LABOUR AND KNOWLEDGE.. 
 
 N 
 
 ifafauttr inxtr §UsL 
 
 TWO 
 
 
 LECTURES 
 
 Or 
 
 
 DELIVERED BY 
 
 THE RIGHT HONOURABLE JOSEPH NAPIER. 
 
 DUBLIN: 
 
 W ILLIAM CURRY AND CO M P A N Y , 
 ^ffoKaelUrs ta % 
 
 9, UPPER SACICVILLE-STREET. 
 
 LONDON" : WF.RTHEIM, MACINTOSH AND HUNT, PATERNOSTER. ROW. 
 
 1859 . 
 
 r 
 
The Lecture on “ Labour and Knowledge ” was delivered in the 
 Autumn of 1856, at the Mechanics’ Institute in Keswick ; the Lec- 
 ture on “ Labour and Rest,” on the 29th of November last, before 
 the Young Men’s Christian Association, in the city of Dublin. 
 They are so connected together as to reflect light on each other, 
 and it is hoped that the publication of them may further promote 
 the object for which they were originally intended, and to which 
 they are now dedicated. 
 
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 LABOUR AND KNOWLEDGE, 
 
 
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 On the present occasion, I must be content to remind you 
 of old truths, which I have the satisfaction to believe are 
 not new acquaintances; for it is safer, if not wiser, to learn 
 thoroughly the lessons of standard truth, rather than to 
 grope about for some new path of progress, whilst known 
 paths are neglected. We meet to-night not to lounge away a 
 listless or leisure hour in mere unprofitable amusement, but 
 as thoughtful and intelligent citizens of a great community, 
 to consider the condition and cheer the hearts of that sec- 
 tion of our people which is exclusively, but perhaps some- 
 what inaccurately, designated by the title of the working 
 class ; for this would seem to imply that they, and they 
 only, were habitually occupied in active duties. It 
 is encouraging to find that a conference is taking place 
 about this time at Brussels, to consider, amongst other 
 things, the improvement of the condition of this working 
 class. May He without whom nothing is strong and no- 
 thing holy, now direct our minds and hearts, and give us 
 a spirit of pure and peaceable wisdom, whilst dealing with 
 a subject which has become so deeply interesting, vitally 
 connected as it is with the future of England. 
 
 Those wdio are commonly called the working classes 
 
 what and who are they, and whence come they ? They 
 are our fellow-creatures— our fellow-citizens— increasing 
 
 
4 
 
 LABOUR AND KNOWLEDGE. 
 
 and multiplying around us. Can we look upon these 
 millions without being stirred in our inmost souls — without 
 a throbbing impulse, to do them good as far as in our 
 power ? 
 
 It is recorded of Xerxes, the Persian monarch, when he 
 surveyed his mighty army collected together in its extended 
 encampment, the thought that in less than one hundred 
 years not one of them should be left — that all should have 
 passed away — this so overpowered him, that he burst into 
 a flood of tears. This gush of emotion came from those depths 
 of human sympathy which are very mysteries of our being. 
 He felt as a man . Our great Poet (a high priest of na- 
 ture) has said — “ What a piece of work is man? How 
 noble in reason, how infinite in faculties!” Another of our 
 poets has said of man — 
 
 “ As more than any thing we know, 
 
 Instinct with Godhead, and by reason and by will 
 
 Acknowledging dependency sublime.” 
 
 How, then shall we, in a great Christian community — 
 how shall we regard the working classes? As men or 
 as animals; as things or as persons? Are they to be 
 isolated as beings doomed to a life of toil and hopeless ig- 
 norance? Is labour to be the special burthen of some, 
 and idleness the proper business of others? Or, on the 
 other hand, is activity and is diligence in the various de- 
 partments of labour, under its many aspects — is this a lo.w 
 binding on all classes of society ? Are all equally entitled 
 to a Sabbath rest, and reasonable recreation? Should all 
 be invited to partake of the benefits of knowledge, which 
 is increased daily — should these be as freely shared as the 
 greater blessings of revealed religion ? This is assuredly 
 the gracious plan and undoubted purpose of Him who has 
 not left Himself without a witness — He who has made and 
 
LABOUR AND KNOWLEDGE. 
 
 5 
 
 perpetuated the Sabbath for man — He has commanded His 
 Gospel of free salvation to be proclaimed to every nation, 
 ay, to every creature. He deals with man without re- 
 spect of persons — with man as an immortal spirit, placed 
 under a law of discipline in a life of duty. He has or- 
 dained human life as an institution for eternity. A life of 
 manual labour, however humble be the workman, is still 
 the life of an immortal and accountable being — one 
 whose mind and spirit are to be taught and trained for 
 intercourse with heaven. 
 
 Whether we look to the working classes in their higher 
 or humbler relations, we must regard them in a moral, not 
 less than a social aspect. Now, it is a vital truth that there 
 are laws stereotyped in the moral government of the world, 
 by which the course of the life of man, with its lights 
 and shadows, its seasons of progress or decline, is divinely 
 regulated ; and it is our wisdom to search for these laws, 
 as it is is our duty and our interest to conform to their 
 requirements, by which prosperity is generally to be se- 
 cured. There are other laws by which nature is governed, 
 which palpably operate on the social condition of the 
 human family. These also are constant, and discoverable, 
 so far as they are discernible, by observation and comparison 
 of phenomena extending far and wide. The study of 
 these belongs to what is called economic science, and takes 
 its proper place, not in the centre, but in the circumference 
 of the circle of knowledge. The law of labour connects 
 itself both with the moral and the social departments ; and on 
 our observance of this law, in connexion with both, moral 
 progress and material prosperity are in a great degree de- 
 pendent. This is a truth, as I have suggested, of vital 
 import. To give to the working classes a settled habit of 
 thoughtful reflection ; to preserve a well-regulated appetite 
 for wholesome knowledge — a spirit of contentment com- 
 
6 
 
 LABOUR AND KNOWLEDGE. 
 
 binecl with providence and self-respect, with a hopeful 
 desire of gradually rising to a higher platform in society, 
 by the self-elevating agency of industry, intelligence, and 
 virtue ; — this is a work well worthy of the purest philan- 
 thropy, but a work not to be accomplished otherwise than by 
 patient diligence and prayerful perseverance. The soil must 
 be carefully prepared, the seed skilfully sown, weeds un- 
 sparingly removed ; genial influences from above must 
 descend, to give life and energy to agencies from beneath; 
 the seasons of slow growth must precede the coming forth 
 of the blade, then of the ear, then of the full corn in the 
 ear ; — all to be crowned by the ripe harvest. 
 
 We are not allowed, in any department of the Divine 
 economy, to sow with the one hand and reap with the other. 
 The formation of Associations such as this (and I am happy 
 to find them so general) has grown out of a conviction, 
 felt by many who are hard worked, that it would be a 
 refreshing privilege to enjoy an occasional hour of leisure 
 in gaining useful information, cultivating their minds, and 
 thus intelligently improving their general character and 
 condition. Such a movement claims a generous and en- 
 couraging response from all who wish well to our working 
 classes, for it may be guided for good to all classes of 
 society. 
 
 The workman is greater than his work, mind is nobler 
 than matter, science and skill are superior to bodily toil. 
 The faculties which God has given to man to be trained by 
 the discipline of daily life, under an economy of Divine 
 wisdom and goodness, cannot be left uncultivated without 
 incurring the penalties which the unchangeable laws by 
 which the world is governed have righteously imposed. 
 The responsible cultivation of these faculties thus comes 
 before us with all the claims of a sacred duty — a duty to 
 be performed not merely notwithstanding, but the rather 
 
LABOUR AND KNOWLEDGE. 
 
 7 
 
 because of the requirements of our holy, our glorious 
 Christianity. For it has been well and truly observed by 
 a great authority, that it would be unworthy of revealed 
 truth to suppose that there could be an opposition between 
 the fullest development of these faculties, distinctively con- 
 ferred on man, and that religion which is designed to train 
 these faculties to their highest ends. The Christian faith, 
 as Coleridge justly observes, is the very perfection of human 
 intelligence ; it is adapted to every stage of human pro- 
 gress. And this we might well expect; for no system 
 could be true which opposes, none false which promotes, 
 the movement of our moral being towards the highest per- 
 fection of which it is capable. 
 
 It is, indeed, disheartening to find that the general pur- 
 suit of knowledge is sometimes denounced by men whom 
 we desire to respect ; but they speak of it as if it were not 
 merely delusive, but as something sinful and forbidden — -as 
 if it only ministered to human presumption, or fostered a 
 spirit of unbelief, and fed the passion which eventuated in 
 the sin of our first parents. The profoundest of philoso- 
 phers, Lord Bacon, has well and wisely explained the true 
 nature of this sin: it was the attempt made, in the 
 spirit of disobedience and ungodliness, to discover the 
 sources of good and evil in separation from , and independent 
 of, the will of the Creator. The same great authority has 
 told us that “ knowledge is power;” and Inspired Wisdom 
 also assures us, “ that if the soul be without knowledge, it is 
 not good.” “ Add to your faith virtue, and to virtue 
 knowledge.” In a frequent recommendation of knowledge, 
 and a spirit of searching but sober inquiry after truth for 
 its own sake, the Holy Scriptures are distinct and decisive. 
 Nothing is found to be so presumptuous as ignorance; no- 
 thing so congenial to that debasing indolence which is the 
 very hot-bed of crime and sin ; nothing is more essentially 
 
8 
 
 LABOUR AND KNOWLEDGE. 
 
 hostile to all improvement . Labour is first to be regarded 
 as a primeval law imposed upon man after the fall ; and in 
 so regarding it, we will find that the attainment of know- 
 ledge is a common, because a consequent duty. Both are 
 connected with the gracious purposes of Him who made 
 man in His own image. Experience tells us of the weary 
 and exhausted spirit under the weight of wasting indolence — 
 the credulity and corruption which are the spawn of igno- 
 rance. The frequent refuge of the idle and the uninstructed, 
 in frivolity, mischief, and crime, demonstrates the fixed and 
 essential opposition of sloth and ignorance to the well- 
 being or the progress of man. 
 
 By the law of labour it may have been intended that 
 man might, in some degree, be enabled to re-conquer a lost 
 dominion over the material world, and also to discipline his 
 immortal spirit for a higher and nobler sphere of active 
 being hereafter. Now, observe that I do not here speak of 
 labour in any one department. This is a common error 
 so to isolate it. The merchant is not less a labourer than 
 a mechanic, nor the professional man than the merchant. 
 The purest occupation of the Christian life is described by 
 the inspired Apostle as “ the work of faith and labour of 
 love” Labour is thus associated with divine charity, 
 and charity never faileth — a union which ought always to 
 be preserved indissoluble. 
 
 The action of knowledge on labour, and the importance 
 of connecting these together, have, in our own day, been 
 happily exhibited, and I would invite your attention to a 
 few striking illustrations. 
 
 The average produce of wheat by the acre has been about 
 twenty-four imperial bushels ; this has been increased 
 nearly four-fold. The produce of oats has been trebled, 
 potatoes five-fold, turnips nearly six-fold. All this has been 
 brought about by the discoveries of science, skilfully ap- 
 
LABOUR AND KNOWLEDGE. 
 
