in print, and a few such as would have done no discredit to the most practised pens, is indeed a phenomenon in the literary world, which nothing but the mighty power of the Sabbath and of its connected influences can explain. Many working men, however, have no weekly resting-day. Now, as one of the above-mentioned writers asks, "When did we ever meet with any one who from the nature of his employment is required to labour on the Sabbath as on other days, who has come out of his obscurity, and taken his stand as an author in literature, science, morals, or religion? Indeed," as he adds, "no one expects it; the bare supposition is ludicrous."1 And yet these men are not inferior in natural capacities to other men. Their frequent efforts to obtain emancipation from their protracted hours of labour, that they might enjoy the rest of the seventh day, have evinced a desire of better things, as well as a deep conviction, that, while the cause of their degradation is the loss of that sacred season, its recovery is the main instrument for elevating their mental condition.

It

If the Sabbath had done nothing more than promote the intelligence and civilisation of the masses, it would be entitled to our high regards. But this is not its only intellectual triumph. blesses in the same way all classes of minds that come under its influence. In the department of secular knowledge, it is a means of good to both foes and friends; to foes, who are trained in youth under its auspices, and afterwards feel the salutary impulse of its encompassing spirit; to friends, among whom may ever be discovered the most distinguished men in all kinds of mental endowments and exertion, with a few, such as Lord Bacon, Sir Isaac Newton, John Locke, and Jonathan Edwards, who, by general consent, occupy a pre-eminent place among the intellectually great. And there is another department of knowledge, the spiritual, belonging exclusively to true Christians, who, in proportion as they have maintained the integrity and honour of their religious institutions, have, by "rising from nature" to its Author, by searching after "the cause of causes," and in the range of their vision taking in the infinite and eternal, proved themselves to belong to a higher order of intelligences, and to possess far greater grasp and power of mind than those philosophers, scholars, and

1 The Universal Treasure, p. 125.

sages, who are learned in the writings of men, but not in the Word of God; who have measured the distance of the stars, and told us what is contained in the bowels of the earth, but have not soared to the heaven above, nor sounded the hell below; who have calculated the period of an eclipse, but not the hour of death; who have explored the constitution of the soul, but considered not its accountableness or destination; who have wasted themselves in investigating the changes which this earth has undergone, without a single reflection on their concern in that great crisis, when "the earth and the works that are therein shall be burnt up."

CHAPTER II.

MORAL AND RELIGIOUS INFLUENCE OF THE SABBATH.

"A corruption of morals usually follows a profanation of the Sabbath."-BLACKSTONE. "Il n'y a pas de religion sans culte, et il n'y a pas de culte sans dimanche."

MONTALEMBERT.

JOHN FOSTER describes the Sabbath as "a remarkable appointment for raising the general tenour of moral existence."1 The saying, and that of Blackstone, as may afterwards appear, are abundantly verified by facts. Meanwhile, a brief inquiry into the rationale of the matter will discover grounds for accrediting the institution with the results uniformly seen to follow its observance-in other words, for identifying it as an essential instrument in their production.

First, then, if we view the weekly holy day as a periodical pause of labour, we shall find that it is conducive to the interests of morality. Its regular rest recruits the animal frame, and prevents some strong temptations to intemperance. Men must have either rest, or artificial means of enabling them to sustain an unnatural amount of effort. The Sabbath provides the former, intoxicating drink supplies the latter. The weekly season of freedom from toil and trouble secures also a regular opportunity for the cultivation of domestic intercourse, that powerful incentive to virtue. In the nature of things can virtue thrive, or vice fail to abound, among married persons who are deprived of the soothing, refining influences of home, and must not the unmarried be led by the same circumstances to forego the hope of honourable matrimony, and to resort to an unhallowed substitute? Incessant labour, moreover, renders moral improvement impracticable, as it allows no sufficient or regular time for attention to the matter.

1 Evils of Popular Ignorance (1839), pp. 47, 48.

It op

presses and irritates the workman, and thus tempts him to save his exertions by a hurried unfaithful performance of his task, or by the still easier process of stealing or begging his bread. And from the contracting influence of one ever-present engrossing object, as well as from the controlling, assimilating power of scenes of impurity and discomfort, it not only prevents expansion of mind beyond the narrow sphere of his own fatigues and wants, and precludes any lofty aspirings to what is either good or great, but tends to sink the man in the animal-to brutalize him-to make him utterly selfish and savage, unless, as sometimes happens, it reduce him to so entire a prostration of spirit and energy as to render him incapable of doing much of either good or evil. Scarcely less immoral in its tendency is mental toil, absorbing as it does the mind in its one subject, so that no other can command its interest, and impairing the intellectual and physical powers, the health and vigour of which are so necessary to high moral attainments, and to sustained moral efforts.

But, secondly, we must consider the Sabbath as a day of instruction and worship in order to complete the evidence of its moral power.

The provision of respite from ordinary labour is but a part of the Sabbatic arrangement—a part of it, indeed, good in its place— capable of advantage, but convertible also to evil, and then only answering its whole design, as well as serving fully its end of rest, when it is made tributary to its sacred objects. It is as a day of holy rest that it is so powerful in promoting the physical wellbeing and mental improvement of mankind. And it will not accomplish much for their moral benefit, if the enjoyment of its rest be not conjoined with the right use of its means of religious knowledge and worship.

What the institution and observances are which are found to be connected with a high measure of morality in any case, we have already described in the preceding remarks on the arrangements which have been shown to be favourable to the improvement of the mind, and which might be proved to be equally so to that of the manners. It is necessary, in addition, merely to advert in a few words to the following characteristics of the Sabbath wherever it stands related to superior virtue among a people.

The most perfect rule of ethics, according to the confessions even of infidels, is expounded and studied on that day—a rule extending to the relations and circumstances of all mankinduniting with this universality of reference, a wonderful conciseness, simplicity, and clearness-unassailably self-consistent-embracing the regulation of every outward act, and yet preferring its chief claims to a pure heart-and inculcating love to all men, founded on a paramount love to the Supreme Being. This rule is held forth under the authority of the Divine Creator and Governor of the Universe, who has declared the penalty of its violation to be eternal death. But along with these truths, it is announced that the Lawgiver himself, in compassion to his creatures, and yet resolved that the purity of his name and government shall receive no taint, has provided in the substitution and sacrifice of a Personage, at once Divine and human, an atonement for transgression. It is proclaimed, also, that he is willing to receive into favour all who repent and accept reconciliation through this medium, and that those who do so shall then come under the Divine law as divested of the condemnation and terror which the breach of it had caused, and shall find a course of obedience to it accompanied by abundant help, profit, and pleasure here, and followed by perpetual honour and happiness in a nobler state of being hereafter. It is impossible to conceive considerations more powerful than these for awing and melting human hearts, and for inspiring those feelings of penitence, fear, hope, joy, love, which bear irresistible sway over the minds of men. There is the highest moral discipline in the study of such themes. But to this are added the elevating approach to the Being of infinite greatness, purity, and love—the communion of fellow-men in circumstances so fitted to beget feelings of mutual sympathy and regard-the watchful care of faithful guardians over the temporal interests and moral condition of the people on every day-and the various influences of reading, reflection, example, instruction, and counsel, for which the Sabbath guarantees time and opportunity to those who hallow its sacred hours. We have to add that in connexion with such means of good there is imparted a celestial influencethe necessity of which human frailty proves, and the actual receiving of which the experience of the most virtuous men attests,