The first entire day

Adam was then in

dise, which shows its importance in the divine arrangement, as well as its necessity for the benefit of man. of man's existence was kept as a Sabbath. his innocence; but he needed this holy rest, for the benefit of his soul. He had not then been doomed to earn his bread by the sweat of his brow. Still he needed a day of rest, for the benefit of his body.

The fact that God commanded, not only that man and his household, but the beast, which toils for his benefit, should rest one day in seven, and "be refreshed," shows that our animal nature is so constituted as to need more rest than can be enjoyed during the night season. In some countries there is little, in others, no night, for a long time. There, certainly, the poor laboring man and beast need the rest of the Sabbath. Even in this country, highly favored as we are in the division of our time, it is seen that the man who "remembers the Sabbath day to keep it holy," enjoys better health in body and mind, than the man who violates the law of his Maker. The horse or the ox, not allowed to rest one day in seven, cannot, in his natural life, accomplish as much labor as the one which is allowed to rest according to the divine command. For why should the rest of one day in seven be required for them, if the hours of the night are sufficient to refresh them? It will not be pretended that they need the seventh day rest, to be improved either for intellectual or moral purposes.

To toil on, regardless of this arrangement, shortens life and disqualifies us for vigorous action; we lose property by it, produce more suffering, and incur the divine displeasure. God knew what was best for man and beast; and if we attempt to counteract the laws of our nature which he has ordained, and contemn his authority, we shall suffer the misery and the loss which such folly and presumption must unavoidably bring

upon us.

To desecrate the Sabbath then, is to invite temporal losses and sufferings, and expose the transgressor to everlasting perdition. The man who dares profane the Sabbath, is sinning against his own soul and body-against the soul and body of his fellow man-against the creatures God has made, and against

God himself, who will hold him accountable for all the evil he may occasion.

MINISTERS OF THE GOSPEL.

We appeal to the watchmen standing upon the walls of Zion. To you, reverend and respected brethren, is committed the care of the Christian Church. You are to watch for souls. Christ's kingdom has been set up in the world, and you are to see that it is established in every land. Every encouraging circumstance, in the providence of God, that will aid this cause, you are to sieze on with avidity, and apply with untiring perseverance. Every movement of the enemy, against this holy enterprise, it is expected you will discover, and boldly, strenuously, and perseveringly, oppose. Watching, as you should, with intense interest and deep solicitude, all these movements, you may be responsible for the inroads which are made upon this kingdom, as well as for the extension and ultimate triumphs of righteousness and peace.

When good is in prospect, you are to incite to conquest; when danger threatens, you must sound the alarm. "We must address the conscience; we must be bold in our appeal to the hearts of men; we must assert all the authority and majesty of truth. The minister of religion must not shrink from his task on such a question; he must cry aloud and spare not; he must show the people of God their transgression, and the house of Jacob, their sin."" The man who will hold his peace when the church, or any of the sacred institutions of our religion is in danger, is incurring great guilt, and may suffer with the wicked.

6

There are now many evils abroad in the land. The enemy has taken the field, unsheathed his sword, and begun the work of death. His forces are strong-his attacks various-his plans wily. Your eye cannot fail to see his onward march, and the wide-spread desolations of his footsteps. Your ear must hear the groans of the wounded, and the prayer of the righteous. But, whenever there is greater danger from one source than another, you must raise your 66 voice like a trumpet" Has not that time arrived? A powerful, systematic, and simultaneous effort is making by the forces of the ungodly, to blot out the

Christian Sabbath, and thereby, with one stroke, exterminate the whole system of revealed religion. They are not too blind 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 center of attraction, and formation 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 traveling from parish to parish, or by journeys on canals, in stages, steamboats, 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 traveling, 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 Postoffice departments, those who carry the mail, and those who visit Postoffices on that day. More than this, thousands of others quote the example of this Legislature, as a justification for traveling, 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, railroads, steamboats, navigable rivers, and national roads, is in the hands of those whom some of our ministers, many professing Christians, our national legislature, 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