that we can appeal in substantiating this position. We have testimony of the actual observance of the seventh as a sacred day on the part of the ancient heathen nations. Thus Josephus testifies: Neque est ulla civitas Græcorum aut Barbarorum, neque ulla gens ad quam septimi diei in quo vacamus, consuetudo nimime pervenerit." And Philo Judæus in similar terms asks, "Quis sacrum illum diem, per singulas hebdomadas recurrentem, non honorat ?"

Thus then we think no step is wanting to make out the conclusion that it is the duty of men as men, independently of revelation, to consecrate and set apart from common purposes a seventh part of their time; a duty acknowledged by ancient writers, and commending itself to the reason of men themselves.

We have devoted so much space to the establishment of this point, not only because it is in itself interesting, but because it possesses a most important bearing on the subject of Sabbath-observance in this country, where the native heathen population are so associated in relations of business with professed Christians. If it has been established that the obligation of the Sabbath lies upon Heathens as well as upon Christians, it follows as a necessary consequence that every violation of it on their part is sin, as well as every neglect of it on our part. The fact that they do not perform their duty does not lessen their obligation to perform it. Their responsibility is not affected even by the fact that they do not generally know their duty; for they are accountable for that knowledge which they ought to have possessed, and the want of which is due to their sin. If then it be a sin in a heathen to violate the rest of the holy Sabbath; then if we impose upon heathens any work which interferes with their proper observance of the Sabbath, then we command them to commit sin. No matter though we have the belief that if we did not impose that work upon them, they would spend the day in committing equally great or even greater sins. For the command to perform that action, that is, to commit that sin, we are responsible. Yea more, if we permit them to do any of our worldly business on that holy day, we are abettors of their sin, and at the bar of God will be held responsible for having aided and countenanced them in their transgression. If the heathens who are around us will desecrate that day which God hath sanctified, let those who bear the name of Christ at least see that no part of the guilt lie at their doors. Let all Christians take a decided stand, and so far as their influence extends, shew to the heathen who are under their control that if they will commit sin, the guilt of it must be upon their own heads.

But while we have dwelt so long on the sin commited by heathens in violating the Sabbath, we would not be understood as meaning that they are the only Sabbath-breakers in this country, or that those who profess to be Christians are guilty of this sin only in the way of consenting to its commission on the part of others. Alas! No. Would it were so! But of this in the sequel.

As all the commandments of God are good as well as holy and just, we may be assured that a law so universally binding is intended for the good and not for the evil of those who keep it. And it requires but little thought or observation to convince us that the law of the Sab

bath, if duly observed, would tend to promote to an incalculable extent, the spiritual, mental and physical well-being of men. As to the spiritual good that is derived to men from the right observance of the Sabbath, every Christian can testify that even with it he can hardly keep his soul free from the taint of earthliness, and requires a large measure of the grace of God to preserve the spirit of godliness in his soul, whereas without it he should be utterly overwhelmed in the rubbish of worldly employments and worldly cares. The anxious, care-worn, and we might almost say haggard looks of most of our men of business clearly point out to us the necessity of a regularly returning day of rest as a restorative of the mental and bodily energies, and shew us that the all-wise contriver of our frames intended, that after so many days spent in harassing and fatiguing business we should refrain for a season from our ordinary employments, not however devoting that season to the still more enervating labour of worldly entertainments and dissipation, but employing it in some calm and soothing exercises. British merchants have long been the boast of their country; and perhaps in intelligence and uprightness are not equalled by the corresponding class of any country in the world. And this we believe is in a very great measure due to the fact, that the Sabbath is better observed in Britain than in

