AN APPEAL 
 
 TO THi 
 
 CITIZENS OF NEW-YORK, 
 
 I.V BEHALF OF 
 
 THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH. 
 
 Bv GARDINER SPRING, 
 
 PASTOR OF THE BRICK PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 
 
 NEW-YORK : 
 
 PRINTED BY J. SEYMOUR, 49 JOHN-STREET. 
 
 1823. 
 
lex IGibrtfi 
 
 SEYMOUR DURST 
 
 ' Tort nieiitv t^im^trJa-m. Matthatarus 
 
 When you leave, please leave this hook 
 
 Because tt has heen said 
 "Sver'thmg comes t' him who watts 
 
 Except a loaned book." 
 
 Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library 
 Gift of Seymour B. Durst Old York Library 
 
AN APPEAL. 
 
 Fellow-Citizens, 
 
 The demand has more than once been 
 made — What right have the ministers of the gospel to inter- 
 fere with the moral conduct of the community ? For my- 
 self, I have ever supposed, that if there is an order of men 
 who sustain the weighty responsibility of guardians of the 
 public morals, they are the ministry of reconciliation. It 
 would be weak indeed in them, to think of aspiring to the 
 exercise of authority ; but to that influence which one man 
 exerts over another, by considerations addressed to his un- 
 derstanding, his moral sense, and his own best good, a pri- 
 vilege which the institutions of a free country have guaran- 
 teed to every free man, it is their high and honest exultation, 
 humbly and devoutly to aspire. It is in the exercise of no 
 other than this common privilege, that the writer ventures 
 to make an appeal to the citizens of New- York, in behalf 
 of the Christian Sabbath, 
 
 To assign to the Sabbath that place we could wish to see 
 it hold in the creed and habits of every well-wisher to the 
 community, we must be allowed to claim for it an early 
 and high-born origin. In presenting an outline of the ar- 
 gument in favour of the divine institution and perpetual 
 obligation of the Sabbath, we urge the necessity which ever 
 has existed, and the consequent reasonableness, of some well 
 defined period for the public worship of God. It is a dic- 
 tate of reason that if there is a God he ought to be wor- 
 shipped. If he ought to be worshipped, it is reasonable to 
 suppose he should be worshipped in the best way. Man is 
 
4 
 
 the creature of society. His social as well as his moral 
 nature gives birth to obligations which must influence his 
 religious character. If the social principle is one which is 
 consulted in giving interest and importance to secular con- 
 cerns, why may it not be tributary lo that mightiest con- 
 cern, the worship of God ? But, if it is tlie duty of men to 
 unite in acts of social and public worship, there exists a ne- 
 cessity for some well-defined and fixed season for the per- 
 formance of this duty. Without such an appointment, not 
 only would the beauty of the service be defaced, and its or- 
 der and harmony interrupted, but its design defeated, and 
 the s<?rvice itself in a great measure neglected. If there is 
 any weight lo be attached to these remarks, we may con- 
 clude that the observance of some appointed period for the 
 worship of God is perpetually binding ; because the reasons 
 of this observance exist and operate in all places, and in 
 every age of the world, and equally concern all mankind. 
 
 AVe also urge the general agreement of the nations in set- 
 ting apart every seventh day for this particular service. Ever 
 since the creation of the world, the great mass of mankind 
 have united in the observance of every seventh day, as a 
 day of religious worship.* There is something worthy of 
 observation in the sacredness of the septenary numbtr, and 
 in the circumstance that all nations unite in the division of 
 time into weeks. This division of time is not a natural 
 one, but is altogether arbitrary. The division into day and 
 night, into months and years, is marked by the diurnal and 
 annual revolutions of the earth round the sun, and the moon 
 round the earth. But there is nothing in the solar system 
 to mark the division of time into weeks, unless it be the di- 
 
 * For the proof of this remark, see Bedford's Chronology— De Goguei, 
 Origin of Laws, vol. i. p. 250~~Groiius, de Veritate Christ. Relig. Lib. i.— 
 Rolli7i — Jennings'^s Jewish ^7itiquiHes—iogether with an able discussion, 
 entitled " The Doctrine of the Church of England concerning the Lord'f 
 Day, by J. Sjiiith. Consult also, Encyclp^dia, art. Sab. and Week. 
 
5 
 
 vision of the month into quarters, a division which was sub- 
 sequent to the division into weeks, and to w hich this latter 
 division does not owe its origin. The learned Grotius, and 
 not without reference to the best authorities, affirms, " that 
 the memory of the creation's being performed within seven 
 days, was preserved, not only among the Greeks and Ita- 
 lians, but among the Celts and Indians, all of whom divided 
 their time into weeks." To confirm this idea, we may re- 
 mark, that the word the ancients made use of to denote a 
 iceek, is Sabbath, a word which denotes rest, or a day of 
 rest.* This division of time into weeks no doubt had its 
 origin in the existence of a day of re^t, which either by the 
 common consent of mankind, or by superhuman appoint- 
 ment, recurred every seventh day, and constituted the limit 
 of every week. It is therefore a fact of some importance, 
 that most if not all the pagan nations, far remote from each 
 other in time and place, and antipodes in religion, and ma- 
 ny of whom cannot be supposed to have had any acquaint- 
 ance with the law of Moses, and who, if they had, would 
 never have stooped to borrow a religious institution from 
 that neglected and persecuted people, actually observed 
 every seventh day as a day of religious worship. Now, if 
 the observance of some particular season for rest and devo- 
 tion is primarily a law of nature; if it is ascertained, that 
 by the general consent of nations every seventh day is set 
 apart for this service; this circumstance of itself furnishes 
 strong presumptive testimony that the consecration of eve- 
 ry seventh day was the object of divine appointment, and 
 the celebration of it the matter of a traditionary revelation 
 from the family of Noah. In addition to this, 
 
 The formal designation of this day as a day of rest 
 by God himself, immediately after the creation, is a 
 consideration of some force in this investigation. We 
 
 * Vide Marshes Jflichaelis. 
 
