daism and that of Christianity. The spirit of Judaism is separation-that of Christianity is permeation. To separate the evil from the good was the aim and work of Judaism; to sever one nation from all other nations; certain meats from other meats; certain days from other days. Sanctify means to set apart. The very essence of the idea of Hebrew holiness lay in sanctification in the sense of separation. On the contrary, Christianity is permeation : it premeates all evil with good; it aims at overcoming evil by good; it desires to transfuse the spirit of the day of rest into all other days, and to spread the holiness of one nation over all the world. To saturate life with God, and the world with heaven,-that is the genius of Christianity. harness their horses, stand up to denounce the service on some railway by which the poor are helped to health and enjoyment? Hired service for the rich is a necessity,-hired service for the poor is a desecration of the Sabbath! It is right that a thousand should toil for the few in private! It is past bearing, in a Christian country, that a few should toil for thousands on the Sabbath day! There is only this alternative: If the fourth commandment be binding still, that clause is unrepealed-" no manner of work ;" and so, too, is that other important part, the sanctification of the seventh day, and not the first. If the fourth commandment be not binding in these points, then there is nothing left but the broad comprehensive ground taken by the apostle. The whole Sabbath is a shadow of things to come. In consistency, either hold that none of the formal part is abrogated, or else all. The whole of the letter of the commandment is moral, or else none. Accordingly the observance of the Sabbath was entirely in the Jewish spirit. No fire was permitted to be made, on pain of death. (Exod. xxxv. 3.) No food was to be prepared. (xvi. 5, 23.) No buying nor selling. (Nehem. x. 31.) So rigorously was all this carried out, that a man gath- 2. There is, however, in the Sabbath, a subing sticks was arrainged before the congrega-stance, a permanent something," a body" tion and sentenced to death by Moses. which cannot pass away. This is Jewish, typical, shadowy :—it is all to pass away. Much already has passed; even those who believe our Lord's day to be the descendent of the Sabbath admit this. The day is changed. The first day of the week has taken the place of the seventh. The computation of hours is altered. The Jews reckoned from sunset to sunset; modern Christians reckon from midnight to midnight. The spirit of its observance, too, is altered. No one contends now for Jewish strictness in its details." "The body is of Christ;" the spirit of Christ is the fulfilment of the law. To have the spirit of Christ is to have fulfilled the law. Let us hear the mind of Christ on this matter. "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath! In that principle rightly understood lies the clue for unravelling the whole matter. The religionists of that day maintained that the necessities of man's nature must give way to the rigor of the enactment; He taught that the enactment must yield to man's necessities." "It will be said, however, the works of ne- "Moses prescribed the Sabbath to a nation cessity and works of mercy are excepted by spiritually diseased. He gave the regimen of Christ's example. rest to men who did not feel the need of spiritTell us, then, ye who are servants of the let-ual rest. He fenced round his rule with preter, and yet do not scruple to use a carriage to convey you to some church where a favorite minister is heard, is that a spiritual necessity, or a spiritual luxury? Part of the Sunday meal of all of you is the result of a servant's work. Tell us, then, ye accurate logicians, who say that nothing escapes the rigor of the prohibition, which is not neecssary or merciful, is a hot repast a work of necessity, or a work of mercy? Oh! it rouses in every true soul a deep and earnest indignation to hear men who drive their cattle to church on Sundays, because they are too emasculated to trudge through cold and rain on foot, invoke the severity of an insulted Law of the Decalogue on those who provide facilities of movement for such as cannot afford the luxury of a carriage. What, think you, would He who blighted the Pharisees with such burning words have said, had He been present by, while men whose servants clean their houses, and prepare their meals, and cise regulations of detail-one day in seven, no work, no fire, no traffic. On what does the obligation to obey it rest? On the authority of the rule, or on the necessities of that nature for which the rule was divinely adapted? Was man made for the Sabbath to obey it as a slave? Or was the Sabbath made for man? And when