any other country; for how can we expect a man to be distinguished for his intelligence, when his bodily and mental powers are eaten up as by a canker worm, by incessant attention to business, relieved only, if relieved at all, by the excitements of gaiety and dissipation; and how unreasonable is it to expect a man to be distinguished for uprightness, who is in the habit of setting at nought one of the most important precepts of the moral law? But we can venture to predict that if a higher tone of feeling in regard to sacred things, and especially a scriptural mode of observing this Divine Institution were more prevalent among them, their reputation and with it their success would be greatly increased. "Godliness has the promise of the life that now is, as well as of that which is to come." We never yet heard of a man eventually suffering even in his worldly interest from a conscientious regard to his Sabbathduties. On the contrary we have heard of multitudes of instances, and have known of some, in which Sabbath-profanation has been the forerunner of worldly ruin and crime. If we can conceive it possible that all mankind should agree to discontinue the observance of the Sabbath as a day of rest from worldly employments and worldly cares, as a day of commemoration of the finished work of Creation and the more stupendous work of Redemption, as a day of calm and devout meditation on the attributes of God as manifested in these two great works, and on the duties of men as creatures and redeemed creatures, the amount of happiness enjoyed in this world would be reduced a thousand-fold. "Wherever the Sabbath is not, there is no worship, no religion. Man forgets God, and God forsakes man. The moral world becomes a desert, where life never springs and beauty never smiles. Putrid with sin and shrunk with ignorance, the soul of man loses its rational character, and prostrates itself before devils, men, beasts, and reptiles, stocks and stones. To these man offers his prayers, his praises and his victims-to these he sacrifices his children, and immolates the

says one,

As

purity and honour of his wife. A brutal worshipper of a brutal God, he hopes for protection and blessing from the assumption of every folly and the perpetration of every crime." But if on the other hand Sabbath observance should become more general, every other blessing would follow in its train. The influence of the pulpit for good would be indefinitely multiplied. There would be no empty pews in our churches, to tell of those who are spending God's holy day in business or correspondence, in pleasure or in idleness-no drowsy hearers giving evidence of the divided state of their thoughts, and shewing that though bodily present in the courts of God's house, their hearts are left behind them in their offices or counting-houses, on the hunting field or the parade. The Holy Spirit would love to descend among a congregation of such worshippers; and the good seed sown in such honest hearts would spring up and bear much fruit. The holy rest and sweet soothing exercises of meditation and devotion would give elasticity to the mind, and increase the health and vigour of the body*. That part of the animal creation which ministers so largely to the comforts of man would come in for a share of the advantage, and the groans of the creation subject to bondage would become less loud and less frequent, and the labour and travail of the whole creation would be gradually diminished till their final termination at the period of the manifestation of the sons of God and the commencement of the eternal Sabbath, the perpetual rest that remaineth for the people of God.

In one effect that would flow from the better observance of the Sabbath on the part of professed Christians in this country, we are especially interested. By the blessing of God it might be expected to exercise a most favourable influence on the heathen population. What is the objection that is more frequently than all others thrown in the teeth of the Missionary? Is it not the irreligion of multitudes who are accounted Christians? This to be sure is not a legitimate objection against Christianity itself, and those who urge it act just as foolishly as if a man should condemn some noble picture of which he had only seen some daubed and disfigured copy. But still it is an objection that we have no doubt operates very powerfully on the minds of heathens, and it were far better that the Missionary should be able to deny their premises than that he should require to correct their logic. If the Sabbath were observed as it ought, and if those heathens who are in the employment of those who profess to be Christians, were distinctly made to understand that none of the work of their employers may be done on the Lord's-day, we are persuaded that by the grace of God it would produce a most salutary influence on their minds. In Ezekiel xx. 12, God thus speaks: "I gave them my Sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctify them;"

* We consider it as a strong argument in favour of Sabbath observance, that the bodily frame of man and the animals who assist him in the performance of his labour actually require for their physical well-being a periodically returning day of rest. We have before us the evidence given before the Committee of the House of Commons by Dr. J. R. Farre, a medical practitioner of about 40 years' standing in London, from which it clearly appears that a periodical day of rest is absolutely necessary for the health of man. Thus does physiology, like every other branch of science, bear witness to the truth of the Bible-thus it is shewn with the force of demonstration that He who made man, made also the Sabbath for man.

and again in verse 20: «Hallow my Sabbaths; and they shall be a sign between me and you, that ye may know that I am the Lord your God." And in like manner if Christians would faithfully observe the day of the Lord, it would be to them also a perpetual sign of the Covenant into which they have entered with the Lord; nor to them alone, but to all those also who have opportunities of observing the mode in which they observe the day set apart for the commemoration of their Lord's resurrection from the dead. Thus to their heathen servants and dependants Christians would act as witnesses for Christ, and their testimony would be given in the way most acceptable to them. The permission to cease from labour on one day in every seven, would be just such an evidence, as would best come home to the mind of a heathen servant, of the value set by his master upon the blessings procured by the death and the resurrection of our blessed Lord; the command to do no work on that day would form to him the most powerful exposition of the sacredness of that day which God claims as peculiarly his own. "By keeping a Sabbath we acknowledge a God, and declare that we are not Atheists; by keeping one day in seven, we protest against idolatry, and acknowledge that God who in the beginning made the heavens and the earth; and by keeping our Sabbath on the first day of the week, we protest against Judaism, and acknowledge that God, who, having made the world, sent His only begotten Son to redeem mankind. This observance therefore of the Sunday in the Christian Church, is a public weekly assertion of the first two articles in our creed-the belief in God, the Father Almighty, the Maker of heaven and earth; and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord."

