The Sabbath As An Institution.

time for rest , and the mind is turned to moral and mental culture . The labouring poor have time for rest , reading , hearing , thinking , and for instructing their offspring . It is thus the great desideratum of human wants . In our other holidays we have recreation , patriotism , frolic , and fun . In the Sabbath we have quietude , moral instruction , mental improvement , and the civilizing , socializing , and humanizing process . There friends who , from

their employment , seldom meet elsewhere , meet on that day for worship , and , with a quiet but heartfelt grip , greet each other . Around the altar hearts beat in love and unison that else had never beat together , and thc great object of humanizing our race is promoted . The state of society where the Sabbath is properly observed , compared with what it is where they have none , is immeasurably in favour of a quiet , peacefulmoral observance of that day . Look at Neiv Englandwhere the

, , glitter of thc sun is only equalled by the light of education and morality , and compare it with Cuba ! In the former , so strictly is the Sabbath observed that a New England beer barrel is said , in derision , not to be allowed to work on Sunday . In Cuba , bull baiting is considered the appropriate business of the day . In which is the best Society ? In ivhich is a man's life and property most secure ? From which of these societies would an

infidel father prefer to have a son-in-law , or would a merchant select a clerk ? I challenge contradiction when I say , the Sabbath , whether we regard it as a divine or human institution , is a thermometer of morals . As thc observance of it rises or falls , so do morals , good society , order , security to person and property . AVhere it is observed the children are orderly ancl instructed , and grow up with a feeling of self-respect , moral and intelligent . How unlike those who grow up in a community where the Sabbath is

distinguishable only by the extra amount of hunting , fishing , and drinking . But it is often objected to the observance of the Sabbath , and attendance on Christian meetings , that ive do not believe in sectarian doctrines . Well , if you find anything better , then believe differently ; but rather than destroy an institution that all experience shows to be most humane and beneficial for the health and . moral and intellectual improvement of man , I would waive punctilios . In a Mohammedan country I would respect the Hegira .

Among the Jews I would observe the seventh clay of the week , and honour the services celebrating St . Patrick ' s day in Ireland . These holidays are beneficial to the labouring poor in giving them days of rest . As such I ivould honour them ; coupled with what their votaries believe to be religious truth , they exercise a good influence over the head and heart , whether they are orthodox in belief or not . For this I reverence them .

So essential arc holidays , or days of rest , for the health and well being of man , that the French nation , after abolishing the Sabbath by legislative enactment , bad to substitute other days to supply its place . Thus the birthday of Napoleon , and various other clays commemorative of something pleasing to the fancy or vanity of a Frenchman , are , by a decree of the French government , made political Sabbaths . To show their contempt for relig ion they abolish what , by the laws of nature , was necessary for their

own health and physical good . To repair this violation of the law of our being they have enacted other days , no better , certainly , than thc Sabbath ; ivhich shows their conviction of the great truth that a fixed portion of time is necessary to be set apart , and its observance enforced by law , for recruiting the energies of man and beast . All nations , whether blessed with a Sabbath or not , have their holidays , each of a distinctive character , ancl for a distinctive purpose . Thus the British celebrate the birthday of their monarch , and the discovery of the Gunpowder Plot ; thc Mohammedan the Hegira , or Hight of Mohammed ;