The National Register.
London, England, 1816-03-18 00:00:00

No. 428.—V0i.. VIII.

THE OBSERVATION OF THE SABBATH.

THE Christian religion is truly the reli,gion of bene-
volence. All its precepts and institutions are adapted to
promote the happiness and to advance the perfection of
mankind; while it points out to the rich and the power-
ful higher objects of pursuit than wealth or ambition '
eats supply, and teaches lessons to the wise which they
could no where else learn ; it takes the poor and igno-
• ;lint under its particular protection, and tends in the
most direct manner to ameliorate their condition. Its

spirit operating upon society in a long course of ages, has
pruducod incalculable benefits to the lower orders, has
brought about the abolition of domestic slavery, and
given origin to those numerous charitable establishments
fier removing distress, or reclaiming vice, which adorn the
cities and towns of ill Christian countries. The insti-
tution of the Sabbath, as a day of rest torn bodily labour,
and a season consecrated to religious exercises, is a stand-
irrg monument of the same merciful and enlightened
spirit. To those, whose situation in life raises them
above the necessity of manual labour, and who feel the
weight of indolence rather than the fatigue of incessant
exertion, no idea can be conveyed of the happiness which
such a periodical return of relaxation confers upon the
labouring and industrious classes, whose time is spent
in the workshop or the field, and whose nights, instead of
yielding complete refreshment, are scarcely sufficient to
repair the waste of strength incurred in the toils of the
previous day. In the habits of the ffirmer. the Sunday
introduces no change to them ; it presents no feeling con-
trasts; vicissitude has not taught them the value of re-
pose, or sharpened their relish flir bodily indulgence. To
the latter, the day of rest comes round with a thousand
attractions. It is always anticipated as a deliverance,
and welcomed us a blessing. It is invested always with
fresh novelty, and presents uncloying enjoyments. They
regard it with the same feeling of' complacency and spend
it with the same keen consciousness of a happy existence,

with which those who have been afflicted with a gout, or
confined with a fever, riot in the first period of recovered
health. Let those who have never felt the weight of the
primitive curse of labour pronounced upon our race, and
who of course have never personally experienced the re-
lief from it which religion consecrates in the rest of the
Sabbath ; or let those who are engaged in the gay and
dissipated scenes of life, and who regard it as only an
interval of gloomy indolence, because it may interrupt
some of their amusements, or withdraw some of the

ministers of their pleasures, survey the actual condition
of the great majority of their brethren for six days out
of seven ; and Own they will be able, without any per-
sonal fatigue, to appreciate the importance and benevo-
lence of the Christian appropriation of the seventh. Let
them observe what they can see in the fields and on the
high roads during the week; let them enter the crowded
manufaetor,•, or descend into the nahealthy mine; let
them there remark the pressure upon all the springs of
life, the strain upon all its powers ; 1.2 t them calculate
the profue waste of health, of strength, of bodily and
mental energy, incurred by unvarying labour in a pesti-
lential atmosphere; and then again let them survey this
immense mass of our population on the Sunday, coming
forth from the scenes of toil, leaving their cares and the
instruments of their work behind theta, breathing the
fresh air of he.:ven, assembling in the meetings of the
ftithful, or indulging in the society of their ffieuds; and
their hearts must be hardened, or their spirits iacurably
cheerless, if they do not sympathise in the pleasures of
the contrast, and bless the provisions of the fourth Com-
mandment. What a mighty blessing to mankind ; that
the period of relaxation occurs at so short intervals—how
beautifully do the arrangemestts of religion and the in-
stitution of the Sabbath harmonize with the wisdom of
nature in the vicissitudes of day and night !
He who has lived seventy years in the world, has en-
joyed seven years of Sundays. Thu appnpriation of this
great proportion of time to repose is owing entirely to
the spirit of Christianity aetiug on the laws and institu-
tions of th: people who pram it. At .imes, when the