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 watchmen 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

considerable, and daily increasing with the increasing number of our canals, rail-roads, steam-boats, navigable rivers, and national roads, is in the hands of those whom some of our ministers, many professing Christians, our national legistature, jurists and council, are daily encouraging in their desecration of the Sabbath. Do these things afford no just ground of alarm?

Now look upon the laboring class of the community, which is most affected by this wicked and unjust demand upon its services. Many of them are poor and ignorant-orphans-friendless. They need a day of rest-they need instruction—they need the consolations of the gospel--they need a watchman—a guide. But, alas! in the present state of public feeling, they can enjoy none of these things. The stage-driver, the coachman, the carman, the boatman, the porter, the steward, the cook, the milkman, the ostler, the washer-woman, the barber, the boot-black, and many others, must toil seven days for the wages of six. Aside from the injustice done to these ten or twelve hundred thousand immortal beings, are there no evils to be feared from their influence, scattered, as they are, over all the land, and in every school of vice, on the rising generation, and at the polls, when they, having so long been away from the care and protection of the virtuous, and deprived of their own rights, will care little for the rights and welfare of others? Oh, there is a cloud gathering, charged with indescribable calamities, and ready to burst upon this guilty nation. "I tremble," said Jefferson, "when I remember that God is just."

Look once more upon our great thoroughfares; see the thousands and hundreds of thousands of gentlemen and ladies traveling on Sunday. The boats, stages and cars, all move forward, and the crowd pass on with them. See sailors and boatmen by scores, and within a few rods of a chapel erected for their religious improvement, obliged to labor all the day, while they are famishing for the bread of life. See merchants, mechanics, and professional men, beginning to open their shops and offices; and agriculturists to cultivate their fields on Sunday; the sportsman, too, with his dog and gun in the field, and tell us, to what will these things grow, if suffered to pass unrebuked? Tell us, is there no cause of alarm?

But we will not pursue this train of thought. Watchman,

"What think you of the night? It appears to us, danger is ahead-that we hear the funeral dirge of our liberties, of our religion, and of our glory. But if you discover no such danger, can hear nothing which excites alarm, this nation will dream on in sin; its death-like slumbers can never be broken by our feeble voice; and, before the grave closes on this generation, will it not have entombed all the hopes of the philanthropist, the patriot, and the Christian? Let us now ask, What will you do? You have a voice which can be heard through this whole nation, and over all Christendom. Would you, each and all of you, now imitate the example of Nehemiah on this subject, and, like him, show to all men that you are in earnest about your Master's business-that his law must be heard, and must be obeyed, God would bless your efforts, men would hear, believe, tremble, and obey. The truth of God is mighty-wickedness cannot stand before it. The devil has not the effrontery to stand and dispute a single truth coming from a humble, bold, unoffending servant of the Most High!

If this sentiment be correct, and the desirable reformation be not effected, then where lies the guilt? In whose skirts will the blood of souls be found? The watchmen are slumbering, with the church and the world.. O, what responsibility! Sooner than occupy your place in the church, unless awake to this desolating evil, and putting forth all our energies to remove it, we would bend over the mouth of a volcano, or step into the jaws of a crocodile.

Let all the ministers of Christ now engage against this blighting upas-this hydra monster, which is rushing over our land, carrying before it all that is fair and hopeful, and we should soon witness the triumphs of the Sabbath reform, which would give a new impulse to all our moral reforms, and establish on a broader and firmer foundation, those institutions which have for their object the dissemination of truth, the comfort and elevation of the wretched, and the conversion of the world. If only ten men would take hold of this subject, as did Nehemiah, it would certainly succeed. The evil can be remedied-the deluge can and must be stayed. It is practicable-and it is safe to embark in the undertaking.

There is now no longer any doubt where the evil of Sabbath

breaking originates. It is with business-men-the merchant, the manufacturer, and the travelling gentleman. These men create the demand for stage, boat, and canal labor.

No good man, when he views this subject in its true light, it is believed, will oppose an entire cessation of worldly business on the Lord's day-although the enemy of the Bible, of his country, and of our race, may.

PRIVATE CHRISTIANS.

We appeal also to every PRIVATE Christian, high or low, rich or poor. You stand on an eminence; the world is gazing upon you; the example you set will not only tell on your own character and destiny, but on the character and destiny of unborn ages.

Perhaps you may think you will not be known as a Christian when travelling from home; and your influence will not be very deleterious. But this is a mistake. You will be known as a Christian, if you act consistently; and if you are not known in this character, you will, in all probability, be known as a hypocrite.

Professors, when travelling far from home, with little money, are in the habit of saying, "I must travel on the Sabbath; I have a family at home; I fear they are sick, and need my counsel and assistance." But, dear friends, remember, these are additional reasons why you should not disobey God. If you had what would buy you earthly friends, you might think you could do a little longer without the assistance and friendship of God. Who is it that gives you your money, your friends, and all your enjoyments? You will say, God. We ask, then, is it wise, when your means are slender, and when you most need His aid, to disobey Him, and cast Him off? But it is wise and safe, at all times, in all places, and under all circumstances, to obey God; and he tells you to "remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy."

You are bound, not only to keep the Saboath yourself, but to do all in your power to have your household, and the stranger within your gates, observe and sanctify it. Pursue the course marked out by Nehemiah. Observe with what strictness the Jews were commanded to keep holy time. Some of you have