THE 



SABBATH • MANUAL. 



BY REV. JUSTIN EDWARDS, D. D. 



PUBLISHED BY THE 

AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY. 

150 NASSAU-STREET, NEW-YORK. 



0. FansbRW. Priuter. 



CONTENTS. 



The Nature of Man, . 

The object of God in Creation, . 

Institutions established in Paradise, 

Testimony of Scripture, 

Reasons for that testimony, 

Ends for which the Sabbath was appointed, 

The nature and design of the Decalogue, . 

Keason for keeping the Sabbath, . < 

Effect of the stillness of the Sabbath, . 

Influence of the Sabbath on moral Government, 

God our Preserver and Benefactor, 

God our Redeemer, . • . . . 

The Rights of God, 

The Rights of Men, 

Sabbath-Breaking dishonest, 



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4 CONTENTS. 

Posre 

Nature and Object of Human Government, . 27 

Sailors' Rights, 27 

The way to support a Family, . . . .29 
Rights of Men to Animals and the Elements, . 30 
The Sabbath based on a Natural Law, . . 32 

Dr. Farre's Testimony, 32 

Tlie Sabbath necessary to Man, . . . .33 
Physicians, Clergymen, and Senators destroyed, 35 

Testimony of Wilberforce, 37 

Romilly and Castlereagh, 38 

The Financier and Merchant, . . . .39 
Dr. Sewall's Testimony, • . . . .40 

Dr. Mussey's Testimony, 4 J 

Dr. Harrison's Testimony, 42 

Dr. Alden's Testimony, 43 

New Haven Medical Association, . . .44 

Dr. Warren's Testimony, 44 

Physicians on the Erie Canal, . . . .46 

Experiments in England, the United States, and 

France, ... ... 47 

The Flouring Establishment, . •. . . 48 
The making of Salt, 49 



5 



CONTENTS. 

The Fisheries, 

Law of Nature with regard to Animals, 

Experiments with Horses, . 

Experiments with Cattle and Sheep, • 

Familes on Journeys, ... I 

The Sabbath made for the Soul, 

Judge Hale's Testimony, 

Dr. Wilson's Testimony, 

A Mechanic in Massachusetts, 

Effect of Sabbath-Breaking on the Heart, 

Auburn State Prison, .... 

Delaware and Hudson Canal, 

One hundred thousand Convicts, . 

Riding out for Pleasure on the Sabbath, 

A distinguished Merchant in New- York, 

The Language of Sabbath-Breaking, . 

Various Experiments, 

The four Travellers, .... 

Passengers on board the Lexington, 

The Mechanic and Master of a Vessel, 

An old Man in Boston, 

The Man who worked on the Sabbath, 



5 

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6. CONTENTS* 

Page. 

The Finger of God 79 

The Duty, Privilege, and Blessedness of Man. . 81 



Resolutions adopted by numerous bodies of Men 
in various parts of the United States, . 81 



THE 



SABBATH MANUAL. 



Ends for which the Sabbath was appointed, and 
reasons why it should be observed. 

Man is mortal and immortal. His body will 
«oon die and mingle with the dust. His soul will 
live, in a state of conscious, intelligent, moral, and 
accountable existence, for ever. Knowledge is the 
food by which it grows in piety, wisdom, useful- 
ness, and bliss. Of all the knowledsre of which it is 
capable, the knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ 
is the most important. This is life — eternal life. 

One grand object of Jehovah, in all his dealings 
with men, is to manifest himself, and give to them 
correct views of his character and will. This is 
designed to lead them to exercise right feelings 
and pursue a right course of conduct towards 
him, themselves, and one another. By so doing, 
they will glorify their Maker, benefit themselves, 
and do the greatest good to their fellow-men. 

For this God stretched out the heavens, and 
laid the foundations of the earth ; created mB^ 



8 THE SABBATH. 

and made him lord of this lower world. For this 
he established for him various institutions and 
laws. Among them was the institution of the 
Sabbath, or a day of weekly rest from secular bu- 
siness and cares, of special devotion to the public 
worship of God, and the promotion of the spiritual 
and eternal interests of men. 

The first great institution established in Para- 
dise, for the human race, was that of marriage. 
This lays the foundation for families, and for so- 
cial relations among men. The second great in- 
stitution, established also in Paradise for the race, 
was that of the Sahbatli, This was designed to 
regulate families ; to point out the period for la- 
bor and the period for rest, for the public worship 
of God, and of special devotion to spiritual and 
eternal concerns. So important was this arrange- 
ment to the glory of God and to the welfare of men, 
that with reference to it he regulated his own con- 
duct in the creation of the world. He wrought 
six days — himself. He then came out in the face 
of creation, and rested one day. He thus gave to 
this arrangement of six days for labor, and one 
for rest, the sanction of his high and holy example. 
This was the proportion which would, in all ages, 
be suited to the nature of men, adapted to their ca- 
pacities, and essential to the supply of their wants. 
With reference to it, time itself was to be divided, 
not into days, or months, or years, merely, or into 
any periods measured by the revolutions of the 



WHY GOD APPOINTED IT. 9 

earth or the heavenly bodies, but into luecJcs — pe- 
riods of seven days ; six for labor, and one for rest 
and special devotion to spiritual things. This divi- 
sion of time, measured by the conduct and v^ill of 
God, and by the capacities and wants of men, was, 
among those who should know and do his will, to 
be as permanent and as universal^ as though it 
were measured by the revolutions of the earth or 
the heavenly bodies. It was to be, in all ages and 
all countries, a sign of the covenant between God 
and his people ; an emblem and a foretaste of the 
rest which remaineth for them, and a special sea- 
son of preparation for its eternal joys. 

For this reason, Jehovah not only kept it him- 
self, but he sanctified it, or set it apart from other 
days for this special purpose. He also blessed it, 
and with such a fulness of blessings, that they flow 
out, to those who keep it, not only on that day, 
but through all the other days of the week. They 
are blessed in their bodies and souls, in their go- 
ing out and their coming in, and in all their ways. 

In the fifty-eighth chapter of Isaiah and thir- 
teenth verse, JehovpJi speaks as if the keeping of 
the Sabbath were obedience, or would promote 
obedience to all his commands, and thus insure his 
blessing ; " If thou turn away thy foot from doing 
thy pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath 
a delight, the holy of the Lord honorable ; and 
shalt honor him, not doing thine own ways, nor 
finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine 



10 THE SABBATH. 

Own words ; then shalt thou delight thyself in tlie 
Lord ; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high 
places of the earth, and feed thee with the heri- 
tage of Jacob, thy father ; for the mouth of the 
Lord hath spoken it." 

In the seventeenth chapter of Jeremiah and 
twenty-first verse, we have an exhibition of the 
same great principle : " Thus saith the Lord ; 
Take heed to yourselves, and bear no burden on 
the Sabbath day, nor bring it in by the gates of 
Jerusalem. Neither carry forth a burden out of 
your houses on the Sabbath day, neither do ye 
any work, but hallow ye the Sabbath day, as I 
commanded your fathers. But they obeyed not, 
neither inclined their ear, but made their neck 
stiff, that they might not hear, nor receive instruc- 
tion. And it shall come to pass, if ye diligently 
hearken unto me, saith the Lord, to bring in no 
burden through the gates of this city on the Sab- 
bath day, but hallow the Sabbath day, to do no work 
therein ; then shall there enter into the gates of this 
city kings and princes sitting upon the throne of Da- 
vid, riding in chariots and on horses, they and their 
princes, the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of 
Jerusalem : and this city shall remain for ever. 
And they shall come from the cities of Judah, and 
from the places about Jerusalem, and from the land 
of Benjamin, and from the plain, and from the 
mountains, and from the south, bringing burnt-of- 
ferings, and sacrifices, and meat-offerings, and in- 



WHY GOD APPOINTED IT. 11 

cense, and bringing sacrifices of praise unto the 
House of the Lord. But if ye will not hearken un- 
to me to hallow the Sabbath day, and not to bear a 
burden, even entering in at the gates of Jerusalem 
on the Sabbath day; then will I kindle a fire in 
the gates thereof, and it shall devour the palaces 
of Jerusalem, and it shall not be quenched.'* 

In the above passages Jehovah speaks as if the 
keeping of the Sabbath were every thing ; as if it 
comprehended, or would secure obedience to all 
his commands. This, in an important sense, is the 
case. Such is the nature of man, such the institu- 
tion of the Sabbath, and such the effect which the 
keeping of it Avill have upon him, that, if he is 
obedient to God in this thing, he will be obedi- 
-3nt to him in other things. A Sabbath-keeping 
people will be an obedient people. The manner in 
which they treat the Sabbath wiJl be a test of their 
character, an index of their morality and religion. 
God did not think it necessary, therefore, to say to 
his people, in these passages, that, if they would 
not commit murder, he would bless them ; or, if 
they would not be guilty of theft, he would bless 
them. He knew that if they would rightly keep the 
Sabbath, they would not commit murder or theft, 
or ordinarily be guilty of any gross outward 
crimes. Men who regularly observe the Sabbath, 
and habitually attend public worship, which is a 
part of the proper observance of that day, do not 
commit such crimes. While they keep the Sab- 



12 THE SABBATH. 

bath, God keeps them ; not by force or coercion 
of any kind, but by the influence of moral govern- 
ment, through means of his appointment. 

The Sabbath is the great and all-pervading means 
of givi7ig efficacy to moral government, and holds a 
relation to general 7norality similar to that lohich the 
marriage institution holds to social 'purity. It was 
designed, and is adapted to lead people steadily 
to rest from worldly business, cares, and amuse- 
ments ; to contemplate Jehovah as the Creator, 
Preserver, Redeemer, Benefactor, Owner, Gov- 
ernor, Judge, and Disposer of men ; to keep alive, 
and render practically efficacious, the knowledge 
of the one only living and true God ; to lead all 
to worship and adore him, and thus to experience 
the benefits of his infinitely wise, universal, and 
benevolent reign. 

Hence the reason which he gave to his ancient 
people why they should keep it — " that ye may 
know that I am Jehovah." Had all men proper- 
ly kep^ the Sabbath, all would have known Jeho- 
vah, and worshipped him, from the creation of the 
world to the present time, and idolatry never 
would have been practised on the earth. Hence, 
also, when the wants of his ancient people requir- 
ed that they should no longer depend upon oral 
communications merely, but should have the uu- 
clianging laws by which they were to be gov- 
erned placed upon a permanent record — such as, 
** Thou shalt have no other gods before me ; 



WHY GOD APPOINTED IT. 13 

slialt not bow down to graven images ; slialt not 
take the name of the Lord thy God in vahi ; shalt 
honor thy father and thy mother ; shalt not kill, 
commit adultery, steal, bear false witness, or 
covet," — he put this among them — " Remember 
the Sabbath day to keep it holy ; in it thou shalt 
not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daugh- 
ter, nor thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, 
nor thy cattle, nor the stranger that is within thy 
gates." He placed this in the midst of them ; 
and obedience to it was essential, in order to obe- 
dience to the other commands. If they would 
not keep the Sabbath, they would not obey him in 
other things. Sabbath-breaking would be treason 
against the government of God, and open the way 
for universal profligacy and ruin. 

Hence, as a civil ruler, he would no more suf- 
fer the Sabbath-breaker to live among that peo- 
ple than he would the murderer. The penally was 
placed among the local and temporary regulations 
of that peculiar people ; it was not designed to be 
permanent, and was not written by the finger of 
God on the tables of stone ; but the law was wri\ 
ten there ; because that was designed to be per- 
manent. It expressed an obligation which arose 
from the nature of man, and from his relations to 
his Maker, and which, as really as the obligation 
expressed by the other laws, would be binding 
up(m him through all time. 

Jt is sometimes said that, if the law of the Sab- 

2 



14 THE SABBATH. 

bath is binding upon men now, then we must, as 
the Jews did, put the violators of it to death, by 
the hand of the civil magistrate. This does not fol- 
low. We are not now, as the Jews did, to put the 
open presumptuous violators of the first, or the 
fifth, or the seventh command, to death. Yet are 
not these commands binding upon men ] Is it not 
wicked for men to have another god before Je- 
hovah, to bow down to graven images and worship 
them, or to dishonor their parents % All the com- 
mands of the decalogue^ expressed obligations 
which were binding upon men before they were 
written upon tables of stone, and which will con • 
tinue to be binding till the end of the world. 

