,the ,word of the ,spirit appears to give great latitude upon the subject1 when we read1 8,one man esteemeth one day above another1 another esteemeth every day alike40 ,but we must read on1 8,let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind40 ,yes1 ,sir1 we have surely a right to expect from a teacher of ,divine ,truth a clear expression of the full persuasion of his own mind1 when he publicly treats on such a subject4 ,there is nothing which irritates an earnest1 intelligent mind more than a weak exhibition of moral duties upon untenable grounds1 or by unsound arguments4 ,it is possible that a vague outcry upon the subject of the ,post ,office desecration of the ,lord's-day may have provoked you to make and print the inconsiderate reply1 which is now before me4 ,and all who esteem your reputation will regret that any outcry1 however vague and unreasonable1 should have drawn from an instructed mind a reply without one single definite statement of truth1 or of duty4 ,you must pardon me1 therefore1 if ,i state for you a few positions1 which you certainly do hold in common with myself4 99 99 99 99 99 ,you will not hesitate to assert1 ,i4 ,that no combination of circumstances can possibly make it right to do that which is evil in the sight of ,god4 ,the contrary supposition necessarily asserts imperfection in ,his mind1 or ,his government4 ,,ii4 ,that our obedience to ,his will is no obedience1 unless it be in spirit and in truth1 without even a desire for evasion4 ,,iii4 ,that each human being shall exist to eternity1 in the blessedness of the kingdom of ,christ1 or in the misery of the damned4 ,,iv4 ,that they shall perish eternally who know not ,god1 and obey not the ,gospel of the ,lord ,jesus ,christ4 ,v4 ,that ,god has mysteriously connected deliverance from eternal death with the hearing of the ,gospel4 ,,vi4 ,that ,he has likewise connected obedience to ,his will1 and ,his own glory in ,his people1 with the knowledge of ,his word4 ,,vii4 ,that it is of infinite importance that every man should hear the ,gospel1 which is the power of ,god unto salvation to them that believe4 ,,viii4 ,that the ,lord's-day is especially set apart1 under ,divine sanction1 for the hearing of the word1 and for the turning the mind of men from the things of the world to ,god4 ,,ix4 ,that it is better for 8sixty thousand letters0 to be burned1 unopened1 than for one ,post ,office ,clerk to perish in hell for ever4 ,i can venture1 ,sir1 to tell the world that your mind is quite made up on all these points4 ,and the world will wonder that you should hitherto have failed to use all your faculties and influence for the deliverance of those poor men1 whom the requirements of a godless or thoughtless multitude have shut up in the ,post ,office from the sound of the ,gospel4 ,you have told us most truly of the effects of six days' worldly excitement4 8,who has not found himself1 at the end of the week of hard work1 or of abounding excitements1 left cold and almost lifeless towards ,god8 ,who has not found himself1 at such a time1 so tied and bound with the chain of this world1 that1 without some change1 some voice coming and speaking to him1 whether he will hear or no1 he could not shake off the yoke with which he is fettered80 #ac ,and what must be the effects of months and years uninterrupted by one real ,sabbath from such excitement and fatigue8 ,practical men know the effect1--they have seen one after another demoralized1 degraded1 brutalized1 in this life4 ,and what can they hope is to follow in the next8 ,a liberally-minded man is disgusted at the idea of wearing out the life of his horse1 using him up--as men say4 ,what do you think of wilfully employing fellow men in a work1 which wears out physical energy and moral sense1--which uses up body1 mind1 and soul1--and consigns the poor exhausted wretch to destruction8 ,but ,i am met by these words1 8that attendance1 you will observe1 is voluntary40 #ad ,and ,i read them with feelings of the most hearty sorrow1 that such words could have fallen from the pen of a brother in the ministry of the blessed ,gospel of ,love--from his pen--for ,i am sure that your heart never conceived them--your head never weighed them--and yet what was a mere specious afterthought of ,mr4 ,,hill',s1 is put prominently forward by yourself--their attendance voluntary--their ignorance voluntary too8--their