 9 
 
 plied in the improvement of agricultural industry. Che- 
 mistry has disclosed to us, for instance, that wheat is com- 
 posed of elements principally obtained from the atmos- 
 phere, and from the dews and the rains which seasonably 
 descend upon our earth. Of l,6401bs. produced by an 
 acre of wheat, upwards of 1,500 are derived from these 
 common natural sources ; eighty-nine out of every hundred 
 from the air alone. The soil simply acts as the receiver and 
 storehouse of supplies taken from the elements, and given 
 out, as occasion requires, to the growing plant. The pre- 
 paration of the soil for thus receiving and distributing the 
 bounty of Providence is, therefore, a principal object of 
 intelligent labour, and, in truth, constitutes “ the tillage of 
 the land,” which the Divine Word faithfully assures us 
 “ will satisfy with bread.” Wheat is composed of oxygen 
 and carbon in nearly equal quantities, which constitute 
 about nine-tenths of the whole. It also consists of hydro- 
 gen, nitrogen, and inorganic matter. These elements are 
 found in charcoal, air, and 'water. Water supplies oxygen 
 and hydrogen, air supplies nitrogen, which is absorbed from 
 it by the soil, and when combined with hydrogen, forms 
 ammonia, which is so valuable in manure; for the applica- 
 tion of manure which yields ammonia enables the plant to 
 take in a much greater quantity from the air, than it could 
 do without this artificial stimulus. 
 
 Again, it is found that porous bodies, such as charcoal 
 and cellular earth, attract and contain gaseous matter many 
 times their own size. Charcoal will retain ninety times 
 its own size of ammonia ; so that the seasonable supplies of 
 vegetation may be stored in the soil, and, by the action of 
 heat and moisture, gradually given out to the plant. 
 
 In the profitable use of manures, the aid of science is 
 absolutely indispensable. The part of manure which is 
 most valuable is what is soluble in water, and what may be 
 
10 
 
 LABOUR AND KNOWLEDGE. 
 
 evaporated by heat: a significant hint to those who collect 
 the heap within view of the cottage, and expose it to the 
 action of the sun and rain, in the dunghill or the cess-pool, 
 polluting the pure air, and wasting the useful portion of 
 the manure itself by what really and truly turns out to be 
 the extravagant folly of indolent and uninstructed im- 
 providence. 
 
 Ignorance may thus waste in abridging health and com- 
 fort, what cheap and common knowledge would require to 
 be used for the increased production of wholesome food: a 
 striking illustration of the harmony which subsists in the 
 laws by which industry is governed, in its application to 
 the common purposes of life, and the laws which regulate 
 the comforts, the decencies, and the duties of the humblest 
 rank of society ; all are, in fact, most graciously bound up 
 together. The careful pulverizing of the soil, to make and 
 keep it porous and cellular; the regular removal of weeds, 
 which would steal the supplies that are the lawful property 
 of the growing grain or vegetable ; the seasonable applica- 
 tion of manures at the proper stages of growth, and ac- 
 cording to the exigencies of the soil these are but sam- 
 ples of the many channels into which knowledge is the 
 profitable conductor of labour, and from which ignorance 
 is content to be excluded. 
 
 The process of draining, by which a change of tempera- 
 ture equal to a month of summer may be produced, has 
 been but recently made available to any great extent. In 
 truth, the good providence of God has bestowed most boun- 
 tifully an abundant supply of wholesome food, intended to 
 be made available for our use by knowledge and labour. 
 Labour, so needed for man’s discipline ; knowledge, so ca- 
 pable of promoting man’s happiness ; each and both prefer 
 their claims upon us, and promise us an abundant recom- 
 pense. Then is it reasonable, is it common sense, to sup- 
 
LABOUR AND KNOWLEDGE. 
 
 11 
 
 pose that we can reject such claims, and at the same time 
 escape the penalties which are so justly — nay so mercifully 
 
 annexed to the neglect of agencies thus accredited, and 
 
 which the fixed laws of Divine wisdom have appointed as 
 the proper means by which prosperity and progress, in de- 
 partments which are so important to common life, are to be 
 advanced ? 
 
 It is with great satisfaction that I read that, at the recent 
 meeting of the British Association, which has been held at 
 Cheltenham, the President refers to the results arising from 
 the remarkable progress and extension of chemical science, 
 which has taken place within the last twenty years. This 
 had been much caused by the method of analysis which 
 Liebig (the greatest of modern chemists) has taught, and 
 which has led to a general facility in obtaining results on 
 which calculations might be based. The conclusion seems 
 to be now accredited, that plants rooted in a soil well 
 charged with all the requisite mineral ingredients, and in 
 all other respects in a condition calculated to allow of 
 healthy vegetation, may, sooner or later, be able to draw 
 from the atmosphere whatever else may be required for 
 their .full development. This important result has been 
 further confirmed in Northamptonshire, where, by the care- 
 ful pulverizing and stirring of the soil, after it has been 
 brought into a proper condition, the most luxuriant wheat 
 crops have been obtained for several consecutive years, 
 without the further application of manures. 
 
 In the recuperative powers of the soil, the auxiliary re- 
 sources of science, the increase of consumption, and the 
 convenience of the markets, what favourable prospects have 
 been opened for the intelligent and industrious farmers, 
 ready and resolved to avail themselves of their many privi- 
 leges in this highly-favoured country ! May they, under 
 the law of labour and knowledge, become prosperous and 
 happy ! 
 
12 
 
 LABOUR AND KNOWLEDGE. 
 
 Let us now turn from the country into the town — from 
 agriculture to manufactures — from the sources of supply by 
 which our food is obtained, to the agencies which minister 
 to other demands, and meet the multiplied desires of man. 
 Here we are encountered by difficult and complex social 
 questions, which we are bound, however, to examine, and 
 to endeavour to solve them without evasion. 
 
 The power of steam and the use of machinery have 
 placed us in a new era of civil society. 
 
 “ An inventive age 
 
 Has wrought, if not with speed of magic, yet 
 To most strange issues. I have lived to mark 
 A new and unforeseen creation rise 
 From out the labours of a peaceful land. 
 
 Wielding her potent enginery to frame 
 And to produce, with appetite as keen 
 As that of war, which rests not night or day. 
 
 Industrious to destroy . ” 
 
 The power which is latent in one bushel of coals is supposed 
 to be equal to a day’s work of one hundred stage-coach 
 horses. The wonderful pyramid of Egypt, which is said 
 to have employed 100,000 labourers for upwards of twenty 
 years, might have had all its materials lifted into their final 
 position by the agency of 480 tons of coal. 
 
 The special and providential agency by which the mate- 
 rials of an earlier epoch in creation have been at last con- 
 densed into the intense energy which the bituminous 
 substance in coal possesses, prepared, as it would seem, for 
 the period of a great development of man, in intercourse 
 and action — this must fill the mind of the thoughtful with 
 wonder, and the heart of the thankful with gratitude to 
 Him “ in whom we live, and move, and have our being.” 
 
 This mighty power, available now in so many depart- 
 ments of progress, is only exceeded in its results by the still 
 more wonderful discovery of electric communication. This 
 
LABOUR AND KNOWLEDGE. 
 
 13 
 
 mysterious messenger can encircle the earth in one eighth 
 of a second; 19,500 words can be transmitted and written 
 out at the distance of more than 1,000 miles, and in less 
 than one hour. Electricity also has its share in the triumphs 
 of manufacturing skill. In works of ornament and design, 
 skill and science seem prepared, if not in some degree to 
 supersede physical effort, at least to put it under a new 
 economy. 
 
 This must call forth the more diligent and general cul- 
 ture of the higher faculties. Mind thus acquiring ascen- 
 dancy, demands a corresponding moral supremacy, which 
 Christian civilization must gradually bring into the active 
 service of daily life. The shifting wind, the sudden storm, 
 and the frequent and capricious calm, contracted commerce, 
 further retarded by the sluggish and reluctant intercourse 
 of nation with nation. This fettered the merchant, and 
 often discouraged and obstructed the missionary ; but now 
 the agencies of steam and electricity — the one with a cer- 
 tainty almost moral, the other with the speed of an angel’s 
 ■wing — these seem to prepare mankind for the day in which 
 the laws of Divine Wisdom shall he put in human minds 
 and written in human hearts — subduing selfishness, super- 
 seding fitful impulse, and hastening on the times of the res- 
 titution of all things — the consummation of the great and 
 gracious purposes of that economy which, in whatever form 
 it may be hereafter manifested, we are at least assured that 
 it must establish, at last, the kingdom of the Redeemer. 
 
 The action of knowledge on labour has a different aspect 
 in reference to manufactures, from what it has in the de- 
 partment of agriculture. In the latter, the great agencies 
 which are made available for increasing production, are 
 rather furnished by the bounty of God, than fashioned by 
 the skill of man. The farmer is rather called on to apply 
 than to invent what may render his daily labour more pro- 
 
14 
 
 LABOUR AND KNOWLEDGE. 
 
 ductive. There is a limit to agricultural production in the 
 very nature of fixed property in land, which is not to be 
 found in the inexhaustible variety of manufacture, in which, 
 moreover, from the rivalry and competition of capital and 
 commerce, man has sought out many inventions ; and this 
 has caused a most remarkable change in the character of 
 an extensive and increasing section of our people. Large 
 masses are now brought together in towns, and absorbed in 
 the growing demands of a life of very peculiar and very 
 exacting toil. Now, assuredly, there must be a momentous 
 difference between the human agent and the material 
 mechanism, which at present seem to divide between them 
 the extended operations which produce clothing, and va- 
 rious matters of comfort and luxury, for so many millions of 
 the human family. 
 
 This mechanism is truly wonderful; the manufacture, 
 beauteous often, as if creative power had fashioned it — deli- 
 cate in the design and graceful in the finish. I can admire 
 this triumph of skill and industry; but the reflection haunts 
 me — it cannot be shut out — what is the price which huma- 
 nity pays, before the manufacture is made up for the pur- 
 chaser ? 
 
 It may be that, with the extended prosperity of our va- 
 rious manufactures, is bound up, more or less, "the national 
 welfare ; but of this I am satisfied, that the moral and social 
 well-being of the manufacturing population is a far higher 
 aim, and a far nobler object, to which other considerations 
 are but secondary, whether we consider our individual 
 or our national destiny. 
 
 It is not many years ago since a publication, which ob- 
 tained a public premium, as the prize essay on juvenile de- 
 pravity, brought under my notice the state of the manufac- 
 turing districts. From this it appears that the improve- 
 ments in machinery and the application of new powers in 
 
LABOUR AND KNOWLEDGE. 
 
 15 
 
 production, hadjsubjected to exhausting toil the young and 
 the tender; had sometimes emptied the school, broken up 
 the home, and dried up the sources and springs of moral, and 
 therefore of social, progress. Just look at the account of the 
 working classes — upwards of <£50,000,000 are stated to be 
 consumed yearly in intoxicating liquors — a sum which 
 amounts to nearly the most prosperous half year of the ex- 
 ports of production and manufactures from the United 
 Kingdom, and falls little short of an entire year of these ex- 
 ports at the time when the prize essay was written. More 
 than 28,000,000 of demoralizing publications were then 
 annually circulated amongst these classes ; the little chil- 
 dren, proper and peculiar objects of tender care at home, 
 and of the training of the parochial or district school, were 
 too often prematurely doomed to pine under the exhaustion 
 of the mill ; others, just emerging from childhood, earning 
 independent wages, live with their parents as lodgers, pay- 
 ing for themselves ; thus violating the sanctities of family 
 life — whilst debasing, sensual indulgence is but too often 
 the refuge from the fatigues which attend on the weary, 
 wasting sacrifice, exacted by the spirit of Mammon. 
 
 “ Our life is turned 
 
 Out of her course, wherever man is made 
 An offering or a sacrifice, a tool 
 Or implement ; a passive thing employed 
 As a brute mean, without acknowledgment 
 Of common right or interest in the end ; 
 
 Used or abused as selfishness may prompt. 
 
 Say what can follow for a rational soul 
 Perverted thus, but weakness in all good. 
 
 And strength in evil ? 
 
 “ Not for these sad issues 
 Was man created ; but to obey the law 
 Of life, and hope, and action.” 
 