6 
 
 have the origin of this institution In the following narrative 
 of the Sacred Historian : " Thus the heavens and the earth 
 were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh 
 day, God ended the work which he had made, and he rested 
 on the seventh day from all the work which he had created 
 and made. And God blessed the seventh day and sancti- 
 fied it; because on it he had rested from all his work." 
 Here God put distinguished honour on the seventh daj', as 
 the birth-day of this great creation. He " blessed" and 
 " sanctified" it as the day of mercy and holiness to man. 
 When this institution was first established, the Hebrew State 
 was not in existence ; nor did it take its rise until twenty- 
 five hundred years after this period : so that it was not, as 
 has been asserted, a mere Mosaic rite, but an institution of 
 earlier date, committed to our first parents, as the represen- 
 tatives of their whole posterity, and unless repealed by some 
 subsequent revelation, extending its binding force, not only 
 through the Patriarchal and Jewish, but Christian dispensa- 
 tions. In conformity with this primeval institution of the 
 Sabbath, we find that the first intimation of it which is given 
 to the Israelites, recognises it as an institution of previous 
 appointment. The first recorded intimation we have of it 
 after the patriarchal age, is given to the Israelites as they 
 commenced their march through the wilderness. No soon- 
 er had they penetrated the desert, and began to murmur 
 for want of food, than God said to them, " Behold, I will 
 rain bread from heaven for you, and the people shall go 
 out and gather a certain rate every day. And it shall come 
 to pass on the sixth day, they shall prepare that which they 
 bring in, and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily. 
 This is that which the Lord hath said, To-morrow is the. 
 holy Sabbath unto the Lord." And when on the follow- 
 ing Sabbath, they disregarded the claims of this sacred day, 
 and went out on the morning to gather manna, God se- 
 verely reprobated their conduct. How long refuse ye to 
 keep my commandments and my laws ? Abide ye evpv} 
 
7 
 
 man In his place, let no man go out of his place the se- 
 venth day." May we not conclude from language like 
 this, that the Sabbath is an institution not then for the first 
 time established, but of prior and acknowledged existence? 
 
 We urge too, and we think irresistibly, the introduc- 
 tion of a precept, requiring the observance of this day, 
 into the moral law. The distinction between the cere- 
 monial and moral law, consists in this : the ceremoni- 
 al law directed the peculiar policy and worship of the 
 Jewish nation — it prescribed the rites and ceremonies un- 
 der the Mosaic dispensation exclusively — such as the 
 offering of sacrifices, the worship of the temple, the cele- 
 bration of the passover, the feast of Pentecost, and the 
 feasts of Purim and Dedication. The moral law is that de- 
 claration of the will of God, which directs and binds all 
 men, in every age and place, to their whole duty to him. 
 It is comprised in what Sire usually called the Ten Com- 
 mandments. The ceremonial law was temporary, and is 
 repealed ; the moral is permanent, and unrepealable. The 
 former was superseded and abolished, at the introduction 
 of the Christian dispensation; tlie latter endures forever. 
 The moral law is the code which our Lord affirms he " came • 
 not to destroy, but to fulfil," and of which he so solemnly 
 declares, " Heaven and earth shall pass away, but not one 
 jot or one tittle of the law shall fail." And yet, in thi^ 
 grand moral code, you find the precept, " Remember the 
 Sabbath day to keep it holy." There is no solemnity, 
 obligation, or permanency, here imparted to the first, the 
 second, the third precept, or either of the ten, which does 
 not belong equally to the fourth. You may as well deny 
 the perpetual obligation of the whole, as that which insists 
 on the observance of the Sabbath day. 
 
 Nor should we lose sight of the prediction, that the en- 
 joyment of the Sabbath shall be one of the distinguished 
 blessings of the Church of God under the evangelical eco- 
 nomy, nor of the unequivocal recognition of the existence 
 
8 
 
 and obligations of this day, after the Jewish dispensation had 
 com© to its close. In relation to the universal benefits of 
 this day, our Lord asserts, " The Sabbath was made for 
 man, and not man for the Sabbath." Now, if this day 
 was instituted for men generally, is it not reasonable to sup- 
 pose that the blessings of it were designed to be perpetual? 
 The same blessed Personage also expressly recognised the 
 existence and obligation of the Sabbath, long after his re- 
 surrection. Looking forward to the final destruction of 
 Jerusalem, a period of forty years after the abolition of the 
 Jewish economy, he says to his disciples, " Pray ye that 
 your flight be not in the winter, nor on the Sabbath day." 
 In his contemplations, the Sabbath cprtainly existed iubsc- 
 quent to the abolition of the Mosaic dispensation. In the 
 Epistle to the Hebrews, also, the Apostle of the Gentiles, 
 liaving spoken of the change of the Jewish to the Christian 
 Sabbath, remarks, " There remainetk therefore a Sabbath 
 to the people of God." 
 
 Nor is the force of these considerations at all diminished 
 by the change of the Sabbath from the seventh to the first 
 day of the week. The import of the law enforcing the ob- 
 servance of the sabbatical institution, appears to me to be, 
 that every seventh day shall be a day of rest. Whether it be 
 the first or last day of the week, I cannot consider essential 
 to the institution. Under the Mosaic dispensation it was the 
 last; under the Christian dispensation it is the first. There 
 is no want of testimony in favour of the change. We learn 
 from the New Testament that the first day of the w eek was 
 observed in commemoration of our blessed Lord's resurrec- 
 tion — that it was the day of administering the Lord's supper 
 — that it was called the " Lord's day," in distinction from 
 all other days— that it was the day of public worship for the 
 apostolic church—that it was the day of the wonderful out- 
 pouring of the Spirit of God — that it was the day of our 
 Lord's appearing to his disciples — that the observance of 
 this day was the great badge of Christianity i;i the first 
 
9 
 
 centuries of the Christian era; and from the history of the 
 Church, that it has been the day vvhicli the God of heaven 
 has hallowed and blessed to men in every subsequent age 
 of the world. The objections to the divine institution and 
 permanent obligation of the Lord's day are comparatively 
 frivolous. The Great Legislator has given infinite force 
 to the precept, Remember the Sabbath day to keep it 
 holy." 
 
 But it is not my design in this Appeal, to exhibit to any 
 considerable extent, the divine authority and perpetual obli- 
 gation of the Sabbath. There is a point of view in which 
 it may perhaps commend itself to the consciences of men 
 who question its divine authority. 
 
