Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1878-02-02
THOUGHTS FOR RAILROAD
WEN.

Louisville, KY, by Rev. w. W. Hill,
D. D. =
l do not know that you number many
of the managers of railroads amongst
your readers, or if you do, that they
would be disposed to listen to anything
tha. an old man who is numbered
amongst the fossils of by gone age,
would say to them. There are some
thoughts, which have been floating
through my mind for months past, that
l will give to the public through your
columns, and trust to Providence TO put
them before the managers OF our rail-
roads l believe that God governs the
world by His providence, and that
providence extends to railroad corpora
tons, as well as to every other body OF
men. believe that when they trans
gress Gods law they must suffer the
penalty, either in this world or in the
next. AS they do not 60 into the other
world as corporations,b but as individuals;
if they are punished as corporations, 1t
must be in this world and not in the
next.
l suppose it will be admitted by all
who believe in the binding obligation
of the fourth commandment, that the
great transgressors of that command
ment, in this country, are railroad cor
porations. They were the pioneers m
ihe species Of san. They have done
more to break down the sanctity OF the
Sabbath than all other corporations
combined. They not only sin them
selves, in that regard, but they force all
who are in their employment to sin also.
Some of their employees have told me,
with tears in their eyes, that they were
becoming heathenized by being cut off
from all opportunities of attending upon
the public worship of Gods house on
the Sabbath, and from all those ameli-
Grating influences which follow in the
train of church going. There are, to
day. more than hundred thousand men
in the United States, who virtually have
no Sabbath, and are cut off from the
preaching of Gods blessed gospel, by
the forcing them to run on the Sabbath
by railroad corporators, or to lose their
places.
The first effect of this state of things
is to force conscientious Christian men
out Of their employment, and the next,
aud still worse effect, is to make the
men who are willing TO work on the
Sabbath for them, still more reckless by
shutting them off entirely from the
restraining influences of Christianity
Never entering church, or hearing u
sermon, they become notoriously pro-
fame and grossly vicious, except in those
cases where their previous education
and training exert restraining In
fuence upon them.
A railroad man said to me, not long
since, that he himself was the only man
that he knew, among all the employees
of one of the largest roads in the coun-
try, who did not swear profanely at
times. He said "We never can go to
church if we want to do so, aud We
soon loose all desire to go, and the re-
suit is that we are set of heathen III
a Christian country" l said, "Why do
you not quit your place and become a
Christian and go to church? He re-
piled, II have a family and / must sup
port them, aud nothing else opens to me
by which | can do it. The men that
make me work on the Sabbath or starye
my family, are the men who will have to
answer for the sin aud not lie" tried
10 show him he had responsibility as
well as they; but l could not resist the
thought that he had better plea for
Sabbath breaking than any man | had
ever encountered. Railroad men, how
can you resist the thought that the
blood of thousands of immortal souls
whom you cut off in this way from the
benefits of the gospel, will be on your
skirts, in the day OF final reckoningi
But l said corporations. must be
punished in this world or not at all.
They 60 into eternity not as corpora
tions but as individuals. / ask your al
tentiou to few facts, Of which you
perhaps have never thought. The
losses occasioned by the late railroad
riots have been variously estimated at
from ten to fifty millions of dollars:
would not that seem to weigh down all
the protilr of all your Sabbath running?
Suppose that all your employees had
been conscientious keepers of Gods
holy day, humble, faithful Christians,
could those riots have ever occurred? L
assert that they would not. You first
made your men reckless, by forcing
them TO torsake our churches and all
the restraints of the Christian religion,
and then you wonder that they become
reckless in the destruction Of your pro-
perty. You taught them to break the
fourth commandment and they soon
learned to break the eighth. .-
Be sure your sin has found you ont.
There is a providence in this thing as
sure as there is a God who rules in the
affairs of men. The mill Of God ground
slowly but it ground surely. The pun
ishment which came upon you was
precisely adapted to the sin. You vio-
lated Gods Law, for The sake Of money,
and He sent the punishment by sweep
ing away in few days the accumula-
tions of the hundreds of his Sabbath.
that you had broken aud caused others
to break.
The Christian public have an interest
in this matter ss well as you. We are
forced to ride upon your roads or stay
at home. We must send our produce
hy ,ba,, or do x,ithOut II We want