spiritual health has been restored, the Law regulating the details of rest may become obsolete, but the nature which demands rest can never be reversed." "If the Sabbath rest on the needs of human nature, and we accept his decision that the Sabbath was made for man, then you have an eternal ground to rest on, from which you cannot be shaken. A son of man may be lord of the Sabbath day, but he is not lord of his own nature. He cannot make one hair white or black. You may abrogate the formal rule, but you cannot abrogate the needs of your own sonl. Eternal as the constitution of the soul of man, is the necessity for the existence of a day difficulty. It is a question of degree. Some of rest. Further, still, on this ground alone can work must be done on the Sabbath day; some you find an impregnable defence of the pro- must sacrifice their rest to the rest of others; portion, one day in seven. On the other for all human life is sacrifice, voluntary or inground it is unsafe. Having altered the seventh voluntary. Again, that which is rest to one to the first, I know not why one in seven might man is not rest to another. To require the ilnot be altered to one in ten. The thing, how literate man to read his Bible for some hours, ever, has been tried; and by the necessities of would impose a toil to him, though it might be human nature, the change has been found per- a relaxation to you. To the laboring man a nicious. One day in ten, prescribed by revo- larger proportion of the day must be given to lutionary France, was actually pronounced by the recreation of his physical nature than is physiologists insufficient. So that we begin to necessary to the man of leisure, to whom find that in a deeper sense than we at first sus- the spiritual observance of the day is easy pected, "the Sabbath was made for man." and seems all. Let us learn large charitable Even in the contrivance of one day in seven, it considerateness. Let not the poor man sneer was arranged by unerring wisdom. Just be- at his richer neighbor if, in the exercise of his cause the Sabbath was made for man, and not Christian liberty, he uses his horses to convey because man was ordained to keep the Sabbath-him to church, and not to the mere drive of day, you cannot tamper even with the iota, one day in seven." "The rest needed by man is twofold. Physical repose of the body,-a need which he shares with the animal, through the lower nature which he shares in common with them. 'Thou shalt do no work, nor thy cattle," so far, man's Sabbath need places him only on a level with the ox and with the ass. But besides this, the rest demanded is a repose of spirit. Between these two kinds of rest there is a very important difference. Bodily repose is simply inaction: the rest of the soul is exercise, not torpor. To do nothing is physical rest to be engaged in full activity is the rest of the soul. In that hour, which of all the twenty-four is most emblematic of heaven, and suggestive of repose, the eventide, in which instinctively Isaac went into the fields to meditate,-when the work of the day is done, when the mind has ceased its tension, when the passions are lulled to rest, in spite of themselves, by the spell of the quiet star-lit sky,-it is then, amid the silence and the lull of all the lower parts of our nature, that the soul comes forth to do its work. Then the peculiar strange work of the soul, which the intellect cannot do-meditation -begins. Awe, and worship, and wonder, are in full exercise; and Love begins then in its purest form of mystic adoration, and pervasive and undefined tenderness-separate from all that is coarse and earthly-swelling as if it would embrace the All in its desire to bless, and lose itself in the sea of the Love of God. This is the Rest of the soul-the exercise and play of all the nobler powers." pleasure; but then, in fairness, let not the rich man be shocked and scandalized if the overwearied shopkeeper and artizan breathe the fresh air of heaven with their families in the country. "The Sabbath was made for man." Be generous, consistent, large-minded. A man may hold stiff, precise, Jewish notions on this subject; but do not stigmatize that man as a formalist. Another may hold large Paul-like views of the abrogation of the fourth commandment, and yet he may be sincerely and zealously anxious for the hallowing of the day in bis household and through his country. Do not call that man a Sabbath-breaker. Remember the Pharisees called the Son of God a Sabbathbreaker. They kept the law of the Sabbath; they broke the law of love. Which was the worse to break? which was the higher law to keep? Take care lest in the zeal which seems to you to be for Christ, ye be found indulging: their spirit, and not His." (To be continued.) We should feel sorrow, but not sink under its impression. The heart of a wise man should resemble a mirror, which reflects every object without being sullied by any. SELECTIONS FROM THE WRITINGS OF JOHN BARCLAY. (Continued from page 85.) To 19th of Third month, 1836.