ungodliness voluntary too8--their eternal ruin voluntary too8 ,one moment's thought would have made you tremble at the consequences of this defence4 ,multitudes of the young prefer a course of idleness and folly which will inevitably lead to ruin4 ,let them alone6 ,you observe that it is purely voluntary4 ,multitudes of our hearers prefer to live according to the lusts of the flesh--let them alone6 4 4 4 their destruction is entirely voluntary4 ,the hardened reprobate1 who seduces the simple country girl by gratifying her taste for finery and idleness1 may attempt to throw off the guilt by the cruel retort that she was willing to sin2 but he only calls forth a double portion of indignation and contempt from every honest man by the cold-blooded1 false-hearted insult4 ,and yet he is guiltless in comparison with a man1 who could deliberately see his fellow man destroying his hopes for eternity1 and sacrifice his soul for a trifling stipend2 could make use of the poor wretch's suicidal labor for his own little convenience1 and satisfy his conscience with the thought that the man was willing4 ,no1 ,sir1 no man who has ever heard your name will suspect for a moment that you ever weighed the expression you were borrowing2 and what ,i have written1 ,i have written not for yourself1 but for many who need to be warned of the guilt of their ordinary habits2 who need to be taught that man can indeed form no calculation of the innumerable minute causes which combine to produce the destruction of a soul2 but that the ,,infinitely ,,wise ,,god sees every part of the load which presses downward the poor sinner1 and attributes with unerring accuracy every particle1 however imperceptible to us1 to the hand which cast it upon the perishing wretch4 ,but ,i must submit to you that the inadvertent advocacy of this measure lays you under an obligation to make an honest effort to remove moral evils1 which you now see that you have unintentionally encouraged4 ,if any one thing is essentially our business above all others1 it is to resist1 by the ,word of the ,lord1 the will of the man who chooses his own destruction4 ,and surely we may be content1 if any men1 to submit to the vulgar retort1 and mind our own business2 for what can be a more glorious office1 than that of a messenger who comes from ,god1 to entreat the rebels1 over whose head the sword of vengeance hangs1 8be ye reconciled to ,god40 ,are we not called upon to use every means to turn the sinner from the error of his ways8 ,in season out of season2 by argument and example2 by reproof and entreaty2 by patience and by love1 to endeavour to deliver our fellow sinners 8from darkness into light1 from the power of ,satan unto ,god80 ,and if ,god has indeed put us in trust with the ,gospel1 we can testify that we also once were such1 willing to serve divers lusts and pleasures1 walking according to the flesh1 never turned willingly to ,god1 but converted by the sovereign efficacy of ,his grace4 ,i must not1 however1 close this letter without a few words on 8the minute10 in which you appear to place such entire confidence4 ,you ask1 8,may we not be permitted to learn the object of a measure from its author8 ,are we justified in imputing to any man1 ,i do not say motives which he disavows1 but motives of which he professes the very opposite1 and against which his own previous and subsequent acts obviously militate80 and ,i conclude1 that you would imply your own belief that the purpose of ,mr4 ,,rowland ,,hill was to relieve as many persons as he could from labor on the ,lord's-day4 ,i wish from my heart that ,i could believe that the object of that gentleman was the glory of our ,god and ,saviour in the promotion of ,his worship1 and the saving work of the ,gospel4 ,but it requires a mind above or below humanity to believe1 that a man truly desires and seeks the glory of ,god1 who consents to occupy such a post in the one department of our ,government1 which is most conspicuous for its desecration of the ,lord's-day1 and its contempt of the claims of the ,gospel4 ,you seem1 however1 to limit your attention to the one document before you4 ,but1 for my part1 if ,i could detach my mind from previous events1 and take up this single paper for judgment1 ,i confess that ,i should be totally unable to comprehend the connexion between the measures contemplated and the care for the