to which they had repaired in compliance with custom, or from curiosity, or from motives still more unworthy. Out of the multitudes of those who are attracted, by various causes, to the public services of the Church, not a few carry away minds more sedate, and affections more pure than those which they brought to the house of God. Principles are imbibed not easily forgotten, which reflection serves to confirm, and which, watered by the dew of heavenly grace, produce the happiest results. The example of believers employed in devout exercises is powerful over every bosom not destitute of sympathetic feelings; and the sacred impressions, however slight, by being often repeated, are tributary to the growth of a true and lively faith. A due respect for human nature, and a proper reliance on the efficacy of divine grace, forbid us to believe that the outward services of religion are ever wholly in vain.

The mode of celebrating the sabbath, in all Protestant countries at least, furnishes the most valuable instruction on the most important subjects. The frequent enforcement of divine truths is useful, perhaps necessary to all, since all are apt, unless repeatedly admonished, to neglect the concerns of eternal moment; but to very many the sabbatical ministrations afford the chief, and not unfrequently, the only means of edification. If this source of information were abolished, im

mense multitudes would remain ignorant of what they are most interested to know. Without days of rest, public worship, and a stated ministry appointed to inculcate the doctrines of Revelation, the mass of mankind would remain in a state of deplorable spiritual darkness. Under the blessing of God they are the medium of diffusing the light of the Gospel, which is now so gloriously beaming in the Christian world. Abolish them, and an impervious mist and gloom would soon spread around; the sense of moral and religious obligation would wear away, or be obliterated; and the flame of pure religion, which now burns brightly among the inhabitants of the earth, would at no distant period languish and expire.

The moral good produced by the consecration of the seventh day, is not confined to those who attend the holy ordinances, but extends to such even as neglect or refuse to participate in them. The general tone of moral feeling is exalted by the universal knowledge that it is a day sacred to the Supreme Being. It is not spent like other days of the week, there being few, if any, who do not distinguish it by some difference of dress, of occupation, or of amusement, the effect of which is not limited to their political advantages; but has an influence upon the heart, inasmuch as all are thus habituated to order and decency, and are reminded of concerns more important than

those of the world. Intensely as many are de voted to pleasure, they are compelled, from a regard to public decorum, to pursue it on the Lord's sabbath-day in a more sober and private manner than they would if this restraint were dissolved. The sports and pastimes of the people are mainly exempt from the noisy revelry and mirth to which mere secular festivals give occasion. As there must be days of rest and relaxation for those who subsist by manual labour, it is of incalculable benefit to surround them with a sacredness so favourable to a temperate enjoyment of them. The example also of that class who celebrate the sabbath with exemplary devotion, forms a powerful check to the open profligacy of the dissolute. Vice may ridicule virtue, but cannot despise it; and those who are restrained by no sense of con science or religion, are often awed by fear of a class so powerful by their numbers, and so respectable in character. Considering these things it cannot be doubted that the sabbath contributes greatly to produce and maintain the high standard of moral conduct which prevails in this happy land, but which would be lowered whenever either public law, or public opinion shall suffer this institution to be profaned or violated.

If we calmly reflect upon the benefits of the sabbatical institution, the salutary rest and recreation it affords, the means it furnishes for the

public worship of God, and for religious edification, its influence on the social and intellectual character of man, its instrumentality in cherishing a rational piety, its fitness to awaken the careless and indifferent to a sense of spiritual things, its influence in restraining much vice and profligacy, in preserving decency and order, and in exalting the general tone of public morals, we cannot hesitate to pronounce the good derived from it to be incalculable in amount.

Such are the advantages which rational and accountable creatures derive from the institution of a weekly festival. To it may be ascribed one of the principal secondary causes of the great influence which genuine Christianity has obtained in this country. If it be wise to allow a refreshing rest to the labouring classes; if it be kind to furnish religious instruction to the careless and ignorant; and if it be salutary to recal, at stated periods, the attention of all from things finite to things infinite, to impress upon their minds the importance of revealed truth, and to admonish them of their duties as responsible beings, and their obligations as Christians, the observance of the sabbath must be a high and imperious duty. With this duty, all will cheerfully comply who are anxious to promote the temporal and eternal interests of their fellow-creatures. It can be no light offence to disregard an institution, the

source of so many benefits to man; moral, intellectual, and religious. If the philosophic observer were called upon to name the institution most conducive to the happiness of the human race, to the interests of religion and morality, he would, by a comparison with every other, indisputably fix upon that of the sabbath. Let all, then, by authority, by precept, by example, endeavour, to the extent of their power, to enforce the strict observance of this holy rest. Let every friend of his species, every lover of God, keep it, both in his own person and in those of his domestics, as far as possible inviolate, not only from occupations which may be avoided, but also from those earthly thoughts and cares which interfere with the spiritual improvement of so hallowed a

season.

To this conclusion the legislator, who judges of all institutions in the balance of political expediency, must be led in contemplating the multiplied blessings of the sabbath. But it remains a very important question how far it is supported by the authority of the Holy Scriptures. Were its origin merely human, it would indeed be obligatory to observe it on account of its influence in augmenting the comforts, and exalting the moral character of mankind; but this obligation would only rest upon the same grounds as