1857.] The Golden Day. 261 God of the Sabbath. God, in mercy, interposes his authority between his avarice and his destruction. The Sabbath stays the power of selfdestruction. It does not only preserve the man himself from self-ruin, but it protects his son and his daughter, his man-servant and maidservant, his cattle, and the stranger that is within his gates. The lordling, who, during the week, commands the sweat from the brow of his laborers, has no power on the Sabbath. Here his authority ends; this is the day which the Lord made for man. This is, for all, the day of joyful rest; the laborer dries the sweat from his brow, and relaxes his weary limbs. The very quietude of the Sabbath has a happy influence on mankind. Not only does labor drop from the hands of men, but the din of business, and the echoes of vexing toil die away from their ears. No sound of a hammer, no rattling in the noisy streets-all is as still as the empty halls of a mansion whose tenants are gone away. How genial and soothing to the exhausted body-how stimulating to the wasted energies of weary human nature! More truly can we feel than express the truth that the Sabbath was made for man. But, a greater blessing than this is the Sabbath, in that it affords rest to the soul. When it is observed as it ought to be, it does not only rest the body, but the soul. The spirit rests in God. It turns away from the perplexities of life and reclines on the bosom of divine love. The cares of life are lost in the thoughts of eternity. In holy meditation the spirit ascends to God, basks in his smiles, and is quieted by a sense of its nearness to him. Or, in the house of God, the pious spirit feeds on the precepts and reclines on the promises of God's word. The spirit of holy song, the voice of supplication, and the mysterious communion of saints, afford repose for the weary soul more soft than "downy pillows" are to the body. Add to all this that perfect heaven of bliss in which the spirit lives, when Christ reveals himself to the devout worshipper, as he does not reveal himself to the world. Not only does the Sabbath afford opportunity to enjoy the rest of the soul, but it affords means to secure that rest to those who have it not. To the wicked, there is no peace. To this truth, their consciences, as well as the Bible, bear testimony. They are like the troubled sea which cannot rest. Even their bodies cannot rest as long as their souls are at enmity with God. The evil possession seems to rack, rend, and torment the body. The spirit must be tamed, bound, and quieted; and when it is clothed and in its right mind, then only can it enjoy a Sabbath. The influences which the Sabbath brings to bear on the soul, are designed to accomplish this, and in innumerable instances they have been effected. On this day, the impenitent soul is peculiarly addressed on the subject of its eternal interests. The very exhibition of God's authority in commanding this day to be kept holy, already reminds the rebel that he is under the government of a Sovereign Being. On this day, God descends to earth, and while the earth keeps silence before him, the rebel feels his presence, and trembles in consequence of it. Though he may seek amid idleness and pleasure to dissipate thought, yet, at intervals, thoughts of eternity and God, heaven and hell, will steal in their solemnity upon him. The very silence of the Sabbath utters a voice louder than trumpets" Prepare to meet thy God!" But God, on this day, has surrounded his rebellious creatures on every hand with positive calls to his service. The tolling church bell rings into the sinner's ears earnestly its eternal changes. -As if an angel spoke He feels the solemn sound. It is a signal that demands dispatch: How much is to be done! His hopes and fears These tocsins, on the towers of Zion, are God's monitors from age to age, calling the giddy and guilty world to worship. They roll their spirit tones along every street, and far over land. In the counting room, in the private chamber, in the bar room and saloon, they play in solemn echoes. Over the idle groups that stand at the corners of the streets and market places, or stray slowly out the lanes and avenues on pleasure bent, they roll their cadences of mercy, saying: Come! Come away! But, these are still small things compared with the divine institutions of religion which God has connected with the observance of his holy Sabbath. On this day are thrown open the gates of his tabernacles, and men are invited to meet God in his chambers of audience, and to hold communion with him in his appointed ordinances. Whether pastime or habit, or whatever other motive may lead men to God's house, yet God often meets them, and they do not return as they went. Then, too, who can estimate the moral power and excellence of the pulpit! The foolishness of preaching! All the foolishness of God is wiser than men! If the voices of the watchmen who walk about Zion to tell the towers thereof, and who stand upon her walls to guard her dearest rights, were suddenly to be hushed; if the thousands of pulpits in our land would no more unfold to the bewildered and inquiring the plan of salvation, or unsheath the sword of God as a terror to evildoers-only then would we be able fully to estimate and appreciate its blessed influence. Cowper, the most wise and evangelical of all poets, has well said The pulpit, in the sober use Of its legitimate, peculiar powers, Must stand acknowledged while the world shall stand, Support, and ornament of virtue's cause. Influence exerted at so many points, and under circumstances so favorable must be felt. No one speaks under so many advantages as the christian minister. Seated amid the quietude of the temple, here at least for the time being the wicked cease from troubling. The holy serenity and dim religious light hallow the place and whisper: God is hereThe Lord dwelleth in his temple, let all the earth keep silence before him. He also who speaks with the terrors of the Lord upon him, comes with the consciousness visible to all that he is not speaking his own words, his own threats. And then his subjects too are clothed with trembling interest to all who hear him. Sin, redemption, righteousness, judgment, heaven, hell-eternal mercy and love, the cross, life, death and immortality. These