others rise to respectability and happiness. The innkeeper will not complain, for while he furnishes his guest with a comfortable repast on that day, he and his family can rest, attend public worship, and on Monday, receive a fair compensation for trouble and supplies. If any class of the community complain, it will be the traveling class; for it will cost the traveler an extra tavern bill, and perhaps some will say, the loss of one day in seven. But it should be remembered that the farmer and mechanic, when they rest from their labors, lose one day in seven, if it be a loss, and why should the traveler, the boatman, and stageman, have a right to more time than the farmer and mechanic? They board their hands, and lose their labor, when laborers work for them by the month or the year, as many of them do.

But it is not right to call that day lost, when spent in its appropriate way, to prepare for heaven. Whose is the money which is demanded for the extra bill? Who gives us our time? If those who now travel and do business on that day, continue the practice, others will follow their example, until all classes of men will attend to their business on Sunday, and the Sabbath will no longer adorn our weeks, and summon the pilgrim to the temple of religious worship.

Since then, some may object to ceasing from all labor during holy time—and we know not how many-let us suppose, that half of the number mentioned above, as the mainspring of this evil, object to it; though we do not believe one quarter or even one eighth will do so, when properly enlightened. Who are these? Only disbelievers in the Bible, (and not half of their number,) the dissipated, the dissolute, the ignorant, the immoral, the uninfluential; those who do not love their country, but are bad members of society. Every enlightened, unprejudiced mind, will see that this is their character; and what is the weight of their influence, when put into the scale against the influence of those in favor of this day? What effect can the objection have, when presented to those who are now in the employment of these business men? Whose wishes will prevail, those of the man who would have the Sabbath observed, or of him who would blot it out?

Those who are now transporting our wares and merchandise,

our letters and ourselves, are men of good feeling, candor, intelligence, and discrimination; and think you, they cannot see on which side the right is; on which side lie the moral worth, the intelligence, the influence, and the wealth of their petitioners? For we would have all these business men make use of arguments, reason, and good common sense, to bring about this change, and they can prevail.

The men, thus employed, cannot stand uninterested spectators while we discuss and determine this great question; for they do know, though they may not all feel the obligation they are under to obey God, that it would be much for their interest and comfort, to rest one day in seven. Their drivers, boatmen, and runners, would be more intelligent, civil, trusty, and moral, than they are under present arrangements; and their teams would be kept in better plight, live much longer, and go more briskly. In every point of view, then, the benefits, in the minds of these men, would preponderate in favor of resting as often as the Sabbath returns; and we feel most confident they would rejoice to do it.

A word respecting our letters and packages. Let those remember who have demanded a Sunday mail, that if all business were dispensed with on that day, no other evil than a delay of one day in seven can result from it; for in that case, one man could not receive intelligence of any important business or event sooner than another. The delay cannot be a sufficient excuse for compelling thirty or forty thousand of our citizens to break the laws of God, and thereby expose themselves to eternal misery. Think for a moment of the condition of those men you thus employ, to gratify your curiosity, or add a little to your worldly gain. Most of them come to you poor, possibly are far from home, out of money, and out of employment. Perhaps they have been cradled in the lap of piety, and have covenanted to keep the Sabbath holy. But what shall they do? You want their services, and they would be glad to render them; but how can they work on Sunday, and sin against God? These remarks will apply to hundreds of thousands of others, who seek for employment in other ways, and think they cannot obtain it, without laboring on holy time. Though all of them ought to

refuse to violate the commands of God, at all times, and under all circumstances, yet the love of gain, or absolute necessity, as they think, drives them to disobey him. How dare you, for the paltry benefit you hope to derive, during your short life, take upon yourselves the responsibility of causing these little ones, these poor people, to disobey God? How dare you, for such a consideration, venture to turn these youths from the path of duty, throw around their minds the chains of ignorance, introduce them into the society of the vicious and debauched, where they will learn the vocabulary of hell, and become unfitted for usefulness in this world, because they are entirely shut out from religious privileges? Dare you go to the judgment and meet these men, who have spent their time and wasted their strength in faithfully laboring to promote your interests, while you have been laboring as effectually to deprive them of their dearest rights and brightest privileges, adapted to make them useful here, and happy hereafter? Think of it as you will, "for all these things God will bring you into judgment;" and you must then answer, not only for all the evil these men may be allowed to commit, but for the loss of all the good they otherwise might have accomplished; the blessedness they might have enjoyed, and for the evils they must suffer; and all this, for the privilege, (dear bought privilege!) of having a Sunday mail.

