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this fallacy and pretence they were called to level argument and remonstrance, and even satire.

"Goodness," says Tertullian, "at all events true and complete goodness, loves not darkness, but rejoices in the light. It is not enough that Christian morality should be, it must be seen. For so great ought to be its fulness, that it should flow over from the mind into the manners, and rise up from the conscience into the countenance, and look upon public life as on its own household furniture, and so be serviceable to preserve the faith forever." He therefore urges females "to clothe themselves with the silks of honesty, the fine vestures of piety, the purple of modesty; and being thus beautified and adorned," he proceeds, "God Himself will be your lover."

At a later period, Gregory Nazianzen thus describes his excellent sister, and thereby protests against an opposite course of action:

"She used no gold to make her fine, no yellow hair arranged in knots and curls, nor any other tricks to adorn her head; no loose and transparent garments; no lustre of stones and jewels, enlightening the air round about, and reflecting splendor on those who wear them; no devices and arts of painting; no affectation of purchased beauty, no counter-working of God's creation, dishonoring, reproaching, covering the product of His skill with false and deceitful colors, suffering a spurious and artificial beauty to steal away that natural image, which ought to be kept entire to God and the future state. All this was far from Gorgonia. And though she very well understood the several modes and garbs of female bravery, she thought none so honorable as the manner of her life, and that inward brightness which was lodged in her mind."

The Christian Fathers were especially indignant at the use of anything which changed one's natural appearance. They deemed such conduct disrespectful to man's Creator. Grey hairs, they believed, were as suitable for the aged as raven locks for the young. One of them writes:

"Those who anoint their flesh with cosmetics, soil their cheeks with rouge, or stain their eye-brows with pigment, sin against God. They dislike the work of God, and reproach the Maker of all things. For surely they find fault with Him when they amend His handiwork or add anything thereto. But," he proceeds, "I perceive certain females turning their locks yellow, because they are ashamed of their own nation, and blush that they were not born Germans or Gauls: and so they change their native land with the color of their hair. And some who have lived to old age undertake to make that which is white, black; in obvious contravention of the words of Christ: Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black.' Far be this folly from the daughters of wisdom! In reality, the more carefully old age is concealed, the more plainly it is revealed."

·

These ancient doctors of the Church proceeded still fur

More than one of them

ther in their veneration for nature. protests against the use of colored garments. Clement of Alexandria denominates the faithful a "snow white flock," and extols white raiment as eminently befitting those who are required to be "pure in heart," and "harmless as doves." Cyprian pleads for the same, and adds the following in support of his views, "God has not made sheep either crimson or purple, nor has He taught us to dye and color their wool by means of shell-fish or the juice of herbs." It will be recollected that after baptism all the candidates wore white apparel for a short time. The Fathers to whom I have referred, would fain have persuaded Christians to wear such robes through life; but their counsel appears to have been disregarded. Indeed, we have no little reason to suspect they sometimes weakened the force of their appeals by a stern and fanatical opposition to every thing attractive. Tertullian writes:

"You should not merely shun all artificial and elaborate beauty, but also diminish that which is natural by concealment and neglect. For although beauty is not to be accused when considered as symmetry of the body, as an adjunct to the work of God, as a certain graceful garment for the soul; still it is to be feared rather than coveted; for it led even Abraham to falsehood."

There is, no doubt, a portion of truth in this language; yet the main drift of it is adverse to reason and nature. Beanty of form and of countenance is no less a gift from God than strength of intellect or quickness of sensibility; and whoever associates an assault upon this with legitimate warfare against real evil, diminishes thereby his prospect of

success.

After what has now been said, it will be necessary for us to bear in mind, that most Christian females during the first three centuries dwelt neither in marble palaces nor silent cloisters; were neither guilty of extravagance in dress, on the one hand, nor of violating the first principles of good taste, on the other. Extremes fix the attention, and call forth praise or blame; while those who walk the "golden mean," and form the body and staple of every society, pass quietly along, doing the work of life, and then sinking to rest. Such, doubtless, were the great majority of women in

the primitive Church; modest, frugal, hospitable, and far more intelligent than their pagan sisters.

ART. II. PRACTICAL VIEW OF THE SABBATH. Dr W. W. Everts.

"A Mother's Plea for the Sabbath." By Lucy K. WELLS. Portland: William Hyde.