The penalty of death attached for a time to the 
violation of the Sabbath, showed how the Law- 
giver abhorred the crime. Nor was this abhor- 
rence without good reason* The Sabbath-break- 
er violated a fundamental law. He proclaimed, 
by actions, the most impressive of all language — 
" No God !" and thus produced the effect of 
practical atheism on himself and on others. He 
does this in all ages. And as long as it will be 
wicked for men in a state of probation to have an- 
other god before Jehovah, to bow down to graven 
images, to take the name of God in vain, to dis- 
honor their parents, to commit murder, adultery, 
or theft, to bear false witness, or to covet, so 
long will it be wicked for them not to rest from 
worldly business, cares, and amusements, one day 



VVHi' GOD APPOINTED IT. 15 

in seven ; for the purpose of publicly worship- 
ping Jehovah, and promoting the spiritual good 
of themselves and others. 

The reason which God gave on the tables of 
stone for keeping the Sabbath, was not a Jnchk 
reason. It was one which applies alike to all men. 
*' For in six days the Lord made the heavens and 
the earth, the sea, and all that in them is.'' But he 
did not make them for Jews merely, or for any par- 
ticular people. He made them for us and for all 
men. As a memorial of that fact, he set apart the 
Sabbath, kept it, sanctified and blessed it, for the. 
henefit of all. All are bound, by keeping it, to ac- 
knowledge this, and to honor him as the Creator, 
Preserver, and Benefactor ; and, as such, the Own- 
er, Governor, and Disposer of all things. The Sab- 
bath was appointed for that purpose, and, as a 
consequence, to impress on the minds of men the 
great truths, that " the earth is the Lord's, and 
the fulness thereof, the world, and they that dwell 
therein;" that *^the silver and the gold are his," 
though acquired by human industry, and " the 
cattle upon a thousand hills." 

The earth is not eternal ; it did not create it- 
self; no creature called it into being. Nor is its 
existence to be ascribed to chance, to idols, or to 
any of the false gods which men have worshipped. 
Li the beginning Jehovah created the heavens 
and the earth. And the things which are seen 
were not made of things which do appear. They 



16 THE SABBATH. 

were literally creafed, '' He spake, and it was. 
He commanded, and it stood fast." 

The Sabbath was designed to make all men 
feel this ; and to load them, by keeping it, public- 
ly to acknowledge, " Thou, Lord, in the beginning 
hast laid the foundations of the earth, and the hea- 
vens are the work of thy hands. They shall per- 
ish, but thou remainest.'' And " Thine, O Lord, 
is the greatness, and the power, and the victory, 
and the majesty ; for all that is in the heavens 
and the earth is thine ; thine is the kingdom, O 
Jehovah, and thou art exalted as head above all." 

Such are some of the truths, which, by the keep- 
ing of the vSabbath, are every week proclaimed to 
the world ; in a manner adapted to the nature of 
man, and suited to make on him a strong and last- 
ing impression. 

When, on the morning of that blessed day, the 
sun rises and shines as brightly as on other days, 
the oxen graze as peacefully, the lambs skip as 
briskly, and the birds sing as sweetly, yet no man 
goes forth to his labor, no shop-door or window 
opens, no wheel rattles on the pavement, or ves- 
sel leaves the harbor, no stage-coach or canal-boat 
runs, no whistling or rumbling is heard on the rail- 
road, or bustle is witnessed in any department of 
secular business, but universal stillness reigns 
throughout creation, except as broken by the voice 
of prayer and praise ascending to its Author — that 
stillness is the voice of God to the moral nature of 



WHY GOD APPOINTED IT. 17 

man; his still, small, but all-prevading and effica- 
cious voice, proclaiming his existence, his char- 
acter, and his will ; that he is a great God and a 
great King above all gods ; that in his hand are 
the deep places of the earth, and that the strength 
of the hills is his also ; that the sea is his, for he 
made it, and his hands formed the dry land ; that 
he is a God that judgeth in the earth, and is not 
far from every one of us ; that on him we are de- 
pendent, and to him are accountable ; and that he 
will bring every work into judgment, with every 
secret thing, whether it be good or evil. And it 
is a voice which each individual who is enlighten- 
ed, and not scathed by iniquity till he is twice 
dead, will hear, and in some measure feel. 

In proportion as he hearkens to it, and enters 
into its spirit, he will have a deeper and more op- 
erative conviction of the presence of God, and of 
the nearness, reality, and importance of eternal 
things. He will feel more solemn, more as if one 
thing were needful, as if the favor of God were 
life, and his loving-kindness better than life ; and 
he will be more likely to say, '' O, come, let us 
worship and bow down ; let us kneel before the 
Lord our Maker ; for he is our God, and we are 
the people of his pasture and the sheep of his 
hand." 

This was designed to be the effect of the still- 
ness of the Sabbath, and this is the preparation 
which men need when they go to the house of 

2* 



18 THE SABBATH. 

God, and hear his voice speaking, through the liv- 
ing ministry, to the ear, in order to make it like 
the rain and the snow, that come down from hea- 
ven and water the earth, causing it to bring forth 
and bud, that it may give seed to the sower and 
bread to the eater. So, when men rightly keep 
the Sabbath, will the word of the Lord be. It 
will not return void, but will accomplish that which 
pleases him, and prosper in the thing whereunto 
he sends it. In the prophetic language of inspira- 
tion, " Men will go out wdth joy, and be led forth 
vvith peace ; the mountains and the hills will break 
forth before them into singing, and all the trees of 
the field will clap their hands. Instead of the thorn 
will come up the fir-tree, and instead of the brier, 
the myrtle-tree ; and it will be to the Lord for a 
name, and for an everlasting sign, that shall not 
be cut off" 

Thus the keeping of the Sahhath ?nokes God 
knowriy gives efficacy to his moral governmenty in- 
C7 cases the nmnher and fidelity of his subjects, and 
conimuihicates, to a greater extent than can otherwise 
he done, the benefits of his holy and perfect reign. 

The keeping of the Sabbath promotes the same 
end in another way, by directing attention to Je- 
hovah, not merely as the Creator, but as the Pre- 
server and Benefactor, of men. Not only is it 
true that ** <9/him are all things," but equally true 
that " by him are all things." He is not only the 
Former of our bodies and the Father of our spirits, 



WHY GOD APPOINTED IT. 19 

but " in him we live and move, and have our be- 
ing." He keeps the breath in our nostrils, the 
blood flowing in our veins, and the spirit of life 
within us. He not only piled up the mountains 
and scooped out the valleys, made the channels 
foj^ the river, and the bed for the sea, but he mak- 
eth the grass to grow upon the mountains, and the 
corn to spring in the valleys. His rivers run among 
the hills. He visiteth the earth and watereth it. 
He maketh it soft with showers, and he blesseth 
the springing of it. The earth is full of the riches 
of Ibis goodness. So is that great and wide sea, 
wherein are things creeping innumerable, and 
where goeth that leviathan which lie hath made 
to play therein. These all wait upon him, and he 
giveth them their meat. What he giveth, they, in 
w^ays of his appointment, gather. And when he 
withholdeth, they die. He openeth his hand an>l 
supplieth the wants of every living thing. Of him ^ 
and through him, and to hiin are all things. 

The Sabbath was designed to make men feel 
this, and lead them to act accordingly ; to treat Je- 
hovah as their Maker, Preserver, and Benefactor ; 
and render to him the obedience which their re- 
lations to him require. 

But to men he has special claims, over and 
above those which result from creation, preserva- 
tion, and the bestowment of all temporal favors. 
When they, by rebellion, were lost — when there 
was no eye to pity and no arm to save — then his 



20 THE SABBATH. 

eye pitied and his arm brought salvation. He laid 
help for them upon One who is mighty, and who 
came to take away their sins by the sacrifice of 
himself. Though he was rich, for their sakes he 
became poor, that they, through his poverty, might 
be rich. He was wounded for their transgres- 
sions, and bruised for their iniquities. The chas- 
tisement of their peace was upon him, and by his 
stripes they are healed. He bare their sins in his 
own body on the tree ; entered the holy place 
with his blood, and obtained eternal redemption 
for them. Nor did he merely die for their sins. 
He rose again for their justification. And he now 
lives, and makes intercession for them, and offers 
them all the blessings of his salvation, without 
money and without price. Whosoever will may 
come to him, and them that come he will in no 
wise cast out. Though their sins be as scarlet, 
they shall be white as snow ; though they be red 
like crimson, they shall be as wool. From all 
their filthiness and their idols he will cleanse them. 
A new heart will be given them, and a new spirit 
put within them. He will take away the heart of 
stone, and give them a heart of flesh. He will be 
their God, and they shall be his people. 

Surely they are not their own. They did not 
create themselves. They do not preserve them- 
selves. They are not the authors of the blessings 
which they enjoy. Above all, they ** are bought 
with a price," and "redeemed not with corrupti- 



THE RIGHTS OF GOD. 21 

ble things, as silver and gold, but with the pre- 
cious blood of Christ/' who loved them, and gave 
himself for them, that whosoever believeth on 
him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 

Such are some of the truths which the Sabl)ath 
inculcates. It commemorates the icork of God, as 
Creator, Preserver, Benefactor, and Redeemer, It 
is the day which the Lord has made for this pur- 
pose, and which he blesses to this end. It also 
points to a rising Savior, a finished redemption, 
deliverance, through grace, from an eternal hell, 
and exaltation to an eternal heaven. And it is a 
powerful means of leading men to live not unto 
themselves, but unto Him who died for them, and 
rose again ; and thus to glorify him in body and 
spirit, w^hich are pre-eminently his. 

They are his by creation, his by preservation, 
and his by all the blessings which they enjoy. 
They are his by redemption ; and his, through 
the influence of the Sabbath and its attendant 
means of grace, they may be, and, if not rejected, 
will be, by adoption, and heirship to an inheri- 
tance incorruptible, undefiled, and not to fade 
away. 

Thus the Sabbath was designed to commemo- 
rate and enforce the rights of God — those which 
result from creation, preservation, and redemption. 

His right to men, to all which they possess, or 
can obtain, and to all things, is liigher and more 



22 THE SABBATH. 

perfect than does or can belong to any other 
being. His rights are original, independent, eter- 
nal. His are the kingdom, the power, and the 
glory. His the absolute ownership, the rightful 
possession, and the just final disposal of all things. 
For he hath created all, and for his pleasure they 
are and were created. And his pleasure is always 
right, always perfect, and promotive of the high- 
est good of all who obey him. 

One conclusion which results from the above- 
mentioned truths, and to which we invite univer- 
sal attention, is, Whatever Jehovah does, or suffers 
to be done, he wrongs no one. 

Though his way be in the great deep, his goings 
past finding out, and the reasons of his dealings to 
mortals are not known, yet he has reasons — good 
reasons, the best reasons — reasons which, like 
himself, are perfect, and which, when published, 
will lead all the good io cry, ** Alleluia ! for the 
Lord God omnipotent reigneth.'' 

When he lets the winds out of his fists, and 
they sweep the ocean, break the pride of navies, 
and sink the treasures of a thousand hearts, he 
wronsrs no one. When he suffers a fire to be 

o 

kindled, and insurers and insured see their all go 
up in smoke, he wrongs no one. 

If, with his providential finger, he touch the 
currency or the commerce of a country, and all is 
in confusion, and the wise men, the great, and 
the mighty men who try to adjust it, dash one 



THE RIGHTS OF GOD. 23 

against another, like the waves of the sea, and 
accumulated millions vanish, he wrongs no one. 
Though he turn the fruitful field into a wilderness, 
and the mart of nations into a desert, he wrongs 
no one. When he comes and lays his hand on 
that little child who has just opened its eyes on 
creation, and it closes them and passes away, he 
does not wrong even her who gave it birth ; ** for 
the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken '* only Ms 
own. And though he doeth his pleasure in the 
armies of heaven, and among the inhabitants of 
earth, and with all things throughout the universe, 
he doeth all things well. 

This the Sabbath was appointed to make men 
feel, and lead them to say in view of all that God. 
does, '' It is the Lord : let him do as seemeth 
good in his sight.'' *^ Though the fig-tree should, 
not blossom, and there be no fruit in the vine, the 
labor of the olive should fail, and the fields yield 
no meat, the flocks be cut off from the fold, and 
there be no herd in the stall, yet will I rejoice in 
the Lord, and joy in the God of my salvation.*' 
*^ Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him.'* 

Another conclusion, which results from the 
facts above mentioned, is, that 77ien have no rights 
to any thing but those which God gives them. Their 
rights are derived and dependent. Without infor- 
mation from the Giver, they would never know 
what these rights are. This information he has 
given in the Bible ; all of which is given by inspi- 



24 THE SABBATH. 

ration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, re- 
proof, correction, and instruction in righteous- 
ness, that men who receive and obey it may be* 
come perfect, and be thoroughly furnished unto 
all good works. It shows them what to believe, 
wherein they are wrong, and how to return to 
that which is right. It instructs them in what is 
right, in feeling and conduct, toward God, them- 
selves and their fellow-men ; and it sets before 
them the highest motives to do it. It is the voice 
of God to the soul, testifying words by which it 
may be enlightened, sanctified and saved. 

