that time distinguished in a very high degree by the cheerfulness of their manners, their hospitality, and a courtesy, the more estimable that it was indicative of real benevolence."1 Were it necessary, the connexion between a strictly observed Sabbath, and every appearance of true peace and joy, might be traced down to the present day, in the lives and deaths of such men as Henry, Hervey, John Newton, Bickersteth, with many others, who all proved, by the alacrity with which they performed the duties of religion, and by their whole deportment, that they experienced wisdom's "ways to be ways of pleasantness, and all her paths to be peace." Let us present the following beautiful tributes of two eminent men to the character of Wilberforce. "I never," says Sir James Mackintosh, "saw any one who touched life at so many points; and this is the more remarkable in a man who is supposed to live absolutely in the contemplation of a future state. When he was in the House of Commons he seemed to have the freshest mind of any of those there. There was all the charm of youth about him, and he is quite as remarkable in this bright evening of his day, as when I saw him in his glory many years ago." "I never," says Southey, saw any other man who seemed to enjoy such a perpetual serenity and sunshine of spirit. In conversing with him you feel assured that there is no guile in him; that if ever there was a good man and a happy man on earth, he was one." “There is,” the same individual remarks, "such a constant hilarity in every look and motion, such a sweetness in all his tones, such a benignity in all his thoughts, words, and actions, that you can feel nothing but love and admiration for a creature of so happy and blessed a nature."2 The strictest views and practice in regard to the Sabbath are thus found to be compatible with pleasure, and so commonly associated with it as to warrant us in regarding them as cause and effect. This conclusion derives confirmation from the biographies of many ardent friends of the institution, which exhibit them as persons, not only of happy temperament, at all times, but especially so on the first day of the week. Venn, author of The Complete 1 History of the Rise and Progress of the U. S. of N. America, vol. i. pp. 504, 505. 2 Life of Jay, 2d edition, p. 321. Duty of Man, says, "My Sabbaths are sweet to my soul."1 Hey of Leeds informs us that in early life his Sabbaths were his happiest days, and that in later life he conceived that this day should be begun, carried on, and concluded with holy cheerfulness.2 Philip Henry would sometimes at the close of the Sabbath-day® duties remark, "Well, if this be not the way to heaven, I do not know what is."3 That day must have been "a delight" to Wilberforce. "O blessed day," he says, "which allows us a precious interval wherein to pause, to come out from the thickets of worldly concerns, and to give ourselves up to heaven and spiritual objects. And, oh! what language can do justice to the emotions of gratitude which ought to fill my heart, when I consider how few of my fellows know and feel its value and proper uses. infinite goodness and mercy of my God and Saviour !"4 Henry Martyn it is said, that "the Sabbath, that sacred portion of time set apart for holy purposes in paradise itself, was so employed by him as to prove frequently a paradise to his soul on earth, and as certainly prepared him for an endless state of spiritual enjoyment hereafter."5 Another thus writes, "Every day was a day of tranquil satisfaction, in which we had little to wish and much to enjoy but the Sabbath presented us with peculiar consolations. We saluted every return of that holy day with undissembled joy, cheerfully laying aside all our usual studies and employments, except such as had a manifest tendency, either to enlarge our acquaintance with, or to advance our preparation for, the kingdom of God." Oh, the After quoting from Gilpin's Monument of Parental Affection the beautiful passage, of which the preceding words are a part, a writer asks," Where shall we find in scenes of wordly mirth or amusement anything that can furnish such a rational and exalted source of enjoyment, and which will so well bear the retrospect, as in this ?"6 Certainly not among those of the upper classes to whose round of gaieties the day of rest brings hardly any inter 1 Life of Venn, 4th edition, p. 468. 2 Life, 2d edition, vol. i. p. 153, and vol. ii. p. 64. Life, vol. iii. pp. 96, 97. 