CHAPTER VIII.

ADDRESS TO BUSINESS MEN.

In justice to business men, it ought to be said, that the practice into which many of them have fallen, of laboring on Sunday, has obtained, rather from a supposed necessity in the case, or from inconsideration, than from any preconcerted plan to abolish the Christian Sabbath.

There is much intelligence, respectability, good feeling and commendable enterprise in those whom we now address, and with them is most of the wealth and the influence of this great nation. They are men of thought, candor, and discrimination; willing and accustomed to look at subjects fairly, closely to examine and compare facts, and draw correct conclusions; we are therefore the more encouraged to address them on a subject, which should interest every citizen, of these United States.

Is it too much to say, that business men rule the nation? Their enterprise, which by railroads and canals, has, or will overcome all difficulties which nature has thrown in the way of intercourse and communication, is distinguished from that of the founders of Babel, the ancient pyramids, and the huge wall of the "celestial empire," by the wisdom and utility of its plans, and for the means, generally unexceptionable, by which they are executed. They are levelling the mountains, exalting the valleys, making railroads and canals, deepening rivers, widening, turning, and extending their channels; so that boats and vessels can already be seen, not only on the waters of the east, but also on the twenty-four thousand miles of steam-boat navigation in the valley of the Mississippi.

But there are not a few of our fellow citizens who believe that these improvements and facilities, most desirable under proper regulations, are endangering the stability of our government, annihilating among us the Christian religion, and sinking us into anarchy and despotism.

This nation, though in her infancy, is great in prospect, and mighty in resources. A few years since her territory was a wilderness-a British province and it is but as yesterday since she proclaimed her independence-entered upon an experiment of self-government, untried and doubtful. Nations look upon her, some with hope, others with fear; some with jealousy, and others with envy-all admitting, that, should this attempt fail, the last hope of banishing despotism from the world would expire. Under such circumstances, the heart of every American, proud as it may be of our invaluable privileges, civil and religious, cannot regard with indifference any thing which has a tendency to weaken and undermine, or to establish and perpetuate them. While all love our common country and her liberties, and are equally interested in their support, most it is believed are agreed in the sentiment, that a republican government can be sustained and perpetuated, only by the general diffusion of intelligence, virtue and morality.

It is said that we are an enterprising people. We rejoice that it is so. But we should beware, while wielding the destinies of a great nation, not to unite in those plans and encourage those practices, which have uniformly led other nations to ruin. We have unintentionally fallen into the evil which has been alluded to, and which calls for a remedy. It is this. In business arrangements on our great thoroughfares, little regard is had to the Sabbath, as a day of rest. All distinction between the six days of labor and the seventh day of rest seems to be vanishing away. Yet, without a Sabbath, duly observed, a people cannot long be intelligent and moral, and consequently cannot be fit subjects of self-government.

If danger is to be apprehended from this source it is important that we should all know it, and unite in devising means to remove the evil from our land. In this enterprise, the rich and poor, the statesman and patriot, the philanthropist and Christian, are interested. And where the motives of our religion cannot influence, it would seem that those of humanity could not fail to do so. For, who among us would wish to see this nation cut up into little despotic governments? Who among us so base, that he would rejoice to see her pillars totter and fall; her religion exchanged for that of the Hindoo or Mohammedan; her in

telligence and morality for the ignorance and immorality of paganism?

Its

We know it is contended by some, that the fourth command of the decalogue is not binding on us Gentiles-that the rest of the Sabbath is not necessary for the good of man, or the well-being of beasts of burden. But though we are Gentiles, and though this command, as well as the entire Bible, was originally given to the Jews, yet we claim that book as our book. blessed promises we embrace, its awful denunciations we dread. Who, that believes this volume to contain the oracles of God, can for a moment doubt, that since Paul was sent to preach the Gospel to the Gentiles all the moral precepts it contains, are as binding on us, as they are or were on the Jews; or, that if the Jews needed a Sabbath, a day of sacred rest, we need it as much? Whoever, therefore, would be encouraged by the promises, instructed by the wisdom, or admonished by the threatenings of the Bible, must accept it as the will of God to fallen man, all men, and obey its injunctions. This book calls upon men, to "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy,"-assuring them that in so doing, they shall be blessed, but that refusing, God will come out in judgment against them.

We stand on common ground, and have a common interest. Let us, therefore, candidly and impartially examine this subject, and see whether there is any danger to be apprehended from the present system of doing business on the Lord's day. And in the prosecution of our inquiries, all our information must be derived from two sources, viz. the word of God, and well authenticated facts.