 The scale of wages is found, to a certain extent, to influence 
 
16 
 
 LABOUR AND KNOWLEDGE. 
 
 the attendance at the schools, for this more or less interferes 
 with the claims upon the labour of the children. And the 
 extent of demoralization, and consequent statistics of crime, 
 register the advances of that flowing and rising tide which 
 threatens to inundate, if timely and adequate remedies are 
 not liberally provided. What are these remedies? How 
 are they to be supplied? I have called your attention to 
 unchangeable laws of moral government, and also to laws of 
 economic science, which are fixed and constant, and under 
 and in accordance with these , the intellectual , moral , and re- 
 ligious activity of an industrial community must keep pace 
 with its material prosperity . Here is the key to the whole 
 problem . We left the agriculturist with new duties rather 
 than new difficulties ; we found him in the simplicity of 
 peaceful life, and reminded him of the available agency 
 which moderate intelligence may render subservient to the 
 increased supply of produce. We are prepared to condemn 
 him, if he should wilfully disregard the plainer injunctions 
 of the great law of labour under the guidance of know- 
 ledge, and persevere in the old habits which ignorance may 
 have nurtured, at the extravagant cost of diminished and 
 unremunerative production. 
 
 We have come to the manufacturer. The new sphere 
 of duty here unfolded is not so much found in varying the 
 details of that labour which science has so elaborately 
 appropriated to every new post which it occupies, but 
 emphatically in the moral field, where the superiority of 
 man over material mechanism is to be maintained, and 
 never to be lost sight of ; and here are we required to save 
 from a perilous exhaustion the very springs of moral exis- 
 tence, in one of the most important sections of our people. 
 Hete labour, in its higher, i.e ., in its moral and religious 
 departments, must imitate the improved action of me- 
 chanism in the lower. In its comprehensive equity, the 
 
LABOUR AND KNOWLEDGE. 
 
 17 
 
 law of labour calls for this great adjustment to be in 
 readiness before invention and science can safely move 
 onward, in demands otherwise desolating, for they would 
 spare neither age nor sex — they would, in fact, perpetuate 
 the ceaseless and heartless toil which they should gradually 
 soften, and in some degree at least help to supersede. 
 
 The Education Report tells us of admirable schools and 
 excellent teachers in one great and influential county ; 
 but by reason of the occasional interference of manufac- 
 turing prosperity, this admirable educational agency is 
 sometimes deprived of its proper influence, and a great 
 opportunity for the training of the young is thus thrown 
 away. The very excellence of the schools, by giving 
 peculiar facility for the speedy learning of simple and com- 
 mon acquirements, may be turned into a snare, in furnishing 
 a pretext for prematurely removing the young pupil to the 
 mill, where the lessons of the school are soon effaced, and 
 the training of uninstructed toil, with all its moral or (as 
 I should rather say) immoral accompaniments, soon mani- 
 fests its power — 
 
 es And poverty and labour in excess 
 From day to day preoccupy the ground 
 Of the affections ; and to Nature’s self 
 Oppose a deeper nature.” 
 
 This must be set right, or we must take the inevitable 
 consequences, which can only be averted by the frank and 
 prompt recognition of the principles which I have been so 
 anxious to put forward in plainness before you. Confor- 
 mity to the requirements of an enlightened system of 
 labour as the law of human life, is a condition of individual 
 and of national prosperity ; and as this prosperity grows in 
 material wealth, it demands the corresponding activity of 
 the greater agencies by which man is, and by which alone 
 he can be, trained for immortality. 
 
 B 
 
18 
 
 LABOUR AND KNOWLEDGE. 
 
 It is by the diligent use and application, not by the dis- 
 covery, of improved machinery, that production is mul- 
 tiplied ; it is by the like use of the well-conducted school, 
 the decent home, and the consecrated temple of God, with 
 its attendant privileges, under the influence of a well- 
 regulated spirit of progress, and in faithful dependence 
 upon the Divine blessing, that this higher department of 
 labour can supply the demand so urgently made upon it 
 by the rapid extension of commerce, and the overpowering 
 success of manufacturing skill and enterprise. 
 
 In such a period of prosperity — in this day of freedom, 
 the earnest friends of truth and virtue must be up and 
 doing ; their elevated department of labour must be open 
 to the enlightened influence of spirited improvement. I 
 rejoice to find that excellent examples have been set by 
 many true Christian masters, who have satisfactorily solved 
 the problem of manufacturing life, keeping it “ in health 
 and wealth ’’—and long may it so live! — in accordance 
 with the highest sense of Christian duty; w T ith the laws 
 which connect therewith the greatest prosperity, securing 
 the happiness of the operatives by the most suitable arrange- 
 ments for promoting their religious, moral, intellectual, 
 and social welfare. May God bless and prosper their 
 righteous efforts ! We should encourage in every way 
 this good example, so that it might soon cease to be excep- 
 tional. 
 
 t{ With the sense of admiration blends 
 The animating hope that time may come. 
 
 When strengthened, yet not dazzled by the might 
 Of this dominion over nature gained ; 
 
 Men of all lands shall exercise the same 
 In due proportion to their country’s need. 
 
 Learning, though late, that all true glory rests. 
 
 All praise, all safety, and all happiness, 
 
 Upon the moral law.” 
 
 The modern dogma, that property has its duties as well 
 
LABOUR AND KNOWLEDGE. 
 
 19 
 
 as its rights, is not less obligatory upon the capitalist than 
 upon the landlord. And let it be observed, that the trustee 
 of the one talent was not released from the responsibility 
 imposed upon the owner of the ten. Property, influence, 
 opportunity great or small, frequent or occasional, each is 
 but a trust for promoting the glory of God, and the good 
 of man. To some extent, however little, we are all of us 
 responsible. 
 
 The arrangements of every parish should secure for the 
 voung, in the proper season for training them in the way 
 in which they should go, a suitable and sufficient educa- 
 tion, to which the decencies of home, the instruction and 
 discipline of the school, and the ministrations of religion, 
 should respectively contribute, and each be allowed its 
 proper time and season . We should circulate cheap and 
 wholesome publications, and provide opportunity in various 
 ways for the diffusion of useful knowledge, displacing the 
 vile and vulgar productions of infidelity and lust. Recrea- 
 tion, cheerful and reasonable, occasionally permitted ; a 
 genuine Sabbath-rest secured for all, in accordance with 
 its high Scriptural sanction ; and a Saturday afternoon 
 conceded, by which the great purpose of the Sabbath 
 might be more fully realized, as by the old Saxon law of 
 Edgar, the Sabbath began at three o’clock on Saturday ; 
 this is the arrangement of a simple but Scriptural policy. 
 
 The plan of early closing, now becoming so general, 
 gives some valuable leisure to our young men, which may 
 be redeemed for purposes of mental and moral cultivation. 
 Associations like this Institute, with its useful library, 
 evening classes for instruction, occasional lectures, in which 
 the living voice and power of sympathy feather the shafts 
 of instructive and pleasing exposition; if all this be accom- 
 panied by the good example and generous encouragement 
 and support of those who occupy the higher positions, 
 
20 
 
 LABOUR AND KNOWLEDGE. 
 
 or exercise local influence, what a goodly prospect opens 
 out before us ! For on each and all of these agencies, we 
 can, in humility and hope, ask for the blessing of Him who 
 has so wisely and so graciously placed the sources of pros- 
 perity in the fresh springs of duty. 
 
 No legislative interference is here demanded ; and for 
 my own part, I am more and more inclined to treat it 
 in general as a trespasser ; let us throw ourselves in full 
 confidence upon the power of a pure and simple Christian 
 policy. Christianity, in the fulness of its Divine resources, 
 faithfully applied as the rule of common life, is alone suffi- 
 cient to hold us up under the weight and pressure of accu- 
 mulated prosperity. We must be strong within — sound, 
 intelligent, and energetic ; and in every department, and 
 in every condition of life, avail ourselves of the great 
 agencies which are worthy of a free people and a Christian 
 nation ; — thus may we rejoice in truth and freedom. There 
 is in nature a remarkable analogy, by which we may be 
 instructed — it is this : any interference or meddling with- 
 out, generally interrupts the beautiful process of crystal- 
 lization ; it is encouraged and continued to completion by 
 energies and action from within, undisturbed from without. 
 The strong current of opinion has set in with us in favour 
 of removing hindrance and restriction, and giving in- 
 creased facility to individual enterprise and action. Free- 
 dom, religious and civil, is now a household word. 
 
 A question of deep and solemn interest has sometimes 
 been mooted as to the future destiny of England ; whether 
 its great empire is to culminate, decline, and fall, or to 
 advance in prosperity, and preserve its pre-eminence ? 
 Historians and statesmen have glanced at this, but seldom 
 touched it save with a trembling hand, and in a spirit of 
 gloomy apprehension. Wherein is to be found the sure 
 solution? “ The nation and kingdom which will not serve 
 
LABOUR AND KNOWLEDGE. 
 
 21 
 
 Thee shall perish ” is the assurance of the inspired Prophet. 
 Now I have endeavoured to show that the sources of in- 
 dustrial prosperity are in the inexhaustible springs of duty ; 
 and here we have our whole national destiny bound up 
 with the faithful discharge of our individual duties as aChris- 
 tian people. A profound writer, wise and philosophic, accus- 
 tomed to observe human nature, and analyze national life, 
 has recently published a disquisition on the great French 
 Revolution, and has worked out the conclusion, that the 
 acquisition of property had so largely gone beyond the 
 concession of political power, as to disturb and break up 
 civil society altogether. This may be true ; but we should 
 seek not merely for truth, but for the whole truth, and 
 then we will find, that however necessary it may be to 
 regulate the distribution of political power by the scale of 
 property, it is still more necessary, because more vital, to 
 have the heart and life of the nation penetrated by Chris- 
 tian principle, as the only real security for the safe and 
 permanent trust of political privilege. With this security, 
 public opinion is healthy, enlightened, and influential ; 
 without it, there can be no confidence in what a day may 
 bring forth. It was just as I had written this reflection, 
 that I found an authoritative exposition of this question, 
 recorded by one whose name and memory live in the 
 hearts of the wisest and best— who enjoyed the high pri- 
 vilege of representing the great county which honoured 
 h im by its independent selection, and was more than re- 
 compensed by the honour thus reflected upon itself. I 
 speak of William Wilberforce — the good, the gentle, the 
 faithful, the eloquent; in a word, the Christian statesman. 
 He smashed the fetters of the slave, for he was the friend 
 of the oppressed, and the hero of humanity ; he smote the 
 rock of practical Christianity, and the stream gushed forth, 
 to irrigate the barren field of unprofitable profession, and 
 
22 
 
 LABOUR AND KNOWLEDGE. 
 
 give it freshness and fertility. “ It is only,” says he, “ by 
 educating our people in Christian principles that we can 
 hope to advance in strength, greatness, and happiness. By 
 their efficacy alone can we escape the operation of those 
 causes which have assimilated other States to the human 
 frame in its infancy, manhood, and decay. But the reli- 
 gion of those States was founded on false principles. They 
 went on from stage to stage of intellectual improvement, 
 emerging from ignorance to knowledge, till the light of 
 day beamed upon the fabric, and betrayed the rotten im- 
 position upon which it was built. The pillar of our great- 
 ness is raised upon that basis of all intellectual and moral 
 improvement, the Christian religion.” If, then, we would 
 perpetuate our name and nation, it is by the enlightenment 
 of knowledge, sanctified by religion, the action of Christian 
 love and sympathy, the diligent discharge of every form of 
 Christian duty. There is a balance, an adjustment, to be 
 maintained in the nation as in the individual. In the in- 
 dividual, we may notice the great superiority of the man 
 whose powers, though moderate, are all well-cultivated, 
 when compared with another who is defective in moral or 
 spiritual strength, though strong or sharp in intellect. 
 Lord Bacon speaks of the work of man as showing its 
 comparative imperfection, by requiring separate parts to be 
 finished at intervals — the picture or the statue are in this 
 way completed by piecemeal; but in God’s creation, the 
 plant or the tree grows together in all its parts, increasing 
 in strength without loss of symmetry. So that education, 
 the proper growth and training of man, consists in the 
 nurture and harmonious increase of all his powers in due 
 proportion. The whole man thus increases gradually in 
 strength of body, spirit, mind. This is in truth education. 
 What is thus so material to the well-being of individual 
 man, becomes applicable to the nation at large. 
 
