CHAPTER VII.

APPEAL IN BEHALF OF THE SABBATH.

THERE are agents and periodicals to plead the cause of Bibles, Missions, Tracts, Education, Temperance, SabbatlıSchools, Colonization, Abolition, Peace, Purity, &c.; but where is the voice and where are the agents who plead the cause of the Sabbath, to which every good object owes its existence and support?

That such a day has been appointed for our observance, few if any sincere believers in divine revelation will deny; and that there are most weighty reasons why we should observe it, cannot be doubted, if we admit that God has a right to command us, and that we should love our neighbor as ourselves. It would seem impossible for any man of common intelligence and moral honesty, to look back upon the history of our world, view the different conditions of the nations and people who have loved the Sabbath, and those who have not, without being convinced not only of its utility but of the absolute necessity of such an institution, in order to our comfort and highest prosperity.

In the language of Dr. Bangs, "I hold it to be an obvious and certain truth, that the chief means of forming men to a good character, is the due observance of a Christian Sabbath; and that without this all other means will fail. * * * While, on the other hand, every man who neglects to remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy, shows himself an enemy to the best interests of his country. He stands guilty of casting contempt upon the most effectual means which infinite wisdom has provided for curing the madness of the passions, for checking vice, and preparing the human family for that quiet, pure and rational enjoyment, of which they are capable."

The Sabbath was one of the two sacred institutions of Paradise, which shows its importance in the divine arrangement, as

The first entire day

Adam was then in

well as its necessity for the benefit of man. of man's existence was kept as a Sabbath. his innocence; but he needed this holy rest, for the benefit of his soul. He had not been doomed to earn his bread by the sweat of his brow. Still he needed a day of rest, for the benefit of his body.

The fact that God commanded, not only that man and his household, but the beast, which toils for his benefit, should rest one day in seven, and "be refreshed," shows that our animal nature is so constituted as to need more rest than can be enjoyed during the night season. In some countries there is little, in others, no night, for a long time. There, certainly, the poor laboring man and beast need the rest of the Sabbath. Even in this country, highly favored as we are in the division of our time, it is seen that the man who "remembers the Sabbath day to keep it holy," enjoys better health in body and mind, than the man who violates the law of his Maker. The horse or the ox, not allowed to rest one day in seven, cannot, in his natural life, accomplish as much labor as the one which is allowed to rest according to the divine command. For why should the rest of one day in seven be required for them, if the hours of the night are sufficient to refresh them? It will not be pretended that they need the seventh day rest, to be improved either for intellectual or moral purposes.

To toil on, regardless of this arrangement, shortens life and disqualifies us for vigorous action; we lose property by it, produce more suffering, and incur the divine displeasure. God knew what was best for man and beast; and if we attempt to counteract the laws of our nature which he has ordained, and contemn his authority, we shall suffer the misery and the loss which such folly and presumption must unavoidably bring upon us.

To desecrate the Sabbath, then, is to invite temporal losses and sufferings, and expose the transgressor to everlasting perdition. The man who dares profane the Sabbath is sinning against his own soul and body-against the soul and body of his fellow man-against the creatures God has made, and against God himself, who will hold him accountable for all the evil he may occasion.

MINISTERS OF THE GOSPE

We appeal to the watchmen standing upon the walls of Zion. To you, reverend and respected brethren, is committed the care of the Christian Church. You are to watch for souls. Christ's kingdom has been set up in the world, and you are to see that it is established in every land. Every encouraging circumstance, in the providence of God, that will aid this cause, you are to seize on with avidity, and apply with untiring perseverance. Every movement of the enemy, against this holy enterprise, it is expected you will discover, and boldly, strenuously, and perservingly, oppose. Watching, as you should, with intense interest and deep solicitude, all these movements, you may be responsible for the inroads which are made upon this kingdom, as well as for the extension and ultimate triumphs of righteousness and peace.

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When good is in prospect, you are to incite to conquest; when danger threatens, you must sound the alarm. "We must address the conscience; we must be bold in our appeal to the hearts of men; we must assert all the authority and majesty of truth. The minister of religion must not shrink from his task on such a question; he must cry aloud and spare not; he must show the people of God 'their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sin." Bangs. The man who will hold his peace'when the church, or any of the sacred institutions of our religion is in danger, is incurring great guilt, and may suffer with the wicked.

