THE HAPPY HOME.

V.

THE OASIS.

THE SABBATH is God's gracious present to a working world; and for wearied minds and bodies it is the grand restorative. The Creator has given us a natural restorative-sleep; and a moral restorative-Sabbathkeeping; and it is ruin to dispense with either. Under the pressure of high excitement, individuals have passed weeks together with little sleep, or none; but when the process is long-continued, the over-driven powers rebel, and fever, delirium, and death come on. Nor can the natural amount be regularly curtailed without corresponding mischief. The Sabbath does not arrive like sleep. The day of rest does not steal over us like the hour of slumber. It does not entrance us whether we will or not; but addressing us as intelligent beings, our Creator assures us that we need it, and bids us notice its return, and court its renovation. And if, rushing in the face of our Creator's kindness, we force

ourselves to work all days alike, it is not long till we pay the forfeit. The mental worker-the man of business or the man of letters-finds his ideas coming turbid and slow; the equipoise of his faculties is upset; he grows moody, fitful, and capricious; and with his mental elasticity broken, should any disaster occur, he subsides into habitual melancholy, or in self-destruction speeds his guilty exit from a gloomy world. And the manual worker-the artisan, the engineer-fagging on from day to day, and week to week, the bright intuition of his eye gets blunted, and, forgetful of their cunning, his fingers no longer perform their feats of twinkling agility, nor, by a plastic and tuneful touch, mould dead matter, or wield mechanic power; but, mingling his life's blood in his daily drudgery, his locks are prematurely grey, his genial humour sours, and, slaving it till he has become a morose or reckless man, for any extra effort, or any blink of balmy feeling, he must stand indebted to opium or alcohol. To an industrious population so essential is the periodic rest, that when, in France, the attempt was made to abolish the weekly Sabbath, it was found necessary to issue a decree, suspending labour one day in every ten. And in our own country, when an attempt was made, in time of war, to work a royal manufactory without a pause-at the end of a few months, it was ascertained that the largest amount of work had been accomplished by the hands exempted from Sunday labour.* Master manu

"Not many years ago, a contractor went on to the west with his hired men and teams to make a turnpike road. At first he paid no regard to the Sabbath; but continued his work as on

facturers have stated that they could perceive an evident deterioration in the quality of the goods produced as the week drew near a close, just because the tact, alertness, and energy of the workers began to experience inevitable exhaustion. When a steamer on the Thames blew up, not long ago, the firemen and stokers laid the blame on their broken Sabbath: it stupified and embittered them-made them blunder at their work, and heedless what havoc these blunders might create. And we have been informed that, when the engines of an extensive steam-packet company in the south of England were getting constantly damaged, the mischief was instantly repaired by giving the men, what the bounty of their Creator had given them long before, the rest of each seventh day. And what is so essential to industrial efficiency, is no less indispensable to the labourer's health and longevity. This was well explained before a Committee of the House of Commons by an accomplished physician, Dr. Farre:

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Although the night apparently equalizes the circulation well, yet it does not sufficiently restore its balance for the attainment of a long life. Hence one day in seven, by the bounty of Providence, is thrown

other days. He soon found, however, that the ordinances of nature, no less than the moral law, were against him. His labourers became sickly, his teams grew poor and feeble, and he was fully convinced that more was lost than gained by working on the Lord's-day. So true is it that the Sabbath-day labourer, like the glutton and the drunkard, undermines his health, and prematurely hastens the infirmities of age, and his exit from the world."-Dr, Humphrey of America.

in as a day of compensation, to perfect by its repose the animal system. You may easily determine this question as a matter of fact, by trying it on beasts of burden. Take that fine animal the horse, and work him to the full extent of his powers every day of the week, or give him rest one day in seven, and you will soon perceive, by the superior vigour with which he performs his functions on the other six days, that this rest is necessary to his well-being. Man, possessing a superior nature, is borne along by the very vigour of his mind, so that the injury of continued diurnal exertion and excitement on his animal system is not so immediately apparent as it is in the brute; but, in the long run, he breaks down more suddenly: it abridges the length of his life and that vigour of his old age, which (as to mere animal power) ought to be the object of his preservation. *** This is said simply as a physician, and without reference at all to the theological question; but if you consider farther the proper effect of real Christianity, namely, peace of mind, confiding trust in God, and goodwill to man, you will perceive in this source of renewed vigour to the mind, and through the mind to the body, an additional spring of life imparted from this higher use of the Sabbath as a holy rest."

The Sabbath is God's special present to the working man, and one chief object is to prolong his life and preserve efficient his working tone. In the vital system it acts like a compensation-pond: it replenishes the spirits, the elasticity, and vigour, which the last six days have drained away, and supplies the force

which is to fill the six days succeeding. And in the economy of existence it answers the same purpose as, in the economy of income, is answered by a savings' bank. The frugal man who puts aside a pound to-day, and another pound next month, and who in a quiet way is always putting past his stated pound from time to time, when he grows old and frail gets not only the same pounds back again, but a good many pounds besides. And the conscientious man who husbands one day of existence every week-who, instead of allowing the Sabbath to be trampled and torn in the hurry and scramble of life, treasures it devoutly up— the Lord of the Sabbath keeps it for him, and in length of days and a hale old age gives it back with usury. The savings' bank of human existence is the weekly Sabbath-day.

Another purpose for which the Father of Earth's Families has presented the workman with this day, is to enhance his domestic comfort and make him happy in his home. If it were not for this beneficent arrangement, many a toiling man would scarcely ever know the gentle glories and sweet endearments of his own fire-side. Idle people are sometimes surfeited with the society of one another, and wealthy people, however busy, can buy an occasional holiday. But though the workingman gets from his employer only one or two days of pastime in all the year, his God has given him twoand-fifty Sabbaths; and it is these Sabbaths which impart the sanctity and sweetness to the poor man's home. If he has finished his marketing, and cleared off his secular engagements on Saturday night, it is