LABOUR AND KNOWLEDGE. 
 
 23 
 
 The whole mechanism, material, intellectual, moral, and 
 religious, should move with uniform and well-regulated 
 speed, else it is liable to break up by the defect or excess 
 of action in any one department. How wonderful is the 
 lesson taught in the beautiful consistency of God’s provi- 
 dential bounty! Facility of intercourse and production 
 has been accompanied by the corresponding increase of 
 gold, so recently discovered at the very crisis at which it 
 was required, to regulate the scale of prices, and render 
 our general progress so available to promote the increase of 
 human happiness. Without this there might have been a 
 great derangement of the dealings of mankind ; and by the 
 diminution of prices (regulated as they are by the supply of 
 gold), much distress might have been occasioned by the 
 very means of multiplying production. It is by the dili- 
 gent observation of the laws which so graciously regulate 
 human progress, by assigning to everything its proper time 
 and place, and by a dutiful obedience to the enlightened 
 policy and the combinations which these laws commend, 
 that we may hope to keep our position in the advancing 
 march of civilization. We stand before the w r orld as a 
 great and privileged people — between the Old and the 
 New World— a hand for each, a heart for both. We have 
 inaugurated the free intercourse of nations. Our mission 
 is, in the very spirit of Christianity, to carry peace and 
 prosperity to every part of the habitable globe ; and it is 
 gratifying to find, at the conference now taking place at 
 Brussels, that the great privilege and duty of free inter- 
 course, and its action on the well-being of nations, have 
 been so ably and so largely acknowledged and advocated. 
 From this we may reasonably expect still happier results. 
 
 We are not, however, to be impatient or precipitate. 
 The course of the Divine dealings is slow and gradual. 
 Man sometimes thinks, by some outward arrangements 
 
^4 
 
 LABOUR AND KNOWLEDGE. 
 
 made on the impulse of the moment, to adjust and per- 
 petuate enduring relations ; but it is, as Edmund Burke, with 
 his habitual wisdom, observes of the economy of the world, 
 “ the disposition of a stupendous wisdom, moulding to- 
 gether the great mysterious incorporation of the human 
 race; the whole at one time is never old, middle-aged, or 
 young, but, in a condition of unchangeable constancy, it 
 moves on through the varied tenor of perpetual decay, 
 fall, renovation, and progression/’ 
 
 In comparing our position and prospects with those of 
 other nations, we have reason to thank God, and take 
 courage. Representative government in other leading 
 states of Europe seems to have no resting-place, demon- 
 strating this, that truth and freedom cannot be permanently 
 separated. Better far (as an old divine says), better to 
 build up hay and stubble upon a rock, than gold and silver 
 upon the shifting, sinking sand. I do not suggest this to 
 encourage a spirit of self-sufficiency, but to maintain a feeling 
 of self-respect, and gratitude to God, and to awaken a due 
 sense of the responsibility which so peculiarly accompanies 
 privilege in every form. 
 
 It is not by sudden, or fitful, or impulsive efforts that the 
 good work of enlightening and elevating the working 
 classes can be best accomplished. We must move forward 
 slowly but surely. We are not called upon to invent, but 
 to apply; for the proper means of securing the right ends 
 are appointed and accredited, and I am happy and thank- 
 ful to find that the conscientious use and application of 
 them are every day evidently becoming more general. 
 There is a source of unexplored strength and power in our 
 people. There are capabilities in immortal man many and 
 various, such as may recompense Christian cultivation be- 
 yond all ordinary conception. What a noble privilege for 
 the highest as for the humblest, in their allotted sphere of 
 
LABOUR AND KNOWLEDGE. 
 
 25 
 
 duty, to assist in helping forward this great work of pro- 
 gress ! The discipline of life is intended to he one of 
 difficulty ; to our working people, it may be attended with 
 both toil and trouble ; and yet for each and all of us it is 
 intended to be one of solemn duty, to frame and fashion 
 us by the formation of habits which mould the enduring 
 character, and by conduct which forms these fixed habits. 
 Co-operation and sympathy are always encouraging ; and 
 how delightful it is when we see the glare of wealth soft- 
 ened by the generous philanthropy which lightens the 
 pressure of poverty and the gloom of ignorance ! 
 
 I may observe, perhaps, as connected with the estimate to 
 be formed of an Institute such as yours, that I am not insensi- 
 ble to the abuses to which it might, perhaps, be readily per- 
 verted; but I will judge of it, as I do of other things, not by 
 its possible perversions, but by its genuine tendencies. Good 
 sense, wise moderation, and the practical disposition with 
 which God has so much blessed the English people, will, I 
 trust, be here called in aid; and I would add, that whilst 
 the co-operation, the encouragement, the guidance, and the 
 sympathy of the classes above should always be at the ser- 
 vice of those below, yet no amount of effort can pei- 
 manently elevate the social condition of the latter, other- 
 wise than by soberly instructing their minds and hearts in 
 such a way as may render them thoughtful, virtuous, and 
 happy. Look steadfastly at the laws by which the human 
 being, whether isolated or social, whether in his individual 
 or national life on earth, is evidently intended to be made 
 truly prosperous. These laws can in no instance be disre- 
 garded or set at defiance, without the peril and the penalty 
 which will as surely follow, as the recompense and the bles- 
 sing mav be expected to attend the willing observance of 
 their wise and beneficent injunctions, for in keeping of 
 them there is great reward. 
 
26 
 
 LABOUR AND KNOWLEDGE. 
 
 But all must be done in humble dependence on the 
 blessing and guidance of God. The Eddvstone Lighthouse 
 was built on a rock. So confident was the builder in the 
 strength of his work, that he uttered the presumptuous 
 wish that he might be there to face the greatest storm that 
 ever blew from the heavens. His challenge was accepted, 
 and the same night the yawning ocean swallowed in its 
 raging waters the workman and his work. Another 
 architect reconstructed the edifice with all the resources of 
 human skill and science, but crowned the whole with this 
 Scriptural inscription, “ Except the Lord build the house, 
 they labour in vain that build and now it stands a beacon 
 and a blessing to the toiling mariner. Human effort is 
 not to be superseded ; but the Divine blessing must always 
 be sought in sincerity, for of ourselves we can do nothing. 
 
 I feel that I haVe already trespassed unreasonably on 
 your patient and indulgent attention. I do not address 
 you in the sentimental mood of a passing stranger, merely 
 stopping to scatter a few perishing flowers upon some honoured 
 grave, but as one who, not for the first time, has felt an 
 interest in the success of every effort by which improvement 
 has here been wisely and faithfully carried forward. The 
 name of Keswick is associated with the valuable and valued 
 labours of one of my oldest and dearest friends, Dr. White- 
 side,* and it is bound up with the sacred memory of one by 
 whose practical wisdom and profound learning I have often 
 been thankfully instructed, your own admirable and lamented 
 Southey, so long and so suitably the guardian-spirit of the 
 head of this lovely and favoured district, the heart of which 
 once throbbed with the living Wordsworth, the profound, 
 the gentle Christian poet of Rydal — the pure and simple, the 
 wise and truthful philosopher: a district which held also in its 
 
 * Now Viear of Scarborough. 
 
LABOUR AND KNOWLEDGE. 
 
 27 
 
 impassioned embrace the generous and single-hearted 
 Arnold, and often refreshed the weary spirit of the 
 great and good Wilberforce, who so happily called it “ the 
 paradise of England.” What a moral loveliness is suf- 
 fused over this delightful region by the memories of these 
 honoured and illustrious dead ! Comparison is often, and 
 perhaps unwisely, challenged of lake with lake, and 
 mountain with mountain, for each has its own distinctive 
 attractions; and, again, the scenery of foreign lands is set 
 in contrast with your mountain, lake, and valley. The 
 cottage of Rayrigg, with its green slopes and grassy mea- 
 dows, has been compared with the chateau of Voltaire on 
 the banks of the giant lake of Geneva. Blessed be God, 
 whatever be the result of any such comparison in the rival 
 forms of external nature, your lakes and valleys are not 
 clouded by the gloomy associations which the evil heart of 
 unbelief has in other lands brought down upon nature’s 
 loveliness and nature’s grandeur. Geneva, with its blue 
 w r aters, beautiful as they are, has its Ferney and its Lau- 
 sanne, but, alas! associated with Voltaire and Gibbon; 
 Windermere, with its more simple and graceful modesty, 
 has its Rayrigg and its Ambleside, but associated with 
 these— its Wilberforce and its Arnold. These precious 
 adjuncts, the faithful and devoted friends of humanity, 
 of whom the world was not worthy — men whose names are 
 dear to the hearts and consecrated in the affections of the 
 wisest and the best of mankind — men who have left be- 
 hind a memory which embalms them ; — contrast them with 
 those who, with Satanic energy, have struggled to rob hu- 
 manity of its brightest and dearest hopes, its most glorious 
 consolations — to discredit and subvert our pure and holy 
 faith, and make us of. men most miserable — to bring down 
 upon human life the darkness and desolation of blind un- 
 belief and daring blasphemy, and shut out from a benighted 
 
28 
 
 LABOUR AND KNOWLEDGE. 
 
 world the bright and cheering beams of the glorious Gos- 
 pel. Here, then, in the pure loveliness of nature, and in 
 the purer gifts and privileges of grace, you have everything 
 which could be needed to help you forward in peaceful 
 and progressive prosperity. 
 
 The very mountains which lift up their majestic summits 
 to the skies, in their varying aspect, teach the many-sided- 
 ness of great truths, and the influence of position from 
 which, and of circumstances under which, the same sub- 
 stantial truth may be so variously apprehended. The pla- 
 cid lake, with its calm, unruffled bosom, reflecting the 
 serene sky, and seeming sometimes to hold the high hea- 
 vens in the very depths of its crystal waters, may speak to 
 the meditative mind, of the gracious descent of that hea- 
 venly peace which passeth understanding, into the humble 
 and thankful heart of faith and prayer; and the secluded 
 spots of loveliness in the valley, where beauty almost re- 
 poses in the lap of grandeur, may teach the thoughtful and 
 contemplative student of nature, rising on the wings of faith 
 and hope, and reading with the eye and spirit of love, that 
 in simplicity and retirement, in the lowly and modest walk 
 of humble but contented life, the truest, the purest, the 
 best sheltered happiness may often be found. It is not in 
 a sentimental or pantheistic spirit that the grandeur and 
 beauty of creation are to be contemplated, but as the handy- 
 work of Him “ by whom and for whom all things were 
 created.” And it is thus placed under the light of the Sun 
 of Righteousness. “ Thy creatures have been my books,” 
 said the illustrious Bacon, “ but thy Scriptures much more. 
 I have sought Thee in Thy fields and Thy gardens — I have 
 found Thee in Thy Word and in Thy Temples.” 
 
