into captivity. (Ezek. xx. 12, and xxii. 8; Jer. xvii. 19; Neh. xiii. 15.) But on the contrary, he promises, "If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath from doing thy pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord honorable; and shalt honor him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words; then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord: and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it." Man. We do not expect miracles now, but look for the natural results of things. If we attend to our business diligently, we expect success in it. Th. You forget the providence of God. This brings about what you call the natural results of things. And I contend that temporal ruin is among the natural results of Sabbathbreaking. 1. It is casting contempt upon what God has given to man as a special favor. 2. It is manifesting peculiar contempt for the divine authority, inasmuch as God has set apart this day more especially for his own worship. 3. The observance of the Sabbath is essential to the permanent good of nations and of individuals. 4. Sabbath-breaking tends to harden the heart, to stupefy the conscience, and lead men to an habitual disregard of the divine threatenings. 5. It brings such as are guilty of it into contact with those whose influence tends to corrupt them still more. What is the brotherhood of Sabbathbreakers, but a company of those who fear not God, and have little regard for man; whose influence tends to burst asunder all restraints, divine and human? Who are the leaders in this matter, but those who make a gain of the vices of others? Those who live on the crimes against God and man which they entice others to commit; those whose trade is to make their fellow-creatures as bad as they can, that they may profit by their depravity? Man. You are hard upon our respectable fraternity. But I think you must admit that there is a necessity for keeping horses and carriages to let for riding on the Sabbath. Your ministers sometimes want a carriage to go to a neighboring place to preach; and how shall they be accommodated, if none will hire? Th. They had better hire their horse and carriage and go on the day before, and return home the day after. If the journey is not important enough for that, it is surely not important enough to justify travelling on the Sabbath. Man. The Saviour reproved the Pharisees for their supersti tious regard for the day, which they carried so far, as to blame others for healing a sick man on that day. Th. Works of necessity and mercy are considered as allowable on that day. Man. That plea of necessity will be found broad enough to cover most of us. Th. Not when tested by Scripture and reason. The necessity ought to be as great, in order to justify us in taking the Lord's time, as would justify us in taking our neighbor's property. If a man is suddenly taken ill, so ill, as would justify us in going to the stable of a neighbor in his absence, and taking his horse to send for a physician, that would doubtless justify us in taking the Lord's time: and so of other cases. Our Lord justified his disciples in plucking the ears of corn, and rubbing out the kernels for food, on the Sabbath, because they had not other means of satisfying their hunger; also the feeding and watering of cattle, and the like. But none of these things will justify our hiring horses and carriages, for labor or pleasure, nor countenance any of the ordinary pleas for Sabbath-breaking. Man. I have known ministers continue their journey on board of boats, and preach to their fellow-passengers. Th. But they would probably have done better not to preach, nor to have let their fellow-passengers know, if they could help it, that they were ministers at all. Their example in favor of Sabbath-breaking, would undoubtedly go much further, than any thing they could preach would do good. Man. What then must a man do, who is on board a boat that purposes to continue its journey on the Sabbath? Th. Stop, before the Sabbath begins, and wait till it ends; and take the next conveyance that Providence offers. Man. And lose the object of his journey? of obedience. Th. He should trust God for that in the way I have known of persons who did so, and yet arrived at their journey's end sooner than those did who kept on during the Sabbath. Man. You seem to be looking for miracles again. Th. No; for nothing but the providence of God, in the direction of human efforts. Man. But when railway cars or boats carry the mail, which the government requires to be conveyed, may we not travel in the same conveyance? Th. No. If the government requires the Sabbath to be violated, in that way, those who aid and assist in it are accountable for the sin. But if I should embrace the opportunity which that national sin affords, to pursue a journey of pleasure or profit, on my own account, here would be an additional s'n, for which I should be specially accountable. Man. But in time of war, you know, intelligence must be conveyed without delay, and troops must march, and fight, if need be. Th. That is one of the proofs that war is wrong. It prostrates the Sabbath; and with the evils of Sabbath-breaking, it brings in numberless other immoralities. But I trust the time is coming, when professed Christians will cease to justify war, or Sabbath-breaking. Man. If I own stock in a steamboat company, or in a railroad, which makes a gain of Sabbath travelling, what must I do? Must I refuse my dividends, because they are partly