The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1853-08-04

this seven-day movement Of the system and
there are, besides, q host of observations which
help to establish it as law of the human con-
situfea. In the healthy state, the reproduc-
tive functions are singularly well marked not
by periods of single weeks, but by exactly inte-
gral multiplies of them. Attention to this
point will abundsntly sustain this assertion.
because they exsggerate the natural movements
in the human system, and the more distinctly
proclaim them, but the facts of health are also
very conclusive.
Let us look little more closely at the gene
raj law of periodicity as it rules the human or
ganism for the help and discretion that its
specialities afford to our inquiry;
Alternate action and repose in the actions
of animal life, is general law. The diurnal
revolution is well understood. The complete
rest of all the functions of relative life and the
comparative abatement of activity in the vitat
organs, once in twenty. four hours, is plain
necessity of our existence This law obtains
even in vegetable life. And it is pertinent
remark that wherever the instincts of animals
and plants absolutely rule the actions Of the
being the law is punctualIy obeyed. The sim
pie day and night revolution Of animal and
vegetable life suffces for their constitutions
The external senses, the muscles of locomotion,
and the nerves, which cooperate in their aetiv
ties, are often held to their objects and exerted
in their Offices for hours together without the
least intermission, for they are under the direc-
ton of the will; but they obtain complete
release during sleep, and all the restoration
which they require. The animal portion Of
man. and the entire nature of birds and beasts,
living according to natures free impulses, are
sure of their daily repose, and guarded besides
by the feelings of fatigue, which restrain abuse,
need no sabbath for periodical recuperation.
But the organs of thought and feeling are not
so well protected. They are usually more Sc
verely tasked, their WEAKNESS is less distinctly
felt and understood, and their pleasures and
excitements are more impulsve. The faculties
employed in the business auocations of life en-
bracing literary as well as commercial and in
dustrial pursuits, and the passions involved in
their activities, are in all active temperaments
burdened every day quite beyond the modera.
ton consistent with health. The merely ami
NAL functions Of the frame take better care of
themselves than these higher and freer facul-
ties of our nature usually do. Moreover, the
excuses and diseases Of those organs which
are the material instruments of mind, do not
generally originate in themselves, but in the
irregular excitation which they suffer from
the mental and passionaf powers 1t is these
master-wheels in the machinery of phrenic
life that drive the subordinate activities of the
frame into abuse. 1t is, therefore, for these
controlling forces Of the mind that regulating
and restraining checks are specially required
Day after day their tyranny tasks the inferior
powers to exhaustion, which otherwise would
take care of themselves, as they do in the an
imal kingdom; nor do they always rest even in
the sleep of their wearied instruments: dreams
prolong their vigils, and they lie waiting and
watching the first waking. motions of the day
laborers in their service to drive them yawning
to their endless work.
1t is the engagements which we call the bust
ness Of our lives which transcend their proper
limits, and break the natural balance of healthy
moderation. 1t is these, therefore, that need
regularly recurring rest day. 1t is too much
that every waking hour shall be given to our
common work, that every day of our lives shall
be crowded with our ordinary snxieties of
thought and feeling. All this should be wholly
intermitted at regular returns, adapted to our
constitution, and calculated to obviate the evils
Of artificial life. The fourth commandment, it
seems to us, answers exactly to this necessity
"Six days shalt thou labor and do oil thy scork.
On the seventh day thou shalt do no
manner of work" IL does not in terms, en-
join public worship; perhaps it does not imply
it as a universal requisition; and our munich
pal laws are all the more just and right that
in this they very exactly correspond. They
forbid ordinary labor, but they do not compel
worship or any religious observances.
The necessity for the rest day is so universal
" admitted that il need not be pressed. 1t is
required only that it should be more accurately
understood, and it is to this point that our re-
marks are specially addressed. Our thought
is, that only those faculties which are usually
overstraiued, and the instruments which they
employ in their service need the rest Of the
weekly Sabbath. Those parts of the body
which, under the compulsion of business get
insufficient exercise through the week, even re-
quire such opportunity as the rest day may
consistently be made to afford them. The
Sabbath was made for man, not man for the
Sabbath"
The seven-day periodic movement in the hui
man system, conspcuously shown in disease,
and not less certain, though less obvious in
health, indicates one day in seven as the appro-
pirate portion of time to be set apart for the
renewal of the animal vgor wasted by the or
binary labors Of our life. The intellectual
powers, when they have done their SIX days
common work, require this relief The full
freedom and force Of heart and mind cannot |
be preserved unless the dominant interests of
ordinary pursuits are resolutely thrust aside at
frequent intervals, and the powers absorbed by
them are relieved by periodic checks.
The higher and noblcr faculties need the day
also for discipline and development; and all
these necessary and beneRcent objects are at
tanned, in the happiest harmony with the nat
ural laws, by the proper and well-adapted OBJ
servance of the day which Christianity has es-
tablished among us. It should therefore be &C
cepted.
II is not necessary to the claims Of revealed
or supernatural institution that it should be
novelty in human experience, or incapable of
discovery by natural reason, or a violation of