For this reason every person should own a copy, 
search it daily as the word of God, with earnest 
supplication for the teaching of his Spirit ; and as 
they know his will, they should do it. They will 
then know the truth, and the truth will make them 
free. God will shine into their minds, and give 
them the light of the knowledge of his glory in 
the face of Jesus Christ. In his light they will 
see light, and will become light in the Lord. 
They will know him, and Jesus Christ whom he 
has sent, and will let the light of holiness so shine 
tliat others will be led to glorify their Father in 
heaven. 

They will also know their rights, learn the way 
to exercise them to the mutual good of all, and 
be disposed to take that way. And they will know 
that the right to work seven days in a week is not 
one of them. That right God never gave. That 



NO RIGHT TO VIOLATE IT. 25 

light no man ever had. That right no man can 
get. Human governments cannot give it It Wdn 
never given to them. They Jo not possess it. 
They cannot obtain it, nor can they bestow it 
upon others. 

Then will all men know, too, that if any one, in 
the government or out of the government, takes 
seven days each week for secular business and 
gain, he does it wlioUy ivithout right. 

For such purposes the Sabbath was not made 
or given to man. It is not theirs. And an honest 
man will not knowingly take w^hat is not his. He 
will be content with that which belongs to him, 
and will conscientiously abstain from taking more. 
The Sabbath, for secular business and gain, be- 
longs to no man, and no honest man, who knows 
this, will take it. This should be understood by all. 

As the Bible and the knowledge of facts are dis- 
seminated, and the will of God made known, it 
will be understood, through the length and breadth 
of the country, and throughout the world. Ho- 
nest men, who know the truth in regard to tht^ 
Sabbath, will act accordingly. They are doing it 
to a great extent now. The manner in which men 
treat the Sabbath is developing their character, 
and showing whether they are contented with the 
periods of labor which belong to them, or are dis- 
posed to take more. If they are intelligently dis- 
posed to take more, they are not, at heart, honest 
men. 

3 



26 THE SABBATH. 

To six days, for secular business, men have a 
right. God has given it. '* Six days shalt thou 
labor, and do all thy v^ork." Why must men do 
all their v^ork in six days of the vreek ] Because 
there are no more days, in which to v^ork. God 
never made but six v^orking days. He never 
gave any more. No man has any more. 

Yet another day is added to every w^eek. To 
that, also, every man hsB a right, for the purpose 
for w^hich it was made. He has a right to remem- 
her it ; that, at such a time, it will come ; and to 
order all his worldly concerns in such a manner 
as to be prepared for it. When it comes, he has 
a right to keep it holy to the Lord ; not as a day 
of worldly business ; but as a day of rest, and of 
special devotion to the worship of God and to the 
spiritual good of men. This is the right of the 
foor, as really as of the rich ; of servants, as well 
as of masters. All have a right to labor six days 
in a week, because God has given it. All have a 
right to rest one day in seven, because God has 
given that. His command is, ^^ Remember the 
Sabbatii day, and keep it holy. In it thou shalt 
not do any work ; thou, nor thy son, nor thy 
daughter, nor thy man-servant, nor thy maid-ser- 
vant, nor thy cattle, nor the stranger that is with- 
in thy gates;" and all men have a right, and it is 
their duty to obey him. 

This right does not come from men. It comes 
from God. Like the right to live, to see the sun, 



NO RIGHT TO VIOLATE IT. 27 

and breathe the air, it vests in humanity, and is 
inalienahle. No human government gave it, and 
no human government, without deep injustice, can 
take it aw^ay. 

Though government is an ordinance of God, 
and magistrates are his ministers, designed to be 
a terror to evil-doers, and a praise to them that 
do well, yet it was not instituted to give rights, but 
to guard them; to protect men in the enjoyment 
of them, and in the proper application of them to 
the concerns of this life. The right to keep the 
Sabbath lies back of human government, and rests 
on the same foundation with government itself; 
namely, the revealed will of God, and the wants 
of the human family. 

There is not a laborer on the canal, or railroad, 
in the manufactory or workshop, or in any depart- 
ment of worldly business, who has not a right, 
w^hen the Sabbath comes, to keep it holy to the 
Lord; to worship him, and promote the spiritual 
good of men. This right is understood, asserted 
and maintained, by increasing numbers. 

The crew of a vessel in one of our harbors was 
ordered by the captain to labor on the Sabbath, 
in preparation for a voyage. They refused, as- 
signing a reason their right to rest on the Sabbath 
while in the harbor, and to attend to the appro- 
priate duties of that day. The captain dismissed 
them, and attempted to procure another crew. 
He applied to numbers who refused. He then 



2S THE SABBATH. 

met an old sailor, and asked him if he would ship. 
He said, *' No ! " " Why not V said the captain. 
*' Because,'* said the sailor, ** the man who will 
rob the Almighty of his day, I should be afraid^ 
would, if he could, rob me of my wages." The 
captain could not find a crew, and on Monday wnn 
glad to take the old one. They engaged again, 
and showed by their conduct, that the keeping of 
the Sabbath had fitted them the better for the du- 
ties of the week. 

A man was applied to, and offered a large sala- 
ry, to superintend the running of the cars on a rail- 
road. He consented to take the office on condi- 
tion that no cars should run on the Sabbath. This 
caused the board of directors to discuss the ques- 
tion whether they should confine the running of 
the cars to the six working days. A part were in 
favor of it ; but two, who were very rich, were op- 
posed to it, and had sufficient influence to turn 
the vote the wrong way. The man refused to ac- 
cept the office. ^' It will not do for me," said he, 
*^ to work on the Sabbath. I know how it will 
end. I have seen it tried, till I am satisfied. It is 
the way to fail and come to nothing." Soon after, 
one of those rich men did fail. The other died. 
Did either of them receive any lasting benefit from 
the running of their cars on the Sabbath ? And do 
men ordinarily, on the whole, gain any thing valu- 
able in that way 1 

Another man, who had been accustomed to go 



NO RIGHT TO VIOLATE IT. 29 

with the cars on week days, informed his wife 
that he had been requested to go with the cars on 
the Sabbath. She replied, '' I take it for granted 
that you do not intend to go.'* Such was her con- 
fidence in her husband, that she took it for granted 
that he would not do a wicked thing for money 
He told her that, if he should not go, he might 
lose his place ; that he had no other employment, 
the times were hard, and he had a family to sup- 
port. ** I know it," said she, ^' but I hope you will 
not forget that, if a man cannot support a family 
by keeping the Sabbath, he certainly cannot sup- 
port them by breaking it '' — a sentence which 
ought to be written in letters of gold, and held up 
to the view of all Christendom. If a man cannot 
support a family hy keeping the Sahhatli, he certain- 
ly cannot support them by hrealcing it. ** I am very 
glad,'' said the man, *' that you think so. I think 
so myself. That was what I wanted — to see whe- 
ther we think alike." He told the superintendent 
that he liked his situation, and should be very 
sorry to lose it, but that he could not go with the 
mail on the Sabbath ; that he wished to attend 
public worship, and go with his children to the 
Sabbath-school. He did not lose his place, nor 
did he suffer in a pecuniary point of view. He 
prospered more than before, and lives to bear his 
testimony, not only to the duty, but to the utility, 
even for this world, of keeping the Sabbath. The 
prospects of children whose parents go regularly 

3* 



30 THE SABBATH. 

with them to the house of God on the Sabbath, 
are far different from those of children whose pa- 
rents go with the rail-cars, or engage in secular 
business on that day. The Lord visits the iniqui- 
ties of the fathers upon the children to the third 
and fourth generation of those who hate him, and 
shows mercy to thousands of those who love him 
and keep his commandments. In the way of righ- 
teousness there is life, and in the pathway thereof 
there is no death. 

There is a sense in which, under God, a man 
owns himself. But he has no such title even to 
himself, as gives him a right to employ himself in 
worldly business on the Sabbath. That right was 
not given, when his body and soul were given. 
When a man buys a horse he owns him. But he 
has no such title as gives him a right to use the 
horse in secular business on the Sabbath. That 
right was not given when the horse was given. A 
man raises an ox on his farm ; but that gives him 
no right to employ the beast in worldly business 
on the Sabbath. That right was not given when 
the beast was given. On the contrary, that right 
was expressly withheld by the Maker and Ownet 
of the beast. Though the heaven of heavens can- 
not contain him, yet he cares even for oxen^ and 
provides for their wants. He has guarantied to 
them one day of rest in seven, and he will not suf- 
fer any one to deprive them of it with impunity. 

Men have a right to fire and to water. But it is 



NO RIGHT TO VIOLATE IT. 31 

only for the purposes for which those elements 
were made. A man has no such right to fire that 
he may throw it into his neighbor's building. He 
has no such right to water that he may drown his 
neighbor's child in it. And he has no such right to 
fire, or water, as makes it proper to kindle the 
one, or raise the steam of the other, to run a rail- 
car on the Sabbath for purposes of worldly gain. 
That right was not given when the fire and water 
were given. Nor was the wind given to take a ves- 
sel from the harbor on the Sabbath, carrying the 
sailors away from the house of God and all the 
means of grace, for the purpose of making money. 
And men have no moral right to employ it for 
that end. 

They have no r^.ght to the elements, or the ani- 
mals, except for itie purposes for which they were 
made and giveu to men. To be employed in secu- 
lar business on the Sabbath is not one of those fur- 
2)oses. No man has a right so to employ them, and 
if he does so, it is tcholly without right. 

It is also in opposition to an express statute, 
written, by the finger of God, on tables of stone, 
among the permanent, unchanging laws of his 
kingdom, which will be binding, in their spirit, 
upon all who shall know them, in all countries, to 
the end of time. 

7/ is in opposition to another law ; not merely to 



32 THE SABBATH, 

that which was written on the tables of stone, hut to 
a law written, by the finger of God, on the nature 
OF BOTH MAN AND BEAST. They wcTc not made for 
seven days' labor in a week, and they cannot endure 
it toithout diminishing their strength and shortening 
their lives. 

The sabbatical institution is not a positive or 
moral institution merely. It is based upon a natu- 
ral law. And if it is the duty of laboring men not 
to commit suicide, it is their duty to keep the 
Sabbath. 

In the year 1832 the British House of Com- 
mons appointed a committee to investigate the 
effects of laboring seven days in a week, compared 
with those of laboring only six, and resting one. 
That committee consisted of Sir Andrew Agnew, 
Sir Robert Peel, Sir Hobert Inglis, Sir Thomas 
Baring, Sir George Murray, Fowell Buxton, 
Lord Morpeth, Lord Ashley, Lord Viscount 
Sandon, and twenty other members of Parlia- 
ment. They examined a great number of wit- 
nesses, of various professions and employments. 
Among them was John Richard Farre, M. D. of 
London ; of whom they speak as "an acute and 
experienced physician.'' The following is his 
testimony : 

*' I have practised as a physician between 
thirty and forty years ; and during the early part 
of my life, as the physician of a public medical 
institution, I had charge of the poor in one of 



REQUIRED BY NATURAL LAWS. 33 

the most populous districts of London. I have 
had occasion to observe the effect of the ob- 
servance and non-observance of the seventh day 
of rest during this time. I have been in the 
habit, during a great many years, of considering 
the uses of the Sabbath, and of observing its 
rJniscs. The abuses are chiefly manifested in la- 
bor and dissipation. Its use, medically speaking, 
is that of a day of rest. 

** As a day of rest, I view it as a day o^ compen- 
sation for the inadequate restorative powder of the 
body under continued labor and excitement. A 
physician always has respect to the preservation 
of the restorative power; because, if once this be 
lost, his healing ofhce is at an end. A physician 
is anxious to preserv^e the balance of circulation, 
as necessary to the restorative power of the body. 
The ordinary exertions of man run down the cir- 
culation every day of his life ; and the first gene- 
ral law of nature, by which God prevents man 
from destroying himself, is the alternating of day 
and night, that repose may succeed action. But, 
although the night apparently equalises the cir- 
culation, yet it does not sufficiently restore its 
balance for the attainment of a long life. Hence, 
one day in seven, by the bounty of Providence, is 
thrown in as a day of compensation, to perfect by 
its repose the animal system. You may easily de- 
termine this question, as a matter of fact, by trying 
it on beasts of burden. Take that fine animal, the 



34 THE SABBATH. 

horse, and work him to the full extent of his pow- 
ers every day in the week, or give him rest one 
day in seven, and you will soon perceive, by the 
superior vigor with which he performs his func- 
tions on the other six days, that his rest is neces- 
sary to his well being. Man, possessing a supe- 
lior nature, is borne along by the very vigor of 
his mind, so that the injury of continued diurnal 
exertion and excitement on his animal system 
is not so immediately apparent as it is in the 
brute ; but, in the long run, he breaks down 
more suddenly; it abridges the length of his 
life, and that vigor of his old age which (as to 
mere animal power) ought to be the object of his 
preservation. 

