The following is extracted from the Free Church Magazine of 1853 and contains a clear, pertinent and heart-warming petition from those most adversely affected by the use of public transport on the Lord’s Day. Being inserted in the pages of the Free Church Magazine with its full support clearly demonstrates that the present Free Church position on the subject is very seriously at variance with the Reformed consensus when this issue first arose.
Sabbath Cause
Memorial of Edinburgh Cabmen
The following memorial brings out a grievance of which we have often thought with sadness. We are persuaded that a multitude of cabs are employed indiscriminately and needlessly on the day of rest; and without affirming that exceptional cases may not occur, we are thoroughly persuaded that as a general rule, persons who through the hand of God laid on them, are unable to walk to the Church, act wrongly in systematically depriving poor cabmen of that privilege; in order that they may enjoy it themselves.
‘THE MEMORIAL OF THE EDINBURGH CABMEN’S SABBATH OBSERVANCE SOCIETY, TO THE INHABITANTS OF EDINBURGH,
Humbly showeth, That your memorialists regard the Sabbath-day as a portion of time set apart by God for the distinct and special purpose of his own worship and service. That they regard any labour performed on that day, except such as can in reality and not in appearance merely, be shown to be work of necessity or mercy, as sinful, alike dishonouring to God and destructive to their own souls’ welfare.
That as a class, they consider themselves to a great extent deprived of the precious privilege of Sabbath rest, which is Heaven’s boon to all, and especially to the working man. That they are willing to attribute this deprivation in many cases to ignorance or oversight of the evil. This hardship is in many cases very great. Not a few of your memorialists, from being compelled to convey others to the house of God, have themselves been strangers there for a very long period – some for five, nine, and ten years respectively. The Sabbath to them has long since ceased to exist. And not only on themselves do the evil consequences of a profaned Sabbath fall, but on their families likewise it is manifested that a serious injury is inflicted.
That if any one under the restraint of Providence is unable to attend the means of grace without the use of a cab, they do not consider such a person justified in shifting this restraint off from himself upon another, and thus depriving his fellow-being of attendance on the worship of God, which he himself reckons such an inestimable blessing.
That, under the belief that ignorance is to some extent the cause of the continuation of the evil, your memorialists crave now your most earnest attention to the subject. By the inconsiderate or needless employment of cabs on the Sabbath much sin is committed and much hardship endured; and they therefore entreat all those who have any regard for the welfare of a large class of men, or for God’s holy law, not to employ a cab upon Sabbath without the most careful and unbiased consideration – without having satisfied themselves that their reason for doing so is of such a character as will stand the searching test of God’s law in that day when every man’s work shall be tried of what sort it is.
Signed for and on behalf of the ,Edinburgh Cabmen’s Sabbath Observance Society,, by William Smith, President.”
It is needless perhaps to say that the argument does not hold which suggests that because such godly cabmen (or bus/train/ferry operators) are now all but non-existent in our cities, that therefore the matter complained of is no sin. Neither should it be lost to view that the sin identified as being committed as a consequence of the use of cabs on the Sabbath is a hundred fold greater in degree and aggravation today compared to then as a result of the systematic operation of public transport systems on the Sabbath in our towns and cities. That ministers of the Free Church (and other professing Christian bodies in Scotland) would not only connive at this transgression but help it forward by personal use of such transport on the Sabbath and by poring contempt and scorn on those who maintain the old and honourable position expressed in this memorial is but a further exhibition of the gross and desperate nature of their slide into moderatism and apostasy.
By the way... 