-Thy last called forth many a fervent aspiration for our mutual preservation, support and advancement. Ah! we must cleave to our only sure refuge, our stronghold, our very present helper, and then "The apostle urges charity: "One man es- all will be well; and we shall be conducted teemeth one day above another; another man through all our exercises and strait places, reesteemeth every day alike." ... "He thatceiving the end of our faith. O! it is sweet regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord; to be permitted in travelling along this weary and he that regardeth not the day, to the Lord land, to give and receive a greeting in spirit, be regardeth it not." Carry out that spirit. to be refreshed together as before the Lord, In the detail of this question there is abundant and to be made to feel that we are members. Ah! would he have received a burntoffering at our hands, and would he have shown us all these things if He were displeased and ready to reject us? as Manoah's wife pleaded. Yea, though He slay thee, trust in Him; humble thyself low before him, and in due season all will work together for thy exceeding good,-for thy great enlargement in the things of God. Therefore, be patient unto the coming, and through all the dispensations, of thy wonderful Counsellor. I believe the little ones have no cause unduly to fear, or to let in discouragement and doubts. However, though we may be permitted to be trampled upon and broken to pieces, yet the blessed Truth will outlive it all. one of another;-that we are not without com- I may assure thee, my dear friend, that thy exercises and self-humiliating baptisms are only such as are common to us all, and no more than needful for the best of us,-to drive us home to the preserving power, to lay us low and keep us there; and are rather marks, how tenderly and closely our holy Head and High Priest, our keeper and shade upon the right hand, hedges us about, as Satan said was Job's favored lot; not leaving us to ourselves, as we are ready to suppose; but constantly interposing with his fatherly chastenings and stripes;-because he loves us, and hath a purpose of his own glory in our close proving and refining, as his choice jewels and gold of Ophir. Dear, believe it is even so, in all thy overturnings and toss STOKE NEWINGTON, 29th of Third month, 1836. My Beloved Friend,-It is a blessed privilege to be given to drink into one Spirit, and to be renewedly baptized together; so that, whatever apparent occasions of interruption come between, or clouds of temptation, floods of affliction, mountains of opposition, wild wastes and howling wildernesses, we know that the Lord is over all; we know in whom we have believed ;- -we know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren; and we know that He is able to keep that which we have committed unto Him. Although since thou wrote I have had my portion of trial in many respects, more than my allotment seemed to bring with it; in looking back, however, although my tears have at times been as it were my meat day and night, yet the Lord hath not been wanting to command his loving-kindness in the day time, and in the night season too; His song has been with me, and my prayer has been to the God of my life. I am even ready to think, that it is through the prayers of many, more fit to plead prevailingly than myself, that I am now in the land of the living, bodily and spiritually too;-and as earnest and as willing at least, if not as able as ever I was, to wield the weapons of our warfare, in a cause dear to me as life itself, because crowned with immortality and blessedness. I cannot say, “I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord;"-but I can say, "while I live, will I praise the Lord; I will sing unto my God, while I have my being." My general health is wonderfully upheld, and I have no suffering in my knee, apparently nothing but debility from disuse and disease; yet this I am continually sensible of, that my times are in His hand, and He who has laid low, can do as it seems good in sight, even "raise up and confirm the feeble knees." O! what encouragement to present and commit ourselves to Him under every dispensation, and thus to be allowed to feel, that whether we live or die, we are the Lord's. His "Behold we seemed to convey a low account. Under precious feelings like these, when unable to attend meetings, I have longed to be preserved, but as one of the wrestling seed of worm Jacob; who, when he had rested on the pillow of stone, did