REMEMBER THE SABBATH-DAY TO KEEP IT HOLY.
By E. B.
What law or authority has abrogated the law of the Sabbath? While the new dispensation, and the Lord Jesus Christ, the testator of the new covenant, have established the first day of the week as being the Christian Sabbath, it is worthy of remark that the Lord Jesus Christ came not to destroy the law or the prophets, but to fulfill. Why then should human laws or human actions desecrate or make void the law of the holy Sabbath? How do the citizens of our State understand the law of the Sabbath? Our revised statutes sanction the Sabbath as a day of rest from servile toil. They impose penalties on those who violate the holy day; and still the canals of the State are kept open. Many hundreds of men and teams are constantly employed. The collectors must all be detained from public worship. Lock tenders must be at their stations. The store houses must be open, and all the long train of systematic business is leagued against the observance of the holy day of sacred rest. When shall this evil cease? Already has the canal system almost confounded our system of State government. Is it not time for reform in this matter? We have reason to fear the judgments of God so long as we mock at his Sabbath, and trifle with his own civil laws! Mr. Editor, will you not suggest some improvement, some systematic remedy for this monstrous evil? To me it appears almost in vain that statute laws and pulpit addresses cry reformation while this sinful practice is tolerated by the canal commissioners, and all their subordinate officers. How painful to see church members, and even deacons, vacating the sanctuary and the Sabbath-schools to take toll, to give clearances, &c., on the holy Sabbath! If reform and repentance should not change this system of public transgression, doubtless the land will ultimately mourn, and the people tremble beneath the judgments of a righteous God. — E. B. N. Y. Baptist Register.