blinded by a moral cause to those exquisite pencilings, to those unobtruded vestiges, which furnish their clearest testimony to this institute." A third writer charitably professes his readiness "to admit, in reference to this and many other duties, that it is quite a possible thing for a mind that is desirous of evading the evidence regarding it to succeed in doing so." A fourth luminary, whose knowledge obviously extends to the mind and methods of the Almighty, exclaims, "Is it not a principle of God's Word in many cases to give enough and no more—to satisfy the devout, not to overpower the uncandid?" It is of course as easy as it is immoral to argue thus; but the day is fast approaching when the most atrabilious presbyter will not venture to use such language. Let us contrast with it the utterance of a naturally sweet and wholesome mind. "Since all Jewish festivals, new moons, and Sabbaths," says the celebrated Dr. Isaac Watts, "are abolished by St. Paul's authority; since the religious observation of days in the fourteenth chapter to the Romans, in general, is represented as a matter of doubtful disputation; since the observation of the Lord's day is not built upon any express or plain institution by Christ or his apostles in the New Testament, but rather on examples and probable inferences, and on the reasons and relations of things—I can never pronounce anything hard or severe upon any fellow-Christian who maintains real piety in heart and life, though his opinion on this subject may be very different from mine." Thus through the theologian radiates the gentleman.
Up to the end of the eighteenth century the catalogue of Mr. Cox embraces three hundred and twenty volumes and publications. It is a monument of patient labor; while the remarks of the writer, which are distributed throughout the catalogue, illustrate both his intellectual penetration and his reverent cast of mind. He wrought hard and worthily with a pure and noble aim, I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Cox at Dundee in 1867, when the British Association met there, and I could then discern the earnestness with which he desired to see his countrymen relieved from the Sabbath incubus, and at the same time the moderation and care for the feelings of others with which he advocated his views. He has also given us a rapid "Sketch of the Chief Controversies about the Sabbath in the Nineteenth Century." The sketch is more compressed than the catalogue, and the changes of thought in passing from author to author, being more rapid, are more bewildering. It is to a great extent what I have already called a clatter of small-arms, mingled with the occasional discharges of mightier guns. One thing is noticeable and regrettable in these discussions, namely, the unwise and undiscriminating way in which different Sunday occupations are classed together and condemned. Bishop Blomfield, for example, seriously injures his case when he places drinking in gin-shops and sailing in steamboats in the same category. I remember some years ago standing by the Thames at Putney with my
