But in truth this plea is the subterfuge of eager covetousness. While we honour the character and labours of many Christian philanthropists among our merchants and men of business, it cannot be denied that this is a mammon-getting age, and that it is culpably careless of the poor. We desire and plead for fresh air and relaxation for the poor. But it is not by this new plan they can be rightfully secured. Let us see the poor man’s home made comfortable and cleanly; let us cheer on the philanthropic labours of Sabbath-schools, Ragged-schools, and City missions; let us have our workmen’s wages paid on _Friday_, and not at public-houses; and (as was once the case in Scotland, under the sanction alike of custom and of law) let labour cease early on Saturday afternoon. The poor man will thus have ample leisure furnished him to survey the works of nature, or the wonders of art, and breathe the fresh air. Let this be as the preparation for the Sabbath, on whose enclosure neither labour nor pleasure may intrude, because it is “holy ground.” Another plea remains to be considered. “The tendency of this exhibition (it is said) will be to elevate and purify the mind. Art, and science, and taste, will educate and reform; they will empty the public-houses, and wean the people from gross indulgence.” Still, we say, the day is God’s, and we are not to do evil that good may come. Shut up the public houses, and they cannot be filled. Close those railways, and stop those steam-boats from plying the river, which now allure multitudes from the house of God on the Sabbath. Let us _abolish unscriptural laws_, instead of filling up the measure of our iniquity by a crowning act of guilt. “The sights of the Crystal Palace will educate and purify!” Why, when vice loses its grossness, has it necessarily lost its power? Is it true that statuary and painting, and works of art and genius, can refine and regenerate men? In their own place we despise them not. They bring honour to the great Creator, who is the source of all excellence in genius and skill. But they cannot change the heart, or quicken the conscience, or prepare for eternity. And be assured, that if the Crystal Palace be opened on the Lord’s day, and fifty or sixty thousand spectators be admitted, the nation’s morality will be undermined more surely and more rapidly than ever it was before. What though the use of spirituous liquors be strictly prohibited _within_ the grounds, facilities for obtaining drink _without_ will increase on every hand. Sunday trading will receive a fresh impetus, and the afternoon spent by tens of thousands in these excursions of pleasure, our churches will be emptied and our domestic circles broken up; while, in the train of these evils, personal demoralization will inevitably follow. In this downward career we may, ere long, descend to the position of France. There public galleries are thrown open on the Sabbath, and the multitude stands