*'I consider, therefore, that, in the bountiful pro- 
vision of Providence for the preservation of human 
life, the sabbatical appointment is not, as it has 
been sometimes theologically viewed, simply a 
precept partaking of the nature of a political in- 
stitution, but that it is to be numbered amongst 
the natural duties, if the preservation of life be 
admitted to be a duty, and the premature destruc- 
tion of it a suicidal act. This is said simply as a 
physician, and without reference at all to the theo- 
logical question ; but if you consider further the 
proper effects of real Christianity, namely, peace 
of mind, confiding trust in God, and good-will to 
man, you will perceive in this source of renewed 
vigor to the mind, and through the mind to the 



REQUIRED BY NATURAL LAWS. 35 

body, an additional spring of life imparted from 
this higher use of the Sabbath as a holy rest. 
Were I to pursue this part of the question, I 
should be touching on the duties committed to 
the clergy : but this I will say, — that researches 
in physiology, by the analogy of the working of 
Providence in nature, will show that the divine 
commandment is not to be considered as an arbi- 
trary enactment, but as an appointment necessary 
to man. 

" This is the position in which I would place it, 
as contradistinguished from precept and legisla- 
tion ; I would point out the sabbatical rest as 
necessary to man, and that the gi'eat enemies of 
the Sabbath, and consequently the enemies of 
man, are all laborious exercises of the body or 
mind, and dissipation, which force the circulation 
on that day in which it should repose ; while re- 
laxation from the ordinary cares of life, the enjoy- 
ment of this repose in the bosom of one's family, 
with the religious studies and duties which the 
day enjoins, not one of which, if rightly exercised, 
tends to abridge life, — constitute the beneficial 
and appropriate service of the day. 

^' I have found it essential to my own well-be- 
ing, as a physician, to abridge my labor on the 
Sabbath to what is actually necessary. I have 
frequently observed the premature death of medi- 
cal men from continued exertion. In warm cli- 
mates and in active service this is painfully appa- 



oG THE SABBATH. 

rent. I liave advised the clergyman also, in lieu 
of his Sabbath, to rest one day in the week : it 
forms a continual prescription of mine. I have 
seen many destroyed by their duties on that day ; 
and to preserve others, I have frequently suspend- 
ed them, for a season, froili the discharge of those 
duties. I would say, further, that quitting the 
grosser evils of mere animal living from over-sti- 
mulation and undue exercise of body, the work- 
ing of the mind in one continued train of thought 
is destructive of life in the most distinguished 
class of society, and that senators themselves 
stand in need of reform in that particular. I have 
observed many of them destroyed by neglecting 
this economy of life. Therefore, to all men, of 
whatever class, who must necessarily be occupied 
six days in the week, I would recommend to ab- 
stain on the seventh ; and in the course of life, by 
giving to their bodies the repose, and to their 
minds the change of ideas suited to the day, they 
would assuredly gain by it. In fact, by the in- 
creased vigor imparted, more mental w^ork would 
be accomplished in their lives, A human being is 
so constituted that he needs a day of rest both 
from mental and bodily labor." 

Such is the opinion of this distinguished man 
Nor is it peculiar to him. Other physicians of 
great eminence, and in great numbers, have ex- 
pressed the same ; and facts show that this opi- 
nion is correct. Men tclio labor seven days in a 



REQUIRED BY NATURAL LAWS. 37 

treck arc not as healthy, and do not ordinarily live 
as long as those who toorh hut siXy and rest one. 
Many a man has lost his reason and liis life, who, 
Iiad he kept the Sabbath, might have continued to 
enjoy them. 

The celebrated Wilberforce ascribes his con- 
tinuance for so long a time, under such a pressure 
of cares and labors, in no small degree, to his 
conscientious and habitual observance of the Sab- 
bath. ** O what a blessed day," he says, ** is the 
Sabbath, which allows us a precious interval 
wherein to pause, to come out from the thickets 
of worldly concerns, and give ourselves up to 
heavenly and spiritual objects. Observation and 
my 010 ft experience have convinced^ me that there is a 
special blessing on a right employment of these in- 
tervals. One of their prime objects, in my judg- 
ment is, to strengthen our impressions of invisible 
things, and to induce a habit of living much under 
their influence." *' O, what a blessing is Sunday, 
interposed between the waves of worldly business, 
like the divine path of the Israelites through Jor- 
dan." " Blessed be God, who hath appointed the 
Sabbath, and interposed these seasons of recol- 
lection." " It is a blessed thing to have the Sun- 
day devoted to God." ** There is nothing in 
which I would recommend you to be more strict- 
ly conscientious than in keeping the Sabbath 
holy. By this I mean not only abstaining from all 
unbecoming sports, and common business, but 



38 THE SABBATH. 

from consuming time m frivolous conversation, fay- 
ing or receiving visits, which, among relations, of- 
ten leads to a sad waste of this precious day. I 
can truly declare that to me the Sabhatk has been 
invaluable'^ 

In writing to his friend, he says, " I am strong- 
ly impressed by the recollection of your endeavor 
to prevail upon the lawyers to give up Sunday 
consultations, in which poor Romilly would not 
concur.'* What became of this same poor Ro- 
milly,* who would not consent, even at the solici- 
tation of his friend, to give up Sunday consulta- 
tions ] He lost his reason, and terminated his 
own life. 

Four years afterwards, Castlereagh came to the 
same untimely end. When Wilberforce heard ot 
it, he exclaimed, ** Poor fellow ! He was certain- 
ly deranged — the effect, probably, of continued 
wear of mind. The strong impression on my 
mind is, that it is the effect of the non-observance 
of the Sabbath; both as to abstracting from poli- 
tics, and from the constant recurring of the same 
reflections, and as correcting the false views of 
worldly things, and bringing them down to their 
true diminutiveness. Poor Castlereagh ! He was 
the last man in the world who appeared to be 
likely to be carried away into the commission of 

* Sir Samuel Romilly, solicitor-general of England during the 
administration of Fox, who ternlinated his life November 2, 181S. 



REQUIRED BY NATURAL LAWS. 39 

such an act ; so cool, so self-possessed." " It is 
curious to hear the newspapers speaking of inces- 
sant application to business ; forgetting that by 
the weekly admission of a day of rest, which our 
Maker has enjoined, our faculties would be pre- 
served from the effect of this constant strain.'* 
Being reminded again, by the death of Castle- 
reagh, of the case of Sir Samuel Romilly, he said, 
** If he had suffered his mind to enjoy such oc- 
casional remission, it is highly probable that the 
strings of life would never have snapped from 
over-tension. Alas ! alas ! Poor fellow !'* 

Well might Dr. Farre say, "■ The working of 
mind in one continued train of thought is destruc- 
tive of life in the most distinguished class of socie- 
ty ; and senators themselves need reform in that 
particular. I have observed many of them de- 
stroyed by neglecting this economy of life.'* 

A distinguished financier, charged with an im- 
mense amount of property during the great pecuni- 
ary pressure of 1836 and 18t^7, said, "I should have 
been a dead man, had it not been for the Sabbath. 
Obliged to work from morning till night, througli 
the whole week, I felt on Saturday, especially 
Saturday ofternoon, as if I must have rest. It was 
like going into a dense fog. Every thing looked 
dark and gloomy, as if nothing could be saved. I 
dismissed all, and kept the Sabbath in tlie good old 
way. On Monday it was all bright sunshine. I 
could see through, and I got through. But had it 



40 THE SABBATH. 

not been for the Sabbath, I have no doubt I should 
have been in the grave." 

A distinguished merchant, v^-ho, for tlie last 
twenty years has done a vast amount of business, 
remarked to the writer, " Had it not been for the 
tSabbath, I have no doubt I should have been a 
maniac long ago." This was mentioned in a com- 
pany of merchants, w^hen one remarked, *' That is 

the case exactly with Mr. . He was one of 

our greatest importers. He used to say that the 
Sabbath was the best day in the week to plan suc- 
cessful voyages ; showing that his mind had no 
Sabbath. He has been in the Insane Hospital for 
years, and will probably die there." Many men 
are there, or in the maniac*s grave, because they 
had no Sabbath. They broke a law of 7iature, and 
of nature's God, and found " the way of the trans- 
gressor to be hard." Such cases are so numer- 
ous that a British writer remarks, " We never 
knew a man work seven days in a week who did 
not kill himself or kill his mind." 

Thomas Sewall, M. D. professor of pathology 
and the practice of medicine in the Columbian 
College, Washington, D. C. remarks, '* While I 
consider it the more important design of the insti- 
tution of the Sabbath to assist in religious devotion 
and advance men's spiritual welfare, I have long 
held the opinion that one of its chief benefits has 
reference to his physical and intellectual constitu- 
tion ; affording him, as it does, one day in seven 



REQUIRED BY NATURAL LAWS. 41 

for the renovation of his exhausted energies of 
hotly and mind ; a proportion of time small enough, 
according to the results of my observation, for the 
accomplishment of this object. I have remarked, 
as a general fact, that those to whom the Sabbath 
brings the most entire rest from their habitual la- 
bors, performed the secular duties of the week 
more vigorously, and better than those who con- 
tinue them without intermission. For a number 
of years, I have been in close intimacy and inter- 
course vs'ith men in public life, officers of the go- 
vernment, and representatives in the national le- 
gislature, and eminent jurists, whose labors are 
generally great, and whose duties are arduous and 
pressing. Some of them have considered it their 
privilege, as well as their duty, to suspend their 
public functions, while others have continued them 
to the going down of the Sabbath sun. Upon the 
commencement of the secular week, the one class 
arise with all their powers invigorated and re- 
freshed, while the other come to their duties with 
body and mind jaded and out of tone. I have no 
hesitation in declaring it as my opinion, that if the 
Sabbath were universally observed as a day of 
devotion and of rest from secular occupations, y^rr 
more work ofhody and mind ivould he accomplished,, 
and he hetter done ; more health would he enjoyed^ 
with more ofioeaUh undo independence^ and we should, 
have far less of crime, and fomrty, and suffer ingy 
Reuben D. Mussey, M. D. professor of surgery 

4* 



'l-^ THE SjAIJBATII. 

ill the Ohio Medical College, remarks, '' The Sab- 
hath should he regarded as a most benevolent in- 
stitution, adapted alike to the physical, mental 
and moral wants of man. The experiment has 
hcei) made with animals, and the value of one 
day's rest in seven, for those that labor, in recruit- 
ing their energies and prolonging their activity, 
has been established beyond a doubt. In addition 
to constant bodily labor, the corroding influence 
of incessant 7ne7ital exertion and solicitude cannot 
fail to induce prematitre decay, and to shorten life. 
And there cannot be a reasonable doubt, that, un- 
der the due observance of the Sabbath, life would, 
on the average, be prolonged more than one- 
seventh of its whole period ; that is, more than 
seven years in iifty." 

John P. Harrison, M. D. professor of materia 
medica in the same institution, adds, ** The Sab 
bath was made for man. This truth is forcibly ex- 
emplified in the benefits conferred on the bodies 
of men by a proper observance of God's holy day 
of rest. Incessant uninterrupted toil wears out 
the energies of man's limited strength. The elas- 
ticity of the spring is destroyed by unabated pres- 
sure. The nervous system is especially relieved 
by alternations of activity and repose, and by di- 
versification of impressions. The sacred quietness 
of the Sabbath takes off from the brain that ex- 
cessive fulness of blood which the mental and 
bodily exercise of six days is calculated to pro- 



REQUIRED BY NATURAL LAWS. 43 

cluce. The change of dress, the social worship, 
the physical rest, and the transfer of thought and 
feeling from earthiy interests to higher objects, 
not only harmonize the moral, but they refresh 
and invigorate the bodily powers. All experience 
is expressive of this universal proposition, that 
a longer lifcy and a greater degree of health, are the 
sure results of a carpful regard to the commandment, 
* Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy' " 

In the above remarks of Professors Mussey and 
HarrisoQ numerous other educated and highly re- 
spectable physicians fully concur. 

