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concerning whom he testifies as follows:-"I do not recollect a single case of capital offense where the party has not been a Sabbath-breaker; and, in many cases, they have assured me that Sabbath-breaking was the first step in the course of crime. Indeed, I may say, in reference to prisoners of all classes, that in nineteen cases out of twenty, they are persons who not only neglected the Sabbath, but all the other ordinances of religion."

This, and similar testimony, that might be derived from other chaplains, or keepers of prisons, goes to show the necessity for a Sabbath and for its religious observance; and also serves to confirm the arguments adduced for its primitive, and perpetual, and universal obligation.

Wisdom and Benevolence shown in the Appointment of the Sabbath.

572. When we consider the tyrannical dispositions which prevail among mankind, the powerful influence of avarice over the human mind, and the almost total absence of compassion toward suffering humanity, wherever such dispositions predominate, we cannot but admire the wisdom and the benevolence of the Creator in appointing a weekly jubilee for the rest and refreshment of laborers spent with toil.

On this day, the master has an opportunity of divesting his mind of worldly cares and anxieties; the servant of obtaining a respite from his toilsome employments; and laborers of every class, of enjoying repose in the bosom of their families.

"Hail, Sabbath! thee I hail, the poor man's day!"

Some are apt to regard the Sabbath as an obstruction to their worldly interests; they calculate how much labor has been lost by the rest of one day in seven, and how much wealth might have been gained had the Sabbath not intervened to interrupt their employments. such calculations rest upon a short-sighted policy.

But

Experience shows that on the six days out of seven appointed for labor, all the operations requisite for the cultivation of the fields, and for the manufacture of every useful article for the comfort of mankind, can be performed with ease, and without the least injury to any class of men. And what more could be accomplished, although the Sabbath were converted into a day of labor?

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Were this violation of the divine command to become universal, it might be shown that instead of producing an increase of wealth, it would infallibly produce an increase of toil and misery in relation to the great mass of mankind, without any corresponding pecuniary compensation: after a short time the wages of seven days would be reduced to what is now given for the labor of six.

573. As the Sabbath was appointed for the rest of man, so it was also mercifully appointed as a season of repose for the inferior animals, which labor for our profit. "In it thou shalt not do any work . . . . nor thy cattle."

This injunction exhibits the compassionate care and tenderness of the Creator in a very amiable and impressive point of view. It shows us that the enjoyments of the lower ranks of sensitive existence are not beneath his notice and regard. He knew what degree of relaxation was needed by the laboring animals, and foresaw that the avarice and cruelty of man would endeavor to deprive them of it. He therefore secured to them, by a law which is to continue in force so long as the earth endures, the rest of one day in seven, in common with their proprietors and superiors. [See Article 578.]

Medical Testimony in favor of the Sabbath.

574. It is sufficient to adduce that only of the celebrated and very learned Dr. Parre, who, after a laborious practice of forty years in London, gave the following testimony in 1838, before a committee of the British parliament:

"The use of the Sabbath, medically speaking, is that of a day of rest. It is a day of compensation for the inadequate restorative power of the body under continual labor and excitement. A physician always has respect to the restorative power, because, if once this be lost, his healing office is at an end. The ordinary exertions of man run down the circulation every day of his life; and the first general law of his nature, by which God prevents man from destroying himself, is the alternating of day with night, that repose may succeed action. But though night apparently equalizes the circulation well, yet it does not sufficiently restore its balance for the attainment of a long life. Hence one day in seven, by the bounty of Providence, is thrown in as a day of compensation, to perfect, by its repose, the animal system.

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"The sabbatical institution is not simply a precept partaking of the nature of a political institution; but it is to be numbered among the natural duties, if the preservation of life be admitted to be a duty, and the premature destruction of it a suicidal act. I have found it essential to my own well-being, as a medical man, to abridge my labors on the Sabbath to what is actually necessary. I have frequently observed the premature death of physicians from continued exertion. I have advised the clergyman, in lieu of his Sabbath, to rest one day in the week. I have seen many destroyed by their duties on that day. I would say further, that quitting the grosser evils of mere animal living from over-stimulation, and undue exercise of body, the working of the mind in one continual train of thought, is the destruction of life in the most distinguished classes of society, and that senators themselves need reform in that respect. I have seen many of them destroyed by neglecting this economy of life.”

Testimony of Lord Chief Justice Hale.