 The peculiar and appropriate employment of this day 
 consists in the public worship of God, and the duties of do- 
 mestic and personal piety, to the exclusion of idleness and 
 sloth, of secular business, and of pleasure and amusement. 
 ll may be there are advantages attendant on the obser- 
 vance of this institution, which will give it a place in the 
 affections of ever}' man who identifies himself with the high 
 interests of human society. I have often thought that some 
 men disregarded the claims of this day with a spirit that 
 calls in question scarcely any thing more than their patri- 
 otism ; and who, if they were aware of the invariable ten- 
 dencies of its observance, would rejoice in its appointment, 
 and greet its return with an enthusiasm like that with which 
 they hail the birth-day of their country's freedom. 
 
 Is it too much to affirm, that the sabbatical institu- 
 tion IS PRE-EMINENTLY THE MEANS OF INTELLECTUAL 
 
 ADVANCEMENT ? In the performance of the appropriate 
 duties of the Sabbath, every person either becomes a teacher 
 or a learner, and derives his instructions from the best and 
 most important sources. He either reads or hears the Holy 
 Scriptures ; he listens to the instructions and counsels of wis- 
 dom from the house of God ; he occupies a place in the school 
 of Christ, either at home or abroad, and that with the pro- 
 
 B 
 
10 
 
 fessed object of becoming acquainted wiih subjects uhicb 
 interest his mind, elicit thouglit and inquiry, and produce 
 thatdiscipline ofthe understanding, and capacity for intellec- 
 tual effort, which arc the proximate design of all education. 
 
 Ignorance and barbarism form no part of the character of 
 men who revere the Lord's day. It is impossible to con- 
 demn to meanness and obscurity the individual, or the com- 
 munity, who rejoice in the light ofthe Christian Sabbath. 
 Carry the privileges of this day to the most abject on the 
 face of this globe, and just in the proportion in which 
 they are subjected to its induencc, do you elevate them 
 from their intellectual degradation. The reason for this 
 is obvious. There is no small portion of mankind, whose 
 only opportunity of information is derived from the Sab- 
 bath. And it is no contemptible opportunity. With 
 the exception of a few years of infancy, and, perhaps, 
 sickness, it consists of one day in seven, and ordinarily of 
 one-seventh part of an entire life. The child who lives but 
 seven years, is furnished, from this day alone, with one entire 
 year of important instruction ; the youth who dies at the 
 age of fourteen, is furnished with two years ; the man of 
 twenty-one, with three years ; the man of forty-two, with 
 six years ; the man of eighty, with nearly tw^elve entire 
 years of uninterrupted learning. You may suppose an in- 
 dividual, a family, or community, either so faulty or so un- 
 fortunate as to be deprived of all instruction, except on the 
 Sabbath ; but if the instructions of the Sabbath are im- 
 proved, it is impossible they should be ignorant. One-seventh 
 part of human life, even with persons thus abject, is devoted 
 to the attainment of knowledge. The Sabbath, in this parti- 
 cular, affects the great mass of mankind. It addresses its ob- 
 ligations, and presents its privileges to all orders and classes 
 of men, the low, as well as the high, the poor as well as the 
 rich. Conceive, then, the great mass ofthe community devot- 
 ing one day in seven to the attainment of knowledge ; our 
 dav in seven searching the holy scriptures: assembling in tho 
 
11 
 
 house of God to hear the instructions of his ministers: and 
 then appreciate the importance of the Sabbath, The Sab- 
 bath also furnishes the world with instruction in the tender- 
 est and most docile age. That great precept in the deca- 
 logue which enforces the observance of this day, has a 
 particular direction for masters and heads of families. It 
 contemplates the assiduous and indefatigable instruction 
 of the rising generation, and through those domestic in- 
 strumentalities which are invested with powerful per- 
 suasion, and usually attended with happy success. To 
 what a multitude of children does the Sabbath pre- 
 sent the best time, the best opportunity, and the best 
 motives for the attainment of instruction. And with what 
 inconceivable force may we make this appeal when we ad- 
 vert to that blessed expedient of the age in which we live, the 
 establishment of Sunday Schools ! Scarcely do our children 
 come into existence, than they are encircled by the light of 
 Sabbaths. From their early years they look toward the Sab- 
 bath and the sanctuary as the appointed means of instruc- 
 tion. They grow up under the cheering influence of this 
 day of knowledge; and whether they become improved or 
 degraded in a spiritual view, intellectually, and that through 
 the whole course of their existence, they are under obliga- 
 tions to the Sabbath. There is something too in the kind 
 of instruction which the Sabbath communicates, which has 
 a happy influence on the human mind. It relates to themes 
 on which are staked our dearest interests for this world and 
 the world to come. It calls the soul away from the bustle 
 of this vain world to contemplate the wonderful works of 
 God in creation, providence, and redemption. It casts a 
 veil over what is seen, and uncovers to the eye of the mind 
 what is unseen. It throws back into oblivion the lying va- 
 nities of time, sense, and creatures, and brings forward the 
 solid and permanent realities of eternity, faith, and the Cre- 
 ator, every where disclosing facts, principles, and results, 
 which arrest the wandering intellect, and are fitted to ex- 
 
/ 
 
 / 
 
 / 
 
 12 
 
 paiid and exult it for ever. It is the incessant occupancy of 
 the mind by objects of sense and the pursuits of this world, 
 that unfits it for sober thought and the attainment of useful 
 knowledge. Exclusive immersion in the perplexities and 
 cupidity of business debases the intellectual nature of men; 
 and it is only by being conversant with objects and truths 
 of a more exalted kind, that the soul projects her noblest 
 achievements, and makes her most rapid progression. I am 
 persuaded more is accomplished, directly or indirectly, by 
 the various institutions of the Sabbath, to enlighten the 
 liuman mind, than is accon»plished in any other way. As 
 the means of mere intellectual advancement, I would not 
 exchange the Sabbath for all other means of instruction. 
 The Sabbath is the great day of light to this benighted 
 world. The earth would scarcely be darker without the 
 sun, than the intellectual hemisphere without the Sab))ath. 
 