Ebenezer Alden, M. D. of Massachusetts, re- 
marks, " After much reflection, I am satisfied that 
the Sabbath was made for man, as a ])hysical as 
well as an intellectual and moral being. I view it 
as a day of compensation for the inadequate re- 
storative power of the body, under continued la- 
bor and excitement. The Sabbath holds the 
same relation to the week that night does to day. 
Tt is mercifully interposed as an interruption of 
labor ; a day when the cares and anxieties of life, 
so far as they relate to the body, should be laid 
aside, that man may recruit his strength and re- 
new his exhausted powers. Unnecessary labor 
on the Sabbath is a ^physical sin, a transgression 
of a physical law, a law to which a penalty is at- 
tached, a penalty which cannot be evaded. Who- 
ever tramples upon the Sabbath, making it a day 
of to-.l, instead of a day of rest, is living 'too fast/ 



44 THE SABBATH. 

and will, in consequence, the sooner reach * that 
bourn from Avhence no traveller returns.' Such is 
my opinion, and such, I apprehend, will be found 
to be substantially the opinion of every reflecting 
and well-educated physician." 

At a regular meeting of the New Haven Me- 
dical Association, composed of twenty-five phy- 
sicians, among whom were the professors of the 
Medical College, the following questions were 
considered : 

1. Is the position taken by Dr. Farre in his tes- 
timony before the committee of the British House 
of Commons, in your view, correct ? 

2. Will men who labor but six days in a week 
be more healthy and live longer, other things be- 
ing equal, than those who labor seven 1 

3. Will they do more work, and do it in a bet- 
ter manner ] 

The vote on the above was unanimously in the 
affirmative ; signed by Eli Ives, chairman, and 
Pliny A. Jewett, clerk. 

John C. Warren, M. D. of Boston, professor 
in the Medical College of Harvard University, 
observes, " I concur entirely in the opinion ex- 
pressed by Dr. Farre, whom I personally know 
as a physician of the highest respectability. The 
utility of observing the Sabbath as a day of rest, 
considered in a secular point of view, rests upon 
one of the most general of the laws of nature, the 
law of 2)eriodicity, So far as my obsei*vation has 



REQUIRED BY NATURAL LAWS. 45 

extended, those persons who are in the habit of 
avoiding worldly cares on the Sabbath, are tliose 
most remarkable for the perfect performance 
of their duties during the v/eek. The influence 
of a change of thought, on the Sabbath, upon the 
minds of such persons, resembles that of the 
change of food upon the body. It seems to give 
a fresh spring to the mental operations, as the 
latter does to the physical. / have aftnii belief 
that such persons are able to do more work^ and do 
it in a better manner, in six days, than if tliey work- 
ed the tvhole seven. The breathing of the pure and 
sublime atmosphere of a religious Sabbath re- 
freshes and invigorates the spirit. It forms an 
epoch in our existence from which we receive a 
new impulse, and thus constitutes the best prepa- 
ration for the labors of the following week.'* 

Gilbert Smith, M. D. late president of the Col- 
le<^e of Physicians in the city of New York, says, 
** I have read with much satisfaction Dr. Fan-e's 
testimony, and unhesitatingly subscribe to his 
views.*' 

The opinions of the above and many other dis- 
tinguished medical gentlemen are abundantly con- 
firmed by facts. Men who labor but six days in 
a week are more healthy and strong than those 
who labor seven. They do more work, and live, 
upon an average, to a greater age. This has been 
strikingly exemplified in numerous cases. 

Dr. F. Backus and seven other respectable phy- 



46 THE SABBATH. 

sicians of Rochester, New York, have given the 
follow^ing testimony : " We fully concur in the 
opinions expressed by Drs. Farre and Warren. 
Having most of us lived on the Erie Canal since 
its completion, we have uniformly witnessed the 
same deteriorating effects of seven days' working 
upon the physical constitution, both of man and 
beast, as have been so ably depicted by Dr. 
Farre." They are more sickly than others, bring 
upon themselves, in great numbers, a premature 
old age, and sink to an untimely grave. 

Nor is it true that men who labor six days in a 
week, and rest on one, are more healthy merely, 
and live longer than those who labor seven ; but 
they do more worky and in a hctter manner. The 
experiment was tried in England upon two thou- 
sand men. They were employed for years, seven 
days in a week. To render them contented 'w\ 
giving up their right to the Sabbath as a day of 
rest, that hirthright of the human family , they paid 
them double wages on that day, eight days' wages 
for seven days' work. But they could not keep 
them healthy, nor make them moral. Nor can 
men ever be made moral, or kept most healthy in 
that way. Things went badly, and they changed 
their course — employed the workmen only six 
days in a week, and allowed them to rest on the 
Sabbath. The consequence was, that they did 
more work than ever before. This, the superin- 
tendent said, was owing to two causes, viz. the 



REQUIRED BY NATURAL LAWS. 47 

demoralization of the people under the first system, 
and their exhaustion of bodily strength^ which was 
visible to the most casual observer. Such a course 
will always demoralize men, and diminish theii* 
strength. 

It was tried on the northern frontier of the 
United States, during the last war. AVhen build- 
ng vessels, making roads, and performing other 
aborious services, the commander stated that it 
was not profitable to employ the men on the Sab- 
bath, for it was found that they could not, in the 
course of the week, do as much work. 

In the year 1839 a committee was appointed 
in the legislature of Pennsylvania, who made a 
report with regard to the employment of laborers 
on their canals. In that report, they say, in refer- 
ence to those who had petitioned against the em- 
ployment of the workmen on the Sabbath, *' They 
assert, as the result of their experience, that both 
man and beast can do more work by resting one 
day in seven, than by working on the whole 
seven.'' They then add, ** Your committee feel 
free to confess, that their oivn experience as busi- 
ness men, farmers, or legislators, corresponds 
with the assertion." 

The minister of marine in France has address- 
ed a letter to all the maritime prefects, directing 
that no workman, except in case of absolute ne- 
cessity, be employed in the government dock- 
yards pn th^ Sabbath, Que reason which he 



4S THE SABBATH. 

gives is, that men who do not rest on the Sab- 
bath do not perform as much labor during the 
week, and, of course, that it is not profitable to 
the state to have labor performed on that day. 
Another reason is, that it is useful to the state to 
promote among the laboring classes the rcligiov^ 
observance of the Sahhath. This is, no doubt, the 
casis. And one way to promote among the labor- 
ing classes the religious observance of the Sab- 
bath, is for functionaries of the government to sus- 
pend their secular business, and religiously ob- 
serve the day themselves. Let the distinguished 
classes of society set an example of keeping the 
Sabbath, and others may be expected to follow it. 
And let employers in no case unnecessarily de- 
prive those whom they employ of the rest and 
privileges which God has provided for them, and 
the enjoyment of which would promote the mu- 
tual good of all. The policy which seeks to gain 
by the violation of the laws vjhich infinite wisdom 
and goodness have established^ is selfish ^ short- 
sighted^ and defeats its own end. 

The experiment was tried in a large flour- 
ing establishment. For a number of years they 
worked the mills seven days in a week. The 
superintendent was then changed. He ordered 
all the works to be stopped at eleven o'clock on 
Saturday night, and to start none of them till one 
o'clock on Monday morning, thus allowing a full 
Sabbath every week. And the same men, during 



REQUIRED BY NATURAL LAWS. 49 

the year, actually ground thousands of bushels 
more than had ever been ground, in a single year, 
in that establishment before. The men, having 
been permitted to cleanse themselves, put on their 
best apparel, rest from worldly business, go with 
their families to the house of Grod, and devote the 
Sabbath to its appropriate duties, were more 
healthy, moral, punctual and diligent. They lost 
less time in drinking, dissipation and quarrels. 
They were more clear-headed and whole-hearted, 
knew better how to do things, and were more dis- 
posed to do them in the right way. 

This, under similar circumstances, will always 
be the case. Men who labor six days in a week, 
and rest one, can do more work in all kinds of bu- 
siness, and in all parts of the world, and do it 
in a better manner, than those who labor seven. 
The Sabbath was not designed, and it is not 
adapted, to injure men, even in their business 
for this world, but to benefit them ; and those 
who will not keep it reject their own mercies. 

It has been said that those who manufacture 
salt by boiling must violate the Sabbath, because 
it will not do to let the kettles cool down as often 
as once a week. But a gentleman tried the expe- 
riment, v/ho said that, if he could not keep the 
Sabbath, he would not make salt. He had thirty- 
two kettles. He allowed the fires to go out, and 
all the works to stop fi'om Saturday till Monday. 
His men attended public v/orship on the Sabbath. 

5 



50 THE SABBATH. 

In the course of the season they boiled seventy- 
eight days, and made, upon an average, over two 
hundred bushels of salt a day — in all fifteen thou- 
sand eight hundred and seventy bushels ; and at 
an expense, for breakage and repairs, of only six 
cents. At the close of the season he told his Sab- 
bath-breaking neighbors how^ much he had made ; 
but it was so much more than they had made them- 
selves, that they could hardly believe him. Their 
expenses for breakage and repairs had been much 
greater than his. Not a man, with the same di- 
mension of kettles, had made as much salt as he. 
Resting on the Sabbath does not, on the whole, 
hinder men in their business. It helps them both 
as to the quantity and the quality of their work. 

Even fishermen abroad on the ocean, w^ho fish 
but six days in a week, ordinarily prosper better 
than those who fish seven. A gentleman wdio re- 
sides in a fishing town, and who has made exten- 
sive inquiries, remarks, *' Those who fish on the 
Sabbath do not, ordinarily, take any more, during 
the season, than those who keep the Sabbath. 
They do not make more money, or prosper better 
for this world. They are not more respectable or 
useful, nor are their families. Their children are 
not more moral, and it seems to be no better for 
them, m any respect ^ than if they fished and did 
business only six days in a week. 

^' One man followed fishing eight years. The 
first four he fished on the Sabbath. The next four 



REQUIRED BY NATURAL LAWS. 51 

he strictly kept the Sabbath, and is satisfied that 
it was for his advantage in a temporal point of 
view. Another man, who was accustomed for 
some years to fish on the Sabbath, afterwards 
discontinued it, and found that his profits were 
greater than before. Another man testifies that, 
in the year 1827, he and his m-en took more fish 
by far than any who were associated with them, 
though he kept the Sabbath and they did not. It 
was invariably his practice to rest from Saturday 
till Monday. Though it was an unfavorable sea- 
son for the fisheries, he was greatly prospered in 
every way, and to such an extent that many re- 
garded his success as almost miraculous. 

" Examples like the above might be multiplied 
to almost any extent. So far as I can learn by di- 
ligent inquiry, all who have left off fishing on the 
Sabbath, without an exception, think the change 
has been for their temporal advantage. 

'^ He who has been more successful than any 
other among us this season, has strictly kept the 
Sabbath, as have also his men. They went to the 
coast of Labrador, were gone less time than usual, 
took more fish than the crew of any other vessel, 
and more than they could bring home. They gave 
away thirty-five hundred fish before they left the 
ground. In thirteen days they caught eleven hun- 
dred quintals.'' 

A gentleman belonging to another fishing town, 
which sends out more than two hundred vessels in 



52 THE SABBASH. 

a year, writes as follows : *' I think it may safely 
be stated that those vessels which have not fished 
on the Sabbath have, taken together, met with 
7nore than ordinary success. The vessel whose 
earnings w^ere the highest, the last year and the 
year before, was one on board which the Sabbath 
was kept by refraining from labor, and by reli- 
gious worship. There is one firm which has had 
eight vessels in its employ this season. Seven have 
fished on the Sabbath, and one has not. That one 
has earned seven hundred dollars more than the 
most successful of the six. There are two other 
firrds employing each three vessels. Two out of 
the three, in each case, have kept the Sabbath, 
and in each case have earned mor^ than two- 
thirds of the profits,^' 

The Sabbatical institution is in accordance with 
the nature of man, and the observance of it is pro- 
fitable unto all things. 

The same law is impressed by the same Divine 
hand on the nature of the laboring animals. 
When employed but six days in a week, and al- 
lowed to rest one, they are more healthy thaw 
they can be when employed during the whole 
seven. They do more work, and live longer. 

The experiment was tried on a hundred and 
twenty horses. They were employed, for years, 
seven days in a week. But they became un- 
healthy, and finally died so fast that the owner 
thought it too expensive, and put them on a six 



REQTJIRKD HY NATURAL LAWS. 53 

days' arrangement. After this he was not obliged 
to replenisii them one fourth part as often as be- 
fore. Instead of sinking continually, his horses 
came up again, and Hved years longer than they 
could ha.ve done on the other plan. 

A manufacturing company, which had been ac- 
customed to carry their goods to market with their 
own teams, kept them employed seven days in a 
week, as that was the time in which they could 
go to the market and return. But by permitting 
the teams to rest on the Sabbath, they found that 
they could drive them the same distance in six 
days, that they formerly did in seven, and with 
the same keeping preserve them in better order. 

