run, ever, in fact, made any thing by laboring on Sunday.--Suppose they labor, obtain, and lay up much worldly goods, some of which are the result of Sabbath earnings, there is a worm at the core, and they will sooner or later become unfit for use, or be taken from them.

In God's dealings with the children of Israel, he doubtless had more than one object in view. While one design was to raise up a people, to whom he might make a special revelation of his mind and will, and through whom he could hand down to future generations, a knowledge of his salvation; he doubtless also intended to show the world, by his dealings with them, how he would govern and deal with other nations. As we have seen, he not only told that people, that if they profaned his Sabbaths, he would punish them, but he kept his word. While they reverenced his holy day, they were prosperous and happy, but whenever they profaned or polluted it, he sent his judgments upon them, and such judgments as no other nation ever experienced. And he told them, he thus visited them, because they had polluted his Sabbaths. And in the same general manner he has dealt with all nations since that day. Those that cast away the Sabbath, God gives up to destruction; and if we continue to desecrate that day, we shall be destroyed, and that without remedy. It cannot be otherwise. Ever since we have become a Sabbathbreaking nation, it is evident that God has had a controversy withus, just as with his ancient people. Like them, we have been warned and beaten with few stripes; then warned again, and beaten with more stripes; and we may expect some overwhelming calamity soon to fall on us, unless averted by speedy repentance, and return to duty.

II.-FACTS.

We come now to the second inquiry, viz.:

What do facts teach us to expect, in relation to this matter?

And here, let it first be observed, that this is not a state of retribution for individuals; though for some sins of individuals, God more signally punishes in this world than for others. This is believed to be true of Sabbath-breaking. There are at least certain evils which seem necessarily, and unavoidably to follow the Sabbath-breaker.

But communities must always be punished in this world. This is their only state of retribution. When individuals, or communities disregard the Sabbath, they are ready, so far as their conscience is concerned, to disregard the other laws of God; and this leads them to neglect all the means which God has given, to prevent men from committing crimes against their neighbors, their country, and their God. A voice, therefore, should now be raised on this subject, waxing louder and louder, until it shall have aroused the slumbering energies, not only of the Christian, but of every patriot and philanthropist.

Let us see what influence labor on the Sabbath has on physical powers, on moral and intellectual powers, and on men's worldly prosperity, generally. Some have supposed that what is earned on the Lord's day, is clear gain; but God says, and the best of men say, and facts prove, that this is not so.

PHYSICAL POWERS.

SIR MATTHEW HALE's experience has often been adduced in proof of the above assertion. For nearly fifty years, he had been a critical observer of men, and much conversant with business. He says, "Whenever I have undertaken any secular business on the Lord's day (which was not absolutely and indispensably necessary), that business never prospered and succeeded well with me. Always, the more closely I applied myself to the duties of the Lord's day, the more happy and successful were my business and employments, the rest of the week following."

A BUSINESS MAN many years ago was travelling by the side of one of the western lakes in a stage which made its trips but once a week. The settlement was sparse, the road bad, and there was little travel. The Sabbath came. The question with him was not, what shall I do? but others said, when he announced that he should proceed no farther, how then can you get along? Yet there was but once course for him. Long before, he had made up his mind to rest on Sunday, leaving consequences with God. The stage went on, while he remained until Monday morning, when a gentleman drove up and offered to carry him on his journey; he was well accommodated with a seat, and it proved a saving of money. Thousands can testify to similar facts. As God provided manna for two days on the

sixth, so he will take care of those who keep his commandments. As nothing was gained by retaining the manna from one day to another, except from the sixth to the seventh, so nothing will be gained by laying up the wages of unlawful labor. They will prove a curse instead of a blessing. It is always safe to obey God. When we toil on the Lord's day, we toil for nothing that can do us any good.

A GENTLEMAN acquainted twenty-five years in New York, says, that those merchants of his acquaintance who have kept their counting rooms open on Sunday have failed without an exception.

DR. SPURZHEIM says, "The cessation of labor one day in seven, contributes to the preservation of health, and to the restoration of the bodily powers."

Journeymen printers, stage-drivers, boatmen, and all classes of men who habitually labor seven days in a week, suffer much in their health and their morals.

MR. SCHOOLCRAFT, while examining the Upper Mississippi in 1830 and 1832, with twenty men, says, that they performed their tours in less time than companies usually do which travel on Sunday, though they uniformly suspended labor on that holy day. He was convinced that they gained much by resting one day in seven.