 There is another thought not unworthy of our notice ; 
 the Sabbath lies at the foundation of all sound mo- 
 rality. Morality is a matter o f principle. " Out of the heart 
 are the issues of life." Let the principles of moral obligation 
 once become universally relaxed, and the practice of mo- 
 rality will become loose and unhinged in the same propor- 
 tion. A man caunot preserve his own morals — a parent 
 cannot preserve the morals of his children, after he has ta- 
 ken away the sanctions, and erased the impressions of reli- 
 gious obligation. Take away these sanctions, and you 
 will soon see how much his ow n and the morals of his 
 famil}' owe to the sacredness of good principles. It is im- 
 possible that a wholesome morality should be maintained 
 in any community without an active impression of religious 
 obligation. If you can persuade a community to reject 
 the grand principles of moral obligation; if you can lead 
 them to doubt the genuineness and authenticity of the Scrip- 
 tures — to question the reality and obligation of natural re- 
 ligion—to hesitate w hether there be any such thing as vir- 
 tue or vice, or whether the soul w ill have any future exist- 
 
13 
 
 cnce, and if it has, whether there he an eternal state of re- 
 wards and punishments — or whether there exists any such 
 Being as God ; if you can bring a comjjiiunity to this dire- 
 ful point of skepticism or infidelity ; you are sure to have 
 broken down the barriers of moral virtue, and to have 
 hoisted the floodgates of immorality and crime. There is 
 one institution, fellow-citizens, which opposes itself to this 
 progress of human degeneracy, and throws an impenetrable 
 shield around the interests of moral virtue in our troubled 
 world. It is the Sabbath. In the awful struggle between 
 virtue and vice, notwithstanding the powerful auxiliaries 
 which the cause of iniquity finds in the bosoms of men, in 
 the force of self-indulgence, and the influence of popular 
 example, wherever the Sabbath has been suflered to live 
 and exert her benignant authority, the trembling interests 
 of moral virtue have always been revered and supported. 
 The great business of this da}^ is to explain, demonstrate, 
 and enforce the leading principles of a sound morality. 
 Wherever the Sabbath is observed, you behold a nation as- 
 sembling one day in seven, to become acquainted with the 
 best moral principles, and hear the best moral precepts. 
 And where this is the case, in defiance of the love of sin, the 
 authority of moral virtue must be acknowledged, and the 
 influence of the Sabbath must be felt. We may not at 
 once perceive the eflfects which the recurrence of this 
 day has upon human society. " Like most moral causes, 
 it operates slowl}^ but surely," but wherever it comes, it 
 gradually weakens the power and breaks the yoke of 
 profligacy and sin. And here let it be remarked, in 
 perfect accordance with these suggestions will be found 
 the history of individuals and associations of men. No 
 villain regards the Sabbath. No vicious family regards 
 the Sabbath. No worthless alid immoral community re- 
 gards the Sabbath. The Sabbath is a barrier which must 
 be broken down, before men can become giants in iniquity. 
 Lord Chief Justice Hale of Endand rejmarks. that of all 
 
14 
 
 the persons wlio were convicted of capital crimes, while he 
 was upon the bench, he found a few only, who would not 
 confess, on inquiry, that they began their career of wick- 
 edness, by a neglect of the duties of the Sabbath, and vi- 
 cious conduct on that day." I should like to see an au- 
 thentic and correct history of all the prisons in the land ; 
 and unless I am much deceived, such a statement would not 
 present an instance of an individual who had not broken 
 over the restraints of the Sabbath before he was abandon- 
 ed to crime, and who could not mark the profanations of 
 that day as forming an advanced stage in his downward ca- 
 reer. You may enact laws for the prevention of crime; 
 you may frame them with judgment, and execute them with 
 promptness and impartiality; but the secret and silent influ- 
 ence of the Sabbath is a greater preventive of crimes, and 
 does of itself " constitute a stronger shield to the vital in- 
 terests of a community, tiian any code of penal statutes that 
 ever was enacted." Sound morality has no such founda- 
 tion as the Sabbatli. The Sabbath is the key-stone of the 
 Temple of Virtue, which, however it may be defaced, will 
 survive many a rude shock, and retain much of its pristine 
 magnificence, as long as its foundation remains firm. 
 
 As a general remark, I would say, the Sabbath is a dis- 
 tinguished MEANS OF NATIONAL PROSPERITY. The God of 
 
 heaven has annexed very great and precious promises to the 
 sacred observance of this day, involving emphatically " the 
 life that now is, as well as that which is to come." He told his 
 ancient people, " If thou turn away thy foot from the Sab- 
 bath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day, and call 
 the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord honourable, 
 and slialt honour 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 
 TiOrd hatl' Fpoken it." Again he say?, "If ye will dili- 
 
15 
 
 gently hearken unto me, to bring in no burden through the 
 gates of tliis city on the Sabbath day, but hallow the Sab- 
 bath day to do no work therein ; there shall there enter into 
 the gates of this city kings and princes sitting upon the 
 throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they and 
 their princes, the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jeru- 
 salem, and this city shall remain for ever," You will 
 not often find a notorious Sabbath-breaker a permanent- 
 ly prosperous man ; or a Sabbath-breaking community, a 
 prosperous and happy community. " Them that honour 
 me," saith God, " I will honour." The learned and devout 
 jurist, whose name we just now mentioned, remarks, re- 
 specting liimself, " I have found, by a strict and diligent 
 observation, that a due observing the duty of this day. hath 
 ever had joined to it a blessing upon the rest of my time; 
 and the week that hath been so begun, hath been blessed 
 and prosperous to me. And, on the other side, when I 
 have been negligent of the duties of this day, the rest of the 
 week hath been unsuccessful and unhappy to my secular 
 employments ; so that I could easily make an estimate of 
 my successes in my own secular employments the week 
 following, by the manner of observing this day ; and this,'- 
 he adds, " I do not write lightly or inconsiderately, but 
 upon a long and sound observation and experience." 
 
 It is obvious that temporal prosperity would be the na- 
 tural result of the observance of the Sabbath, if it secured 
 nothing more than the blessings to which we have already re- 
 lerred. But there are other particulars in which the tenden- 
 cies of this day exert a most salutary influence on human so- 
 ciety. The " provision which this holy day furnishes of a 
 season of rest to labouring animals," the " rest and refresh- 
 ment secured to mankind" — the " neatness and cleanliness 
 which it promotes, especially among the lower classes of 
 men" — the " softness and civility of manners" which it dif- 
 fuses throughout a community — the " tendency of the Sab- 
 bath to abase our pride and remove our native ruggcdness of 
 
16 
 
 disposition'' — tlic self respect and elevation of character to 
 which it so successfully invites those vvlio observe it with 
 decency : all these evince that the " Sabbath was made lor 
 man," and is instrumentally the great dispenser of prospe- 
 rity and happiness. 
 
