grievous calamities: which is first proclaimed at the dawn of human life, re-echoed on Mount Sinai, and engraved by the finger of God on the Decalogue; which applies to all times and places, and is demanded by the very exigencies of our nature!

Sunday, or the Lord's Day, is consecrated to rest from servile work and to public worship by the Christian world, to commemorate the resurrection of our Saviour from the grave, by which He consummated the work of our redemption, and to foreshadow the glorious resurrection of the elect and the eternal rest which they will enjoy in the life to come. Most appropriately, indeed, has Sunday been chosen; for, if it was proper to solemnize the day on which God created the world, how much more meet to celebrate the day on which He redeemed it!

As the worship of our Creator is nourished and perpetuated by religious festivals, so does it languish where they are unobserved, and become paralyzed by their suppression. Whenever the enemies of God seek to destroy the religion of a people, they find no means so effectual for carrying out their impious designs as by the suppression of the sabbath. Thus, when Antiochus determined to abolish the sacred laws of the Hebrew people, and to compel them to conform to the practice of idolatry, he defiled the temples of Jerusalem and Garizim; he put an end to the Jewish sacrifices, and, above all, he forbade, under pain of death, the observance of the sabbath and the other religious solemnities, substituting in their stead his own birthday and the feast of Bacchus as days of sacrifice and licentious indulgence.

The leaders of the French Revolution, in 1793, adopted similar methods for the extirpation of the Lord's Day in France. The churches were profaned and dedicated to the Goddess of Reason, the priests were exiled or put to death, and the very name of Sunday, or Lord's Day, was abolished from the calendar, so that every hallowed tradition associated with that day might be obliterated from the minds of the people.

And it is a well-known fact that in our own times, the enemies of religion are the avowed opponents of the Christian Sabbath. I have seen the Sunday violated in Paris, in Brussels, and other capitals of Europe. And even in Rome I have seen government workmen engaged, on the Lord's Day, in excavating and in building houses. Who are they that profane the Sunday in those cities of Europe? They are men lost to all sense of religion, who glory in their impiety, and who aim at the utter extirpation of Christianity.

A close observer cannot fail to note the dangerous inroads which have been made on the Lord's Day within the last quarter of a century in our own country; and if these invasions are not checked in time the day may come when the religious quiet now happily reigning in Baltimore, and other well-ordered cities, will be changed into a day of noise and turbulence; when the sound of the bell will be drowned by the echo of the hammer and the dray; when the prayer-book and the Bible will be supplanted by the newspaper and the magazine; when the votaries of the theatre and the drinking saloon will outnumber the church worshippers; and the salutary thoughts of God, and of the soul, and of eternity, will be choked by the cares of business and by the pleasures and dissipations of the world.

We cannot but admire the wisdom of God and His intimate knowledge of the human heart in designating one day in the week on which public homage should be paid to Him. So engrossing are the cares and occupations of life, so absorbing its pleasures, that it is difficult, if not impossible, to direct the thoughts of mankind to the higher pursuits of virtue and religious worship, unless a special time is set apart for these spiritual exercises. We have certain hours assigned to the various functions of daily life. We have stated hours for retiring to rest at night, and for rising from sleep, for partaking of our meals, and attending to our regular avocations. If we discharged those ordinary functions only when the spirit would move us, and inclination would prompt us, our health would be impaired, and our temporal interests would suffer. And so would our spiritual nature grow torpid if there was no fixed day for renovating it by the exercise of divine praise and adoration. We might for a time worship God at irregular intervals, and would probably end by neglecting to commune with Him altogether.

The Christian sabbath is a living witness of revelation and an abiding guardian of Christianity. The religious services held in our churches each successive Sunday are the most effective means for keeping fresh in the minds and hearts of our people the sublime and salutary teachings of the Gospel. Our churches exercise on the truths of revelation an influence analogous to that exerted by our courts of justice in the civil law. The silence and solemnity of the court, the presence of the judge, the power with which he is clothed, the weight of his decisions, give an authority to our civil and criminal jurisprudence, and invest it with a sanction, which it could not have if our courts were closed.

