What do we find in the place of all this, in the home, and among the children of the working man who profanes the sacred hours of the Sabbath? Squalor and wretchedness force themselves upon our observation. The appearance of the house and its inmates tell, in language not to be mistaken, what would be the condition of working men, were this blessed day, with all its exalting and purifying influences, set aside. How often, on Saturday night, are the children tossed into bed unwashed and uncombed, while the mother puts their few rags of clothing in the washing-tub, and then hangs them up by the dusty hearth, that they may be dry in the morning! Even this little attention to cleanliness, partial as it is, is of some benefit, and the benefit, so far as it goes, is from the Sabbath; for, were it not for that regard to appearance, and those

ideas of decency which the public observances of the Sabbath have introduced, the skin and the clothing of the working man and his children would seldom indeed be subjected to the refreshing and purifying process of washing.

Of the truth of this, did the limits of this little essay permit, or did the time and circumstances of the writer allow of such researches, I venture to affirm that abundant evidence could be presented from the state and habits, in regard to personal cleanliness, of the labouring population of any country where the Sabbath is disregarded, as compared with the condition and habits of the same class in countries where the Sabbath is observed as a day of public assembly for religious worship; or from the habits of the lower classes of our own, or of any other country, before the introduction of the Chris

tian Sabbath, as compared with their habits in this respect, after the Sabbath has been for some time received and regarded among them, as at once a day of cessation from ordinary labour, and a season for public religious observances. And if the important influence which cleanliness has upon health and comfort be taken into account, the improvement of their habits in this respect will be allowed to be no trifling advantage resulting from the Sabbath to the labouring population.

But to return to the family where the Sabbath is not regarded as a day sacred to the worship of God: how frequently do we find the father, with his equally reckless companions, taking on Saturday evening his seat in the house of the spirit-dealer, there to waste, in the gratification of his debased and depraved appetite, his hard-earned wages!