 In addition to these advantages, the influence theSabbatli 
 exerts on social order and civil liberty is by no means of 
 little importance. It may be questioned, whether a nation 
 of slaves was ever found where the institutions of the Sab- 
 bath have been enjoyed in their purity. It is impossible a 
 people can be " hoodwinked and misruled either by kings, 
 princes, or priests," where the Sabbath proclaims its legiti- 
 mate immunities, or insists on its felicitous obligations. 
 The yoke of tyranny and superstition cannot bear the in- 
 fluence of the Sabbath, Let a nation be composed of men 
 who sacredly revere the Sabbath, and they are no longer the 
 fit subjects of unlawful authority, or irresistible usurpation. 
 And what, tliink you, would become of liie liberties of a na- 
 tion, where all its inhabitants were Sabbatli-breakers ? How 
 long would freedom survive the extermination of the Sabbath? 
 
 Nor is the influence of the Sabbath to be disregard- 
 ed as it respects the means of a comfortable subsist- 
 ence. It would be well if men who are interested to ele- 
 vate the condition of the poor, and lessen the sources, and 
 diminish the amount of human poverty and wretchedness, 
 would soberly think of the advantages of the Sabbath, as 
 one of the most efiicient expedients for the prevention of 
 pauperism. It would be no useless information, if a statis- 
 tic account could be furnished of the commerce, agriculture, 
 manufactures, arts, tranquillity, affluence and elevation of 
 particular communities which have been abandoned to a 
 general profanation of the Sabbath, and contrasted with a 
 similar view of communities in which this hoh^ da}- has 
 been observed with the reverence due to its divine authority. 
 We have no question w hat the result of the contrast would 
 be. To men and communities who pl'ofane the Sabbath. 
 
17 
 
 to say nothing of the cognate vices of this profanation, and 
 the waste of property in maintaining them, this day is not 
 only the most expensive of all the seven, but notunfrequent- 
 ly, of itself consumes the earnings of the six days toil. Upon 
 the poorer class of the community especially, the observ- 
 ance of the Sabbath will be found to have an incalculable 
 influence in rescuing them from want, and elevating them 
 to the decencies of a comfortable subsistence. A poor man, 
 an impoverished community, can badly afford to indulge 
 in the neglect of the Sabbath. Nor is what I say theory 
 merely. You cannot find the abject poor among those 
 who pay a serious and reverential regard to the Sabbath. 
 The most filthy, starved, and wretched of the human family, 
 'Nvill be found among those who habitually and always dis- 
 regard the Sabbath. The host of mendicants that infest 
 the community, especially in our large towns, will be found 
 to issue from cellars and garrets that have never been con- 
 secrated to the observance of the Lord's day. Let a man 
 look round upon the world with the eye of a philanthropic 
 economist merely, and he will see abundant evidence, that 
 the Sabbath was instituted in kindness to man, and that a 
 sacred and strict observance of it tends directly to promote 
 the temporal prosperity of mankind. 
 
 But there is another consideration of still weightier im- 
 port ; and though I do not in these pages address you from 
 the pulpit, it is one which I may not suppress : the Sab- 
 bath is THE GREAT MEANS OF PERPETUATING IN THE 
 EARTH THE KNOWLEDGE OP TRUE RELIGION ? Very feW 
 
 men, if any, are universal skeptics. All nations have some 
 impressions of a religious sort, be they ever so erroneous. 
 The moral and intellectual constitution of men in this mat- 
 ter, is very clearly disclosed in the number and diversity of 
 religions which find a place on the earth. To limit the 
 prodigious increase of errors on a subject so interesting to 
 mankind, God early gave them the Sabbath as the means of 
 perpetuating the true religion. Hence this day, wherever 
 
 C 
 
13 
 
 it lias been duly observed, has been the great preservative 
 against polytheism and idolatry. God said to the Israel* 
 ites, " Surely my Sabbaths ye shall keep, for it is a sign 
 between me and you, thut ye may know that 1 am the Lord" 
 The events which the Patriarchal, the Jewish, and the 
 Christian Sabbath commemorate, are, the original creation, 
 the deliverance of the Israelites out of Egypt, and the re- 
 surrection of Jesus Christ from the dead; events which 
 have ever been considered characteristic of the true religion. 
 If these three events can be established, the religion found- 
 ed on them must be acknowledged to be of divine origin. 
 Now the observance of the Sabbath transmits these events 
 down to the successive generations of men, as matters of 
 uncontrovertible reality ; so that the Sabbath is a " sign" 
 between God and man, recurring every week, and a sign of 
 such singular significance, that the religion of which these 
 events constitute so prominent a part, must be the true reli- 
 gion. You have seen coins, and pillars, and monuments, and 
 have observed holidays, which were unequivocal demon- 
 strations of the events they were designed to commemo- 
 rate. Of the same general nature is the Sabbath. It is 
 a public observance of matters of fact, the reality of which 
 could be easily ascertained, which was got up from the 
 period in which the facts themselves took place, and as 
 such, has come down through successive centuries to 
 the present hour. We should have known nothing of 
 the Sabbath, but for the events themselves which this 
 day commemorates. When we speak of the Sabbath, 
 we at once recur to the reasons of its institution. When 
 our children witness the observance of this day, and in- 
 quire why one day in seven is set apart from a secular to a 
 religious purpose, we are at once led to a disclosure of the 
 events of which this day is the memorial; and when their 
 children, and their children's children, find themselves the 
 possessors of such an observance, they will also be possess^ 
 ed of the events which the observance commemorates, and 
 
19 
 
 in these, possess an epitome of the evidences in favour of the 
 true religion. 
 