not forget to place it up as a pillar and a testimony to the Lord, who ap-yield peaceable and blessed fruits, to those peared unto him, and spake comfortably to him;-even that He was with him, and would keep him in all places whither he went; and would not leave him, but would fulfil all He had spoken to him. But what shall I say, "Though bonds and afflictions" abide; yet through all, some of us are encouraged beyond expectation, and are obliged to hope against hope. "I will leave in the midst of thee an afflicted and poor people, and they shall trust in the name of the Lord:"-" a deceitful tongue shall not be found in their mouth; for they shall feed and lie down, and none shall make them afraid." "It is enough for the servant to be as his master :"-where I am, there shall also my servant be," whether in tribulation or otherwise. It is a fine lesson to learn, in whatsoever state we are permitted to be, therewith to be content,-everywhere and in all things to be instructed. The only time of late that I have been out to meeting, was last First-day week, when I had a sweet time; my mind was clothed with grateful and humbling feelings, to which I had to give utterance; "O how great is thy goodness," &c. There may be, thou knowest, a great door and an effectual one opened, where there are many adversaries. I am privileged with many visits from Friends, visitors or strangers, and sometimes have to speak very plainly to them on our duty in these times, which I be lieve is, to be honest, firm, and uncompromising. I have nearly exhausted my paper, and a person would hardly know from it that I had so many near and dear to me in your county; yet they know it, whether they see these lines or not, and whether I expressly address them or not: we are as living epistles to one another, while and so long as the ministration of the Spirit is impressed upon our hearts. Ah! I cannot easily forget how my poor, dull heart, was made to yearn towards your dear family, from one end to the other. My secret petition is, that you may each discern what his good pleasure is concerning you, and concerning each other, lest in any wise you mistake it; and thus miss of any thing that did really belong to you. May you be wholly given up, and give up each other freely, to His ordering and service, whose gifts you are to one another; lest if there be even the shadow of a withholding and drawing back, the Lord should withdraw his hand so full of blessings temporal and spiritual. We may easily reason away the tender and gentle touches of his hand, so as to doubt whether they are the requirings of the Lord; and those who are very jealous of his honor, or clear in their discerning respecting the standing and steppings and outgoings of others, have the greater occasion to beware of placing so strong a guard against all outgoings, as to cramp or cripple either themselves, or those with whom they have influence. These are days in which the enemy would persuade some of us that we had better do nothing, lest we should do wrong, or in our attempts to aid the cause, only give pain and trouble to the rightly exercised by our meddling. But O! how otherwise is the fact! what preservation, what help, what direction, and qualification, have the simple hearted received, whose strength is made perfect in an humbling sense of their own weakness;-out of weakness they are made strong. My beloved friend, I must, go further, and urge on thee to weigh well, (but without undue carefulness, discouragement or distrust,) whether there is not a call upon you to double diligence in coming up, in 22d of Eighth month, 1836.-Thy last a noble, disinterested, unbending and unblush Parents peculiarly have to plow and sow with tears, often feeling their own infirmities, and how little they can do: but the Lord often interferes for their help; and perhaps, when they are laid in the dust, brings about and fulfils all their petitions, even to the letter. My love to the Friends, and to the poor of the flock, who wait upon the Lord for mercy; grace and peace be renewed unto them at all times. Farewell: thy affectionate friend, To J. B. ing way, to the help of the Lord and his church, | is, so shall our strength be." I feel it is not -to stand in the breach, and fill up your ranks, presumption so to speak; for what greater as those that are deeply concerned for the evidence of Divine Goodness than that nothing spreading, as well as the upholding of the is too weak, too insignificant, to claim His testimonies of Truth. Ab! it is high time mercy and protecting care? If not even a that all who have been awakened to a sense of the sparrow falls unnoticed by Him, surely we, in state of things in our poor church, were "up," to whom He has breathed the breath of life, shall retrieve and