There are now many evils abroad in the land. The enemy has taken the field, unsheathed his sword, and begun the work of death. His forces are strong-his attacks various-his plans wily. Your eye cannot fail to see his onward march, and the wide-spread desolations of his footsteps. Your ear must hear the groans of the wounded, and the prayer of the righteous. But, whenever there is greater danger from one source than another, you must raise your "voice like a trumpet." Has not that time arrived? A powerful, systematic, and simultaneous effort is making by the forces of the ungodly, to blot out the Christian Sabbath, and thereby, with one stroke, exterminate the whole system of revealed religion. They are not too blind

to know, that should they succeed, their most sanguine expectations will be realized.

It is an admitted fact, that while righteousness exalteth a nation, "the Sabbath is the chief organ of its administration; the main-spring of all moral movements; the great centre of attraction, and fountain of illumination to the moral world."

It lies at the foundation of the, world's conversion unto God. For of what avail will it be that an atonement has been made, and a way of life proclaimed in the gospel, if we are to have no ministers of that gospel, and no day set apart on which to assemble and receive its consoling and sanctifying influences? Surely the Sabbath is the conservator of the Bible and its blessed privileges; and through them, the palladium of our liberties.

Who of you, in your sacred employments, would long survive the obliteration of the Sabbath? How long would it be, before our churches would be demolished, or consecrated to the service of Baal? How long before Christian assemblies would be known only in the history of ages gone by? How long before we, or our descendants, like the heathen philosophers of old, the barbarous Arab, the besotted Hottentot, should be groping our way to the grave, beyond which, all would be "dark uncertainty?" How long before we, or those who come after us, should fall down before a Juggernaut-sacrifice to devils-offer upon a bloody altar human sacrifices-roll in filth and wallow in pollution-settle down in ignorance, and forget that we were once elevated almost to heaven in privileges; but now are fallen, because we remembered not "the Sabbath day to keep it holy?"

Is there no reason to fear that the Sabbath will be blotted out, and that all these evils will come upon us? Let us for a moment look at facts, and then answer this important question.

Many of your number violate the sacredness of this day by travelling from parish to parish, or by journeys on canals, in stages, steam-boats, and cars. Oh, if the watchmén continue to add their example to encourage this sin, where will the evil end?

There are hundreds and thousands in our land, professors of the religion of Jesus Christ, who have covenanted to keep his commandments, and yet are often guilty of breaking the fourth,

by travelling, by unnecessary labor and worldly conversation. Such cases are far more numerous than many are aware of. Professing Christians also hold stock, and some even are directors, in Sabbath-breaking establishments. Others of them go or send to the Post-office, indulge in secular reading, keep a man to distribute milk on that, as well as on other days of the week. While this state of things exists in the church, have we not reason to fear that the sin will continue and increase, till the Sabbath is forgotten, or remembered only as a day of amusement and dissipation?

Our NATIONAL LEGISLATURE does not suitably regard the Sabbath, but constantly and impiously causes it to be profaned, and encourages in its profanation not less than sixty or eighty thousand of her constituents, including those employed in the Post-office departments, those who carry the mail, and those who visit Post-offices on that day. More than this, thousands of others quote the example of this Legislature, as a justification for travelling, boating, and almost all other kinds of Sabbathbreaking. It is high authority. From the President and the Speaker, down to the lowest officer in that assembly, with few exceptions, they desecrate this holy day; and is this the way by which we shall become that happy people whose God is the Lord? Is not this cause for alarm?

In the arrangement of our JUDICIAL PROCEEDINGS, in many of our circuits, judges and lawyers are compelled to travel from county to county on the Lord's day, or the courts are not opened in season, and the interests of the client are neglected. What would such judges do with the man who should be arraigned for contempt of the Sabbath? Who would try him? Who would condemn him? Who would punish him? Not one. Our laws, in respect to the observance of that day, have become almost, if not altogether, a dead letter.

Our public conveyances, our transporting companies, and some of our manufacturing establishments, continue their business on the Sabbath. No man can engage in them, unless he first consents to array himself against God, help to open the flood-gates of iniquity, and deluge the world with ignorance, crime, and moral death.

But all the business of this kind, which is already very