can be no doubt a united voice in favor of it would have been given; for this resolution, in spirit, is decidedly against the law and the practice which desecrate holy time. And here we have the voice of an Assembly which represents at least eight or ten hundred thousand of our fellow-citizens.

And one of the last Assemblies of the same church, convened at Philadelphia, in the report of their committee on the subject of Sabbath desecration, say: "Having done this, the next step will be to lift up a united voice against all that immoral and oppressive legislation, behind which the sin of Sabbath-breaking now stands securely intrenched. What has been found true in the temperance reform will be found true in the Sabbath reform. The sanction of law must be removed from every evil which you would fain frown upon and exterminate."

A few individuals in that body thought they should first purify the church, but, having done this, all admitted their obligation to do what they could to obtain the repeal of the law requiring labor on the Lord's day. All believed such a law to be impious, impolitic, and unjust.

Baptist Convention.-Such sentiments as the following, presented to the Baptist Convention of Ohio, are yearly sent forth from almost all our ecclesiastical bodies:

"Resolved, That the present alarming desecration of the Christian Sabbath is a moral evil, rife alike with every danger to the church, to the civil institutions of our country, and to the world; and that this convention do most affectionately recommend and urge upon all the churches the duty of guarding, with sacred vigilance, its sanctity and moral purity."

Cleveland Presbytery.—At a session of the Presbytery of Cleveland, held April 17th, 1838, the following preamble and resolutions were adopted, and are hereby submitted for publication:

Whereas, The law of Congress, requiring Postmasters to deliver letters, papers, &c., on the Sabbath, is against the law of God, and exceedingly prejudicial to the religious interests of the community generally, as well as of those more immediately concerned; therefore,

Resolved, That it is the duty of Congress forthwith to repeal said law.

Resolved, That our delegates to the next General Assembly be instructed to do all in their power to obtain from said Assembly an expression against said law, to be forwarded to Congress. Resolved, That our clerk furnish such delegates and the editor of the Cleveland Observer with a copy of the foregoing. A true copy attested,

MYRON TRACY, Clerk.

At a meeting held at CLEVELAND, Sabbath evening, April 1, 1838, the following resolutions were read and sustained by the speakers, and all but one passed unanimously:

Resolved, That the principles of God's moral government, contained in the ten commandments, are applicable to all men, in every condition and relation of life; and that a violation of those principles is as perilous to nations as to individuals.—Rev. Mr. Tucker.

Resolved, That the Sabbath, as enjoined by the law of God, is necessary, not only to the existence and perpetuity of the Christian religion, and the success of all efforts to spread that religion through the world, but to the permanence and utility of our republican institutions.-Rev. Mr. Whiting.

Resolved, That any law, or any mode of transacting public business, which requires or involves the violation of the Sabbath, is inconsistent with the public good.--Rev. Mr. Aikin.

Resolved, That so much of the law of the United States, passed April, 1810, and re-enacted March, 1825, as requires Postmasters to deliver letters, papers, &c., on Sunday, is contrary to the law of God, and consequently detrimental to the best interests of the individuals immediately concerned; exceedingly injurious to the nation, as a public example of impiety, and ought, without delay, to be repealed.— Woolsey Wells, Esq.

Resolved, That the friends of knowledge, of virtue, of refinement, and of the peace, good order, and happiness of society, are as truly bound, in consistency with their principles, as the religious man, to exert all their influence for a strict observance of the Sabbath.-Rev. Mr. Boyden.

Resolved, That it is the duty of ministers of the Gospel, and

editors of religious newspapers, to use every effort in their appropriate spheres to promote the sanctification of the Sabbath, by showing the essential importance of its influence to the welfare of individuals and nations, and the certainty, derivable from the revealed principles of God's government, that a public and general desecration of that day must be followed by exemplary and fearful judgments.-Rev. Mr. Kinsley.

The following resolutions were read and passed without debate:

Resolved, That, in the opinion of this meeting, it is the duty of ecclesiastical bodies immediately to express to the committees on post-offices and post-roads, and through them to Congress, their unqualified disapprobation of the law requiring Postmasters to deliver letters and papers on Sunday.

Resolved, That it be recommended to all delegates who may attend meetings of such bodies, to do all in their power to procure and forward to Congress such expressions of disapprobation. SIMEON FORD, Chairman.