turn the battle to the gate. The not be forgotten by Him; and to be willing thus enemy and his willing instruments are busy in- to acknowledge it, is only "to speak our Maker's deed; we see the fruits springing forth on every praise." In the fulness of the heart exclaimhand; and there are few given up to withstanding-"To Thee, to Thee alone, belongs all the him in a true-hearted, uncompromising, plain- praise." ness and boldness. May we then join in an 27th. This being one of our quiet days, I unqualified surrender of our all, to the dis- feel a wish to add something to my letter composing of Him, who would work in us and for menced two weeks ago. Thou queries how I us, and also through us mightily, to the subdu-am. There appears but little change in me ing of all within us that would choose, or refuse, or chalk out our own line for ourselves, entrenching ourselves in the rectitude of our own wills and counsels: whereas, we should be tender as the growing vine, and teachable as the weaned babe, no fretting, but with mortified wills even slain and nailed to the cross. The time is verily come, when men shall be, and are, lovers of their own selves, I know; but the time is also coming, when, if I have any true vision of what shall be the end and issue of these shaking times, men shall not love their lives unto death; but lay down their lives for the brethren, forego their ceiled houses, their "pleasant bread," and their couches of ivory, their boats and their nets, and their father, to become fishers of men; and count all things but loss. (To be continued.) He is a brave Christian who has much of Christ within, and who accounts nothing his own that he does not communicate to others. The bee stores her hive out of all sorts of flowers, for the common benefit, and why then, in this, should not every Christian be like a bee? since thou saw me last. The very cause (Erysipelas) which gives fulness and often a deep glow to the face, is one of the greatest causes of my suffering. This winter has been a very trying one to most, and to me, even with every outward comfort, it has in many ways been very trying; so much suffering with my head, and in various other ways, which I seldom say much about. But through all I have much, very much, to be thankful for; and especially so when comparing my case with such as thou mentions; and all I crave is that patience may endure to the end. The remembrance of our friend is very greatful. She surely is a redeemed spirit, and yet we find for some cause trials are still dispensed to her. Why, it is not for us to know, and "what we can't unravel we must learn to trust." Surely it can be no part of the wisdom of Divine Goodness and mercy to permit afflictions to visit His children, unless there is a purpose. What this purpose is, I well know, in our weak finite vision, we are apt to call in question ; ready to say why is it that I should be afflicted so much more than others? Why should I be as it were a mark for the archers to aim at?" Others have all the enjoyment to be derived from health-the society of their friends-and various resources, from which I am greatly excluded; and instead, years of suffering and privation have been meted out to me. Why, oh, why, is it so? at times says the rebellious spirit within me. But, again: Seasons there are when all that is within me can and does say, LETTERS FROM SARAH G. RICH. (Concluded from page 86.) PHILADELPHIA, 4th mo. 13th, 1856. My dear -Thy letter of 3d month was received with a pleasure which those only know whose means of social enjoyment are brought to what mine are, which, whilst I desire not to murmur, are certainly calculated to affix a high value to the few resources of enjoy- "What shall I render unto the Lord for all ment left. And this of conversing in this way His benefits;" for "His mercies are new every with an absent friend is one I value highly, and morning." And of what little moment will it should feel it quite an additional affliction to be be when we reach that shore "where every tear deprived of; yet, I trust if this is to be my ex- is wiped from every eye" whether our passage perience that strength will be given me; for I here has been strewn with thorns or roses. must believe we are wonderfully cared for by a Truly little indeed; therefore my soul's desire Father of too tender love and mercy to permit is to "bide my time," trusting that "He who any thing to fall upon us which, in His good-doeth all things well," would not, without a ness, He will not give us strength to bear, if wise purpose, permit afflictions to fall upon even there is a looking unto Him for strength. I the least of His little ones; and in this trust do think I have in measure proven, "As our day I ever desire to live the present moment, leav |