observance of the ,lord's-day1 which is put so prominently forward2 and ,i should necessarily suspect1 either that the writer had in his mind a very strange jumble of heterogeneous subjects1 or that there was some underhand motive for his curious preface to the document4 ,i cannot1 however1 forget that this minute comes out at the close of a long series of earnest appeals to the ,government for the removal or diminution of ,sunday labor in the ,post ,office2 that the duty of such reform has been urged by numbers1 which could not be neglected1 and by individuals1 whose rank and station made some satisfactory effort1 if not some concession1 imperative upon the authorities4 ,promises have long been held out of such changes as1 it was hoped 7so they told us7 would meet the wishes of the ,christian remonstrants4 ,and this minute is not the spontaneous act of piety which you suppose1 but the evasive reply to the urgent and often repeated remonstrances of tens of thousands of thoughtful ,christian men1 and men deeply interested in the prosperity of the country4 ,instead of boasting of the 8total suspension of all money orders on the ,sabbath10 it would be wiser and more becoming to endeavour to forget that disgraceful matter for ever4 ,it was not only an outrage of the ,divine law1 it was an insult on a ,christian community1 that when every bank and office was closed1 and a respectable tradesman would have been ashamed to look for gain on the ,lord's-day1 the one place open in every town for petty traffic should be the ,government office of the ,british ,empire4 ,the offence was totally unnecessary1 and every respectable man was ashamed of it4 ,and one cannot but smile at the pretty simplicity with which ,mr4 ,,rowland ,,hill informs us that 8it is very satisfactory to remark that neither the announcement of the change1 nor the experience of it thus far1 has brought on the department a single complaint from the public40 #ah ,it is not necessary to go through the details of 8the minute10 nor to notice the fallacies1 which have exposed themselves already in the experiment4 ,the writer of that paper could not have been so ignorant of ,post ,office work as to suppose that twenty-five persons would accomplish all that was contemplated in ,london2 nor had he any ground for promising any relief in the provinces worthy of the name4 ,it rather seems that in his haste to attain to his ultimate object1 he was peculiarly incautious as to the statement of minor details4 ,what that object really is may easily be conjectured from a review of the past4 8,this is10 as you remark1 8a part of a more general scheme40 ,for years past a strong body of serious men have combated the ,post ,office desecration of the ,lord's-day1 and their efforts have been firmly resisted by those in authority1 with a few honourable exceptions4 ,in that contest the strong argument of the advocates for a cessation of ,post ,office work has been the closed office in ,london2 and those who have defended the profanation of that day have never been able to get over that great and unanswerable argument4 ,the office in ,london has been considered as uniformly at rest1 and always spoken of as such by both parties1 the slight exceptions being not of a nature to be cited honestly against that position4 ,so that 8the conscience of the ,christian community has not left these practices unchallenged and unnoticed until now10 #ai;a as you think2 but as far as the cognizance of the ,christian community goes1 this is the first attempt at the sin in ,london1 and is resisted as such4 ,and we think that this is the proper time for meeting the evils1 and act therefore on your own advice4 #ai;b 8,principiis obsta2 sero medicina paratur1 ,cm mala per longas convaluere moras10 is not the less valuable advice because often repeated2 and no man should know the truth of it better than yourself4 ,i need scarcely mention the voluntary labors 7which was a mere palliative afterthought73 for he must be a very prejudiced man who calls the poor clerk a voluntary agent in the matter1 when he is enticed by a bribe1 which his small salary makes an irresistible temptation1 or compelled by the fear of the loss of his only means of subsistence4 ,and here ,i may leave the minute2 for you now know how honest men value it1 and why they resist it4 ,it is one move in the contest for the mastery1 wherein the