The old is more comfortable, it is known, and the new is threatening and requires change. In 1829, Martin van Buren was the governor of New York, and he wrote the following letter to President Andrew Jackson about a matter over which he was deeply troubled. This was the letter he wrote. If canal boats are supplanted by rail, serious unemployment will result. Boat builders would suffer and towline, whip and harness makers will be left destitute.
Canal boats are absolutely essential to the defense of the United States.
In the event of the expected trouble with England, the Erie Canal would be the only means by which we could ever move the supplies so vital to waging modern war. The Almighty never intended that people should travel at such a breakneck speed. He did not have a big enough vision to see what was taking place, and he wanted to hold onto the obsolete and failed to embrace the new thing that was coming. The writer to the Hebrews warned his readers not to make the same mistake. They needed to take hold of the new thing in Christ that God was doing.