 Wherever the Sabbath exists therefore, and is observ- 
 ed, there exists the knowledge of the one God, and the 
 one Mediator. To this institution it is, in a great mea- 
 sure, owing, that the knowledge of the true religion has 
 been, and is still, preserved in the world. If you find a 
 spot so abandoned as to be a stranger to the Sabbath, there, 
 you may rest assured, is no knowledge of the true God. 
 France, in the age of her great moral, as well as politi- 
 cal revolution, abolished the Sabbath, and with it abolish- 
 ed her religion, declared that there was no God but rea- 
 son, and no hereafter except the grave. The same result 
 will follow the same premises, wherever the experiment 
 shall be made. The nation that disowns the Sabbath, is, 
 necessarily, a nation of infidels and atheists. You may 
 look where you will, either among individuals, families, or 
 communities, and if the Sabbath is a desolation, there you 
 will find a gradual and certain decay from true religion to 
 infidelity and paganism.- Let the Sabbath be forgotten for 
 half a century in our own favoured land, and in vain might 
 you look for a single Christian temple throughout this 
 western hemisphere. There are towns and villages on this 
 continent, and even within our own commonwealth, where, 
 for half a century, the Sabbath has been neglected and 
 despised; and, if you will visit them, you will see that you 
 have no necessity of going to India, or the Southern 
 ocean, to find immortal beings who are ignorant of their 
 immortality, and men who must soon appear before God 
 in judgment, who have seldom heard of God and his Christ. 
 There is just as much importance, therefore, attached to 
 the observance of the Sabbath, as there is to the preserva- 
 tion of the true religion among men. 
 
 Allied to this thought, I may add, the Sabbath is the 
 
 GREAT MEANS OF HOLINESS AND ETERNAL LIFE. Man is by 
 
 nature dead in sin, and under the curse of God's righteous 
 
20 
 
 law. Such he must remain, unless transformed by the 
 Spirit of God in all the moral character of his soul, and 
 justified freely by his grace, through the redemption that is 
 in Christ Jesus. The great means of this moral transforma- 
 tion is found in the institutions of the holy Sabbath. Not 
 only does this day perpetuate the knowledge of the true re- 
 ligion on the earth, but secures the existence of vital reli- 
 gion in the hearts of men. The various means of grace, 
 so abundantly blessed of God, are all by his own appoint^ 
 ment brought into action on this holy day. But for the 
 Sabbath, they would not be once thought of on other days; 
 but for the Sabbath, they would soon be erased from the 
 recollections of men, and blotted out from the record of 
 human affairs. Is the soul enlightened, convinced of sin, 
 humbled, renewed, invigorated, comforted, assisted in its 
 struggles with this conflicting world, brought forward on 
 its spiritual pilgrimage, sanctified, prepared to triumph 
 over death and the grave, made meet for heaven, clothed 
 as an angel of liglit, and presented before the throne of God 
 without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing ? All this light, 
 and purity, and consolation, and honour, and glory, she 
 owes instrumentally to the Sabbath. Is this the happy al- 
 lotment of the Church of God collectively ? Are such the 
 possessions of the nations of the saved, composed as they 
 are of a great multitude which no man can number, from 
 every kindred, and tongue, and people.^ With one voice 
 must they ascribe this inestimable inheritance to the influ- 
 ence of the Sabbath. Blot out the Sabbath, and you blot out 
 the last beam of hope from the troubled and desponding 
 heart. Blot out the Sabbath, and no longer will the salutary 
 lessons of the Bible lead ungodly men to repentance and 
 salvation. No longer will the silver clarion of the gospel 
 proclaim liberty to the captives, and th*e opening of death's 
 prison doors to those that arc bound. No longer will the 
 voice of supplication ascend from this'ruined world, to draw 
 from heaven the blessing now so munificently imparted by 
 
21 
 
 the hearer of prayer. No longer will the Spirit of truth 
 and grace dwell among men, to dissipate their darkness 
 and communicate that influence which makes the desert 
 like Eden, and the wilderness like the garden of the Lord. 
 No longer will the temples of the Most High allure the 
 heavy laden sinner to the mercy-seat. No longer will the 
 sacred thanksgivings of the church on earth, intermingling 
 with the sweeter and purer harmony of the church in hea- 
 ven, ascend as a sweet-smelling savour before the God of 
 the spirits of all flesh. No longer will ordinances quickea 
 — or the soul be comforted — or grace be triumphant — or 
 the unnumbered heirs of sin and perdition be conducted in 
 the path that terminates at God's right hand. No ; blot 
 out the Sabbath, and darkness will cover the earth, and 
 gross darkness the people. Sin will reign, Satan will walk 
 through the earth in all the frenzy of his long-wished-for 
 usurpation, and death and hell will follow in his train. 
 Blot out the Sabbath, and in one mighty crowd of pilgrims, 
 this world's population would march quietly on to the gulf 
 of remediless ruin. 
 
 Such, fellow-citizens, are the views which I venture to 
 suggest to you relative to the importance of the Christian 
 Sabbath. With men of high honour and sound patri- 
 otism may I be allowed to hope they will have their in- 
 fluence ? I wish it were in my power to give them the 
 force and allurement which the intrinsic excellence of my 
 theme demands. As a man of the world merely, I venerate 
 the Sabbath. I would not be the agent in the destruction 
 of this benevolent institution, for all that earth can give. 
 Indeed, this world would have very little to bestow, when 
 all that is illuminating and pure, elevating and noble, se- 
 rene and holy, have become exiled from among men, as they 
 must be with the extermination of this sacred day. ' That 
 man has already lived too long, who has survived the ex- 
 tinction of the Sabbath. But why should I speak as an 
 inhabitant of this world merely ? Immortal existence it- 
 
22 
 
 self would be a curse, if extended beyond the blessings of 
 the Sabbath. No, I would not be the witness of its extinc- 
 tion, I would not stand by and hear the dying groans of 
 this day of mercy, for all the universe can give. Kalher 
 would I yield my immortality, than hear the knell that 
 tolls the departure of this Great Day. 
 
