In God's own house, which in th' absorbing act She with his glory fills, as once a cloud LESSON LXXIII. The Importance of the Sabbath, considered as merely a Civil Institution.-W. JAY. A SLIGHT view of the comparative influence of human laws, and religious sentiment, in correcting the evils, and promoting the happiness of society, will afford abundant evidence of the superior efficacy of the latter. Human laws forbid only the commission of crimes: they presume not to take cognizance of thoughts and intentions. Religion, on the contrary, erects her throne in the heart, sways its affections, controls its passions, and directs its motives. Before the magistrate can enforce the sanctions of his laws, the offender must be discovered, and his guilt established by proof: and the fear of punishment is of ten counteracted by the possibility and the hope of eluding detection. But the votary of religion knows that he serves a master, whose omniscience and omnipotency render escape hopeless, and punishment inevitable. So conscious are all governments of the inefficacy of penalties to secure obedience to their law, that in a great variety of cases, they call in the aid of religious obligation, and bind their subjects by oaths, to the performance of their duties. Human laws trust solely to the influence of terror, while religion addresses herself to the hopes as well as the fears of mankind, and offers rewards as rich and glorious, as her punishments are awful and appalling. If we reflect for a moment what a vast proportion of mankind are doomed to daily labour for their subsistence, we shall be sensible that multitudes are necessarily deprived of all opportunity of acquiring religious information, except such as the Sabbath affords. Were the scriptures universally distributed, there would still be many without either ability or leisure to peruse them. To such persons, the Sabbath brings not merely a respite from toil, and consequently time for religious study and meditation, but also the instruction of the pulpit, and the rites and worship of the house of God. Without a periodical and general cessation from labour, the public worship of the Deity, and the religious instruction connected with it, would be greatly interrupted, if not wholly abandoned. The ministers of religion could. not advantageously exercise their functions, unless their people were permitted at stated periods to suspend their ordinary avocations, in order to attend their ministrations. Religious services, if casual and precarious, would afford but little benefit, and be offered to but few auditors. Under such circumstances, the sacred order itself would ultimately cease to exist; or it would sustain itself only by an usurped authority over the consciences of the people. Ignorance of the truths of Christianity would lead to their perversion, and a blind and debasing superstition would take the place of that religion, which, while it sanctifies the heart, enlightens the understanding. The agency of the Sabbath in preserving and extending the influence of religion, is not, however, the only benefit it confers upon society. No political institution whatever contributes so much to the actual comfort and enjoyment of mankind; and multitudes who derive no religious advantages from it, participate largely in its temporal blessings. The returning day of rest brings repose and quiet to thousands, who would otherwise spend their lives in unremitting labour. The avarice of the rich would extort from the necessities of the poor the utmost exertion of human strength and endurance. But the Sabbath, like an angel of mercy, pays its weekly visit to the children of poverty and of labour, suspends their toil, revives their exhausted strength, and cheers their drooping spirits with visions of future happiness and glory. In Sunday Schools, we behold a mighty engine, whose influence in promoting the virtue and happiness of society, no political economist is able to calculate. If the real substantial prosperity of a State is to be estimated only by the comfort, sobriety and intelligence of its citizens, the religious education of youth is the only perennial spring, of national felicity. In our own country alone, more than 100,000 children are taught in these schools the highest and best of all knowledge-their duty to God and man. Were the Sabbath abolished, Sunday Schools would cease with it, nor could any adequate substitute be provided in their room. Education may indeed be furnished at the public expense; but education, unaccompanied by a sense of moral obligation, instead of restraining crimes, would afford new facilities for their commission. It would be difficult for any government, and impossible for our own, to provide religious instruction for the young. But in Sunday Schools this great and desirable object is attained, without the smallest encroachment upon the rights of conscience, or upon the principles of our political institutions. In these schools, and in these alone, is the influence of example