adapted to all men, of all ages and conditions. There may be supplementary courses of philosophy, languages, or general literature. But this is the wisely adapted course for the necessary universal education of the masses.

"Not to know at large, of things remote

From common use, and subtle,

But things which before us lie

In daily use, is the prime wisdom."

And this is the cultivation and learning provided for by the Sabbath and the Bible. They are to the race, in their comparative importance, what reading, writing and numbers are to geological or astronomical investigations. They teach men how to live, how to gain the advantages and avoid the ills of life. They teach us how to perform our duties, that we may honor God, serve our generation, and prepare for the rewards of heaven. All other education, beyond the range of these objects, is of much less importance, and may be provided for, to a greater or less extent, as individuals and communities are able. But this course of education is a necessity for all. Those who worthily avail themselves of it are wiser than the unbelieving philosophers or sages of the world. "I am wiser than the ancients, because I understand thy law."

In any system of education, a certain decorum and serious devotion to study are necessary to success. Wayward children might prefer at all times the license of the playground. But individual and social education can never be carried on without a rigid system, stern requirements, and suitable sanctions. The sacred order of the Sabbath supplies the exact decorum, rigid system, and important sanctions requisite to the most successful education of the race. Let gaiety and amusement prevail during the week. But let seriousness and attention be demanded during the hours of the Divine instruction of the children of men. The sanctity of the Sabbath is no more than the decorum proper in pursuing our highest knowledge. It is the just order and system of the school-room. It is no more to be complained of than the decorum of private or public schools, restlessly endured by wayward and inconsiderate scholars.

If in the symmetrical development of our higher spiritual nature, there is a time to be serious as well as to be gay, to think as well as to act, to contemplate the spiritual and the future, as well as the material and the present, the Sabbath furnishes that time, and shuts out from its sacred hours and assemblies the levities and frivolities of the play-ground.

That this serious regime is essential to attain its higher educational effect upon the race, may be seen from individual and national examples. The material and stamina of intellect, worn out from generation to generation, in the higher walks of philosophy, literature and arts, from the neglect of the laws of health, are constantly supplied from the laboring classes of society. The original thinkers, social regenerators, pioneers of liberty, the leaders in art, letters and philosophy are perpetually emerging from the laboring classes, and rising from plebeian rank to the aristocracy of genius, intellect, science and wisdom. Thus Newton, Fergusson, Bowditch, Foster, Carey, and hosts in every department of human enterprise, achievement and learning, attained intellectual mastery and leadership. But those rising from lower rank have made the serious use of the Sabbath a stepping-stone in their first elevation. Those in lower walks using it as a holiday, have remained and died in obscurity. In like manner communities and nations, overlooking its sacred uses, and appropriating it to gaiety and amusement, have ranked far below Sabbath-keeping lands in widely diffused thought and intelligence, strength of intellect and purpose, sobriety of judgment and practical wisdom, civil and religious liberty. The gay, volatile French, who can keep no Sabbath as a Divine appointment, have remained the dupes of their oppressors. The Scotch, with poorer soil and less natural advantages, develop more strength of reason, stability of character, and power of achievement.

With the Sabbath observed, and its system of popular education carried out, any community or nation will rise in intellectual culture and power, useful knowledge and popular wisdom. Destroy all other special educational institutions, and this remaining in its normal use would replace

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them, while its suppression would precipitate mental as well as moral chaos and darkness. Intellect cannot become dwarfed, and man deteriorate in his spiritual nature, with the just use of the Sabbath and the Bible. Important as are colleges, universities, and common schools, the press and universal literature, the Sabbath, as a great educational facility, in its importance outmeasures them all. comes to give rest to matter and liberty to mind. While it soothes the senses, it unleashes the spirit from its tether. It withdraws the hands from gold gathering, that it may feed and feast the intellect with knowledge. It disinters the soul from the rubbish of earthly cares, and plumes it for higher converse and loftier studies." In Great Britain, more than forty thousand buildings-schools of popular instruction are opened every Lord's day to the people. More than forty thousand teachers on that day are dispensing knowledge to the masses. The Sabbath school on that day convenes several millions of children, taught by more than half a million of teachers, training the rising generation to virtuous habits, and pointing them to the most import-. ant subjects of thought. Its plan of studies has been wisely determined, its teachers carefully selected. Preserve to society this Scriptural Sabbath with its varied uses, and mind shall no where be dwarfed, knowledge no where restricted. Give us the Scriptural Sabbath, and we shall have a free pulpit, a free press, free thought, and free gov

ernment.