 But I must return : there is a thought which it was my 
 purpose to submit to your consideration before I close. It 
 is this : Does not the importance of the Sabbath^ in a civil 
 view, invest it with an undeniable claim to the protection of 
 public law ? The laws of all Christian States have, to a 
 greater or less extent, given their authority and protection 
 to the Sabbath. Men of wisdom, honour, and virtue, have 
 ever felt that it ought to be among the earliest objects of their 
 solicitude to perpetuate the blessings of this holy day. And 
 does not the importance of the Sabbath plead irresistibly for 
 this paternal interposition ? Is the Sabbath the great means 
 of perpetuating in the earth the knowledge of the true reli- 
 gion ? Is it the great means of intellectual advancement 
 Does it lie at the foundation of all sound morality ^ Is it 
 not less a distinguished means of temporal prosperity, 
 than of holiness and eternal life ? Then is there no in- 
 stitution around which a more impenetrable barrier of 
 wholesome restrictions ought to be erected. The Sabbath 
 is the noblest and firmest pillar of a well-regulated society. 
 It is the corner-stone of that noble edifice of morals, li- 
 berty, and public weal, which is the pride and exultation of 
 every prosperous community. If our political institutions 
 cannot be preserved unless the laws and usages of the land 
 arc formed on the basis of sound morality ; if morality can- 
 not be maintained without the active impression of religious 
 principle; and if neither can exist long where the Sabbath 
 exerts none of its heaven-bora influence ; then is it not the 
 truest policy of a State to enforce the observance of this 
 day X It is impossible human laws should bind men to be 
 religious ; and nothing would be more preposterous than tc 
 
23 
 
 attempt it. You may bribe them to be hypocrites, but you 
 cannot force them to be at heart the servants of God, But 
 h is surely no impossible thing to suppress the open and in- 
 trepid violations of the Sabbath. I hear you say, It 
 would be an infringement of the rights of conscience 
 and personal liberty ! But do the rights of conscience and 
 personal liberty consist in allowing every man to do as he 
 pleases, irrespective what is right in itself and the best good 
 of the State f As well might you affirm it to be an infringe- 
 ment of the rights of conscience and personal liberty to im- 
 pose a legal restraint upon fraud and forgery. If you re- 
 ply, Crimes of this sort are a violation of the divine law, 
 and at war with the best interests of the community ; I re- 
 join, so is the violation of the Lord's day. Nay more, I 
 seriously doubt whether the violation of the Sabbath is not 
 vastly more injurious to the community, than any act of 
 fraud which you can mention. 1 recollect that not long 
 since, the present king of Great Britain, on his return from 
 a tour to Scotland, passed from Gravesend to London on 
 the Sabbath ; and I am confident that this single violation of 
 that sacred day — desolating, as it did, to a considerable de- 
 gree, the neighbouring churches — letting loose, as it did, the 
 crowded population of London — and procuring, as it did, an 
 aggregate of immorality which is not the lot of common 
 scenes to witness — was far more injurious to the community, 
 than though he had forged a note upon the Bank of England. 
 The ground on which the Sabbath claims the protection of 
 human laws is simply the ground on which any other institu- 
 tion claims that protection ; and that is, it is an ordinance of 
 God, and indispensable to the well-being of the State. "There 
 is not," says a sensible anonymous writer, " a single posi- 
 tion in political econom}^ which can be more firmly esta- 
 blished in the mind of every candid man, than that the strict 
 and universal observance of the Sabbath is, in the highest 
 degree, conducive to the public prosperity. On no sub- 
 ject whatever, is the language of experience more explicit 
 and decisive." 
 
24 
 
 Our allotment as a community is not that there are want- 
 ing wise and wholesome laws Tor the protection of the Sab- 
 bath, but that they are not carried into execution. I am 
 not insensible of the difficulty of this service; nor have I 
 any doubt that it exists to a degree beyond what is gene- 
 rally conceived. And for myself, I gratefully express my 
 obligations to the magistracy of our metropolis, for their 
 fidelity in suppressing the profanations of the Sabbath, es- 
 pecially during the hours of divine worship. Still, I must 
 express my conviction, that as our civil authorities have 
 done much to prevent this evil, so they may do more. God 
 grant we may not be left to learn too late, that the Sab- 
 bath is one of the selectest gifts of heaven to men. When 
 like other nations and other communities, we have seen that 
 virtue and happiness, and those social and civil privileges, 
 which are secured by this sacred institution, swept away ; 
 then shall we be taught that the Sabbath is the palladium 
 of the dearest rights of man, and that the best interests of 
 the community can no longer be consulted with enforcing 
 its observance. 
 
 There is a single inquiry more, and I will lay down my 
 pen. Does not the importance of the Sabbath bring home 
 the obligation to the bosom of every patriot to support its au- 
 thority both by his example and influence ? Nor can I too 
 forcibly urge this demand on myself and my fellow-citizens. 
 If there were no other considerations than those of private 
 interest, I would not cease to urge the sacred observance of 
 this day. No man. no community, ever lost any thing by 
 keeping the Sabbath-day God will bless the Sab- 
 
 bath to those who observe it, and he will curse all other 
 time to those who profane it. The profanation of this day 
 is too bold and sacrilegious an invasion of God's property, 
 not to be followed with the malediction of the Great Pro- 
 prietor of time and Creator of men. Here fidelity com- 
 pels me to say, and I do it with reluctance, that there arf- 
 not wanting in our city painful demonstrations of too ge'ie^ 
 
25 
 
 tal a disregard to the Sabbath. Thongh by no means so 
 deeply corrupted as other and older communities, our flour- 
 ishing metropolis is rapidly advancing toward that un- 
 blushing profanation of the Lord's day, which is the re- 
 proach, and unless repented of, must be the ruin of the na- 
 tions that inhabit the other hemisphere. There are multi- 
 tudes of men in the midst of us, who are, or mean to be, 
 the abettors of social order, and who would be disappointed 
 if they were not considered the supporters of sound morality^ 
 who would well nigh feel guilty of a profanation of this holy 
 day, if they did not convert it into a day of good neighbour- 
 hood and social enjoyment. Others there are, who would 
 revolt from the detail of secular labour on this day, but who 
 have no misgivings of heart at an occasional journey upon 
 business, or jaunt of pleasure. Others would not even re- 
 volt at this. How is a sober man disgusted with the dissi- 
 pation of pleasure gardens, the rudeness of tippling houses, 
 the indecencies of fruit shops, as he walks the streets of 
 our cit}^ on the Sabbath, And is there no reason to 
 question both the piety and the policy of that authorized 
 violation of the Lord's day, which is so prominent in our 
 fish-markets ? On this sacred day too, our butchers pur- 
 chase and slay the very bcrasts, to which he, whose are the 
 cattle upon a thousand hills, has guaranteed one day of 
 undisturbed repose. On this day, the adjacent fields and 
 streams swarm with men, women, and children, who toil 
 and labour to collect the fruits of the earth for your con- 
 sumption and mine. And what shall I say of that most 
 gross violation of the Sabbath, which exists within the walls 
 of some of our printing offices ? Have the proprietors of 
 some of our daily papers seriously considered the baleful 
 tendencies of their perseverance in this needless and multi- 
 form iniquity? How pitiable is it to hear men of sense 
 paliate and justify enormities like these ? Is there not 
 enough, fellow-citizens, in the woi d of the living God, to 
 lead you to appreciate such vindications, and to trace them 
 