 How gladdening to me — how it gives me hope and con- 
 fidence to reflect, that in all that I have urged upon you this 
 evening, I am sustained by the great authority of the 
 
LABOUR AND KNOWLEDGE, 
 
 29 
 
 honoured names of those whose memories are associated 
 with many of these fair scenes of creation in which they 
 may even now be ministering spirits. With each and all 
 truth was the soul and source of genuine freedom ; and the 
 expression of the Divine will, whether recorded in the In- 
 spired Word, or suggested by the glorious works of their 
 Almighty Author, was the rule of faith and life. The aw- 
 ful solemnity of all human life ; the inestimable worth of 
 each individual man; the power in duty faithfully dis- 
 charged ; the hope and the happiness of the human family 
 in its humblest ranks ; and the responsibility under which 
 all of us, and especially of those in elevated positions, are 
 placed, and from which there is no escape — these were the 
 mighty themes which so largely filled their sympathizing 
 hearts and enlightened minds — the more earnestly as obser- 
 vation and conference matured conviction, and the expe- 
 rience of life stirred and solemnised reflection. How greatly 
 was I struck a few days ago in reading the wise and touch- 
 ing observation of Southey on the latter days and the hours 
 of sore trial of the poet CWper. Alas ! how little did he 
 think that they might be adapted to his own solemn and sad 
 bereavement ! Clouds and darkness sometimes, in the un- 
 searchable ways of an all- wise God, are suffered to gather 
 around and hang upon the lofty summit, on which has often 
 shone the purest and brightest beams of heaven. By un- 
 due or protracted separation from ordinary life — by exces- 
 sive or exclusive working of great mental faculties — by the 
 unvarying pressure of peculiar circumstances or special 
 duties — by some providential interference with the balance 
 of the human being (as mysterious perhaps in its ordinary 
 adjustment as in its occasional disturbance) — by all or any 
 of these may our day of life’s solemn and eventful discipline 
 be suddenly and unexpectedly shortened. This may teach 
 a lesson of humility, by showing us how the highest gifts 
 
30 
 
 LABOUR AND KNOWLEDGE. 
 
 of intellect, and the graces of life in its loveliest forms, may 
 be fearfully darkened, even though, blessed be God, they 
 will not thus be blighted for ever. 
 
 It tells us also that humanity, in all its forms and all its 
 conditions, has to encounter trials and afflictions which are 
 common in their purpose, though peculiar in their manifes- 
 tation ; and, above all, it reminds those who enjoy the bless- 
 ing of health and strength, that they should work whilst it 
 is called day, not knowing in what providential form, nor 
 at what moment, they may find the shadows of night clos- 
 ing around them, when they can no longer work, but must 
 wait for the morning light of eternity. 
 
 I have endeavoured, inadequately I fear, but not unpro- 
 fitably I hope, to point out the combined claims of labour 
 and knowledge in all the departments of industry — spi- 
 ritual, moral, intellectual, manual — the claim upon every 
 class — the clergy and the laity, the manufacturer and the 
 mechanic, the peer and the pe^nt, the student and the 
 operative — each has his post of duty in the battle of our na- 
 tional life. In what I have criticised or condemned, it has 
 not been in a censorious spirit ; it has been with a view of 
 remedy — -just as in our late campaign, the sacrifices occa- 
 sioned by a system of administrative incompetence and ne- 
 glect, forced upon us, from the instinct of self-preservation, 
 the duty of rectifying the errors which were so graciously 
 and opportunely exposed, and have been to a great degree 
 remedied. 
 
 Let us apply the lesson of wisdom to other departments. 
 Even in a financial aspect, nothing is so expensive as duty 
 neglected. I would suggest, moreover, that the war of 
 classes — now past and gone, I hope — may leave behind a 
 like lesson of remedial activity. There is in every class a 
 disposition to look at the extreme to which the opposite 
 class is liable, rather than to reflect upon and avoid that to 
 
LABOUR AND KNOWLEDGE. 
 
 31 
 
 which itself may perilously tend. Each class has a real in- 
 terest in the increasing prosperity of every other. Our 
 Blessed Lord spake but few admonitions with a political ap- 
 plication ; one, however, should never be forgotten — “ A 
 kingdom divided against itself shall be brought to desola- 
 tion.” How fearful is the sin — the desolating sin — which 
 foments the strife and schism of factious division ! Class 
 arrayed against class, section striving for mastery over sec- 
 tion, whilst ignorance, distrust, jealousy, pride, mammonism, 
 go forward to do the work of social disorganisation ! But 
 where fellow-citizens unite, with common sympathies — 
 Saxon spirits and Christian hearts — encouraging every legi- 
 timate occasion of kindly or profitable intercourse — diligent 
 in the several departments of labour, wisely distributed — in 
 a rivalry not of the thorn and the brier, which shall show the 
 sharpest prickle, but of the vine with the olive, which shall 
 bear the richest fruit — then may this Christian co-operation 
 be compared to the beam of heaven, with its rays of distinct 
 colours, which, by their intimate coalescence, give light and 
 w T armth to the world. Go on in this spirit. May this Insti- 
 tute be an instrument of increasing usefulness, not only in 
 imparting special instruction available to many, but aiding 
 in what is more properly called education, by which good 
 habits are formed, good feeling is cherished, good sense nur- 
 tured, and the temper of charity, which is greater than faith 
 or hope, maintained in its Christian fulness. Party politics 
 are wisely excluded — for here your country is your party ; 
 controversial theology is here excommunicated, for Chris- 
 tianity is here your religion — Christianity in its Divine and 
 comprehensive simplicity, as it shines in the beams of the 
 Sun of Righteousness, when lie arose upon the nations with 
 healing in His wings — a system of love and of saving grace, 
 with few doctrines to be believed, but many duties to be per- 
 formed — Christianity, pure and refreshing, as it gushes from 
 
32 
 
 LABOUR AND KNOWLEDGE. 
 
 its Divine fountain. Can I, then, despair of our working 
 classes, whilst society is seasoned with this saving salt? The 
 eye of the prophet turned instinctively to Him who is the 
 great source of life, to quicken and re-animate the dry bones, 
 as they lay in the solemn stillness of death in the vision of 
 the valley. May the breathings of that Almighty power 
 quicken and sanctify every agency working for and with 
 our working classes ! May the gracious Spirit, who at the 
 first breathed into man the breath of life, ever stir the soul 
 and animate the heart and spirit of England, and bind up 
 her destiny with the hopes and the happiness of the whole 
 human race ! 
 
% 
 
 LABOUR AND REST. 
 
 4, 
 
 In opening the Course of Lectures for this Session of your 
 Association, my Right Honourable friend* justified, by pre- 
 cedent, his appearance as a lecturer on this platform. It 
 was not surprising, to me at least, that he should be stirred 
 by observing the unwearied, unabated energy of Lord 
 Brougham, nor that he should be encouraged and induced 
 by the laudable example of Sir John T. Coleridge, to come 
 out from a retirement honourably won by a long career of 
 judicial duty faithfully discharged, and offer to a willing 
 audience of his countrymen lessons of chastened ex- 
 perience, to be treasured in their minds and hearts — 
 minds active and earnest — hearts that are warm, generous, 
 and grateful. In truth, however, precedent was not needed, 
 authority was not called for. He had but to follow the 
 promptings of his own kindly nature, suggesting to him 
 that he might do good by allowing you to share in the 
 benefits of this (as it were) his Saturday evening of life, in 
 which he has come before you with the ripe reflections of 
 his mellowed wisdom — 
 
 “ One to whom 
 
 Long patience hath such mild composure given, 
 
 That patience now doth seem a thing of which 
 He hath no need.*' 
 
 * The Right Hon. P. C. Crampton. 
 
 C 
 
34 
 
 LABOUR AND REST. 
 
 The subject for our consideration this evening is — “ La- 
 bour and Rest.” In dealing with it here, I have felt bound 
 so to steer my course as to keep my eye fixed on leading 
 landmarks — the edification and the improvement of the 
 young men of this Association ; for I have been invited 
 here especially to address them. It is, however, a great 
 theme, well worthy of the sober and sustained attention 
 of every thoughtful being. 
 
 “ It is (says our great countryman, Edmund Burke) 
 the common doom of man, that he must eat his bread by 
 the sweat of his brow — that is, by the sweat of his body, 
 or the sweat of his mind. If this toil was inflicted as a 
 curse, it is (as might be expected from the Father of all 
 blessings) tempered with many alleviations, many com- 
 forts. Every attempt to fly from it, and to refuse the 
 very terms of our existence, becomes much more truly a 
 curse, and heavier pains and penalties fall upon those who 
 would elude the tasks which are put upon them by the 
 great Master Workman of the world, who, in His dealings 
 with His creatures, sympathises with their weakness ; and 
 speaking of a creation wrought by mere will out of no- 
 thing, speaks of six days of labour and one of rest" 
 
 Rest has thus been sealed and set apart as a provision of 
 Divine wisdom designed for the good of man ; it takes 
 its place, therefore, amongst what I may call the 
 Divine institutions of humanity. Labour is one of its 
 earliest laws. 
 
 There is a sublime conception in the celebrated creed of 
 Lord Bacon, that no created being could have stood before 
 God without His beholding the same in the face of a 
 Mediator, and, therefore, that the purpose of redemption is 
 essentially included in that of creation. Whether, in the 
 abstract, this be well founded, I do not presume either to 
 affirm or to deny ; enough for us to know, as a revealed 
 
LABOUR AND REST. 
 
 35 
 
 fact, that by the same Lord who has redeemed us, all things 
 were created; that without Him w^as not any thing made 
 that was made ; that for His pleasure they are and were 
 created. By Him we are assured that “ the Sabbath (the 
 day of rest) was made for man the blessing of rest w r as 
 provided before the sentence of labour was pronounced. 
 
 Labour and rest are thus connected, according to the 
 design of our Redeemer and Creator — the one imposed 
 as an. immutable law of universal, permanent obligation; 
 the other appointed as the gracious provision of that 
 Divine mercy which from the first has rejoiced against 
 judgment. The one cannot be disobeyed without incurring 
 the consequent penalty ; the other cannot be disregarded 
 without forfeiture of the inherent blessing. 
 
 Labour, then, is a Divine law binding on humanity. I 
 object and protest against the fallacy so often repeated, 
 which sets apart and designates those who live by manual 
 industry, as if they only were the working or the labouring 
 class. The intelligent artisan, the busy merchant, the 
 diligent professional man, the thoughtful man of science or 
 the ready writer of literature, the man of property and 
 social position — each and all are subject to the law of 
 labour, to work diligently, if not with the hand, at all 
 events with the head or with the heart. 
 
 Labour, thus viewed, is not the exclusive lot of any one 
 class. Man, in every class, is designed by His Creator for 
 a life of diligent, active duty. He is doomed to labour, 
 and he is entitled to rest. Indolent idleness wastes the 
 energy and exhausts the spirit of man. God has so or- 
 dained it from the beginning ; and all experience testifies 
 against idleness as a self-inflicted curse, the prolific pa- 
 rent of vice and crime. Its votary soon becomes its de- 
 voted victim — injurious to his fellow-man, and alienated 
 from God. 
 
36 
 
 LABOUR AND REST. 
 
 Rest, on the other hand, is to be regarded as the privi- 
 lege of all who are bound by the law of labour. I have 
 adverted to a common error which prevails in speaking of 
 a working or labouring class, and I would as earnestly 
 protest against another error, which assumes rest to be but 
 lounging leisure, a mere cessation of active employment; 
 or that, in any view of it, it is the exclusive privilege of a 
 favoured few. In its true acceptation, it is the provision 
 which God has intended for every human being.. The 
 Christian poet, Cowper, has truly said — 
 
 “ Absence of occupation is not rest, 
 
 The mind that’s vacant is a mind distress’d.” 
 
 “ Rest (says the judicious Hooker) is the end of all 
 motion, and the last perfection of all things that labour. 
 Labours in us are journeys, and even in them which feel 
 no weariness by any work, yet they are but ways whereby 
 to come unto that which bringeth not happiness till it do 
 bring rest; for as long as any thing which we desire is 
 unattained, we rest not. Let us here not take rest for 
 idleness. They are idle whom the painfulness of action 
 causeth to avoid those labours whereunto both God and 
 nature bindeth them; they rest which either cease from 
 their work when they have brought it unto perfection, 01 
 else give over a meaner labour, because a worthier and 
 better is to be undertaken. God hath created nothing to 
 be idle or ill employed.” 
 