Let us now, in a few words, show how these merchants, traveling and business men are the mainspring of Sabbathbreaking. They go to the great commercial cities, buy goods, order them shipped in the first boat, give special orders to have them forwarded with as little delay as possible. Their goods must not lie by on Sunday. Hence the necessity, says the shipcaptain, of my labor, and the labor, on each Sunday, of all my men; and, says the boat-captain, of my labor, and the labor of my men. The goods must be shipped and unshipped: boats must be towed, warehouses must be opened, clerks must take account of the goods, receive and deliver them, locks must be tended, clearances obtained; and thus we see that the goods of these business men keep constantly at work custom-house officers, captains, sailors, boatmen, and carmen; lock-tenders, clerks in all the forwarding establishments, wagoners, draymen, and

a thousand others, while they themselves keep the stages in motion, and exact the labor of proprietors, agents, drivers, landlords, runners, mail-carriers, postmasters, porters, ostlers, coachmen, &c. &c.; for most of these, while away from home, travel on Sunday as on other days. If they do not, those who are transporting their goods, labor with their horses and cattle, and though they may be seated in the sanctuary, "worshiping God," at the same time, (strange inconsistency!) they are breaking the Sabbath by those whom they employ.

Some of those who have shipped their goods from New-York on Friday or Saturday, have gone to Albany and stopped to spend the Sabbath; and, while they were in the house of God, at the communion table, there were perhaps twenty men on the dock, taking their goods from the vessel, and putting them into canal boats; then come the teams, and they are hurried away. All this activity and bustle are witnessed, in some places, within sight of a Bethel, and the hearing of a chaplain, procured for the benefit of sailors; for these business men, these good men, cannot suffer their goods to lie by on Sunday! It cannot be that they know how much they are doing to blot out the Sabbath. Thus it is that they, though unseen, move the hands that move the merchandise and drive the stages; that play the bugle and raise the steam.

But this is not all. These men build steamboats, canal boats, stages, take mail contracts, hold stock in Sabbath-breaking establishments, and thus give their influence to increase and perpetuate this great evil. These are some of the ways in which they move the wheel that is rolling the Sabbath into oblivion, and unless they stop short in their career, it will soon have gone beyond recovery.

If, in the temperance reform, we hold distillers responsible for the mischiefs which ardent spirits occasion, which is, doubtless, right, surely, on the same principle, may we hold merchants, traveling and business gentlemen, responsible for the evils of Sabbath-breaking. If the distiller would not make intoxicating drink, drunkenness would cease; and, if these business men would not employ men to labor for them on Sunday, Sabbathbreaking, in these ways, would come to an end.

Though there are others guilty of this sin, their influence is small; and, if business men would do their duty, they would soon abandon a practice which must call down upon them, the odium and disapprobation of every good man. We verily believe, if merchants, business and traveling gentlemen, or only that part of them who know and appreciate the value of the Sabbath, would use their influence to put a stop to all business in the ways above mentioned, on the day of rest, it might be effected in less than one year. If there is so much influence now, which might be exerted on the side of the Sabbath, but is not, great will be the guilt of every delinquent.

THE POOR LABORER.

Of the poor laboring part of the community, the stage-driver, boatman, carman, sailor, coachman, porter, steward, milkman, ostler, cook, boot-black, barber, washer-woman, and, indeed, of every one who is induced, by any means, to labor on Sunday, let it be asked, Do you know of what a blessing and privilege you are deprived, and that without an adequate compensation? What do you lose, by this means, in this life? You lose the benefits of religious worship. If that is instructive, edifying, consoling, encouraging, purifying, ennobling, and refining in its influence, then this, of itself, is the loss of a greater good, than can be purchased by all the gold and silver, houses and lands, wares and merchandise, ever owned or beheld by your employers. Where there are no Sabbaths observed, nor Christian assemblies convened, there will prevail ignorance, sloth, dissipation, licentiousness, profanity, theft, robbery, and other evils, too numerous to be mentioned.

It is but a few years since Sabbath-breaking has become so common; been sanctioned, encouraged, and commanded by this nation. It is but a few years since public opinion would allow a man to live and fatten on the hard earnings of those whom he compelled to labor on Sunday: but a few years since laborers have concluded they must engage for such men, or perish with hunger. It seems as if they must come to the latter alternative, and that too, in a very short time, unless the world awake, and