"Heaven's Antidote to the Curse of Labor.”

By JOHN AL

LAN QUINTON. New-York: Edward Fletcher.

"Pearl of Days," "Laborer's Daughter." Presbyterian Board of Publication.

"Sabbath Manual."

Tract Society.

JUSTIN EDWARDS, D.D. American

"House of God." W. W. EVERTS. New-York: Sheldon, Blakeman & Co.

THE first of the volumes above enumerated, is composed of a series of letters from a mother to an absent son, on the value and due observance of the Sabbath, illustrated by striking testimonies, and narratives of fact and incident. The second and third of the list were selected for publication as prize essays, from more than a thousand competing manuscripts. They were written by laborers, to illustrate the importance of the Sabbath, particularly to the industrial classes. They are an earnest, fraternal appeal to brothers for the rights of brothers. Along with high literary excellence, they are characterized by a pertinence of illustration and a pointedness of application which greatly enliven the interest of their perusal. The fourth volume named is a compilation of facts and arguments, illustrating the various social, moral and religious advantages of the Sabbath. It is an embodiment of the word of God as uttered in Scripture and human experience. The "House of God" commends public worship as the true means of preserving and hallowing the Sabbath among all classes. As

suming that a seventh day will be spared from industrial pursuits, it proposes the only adequate means of consecrating that day to its appointed religious use. Without the house of God we can have no day of God. If the sanctuary is neglected, the Sabbath will be desecrated. Without attempting any particular analysis, or entering upon a discussion of the comparative merits of the works thus briefly described, we proceed to offer a few thoughts upon the practical value of the Sabbath.

The Sabbatical rest was instituted at the creation of man. The antecedent history of the earth has been distinguished by science into six periods or days, over which ruled the blind forces of unorganized and organized matter. The creation of man inaugurated a new period or day—a reign of reason over brute force. Thought then rose to heaven, and earth attained fellowship with the spiritual world. The period of human history and redemption is the seventh day. With the creation of man, the order of terrestial creation ceased. God rested from the works belonging to this economy, and earth entered upon its "Sabbath," radiant with rational history, and the progressive illumination of the advancing scheme of redemption. As a symbol and commemoration of this order of creation, and a provision for the necessities of the race, solstitial days were distributed into weeks, and six of them awarded to labor, and the seventh to rest. As God consecrated the seventh period of time, by the intellectual and moral occupation of the earth, so He set apart and hallowed for man's religious observance the seventh solstitial day. "Wherefore God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it."-Exodus, xx: 12. There is a recognition of this primitive distribution of time, and observance of the seventh day, in the early religious sacrifices of mankind. It was in "process of time," at this "cutting off" of days, or determined period, that Cain and Abel brought their offerings to the Lord.

In framing the Decalogue, that grand summary of human duty, the law of the Sabbath was incorporated with the primeval laws of God. "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy

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work; but the seventh is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God; in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy so nor thy daughter, thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates.-Exodus, xx: 8. And through all periods of Jewish history the claims of the Sabbath were insisted upon, as in its due observance conserving true religion and general prosperity, or in its neglect insidiously introducing idolatry, and precipitating national decline. "If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable, and shalt honor him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words -then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father; for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.”—Isaiah, lviii: 13, 14.

The law of the Sabbath, with other primitive traditionary revelations of God, was less observed among nations apostatizing into idolatry. But traces of this institution are not wanting in all ancient nations. Hesiod, who lived nine hundred years before Christ, giving utterance to the universal tradition, says: "The seventh day is holy." Theophilus, the philosopher and historian of Antioch, referring to the universality of its observance, says: "The day which all mankind celebrate." Porphyry says: "The Phoenicians consecrated one day in seven as holy."

Eusebius observes: "Almost all the philosophers and poets acknowledge the seventh day as holy." Josephus declares: "No city of Greeks or Barbarians can be found which does not acknowledge a seventh day's rest from labor." And Philo testifies: "The seventh day is a festival to all nations."

Thus through a long course of ages, and among nations not likely to borrow any mere Jewish law, the rest of the Sabbath was more or less strictly observed, showing that it was an institution for man universally,-man in all ages and countries. It is no modern innovation; no exaction of a despotic priesthood; no exploded rite of Judaism. It is a

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