 The work of creation was completed in six successive 
 days, when man, the last and most perfect work, was made 
 in the image of God, who beheld every thing which He 
 had made, and saw that it was good. Thereupon followed 
 the seventh day— the day without morning or evening. 
 The work of redemption was finished when Christ, the 
 Lord of the Sabbath, rose from the dead ; thenceforward 
 
LABOUR AND Rl.ST. 
 
 37 
 
 the Lord’s Day became the Sabbath of redemption, and 
 therefore the Sabbath Day of the Christian. A Sabbath 
 yet remaineth for the people of God. 
 
 Have you observed, that the day on which God is said to 
 have rested from the work of creation was the first day of 
 the week for created man ? It was the seventh day of the 
 Almighty Creator. The Sabbath may, in this view, be 
 considered as a day of preparation for the right perform- 
 ance of the business and the duties of our daily life, in the 
 week which is to follow. 
 
 I do not feel it necessary, on this occasion, to restate the 
 arguments which seem to me conclusively to prove the per- 
 manent institution of the Sabbath Day. I had the oppor- 
 tunity of publicly defending the law of the Sabbath on a 
 memorable occasion in the House of Commons; and in an 
 Appendix to the published Report of what I then was en- 
 abled to urge, you may find reasons and references which 
 at least satisfied my own mind on this all-important subject. 
 
 Human nature demands a periodic rest from labour, as a 
 necessity of human life. The ungodly spirit of an unbe- 
 lieving people once presumed to substitute a tenth day for 
 a seventh ; but it proved an impious and abortive effort to 
 supersede the law of God by the commandment and the 
 will of man. It has ever been found that rest is needed 
 exactly according to the Divine proportion, by which the 
 work of six days, with a day of rest, is as really, if not 
 more, productive, and to the full as remunerative, as the 
 work of seven continuous days, uninterruptedly employed 
 in labour, in defiance of the law of the Sabbath. This dis- 
 obedience, moreover, if persevered in, wastes humanity, for 
 it exhausts its recuperative powers; nay, even for the beasts 
 of labour, the law of periodic rest on the seventh day is 
 found to be such as common experience itself commends. 
 
 “ The Sabbath was made for man.” These are the me- 
 
38 
 
 LABOUR AND REST. 
 
 morable words of Him who spake as never man spake, and 
 declared Himself, as the Son of Man, to be the Lord also ot 
 the Sabbath. It is, then, a privilege which was Divinely 
 provided for man, and it is not within the province of any 
 human being to take it away from another. There is some- 
 times, I regret to say, a spirit of Pharisaic presumption, in 
 dictating the exact routine in which the Sabbath should be 
 spent. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. 
 Our blessed Lord has thrown a softened light upon the 
 commandment, in the benign comment of His own Divine 
 example, by which he rebuked the heartless formalism and 
 self-righteous pride of the Pharisee, and republished the 
 gracious admonition, that God will have mercy and not sa- 
 crifice. Of this let us be well assured, that it is a day of 
 sacred rest; a day of pious preparation; a day intended to 
 remind us of the work of redemption finished— of the work 
 of the Spirit commenced and continuing. Let us rejoice 
 and be glad in it as the Lord’s day. 
 
 From what I have said, you will see what an integral and 
 essential part the Sabbath is of the great original design of 
 Labour and Rest. The day and the night, the morning 
 and the evening, are another part of this Divine dispensa- 
 tion. “ Man goetli forth unto his work and to his labour 
 until the evening;” then he rests— he reposes in the night. 
 The philosopher assures us that, even in repose , the mind 
 does not cease to be active, but our consciousness is then 
 suspended in its functions ; whereas in rest, the moral being 
 is supposed to be conscious of its responsibilities. You will 
 thus mark a vital distinction between the state of rest and 
 of repose. 
 
 I have seen it somewhere noticed, that lying awake in the 
 morning is peculiarly injurious to the health of the body ; 
 for it relaxes the muscular energy, and wastes the solids of 
 the frame. It is, perhaps, but one aspect of a general law ; 
 
LABOUR AND REST. 
 
 39 
 
 for we find that the time for labour, the periods of rest, and 
 the hours of repose, are in truth the sacred property of each ; 
 and we cannot expect, with impunity, to appropriate to one 
 what, by the Divine appointment, has been allotted to 
 another. 
 
 In the station in life wherein God may have placed any 
 of us, we may have to perform an excessive amount of ex- 
 acting labour. In this respect, we may not all have the ar- 
 rangement and distribution of time in our own hands ; for 
 the demand upon our labour may be such as to interfere 
 with the proper period of rest; and sometimes, by occasion- 
 ing the need and accelerating the time of repose, encroach 
 on the interval of rest which to the mind, to the moral 
 being, to the immortal spirit, is not less needful than sleep 
 and food for the body. If labour were generally regarded 
 in its true aspect, as a part of the Divine economy, and not 
 as a mere department of the service of Mammon, such a re- 
 sult as I have supposed would be altogether exceptional. 
 
 44 If we consider man simply in a commercial point of 
 view, simply as a machine for productive labour, let us not 
 forget what a piece of mechanism he is — 4 how fearfully and 
 wonderfully made.’ If we have a fine horse, we do not use 
 him exactly as a steam engine, and still less should we treat 
 man so, more especially in his earlier years. The depress- 
 ing labour that begins early in life, and is continued too 
 long every day, enfeebles his body, enervates his mind, 
 weakens his spirits, overpowers his understanding, and is 
 incompatible with any good and useful result. A state of 
 society in which such a system prevails, will inevitably, and 
 in no long space* of time, feel its baneful effects. It will 
 find that the corporal and mental culture of the population 
 cannot be neglected, without producing results detrimental 
 to its best interests, even in regard to accumulation and 
 creation of property. On the other hand, a day of rest re - 
 
40 
 
 LABOUR AND REST 
 
 gularly recurring every week, and hours of exercise, of lei- 
 sure, of intellectual improvement, recurring in every day, 
 elevate the whole man — elevate him physically, elevate him 
 intellectually, elevate him morally; and his elevation, phy- 
 sical, moral, and intellectual, again falls on the commercial 
 prosperity of the country, which is advanced with it.” 
 
 Such were the considerations urged upon Parliament by 
 Lord Macaulay in favour of restricting the time of factory 
 labour. The agitation of this great question had com- 
 menced some time before the occasion on which this able 
 advocate spoke so wisely and faithfully. 
 
 In a periodical publication (1851), called “The Home,” 
 edited by Richard Oustler, a deeply interesting and very 
 instructive account is given of the opening scene of the con- 
 flict which at last prevailed with the Legislature. 
 
 “ I was on a visit (writes Mr. Oustler) at the house of a 
 dear friend, a mill-owner, and he, to my great surprise, in- 
 formed me that I lived not far from a town where human 
 beings— little children, boys and girls — were daily sacri- 
 ficed for gold. With feelings which I will not attempt to 
 describe, I went to bed. I had requested the servant to 
 call me at four in the morning, having occasion to ride some 
 miles to an early appointment. When my friend’s valet 
 aroused me, he said — 1 My master wishes to see you, sir, 
 before you leave.’ He afterwards showed me into his mas- 
 ter’s bedroom. My friend w r as in bed, but he was not 
 asleep ; he was leaning on a table beside his bed. On that 
 table were placed two candles ; between them was the Holy 
 Bible. On my advancing towards the side of his bed, he 
 turned towards me, reached out his hand, and in the most 
 impressive and affectionate manner, pressing my hand in 
 his, he said— 1 I have had no sleep to-night. I have been 
 reading this Book, and in every page I have read my own 
 condemnation. I cannot allow you to leave me without a 
 
LABOUR AND REST. 
 
 41 
 
 pledge, that you will use all your influence in endeavouring 
 to remove from our factory system the cruelties which are 
 regularly practised in our mills.’ I promised my friend, 
 says Mr. Oustler, that I would do what I could. I felt 
 that we were, each of us, in the presence of the Highest. 
 I knew that that vow was recorded in heaven. I have 
 kept it, the grace of God having upholden me. I have 
 been faithful. Trusting in the same Power, old and feeble 
 as I am, I hope to be faithful even unto death.” 
 
 The town to which reference is made in this touching 
 narrative, I 'have visited within the last two months. La- 
 bour is now restricted and regulated ; education incorpo- 
 rated with the factory system ; the school-room is regarded 
 as a principal department in every factory. Mechanics’ In- 
 stitutes have been established, and are conducted with good 
 sense and right feeling. Associations adapted to the state 
 of the population have multiplied. The Young Men’s 
 Christian Association is one of the most prominent, and very 
 prosperous. Masters and employers have become alive to 
 their responsibilities, and bear in mind that property has its 
 duties as well as its rights. At evening meetings of the 
 Social Science Association, hard-working operatives, from 
 the skilled mechanic to the simplest workman, after their 
 long day of toil, crowded in thousands to hear and receive 
 instruction and advice from all of us who were willing and 
 able to address them. The experience and the wisdom of 
 the old man eloquent, the octogenarian Brougham — the 
 earnest and faithful admonitions of Lord Shaftesbury, were 
 heard with grateful acknowledgment, and all who spoke 
 were listened to with intelligent and respectful attention. 
 
 To use the words of Lord Shaftesbury, after we had 
 visited one of the largest of the monster factories — “ A 
 blessed change has been wrought within the last ten years.” 
 How was this change brought about? Not by strikes or 
 
42 
 
 LABOUR AND REST. 
 
 combination ; not by the rivalry of politicians ; not by any 
 crooked device of man’s contrivance; but by the prevailing in- 
 fluence and commanding authority of the law of God ; by 
 the energy and the perseverance of true-hearted Christian 
 men fighting against the spirit of Mammon, and vindicating 
 those rights of man which are the free gift of Heaven. 
 The poet of Scotland has said — 
 
 “ Man’s inhumanity to man 
 Makes countless thousands mourn.” 
 
 How many a mourner hast thou comforted — how many 
 bonds hast thou loosed — how many a home hast thou 
 gladdened — how many a heart hast thou cheered — how 
 many a hope hast thou sustained — how many a deliver- 
 ance hast thou won for the feeble and the friendless — 
 blessed Book of God— the “ Great Charter ” of humanity ! 
 Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift. 
 
 In the present day, labour, in the department of manual 
 industry, has been wonderfully changed by the discoveries 
 and application of modern science, and the improvement 
 which has followed. I have gone at large into this subject 
 in an address which I delivered in 1856, on “ Labour and 
 Knowledge,” and I will therefore but glance at it here. 
 
 In some departments of labour (for instance, in agricul- 
 ture), what was, at one time, coarse toil and physical drudg- 
 ery merely, may now be considered an industrial pursuit, 
 in which capital, machinery, skill, and knowledge, may 
 each and all help forward the successful struggle of compe- 
 tition. Science has enabled us to discover many of the 
 laws by which creation is governed; Art is conversant with 
 the laws of symmetry and beauty. By the application of 
 science and art, we may elevate the lowest offices of manual 
 labour. The school of labour is too often regarded in a 
 
LABOUR AND REST. 
 
 43 
 
 light which is not from above, and without due considera- 
 tion of the uses to which its discipline may be subservient. 
 That highly-gifted and much-lamented son of labour, 
 honest-hearted Hugh Miller, in the very instructive and 
 interesting narrative of his early training — a book well wor- 
 thy of your earnest study — thus expresses himself: — 
 
 “ That best and noblest of all schools, save the Christian 
 one, in which honest labour is the teacher, in which the 
 ability of being useful is imparted, and the spirit of inde- 
 pendence communicated, and the habit of persevering effort 
 acquired, and which is more moral than the schools in which 
 philosophy only is taught, and generally more happy than 
 the schools which profess to teach only the art of enjoy- 
 ment.” 
 