3 Life, by his Son, ch. viii. 6 Dr. Innes (Tract for the Times, p. 9), bimself an example of cheerful piety throughout a long life. ruption, for ennui is their own common and appropriate name for their feelings; nor among those of the middle and lower ranks, who work every day, or spend the first day of the week in amusement, for their languid appearance, their abbreviated lives, their sullenness, irritability, and frequent resort to stimulants, tell a very different tale. There have been many such confessors as Colonel Gardiner, Gibbon, and Lord Byron. Colonel Gardiner said that when he appeared to his boon companions to be the most joyous of men, he was in reality so miserable as to wish he were the dog under the table. Byron, we presume, "held," as was his wont," the mirror up to nature," when he wrote these words in Childe Harold : "It is that weariness which springs From all I meet, or hear, or see: Thine eyes have scarce a charm for me. "It is that settled, ceaseless gloom The fabled Hebrew wanderer bore; But cannot hope for rest before." And Gibbon, after referring to the "autumnal as by some deemed the happiest season of a literary life, has this sad reflection "But I must reluctantly observe that two causes, the abbreviation of time and the failure of hope, will always tinge with a browner shade the evening of life." (Life, 1837, p. 117.) How different the Christian! Religion proves its superiority to nature and philosophy by painting its bright bow in the clouds of adversity in the noon-tide of his day, and by fulfilling to him at its close the words, "at evening time it is light." "I may not tread With them those pathways-to the feverish bed 1 Sabbath Sonnet, Mrs. Hemans' Works (1839), vol. vii. p. 288. CHAPTER VI. DOMESTIC BENEFITS OF THE SABBATH. "A peculiar blessing may be expected upon those families where there is due care taken that the Sabbath be strictly and devoutly observed."-JONATHAN EDWARDS. THE diversities in the domestic life of various countries and times have generally turned on the place assigned to woman. Her equality to man in all that is most important and enduring entitles her to his companionship, and while her feebler frame calls for his protection, her gentler and more patient spirit qualifies her for rendering to him the sympathy and help which he requires. "When pain and anguish wring the brow, But although thus fitted to be his associate and friend, and belonging to a sex nearly as numerous as his own, it is but rarely that she has obtained her just rights, and that the world has fully availed itself of her salutary influence. It is only in the Bible that her claims are clearly and authoritatively ascertained; it is only as the Bible is known and believed that these claims are practically recognised, and that Milton's glowing lines are seen to be a picture of life : 'Hail, wedded love, mysterious law, true source In paradise of all things common else! Of father, son, and brother, first were known. Far be it, that I should write thee sin, or blame, In countries, accordingly, where justice and kindness rule the relation of the sexes, we discover, in beautiful combination, pure religion and morals, high intelligence and civilisation, general wealth, and a large amount of happiness. Wherever, on the other hand, that relation has been superseded by prevalent polygamy, or other substitutes, and wherever influences have extensively operated tending to relax and sever what ought to be a secure and life-long tie, the laws of nature, reason, and justice have been violated, woman has been degraded, and man in all his interests, physical, intellectual, moral, and social, has necessarily sunk along with her. The family, that sanctuary of infancy, that earliest and best school of piety, wisdom, and virtue, that retreat of toiled and weary man, that dearest asylum to the sorrowful, the sick, and the dying, has been dissolved, or never known. There is wanting the "humble hearth-stone, which is the corner-stone of the temple, and the foundation-stone of the city." Whatever, therefore, serves to form or to uphold the true family institution must be an unspeakable boon to the world. To this object the Sabbath conduces, and is even indispensable, as will appear, we conceive, from the following statements of facts and principles :- 1. We shall look in vain for a true and happy home in those places where no weekly holy day exists, or where its advantages cannot be enjoyed. In the lands of Paganism, the relation of the sexes has been debased by polygamy in some instances, by the facility and frequency of divorce in others, and by the depression of woman in all. What the domestic circumstances of the Greeks and Romans latterly were may be conceived from the fact, that in Athens and Rome "impurity was considered neither as an offence nor as a dishonour." China is honourably distinguished by the filial reverence and attachments of its people, to which may possibly be owing the "long life" and comparative "prosperity" of the empire; but deplorable must be the state of families in a country where the wife is the victim of the husband's caprice and tyranny, where concubinage is permitted, and where the father has 1 Paradise Lost, Book iv. |