Lexington weekly intelligencer. (Lexington, Mo.) 1871-1887, 1883-04-07
THE SABBATH.
A NECESSITY TO THE wELL-BEING OF
MAN.

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The natural difference between Cam
pania and Spitzbergen is trifling, when
compared with the difference between
a country inhabited, by men sunk in
bodily and mental 'decrepitude. There
fore it is that we are not poorer, but
richer, because we have, through many
ages, rested from our labor one day in
seven. That day is not lost. While
industry is suspended, while the plow
lies in the fnrrow, while the exchange
is silent, and no smoke ascends from
the factory, process is going on quite
as important to the wealth of the nation
as any process which is performed on
more busy days. Man, the machine of
machines, the machine compared with
which all the contrivances of the w ats
and Arkwrights. are worthless. is re-
pairing aud winding up, so that. he re-
turns. to his labors on Monday with
tc1earer intellect land with 1ivelier spirits,
ard ce1lewed corporeal vigor.
1t is necessary that every person
should have some special time set apart
for relaxing the nervous system, with
drawing the mind from secular objects,
and implanting within it the principles
of morality and religion. Blackstone
says:
''The keeping of one day in seven
holy is of admirable service to the state,
considered merely as civil institution.
1t enables the industrious workman to
pursue his occupation in the ensuing
week with health and cheerfulness; it
imprints on the minds Of the people the
sense of their duty to God, SO necessary
to make them good citizens; but which
would yet be worn out and defaced by
All .unremitted continuance Of labor,
without any stated time of recalling
them to the worship of their Maker"
Sn Matthew Hale, Chief Justice of
England, says that, of all persons con-
victed OF capital crime, while he was
upon the bench, he found few who did
not confess that they began their career
of wickedness by neglect of the Sab
bath.
And Rev. Mr.. Bull, who was for
twenty-eight years chaplain of the Lon
don prison, says:
s'I do not recollect a single capital
case where the party had not been a
Sabbath breaker, and many assured me
it had been their first step"
Count Montalambcrt, in his report to
the French Parliament, soon after the
overthrow of. the French Republic,
pleading earnestly for the full restora-
ton and retention of the Sabbath,
which the republic had abolished, says:
sin all our towns, and throughout
too large a portion of our country dis
tricts, the Sabbath is violated, and the
worship which was the consequence
and condition of this rest is abandon
ed. At the same time, the soul is de-
prived of its nourishment, and the body
of its repose. The poor and the work
ing man are delivered, unprotected to
the every day increasing influence of
error and evil. Thus the PROCLAMATION
of the day has become the ruin of the
moral and the physical health of the
people, at the same time that it is the
ruin of the family and of religious lib
erty."
''Of course" says Lord Macaulay,
81 do not mean that a man will not
produce more u week by working seven
DAYS than by working six days. But l
very much doubt whether, at the end
81 lhe yilhN gsasEallggv baayfa ydaypsg pgass
week than by working six days week
and firmly believe that at the end of
twenty years, he will have produced
less by working seven days week than
by working six days week"
And DR.. Fare, an eminent ply sician
for forty years, who was called to give
testimony before the house of commons,
i'll regard to the physical necessity OF
the Sabbath, says:
eff the restorative power be lost, the
PHYSICIANS healing power is at an end.
Mems ordinary exertions run down the
circulation every day, and the first gen.
eral law of nature, by which God pre-
vents man from destroying himself, is
the alternating of day and night, that
repose may succeed action. But night
does not sufficiently restore it for long
life; hence, one day in seven is thrown
in by Providence to perfect, by its re-
pose, the animal system. The Sabbath
institution q speak as physician is
not simply precept partaking of the
nature of political institution; but it
is to be numbered among the natural
duties, if the preservation of life be
duty, and the premature destruction of
it be suicidal act. l have found it
essential to my well being to abridge
my Sabbath labor. have advised the
clergyman, in lieu of his Sabbath. to
rest one day in the week. have seen
many destroyed by the duties of that
day. The working of the mind in one
constant train of thought Is the destruc-
ton of life in the most distinguished
classes of society,""
Indeed, no less than six hundred and
torly-one medical me Ii united with DIR.
Fare in saying to parliament, by way
of protest against the opening of the
Crystal Palace on Sunday.
Your petitioners, from their ac-
quaintance with the laboring classes,
and with the laws which regulate the
human economy, are convinced that Il
seventh day, instituted by God, and
coeval with the existence Of man, is
essential to the bodily health and men-
tai vigor of man in every station III
life.
We, see, then, that the observance of
the sabbath is not only commanded
duty, but it is moral and physical he
cessity; and Notwithstanding the sneers
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