I.-WHAT DOES THE WORD OF GOD SAY?

As to this inquiry, if we find that labor is forbidden on the Sabbath, that evils are threatened against the transgressor of the fourth commandment, and have been inflicted in consequence of its violation, then we must naturally infer, that it is not only criminal, but dangerous, to engage in any secular business on that day. From the following passages it will be seen, that God has required men to keep the Sabbath ;—and that judgments for disobedience have not only been threatened, but actually inflicted.

LABOR FORBIDDEN ON THE SABBATH.

The fourth commandment, Ex. xx. 8-10, is explicit; "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work: but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates."

Ex. xxxi. 14. "Ye shall keep the Sabbath, therefore, for it is holy unto you: every one that defileth it shall surely be put to death for whosoever doeth any work therein, that soul shall be cut off from among his people." Then in verse 15, of the same chapter, "Six days may work be done; but in the seventh is the Sabbath of rest, holy to the Lord; whosoever doeth any work on the Sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death." In Lev. xxiii. 3, we read, "Six days shall work be done; but the seventh day is the Sabbath of rest, an holy convocation; ye shall do no work therein." In Lev. xix. 30, we find, "Ye shall keep my Sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary: I am the Lord." The same occurs Lev. xxvi. 2. Deut. v. 12-21, is a recapitulation of the fourth commandment, nearly verbatim, with additional reasons why the children of Israel should keep the Sabbath. Ex. xxiii. 12, "Six days thou shalt do thy work, and on the seventh day thou shalt rest; that thine ox and thine ass may rest; and the son of thy handmaid and the stranger may be refreshed." Ex, xxxiv. 21: "Six days thou shalt work; but on the seventh day thou shalt rest; in earing time and in harvest thou shalt rest."

EVILS THREATENED AND INFLICTED.

In Ex. xxxv. 2, like xxxi. 15, before quoted, is found a command to keep the Sabbath, on pain of death. And in Numb. xv. 32-36, we have a case of violation of the law, and of the infliction of the penalty. In verse 32, we have the crime: While the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man that gathered sticks upon the Sabbath day. In verse 36, the punishment is recorded as follows: "All the congregation brought him without the camp, and stoned him with stones, and he died; as

the Lord commanded Moses." In Ezek. xx. 13, God, by his prophet, says of Israel, "and my Sabbaths they greatly polluted: then I said, I would pour out my fury upon them, in the wilderness, to consume them,"-and they were consumed accordingly. God, by Moses, Lev. xxvi. 33-35, after having pronounced other curses on them, if they should refuse to do his commandments, adds, "And I will scatter you among the heathen, and will draw out a sword after you, and your land shall be desolate, and your cities waste. Then shall the land enjoy her Sabbaths. As long as it lieth desolate, and ye be in your enemies' land, even then shall the land rest, and enjoy her Sabbaths. As long as it lieth desolate, it shall rest; because it did not rest in your Sabbaths, when ye dwelt upon it." Read the whole of this chapter. Hundreds of years after this threatening, when the iniquity of the people was almost full, God said to them, by Jeremiah, chap. xvii. 27, "But if ye will not hearken unto me, to hallow the Sabbath day, and not to bear a burden, even entering in at the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day, then will I kindle a fire in the gates thereof, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and it shall not be quenched." We find these prophecies, awful as they were, literally fulfilled upon this ungrateful and wicked people, as recorded, 2 Kings XXV., and in 2 Chron. xxxvi., and in Jer. lii. "The king of the Chaldees," we are told, "had no compassion upon young man or maiden, old man, or him that stooped for age; he [God] gave them all into his hand." "And they burnt the house of God, and brake down the wall of Jerusalem, and burnt all the palaces thereof with fire, and destroyed all the goodly vessels thereof. And them that had escaped from the sword carried he away to Babylon, where they were servants to him and his sons." "To fulfil the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her Sabbath: for as long as she lay desolate she kept Sabbath, to fulfill threescore and ten years."

To Ezekiel, during the captivity, God said of Jerusalem, "Thou hast despised mine holy things, and hast profaned my Sabbaths." "Her priests have violated my law, and have profaned mine holy things: they have put no difference between the holy and profane, neither have they showed difference between the unclean and the clean, and have hid their eyes from my Sabbaths, and I am profaned among them." After enumerating