In like manner, the religious decorum observed in our temples of worship, the holiness of the place, the sacred character of the officiating ministers, above all, the reading and exposition of the sacred Scriptures, inspire men with a reverence for the divine law, and cause it to exert a potent influence on the moral guidance of the community, and the summary closing of our civil tribunals would not entail a more disastrous injury on the laws of the land, than the closing of our churches would inflict on the Christian religion.

How many social blessings are obtained by the due observance of the Lord's Day? The institution of the Christian sabbath has contributed more to the peace and good order of nations than could be accomplished by standing armies and the best organized police force. The officers of the law are a terror, indeed, to evil-doers, and arrest them for overt acts, while the ministers of religion, by the lessons they inculcate, prevent crime by appealing to the conscience, and promote peace in the kingdom of the soul.

The cause of charity and mutual benevolence is greatly fostered by the sanctification of the Sunday. When we assemble at church on the Lord's Day we are admonished, by that very fact, that we are all members of the same social body, and that we should have for one another the same lively sympathy and spirit of coöperation which the members of the human body entertain towards each other. We are

reminded that we are all enlivened and sanctified by the same spirit. "There are diversities of graces," says the Apostle, "but the same spirit; and there are diversities of ministeries, but the same Lord; and there are diversities of operations, but the same God, Who worketh all in all." We have all divers pursuits and avocations; we occupy different grades of society: but in the house of God all these distinctions are levelled, and the same spirit that enters the heart of the most exalted citizen does not disdain to descend also into the soul of the humblest peasant.

If, indeed, the observance of the Sunday was irksome and difficult, there would be some excuse for neglecting this ordinance. But it is a duty which, so far from involving labor and self-denial, contributes to health of body as well as to contentment of mind. The Christian Sunday is not to be confounded with the Jewish or the old Puritan sabbath. It prescribes the golden mean between rigid sabbatarianism on the one hand, and lax indulgence on the other. There is little doubt that the revulsion in public sentiment from a rigorous to a loose observance of the Lord's Day can be ascribed to the sincere but misguided zeal of the Puritans, who confounded the Christian Sunday with the Jewish sabbath, and imposed restraints on the people which were repulsive to Christian freedom, and not warranted by the Gospel dispensation. The Lord's Day should always be regarded as a day of joy. We should be cheerful, without being dissipated; grave and religious, without being sad or melancholy. Christianity forbids, indeed, all unnecessary servile work on that day; but, as "the sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath," she allows such work whenever charity or necessity may demand it. And as it is a day not only of religion, but also of relaxation of mind and body, she permits us to spend a portion of it in innocent recreation. In a word, the true conception of the Lord's Day is expressed in the words of the Psalmist: "This is the day which the Lord hath made; let us be glad and rejoice therein." A word must be added on two other pregnant evils: the ballot is the expression of the will of a free people, and its purity should be guarded with the utmost jealousy. To violate that purity is to wound the state in its tenderest point.

The repeated cry of "election frauds" is one full of warning. In many instances, undoubtedly, it is the empty charge of defeated partisans against the victors; yet enough remains, of a substantial character, to be ominous. In every possible way-by tickets insidiously printed, by "stuffing" the box, by "tissue ballots," "repeating,' and "personation"-frauds are attempted, and too often successfully, upon the ballot. It is the gravest menace to free institutions.

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Defective registration laws, and negligence to secure the ballotbox by careful legal enactments, in part account for such a state of affairs; but a prime cause is that the better class of citizens so often stand aloof from practical politics and the conduct of campaigns. is one result of universal suffrage that elections very frequently turn upon the votes of that large class made up of the rough and baser sort. To influence and organize this vote is the "dirty work" of politics. Gentlemen naturally shrink from it. Hence it has gotten, for the

most part, with the general political machinery, into unreputable hands; and from these hands issue the election frauds which thicken in the great cities, and gravely endanger our institutions. The ballot is the ready and potent instrument which registers the will of a free people for their own government, and the violation of its purity leads directly to the point where there is either loss of liberty or revolution to restore it. We all remember what happened in 1876, when alleged tampering with election returns affected the Presidential succession, and a great cloud arose, and for weeks hung, dark and threatening, over the land. It was a tremendous crisis, and perhaps only the memories of recent war averted disastrous strife.