'2^ 
 
 to their proper source ? Who has authorized any man, or 
 set of men, to trample on a divine institution, for the sake of 
 his own convenience ? Who has relaxed the obligations of 
 eternal, immutable righteousness, for the accommodation 
 of men who serve mammon rather than God? I should 
 like to see all the apologies for violatiiig the Sabbath con- 
 densed, and enforced with all the ability which man can 
 give them, and I will pledge myself, in a single sentence, 
 to refute them all. And to anticipate a redemption of the 
 pledge, I will here rehearse the sentence, once indeed re- 
 hearsed with memorable solemnity — Remember the Sab- 
 bath Day 10 KEEP IT HOLY ! 
 
 Allow me, fellow-citizens, affectionately to invite you 
 to a perpetual abjuration of all such violations of this holy 
 day. If you would not share in the desolations of older 
 and more degenerate Slates, beware how you symbolize 
 with their profanation of the Sabbath ! O it is enough to 
 sicken one's heart, to survey the innnoralities that are 
 fostered by the neglect and abuse of this day in some of 
 the States even of Modern Europe. If you are not stran- 
 gers to the ardour and enthusiasm vvhiLli so justly beats 
 high in the breast of American citizens ; if you have thought 
 the liberty, laws, and political institutions of this happy 
 land, are worth preserving ; I entreat you, guard, with a 
 watchful eye, a reproacliless example, and cotnmandiiig in- 
 fluence, this first of all her moral instituions. Let it be 
 your own, and the practice of all around you, when- 
 ever this day commences, to suspend all secular busi- 
 ness. " Six days shalt thou labour and do all thy work : 
 but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God ; 
 in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy 
 daughter, thy man servant, or thy maid servant, nor thy 
 eattle, nor the stranger that is within thy gates." This is 
 the divine command, — a command that occupies one-tenth 
 part of the moral law, that was written by God-s own fin- 
 ger on tables of stone, and, by his own Almighty voice, 
 
27 
 
 sounded out from Sinai, that it might pour its obligations 
 upon every ear, through every age of time. Beware, also, 
 how you make his day, a day of pleasure and amusement. 
 The common sense of every man must teach him that the 
 Sabbath was instituted for a higher purpose. There is no 
 more insidious, and, perhaps, no more fatal profanation of 
 the day than this, though it may have found many a pa- 
 tron from Christian names. To regard the day simply as 
 a pleasant relaxation from the severity of toil, and a tem- 
 perate indulgence in whatever tends to cheer the fatigue, 
 and refresh the langour of unabated diligence through the 
 week ; these are the very liberties with the Sabbath which, 
 though commenced with a trembling conscience, and in- 
 dulged by fearful gradations, in the result never fail to thrust 
 out all the solemnity of its duties, and prevent all the pre- 
 ciousness of its blessings. This is that " leaven of impiety, 
 which, the more it ferments and is diffused, does the more 
 corrupt and demoralize the whole mass of civil society 
 this is that drop of poison which contaminates and polutes 
 the very fountains of grace and mercy, to which this world 
 owes so much of its purity and enjoyment. 
 
 On the behalf of this holy day, therefore, and in the name 
 of the God of heaven, I ask your example and your influence, 
 fellow-citizens, to redeem this day from the invasions of a 
 profanation that must be attended with consequences alTect- 
 ingly serious. To you who are magistrates, and invested with 
 civil authority, permit me respectfully to say — The ordi- 
 nance of God and the voice of a free people have elevated 
 you to posts of dignity and power, that you may be the sen- 
 tinels of the public virtue. To you their eyes are directed 
 to maintain the sacredness and diffuse the blessings of the 
 holy Sabbath. The voice of the King of kings to you is, 
 Remember the Sabbath day ! In your personal and official 
 capacity never lose sight of its appointment and design. 
 If, a-^ our civil fathers, you would see your children rise 
 up and call you blessed— if you would embalm your names 
 
2b 
 
 in the rcniembrance of an elcvalcr] people, and Iransuiu 
 ihcm with many a grateful sentiment to a distant futurity ; 
 be entreated to become the exemplary and fearless guar- 
 dians of the Christian Sabbath. To you who are parents, 
 allow me to say — On you also devolves the s^acred charge 
 of perpetuating and extending the divine influence of this 
 holy day. Let your children be instructed in the obliga- 
 tions of the Sabbath, and governed to a conformity with its 
 reasonable requisitions in early life. Even should the men 
 of the existing generation become demoralized, there is a 
 redeeming influence lodged within the bosom of every fa- 
 mily, that may form a generation of another spirit, and pre- 
 serve the city from increasing corruption. On you who 
 are teachers, rests the same sacred responsibility. Let 
 your schools be nurseries of morality and piety, as wel! 
 as of learning. To you, the community have a right to 
 look for the influence of a moral restraint in qualifying the 
 youth of our city for useful members of civil society. And 
 may I venture a word to the individuals in private life, 
 whom the God of heaven has destined to influence over their 
 fellow-men ? Interpose that influence, fellow-citizens, in 
 behalf of the sacred Sabbath. Let it be one of the great 
 principles of your conduct, wherever and whatever yon 
 may be, to uphold the authority and plead the cause of this 
 holy institution. To the youth, particularly, permit me to 
 say — let nothing tempt you to profane the Sabbath. No 
 one external observance will exert a more powerful influence 
 on your moral character than a strict regard to the Lord's 
 day. You cannot become abandoned while you revere the 
 Sabbath. You cannot become useless members of civil 
 society so long as you regard the Sabbath. You cannot 
 put yourselves beyond the reach of hope and heaven so 
 long as you sanctify the Sabbath,