ous state, the nation is the most powerful, wise, and prosperous. But let these be weakened, deranged, or destroyed, by any means, and the nation is injured; and if the government cannot be sustained without them in their most perfect state, we are in danger.

No nation ever rose and prospered, in wealth, intelligence, virtue, peace, and power, without the aid of the Sabbath; and no nation ever continued long in such prosperity without its aid. If these remarks are applicable to nations generally, much more to republican governments.

Let every man, therefore, who values the Sabbath, and would remove the great evil of its desecration, earnestly and respectfully petition Congress, without delay, to repeal the law requiring labor on Sunday in the Post-office Department. Our Sab baths will never be duly observed, while that law is in force. It is an unreasonable law, an unjust law-injurious to those connected with the Post-office Department, and thousands of others; unnecessary, because a mail six days in the week, is as often as we need one, since we are required to rest from all secular cares on the Sabbath; unreasonable, because such a law, complied with, brings innumerable evils upon our land, and exposes us to the withering judgments of heaven.

They should also petition the States to prevent labor being done on their canals and railrods, on that day. For why should a State receive into its treasury money acquired by labor on Sunday? Christians will not labor for money on that day; they will not engage an individual to labor for money, and pay them on that day; and why should they suffer companies of men to labor for them? It is their duty to ask the States, to prevent it, on their roads, &c.

Legislators are bound not only to enact laws to punish offenders, but to prevent doing those things which tend to the injury of individuals, or the community. Neh. xiii. 15-22. Travelling and labor on these public thoroughfares, must therefore be prevented, before we can see the Sabbath observed.

Our nation need but look at this subject to be induced to come to the aid of a neglected and profaned Sabbath. Let us therefore present the subject to them, fully, respectfully and repeatedly; that our land may be clear from this sin, and safe from impending judgments.

Business men in this republic, are you willing, by desecrating the Sabbath, to make sure and hasten the day of terror and of death? Will you now pursue such a course as will render it necessary for your then, perhaps, orphan children and your widows, to seek shelter in lands, now heathen, where they may be more safe and secure, as Bonaparte told Lafayette it would be more for his health to retire from Paris to his estate? In your thirst for weath and influence, are you not in danger of overlooking the only means which can preserve your own happiness and safety, and that of your friends, and of this nation? If labor and amusements be continued on the Sabbath, it will be utterly impossible to prevent wickedness from overrunning the land, and anarchy from distracting the people. There is but one alternative; Sabbath profanation must cease, or our liberties and our religion are lost. We would rather be a subject of the autocrat of Russia, and dwell among the snows and frosts of Siberia, or under the rod of the veriest despot upon earth, than remain in this nation, now so highly favored, when God shall, for the sin of profaning his day, dash her in pieces "like a potter's vessel." There are already many conflicting passions and interests among us, hard to be controlled, even in this day of Christian restraint; but what will be our condition, when this restraint shall have been withdrawn, and we shall be given up, like a tempestuous ocean, to the winds and storms of intestine dissensions; wave dashing against wave, until our Union is broken, and we become our own executioners ?

What, we ask, without the principles of the Bible, the fear of a future retribution, kept alive by the influence of a Sabbath, can keep, even in this country, our property, our reputation, and our lives, from the outrages of a mob? In this state of things, is it possible that rational, intelligent men will trample under foot the only institution that can save us? Our REPUBLICAN GOVERNMENT cannot save us. That depends on the morality, intelligence, and religion which the Bible presents, through the medium of the Sabbath, as our only hope, for safety and perpetuity. So long as our religion and our Sabbaths save us, we shall save our government, and that will save us no longer.

The professional men, mechanics, and agriculturists of this nation, have formed themselves into a kind of copartnership, to

erect a mighty superstructure, whose influence shall be felt until every despot shall be dethroned, and light and life, liberty and peace, bless the entire family of man. They are brave men, republican men; and their bond of union is the Constitution of these United States. To the accomplishment of this great and desirable object, every man, and every class of men among us, owe their best services. But, if what has been said be true, then, surely, the man who wantonly desecrates the Lord's day cannot be a valuable partner in such a firm; but, on the contrary, like the gangrene, which, left to its natural tendency, produces inevitable death, will not only jeopard the dearest interests of all his partners, and reduce this nation to the condition of Pagans; but cut off the world's last hope of liberty, and doom his family and friends to worse than the kraal of the Hottentot.