At a tavern in Pennsylvania, a man, who had 
arrived the evening before, was asked on Sabbath 
morning whether he intended to pursue his jour- 
ney on that day. He answered, *^ No.'' He was 
asked, '' Why not V '' Because," said he, " I am 
on a long journey, and wish to perform it as soon 
as I can. I have loug been accustomed to travel 
on horseback, and have found that, if I stop on 
the Sabbath, my horse will travel farther during 
the week than if I do not." 

A gentleman in Vermont, who was in the habit 
of driving his horses twelve miles a day seven 
days in a week, afterwards changed his practice, 
and drove them but six days, allowing them to 
rest one. He then found that, with the same 
keeping, he could drive them fifteen miles a day, 



54 THE SABBATH. 

and preserve them in as good order as before. 
So that a man may rest on the Sabbath, and let 
his horses rest, yet promote the benefit of both, 
and be in all respects the gainer. 

Two neighbors in the state of New-York, each 
with a drove of sheep, started on the same day for 
a distant market. One started several hours be- 
fore the other, and travelled uniformly every day. 
The other rested every Sabbath. Yet he arriv- 
ed at the market first, with his flock in a better 
condition than that of the other. In giving an 
account of it, he said that he drove his sheep 
on Monday about seventeen miles, on Tuesday 
not over sixteen, and so lessening each day, till 
on Saturday he drove them only about , eleven 
miles. But on Monday, after resting on the Sab- 
bath, they would travel again seventeen miles, and 
so on each week. But his neighbor's sheep, which 
were not allowed to rest on the Sabbath, before 
they arrived at the market, could not travel with- 
out injury more than six or eight miles in a day. 

Two men from another part of the same state, 
each with a drove of sheep, started at the same 
time for another market. One rested and the 
other travelled on the Sabbath, through the whole 
journey. And the man who kept the Sabbath ar- 
rived at the market as many days before the other 
as he rested Sabbath-days on the road. 

A number of men started together from Ohio, 
with droves of cattle for Philadelphia. They had 



REQUIRED BY NATURAL LAWS. 55 

often been before, and had been accustomed to 
drive on the Sabbath as on other days. One had 
now changed his views as to the propriety of travel- 
ling on that day. On Saturday he inquired for pas- 
tures. His associates wondered that so shrewd a 
man should think of consuming so great a portion 
of his profits by stopping with such a drove a 
whole day. He stopped, however, and kept the 
Sabbath. They, thinking that they could not af- 
ford to do so, went on. On Monday he started 
again. In the course of the week he passed them, 
arrived first in the market, and sold his cattle to 
great advantage. So impressed were the others 
with the benefits of thus keeping the Sabbath, that 
ever afterwards they followed his example. 

A gentleman started from Connecticut with his 
family for Ohio. He was on the road about four 
weeks, and rested every Sabbath. From morning 
to night others, journeying the same way, were 
passing by. Before the close of the week he pass- 
ed them. Those who went by late on the Sabbath 
he passed on Monday ; those who went by a little 
earlier he passed on Tuesday ; and so on, till be- 
fore the next Sabbath he had passed them all. 
His horses were no better than theirs, nor were 
they better fed. But having had the benefit of 
resting on the Sabbath, according to the command 
of God and the law of nature, they could out-tra- 
vel those who had violated that law. 

A company of men in the state of New- York 



56 THE SABBATH. 

purchased a tract of land in Northern Illinois, and 
started with their families and teams to take pos- 
session of it. A part of them rested on the Sab- 
bath. The others continued their journey on that 
as on other days. Before the next Sabbath those 
who had stopped passed by the others. This they 
did every week, and each succeeding week a little 
earlier than they did the week before. Had the 
journey continued, they would soon have been so 
far ahead that the others would not be able to over- 
take them on the Sabbath. They were the first 
to arrive at their new homes, with men and teams 
in good order. Afterwards the others came jaded 
and worn out by the violation of the law of nature 
and the command of God. 

Great numbers have made similar experiments, 
and uniformly with similar results ; so that it is 
now settled hy facts ^ that the observance of the 
Sabbath is required by a natural law, and that, 
were man nothing more than an animal, and were 
his existence to be confined to this world, it would 
be for his interest to observe the Sabbath. Should 
all the business, which is not required by the ap- 
propriate duties of the Sabbath, be confined to six 
days in a week, the only time which God has 
made or given to man, or to which he has a right 
for that purpose, both man and beast might enjoy 
higher health, obtain longer life, and do more 
work, and in a better manner, than by the secular 
employment of the whole seven. 



REQUIRED BY NATURAL LAWS. 57 

But man is an angel as well as an animal. He 
has a soul as well as a body. The Sabbath was 
made for both, especially for the soul. It derives 
its chief importance from its influence on that 
which is deathless. It is the great institution for 
elevating^ furifying, and blessing the soul, and fit- 
ting it not only for usefulness and happiness on 
earth, but for glory, honor, irmnortality , and eternal 
life in heaven. 

Even the intellect, incessantly employed, be- 
comes jaded, enfeebled, and deranged. Men of 
strong and vigorous powers, disciplined and train- 
ed for the most effective efforts, have found, by 
experience, that they can accomplish more, and 
in a better manner, by employing the mind, espe- 
cially in one continued train, not over six days in 
a week, and resting one, than they can by em- 
ploying it the whole seven. After trying both 
ways, they find that they can accomplish in one 
what they cannot accomplish in the other, and 
have thus proved that the Sabbath was made for 
the intellect, as well as the other parts of man. 
Scientific and literary men, who study but six 
days in a week, ordinarily make greater progress, 
in the course of the year, than those who study 
seven. Experience has shown the same with re- 
ference to students in colleges. After the rest and 
duties of the Sabbath, the mind is in a better state 
for vigorous and successful eftbrt. The following 
declaration of Sir Matthew Hale is an illustration 
of this truth : 



0§ THE SABBATH. 

** Though my hands and my mind have been as 
full of secular business, both before and after I was 
judge, as, it may be, any man's in England, yet 1 
never wanted time in six days to ripen and fit my- 
self for the business and employments I had to do, 
though I borrowed not one minute from the Lord's 
day to prepare for it, by study or otherwise. But, 
on the other hand, if I had, at any time, borrowed 
from this day any time for my secular employ- 
ment, I found it did further me less than if I had 
let it alone ; and therefore, when some years' ex- 
perience, upon a most attentive and vigilant ob- 
servation, had given me this instruction, I grew 
peremptorily resolved never in this kind to make 
a breach upon the Lord's day, which I have now 
strictly observed for more than thirty years.'' He 
also declared that it had become almost proverbi- 
al with him, when any one importuned him to at- 
tend to secular business on the Sabbath, to tell 
them that if they expected it to " succeed amiss," 
they might desire him to undertake it on that day ; 
that he feared even to tliinlc of secular business on 
the Sabbath, because the resolution then taken 
would be disappointed or unsuccessful ; and that 
the more faithfully he applied himself to the duties 
of the Lord's day, the more happy and successful 
was his business during the week. 

The late distinguished Dr. Wilson, pastor of 
the First Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, 
for a number of years before he became a preach- 



REQUIRED BY NATURAL LAWS. 59 

er of the Gospel, was an eminent lawyer in the 
state of Delaware. He was accustomed, when 
J3ressecl with business, to make out his briefs and 
juepare for his Monday's pleading on the Sab- 
l)ath. But he so uniformly failed, during the 
week, in carrying out his Sunday plans, that it ar- 
rested his attention. As a philosopher, he inquir- 
ed into the cause of his uniform failure, and came 
to the conclusion that it might be, and probably was 
on account of his violation of the Sabbath, by cm- 
ploying it in secular business. He therefore, from 
that time, abandoned the practice of doing any 
tiling for his clients on that day. The difficulty 
ceased. His efforts on Monday were as successful 
as on other days. Such were the facts in his case, 
and many others have testified to similar facts in 
their experience. 

A mechanic in Massachusetts, whose business 
required special skill and care, was accustomed, 
at times, when pressed with business, to pursue it 
on the Sabbath, after having followed it during six 
days of the week. But he so often made mistakes, 
by which he lost more than he gained, that he 
abandoned the practice, as one which he could 
not afford to continue. Mind is no more made to 
work vigorously and continuously in one course 
of effort seven days in a week than the body ; 
and it cannot do it to advantage. 

There are laws of mind as well as of body, which 
no man can annul ; and they have penalties which 



60 THE SABBATH. 

no transgressor can evade. He may seem for a 
time to escape, and even to prosper : but judg- 
ment will come. If he continues his course of 
transgression, he will wither and droop, or, long 
before the proper time, and often suddenly, will 
come to his end, and have none to help him. The 
memory of many a man can recall instances among 
his own acquaintance which have been striking il- 
lustrations of this truth. Mind as well as body 
must have rest^ and the more regularly it has it, 
according to the Divine appointment, other things 
being equal, the more perfect will be the health, 
and the greater the capability of judicious, well- 
balanced, long-continued and effective efforts. 

Clergymen, whose official duties require vigo- 
rous and toilsome efforts on the Sabbath, must 
have some other day for rest, or their premature 
loss of voice, of health, or of life, will testify to 
them and to others the reality and hurtfulness 
of their transgressions. Distinguished scholars, 
jurists, and statesmen have often fallen victims to 
the transgression of this law. Students, literary 
and professional men, who have thoroughly tried 
both ways, have all found that they could accom- 
plish more mental labor, and in a better manner, 
by abstaining from their ordinary pursuits on the 
Sabbath, than by employing the whole week in 
one continuous course of efforts. 

But the great evil of transgressing the law of 
the Sabbat] I is on the heart, Man is a moral as 



DESECRATION LEADS TO VICE. 61 

well as an intellectual being. His excellence, his 
usefulness, and his happiness depend chiefly on 
his character. To the risfht formation and proper 



o 



prop( 



culture of this the Sabbath is essential. Without 
it, all other means will, to a great extent, fail. 
You may send out Bibles as on the wings of the 
wind, scatter religious Tracts like the leaves of the 
forest, and even preach the Gospel, not only in 
the house of God, but at the corner of every 
street ; if men will not stop their worldly business, 
travelling and amusements, and attend to the 
voice which speaks to them from heaven, the 
cares of the world, the deceitfulness of riches and 
the pride of life will choke all these means, and 
lender them unfruitful. Such men do not avail 
themselves of the institution which God has ap- 
pointed to give efficacy to moral influence, and 
which he blesses by his Spirit for that purpose. 
On the other hand, men who keep the Sabbath 
feel its benign effects. Even the external obser- 
vance of it is, to a great extent, connected with 
external morality ; while its internal as well as 
external observance will promote purity of heart 
and life. 

Of twelve hundred and thirty-two convicts who 
had been committed to the Auburn State Prison 
previously to the year 1S38, four hundred and 
forty-seven had been watermen, either boatmen 
or sailors — men who, to a great extent, had been 
kept at work on the Sabbath, and thus deprived 
< 



62 THE SABBATH. 

of the rest and privileges of that Jay. Of those 
twelve hundred and thirty-two convicts, only twen- 
ty-six had. conscientiously kept the Sabbath. 

Of fourteen hundred and fifty who had been 
committed to that prison previously to 1839, five 
liundred and sixty-three had been of the same 
class of men ; and of the whole, only twenty- 
seven had kept the Sabbath. 

Of sixteen hundred and fifty-three who had been 
committed to that prison previously to 1840, six 
hundred and sixty had been watermen, and twenty- 
nine only had kept the Sabbath. Of two hundred 
and three who were committed in one year, ninety- 
seven had been watermen, and only two out of the 
whole had conscientiously kept the Sabbath. 

Thus it appears, from official documents, that 
while the watermen were but a small proportion 
of the whole population, they furnished a very 
large proportion of the convicts ; much larger, it 
is believed, than they would have done had they 
enjoyed the rest and privileges of the christian 
Sabbath. It appears, also, that nearly all the con- 
victs were Sabbath-breakers — men wlio disre- 
garded the duties and neglected the privileges of 
that blessed day. 

The w^atermen had been kept at work, in many 
cases, under the delusive plea that, should they be 
permitted to rest on the Sabbath, they would be- 
come more wicked — an idea which facts, under 
the means of grace, show to be false. 