But the greatest benefit of the Sabbath is traced in its provisions for the religious improvement of society. The instinct, or intuition, of religion is universal. It contemplates more important relations and interests than those embraced by this world. It is fostered by a sense of dependence, by contemplation of beauty and grandeur in nature, by the oft-repeated lesson of an overruling Providence, that there is a "Divinity that shapes our ends, rough-hew them as we will." Especially is it fostered by the import and order of succeeding revelations, closing with the advent and mission of the Divine Redeemer, "the brightness of the Father's glory, and the express image of his person."

But left without designated periods of devout contemplation, the cares of the world steal upon the appointments, benumb the conscience, and bribe the vigilance of religion. But for the barriers raised by religious days and services, the world would encroach upon the duties, and desecrate the altars of piety. The Sabbath embodies and commends the whole authority and sacredness of religion. It is the appointed scope of its institutional development. It commends a test to reverence and obedience. It is a stated and formal declaration of the being of God, of a spiritual world, and a moral government. It is a formal repudiation of atheism, idolatry, and all the bold systems of infidelity. It localizes the temple of God in every place. It shows men that neither in Jerusalem, nor Samaria, nor Mecca, nor in any other restricted locality alone can God be worshipped. It invests every place with the obligations, sanctions and facilities of Divine worship. It rings the great bell of the universe, that the sons of earth may every where pause in the race of industry and worldly pursuits, and assemble in religious congregations. It is as if the voice of an archangel followed the light of the morning round the world, summoning man to suspend his week-day labor, and think of God and heaven. All the lower uses of the Sabbath are but stepping-stones to this higher purpose. The cessation from labor, with its leisure, change of attire, and awakened thoughtfulness, may prepare for religious homage. thoughts and studies of nature may open avenues of approach to God. The enlarged opportunity for retirement and meditation, domestic fellowship and discipline, and for public instruction and social worship, may aid the soul in heavenly attainment. Religion quickened into action and aspiration, wells up in private and public virtues. It elevates the happiness and charities of society. It is the bond of individual virtue, family order, civil government, and universal society.

All

The Sabbath gives utterance to all the appeals of virtue, all the protests against injustice and vice. It is a day of confession, forgiveness and peace to the world. The Sabbath ushers in and breathes peace over the world, and dif

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fuses its influence to the homes and bosoms of all. the spire of every Christian chapel waves a flag of truce to earthly strifes and warring passions; from its pulpits is proclaimed an amnesty to contending parties and hostile feuds; and from its worship are ever going forth influences to quicken, extend, and preserve the sympathies and fellowship of the human brotherhood.

In the formality and sanctions of an ever recurring observance, God addresses the world, as Moses, from the burning bush, the prophet, in the still voice from the mountain, and the tribes of Israel, before the trembling and blazing mount. The more directly it confounds the race in their march or rush of worldliness, and crosses their lawless pursuits, the more sensibly does it press home the conviction of the importance of the spiritual world, and the obligations of Divine law.

The Sabbatical rest, with its three-fold advantage to the physical well-being, intellectual development, and religious improvement of our race, is secured to the undisturbed enjoyment of mankind only by the authority and sanctions of its Divine appointment. In all ages the most important rights of men have been sought to be wrested from them, and have been proximately retained in some ages and parts of the world only by royal oaths, covenants, political compacts and charters. With all these expedients and solemn engagements, how few of the race have won or retained even a moiety of their great rights. A few, indeed, by ceaseless vigilance, in appealing to constitutions, compacts, charters and ancient traditions, have retained their rights. Thus only has the great and pregnant right of a Sabbath been maintained by some, while lost, or divested of its immunities, to most of the world. Pleading for it as a great primary and inalienable right, like the right to liberty, property, and the pursuit of happiness, which avarice may not buy up, selfishness may not add to its domain, commerce, manufactures and agriculture may not appropriate to their pursuits, nor sensuality turn into a festal day of passion and dissipation, it may be retained. But the high authority of its appointment, and its religious sanctions overlooked, it