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May we not then affirm the obligations of the world to the Bible for its Sabbath? As a man of the world, I venerate the Sabbath. I would not be the agent in the destruction of this day of rest for all that earth can give. It would indeed have little to bestow, when all that is illuminating and pure, elevating and noble, serene and holy have become thus exiled from among men. That man has lived too long, who has survived the extinction of the Sabbath. My young friends does not this day of light, and mercy, and hope, deserve respect? Does it bear no stamp of divinity? The Great Lord of the Sabbath bids you rest on that sacred day. On that sacred day he bids "reason which, amid the bustle of the week, has been jostled from her throne, resume her sway. He calls conscience from the retirement into which she had been driven by the spirit of gain, or the strife of party." And he awakes all the tenderness of the heart, touches its sympathies, and opens it to the sweet influences of his love. Never does the world of nature more delightfully co-operate with the world of grace than on this sacred day. Never does the dew fall in sweeter silence, nor the vapours ascend more softly. Never does the kingdom of providence smile more significantly than on the observance, or frown more fearfully than on the violations of this day of rest. No man is the looser by keeping this day holy. O it is enough to sicken one's heart to survey the immoralities that are engendered by the neglect and abuse of

this day! Among the causes which diminish the appropriate influence of the Sabbath in this land, are the rapid growth of our large cities, the influx of a foreign population from catholic countries, the limited extension of the Christian ministry, the cupidity of monied and business corporations, the example of the rich, the influence of the government, the want of parental authority, the thoughtlessness of young men, and the desecration of the day by many of the professed people of God. And yet as a nation, I cannot feel that we are a community of Sabbath-breakers. With the single and melancholy exception of the Post Office department, the public departments of business are all closed on this sacred day. The custom house, the banks, the insurance offices, the public offices at the seat of government, the courts of justice, the mercantile houses, the shops of business and labour are closed one day in seven.

And well may we feel that this is an unspeakable blessing. It would be an insupportable grief and burden, were it otherwise. And yet is the sin of Sabbathbreaking becoming more and more apparent, in the land. Notwithstanding the strong barriers erected to protect this sacred observance, there is reason to fear, that the irresistible flood of business and pleasure will roll over this great institution. On the behalf of this holy day therefore, I solicit your example and your influence, wherever you may be, and as long as you shall live. It is entitled to your reverence and love. You have

nothing you can substitute in its place. Despise its guidance, reject its consolations, refuse its hopes, extinguish its light, and you are buried in cheerless gloom. If you would that those who come after you should rise up and call you blessed; if you would embalm your names in the grateful remembrance of coming generations; continue the exemplary and fearless guardians of the Christian Sabbath, and transmit its blessings to distant futurity. On you devolves the sacred charge of extending and perpetuating the unappreciated blessings of this holy day. Should older men become demoralized; should should grave Senators trample on this institution of heaven's wisdom and mercy; there is a redeeming spirit in the young. I repeat the thought, let it be one of the great principles of your conduct, wherever and whatever you may be, to uphold the authority and plead the cause of this holy institution. Let no change of condition, or place, or pressure of business tempt you to profane the Sabbath. No one external observance will exert so powerful an influence on your moral character as a scrupulous and cheerful regard to the Lord's Day. You cannot become abandoned, while you revere the Sabbath. You cannot become useless members of society, so long as you regard the Sabbath. You cannot put yourselves beyond the reach of hope and heaven, so long as you treasure up this one command, "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy."

LECTURE XIII.

THE INFLUENCE OF THE BIBLE ON HUMAN

HAPPINESS.

THE Bible possesses an unmeasured pre-eminence in the influence it exerts in promoting human happiness. If the world is indebted to a supernatural revelation for its language and its letters; for its history and its literature; for its laws and its liberties; for its social institutions and the mitigation of its more public calamities; for its morality and religious knowledge; for a religion that satisfies the conscience, renovates the heart, and fits the soul for heaven; for a standard of excellence and loftiness of character, to which it otherwise must have been a stranger; for the divine power which accompanies its truths, as well as for the benign and hallowed influences of its day of rest; then has the great Book of which we have spoken, conferred unspeakably greater

benefits on the world, than any other-nay, than all other books. But I do not purpose to illustrate the leading thought of the present lecture, by recapitulating the substance of that which has, already, I fear, been too greatly extended.

Some of the ancients, indeed, endeavoured to form the mind to virtue, but it was a virtue based on interest, or a vain love of approbation. The "honestum," or "to xalov" of the Greek and Roman philosophers is defined by Aristotle to be that which is praiseworthy; and by Plato that which is pleasant, or profitable. Their virtue had no broader foundation than the hopes and desires of the present life. Some of them appeared to have a wish to benefit their fellow men, and to be in earnest in their researches after the truth. To such minds, what a relief would the perusal of this Book have afforded, while it clearly disclosed that for which they had so long been seeking, and enabled them to exchange the distant glimpses they had obtained, for the full light revealed in lines that could leave no doubt of their heavenly origin! How would they, had they been taught of God, thrown their poor speculations to the winds, and recognized the virtue for which they had so anxiously sighed, in the divine precepts! But it was not granted them. They lived in error and darkness, for the day-spring from on high had not yet arisen upon their land.

Sinful emotions are the source of disquietude, dissatisfaction, remorse, and misery. Envy and