Let us at length go on to specify some of the forms assumed by this sin of Sabbath-breaking in this country, and state the means proposed in the Conference for lessening its prevalence, entreating those Christians into whose hands this report may fall to exert themselves to the utmost of their power in their several stations to forward the great object.

I. At the head of the dark catalogue stand those profanations of God's holy day perpetrated under the sanction of Government.

We are not aware that any of the servants of Government, with the exception of those in the Post-office, are required to give their attendance in their offices on the Lord's-day, but many of the public offices are kept open so that all who will may go to them and perform their ordinary duties. Many native sirkars, and, we have heard, some Europeans do so attend, and set at nought the appointment of God. Thus according to the principles formerly laid down, principles which cannot be controverted, the Government, the Christian Government of British India, is accessary to the sins of these men. Surely God who has done so much for the extension and support of the British power in India does not deserve such ingratitude at the hands of the British authorities.

The servants of Government employed in the Post office are deprived of the rights which belong to them as creatures of God, and are required to sacrifice the rest which is their natural birth-right. There has of late been much discussion on this subject in England. We trust that something good will be done there, and that it will extend to this distant portion of the empire. Letters are not delivered in London on the Sabbath;

and no impediment is found to be thrown in the way of the transaction of business; neither would it be so here.

In the Conservancy department it is possible that there may be some works of necessity or mercy which may require the employment of a small section of the men during a small portion of the sacred day. But it is understood that, supposing this necessity to exist, much more work is done than can by any means be brought within the class of works of necessity or mercy.

The Botanic Gardens are kept open on the Lord's-day, and are frequented by multitudes who are thus exposed to the temptation of committing sin, and of dissipating that strength by overmuch mental excitement which it is one of the ends of the Sabbath to promote.

Houses licensed by Government for the sale of intoxicating liquors are kept open on the Lord's-day, and thus Sabbath breakers are tempted to add drunkenness to their other sins.

These desecrations committed in the service and under the sanction of Government can only be prevented by the withdrawal of that sanction. We can scarcely doubt that a memorial signed by all the Christian inhabitants of Calcutta would influence the Government to wash their hands of so flagrant a sin. Such a memorial has been agreed upon by the Conference, and will soon be ready for receiving the signatures of the Christian public.

II. Several merchants and dealers are understood to keep their places of business open on the Sabbath. Now this is partly their sin, and partly that of those who frequent their shops on the Lord's-day. In so far as it is their fault, it is believed that it may be thus in great measure prevented. Let all Christians resolve that henceforth they will not encourage by their custom those who pay so little respect to the ordinance of God. This will at once shew these dealers the esti mation in which their conduct is held, and will hold out to them a strong inducement to discontinue the sinful practice. Let Christians who have been in the habit of employing those who keep their places of business open on the Lord's-day, state to them fully and fairly that they shall withdraw their support till such time as this practice is wholly abandoned. If into the hands of any person in business who is guilty of this sin this report may come, we would earnestly entreat him to consider well the greatness of his sin against God, his fellow-men and himself. And if there be any Christian who has thoughtlessly given his countenance to such a practice by actually sending for goods on the Lord's-day, we would faithfully counsel him to think for a moment what he is doing. Why should he be laying up so much matter for bitter repenting ?

Builders and others are in the habit of letting out their work to natives who employ men to perform that work on the Sabbath day. It is the duty of every such man to introduce a special clause into every contract, that the work shall be totally discontinued on the day of sacred rest. This has been done by more than one builder in Calcutta, and in a worldly point of view, they have not suffered*.

Since this was written we have had occasion to visit a large factory in the neighbourhood of Calcutta, in which 1500 natives are employed. The present