the suppression must be the result of moral means, industriously and extensively put into operation, and of the power of consistent example on the part of those by whom they are employed.

Before proceeding to notice these moral means, I may hazard the observation, that, with regard to the external observance of the Sabbath, so far as enacted and protected by the laws of the land, it is eminently injurious to the community, (setting the law of God out of the question,) when the very enactments which enjoin and protect the sabbatical rest are openly violated in those quarters where deference to the laws ought most sacredly to be exemplified. What are we to look for, as the effect in all the descending grades of society, when, from time to time, in all the newspapers, the people read of successive cabinet councils held on the Lord's day, without even the pretext of any pressing state emergency to justify it; when they thus see the Sabbath, in the transactions of public as well as of private business, converted into a day for saving time ;-and what is still worse, when they read of its being chosen as the day for the festivities of ministerial dinners, by which not only do the guests set at nought the law of God, but the fundamental principle of the law of the land is infringed, by the necessary employment of hundreds of hands in the preparation and service of such entertainments; and moreover, of Sunday parties in high life, in their multiplied varieties, more select coteries, or more numerous and promiscuous companies, in the first style of fashion, and duly puffed off to the public, in defiance of all the proprieties and decencies of the day of rest;-when they read of these and of all the other ways, in which the very

framers of the laws are themselves the examples of their infraction:—what, I say, are we to look for as the effect, but that the spirit thus displayed should be caught in/the ranks below; that inferiors should feel themselves as well entitled to disregard the laws as their betters that cor ruption should spread downwards, till the deadly infection reaches, in the political body," from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot?" niw gmezeld saivib ba

After all, however, even so far as regards the outward observance of the Sabbath, I should trust a great deal more to the influence of moral means, than to that of legal statutes and, with respect to the promotion of the true spiritual keeping of the day, our dependence must of course, be on these entirely. Laws can here do nothing. And, important as the secular ends of the Sabbath eare, its morals and spiritual purposes are incomparably more so. buThese lit ought to be our chief desire, and our chief endeavour, to promotes It is by the advancements of these, that we do good to the souls of individuals, and that, by the extension of moral and spiritual example, we elevate the character of the community The Sabbath, ás we have repeatedly observed, can only be rightly kept under the influence of right principled It follows, that the most effectual, and indeed the only effectual way of increasing the amount of its right and Scriptural celebration, is the diffusion of right principle. Herein, then,

0

let us exercise ourselves."We cannot be engaged in a work more truly conducive to the good of men, and to the glory of God, than the bringing ofvour sinful fellow-creatures around us, under the power of those principles of true godliness, which will cause them, when

ever they feel their influence, to "call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable," w—: ouest

When, we speak of moral means, however, the designation includes more than this; more than the means of promoting the spiritual celebration of the day, under the predominance of spiritual principles and feelings, and with a view to its spiritual results, the results of holy impulse and divine blessing, which it brings to the soul. -Moral means may be used also for promoting the outward observance of the day, and securing, to individuals and to the community, its secular advantages. We employ them, when we exhibit and impress the value of those advantages, when we show to the individual, and show to the member of the community, what benefits, even of tas temporal kind, will arise to himself and to society, from a due attention to the weekly day of rest. We may thus exert a practical influence, through the medium both of self-love and of patriotism Legal enactments and moral means may be brought into operation together. I would lay it down as a general makim, however, that the more of the latter and the less of the former, so much the better. When we succeed by moral means, we effect our object, not only much more agreeably, but much more thoroughly and durably. The difference is like that between influencing the mind of a child by argument and persuasion, and swaying and constraining it by the terror of the rod. We may check Sabbath-profanation, for example, in a species of it that is mournfully abundant, by shutting public-houses during divine service, and after certain specified hours and we may, through our local magistracies, try to accomplish this effectually, by a constant system of threatening, and

vigilance, and fine, and privation of licence, and other means of intimidating self-interest and coercing contumacy. To a certain extent we may succeed. But such means serve to bring into exercise a counter-system of watchfulness, and deception, and falsehood and perjury, and bribery and corruption, by which, in many instances, the strictest surveillance of magisterial duty will be evaded; especially as it is impossible that such surveillance should be at all times equally on the alert:-and a bad feeling is, besides, engendered, by the difficulty and invidiousness of drawing the line of distinction between such houses and houses of refreshment of a somewhat higher order it may be, which are not subjected to this rigorous superintendence. While, therefore, as we conceive, the general principle of human laws on this subject perfectly warrants, in the cases in question, the interference of the magistrate; inasmuch as, no satisfactory reason can well be assigned why the sale of intoxicating liquors should be tolerated on the Lord's-day, while the sale of all other articles, save medicines, is interdicted. Yet it is, in every respect, an incomparably more desirable method of checking and doing away this kind, and this prolific source of other kinds, of Sabbath-profanation, to put down, by the use of moral means, the intemperance itself, which is the maintenance of those Sunday haunts and nurseries of profligacy, as well as the inlet to so vast a proportion of the vice and crime, the discord and the wretchedness, with which the lower caste of society so fearfully teems. And, without discussing at present the merits and demerits of temperance societies, I must be allowed to say in their behalf, that their object is one of the most important

which the mind of Christian, of patriot, or of philanthropist can contemplate; that the general principle on which they are founded, which is, substantially, the application of combined example to the accomplishment of an end which individual and insulated example has utterly failed of effecting, is capable of the simplest and most satisfactory justification;-that, whatever objections may be entertained against them, and be felt sufficient by individuals to prevent their actually joining them, I cannot imagine how any Christian, as a friend to morality, to the true interests of his country, and to the personal and social happiness of his fellow-men, can regard them with indif ference, or fail to wish them God-speed;-and for this reason amongst others, that their success will contribute, in no small degree, to diminish the profanation, and to promote the sober and serious observance, of the Lord's day. For surely, the consideration is fearful, that the Sabbath should be the great tippling day,—a day of greater business and profit to the dram-drinking houses of which I have been speaking, than all the other days of the week together! Such being the melancholy fact, every step towards the suppression of intemperance is equally a step to the cure of Sabbath-profanation. They are sins that mutually produce and cherish each other.

But neither the relinquishment of intemperance, nor the sober church-going observance of the Sabbath, will save the soul. Still, therefore, let us bear in mind, that the first and most important description of moral means is the promotion of the knowledge and belief of the gospel. Every thing short of this, however useful and desirable, is yet deficient. It is something to gain men from intem