575. His remarks are as follows:-"Be sure to spend the Lord's day entirely in those religious duties proper for it; and let nothing but an inevitable necessity divert you from it. For, (1.) it is the best and most profitably spent time; it is in order to the great end of your being in the world. (2.) It is in order to your everlasting happiness; in comparison of which, all other kinds of business are idle and vain; it is that which will give you the greatest comfort in your life, in your sickness, in your death, and he is a fool that provides not for that which will most certainly come. (3.) It is the most reasonable tribute imaginable unto that God, that lends you your time, and you are bound to pay it under all the obligations of duty and gratitude: and, (4.) it is that which will sanctify and prosper all the rest of your time and your secular employments: I am not apt to be superstitious, but this I have certainly and infallibly found true, that by my deportment in my duty toward God in the times devoted to his service, especially on the Lord's day, I could make a certain conjecture of my success in my secular employments the rest of the week after: if I were loose and negligent in the former, the latter never succeeded well; if strict, and conscientious, and watchful in the former, I was successful and

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prosperous in the latter. And this I do not say slightly, or inconsiderately; but upon a long and sound observation and experience."

Testimony of God's Providence in favor of the Sabbath.

576. He has borne such testimony in his word, and in his providence, that is, by his acts. "Then I contended with the nobles of Judah and said unto them, What evil thing is this which ye do, and profane the Sabbath day? Did not your fathers thus; and did not God bring all this evil upon us and upon this city?" "Yet ye bring more wrath upon Israel by profaning the Sabbath." Neh. xiii; Jer. xiii; Lev. xxxvi.

Concerning this matter Dr. Humphrey has well remarked :-"This crying national sin (with the single exception of idolatry) contributed more than any other, to bring wrath upon Israel, and to sweep them into captivity. Now the only question is, whether God regards Sabbathbreaking with equal displeasure in other nations. And why should he not? He is the same holy Being that he was three thousand years ago. The nature of sin is the same. The moral law, including the Fourth Commandment, is the same. Human obligation is the same. Nations are regarded and treated as moral persons now, just as the Jews were under their judges and kings; and national sins have the same tendency to sear the public conscience, and undermine the foundations of social order. Why then should not these sins be punished with divine retributions, equally terrible?

"One of the first acts of avowed atheism in revolutionary France was to abolish the Christian Sabbath; and the Lord came out against her "with fire, and with his chariots like a whirlwind, to render his anger with fury, and his rebukes with flames of fire." Well appointed fleets and armies have often been discomfited in their offensive operations upon the Sabbath. Three remarkable instances of this occurred during our last war with Great Britain, in each of which the enemy was the assailant, and in each, met with a signal overthrow. In like manner, we believe, did almost every battle and skirmish during the war terminate, in the defeat of the party making the attack on the Sabbath day. Let politicians and historians ascribe all this to valor, or chance, or whatever else they

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please, we shall still regard it, as no equivocal testimony of the anger of God against the despisers of his law.

"If from the sins and punishments of nations and armies on the Lord's day, we pass to individual transgressors, we are brought to the same conclusion. Were a Howard to go through all the wards and dungeons of our prisons, and take down the honest confession of every wretched inmate, who can doubt that nine tenths of the whole number would put down their disregard to the Sabbath among the causes of their ruin?

"We say little here of the multitudes who are suddenly hurried into eternity, in the very act of profaning the Sabbath. Thousands perish thus every year in all the glee and temerity of transgression.

"That there is nothing miraculous in any of the cases which have been mentioned, does not mitigate in the least against the position we have taken, unless it be proved that God cannot punish communities and individuals in any other way. But who will attempt to prove this? Surely no one, so long as he is in his right mind. God is governor among the nations,' and he can never be at a loss how to employ natural agents and moral causes, either to chastise or utterly to destroy his enemies."

Legislative Action.

577. It should be directed to the encouragement and support of the sacred observance of the Sabbath; and to the repeal of laws for the transportation of Sabbath mails, by which directly and indirectly so much desecration of the Lord's day is produced. It behooves our rulers likewise to lend all the weight of their precepts and example to promote Sabbath observance among all classes of the people for without it we cannot become that happy people, whom righteousness exalteth, and whose God is Jehovah.

VII. Class of Persons particularly addressed in this

Commandment.

578. It is addressed primarily to each head of a household. "Remember the Sabbath day, &c.; in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter," &c.

"This part of the precept (says Professor Bush) goes not only to extend the obligation, but also to secure the