THE SCOTCH PHARISEES’ LAST!
The subjoined specimen of Scotch Sabbatarianism is quoted from the Standard:-
“SABBATH DESECRATION IN SCOTLAND.
“At a Meeting of the Edinburgh United Presbyterian Association on Tuesday, a report was read bo the Rev. W. Reid on the subject of Sabbath Desecration. At the outset it referred to the statement which had taken place since 1858 of certain forms of Sabbath desecration, noticing specially the shutting up of the public-houses by the Forbes Mackenzie Act. It then noticed as ‘another form of Sabbath desecration which had been somewhat abated,’ the practice of burying the dead on Sundays. During the five years terminating with 1848 the interments on Sunday in Warriston Cemetery were 20-70 per cent. of the whole, while during the five years just terminated they have been only 16-36 per cent. ‘This decrease,’ continued the report, ‘while gratifying, is far from being what is desirable. While it cannot be denied that there are frequent instances in which the nature of the disease causing death, and the limited accommodation of the dwellings in which death takes place, may demand burial, even on the Sabbath, it is evident that the practice extends far beyond the limits of this necessity. The reasons which sustain the practice are doubtless the convenience of friends and relatives – in some instances, it is feared, the pride of securing a large attendance – while the solemnity of the duty commended itself to many as quite in accordance with Sabbath-day observance. It has been suggested that did ministers decline attending funerals on the Sabbath, much would be done to abate the evil.”
So, according to these Scottish wearers of the broad phylactery, it is not lawful to bury the dead on Sundays. Perhaps they would also object to healing the sick. What day of the week was it when the Children in the Wood died? If on the first, which the Scotch edition of the Fourth Commandment calls the “Sabbath,” how wold the United Presbyterians of Edinburgh have served the little warbler in the red waistcoat, the pious bird that so-
“painfully
Did cover them with leaves”?
No doubt they would have stoned Cock Robin. For the Christian service which he rendered the bodies of the innocents on the Sunday, they would unquestionably have pelted him to death on the following Monday morning. The solemnity of the act would not have commended itself to them as by any means in accordance with Sabbath-day observance, and Jack of Geneva would have broken Robin’s bones, as surely as benevolent Calvin before him burned Servetus.
Is there a pin to choose between Jack and Lord Peter? If Jack had been ruler of Rome and the Legations, would he not as effectually have made them too hot to hold him as has that big brother of his who sits upon seven hills in three hats, and wearing petticoats and white satin shoes?
Among the stupid fanatics, or hypocrites, who met to hear the shocking nonsense above quoted, there were, however, two respectable Divines. The Rev. Mr. Cooper, of Fala, protested that he could not warn his people against the practice of Sunday burial as a desecration of the Sabbath. And-
“The Rev. W. Rennie, of Dalkeith, could not subscribe to that portion of the report referring to Sunday funerals. He did not see why they should denounce as wrong Sunday funerals. He was not aware of any passage in Scripture in which this point was advanced, not was he aware that the Jews were debarred from burying their dead on the Sabbath-day. At the same time, he was desirous that the funerals on Sundays should be as few as possible. The report stated that the pride of having a large company to attend the funeral had to do with the matter. Now this was a very uncharitable view of it, as the Sunday was often the only day poor people could get for the funeral. He did not see how a burial on the Lord’s Day was a desecration. People died on the Lord’s Day as well as on any other hay of the week, and he did not see any impropriety or incongruity in a funeral on the Sabbath-day.”
The foregoing rebuke ti the dense and blind bigotry of the speaker’s Calvinistic associates is remarkable not only for wisdom, but also for wit – uncommon qualities both of them, the former equally with the latter, on the part of the Sabbatarian professors of the Kirk. Mr. Rennie neatly remarked, that “he was desirous that the funerals on Sundays should be as few as possible? To be sure, and as few, also, as possible on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays. Bravo, Rennie!
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