Influence of the Sabbath upon true Religion.
1. Its ministrations are the most effectual of all agencies in setting and keeping before the minds of men, that grand essential element of all piety, the character of the living and true God. 2. By separating a portion of time to sacred uses, it furnishes ample opportunity for that contemplation of divine truth, and that public and private worship of God which is so much needed by men, and which most effectually promotes the cause of true religion. 3. The holy Sabbath itself, as an institution of God, is a constantly recurring symbol of the divine authority, and by its regular return impresses a sense of that authority on the minds of men, and thus keeps in view the character and government of God. 4. Clear apprehension of the will and claims of God are indispensible to the nourishment of true piety in the soul. The Sabbath furnishes it by its services which constantly press on men's attention the duties they owe to their Maker. 5. The Sabbath furnishes constant and abundant fuel for the fire of piety in the heart, by the great variety of religious instructions it provides, such as those from the pulpit, in the family circle, in the Sabbath-school; and the opportunity it gives for the study of the Holy Scriptures, and other religious works. 6. The Sabbath, by its sacred stillness and repose, shadows forth the eternal rest of Heaven, and powerfully attracts the thoughts of men to that blessed world, and thus aids the soul in its preparation for it. 7. No fact is better established than that a faithful and conscientious observer of the Sabbath has always been accompanied by a flourishing state of piety, and the spirit of sincere and heartfelt devotion to God. 8. On the other hand, it is no less true, that with a declining regard for the Sabbath, there has always been a decline in the spirit and power of vital piety; the withered and decaying graces of Christianity showing that one of the grand agencies of their nourishment and strength has been taken away. A Sabbath-breaking community has always been characterized by mournful violations of other of the laws of God, and is most obviously a stranger to the spirit and power of true piety. 9. Multitudes of the most distinguished saints have recorded their experience of the well-kept Sabbath's powerful influence in sustaining the life and the vigor of piety in their minds, affirming that laxness or fidelity to Sabbath obligations, has depressed or raised the tone of religious emotion in the soul. 10. That the Sabbath powerfully sustains the cause of vital piety, appears from the fact that all who are enemies to such piety are hostile to the Sabbath, and spare no pains to level in the dust that holy institution, because of its power to sustain and promote true religion. Just as dear to us as are the interests of pure and undefiled religion in our world, so dear should be the holy Sabbath of the Lord. Vital godliness lives and flourishes with the honored Sabbath; languishes and dies with the disregarded day of the Lord.—Sel.