made on the Sabbath? Th. You must first try to get the company to cease violating the Sabbath. If you cannot persuade them to do that, you must withdraw from them. I do not believe you can innocently partake of the gain of Sabbath-breaking establish ments. Ard. How long may I hold stock in such companies, under the plea of trying to persuade my associates to cease violating the Sabbath? Th. No longer than is necessary to make the experiment fairly; and that cannot require a long time. I fear that many are deceiving themselves with this plea, to justify their living in sin. Ard. What shall be done with the dividends? Shall I give them to the Lord, or shall I keep them myself? Th. I should be afraid to offer them to the Lord; for he says, "I hate robbery for burnt offering." And elsewhere he expressly rejects the proceeds of an unlawful business, as an abomination to him. I should be afraid to put them into my own purse, lest they should make a hole therein, and escape, and carry with them whatever of lawful money might be there. I do not know how to advise, better than to have nothing to do with unlawful gains at all. So the man left them, and the pilgrims went on conversing with each other. Ard. Are there not some other kinds of unlawful business, in the gains of which good men are sometimes tempted to participate? Th. Yes; many. Any business which is carried on by deceit, which flourishes by the vices of men, which violates the laws of man, or the laws of God, is of this kind. The government imposes a tax upon foreign articles brought into the country. Some men defraud the government of this tax, by bringing in their goods secretly, or giving a false account of them or of their value. And in this way are able to sell them at a lower price than the honest trader. Good people are sometimes tempted to buy these goods, because they are cheap, when they have reason to believe their cheapness is occasioned by some dishonesty. To do so, is to become partakers in the fraud. Some men have houses and other buildings to let. Those who are engaged in selling strong drinks, or in keeping gambling rooms, or in other business which lives upon the vices of men, wish to obtain such buildings, and offer a larger rent than those men who pursue an honest calling can afford to pay. The owner is often tempted to accept the highest offer, without questioning what business it is wanted for. But if he does, he becomes a partaker in the unlawful gains, to such amount as he receives above what his rent would be for a lawful business. Another man raises grain for sale. At a manufactory of intoxicating drinks he can obtain a larger price than he can for being converted into food for man or beast. If he sells for the purpose of having it converted into poison, I think he is manifestly a partaker in the unlawful gains of that business, to the amount of his greater price. Ard. It seems to be necessary, in these days, that good men should watch and pray, that they enter not into temptation. Th. Yes; they need to take heed to the warning of the apostle: "They that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all evil; which, while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows." By this time the pilgrims had come to the pillar of salt upon which was inscribed, «Remember Lot's wife," which they considered a timely and salutary admonition. And they exhorted one another to avoid turning back in their hearts to the pleasures and allurements of this world; but to hold on their Christian course, with diligence and zeal, that they might honor that holy name by which they were called. CHAPTER LXVI. THEN I perceived that the pilgrims came to the pleasant river which was by the way-side, called the river of the water of life, upon whose banks the trees are green all the year round, and yield their fruits every month; where the white lilies beautify the meadows, and fill the air with their fragrance; of which place King David said, "He maketh me to lie down in green pastures; he leadeth me beside the still waters." In the midst of these grounds the pilgrims, beheld a shepherd's lodge, and on coming up to it, a man named Spiritual-mind came out, and said, "Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? and who shall stand in his holy place? He that hath clean hands and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully. He shall receive the blessing from the Lord, and righteousness from the God of his salvation. This is the generation of them that seek him, that seek thy face, O Jacob.' Thoughtful. "Open to me the gates of righteousness; I will go into them, and I will praise the Lord: this gate of the Lord, into which the righteous shall enter. I will praise thee; for thou hast heard me, and art become my salvation." Ardent. How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of Hosts! My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the Lord: my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God Blessed are they that dwell in thy house; they will be stil praising thee." So Mr. Spiritual-mind prepared them seats, and having made them comfortable, he inquired who they were, and whence they came; and, having received answers to all his inquiries, he prepared them a supper and a lodging, for it was now night, and they had walked a long day's journey. And before they retired, they united in the following hymn: "The Lord my pasture shall prepare, "When in the sultry glebe I faint, "Though in the paths of death I tread, |