Ingenuity is perpetually on the rack to frame new devices, and secure new customers. The tear and wear of body is frequently the least of it-the tear and wear of mind is tremendous; and many an aching head lays down on its pillow thankful that to-morrow is the rest of the Sabbath. But is such an one in the best case to go up to the house of God next morning? Is it very likely that he will be inclined to leave his bed so early as to make the necessary preparation for going up to the house of the Lord? Flesh and blood have lost their spring and elasticity, and, unless moral principle is very strong, the toil-worn business man is under strong temptations not only to absent himself from the sanctuary, but to learn habits on the Lord's-day which, like a canker-worm, will eat out of him all that is pure, and lovely, and of good report.

The masses, as they are called-our mechanics and artizans-our wealthproducers have very strong claims on our sympathy, and they do largely share in it. They are pre-eminently "the sons of toil;" and modern improvements in machinery, and the various handicrafts, so far from lessening the amount of time and expenditure, in too many instances have only become pretexts on the part of a master for drawing more largely on their unremitting labours. In some honourable instances, their hours of labour on Saturday are fewer, and those of them who still prefer making it their pay-day, have abandoned the old practice of paying wages after working hours, thus giving their servants an opportunity of making their purchases early in the day. But when it is otherwise, when it is at an advanced hour in the evening before the weary, and sober, and honest workman can reach his home with the reward of his toil, when his loving spouse has, after his arrival, to exercise her economy in making the necessary shopping and provision for a new week, and when many needful things remained undone, because the wherewithal to do them had not arrived, we can easily perceive that late purchases and late hours on Saturday night, and the due discharge of all

the little household matters which crowd in to fill the hands when the week is being wound up, leave not a moment for that domestic calm with which the Sabbath-the great boon to the labouring man-should be hailed. Whenever the hours of the Sabbath are encroached on, as closely as decency will allow, the likelihood is, that occasionally they will be overstepped; and as the Sabbath is the sacred fence around the moral law, it invariably happens that whenever the fence is in the slightest broken down, and the habit of crossing the boundary line is acquired, it is impossible to say where or when the trespasser will stop, consider his ways, and return to the right path. One of the best tests of individual, or domestic, or national piety, is found in the respect which is paid to the Sabbath. It is utterly impossible that the religion of the kingdom of heaven can be in a thriving and healthy condition, when God's principal institution for preserving and promoting it is dishonoured and desecrated. And the individual who is advancing on the highest scale-his intellectual, moral, and spiritual character-is the man who never loses sight of the design of the Sabbath, who welcomes its weekly return, and who, instead of allowing the world the entire monopoly of this life, gaurds his heaven-ordained privilege to rest from his labours on the Sabbath, and employ one day in seven in the school of Christ, in the fellowship of the followers of Christ, and in exercises befitting those who know that they must soon be done with the world for ever, and who, when they depart from it, desire to depart and be with Christ.

The

The early closing movement every night, and especially on Saturday night, ought to be encouraged by masters in every department of business. proper discharge of any species of work requires that body and mind be preserved in a healthy and not over-tasked condition. The evidence that the master does feel an interest in the well-being of his servant, is a very likely way of engaging the servant to take a deeper interest in the prosperity of his master's

business. Kindness will influence the most stubborn minds even when higher principles and motives addressed to them will be utterly inoperative. On the other hand, when a master loses sight of the higher principles and interests of his servant-if he looks upon him merely as a thing of bones and sinews, to toil at the utmost stretch of exertion to the latest moment that law will tolerate him, to a certainty he breaks down more than his physical frame, he destroys the finer tone of his morality. And the moment that a man has been brought the length of trespassing on ground forbidden him by the law of Scripture, and to lose respect for the authority of God, it will be impossible for him to maintain a right moral sense towards the affairs of his employer. These are considerations which masters would do well to ponder. Our closing word is to the toiling masses of our fellow-men. "The Sabbath was made for man." It was made for him in paradise before he fell-before he knew labour or sorrow; and, if needful for him then, how much more so now, in a world so full of vanity and vexation of spirit-so full of everything to tempt us to forget the one thing needful, and neglect to prepare for the futurity which is beyond the grave. It is, however, of special importance, that every man not only rightly understand in what sense the Sabbath was made for him, but in what sense it is his. In what sense has he property in the Sabbath? He has property in it as one of the trustees to whom God has committed it. A trustee must be very careful that he do not deliberately violate the trust, otherwise he will bring himself into trouble. He must not appropriate it to any other purposes than those for which it was devised. It is admirably adapted to man's temporal welfare, when properly kept and improved, as well his intellectual and moral character. It cannot go well with men if they habitually violate the laws of their country;

and how can it go well with them if they habitually violate the laws of God? Read the history of nations-examine the political condition of nations, and wherever the Sabbath is denied man, or he is found appropriating it otherwise than God designed it, in every such case civil liberty is a mere name and pretence. The Sabbath is one of the best preservers not only of our birthrights as men, but of the knowledge and fear of God. It is one of the best preventatives of irreligion and infidelity. It is calculated to elevate man above the depressing influence of worldly anxieties and cares. It prepares him for the consolations and enjoyments of heaven. But as there is such a marked difference between the engagements of the six working days of the week and the Sabbath-between what is purely secular, and what is exclusively sacred-few men can step at once from the one into the other. They require a breathing time to consider what they are about to do. Whenever we have some important business to attend to, and wish it well done, we usually make prudent arrangements for doing it. The business which we have to attend to on the Sabbath is the most important, and, from its nature, requires preparation for the proper execution of it. This preparation should commence before dressing to go to church on the Lord's-day. If it commence on Saturday night, the Sabbath morning preparation will be all the better attended to; and, to a certainty, security is thus provided that the Sabbath will be kept in a manner which will occasion no painful recollections. Remember the Sabbath-day. It is "the pearl of days." It is an invaluable boon to the hard-working man, if he spend it as he ought to do. Philip Henry, the father of the great commentator, was in the habit of closing his Sabbath work with some such remark as this-" My brethren, if this be not heaven, it is surely the direct road to it."

THERE is a tendency on the part of Christians, when contemplating the progress of truth, to dwell somewhat exclusively on the sunny side of thingsto mistake a few faint rills of light for the full sea-like flow and open blaze of day. This tendency is very natural; but those who indulge in it most are apt to lose a life of activity in a life of indolent contemplation. Our energies rise with the magnitude of the work we have to perform and the difficulties we have to overcome. Christian zeal never burned so strongly as in the apostolic age, when a horror of great darkness brooded over the whole world. It is necessary, then, for the quickening of our spiritual activities, that we should take a full and faithful survey of the present position of the Christian faith. And to a thoughtful, religious man, how melancholy is it to circumnavigate the globe within the mystic circle of the mind! Christianity is old as the everlasting heavens; its central truth was proclaimed in Eden; it shone, like the coming day, through the veil of Judaism; it streamed along the earth like a sunbeam, according to Eusebius, when the fulness of the time was come; while the earnestness with which it was preached, and the enthusiasm with which it was received, seemed tó predict for it the speedy conquest of the world. But more than eighteen hundred years have elapsed since this pure and perfect religion began to wind its way into the general heart, to scatter the false systems that had hung for ages, like midnight clouds, between the soul of man and the heavens of God, to change the moral chaos into order and beauty, and to make error the footstool of truth-more than eighteen hundred years have passed since this mighty work began, and what is the present condition of the world, what is the amount of advantage that has been gained? From the intensity of the zeal that burned like a live coal in the hearts of the first Christian converts, and from the won