"In the WEST INDIES, slaves were required to labor six days in the week for their masters, and the seventh day for their own support. The consequence was, short life and feeble health."

Nine days' labor in France, when the seven days' week was exchanged for a ten days' week, "increased the exhaustion of man, and diminished the aggregate amount of labor."

SEVEN THOUSAND JOURNEYMEN BAKERS, of London and vicinity, have petitioned the House of Commons to be released from their burden of laboring nine hours every Sunday, after from fourteen to sixteen hours of labor on week days. From their constant employment they suffer greatly in health.

It appeared in evidence before the Sabbath Committee of Parliament in regard to each branch of business in London, that in proportion to their disregard of the Sabbath, was the wretchedness and immorality of those engaged in it. Is not the same true of this and every other country?

MR. VYSE of Birmingham, England, stated before the Sabbath Committee of the British Parliament, that he had taken one hundred and twenty horses, and nine or ten coaches off the road on Sunday, and that while his horses were allowed to rest one day in seven, he had no occasion to replenish their number in three months; but when they labored seven days in a week, he was obliged to buy every week. The same man says, he found that those persons who neglected that holy day, fell into bad habits, were led on from vice to vice, and generally ended in coming to misery and want.

The LORD BISHOP of Chester stated, before the same committee, that he once knew a man who kept his shop open on Sunday. When his minister remonstrated with him, he would reply, (though convinced of his error,) "Why, I cannot afford it; for I sell more on Sunday than all the other days of the week put together." His mind, however, changed, and he closed his shop on that day, and so kept it closed for six months. When the clergyman called on him again, and wished to know the result, he said "Sir, to tell you the truth, I have taken more money in the six months since I shut up my shop on Sunday, than I did in any one year before, since I was in business."

The REV. J. W. CUNNINGHAM, in evidence before the committee, says, he knows the result of an examination as to the quantity of work done, and the money expended in a public institution, employing more than two thousand laborers. For a certain number of years these laborers were employed on the Sabbath. After the death of the individual who presided over the institution during this arrangement, his successor determined to dispense with Sunday labor-which was done: and by a most careful examination of the amount of labor performed during the two periods, it was ascertained that more work was done in the same portion of time, when they worked but six days, than there was when they worked seven days in a week. This was imputed to two causes: in the first place, to the demoralization of the people under the first system; and in the second place, to the exhaustion of their bodily strength, which was visible to the most casual observer. The same individual says, in relation to those who desecrate the Sabbath-the worst moral, civil, and

political consequences, appear to me to follow, from the breach of the Sabbath.

Mr. THOMAS GEORGE, before the same committee, said, the following different trades in London had been canvassed by himself and others, connected with the Sabbath Protection Society, viz. :-butchers, bakers, drovers, poulterers, poultry cooks, confectioners, undertakers, publicans, ship, wagon, and coach proprietors, hairdressers, cheesemongers, grocers, chandlers, coffin-makers, watermen, bargemen, tobacconists, newsmen, printers, fishmongers, fruiterers, green-grocers; and that a vast majority of them would be delighted with a measure, provided it were general, to secure them against pecuniary loss, by a general observance of the Sabbath. One would not stop unless all did; and all felt that it was degrading for them to work on Sunday, and that they had a right to a day of rest, as well as other

men.

Mr. WILLIAM MCKECHNEY said, he had visited at least ten thousand shop-keepers of various descriptions in and about London, relative to a general cessation of all business on Sunday, and that two thirds of them were in favor of it.

A man who is not allowed to rest on Sunday, is deprived of a privilege enjoyed by others. He is injured, and feels injured by the practice. Doubtless, if every man in this nation were to have the question put to him, would you prefer to have no labor done on Sunday, nine-tenths of them would answer in the affirmative. The great difficulty now seems to be, to fix on a day when all shall stop, and to induce all to agree to it, at once. to one class to-day, and they will say, we will give up our labor on the Lord's day, if others of our occupation will; and so it is with all.

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INTELLECTUAL POWERS.

In the testimony of DR. RICHARD FARRE before the same committee, there are some most important views, relating to this subject. Dr. Farre, in the early part of his life, had been the physician of a public medical institution. He had been engaged in Great Britain, in the study and practice of medicine forty years.

This question was proposed to him, viz.: Have you

had oc