 The humblest workman may, indeed, be so instructed, 
 that the simplest labour he performs with the hand har- 
 dened by daily toil, may be invested with the dignity of a 
 moral duty, and his daily labour be elevated into a daily 
 discipline of his moral nature. This, Science cannot achieve 
 nor Philosophy accomplish, though, within their own pro- 
 per province, they may minister much to the well-being of 
 man. 
 
 “ Philosophy,” says Dr. Chalmers, “ is not merely useful 
 in the explanation of what is already established. It sug- 
 gests new methods and facilitates the execution of old. It 
 retrenches all that is useless. It substitutes machinery in 
 the place of human labour ; and though many have de- 
 claimed against its introduction as ruinous to the subsist- 
 ence of the poor, yet it discovers the grossest ignorance of 
 political economy to deny that mechanical improvements 
 will ultimately diffuse additional comfort through all orders 
 of the community — will support a greater population — will 
 give wealth and independence to a more numerous class of 
 society, and by affording leisure for the exercises of the 
 
44 
 
 LABOUR AND REST. 
 
 mind, will ultimately extend the triumph of sentiment and 
 virtue.” 
 
 Here has been assigned to Philosophy and Science a great 
 preliminary work, to redeem leisure from the bondage of 
 manual toil; but it remains for a greater power than Philo- 
 sophy or Science to step in and secure the leisure which may 
 thus be won, and to set it apart for its legitimate purpose. 
 The triumphs of virtue (which Dr. Chalmers contemplates) 
 are to be found where Faith has been winning its victory. 
 Science and Philosophy fail of their noblest mission, if we 
 neglect to secure and realise the genuine object for which 
 the rest of leisure was Divinely provided. 
 
 Keep this always before your mind, whether in vindicat- 
 ing the rights of others, not yet relieved from the excess of 
 drudgery, which becomes degrading; or in the enjoyment 
 of the enlarged privilege, which yourselves have at last se- 
 cured, in the improved state of public opinion on this sub- 
 ject. The leisure must not only be won from manual toil ; 
 it must be appropriated and employed for the righteous 
 purpose for which God has designed it. 
 
 The early closing movement is, in truth, a tardy recog- 
 nition of what I may well call “ the Divine right of rest." 
 It is one of the cheering proofs of the progress of society, 
 when we find the discoveries of science, and the conse- 
 quent changes in manual and mechanical labour, are more 
 or less accompanied by a growing desire for the mental and 
 moral improvement of those who are daily engaged in 
 these labours, and an allowance of their claim to a rest 
 both reasonable in itself and Scriptural in its sanction. 
 
 To bring about this important result, Science may have 
 contributed, but Holy Scripture (let it never be forgotten) 
 has won the victory at the last. How could the seventh 
 day have been wrested from the grasp of Mammon, and 
 the workman saved from the grinding exaction of that 
 
LABOUR AND REST.. 
 
 45 
 
 covetous spirit which would recklessly sacrifice persons on 
 the altar of things— how otherwise than by the influence 
 of the Divine Word, cherished in the hearts and fearlessly 
 honoured by the best and wisest of our people? How 
 would you have won the evening of leisure and rest, the 
 early release on the Saturday, and the full privilege of 
 the Sabbath, if this had not been claimed by the spirit of 
 the Divine economy — if God had not so provided that rest 
 should be a counterpart to labour, and put it into the hearts 
 of masters and employers to honour this Divine law as 
 their wisdom, if not their duty? Blessed truth for man, 
 that rest is a Divine right. If it were an ecclesiastical 
 arrangement, they who had bound might loose; if of mere 
 human authority, man might see fit to withhold the allow- 
 ance ; but if it be of God, as I believe it to be the provi- 
 sion of His own almighty goodness and sovereign wisdom, 
 it is the birthright of man, wdiich he maychoose recklessly 
 to abandon, but of which he cannot lawfully be deprived. 
 If he parts with the birthright, he must forfeit the blessing. 
 
 If, then, labour be the law, and rest the privilege, of 
 man as man, both must be subservient to the moral disci- 
 pline of his daily life. Let it never be supposed that, in 
 the routine of employment, in the sphere and position in 
 which God has placed any of us, we may not train our 
 moral nature, and mould in some degree the character 
 which is to abide with us hereafter. Our lowest labours 
 are all to be performed as in the service of that gracious 
 Master who has secured for His servants periods of rest, 
 in which the mind may be instructed, the heart elevated 
 and assured, the moral sense strengthened and quickened, 
 and the spirit refreshed and sanctified. 
 
 It is just as we make progress under such a daily disci- 
 pline, that we realise the transforming power of the reli- 
 gion of the Redeemer. Christianity is not to be found 
 
46 
 
 LABOUR AND REST. 
 
 congealed in a cold mass of dogmatic theology, nor is it 
 diffused over a system of refined and mystic Rationalism. 
 It is not a leaven of contentious controversy fermenting 
 with the pride of opinion; it is the Word of Life calling 
 for the work of faith, the labour of love — a discipline of 
 sustained conflict with many a foe, sustained throughout 
 in humble dependence on Him who worketh for us, on 
 Him who worketh with us, on Him w 7 ho worketh in us, 
 and therefore tells us to do all our duties heartily as unto 
 Him and not to men. 
 
 He who has made labour a law of our being, and allotted 
 to us periodic and daily rest for the cultivation of our 
 minds and hearts, and has provided a time of repose for 
 refreshing and restoring our wearied or exhausted nature, 
 has again and again urged upon us to be diligent in duty, 
 encouraged us not to be weary in well doing, and assured 
 us that in keeping His commandments there is great 
 reward. What cheering comfort is there here for all who 
 are engaged in daily toil and labour, to be assured whilst 
 doing it heartily and diligently, regarding it as a duty 
 divinely imposed by Him who is Himself touched with a 
 feeling of our infirmities, that He has provided that we 
 may so perform the daily service allotted to us, with such 
 motives and with such a spirit, that the lowliest toil may 
 be elevated into a work of faith — a labour that shall not 
 be in vain for the moral and immortal being. The body 
 requires wholesome and sufficient nourishment, regular 
 exercise, and reasonable repose; so does the mind, so does 
 the moral and the spiritual nature. If (as I have endea- 
 voured to show you) the hours of labour may be, and 
 should be, made hours of moral discipline by the perform- 
 ance of daily duty, under the sanctions and with the 
 motives which Christianity only can supply, the period of 
 rest, like the bird of the prophet, may become a messenger 
 
LABOUR AND REST. 
 
 47 
 
 with food from heaven. Let us use it for the instruction 
 of our minds and of our hearts, in the diligent acquisition 
 of useful knowledge, and the cultivation of that moral 
 thoughtfulness which, under the Divine blessing, reminds 
 the man of prayer that he must also be the man of per- 
 formance. Labour and rest are harmonized, when both are 
 thus hallowed. 
 
 In the great work of Bishop Butler, “ The Analogy of 
 Religion, Natural and Revealed to the Constitution and 
 Course of Nature,” there is a chapter in which this all- 
 important consideration of the course and purpose of our 
 daily life is discussed with a power singularly impressive. 
 We are capable of great moral improvement by the disci- 
 pline of daily duty. This discipline is vital to us ; it is of 
 God’s special appointment. Our moral nature is governed 
 by the acknowledged law of habit, and the Word of God 
 reveals how the restorative system of redeeming love is 
 intended to act upon this nature, and by the agency of 
 this, its leading law. Nor do I know a subject more solemn 
 than this, that immortal beings, placed here in Gods world 
 as His responsible creatures, and destined fora life through- 
 out eternity, that we are daily, nay, hourly, moulding and 
 fashioning, by slow, repeated strokes, an undying per- 
 sonality. Each touch may be scarcely perceptible, but the 
 result is, a permanent and enduring character. The pro- 
 found but cautious Bishop has observed— “ Neither our in- 
 tellectual powers, nor our bodily strength, can be improved 
 beyond such a degree, and both may be over-wrought. 
 Possibly,” he adds, “ there may be somewhat analogous to 
 this, with respect to the moral character, which is scarce 
 worth considering.” And yet, with all deference to this 
 great authority, I think it is worth considering, and not 
 without a real importance. For if we take analogy to 
 instruct us, we find that, according to the ordinary course 
 
48 
 
 LABOUR AND REST. 
 
 of God’s laws, all growth is gradual and continuous, with 
 its appointed seasons and its proper limits — that from the 
 seed sown until the corn reaped, there is sometimes an 
 unseen, but always a seasonable and a living, progress unto 
 perfection. If we neglect to satisfy the wants of the body 
 at the proper time, we may not only render it unable sub- 
 sequently to digest an extra supply of food, but we derange 
 and weaken its functions by the excess and the delay ; if 
 we neglect seasonably to cultivate the mind, we may 
 injure its capability by the process of tardy cramming; if 
 we pretermit the early opportunity in youth of forming 
 the habits which are designed to be the elements of the 
 moral character of maturer years, we cannot, by the excess 
 of effort, adequately compensate for the neglect of means 
 and opportunities, by the use of which, under God’s gra- 
 cious blessing, our moral nature might have gradually 
 arrived at a robust and healthy manhood. 
 
 It is thus that, from ignorance continued, or the neglected 
 opportunities of earlier life, when some are overtaken by 
 the sudden conviction of solemn responsibility and con- 
 scious shortcoming, and shudder at the awful gloom with 
 which they find themselves surrounded, the awakened con- 
 science seeks a refuge too often in some form of fanaticism 
 altogether delusive; the impulses of credulity or of emotion, 
 the excitement of the passing hour, are then substituted 
 for the appointed discipline of many neglected years. 
 Earnestly let me press upon the young men of this Asso- 
 ciation the Apostolic injunction — be sober-minded, culti- 
 vate a spirit of moderation, be temperate in all things. 
 God has meted out to each the gifts of His grace and 
 bounty, according to His own Sovereign will ; and if ne- 
 glected opportunity is found to deprive any of aught that 
 earlier faithfulness might have realized, let this at least ad- 
 monish you how deeply you are now interested in remem- 
 
LABOUR AND REST. 
 
 49 
 
 bering your Creator in the days of your youth. I speak 
 not of what God might do ; I presume not to limit His 
 power or His mercy ; but I remind you of the duties which 
 it is your wisdom and your safety to fulfil, with reverence 
 and godly fear. There seems to be a limit beyond which 
 we cannot at any time push on our progress, physical, 
 mental, moral, or spiritual, by any amount of human 
 effort. God has provided for our instruction the book of 
 creation — our own human nature and the Word of Revealed 
 Truth as the key of the Divine cypher. Science, Art, 
 Philosophy, Religion, scatter around us teeming truths, 
 to be gathered with diligence, but with humility and gra- 
 titude. Our whole nature should be cultivated — the health 
 of the body, by temperance, cleanliness, regularity; the 
 mind by reading and conference ; the moral nature by the 
 study of the Divine law, and the active discipline of virtue ; 
 the spiritual nature by faith and prayer, by public worship 
 and private devotion. The Rationalist allows the head to 
 assume a despotic supremacy; the Emotionalist (as I may 
 call him) exhausts every virtuous feeling in mere passive 
 impressions ; the fanatic riots in the excess of spiritual dis- 
 sipation ; the heartless moralist is only concerned with out- 
 ward and occasional acts of duty. 
 
 Beware of the half-truths which are whole errors ; beware 
 of the self-deception of any transient impressions. The pure 
 and peaceable system of saving truth, as it is revealed in the 
 
 Gospel of Christ — without partiality — without hypocrisy 
 
 is full of good fruits. It appeals to the entire nature ; it 
 seeks to redeem and consecrate the faculties and powers in 
 every department of that nature to the glory of God and 
 the good of man. To be consecrated, they should be culti- 
 vated, according to the opportunity which may be gracious- 
 ly afforded, and without impairing the relative strength in 
 which God has Himself conferred them. 
 
