monly pays more attention to science or some lower objects that affords passing satisfaction than to his own eternal interests.

Anything that pertains to religion is shrunk from by many as a cause of melancholy. But, the religion of Jesus Christ is a great reality, the right and permanent antidote to that malady. And it is the grand preventive of other forms of mania, and a powerful remedial agent in their chronic form.

Growth in the religion of Jesus Christ has a happy influence upon the whole system. The trials of life are surmounted by it, and received as a means of weaning man from the creature, and directing him to the Creator. The very meaning of the word religion implies a privilege. In its original sense, religion means reunion to the object of worship, (religo, to bind again.) Hence, in its secondary meaning, it stands for worship.

The more, therefore, we advance in true knowledge and holiness, the more we shall prize and embrace the Sabbath, as a special

opportunity for spiritual growth, a special day of holy joy and gladness, and a powerful saniis also a type of the repose of

tary agent, as it is also a type of the

Heaven, a foretaste of that rest which remain

eth for the people of God.

THE SABBATH-DAY.

THE SABBATH is a very important part of the providence of God. Science and experience alike prove that the sacred injunction to rest from bodily labour, and to cease from worldly pursuits, whether of pleasure or business, is designed for our physical as well as spiritual welfare.

If we spend the Sabbath in the use of means for renewing the Divine image in the human soul, the physical benefit will follow naturally, as effect follows cause. In proportion as we cultivate the moral attributes of God in Christ, viz., truth, justice, forbearance, patience, purity, and love, and so become conformed to the image of God, our minds are ennobled and strengthened, and our life here, with all its conflicts, passes on in "the peace of God which passeth all understanding," and in joyful hope of a blessed eternity. Such a happy condition of the inner man always proves a salutary stimulus to organic life, and is specially valuable as an antagonist to certain de

B

pressing causes of disease, and as a support at that trying time when all other means are of no avail.

The animating effect of a holy Sabbath observance is beautifully illustrated by the Rev. Joshua Gilpin, in his book entitled "A Monument of Parental Affection to a dear and only Son." He says, "Its various exercises, whether public or private, produced an exhilarating effect upon our minds, and never failed to set us some paces nearer the object of our supreme desires. It was a kind of transfiguration-day, shedding a mild glory upon every creature, and inviting us to view the concerns of time in connection with those of eternity. Through all its happy hours we sat, as on the holy mount, looking backward with gratitude, and forward with confidence, taking sweet counsel together for the advancement of our highest interest, and scarcely considering ourselves as inhabitants of the lower world."

On the other hand, it is because God's Sabbath is dishonoured, and the Christian virtues are not cultivated, that life becomes so often a tesselated stage of strife, anger, malice, revenge, jealousy, mortified pride, remorse, despair, selfishness, drunkenness, debauchery, and other vices. And these conditions of mind produce ill effects,

from temporary disturbance of function to fixed disease and premature death. Thus,

Anger, amounting to rage, and grief or fear, causing sudden and severe mental shock, may induce sudden death, or insanity. And, even less violent emotion, when protracted, will so affect the functions of nutrition, as to rouse latent disease, or render the system more susceptible of attacks from other causes.

Feelings of malice, jealousy, and revenge; mortified pride, remorse and despair; usually so derange the whole natural economy, as to accelerate the period of existence, and not unfrequently lead to insanity, to murder, and to suicide. Experience will remind most of my readers of similar instances in connection with drunkenness, debauchery, and other vices and ex

cesses.

Of him who does not subject himself to moral discipline, it can never be truly said that he is merely his own enemy. In some degree he is mischievous through all his social relations. By vicious habits he transmits disease to beings yet unborn; by direct or indirect robbery, he is the cause of distress and want; by his unruly tongue, his violent temper, and his selfish indifference to the feelings of others, he becomes to many an occasion of grief. And thus, not only are peace