DESECRATION LEADS TO VICE. 63 

On the Delaware and Hudson Canal, on which 
are more than seven hundred boats, the experi- 
ment has been tried. The directors were told at 
first, that should they not open the locks on the 
Sabbath, the men would congregate in large num- 
bers, and would become more wicked than if they 
should continue to pursue their ordinary business ; 
but the result is directly the reverse. Since the 
locks have not been 023ened, and official business 
has not been transacted on the Lord's day, the 
men have become more moral as well as more 
healthy, and the interests of all hav^ been mani- 
festly promoted by the change. 

Let any class of men enjoy the rest and privi- 
leges of the Sabbath, and the effects will prove 
that it ** was made for man,'' by Him who made 
man ; and who in view of all its consequences, es- 
pecially as the great means of giving efficacy to 
moral government, with truth pronounced it '^ very 
good." 

On the other hand, take away from man the in- 
fluence of the Sabbath and its attendant means of 
grace, and you take away the safeguard of his 
soul ; you bar up the highway of moral influence, 
and lay him open to the incursions and conquests 
of Satan and his legions. Thus man becomes an 
easy prey, and is led captive by the adversary at 
his will. 

Of one hundred men admitted to the INIassachu- 
setts State Prison in one year, eighty-nine had 



64 THE SABBATH. 

lived in habitual violation of the Sabbath and 
neglect of public worship. 

A gentleman in England, w^ho was in the habit, 
for more than twenty years, of daily visiting con- 
victs, states that, almost universally, when brought 
to a sense of their condition, they lamented their 
neglect of the Sabbath, and pointed to their viola- 
tion of it as XhQ principal cause of their ruin. That 
prepared them for, and led them on, step by step, 
to the commission of other crimes, and finallv to 
the commission of that which brought them to the 
prison, and often to the gallows. He has letters 
almost innumerable, he says, from others, proving 
the same thing, and that they considered the viola- 
tion of the Sabbath the great cause of their ruin. 
He has attended three hundred and fifty at the 
place of execution, when they were put to death 
for their crimes. And nine out of ten who were 
brought to a sense of their condition attributed 
the greater part of their departure from God to 
their neglect of the Sabbath. 

Another gentleman, who has been conversant 
with prisoners for more than thirty years, states 
that he found in all his experience, both with re 
gard to those who had been capitally convicted 
and those who had not, that they referred to the 
violation of the Sabbath as the chief cause of their 
crimes ; and that this has been confirmed by all the 
opportunities he has had of examining prisoners. 
Not that this has been the only cause of crime ; 



DESECRATION LEADS TO VICE. 65 

but, like the use of intoxicating liquors, it has 
greatly increased public and private immorality, 
and been the means, in a multitude of cases, of 
premature death. 

Another gentleman, who has had the charge of 
more than one hundred thousand prisoners, and 
has taken special pains to ascertain the causes of 
their crimes, says that he does not recollect a sin- 
gle case of capital offence w^here the party had 
not been a Sabbath-breaker. And in many cases 
they assured him that Sabbath-breaking was the 
first step in their downward course. Indeed, he 
says, with reference to prisoners of all classes, 
nineteen out of twenty have neglected the Sabbath 
and other ordinances of religion. And he has of- 
ten met with prisoners about to expiate their 
crimes by an ignominious death, who earnestly 
enforced upon survivors the necessity of an obser- 
vance of the Sabbath, and ascribed their own 
course of iniquity to a non-observance of that day. 

Says the keeper of one of the largest prisons, 
^^ JVine-tcTiths of our inmates are those who did not 
value the Sabbath^ and were not in the habit of at- 
lending public worship,^^ 

It is not so strange, then, if human nature were 
the same and the effect of Sabbath-breaking the 
same, under the Jewish dispensation as it is now, 
that God should cause the Sabbath-breaker, like 
the murderer, to be put to death. Sabbath-break- 
ing prepared the way for murder, and often led to 

6* 



66 THE SABBATH. 

it ; and it would not be possible to prove that 
Sabbath-breaking, now, is not doing even more 
injury to the people of the United St-ates than 
murder. Should every person in this country 
habitually keep the Sabbath and attend public 
worship, murders would, to a great extent, if 
not wholly cease ; and prisons become compara- 
tively empty. Sabbath-keepers very rarely commit 
murder, or perpetrate other heinous crimes. 

The secretary of a Prison Discipline Society, 
who has long been extensively conversant with 
prisoners, was asked how many persons he sup- 
posed there are in State Prisons who observed the 
Sabbath and habitually attended public worship 
up to the time when they committed the crime for 
which they were imprisoned. He answered, '* I 
do not suppose there are any." An inquiry into 
the facts, it is believed, would show, with but few 
exceptions, this opinion to be correct. Men who 
keep the Sabbath experience the restraining, if 
not the renewing and sanctifying grace of God. 
While they keep the Sabbath, God keeps them. 
When they reject the Sabbath he rejects them ; and 
thus stcffers them to eat the fruit of their own way^ 
and to befitted with their own devices. 

A father, whose son was addicted to riding out 
for pleasure on the Sabbath, was told that if he 
did not stop it his son would be ruined. He did 
not stop it, but sometimes set the example of rid- 
ing out for pleasure himself. His son became a 



DESECRATION LEADS TO VICE* 67 

man, was placed in a responsible situation, and 
intrusted with a large amount of property. Soon 
he was a defaulter, and absconded. In a different 
part of the country he obtained another responsi- 
ble situation, and was again intrusted with a large 
amount of property. Of that he defrauded the 
owner, and fled again. He was apprehended, 
tried, convicted, and sent to the State Prison. 
After years spent in solitude and labor, he wrote 
a letter to his father, and, after recounting his 
course of crime, he added, *^ That was the effect of 
breaking the Sabbath xvhen I was a boy.'' 

Should every convict who broke the Sabbath 
when a boy, and whose father set him the exam- 
ple, speak out from all the State Prisons of the 
country, they would tell a story which would 
cause the ears of every one that should hear it to 
tingle. 

A distinguished merchant, long accustomed to 
extensive observation and experience, and who 
had gained an uncommon knowledge of men, 
said, '' When I see one of my apprentices or 
clerks riding out on the Sabbath, on Monday I 
dismiss him. Such an one cannot be trusted.'* 

Facts echo the declaration — '' Such an one can- 
not be trusted." He is naturally no worse than 
others. But he casts off fear, lays himself open 
to the assaults of the adversary, and rejects the 
means of Divine protection. He ventures unarmed 
into the camp of the enemy, and is made a de- 



68 THE SABBATH. 

monstration to tlie world of the great truth, that 
*'he that trusteth to his own heart is a fool." Not 
a man in Christendom, whatever his character or 
standing, can knowingly and presumptuously 
trample on the Sabbath, devoting it to worldly 
business, travelling, pleasure, or amusement, and 
not debase his character, increase his wickedness, 
and augment the danger that he will be aban- 
doned of God, and given up to final impenitence 
and ruin. 

It was on Sabbath morning, while out on an ex- 
cursion for pleasure, that he who was intrusted 
with great responsibilities, and was thought to be 
worthy of confidence, committed an act which 
was like the letting out of great waters, which 
ceased not to flow, till, wearing their channels 
broader and deeper, they overwhelmed him and 
others in one common ruin. Many a man, setting 
at nought the Divine counsel with regard to the 
Sabbath, and refusing, on that day, to hearken to 
his instruction or reproof, almost before he was 
aware of it, has found himself abandoned of God, 
in the hands of the enemy, chained and fettered 
by transgression, sinking from depth to depth, till 
he was suddenly destroyed, and there was no 
remedy. 

Let every young man^ especially he who has 
gone out from his father"^ s counsels and his m.O" 
thcr''s prayers, remember the Sabbath^ and keep it 
holy, be found habitually in the house of Gody and 



DESECRATION UNPROFITABLE. G9 

under the sound of that Gospel which is able to 
make him wise unto salvation, through faith in 
Christ Jesus, Let him avoid worldly business and 
amusements on that day, as he would avoid the 
gate of hell. 

Evert where they do not lead to abandonment 
in crime, they harden the heart, polkite the affec- 
tions, sear the conscience, and prevent the effi- 
cacy of all the means of grace. They carry the 
soul away from God, on the rapid stream of time, 
towards eternal perdition. Their language is, 
'' No God — no heaven — no hell ! No human ac- 
countability for the things done in the body ! 
Who is Jehovah, that I should serve him ? I 
know not Jehovah, neither will I obey his voice." 

In its progress. Sabbath -breaking sometimes 
seems to become a trial of strength between the 
Sabbath- breaker and his Maker. So besotted is 
he, that he acts as if he thought he could outwit 
or overcome the Almighty, and gain something 
valuable by opposing his will. 

A man in the State of New- York remarked that 
he intended to cheat the Lord out of the next Sab- 
bath by going to a neighboring town to visit his 
friends. He could not afford to take one of hi^ 
own days, and therefore resolved to cheat the 
Lord out of his. On Saturday he went with his 
team into a forest, to get some wood. By the fall 
of a tree he was placed in such a condition that 
he did not attempt to carry his intended fraud 



70 THE SABBATH. 

into execution. He was willing to stay at home. 

But another man in the same State, who had 
spent the Sabbath in getting in his grain, said 
that he had fairly cheated the Almighty out of 
one day. He boasted of it as a mark of his su- 
periority. On Tuesday the lightning struck his 
bam. He gained nothing valuable by working 
on the Sabbath. 

Another man acted as if he thought all the evil 
of working on the Sabbath consisted in its being 
seen. He went out of sight, behind the woods, 
and spent the day in gathering his grain, and put- 
ing it into a vacant building near his field. But 
the lightning struck the building, and, with the 
grain, it was burned to ashes. He who made the 
eye saw what this man did, and so ordered things, 
in his providence, that he gained no real good by 
his transgression. Men are not apt, in the endy to 
gain in that way. 

Seven young men, in a town in Massachusetts, 
started in the same business nearly at the same 
time. Six of them had some property or assist- 
ance from their friends, and followed their busi- 
ness seven days in a week. The other h^d less 
property than either of the six. He had less as- 
sistance from others, and worked in his business 
only six days in a week. He is now the only 
man who has property, and has not failed in his 
business. 

A distinguished merchant, in a large city, said 



DESECRATION UNPROFITABLE. 71 

to the writer, ''It is about thirty years since 1 
came to this city; and every man through this 
whole range, who came down to his store, or suf- 
fered his counting-room to be opened on the Sab- 
bath, has lost his property. There is no need of 
breaking the Sabbath, and no benefit from it. We 
have not had a vessel leave the harbor on the 
Sabbath for more than twenty years. It is alto- 
gether better to get them off on a week day than 
on the Sabbath." It is better even for this world. 
And so with all kinds of secular business. Men 
may seem to gain for a time by the profanation 
of the Sabbath ; but it does not end well. Their 
disappointment, even here, often comes suddenly. 
The writer of this, in a late journey, passed 
near the houses of four men who started together 
for the Far West. On Sabbath morning they 
discussed the question whether it was right and 
best for them to travel on the Lord's day. The 
result was, three of them went onward, and 
reached the city of Buffalo in time to take the 
steamboat Erie, on her last voyage. On that same 
Sabbath morning a company of travellers, in 
another place, discussed the same question with 
regard to the propriety of their travelling on that 
day. And they separated one from another. A 
part went on their journey, and a part stopped 
and attended public worship. Those who went 
on arrived in time to take the same boat. But 
they had not proceeded far when it took fire, 



72 THE SABBATH. 

and was soon in a blaze. Some were consumed ; 
others jumped overboard and were drowned. 
** Never/' said a man who went out to their as- 
sistance, — ** never shall I forget the sound that 
struck upon my ear when I first came within 
hearing of that boat. They were hanging on the 
sides, and the burning cinders were pouiing down 
on their heads, and they were dropping off, and 
dropping off. O, it was like the wailing of despair." 

Those who stopped and attended public wor- 
ship arrived in safety, took another boat, and live 
to testify not only to the duty, but to the utility 
of remembering the Sabbath-day and keeping it 
holy. *' My own brother," said a man who heard 
the above statement, ** was in that very company. 
He stopped and saved his life." How many other 
men have saved their lives, and how many have 
instrumentally saved their souls, by keeping the 
Sabbath and performing its appropriate duties, 
none but the Lord of the Sabbath and the Savior 
of souls can tell. Certain it is that in the keep- 
ing of his commands, though it should not exempt 
men from sudden death, there is great reward. 

A man and his wife were very desirous of ar- 
riving in New-York in season to take the steam- 
boat Lexington. They were so anxious that they 
travelled a great portion of the Sabbath. They 
arrived in season, took the boat, and were among 
the multitude who, on that dismal night, perished 
in the flames or found a watery grave. 



