shore; when its temples crown every hill and are the ornament of every valley; when its humble supplications, and hallowed songs are heard from ten thousand times ten thousand assemblies of worshippers; who can doubt that its weekly return to this wide world will be entertained as "angels' visits," though neither "few," nor "far between." Who can doubt that those divine judgments which so often complete the ruin of a people, would be mitigated and withdrawn? There is a beautiful representation of this thought by a far-famed, though eccentric orator, which it is impossible for me to give, except very imperfectly, because I do it only from memory. The city of London contains about a thousand churches. "When I approach the city of London," said the late John Randolph, "I sometimes feel that I am approaching a place devoted to destruction. The cry of its abominations goes up to heaven; and I seem to see the tempest gathering over it. But then again, I look at her thousand spires that penetrate the clouds, and see them conducting off its fury."

There is another consideration of still weightier import, which I may not suppress. The Sabbath is the great means of perpetuating the knowledge of the true religion. Few persons, if any, are universal sceptics. All nations have some religious impressions, be they ever so erroneous. The Sabbath was originally instituted by God in commemoration of his own exist'ence as the Creator of the world, and for the purpose of being a perpetual testimony against the worship of idols. It was subsequently instituted in commemoration of the deliverance of the nation of Israel out of Egyptian bondage, and as a token of their vocation as his chosen people. "Surely, my Sabbaths ye shall keep, for it is a sign between me and you, that you

may know that I am the Lord who hath sanctified you." Subsequently the observance of it was entced as a cominemoration of the resurrection of the Saviour. The Patriarchal, the Jewish, and the Christian Sabbath all unite in the same design, and are now all concentrated in the last named day. This day commemorates the three great facts that distin-. guish the true religion from paganism, the church from the world, and the way of salvation by Jesus Christ, to the exclusion of every other way. The mere existence of this day is a public proof of these three facts. If these three facts, the creation of the world, the calling of the Hebrew nation as God's peculiar people, and the resurrection of the Saviour, can be established, the religion that is founded upon them. must be of divine origin. Now the weekly observance of this day of rest transmits these facts through all the generations of men. It is a sign between God and man, recuring every week. Just as coins and pillars, and monuments, and the festal days which commemorate some remarkable epoch in a nation's history, are signs and proofs of the events they commemorate, so is the Sabbath a standing, public proof of these great facts. We should never have heard of the Sabbath but for the events which it commemorates. When we speak of it, we recur to the reasons of its original institution. When our children inquire why it is set apart, we tell them; and when their children make the same inquiry, they have the same answer; and in that answer have an epitome of the evidence in favour of the only true religion. Wherever this day of rest is duly observed therefore, it is the great preservative against idolatry, polytheism, and all false religions. Wherever it is observed, there, and there only is to be found the knowledge of the one only living and true God, of the existence of his church on the earth, and

of her salvation through the great Mediator. But for this testimony, we see not how the knowledge of the true religion would have been preserved in the earth. If you find a people strangers to the Sabbath, you may be confident they are without God in the world. When France abolished the Sabbath, she declared. there was no God but reason, and no hereafter. You may wander at the present day over the far-famed cemetery of her metropolis, and read the numerous inscriptions upon tomb stones erected at that melancholy period, DEATH IS AN ETERNAL SLEEP! The same result will follow wherever the same experiment shall be made. The nation that disowns the Sabbath is necessarily a nation of infidels and atheists. Look where you will, either among individuals, families, or communities, and if the Sabbath is a desolation, there you will find a gradual and certain decay from true religion to infidelity and paganism. Let the Sabbath be forgotten for twenty years in this favoured land, and you will have no necessity of going to India, or the Southern Ocean to find paganism, for we ourselves will have become a nation of pagans. Blot out the Sabbath and no longer will the Bible lead men to repentance and salvation. No longer will the silver clarion of the gospel "proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison doors to them that are bound." No longer will the voice of supplication. ascend from this ruined world to draw from heaven the blessings bestowed by the hearer of prayer. No longer will the Spirit of truth and grace dwell with men, to dissipate their darkness, and make the desert like Eden, and the wilderness like the garden of the Lord. No longer will ordinances quicken, or the soul be comforted, or mercy be triumphant. Darkness will cover the earth and gross darkness the people. Sin will reign. Satan, the great enemy of God and

man will lay waste this fair creation; will walk to and fro through the earth in all the phrenzy of his longwished for usurpation, and death and hell will follow 'n his train.

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 has 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 con

science 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 signifi cantly than on the observance, or frown more fearfully than on the violations, of this day of rest. No man is the loser 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

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population from popish countries, the limited extension of the Christian ministry, the cupidity of moneyed 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 Sabbath-breaking 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