which family we discover most that is attractive and promising, I need not say. In which there is most virtue and strength of moral character we readily conclude, and time. speedily proves. A few years hence, when the sons quit the antique mansion and go forth to some calling of life, the strength of religious principle in one case, and the lack of it in the other, will show where the Tempter finds the easiest prey. The following facts deserve to be pondered.

Judge Hall remarks, that "Of all the persons who 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 course of wickedness by a neglect of the dutics of the Sabbath, and vicious conduct on that day."

Of twelve hundred convicts committed to Auburn State Prison, antecedent to the year 1838, about four hundred and fifty were sailors and watermen who had been wont to labor on the Sabbath. Only twenty-six of the whole twelve hundred had conscientiously observed the S-bath.

"Of one huudred men admitted to tl. Massachusetts State Prison in one year, eighty-nine had lived in habitual violation of the Sabbath and neglect of public worship."

The warden of a large prison says, "nine-tenths of our inmates are those who did not value the Sabbath, and were not in the habit of attending public worship."

Dr. Rudge, once the chaplain to Nwgate, remarked in an evening lecture, that "his official situation often led him to hear the confessions of malefactors, under sentence of death; and that in almost every instance, they ascribed their ruin to the desertion of the house of God, and the violation of the day of rest.”*

When we ponder such startling facts as the above, we can appreciate the remark of that distinguished merchant, who

Sce Sabbath Manual.

said, “When I see one of my apprentices or clerks riding out on the Sabbath, on Monday I dismiss him. Such an one cannot be trusted."

The convictions of nearly every parent, in moments of calm reflection, lean to the side of the truth which we utter. The young man leaves the home of his affections, where he has been taught to "remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy." He has never been accustomed to devote its sacred hours to work or pleasure. He has grown up to respect this consecrated time, and all his views and feelings sustain the faithful keeping of it. With these sentiments and principles he bids adieu to home and friends, and goes forth to the stiring conflict of life. With deceitful enchanters in his pathway, and wily tempters at his side, and the song of syrens falling on his car, he is to stand or fall, live or die, by the strength of his own integrity. Where is the parent who would not feel that the son, who loves the Sabbath, is safer amid these moral dangers, than the son who does not regard it? Who does not feel that this alone is a sort of pledge for his success in battling with temptations? that this armors him with "shield and buckler" against the wilicst focs which plot his ruin? Value, then, the SABBATH IN

THE FAMILY.

The Sabbath promotes household piety. On the other days the occupations of many leave little opportunity for the cultivation of family religion. There are multitudes employed in mills and manufactories, of various descriptions, to whom is not allotted time enough for their regular meals, (if they have regard to physiological directions) and much more for religious duties. The wants of the soul must chicfly be cared for when the body tires with exhaustion at the close of the fatiguing day. For them, in the language of Sherman, "God has anointed this day with the oil of gladness above all its fellows. What the sun is among the planets-what the market day is to the tradesman- what

a fair wind is to the sailor what the tide is to the water

man

Facts show that where there is no Sabbath there is no religion. There the Bible has no friends and lovers, the sanctuary is unbuilt, and family altars are unknown. Superstition enchains the mind, gross darkness covers the people, and purity appears not in the streets. Sabbathless lands are the "habitations of cruelty" and the "cages of unclean birds." The same is truc of Sabbathless families. Even christian households, deprived from this hour of this day of days, would greatly decline in religious fervor, and possibly their altars of prayer would become extinct. For there are thousands of professing christians who make the incessant labors of each day an excuse for neglecting the weekly meeting for prayer, and many of those private duties which promote personal piety. If no Sabbath interrupted them in their laborious pursuits, their religion would consist, at best, of profession and form. But this day, in its weekly visits, removes all excuses, and makes plain the duty of cultivating religion in the sanctuary and at home. Even sweet peace, which the angel of mercy bears to the faithful worshipper in the house of the Lord, is carried away to be made a cheerful contribution to household piety.

On the secular days of the weck the family appears especially in its carthly relations; on the Sabbath its immortal interests demand attention. The father is no longer known as a farmer, merchant, or mechanic; the mother lays aside, in a measure, her queenly-robes of house-keeper; and the children are unknown as school-boys and girls. All appear, on this holy day, especially as immortal beings, exhorted to ponder their accountability to God, and prepare for meeting the solemn verities of eternity. Six days have been devoted to the pressing wants of the body, the seventh is the "Sabbath of the Lord," to be spent in attention to the soul. The physical and intellectual natures

have been carefully nurtured through the week, now the spiritual, whose infinite capacities reveal the sublime dignity of man as an heir of immortality, deserves to be made the subject of reflection and prayer. What a scason for burnishing the christian armor! What a day to run for the prize! What moments for guiding children to Christ! What an opportunity to make all the family one in the Lord on earth, that they may be one in the skies!

They, who would abolish the Sabbath, would bring unparalled disaster upon families. The blotting out of this day would reduce them to the most alienated and godless condition. Domestic love would expire in countless instances, for the want of a day in which to fan its dying embers. Children would grow up untaught in religious truth, and the seeds of vice would take deep root in their hearts, and thrive in rank luxuriance. To the lower classes, compelled to toil industriously for a livelihood, home would be divested of those attractions which the Sabbath's weekly visits throw around it. The bonds of sympathy, which the domestic fellowship of every seventh day creates, would be ruptured. The blest affinities of nature would dissolve away, and dismembered and scattered households be multiplied on every hand. And what is worse, domestic piety, amid the spreading dosolation, would find no place for the sole of its foot; and because religion would lose its altar in the family, it would have no enshrinement in the church, and no trophics in the world.

The enemies of christianity, in all ages, have well understood that the Sabbath is its strong fortress, and they have accordingly sought to destroy this. The battering-rams of infidelity have pelted away at its gates, while skepticism. has waited impatient to spit its venom upon the soldiers of the cross, who lay under its walls. If they could abolish this sacred institution, and close the temples of God, and for the chiming of bells supply the music of fife and drum,

and the "tramp of traffic," their object would be easily accomplished.

Were the Sabbath merely a human institution, bearing not the scal of heaven, nor pointing to the gates of glory, even then we could not afford to abolish it. The family would still demand it as the harbinger of its brightest hopes, and the arbiter of its destiny. It would require it to cement a union of hearts, and perpetuate the harmonies of a blissful relation.

PARENTAL EXAMPLE upon this subject needs to be guarded. The heads of families will not see the other members more regardful of the Sabbath than themselves. If they indulge in light and trifling conversation, if they peruse the secular news-sheet or the novel, if they neglect the place of worship, if they ramble in the fields, or do, or say any thing inconsistent with the sacredness of the day, their sons and daughters will easily excuse themselves in doing the same. If parents desire their children to be blest by the recurrence of this day, they must accommodate their words, counsels, acts, yea, their entire example, to the spirit of the commandment, "REMEMBER THE SABBATH DAY TO KEEP IT HOLY."

We close this subject with the following beautiful descrip tion of a really sanctified Sabbath throughout the world, by John Allan Quinton. If all families, in their distinct relations, duly observed the day, the glorious scene which he portrays would be witnessed.

"The flocks are wandering and gamboling in the dells; the cattle are grazing on the hill-sides; and the beasts of burden, freed from their yoke, are feeding on the open plains. The plough stands where it halted in its course across the furrows; but the husbandman has gone home to cultivate his soul. The sound of the axe has ceased from the forest, and the prostrate trees lie as they fell; but the woodman has gone away to ponder on the sudden deathstroke that may lay him low, or is on his way to the place