than any other fact that I can quote or refer to. It is, incontestibly, matter of history, that wheresoever the sabbath has been hallowed, there Christianity has flourished. I do not stop to inquire whether the sabbath be the product of Christianity, or Christianity be the product of the sabbath, but this I feel-that the sabbath is the index of the ebb and flow of Christianity in the midst of us. Wherever it has been concluded that there shall be no sabbaths, the result has very soon followed-no Christianity; and also, as France can testify in its sanguinary recordsno God. I believe that Paris has suffered more from the exhaustion of its sabbaths than ever it did from the writings of Diderot and Voltaire; so I believe that Germany, and Vienna especially, has suffered more from the loss of its sabbaths than from all the sceptical productions of the great Frederick. In the present day, I am convinced that the last dying effort of the infidel against Christianity is to be made in this direction. The persecutor of Christians and of Christianity does not see any prospect of being able to use successfully his ancient weapons against the gospel. Past experiments have all failed; persecution has been felt by Satan himself to have

been one of his grossest blunders. Christianity rose from the martyr's fire radiant with more terrible beauty. And the more that Christians suffered, the more Christianity spread. The inquisition is not likely to appear a production of the 19th century; auto-da-fés are not at all likely to be found in the streets of London; and the sceptic's only experience tells him that weapons of reasoning, of fact, and of history, and evidence, are weapons very perilous to his cause; for he has failed in the use of them, and if he wield the same weapons he will signally fail again. He finds that open siege will not do, that open assault will fail; and therefore he now attempts sapping and mining; he will endeavour to introduce into popular preference the love of whatever is calculated to make the sabbath a day of pleasure and of pleasure-taking, of business and of money making, a day of spectacles, and tea-gardens, and military reviews, after the example of our continental neighbours; he sees that he can make the railway and the steam-boat far more powerful weapons of assault on Christianity than any weapon taken from the inquisition or from the arsenals of history, reason, or fact which he has heretofore employed. Should this succeed, fare

well to the progress of the gospel in the midst of us. It will not be Christianity that will suffer by the loss of our sabbath, but it will be our country that will suffer; our candlestick will then indeed be removed, and other lands will have the light which we in God's mercy have received, but which, by our ingratitude, we have almost extinguished.

This mode of aggression which I have alluded to is, I feel, less justified, or rather sanctioned, at the present day than at any other time. When I heard of the railway, and of the wonderful discoveries of steam and electricity, I thought,

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Surely this will furnish stronger reasons, kindly produced in the providence of God, for hallowing the sabbath than ever before." Some time ago, it took, at the greatest possible speed, to send a letter to the capital of Scotland, three days; now they can transmit a message in a few minutes, and send a letter in twelve hours. Surely, instead of making this grand discovery, given us in the goodness of God, a new reason for desecrating the sabbath, bestowed by the grace of God, it ought to be a reason rather for more heartfelt remembering the sabbath day to keep it holy.

And let us remember, that they who will

most suffer temporally, I do not say spiritually, will be the poor servants, the employed, the poor man in every shape and form. Most persons well know the law of what is called political economy-that the more labour there is in the market, the less pay will there be to the labourer; when there is a surplus of labour, there must be a deficiency in the payment of the labourer; when there are few labourers, with little labour in the market, then labour will meet with a high price. Now, throwing a seventh day into the labour market. will be equivalent to introducing a seventh portion more of labourers into the field; and the consequence will be, that the working man will get for his seven days' labour probably less wages than he now gets for six; but there will also be stamped upon him the brand of a slave throughout the remainder of his life. Surely that beautiful day is the poor man's glory, when the servant is free from his master; when all men may meet together, and feel the ennobling persuasion that they are the peers of God, if they should be the despised plebeians of men; that beautiful day which is the pearl of days, the queen, as it were, of the week; that place of sun-shine which seems like an island broken off

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from the continent of heaven, and let fall into the midst of the roar, and rush, and eddies of this world's traffic; whereon man standing, may catch a glimpse of the better land, and may hear the music of the skies; and may go forth from his sabbath-day's refreshment to his weekday's work, strong to serve his master, glorify his God, and promote the cause of that Master which is thus dearer to him than all besides. Part with your cathedrals-architects can build other and better ones; but part not with your sabbaths part with any thing, however precious it may be, with life itself; but, as patriots, as Christians, having received your sabbaths from your fathers in all their beauty, determine that when your children shall stand beside the graves where the green sods cover you, they shall be able to say, as they recollect your memory, "If our fathers did not increase our heritage, they did not diminish it; but, having received a trust sacred from their fathers, they have handed it down to their children; they have laboured, and we have entered into their labours."

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I am convinced that so good men, as many those are who are now in power, will not con