The World without a Sabbath.
WHAT would it be? Labor without rest; care without solace; probation without preparation; a night without day. To the laboring man, the loss of the Sabbath would bring unceasing toil without increased compensation and a consequent wasting of physical strength which would soon wear out the machinery of life. It would rob him of the allotted period for mental and spiritual improvement, and for home duties and enjoyments. Brutalized in mind, body, and association, he would sink to the level of the serf, be the sport of capital, and end his days in heathenism. To the family, the Sabbath lost would entail the loss of the home day—the day of domestic reunion, instruction worship, and charity. Family government would lose its tone; family joys would die out; domestic purity would be imperiled—for the two oldest institutions in the world are interlinked—and family piety would become extinct. To the church, a loss of the Sabbath would involve the loss of its solemn assemblies, its godly ministry, its day for edification and action, its season for domestic and associated instruction of the young. An Arctic winter—without light, or heat, or food—is but an emblem of the state of the Christian world without the Sabbath and its ordinances. A State without a Sabbath must be without liberty. To a free State the Sabbath brings the support of some of the most powerful elements of self-government. It inspires respect for law, divine and human. It fosters the sense of omnipresent Deity, and accountability. It engenders a lively conscience, more potent to restrain from crime than all legislative or judicial guards. Its educational force, through the pulpit, the Sabbath-school, and the fireside, quickens the intellect and moulds the heart of a nation. It gives the weekly occasion for illustrating the equality of men before God, and of inculcating the great lesson of human brotherhood. It is the foe of despotism and the ally of freedom. The nation that has the Sabbath may dispense with armies and tax-gatherers for their support; no nation on the globe without the Sabbath, or with only a profane holiday in its stead, has free institutions, or dare disband its standing armies. The soul without the Sabbath would grope its way through a rayless night to the "blackness of darkness forever." For while man might give heed to eternal concerns on any or all days, universal observation proves that contemners of the Sabbath despise and wonder and perish. No man who defies the authority of God, and willfully profanes the Lord's day, can have the temper of a child of God on other days. Think of a world of souls without a Sabbath, and the image of hell rises upon the vision. Think of a world waking each seventh day to the consciousness of the presence and power of a creating, redeeming God and Saviour; the families of earth bowing in worship before their several altars, going up to his temples to render their homage and hear his truth, and bearing forth the principles and spirit of the gospel in all the relations of life; and you have antedated that millennial Sabbath which promise, prophecy, and providence are hastening on, and which the day, the word, and the Spirit of God conspire to usher in. He is the enemy of the laborer, of the family, of the church, of the State, and of the soul, who profanes or degrades the Sabbath, and who would rob either of its priceless blessings.—Am. Messenger.