HENRY SEXTON, Secretary.

Opinions of Editors of Newspapers.

But one sentiment expressed by the various religious and rolitical editors, touching this law, (except in a single instance,) has reached the author. Extracts from several of them, belonging to seven different denominations, and representing the views of many hundred thousands of our best citizens, are given below. It is not probable that all which has been said on this subject has been received; but enough has been seen to justify the assertion that the readers of the religious class of publications are in favor of granting the prayer of the petition. In a word, all who consider the Sabbath essential to our religious and political prosperity seem to be in favor of the repeal of said law.

"We designed to speak on this subject in connection with noticing the petition of Harmon Kingsbury, mentioned in the following account of the proceedings of a meeting in this place on Wednesday last. Our present limits, however, forbid any thing more than the expression of our full and hearty concurrence in the action of the meeting, and our conviction that no friend of our republican institutions, resident in this county, would object

to the repeal of that part of the law specified in Mr. Kingsbury's petition, while our good citizens generally, would doubtless regard it as the imperative duty of Congress to make the repeal.”– Ohio Atlas and Elyria Advertiser.

"At a meeting of persons friendly to the religious observance of the Sabbath, at Elyria, LORAIN COUNTY, on the 14th of March, 1838, the petition of Harmon Kingsbury, of Cleveland, 'praying the repeal of that part of an act of Congress regulating the Post-office Department, which requires Postmasters to deliver letters, &c., on the Sabbath,' was read, and the object thereof unanimously approved.

Whereupon it was

"Resolved, That the law is a bad one, and ought to be repealed; and we would earnestly request our Representatives in Congress to do all in their power to effect its repeal.

"Whereas we have learned, with satisfaction, that the petition of Mr. Kingsbury has been received and submitted, in both houses of Congress, to their Standing Committees on the Postoffice, we deem it our duty to make this expression of our feelings, and very much desire that a general expression of the friends of the Sabbath might go out and reach these committees, that they may be satisfied that the law is disapproved extensively.

L. H. Loss, Secretary."

J. E. CHAPLIN, Chairman.

"We have commenced publishing to-day, Mr. Kingsbury's petition to Congress, to abolish so much of the Post-office law as requires Postmasters to deliver letters on the Sabbath. We are confident that but very few, if any, can be found among our readers who would be opposed to this measure. The request is a reasonable one, and it ought to be granted. Every consideration, both of interest and of duty, is for it."-Cleveland Observer.

"The opening of the Post-office on the Sabbath is another gross profanation of holy time; and if all our Postmasters had that regard for their souls or for the Sabbath, as a day of rest, which they ought to have, they would in a body remonstrate against this requisition. It deprives them of the relaxation which

their Maker designed for them, and which the Constitution of our General Government undoubtedly intended to secure for public men. He who trespasses upon the Sabbath, in going to the Post-office on that day for purposes of business, trespasses also upon the rights, and wounds the soul of the Postmaster. We do not see how any one can claim to be a friend of the Sabbath, and to desire that all should enjoy its blessings, who, by his own example, will sanction so gross a violation of the day."Connecticut Observer.

"The law in question, and every other requiring labor on the Sabbath day, directly contravenes the express and solemn enactment of the God of heaven. Besides, as the existing law obliges all Postmasters to labor on the Sabbath, its direct effect is to disqualify every man for that office who has scruples of conscience against the habitual performance of common labor on that day of which Jehovah has said, 'In it thou shalt do no work.'"-Auburn Banner.

"We regard the law, as it now stands, not only as a national sin, but as operating unfairly and unequally, in exacting from the officers connected with the Post-office establishment labor on the Sabbath, which is given as a day of rest to officers in the other departments. It operates injuriously, also, in preventing many conscientious men from accepting office, one of the requirements of which is to break the Sabbath, while it throws, in too many instances, important trusts into the hands of the unprincipled. May not the multiplied cases of delinquency which have occurred in this department of late years be accounted for on this principle ?"-Presbyterian.

"We believe the subject (of the repeal) is of immense importance to this entire nation. We cannot think for a moment on the dreadful judgments which the Bible informs us once fell upon other nations who disregarded the holy Sabbath without shuddering in fearful anticipation of what may yet befall our own country. And it does seem to us that the welfare of the republic, the cause of suffering humanity, and the voice of God, call for a repeal of the law above named; and we hope it will