DESECRATION UNPROFITABLE. 73 

A man on the previous Sabbath requested his 
neighbor to go with him to New- York, for the 
purpose of taking the same boat. His neighbor 
refused because it was the Sabbath. He was 
urged, but would not go. The other man then 
went to his son, and urged him to go. He was 
reluctant, but, being strongly urged, he finally 
consented. They started on their journey. They 
reached the boat; but it was to die, and go to 
judgment. They did not gain what they expected 
by travelling on the Sabbath. Great numbers 
have often, very often, when they expected to 
gain an important object, been disappointed, sud- 
denly and awfully disappointed. 

That company of persons who went out on the 
Sabbath in a pleasure-boat, expected to be gain- 
ers. But the tumult within, before the tumult 
without, told tnem that all was not right ; and 
when the boat upset, and the hapless victims sank 
to rise no more, new testimony was added to that 
of thousands, that disobedience to God is not the 
way to gain, even for this world. 

A distinguished mechanic, in a part of the coun- 
try where 'the Sabbath was disregarded, had been 
accustomed for a time to keep his men at work on 
that day. He was afterwards at work for a man 
who regarded the Sabbath, and who, on Saturday, 
was anxious to know what he intended to do ; 
and therefore asked, " What do you expect to do 
to-morrow V He said, " I expect to stop, and keep 

7 



74 THE SABBATH. 

the Sabbath. I used to work on the Sabbath, 
and often obtained higher wages than on other 
days. But I so often lost, during the week, more 
than all I could gain on the Sabbath, that I gave 
it up years ago. I have kept the Sabbath since, 
and I find it works better." It does work better. 
And all who make the experiment will, in due 
time, find it so. 

Men who work against the commandment of God, 
work against the providence of God ; and that pro- 
vidence will he too strong for them, 

" I used," said the master of a vessel, " some- 
times to work on the Sabbath ; but something 
-would happen, by which I lost so much more than 
I gained by working on the Sabbath, that on one 
occasion, after having been at work and met with 
some disaster, I swore most profanely that I 
never would work again, or suffer my men to 
work on that day. And I never have." He finds 
it works better. He does not swear now. He has 
induced many others not to swear, and not to 
break the Sabbath. He finds that in the keeping 
of God's commands there is great reward. All 
who obey them will find the same. 

An old gentleman in Boston remarked, " Men 
do not gain any thing by working on the Sabbath. 
1 can recollect men who, when I was a boy, used 
to load their vessels down on Long Whaif, and 
keep their men at work from morning to night 
on the Sabbath-day. But they have come to no- 



DESECRATION UNPROFITABLE. 15 

thing. Their children have come to nothing. De- 
pend upon it, men do not gain any thing, in the 
end, by working on the Sabbath.'* 

In another part of the country an old man re- 
marked, " I can recollect more than fifty years ; 
but I cannot recollect a case of a man, in this 
town, who was accustomed to work on the Sab- 
bath, who did not fail or lose his property before 
he died." 

There are some cases, however, where men 
who habitually break the Sabbath do not fail; 
they make property, and keep it till they die. 

A case of this sort came to the knowledge of 
the writer. The man was notorious for disre- 
garding the Sabbath, and prosecuting his worldly 
business on that day. He increased his riches till 
he thought that he had enough, and began to 
make preparation to retire and enjoy it. But be- 
fore he was ready for that he lost his reason, and 
died a maniac. 

But all Sabbath-breakers who make property 
and keep it, do not lose their reason. Some con- 
tinue to enjoy it while they live, and transmit their 
property to their children. But it is Jess likely to 
be a blessing to them than if it had been acquir- 
ed in obedience to the laws of God. It does not 
wear well, and, while it lasts, often appears to be 
under a curse, 

'' Those views," said a man, *' are all supersti- 
tion ; the idea that it is not profitable or safe to 



76 THE SABBATH. 

work on the Sabbath as on other days is false* 1 
will prove that it is false." So he attempte(i it. 
He ploughed his field and sowed his grain on 
the Sabbath. It came up and grew finely. Often, 
during the season, he pointed to it, in proof that 
Sabbath-day labor is safe and profitable. He 
reaped it, and stacked it up in the field. His 
boys took the gun and went out into the woods. 
It was a dry time, and they set the leaves on fire. 
The wind took the fire ; it swept over the field, 
and nought but the blackness of ashes marked the 
place where the grain stood. *' Let not him that 
putteth on the harness boast himself as he that 
putteth it off." He could not prove, though ho 
tried long and hard, that it is safe or profitable to 
work on the Sabbath. 

But another man thought he had succeeded 
better. He even boasted that he had found, by 
experiment, that it was more profitable to work 
on the Sabbath than to rest and attend public 
worship. The Sabbath on which he had finished 
the gathering in of his crops he told his neigh- 
bors, who had attended public worship, how 
much wiser he had been than others. He had 
worked on the Sabbath all the year, and had thus 
gained more than fifty days, which his neighbors 
had lost by their superstition. But that very day 
the lightning struck his barn, and his Sabbath- 
day gains and his week-day gains were burnt to- 
gether. His neighbors were not convinced that it 



DESECRATION UNPROFITABLE. 77 

was profitable or safe to work on the Sabbath. It 
was not in his power to convince them. They 
were more disposed than ever to confine their 
secular business to the six days which were made 
ynd given to men, and to which alone they have 
a right for that purpose. 

Though this is not a state of full retribution, 
yet Jehovah is *' a God who judgeth in the earth ,' 
and sometimes, even here, he visits certain sins 
with his curse ; causing a fearful looking-for of 
judgment and fiery indignation, which are to come 
hereafter. The intemperate man cannot compete 
with the temperate, nor, continuing such, can he 
escape the drunkard's grave. Notorious rebels 
against earthly parents will look in vain for those 
smiles of Providence which fall upon filial virtue. 
" The eye that mocketh at his father, and despis- 
eth to obey his mother, the ravens of the valley 
shall pick it out, and the young eagles shall eat it/' 

And he that contemneth his Father in heaven, 
and openly trampleth on that institution which he 
hath appointed for giving efficacy to his moral 
government among men, and diffusing the bless- 
ings of his parental love over the great human 
family, will find that, though his long-suffering is 
amazing, while his sun rises on the evil and the 
good, and his rain descends on the just and the 
unjust, judgment, in due time lingereth not, and 
damnation slumbereth not. In many cases, be- 
fore it comes, there are indications of violated 



78 TJIE SABBATH. 

laws, by attendant retributions. Every intempe- 
rate man is an evidence of this truth. 

A man of remarkable talents for business, and 
s^ood opportunities for the acquisition of property, 
was confident that he could succeed, and keep 
what he gained, without regarding the Sabbath, 
or obeying the natural and moral laws of God. 
He had no idea of being confined in his efforts to 
six days in a week. He would take all the days, 
and employ them as he pleased. For a time he 
succeeded. Property flowed in upon him, and 
he grew increasingly confident that the idea of 
the necessity or utility of keeping the Sabbath, 
in order to permanent prosperity, was a delusion. 
The last year his property was sold for the bene- 
fit of his creditors by the sherifi"; and he now 
seems farther than ever from being able to provo 
that ungodliness is profitable even for this life. 
It sometimes, for a season, appears, to superficial 
observers, to be so. But the end corrects the mis- 
take ; and sometimes the retribution which fol- 
lows convinces the transgressor himself that it 
comes from God, and leads him to abandon his 
violations of the Sabbath. 

A man who ridiculed the idea that God makes 
a difference in his providence between those who 
yield visible obedience to his laws and those who 
do not, had been engaged, on a certain Sabbath, 
in gathering his crops into his barn. The next 
week he had occasion to take fire out into his 



DESECRATION UNPROFITABLE. 79 

field in order to burn some brush. He left it, as 
he supposed, safely, and went in to dinner. The 
wind took the fire and carried it into his barn- 
yard, which was filled with combustibles, and, be- 
fore he was aware of it, the flames were bursting 
out of his barn. He arose in amazement, saw 
that all was lost, and fixing his eye on the curl- 
ing flames, stood speechless. Then, pointing to 
the rising column of fire, he said, with solemn 
emphasis, " That is the finger of God.'* 

Do you say, barns sometimes are burnt whose 
owners do not break the Sabbath ; buildings are 
struck with lightning while their owners are en- 
gaged in public worship ; steamboats take fire, 
and good men are burnt up in them; or their 
property takes wings and flies away, as well as 
the property of notoriously wicked men ] That is 
sometimes the case. Calamities in this world 
come, to some extent, upon all. But do they 
come as often, and to as great an extent, upon 
those who obey the natural and moral laws of 
God, as upon those who openly and habitually 
violate them ] Do the intemperate, the thief, and 
the murderer ordinarily secure and retain as 
many blessings in this world, as the temperate, 
the honest, and the pious 1 

Do notorious and habitual Sabbath-breakers 
who devote the day to worldly business, travel 
ling and amusement, acquire as much property, 
keep it as long, and as often transmit it, as a bless 



80 THE SABBATH. 

ing, to their children, as those who conscientious- 
ly abstain from those practices, and regularly at- 
tend the public worship of God on the Lord's day ] 
Let the Bible and facts determine. Look at the 
men who, for the last forty years, have disregard- 
ed the Sabbath, and pursued their course of busi 
ness or amusement seven days in a week ; look at 
their children and children's children, and compare 
them, as a body, with those who kept the Sab- 
bath, and trained up their children in the nurture 
and admonition of the Lord ; and let the convic- 
tions of every sober, candid and reflecting man 
determine. Aged men in great numbers, after ex- 
tensive observation through a long course of years, 
have expressed a strong conviction that facts echo 
the declarations, ** Six days shalt thou labor and 
do all thy work ; but remember the Sabbath day, 
and keep it holy." 

Any man may die suddenly by fire or water, 
lightning or disease. It is not a part of the Sa- 
vior's promise, even to his friends, that they shall 
not die suddenly. He evidently teaches that they 
may, and in view of it says, " Watch therefore, 
for in such an hour as you think not the Son of 
man cometh." ** And what I say unto you, I say 
unto all, Watch !" No man, whatever his cha- 
racter, can be sure that he will not, the next hour, 
be in eternity. That is a reason why no man 
should break the Sabbath, or in any way know- 
ingly disobey God. He may die while doing it. 



DESECRATION UNPROFITABLE. 81 

That is a reason why every man should, at all 
times, be found doing t'he will of his Father in 
heaven, in dependence on his grace, for the pur- 
pose of promoting his glory and the good of men. 
" Blessed is that servant whom his Lord, when 
he cometh, shall find so doing. If he shall come 
in the second watch, or in the third watch, bless- 
ed is that servant/' While '* the wicked is driven 
away in his wickedness, '^ '* the righteous hath 
hope in his death." However suddenly, in what- 
ever way he is removed from earth, though to live 
were Christ, through him that loved him and gave 
himself for him, to die shall he gain. 

Let each one then^ in every condition^ fear God 
mid keep his commands ; for this is the duty, the 
right, the privilege, the wisdom, the safety, the ex- 
cellence a?id the blessedness of man. 



Resolutions adopted by numerous bodies of men in 
various parts of the United States, 

1. Resolvedj That, as but six days in a week have been made 
for secular business, and no more have ever been given to men 
for that purpose, if they take more, it is without right, in oppo- 
sition to the revealed will of God, and in violation of his law, the 
penalty of which will show that '' the way of transgressors is hard." 

2. Resolved, That, as the Sabljath was made for man, and 

8 



82 THE SABBATH. 

the observance of it is essential to the highest social, civil anti re- 
ligious interests of men, it is not only the duty, but the right and 
the privilege of all men to remember it and keep it holy. 

3. Resolved, That the loading and unloading of vessels, tl o 
sailing of vessels from the harbor, the running of stage coaches, 
rail-cars and canal-boats, and the travelling in them, the visiting 
of post-olTices, reading-rooms, and other places for secular read* 
ing, business or amusement, are not only unnecessary, but are 
violations of the law of God, and ought to be abandoned through- 
out the community. 

4. Resolved, That it be recommended to all families to supply 
themselves with some good Sabbath Manual, that the rising gene- 
ration may all understand the reasons for the universal and per- 
petual observance of the Christian Sabbath. 

5. Resolved, That all persons who are acquainted with facts 
which illustrate the duty and utility of observing the Sabbath, and 
the evils of violating it, are requested to cause them to be pub- 
lished and circulated as extensively as possible, that the voice of 
God in his providence, as well as in his word, with regard to 
this subject, may be heard by the people. 

6. Resolved, That such is the fundamental importance of the 
christian Sabbath, and such its influence upon all the great in- 
terests of men, that its due observance ought to receive the 
earnest attention, the fervent prayers, and the hearty, active, and 
persevering co-operation of all friends of God and man through- 
out the world. 



THE ENn. 



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