question is1 whether the will of the ,lord or the petty gains of the ,government shall rule in the ,post ,office on the ,lord's-day4 ,it is scarcely possible that the writer of that minute could have abstained from laughing when he read the first two paragraphs of his own paper1 and saw with what ingenious affectation he was entrapping his religious adversaries4 ,but the craft is too transparent2 and he has neither evaded their vigilance by the mystery of his statements1 nor disarmed their opposition by his specious profession4 ,neither the minute1 nor your own letter1 enters upon the question of works of necessity1 and of mercy2 and ,i am1 therefore1 not called upon to meet those hackneyed and misapplied expressions4 ,i must1 however1 be permitted to lay down one or two points1 as necessary elements in the discussion whenever these terms are used4 ,nothing can be necessary which is not in accordance with the will of the ,omnipotent ,ruler of all things4 ,nothing can be an act of mercy which does not emanate from the ,god of all grace4 ,when men find necessity1 or mercy1 militate against duty1 it must be from their own ignorance4 ,men persist in deceiving themselves by mixing together things essentially distinct4 ,you may show me ten thousand acts of mercy which seem to you connected with the maintenance of ,sunday labor in the ,post ,office2 but you can never show that it is an act of necessity1 or mercy1 to shut up one clerk where he shall be kept away from the sound of the ,gospel1--the one sound which can call him from eternal misery to eternal peace4 99 99 99 99 99 ,and here1 ,sir1 ,i must close this hastily-written letter2 hastily written from the pressure of necessary duties3 but containing opinions most maturely weighed1 and principles on which ,i have long endeavoured to act4 ,if ,i appear to treat your letter with severity1 ,i beg to assure you that ,i do it with extreme regret4 ,but1 however anxious ,i may be to show all possible respect for the writer1 ,i cannot forget that errors1 in themselves trivial1 receive importance from the character of him who propagates them4 ,the greater his merited reputation may be1 the more needful it is that his errors be unsparingly dealt with4 ,where ,i cannot comprehend a good motive1 and cannot suspect a bad one1 ,i do not venture to assign any2 and1 in fact1 ,i should rather conjecture that some works are so hastily undertaken1 that their author himself could scarcely assign his own motives4 ,it is1 indeed1 an unhappy coincidence when the favor of this world is1 by any accident1 associated with the maintenance of ,divine truth4 ,the most single-hearted men are unable to engage in that holy duty without incurring a suspicion of sordid motives4 ,but when men of unblemished reputation1 by an unhappy eccentricity of mind1 are led to uphold the questionable theories of those who dispense worldly wealth and honor2--when they exhibit in their support an unusual dulness of perception of ,divine truth2--we can only 7as the kindest alternative7 attribute their conduct to some unaccountable infatuation1 or intemperate haste4 ,the judgment of charity is best expressed by speaking the ,,truth in ,,love4 ,many ,christian men have looked1 with sanguine expectation1 for a blessing upon the country from your labors at your important post4 ,those hopes have been for a moment disappointed1 but will not easily be abandoned4 ,there is no hope for the country but from men of master minds1 and powerful talents1 submitting their powers to the guidance of the ,holy ,spirit1 and devoting their energies to the services of their ,god and ,saviour4 ,that this may be your high and happy calling1 is the prayer of many1 as it is my own4 ,i hope1 and believe1 that you will yet know the power and enjoyment of that ,sabbath which the children of the kingdom enjoy in the finished work of ,jesus1 even here on earth4 ,and will be enabled to look with confidence to an abundant entrance into that rest which remaineth for the people of ,god4 ,yours1 in ,christian fidelity1 ,,james ,,robert ,,pears4 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 ,,bath3 ,,printed ,,by ,,binns ,,and ,,goodwin4 ,,footnotes4 #g;a ,nine ,sermons1 c41 p4 #fj4 #g;b ,page #i4 #h ,page #i4 #aj ,page #aj4 #aa ,nine ,sermons1 p4 #bjc4 #ac ,nine ,sermons1 p4 #bjb4 #ad ,page #g4 #ah ,minute1 #b4 #ai;a ,page #h4 #ai;b ,page #ad4