We see, then, that the man who desecrates the Lord's day is injuring himself, the community, and the nation in which he lives. If he labor seven days in a week, his physical powers are weakened, and the nation loses his most vigorous bodily efforts. He impairs his intellect and corrupts his morals, and the nation loses the wisdom and salutary influence which he might otherwise have exerted on it. The man who wantonly profanes that day must necessarily lose property, injure himself, his family, his friends, his neighbors, and dishonor God. But by duly observing it, he secures his bodily and mental health, and his business is done with greater ease and more correctness. Besides, the horse and the ox, which toil for our benefit, will be in better plight to perform their task; and all around will be comfortable and happy.

We see no necessity for labor on the Sabbath. Let all business be suspended on the day of rest, and it can be done better in six days; the same price will be paid for doing it, and to the same individuals. But Sabbath-breaking leads to wretchedness here, and to perdition hereafter. By it a man loses all that is valuable in this life and in the life to come, and gains nothing but poverty, ignominy, and all the evils which can possibly be entailed on a human being.

Let us now ask business men, with the history of fallen kingdoms and lost generations, and the word of God before you, dare you live without a Sabbath? Would you blot it out if you

could? If you continue to labor on that day, and cause others to do so, you need not expect to escape the doom of other Sabbath-breakers, for that will be impossible. We infer this from well authenticated facts, corresponding exactly with the divine prediction.

Would you have your children, too, left without a day of rest? Then continue the practice of labor, carrying and opening the mail, running stages, boats and railcars; lading and unlading boats and vessels on that day, and it will most certainly be accomplished. But while you continue this practice, few spiritual blessings will descend upon the communities where it is witnessed; there will be few revivals of religion, and few inquiring the way to eternal life. What advantage can you derive from all this toil and anxiety for a little worldly good, procured at the displeasure of Him who gave you your being, and will soon call you to an account? What will compensate you, in the hour of dissolution and at the judgment, for all that you have lost by this disobedience? Nothing, nothing. Then as you value your present and everlasting happiness-the happiness of your friends and your children, and a dying world; as you value the favor of God, and the glories of immortality, we beseech you not to rest, until the present system of Sabbath profanation is entirely done away.

CHAPTER IX.

ADDRESS TO CHRISTIANS, PATRIOTS, AND PHILANTHROPISTS.

CAUSE AND EFFECT.

NATURE's laws are sovereign, and, judging from the past, will remain so. Effect must and will follow cause, now and ever, as heretofore. A man cannot have health while he indulges in luxury and dissipation, any more than he can take fire into his bosom and not be burned. If he be idle and profligate, poverty and wretchedness will ensue; if industrious, honest, and frugal, abundance and peace will be his reward. As it is with individuals, so it is with families, neighborhoods, and larger communities. If right be pursued, all will be well-if wrong, it will be ill with them.

But should it be asked, which is the best, and the safest criterion, by which wrong actions are to be tried, we answer, the BIBLE-moralists, patriots and philanthropists, say the BIBLEand infidels, deists, and atheists admit, almost universally, that there is no better or safer guide to right action, and a happy and prosperous life. They have never, themselves being judges, produced a better. It might likewise be argued, and conclusively proved from the history of past generations, that the code of morals, laid down in that Book, is the only one that can lead to happiness in this life. Were it fully conformed to, there would be heaven below-hence some of the reasons why all men should obey it.

In that code is contained the law of the SABBATH. Oneseventh of our time is required for rest and religious purposes. As the laws of the natural or physical world are inflexible, so are those of the moral world.

You cannot long have Sunday mails and civil and religious liberty.

You cannot run boats, and stages, and cars, and omnibuses, on Sunday, and have a virtuous and moral community.