Deacons, church-members, and other sinners, are all busily and fashionably engaged in gathering their harvest of dollars; but, on Sunday, the Priesthood have their turn! Your duty is to gather wool all the week as best you can; but on Sunday it is also your duty to have some of it neatly, and rather pleasantly, sheared off! Now this is all the more sinful, because it is done under the cloak of Piety.

Religion is designed to exalt human nature; it is calculated to make the understanding and the conscience free; to inspire the mind with a generous hope; consequently it can not legislate restrictions, nor impose servile obligations, upon any true mind, because it is a sublime spirit of liberty and love-breathing universal toleration and free principles. Such are the teachings of Protestantism. In the light of true religion, a man is free to do right; not to do wrong. He must watch and obey the law of Harmony; this is his inherited and absolute right; this is freedom of Conscience. Sabbatical legislation, therefore, with a view of politically regulating and governing individual conscience, is no more consistent with true religion than usurpation is reconcilable with republican principles.

Only think of the absurdity,-Three sermons in one day, given to the people to digest during the succeeding week. Now the truth is, that nothing can be more indigestible than nine-tenths of the sermons preached! But suppose, for the "sake of argument,” that all the sermons were digestible; then, according to the nature of the human mind, one-third of the number would perfectly subserve all the purposes of education and moral holiness.

My friends, there is a vast difference between going to church to see, or to be seen; or, because it is fashionable; because it makes you respectable; because it augments your business interests; because you need the physical exercise and mental diversion—I say, there is a vast difference between going to church for these motives,

and going expressly for the purposes of instruction. If you should go for educational purposes, exclusively-then, if there be any truth in the Laws which God has written upon man's constitution, it is positively certain that one, good, truthful, well-written, sixty-minutes' discourse is all that you can fully appropriate to the development of your nature!

I do not feel impressed to tell you, on this occasion, what reformation should be made respecting the observance of this day. "I have many things to say unto you, but ye can not bear them now."

A religious enthusiast would make the Sabbath the very hot-bed of superstition; while a fanatical reformer would destroy the institution altogether!

It is no impression of mine to do either. On the contrary, it is my interiorly obtained conviction, that the Sabbath should be, like every other day, devoted to perfectly good uses. It should be a Day of Rest for Man and beast-truly a day of rest! For Man, it should be a day of scientific and religious culture-a Day of Freedom-of perfect freedom; not of universal bondage to slavish superstitions.

MISCELLANEOUS ARTICLES.

WHAT SHOULD

CONSTITUTE THE STANDARD OF JUDGMENT
UPON RELIGIOUS SUBJECTS?

Ir is unnecessary to affirm this question to be one of great magnitude and vital importance. It concerns every thinking, reasonable mind. It not only addresses itself to the understanding, but also to the affections. It does not begin and end with the present; but it originated with man and extends and ramifies far and wide throughout the innumerable realms of the eternal future.

Every thing must be measured-its height and depth, its length and breadth, must be discovered and determined. But before any thing can be measured, we must first obtain a true standard of measurement—an eternal and unchangeable principle of judgment -a rule or a law whereby the truthfulness of any subject may be ascertained and its exact magnitude determined.

The foot measure, constituted of twelve inches, has determined the extent of territories, the dimensions of our earth, the magnitude of distant planets, and the greatness of many constellations! And the pound weight, constituted of ounces, is capable of deciding the density of an orb; but before any thing could be measured and weighed, it was first necessary to ascertain and determine a fixed standard of judgment. This proposition is a simple, self-evident fact. Now there is an important principle embosomed in this proposition, which demands attention. It is this: the human mind first discovers continents, and then ascertains their dimensions—the

earth is first inhabited by man, and then he weighs and measures it by the standards of judgment which have been erected. Every thing is thus open to man's investigations; and all truth, though divine as Deity and aged as the Universe, is left for man to discover, to unfold, to comprehend, and to apply to the wants and necessities of his being.

Every truth is unchangeable; but its discovery and application are ends which man must himself accomplish. Astronomy was a magnificent science before man existed; yet it would have remained as nothing had not man contemplated the stars, and, with his Reason, investigated and discovered their stupendous magnitudes and sublime phenomena. So with every science, every philosophy, every theology. Man first discovers and then decides the magnitude of its truthfulness and the utility of its application.

What standards has man erected upon religious subjects? For, if there be standards of judgment upon these subjects, it is positively certain that man has originated them in the different stages of his development from savagism to civilization. The further we advance in civilization and enlightenment, the more truthful man's theology and religion become. While, on the other hand, the deeper we descend into man's history the more mythological is his theology and the more arbitrary and ceremonial become his religion. We will now briefly examine man's Authority upon religious subjects in the various stages of human developments.

In the Savage Age, when men like the distant hills were wild and uncultivated, there existed no authority so imperative and absolute as Desire and Fear. The impulse, the inclination, the desire to do any thing whatsoever constitute the rule of action. The Cannibal desires to pursue, kill, and eat a human being. He, therefore, does it; for it is to him as if the unseen powers had commanded the deed. A blind, undeveloped, unrefined instinct and impulse actuate the savage mind, as hunger causes the wild beast

to destroy the victims beneath its power. Fear is a powerful ingredient of Authority in the Savage Age! Let but the thunders speak, and the savage mind is dismayed with unspeakable terror. The lightnings indicate the presence of some angry Deity-the howling storms are but the mutterings of an unseen monarch, threatening vengeance. Anarchy, confusion, dismay, walk like phantom-giants through the mind of the savage, and Fear becomes his master. But let the sun shine out in its glory, bathing the distant scenery with its golden light, and the savage will forget his ceremonial offerings to unknown Gods and will plunge, regardless of consequences, into the commission of the most atrocious crimes. Desire and Fear are the only religious authorities of the savage. But let us take another step in human development; and we will perceive quite a different standard of judgment upon religious subjects.

In the Barbarian Age, I discover a distinct modification of Desire and Fear—the authorities become Strength and Mystery. Chieftains are now chosen; and physical strength is worshiped. The most powerful and colossal man is the greatest object of adoration. The Barbarian is fully persuaded that the invisible powers select the mighty and fearless chieftains as earthly agents. A Samson is a Deity. The Idol of the Juggernaut is the impersonation of the barbarian God. And the Will of a Chieftain is Law! There is no monarch so powerful and so worshiped as the Hero of the desert tribes. At his command, the savage starts, the barbarian obeys, and the mother casts her child in the Ganges.

But Mystery plays an active part in the arbitrary government of the superstitious barbarian. The tempest, the thunders, the lightnings, the mournful melody of the forest winds, the sublime throbbings of the deep sea,--these are awful mysteries to uncultivated minds. Hence they have a God of the tempest-a God of the storm--a God of the sea. The stars are portals opening upon