 D 
 
50 
 
 LABOUR AND REST. 
 
 Life is, indeed, as you cannot fail to perceive, if you at 
 all reflect upon it, a solemn institution. In the busy hum 
 and restless activity around us, we may seldom realise the 
 extent of the responsibility under which we daily live, and 
 from which there can be no escape. For there it is; it is 
 of God ; He has so willed it. Man cannot displace it. The 
 lot of some is so ordered as to brighten life with much of 
 sunshine ; to others, it is, indeed, but a weary journey of trial 
 in a world of sin and sorrow. Shadows, clouds, and dark- 
 ness rest upon it. In the great treatise of Bishop Jeremy 
 Taylor on “ Holy Dying,” there is a passage which Cole- 
 ridge pronounces to he among the most sublime passages in 
 English literature : — “ He that is no fool, but can consider 
 wisely, if he be in love with this world, we need not despair 
 but that a witty man might reconcile him with tortures, and 
 make him think charitably of the rack, and he brought to 
 admire the harmony that is made by a herd of evening 
 wolves, when they miss their draught of blood in their mid- 
 night revels. The groans of a- man in a fit of the stone are 
 worse than all these ; and the distractions of a troubled con- 
 science are worse than these groans; and yet a careless, 
 merry sinner is worse than all that. But if we could, from 
 one of the battlements of heaven, espy how many men and 
 women at this time be fainting and dying for want of bread. 
 — how many young men are hewn down by the sword of 
 
 ■war how many poor orphans are now weeping over the 
 
 graves of their fathers, by whose life they were entitled to 
 eat ; if we could hear how many mariners and passengers 
 are at this present in a storm, and shriek out because their 
 keel dashes against a rock, or bulges under them; how 
 many people there are that weep with want, and are mad 
 with oppression, or are desperate by a too quick sense of 
 constant infelicity — in all reason we should he glad to be 
 out of the noise and participation of so many evils. This is 
 
LABOUR AND REST. 
 
 51 
 
 a place of sorrows and tears, of great evils and constant cala- 
 mities ; let us remove hence, at least in affections and pre- 
 parations of mind.” 
 
 These sublime and solemn reflections of that eminent ser- 
 vant of God were brought powerfully before my mind 
 within a few weeks past. 
 
 On the 26th of October last, at a banquet in Edinburgh, 
 given to Lord Brougham by a large number of admiring 
 and attached friends who delighted to honour him, when, 
 touched evidently by their generous kindness, by the influ- 
 ence of local associations and the memories of earlier days, 
 he adopted the words of Paley— “ After all, this is a happy 
 world.” On this occasion, at the time he thus spake, he 
 was, doubtless, a happy man. Let the scene be shifted 
 back a few hours only, to the morning of that same memo- 
 rable day. The “Royal Charter” is then before us — is in 
 her terrible struggle with the ruthless elements. Hear 
 that shriek of agony— that wail of woe and despair — that 
 pierces the howling of the furious tempest, and rushes 
 through the roar of the raging ocean ! — see the noble ship 
 smashed and shivered like a potters vessel !— behold the 
 wife swept by the billows from the arms of the husband ! — 
 the children heaved from the father’s fond embrace, where 
 all had clung together in the last sad hope, that in death 
 they should not be divided ! — look at the hundreds of hu- 
 man beings, swallowed in a moment by the yawning ocean, 
 and hurriedly landed in eternity ! — 
 
 “ God moves in a mysterious way. 
 
 His wonders to perform ; 
 
 He plants His footsteps in the sea. 
 
 And rides upon the storm.” 
 
 Dark and impenetrable mystery ! — if this'life be the limit 
 of our hopes, or this world be the sphere of our happiness. 
 
52 LABOUR AND REST. 
 
 But this is not our rest. A rest remaineth — rest for the 
 wayfaring pilgrim — rest for the tempest-tossed voyager — a 
 refuge from the sufferings and the sorrows, from the toils 
 and the trials of a weary world — a haven and a home in 
 heaven, where the last tear shall be wiped away, and the 
 last enemy destroyed for ever. 
 
 This is not our rest — 
 
 “ Poor wanderers of a stormy day, 
 
 From wave to wave we’re driven ; 
 
 And" Fancy’s flash and Reason’s ray 
 Serve but to light the troubled way — 
 
 There’s nothing calm but heaven.” 
 
 Blessed be God, this heavenly rest remaineth. The mys- 
 tery of earth melts into the mercy of Heaven, as we view it 
 from this altered stand-point. 
 
 Labour, then, to enter into that rest. Strive to enter in, 
 for so has God pressed upon and plied us, with earnest so- 
 licitude, in His solemn and gracious injunctions. The same 
 Gospel which, as a rule of faith, excludes all boasting, all 
 assumption of merit on the part of man, as a rule of life en- 
 joins and encourages the most faithful discharge of life’s 
 sacred and social duties. But the reward is of grace, not 
 of debt— in, not for, keeping His commandments— accord- 
 ing to, not on account of, works ; and even this is accom- 
 panied by the Divine assurance, that it is the remembrance 
 of mercy, it could not be the claim of merit. 
 
 With all this allowance, it seems not the less true, that 
 by faithful diligence in our daily life; by earnest, prayer- 
 ful, persevering discipline of our hearts and spirits; by the 
 use of means available, and the enjoyment of privileges 
 provided ; by work and labour— the work of faith and the 
 labour of love ; — we will walk m the plain path appointed 
 and prepared for the pilgrim’s progress to his heavenly 
 
LABOUR AND REST. 
 
 53 
 
 rest. It may be gladdened with gleams of sunshine; it 
 may be darkened with cloud and storm ; it may be beset 
 with many a trial — with sorrow and separation, which bow 
 down the head and sadden the afflicted and affectionate 
 heart ; it may be strewed with mercies and benefits ; — all 
 these are but the incidents of the journey. The path of 
 progress remains unaltered; the journey is still onwards 
 and upwards to a Father’s home. 
 
 How vital is this devotedness to duty, if you, the young 
 men of this Christian Association, resolve to realise your 
 vested rights. You meet together under a compact, compre- 
 hensive as the Gospel of Christ. In the unity of profession 
 there may sometimes be but a bond of hypocrisy ; in the 
 unity of blind submission, a bond of servility ; in the unity 
 of the Spirit there is the bond of peace and righteousness 
 of life. Whatever be the character of your Church or 
 creed, this at least is certain, that the faith that works not 
 by love is not the true faith of a Christian. Let no root 
 of bitterness, no element of division, nothing that is not 
 sanctioned by a spirit of sober-mindedness, and invested 
 with a Scriptural catholicity, find place here amongst you. 
 Honour all men ; love the brotherhood. Fear God ; ho- 
 nour the Queen. Let me impress upon you earnestly the 
 duty, the wisdom, of cultivating habitual diligence and 
 moral thoughtfulness, in the early period of life. “ Faith,” 
 says the great French philosopher, u is a pure grace in 
 every sense ; but the understanding of a truth is a grace 
 of such a character, that it must be merited by labour, or 
 by the co-operation of grace. Those, then, who are ca- 
 pable of this labour, and who are always attentive to the 
 truth which ought to guide them, have a disposition which 
 would undoubtedly deserve a name more magnificent than 
 those bestowed on the most splendid virtues. May I be 
 pardoned for calling it by the equivocal name of force of 
 
54 
 
 LABOUR AND REST. 
 
 intellect ? To acquire this true force by which the intellect 
 supports the labour of attention, it is necessary to begin 
 betimes to labour ; for in the course of nature we can only 
 acquire habits by acts, and can only strengthen them by 
 exercise. But, perhaps, the only difficulty is to begin. 
 Without the labour of attention, we shall never com- 
 prehend the grandeur of religion, the sanctity of morals, 
 the littleness of all that is not God, the absurdity of the 
 passions, and all our internal miseries. Without this la- 
 bour, the soul will live in blindness and disorder, because 
 there is naturally no other way to obtain the light that 
 should conduct us. We shall be always under disquietude 
 and strange embarrassment ; for we fear everything when 
 we walk in darkness, surrounded by prejudices. It is true 
 that faith guides and supports, but it does so only as it 
 produces some light by the attention which it excites in 
 us; for light alone is what can assure minds like ours, 
 which have so many enemies to fear.” 
 
 We live in eventful times ; the shadows of evening 
 gather and deepen around us. The creation is supposed 
 to have been a type of the great week of the world, which, 
 it has been said, is to consist of 6,000 years, and then cul- 
 minate in a great sabbath of millennial rest. The leading 
 newspaper of England, on the 3rd of this present Novem- 
 ber, in a powerful article, well calculated to awaken and 
 arrest solemn attention, upholds the exposition of the pro- 
 phetic Scriptures, which makes the lines of prophecy, as 
 to the close of this era of the world, converge towards a 
 point, and meet at a time, removed only by a very few 
 years from the present period. 
 
 The inferences of the wisest and ablest students of the 
 prophetic Scriptures are fortified by the great facts of 
 national life, as observed and recorded by historian and 
 politician. The present realities are singularly instructive. 
 
LABOUR AND REST, 
 
 55 
 
 “ No man,” says the Times , “ whether he accepts these 
 prophetic interpretations or not, can fail to mark the 
 stormy nature of the political sky, or to expect from 
 existing complications some gigantic outburst. Every 
 Cabinet in Europe is agitated. Every king has his hand 
 on his sword-belt. Statesmen’s hearts literally fail them 
 for fear of the things coming on the earth at the present 
 hour.” Let not your hearts be troubled. Be watchful, 
 redeeming the time. In faith and patience, wait for the 
 appointed period of rest. Your work is a glorious occu- 
 pation. In a public lecture, delivered by Professor Owen, 
 a profound philosopher and a true-hearted Christian, this 
 work of the Christian has been described with a purity 
 and depth of feeling, a power and a sincerity, seldom if 
 ever surpassed— “ Your bodies are temples of the Holy 
 Ghost, entrusted by your Heavenly Father to your care, 
 to be furnished and adorned with all the fruit of the 
 Spirit — love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, good- 
 ness, faith, meekness, temperance. It is a glorious occupa- 
 tion, and one which will abundantly repay you for all the 
 trouble and care you bestow upon them.” 
 
 The illustrious Bacon, in the gloom and solitude of his 
 retirement, under cloud, sustained his mighty spirit by the 
 prospect of a posthumous fame, looking (as he said) to 
 succeeding times to do justice to his memory, and appre- 
 ciate the genuine merit of his labours. This parent of 
 modern philosophy styled himself the servant of posterity, 
 as significant of the hope that thus upheld him. Thou, 
 believer, however lowly thy humble lot on earth — thou art 
 no more a servant, but a son — an heir of immortality. 
 Thy work of faith shall survive succeeding times; thy 
 labour of love endure when time itself shall be no more. 
 Thou shalt rest from thy labours, but thy works shall 
 follow thee. For this the Father gave His well-beloved 
 
56 
 
 LABOUR 
 
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 Son ; for this the Son of God died upon Calvary ; for this 
 the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, descended from above to 
 dwell in human hearts — to purify and to perfect every 
 work in Him begun, continued, and ended — from the 
 early dawn of faith in the child of God, until the parting 
 ray of hope melts into the assuring smiles of heaven, as 
 he sinks into his everlasting rest. 
 
 (( Help with Thy grace, through life’s short day. 
 Our upward and our downward way ; 
 
 And glorify for us the West, 
 
 When we shall sink to final rest.” 
 
 THE END. 
 
 * 
 
 Dublin : Printed by George Drought, 6, Bachelor’s- walk.