constantly added to that of precept; and religion is recommended to the youthful heart and understanding, by the disinterested labours of pious and affectionate teachers. In these alone is the attendance of the children not merely voluntary but cheerful; and punishment is unknown as a corrective, either of indolence or misbehaviour. In the remarkable fact, that scarcely an instance has occurred, either in Great-Britain or America, of the conviction of a felon who had enjoyed the advantages of a Sunday School, we find a strong and delightful testimony to the efficacy of this mode of instruction, in promoting the peace and good order of society. LESSON LXXIV. Extracts, relating to the Sabbath, from different authors. REMEMBER the sabbath day to keep it holy. This is the command of God; and were I to comprise all my directions to you in one, it should be this. Nothing furnishes so sure a protection against the allurements of the world; nothing tends so much to invigorate private virtue, and diffuse around, a healthful, public sentiment, as a serious observance of the Lord's day. No young man, who habitually keeps this day, is in much danger of having his There principles undermined, or his morals corrupted. is something in the very act of ceasing from worldly occupations on this holy day, and repairing with the people of God, to worship him in the sanctuary, which wonderfully tends to form and strengthen all good habits, and to adorn the character with the charms of a fair and lovely virtue. If there were nothing beyond the grave, and no motive for keeping the Sabbath, but your prosperity in this life, you would be unspeakable losers not to keep it. No habitual Sabbath breaker can be permanently prospered. He has thrown away the greatest safeguard of virtue and happiness, and is constantly exposed to fall into those habits and vices, which will ruin him, both for this world and that which is to come. Lord Chief Justice Hale remarks, "that of all the persons who were convicted of capital crimes, while he was on the bench, he found a few only, who would not confess, on inquiry, that they began their career of wickedness, by a neglect of the duties of the Sabbath, and vicious conduct on that day." And in favour of strictly keeping the Sabbath, he gives this decided testimony, from his own experience. "I have found by a strict and diligent observation, that a due observing the duty of this day, hath ever had joined to it a blessing upon the rest of my time; and the week that hath been so begun, hath been blessed and prosperous to me. And, on the other side, when I have been negligent of the duties of this day, the rest of the week hath been unsuccessful and unhappy to my secular employments; so that I could easily make anestimate of my success in my own secular employments the week following, by the manner of observing this day; and this, I do not write lightly or inconsiderately, but upon a long and sound observation and experience."-Let me then enjoin it upon you, my friends, with allpossible seriousness, and the deepest concern for your present and eternal well-being, to "remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy." Hawes. Anecdote of Washington. In a town in Connecticut, where the roads were extremely rough, Washington was overtaken by night on Saturday, not being able to reach the village where he designed to rest on the Sabbath. Next morning about sunrise, his coach was harnessed, and he was proceeding forwards to an inn near the place of worship, which he proposed to attend. A plain man, who was an informing officer, came from a cottage and inquired of the coachman, whether there was any urgent reason for his travelling on the Lord's Day. The General, instead of resenting this as impertinent rudeness, ordered the coachman to stop, and with great civility explained the circumstances to the officer, commended him for his fidelity, and assured him that nothing was farther from his intention than to treat with disrespect the laws and usages of Connecticut relative to the Sabbath, which met his most cordial approbation. How many admirers of Washington might receive instruction and reproof from his examples! From Memoirs of Lindley Murray. One small instance of Mr. Murray's reverence for the sabbath may not improperly be adduced. He took much pleasure in reading a daily newspaper: but that he might not, on any occasion of peculiar interest, be induced to look into it, on the sabbath day, he did not, on that day, receive it into his house. LESSON LXXV. Vanity confessed.-WATTS.. SENOTUS was a man of mortified soul, a sagacious self inquirer while he lived; and among his most secret papers which escaped the flames, the following soliloquy was found after his death : Sometimes I raise my thoughts a little to contemplate my Creator, in the numerous wonders of his power and wisdom, in his inimitable perfections, and in the majesty and grandeur of his nature; I fall down before him, confounded in his presence. My own ideas of his transcend |