"THE SABBATH A BLESSING TO MANKIND."
By Editor
We trust that none of our readers whose hearts have become "subject to the law of God," and who esteem the "Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable," will become weary of hearing on this glorious theme. The following eloquent extract from a tract by Dr. Gardiner Spring, entitled as above, contains sentiments worthy to be treasured in every mind. 'When I consider the original institution of the Sabbath, of which we have so explicit an account at the close of the Mosaic narrative of the creation ; when I find the observance of this day enjoined in one of the precepts of the moral law ; when I find, throughout the Psalms and the Prophets, this solemn injunction, implicitly repeated ; when I hear our blessed Lord, expressly speaking of the existence of this day after the abolition of the Jewish economy ; when I hear the apostle John, long after our Lord's resurrection and ascension into heaven, speaking with peculiar emphasis, of a particular day as the Lord's Day ; when I find the apostles by their example setting apart one day in seven for religious purposes ; when I can trace the existence and observance of Sabbatical Institutions from the creation down to the present hour ; and when to these considerations I add the natural fitness and propriety of such a day, and consider how indispensable it is to the existence of religion among men; I am compelled to believe that the Sabbath is of Divine origin and perpetual obligation.' The following extract shows the nature of the work which our co-Sabbath opponents are endeavoring to accomplish. They ought to hang their heads in shame at the impious efforts in which they are engaged. But some one may say that these are only Dr. Spring's assertions. We care not from whom they come ; they are sentiments which we are sure will commend themselves to every good conscience throughout the land. 'There is another thought not unworthy of our notice ; the Sabbath lies at the foundation of all sound morality. Morality is a matter of principle. 'Out of the heart are the issues of life.' Let the principles of moral obligation once become universally relaxed, and the practice of morality will become loose and unhinged in the same proportion. A man cannot preserve his own morals—a parent cannot preserve the morals of his children, after he has taken away the sanctions, and erased the impressions of religious obligation. Take away these sanctions, and you will soon see how much his own and the morals of his family owe to the sacredness of good principles. It is impossible that a wholesome morality should be maintained in any community without an active impression of religious obligation. If you can persuade a community to reject the grand principles of moral obligation ; if you can lead them to doubt the genuineness and authenticity of the Scriptures—to question the reality and obligation of natural religion—to hesitate whether there be any such thing as virtue or vice, or whether the soul will have any future existence, and if it has, whether there be an eternal state of rewards and punishments—or whether there exists any such being as God—if you can bring a community to this direful point of skepticism or infidelity ; you are sure to have broken down the barriers of moral virtue, and to have hoisted the floodgates of immorality and crime. There is one institution which opposes itself to this progress of human degeneracy, and throws an impenetrable shield around the interests of moral virtue in our troubled world. It is the Sabbath. In the awful struggle between vice and virtue, notwithstanding the powerful auxiliaries which the cause of iniquity finds in the bosoms of men, in the force of self-indulgence, and the influence of popular example, wherever the Sabbath has been suffered to live and exert her benignant authority, the trembling interests of moral virtue have always been revered and supported. The great business of this day is to explain, demonstrate, and enforce the leading principles of a sound morality. Wherever the Sabbath is observed, you behold a nation assembling one day in seven, to become acquainted with the best moral principles, and hear the best moral precepts. And where this is the case, in defiance of the love of sin, the authority of moral virtue must be acknowledged, and the influence of the Sabbath must be felt. We may not at once perceive the effects which the recurrence of this day has upon human society. Like most moral causes, it operates slowly but surely, but wherever it comes, it gradually weakens the power and breaks the yoke of profligacy and sin. And here let it be remarked, in perfect accordance with these suggestions will be found the history of individuals and associations of men. No villain regards the Sabbath. No vicious family regards the Sabbath. No worthless and immoral community regards the Sabbath. The Sabbath is a barrier which must be broken down, before men can become giants in iniquity. Lord Chief Justice Hale of England remarks, "that of all the persons who were convicted of capital crimes, while he was upon the bench, he found a few only, who would not confess, on inquiry, that they began their career of wickedness by a neglect of the duties of the Sabbath, and vicious conduct on that day." I should like to see an authentic and correct history of all the prisons in the land; and unless I am much deceived, such a statement would not present an instance of an individual who has not broken over the restraints of the Sabbath before he was abandoned to crime, and who could not mark the profanations of that day as forming an advanced stage in his downward career. You may enact laws for the prevention of crime; you may frame them with judgment, and execute them with promptness and impartiality; but the secret and silent influence of the Sabbath is a greater preventive of crimes, and does of itself "constitute a stronger shield to the vital interests of a community, than any code of penal statutes that ever was enacted." Sound morality has no foundation like the Sabbath. The Sabbath is the key-stone of the Temple of Virtue, which, however it may be defaced, will survive many a rude shock, and retain much of its pristine magnificence, as long as its foundation remains firm.'