subjects clothe his messages with interest and power. No one prouounces judgement so awful-no one teaches pre 1857.] The Golden Day. 263 cepts so wise no one speaks promises so balmy-no one points to hopes so bright-or despair so dark and hopeless! Sweep away the pulpit, and this is only one part of the blessedness of this day, and you leave an aching, cold, and gloomy void, which nothing on earth can fill. Enjoying as we do the blessings of this day in all their told and untold importance how clearly do we perceive, and how thankful ought we to acknowledge, the truth that "the Sabbath was made for man." A few inferences in conclusion: 1. If the Sabbath was made for man, then we infer that it is absolutely necessary to his well being. God makes nothing in vain. He would not have made this day amid so much solemnity, enjoined its observance under such heavy penalties, and preserved it from extinction amid all the revolutions of the world, if it were not necessary to man's well being, and favorable to his present and future life. Those, then, who try to depreciate its sacredness and abrogate its claims, are alike enemies to God and man. 2. Those who are deprived of the Sabbath by the hand of oppression, or otherwise, are deprived of a right which God gave them. The Sabbath was made for man. For the slave as well as for him who calls himself his master For laborers on public works, for boatmen, stage-drivers and sailors, as well as for those whom providence has placed in circumstances of greater pleasantness and independency. Who has a right to say to a fellow-man, on the day which the Lord made for man: Six days shalt thou labor, and the seventh also? Who, that is head in a family, has a right to keep those who labor in his service away from God's house, on God's day, to wait on company, or to prepare a luxurious and fashionable repast? It is God that says: "Nor thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant!" Yea, God careth even for beast, and, in mercy to those poor brutes that toil the weary road six days, and by the hand of avarice are driven on the seventh-in merey to them, he says to their master, "nor thy cattle!" Who will take it upon himself to extort from man or beast a right which God has secured to them on tables of stone, and on the more lasting tables of man's nature. 3. If the Sabbath was made for man then it is always possible for him to keep it holy, and he can never get into circumstances where he will be compelled to break it. It is a common opinion that in some cases it is impossible to keep this commandment. What a reflection is this upon the wisdom of God! Should he make a law the observance of which is for the benefit of man, and yet suffer him to get into circumstances where he must necessarily violate it. It is true circumstances alter cases, but circumstances do not alter the law of God. To say then, as is sometimes said, "we would like to keep the Sabbath, but in our circumstances we cannot," is idle and wicked. To say that it is necessary to violate the Sabbath in order to carry on manufactories which are necessary to man, is to say that God made the Sabbath for man, but failed in wisdom; and instead of promoting his welfare by it he threw a barrier into his way which must be broken through by man on his own responsibility. Who is prepared for such wickedness? It is however gratifying to learn that this wicked idea is becoming more and more dissipated from the minds of men. Experiments in burning lime, making iron, etc., have most clearly confirmed the truth that man can, under all circumstances, keep the Sabbath. There is no doubt that further experiments will still more deeply convince men that keeping the Sabbath is not only possible but profitable-that it was not only made for man, but that it was wisely made. 4. If the Sabbath was made for man, and is really a benefit and blessing to man, then there must be something wrong with those who do not feel it a benefit. Those who feel it as an unpleasant restraint must have a desire for pleasures which God does not allow or approve, and the enjoyment of which requires a violation of God's law. Those to whom it is a burden, show that they have no heart for holy and pure delightespecially that they have no heart for God's service. How many are there, even among professing christians, to whom the holy Sabbath is a dull and wearisome day. The days of the week go too fast in the whirl of business, but Sabbath hours have leaden wings, and seem like a summer's sun to the tired laborer, which will not go down. How loudly does this proclaim against their profession; and how clearly does it show that theirs is not the true christian spirit. Heart sympathy with God, with holiness, and with religion is wanting-and thus all is wanting. 5. If the Sabbath was made for man, it was made as a means to an end. That end is Heaven. This Sabbath is a type of an eternal Sabbath. There remaineth therefore a rest for the people of God. The rest which it affords here is good; but that which is to come is better. How blessed is this day in itself, but how unspeakable more blessed is it in its typical connection with the Saints' everlasting rest. There remaineth a Sabbath where no setting sun shall fill the soul with melancholy regret, and where no to-morrow's quick returning light shall call us to the world again. A Sabbath where no rankling care or worldly bustle shall break in upon our holy and happy hours; where the proud lordlings voice shall no more move the poor man's weary limbs. A Sabbath, where the wicked shall cease from troubling and where the weary are at rest! In that blest Lingdom we shall be O Long expected day, begin. A BEAUTIFUL GEM. There's many an empty cradle, 1857.] The March of Empire. THE MARCH OF EMPIRE. BY THE EDITOR. WRITTEN UNDER A TREE IN THE PAR WEST. IN the deep and awful forest Of the wide primeval West- And along the smaller streams, Around me were the Red men, The herds upon the prairies, The wild beasts in the wood, In the distance, far, far Eastward, In warfare or in glee, And then a deep dread sounding Still nearer, and still louder, As mowers fell the grass, Encampments grow to cities And tents spread far and wide; And proud upon the rivers Their ships of thunder ride; Their shouts of joy and triumph, 265 |