We hail it with satisfaction, that a more healthy public opinion in this quarter seems developing; that reputable citizens appear more disposed to bear an active part in practical politics; and that "reform," "a free ballot," "a fair count," are becoming, under the pressure, more and more party watchwords. It is a purifying tendency in a vital "direction.

Yet another crying evil is the wide interval that so often interposes between a criminal's conviction and the execution of the sentence, and 'the frequent defeat of justice by the delay. Human life is, indeed, sacred; but the laudable effort to guard it has gone beyond bounds. Of late years the difficulty to convict (in murder trials, especially) has greatly increased from the widened application of the pleas in barnotably, that of insanity. When a conviction has been reached, innumerable delays generally stay the execution. The many grounds of exception allowed to counsel, the appeals from one court to another, with final application to the Governor, and the facility with which signatures for pardon are obtained, have combined to throw around culprits. an extravagant protective system, and gone far to rob jury trial of its substance and efficacy. A prompt execution of the law's sentence, after a fair trial had, is that which strikes terror into evil-doers and satisfies the public conscience. The reverse of this among us has brought reproach upon the administration of justice, and given plausible grounds for the application of lynch-law.

JAMES CARDINAL GIBBONS.

Her.

No household is complete without a sister; she gives the finish to the family. A sister's love, a sister's influence—what can be more hallowed? A sister's kindness-does the world show us anything purer. A sister is a sort of guardian angel in the home circle. presence condemns vice. She is the quickener of good resolutions, the sunshine in the pathway of home. To every brother she is light and life. Her heart is a treasure-house of confidence. In her he finds a safe adviser, a charitable, forgiving, tender though often severe friend. Her sympathy is open as the day and sweet as the fragrance of flowers. A sister's office is a noble and gentle one. It is hers to guard the citadel of home with the sleepless vigilance of virtue; to gather graces and strew flowers around the home altar.

What Catholics Should Read.

As for us who glory in being children of the Catholic Church, let us no longer patronize a press that is hostile to our faith, scoffs at our religion, and misrepresents the history and doctrines of our Holy Mother. Let us show that we are Catholics, not in name only, but also in deed, by reading good and useful books, periodicals and papers, which will elevate our minds and hearts above the degrading influences. of the passions and material things. Experience proves that the best and most enlightened Catholics are undoubtedly those, who, banishing from their homes all that belittles their religion and their Church, are regular readers of Catholic books, periodicals and newspapers. Those Catholics are far better instructed in their religion, and have a more solid faith than those who do not patronize the Catholic press. Consequently it is my most fervent hope to see our educated Catholics subscribe for some Catholic periodical, and I most earnestly entreat every Catholic family in this country to become subscribers for some good Catholic newspaper. The regular reading of some good Catholic books and periodicals is the best means to keep up the faith among our Catholics, to afford them all the necessary information concerning the history and doctrines of the Church, and to enable them to know and prove conclusively that the Catholic Church is the greatest benefactor of the human race, for having constantly fostered learning and civilization, and being the greatest champion of true liberty.

How “Labor Day" was Fixed.

LABOR DAY is now a legal holiday, and the idea of having one day set apart for the enjoyment of the toilers came about in this manner: In 1882 the Central Labor Union appointed a committee to make arrangements for a festival, and among those on the committee was Matthew McGuire, of Local Assembly 1562 of Brooklyn, the first secretary of the Central Labor Union.

At the first meeting of the committee, McGuire said, that as the General Assembly of the Knights of Labor was to open its annual session in New York on Sept. 5th, which fell on Monday, it would be good policy to hold the festival on that day. This was agreed to, and Elm Park was engaged for that day, another organization being paid for the date. The picnic was held, and was a grand success. number of delegates to the General Assembly reviewed the parade, and took part in the festivities.

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The picnic in 1883 was held on the first Monday in September, at the same place, and in 1884, the Committee of Arrangements consisted of V. W. Woyteseck, of the Progresssive Cigar-makers; John J. McGuire, of the Unity Labor Club; Charles L. Miller, of the Clothing