edly scourged. Shall I not visit for these things? saith the Lord; and shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?'

“In a republic, a correct judgment concerning the morals of a people may be formed by ascertaining what is the character of their magistrates. A community must themselves have become corrupt, before they can consent to place, or uphold in office, men of acknowledged immorality. That people can have but little regard for the authority of God, who are willing to bestow the highest offices in their gift on Sabbath-breakers and despisers of religion. These are their most precious benefactions. They can bestow no greater. They can give no more signal manifestations of their approbation. And yet, though free to choose, they select from the vast multitude those to receive these favors who are actuated by not the least regard to the glory of God. No earthly considerations could have induced the early settlers of New England thus to have rewarded impiety. Office-holders study well the prejudices and preferences of the men by whom they are kept in office. If they knew, that for every enactment of impiety, on their return from the seat of legislation, they should hear the voice of indignant rebuke from every hamlet of their district, and should be dropped at the next election, they would not dare to defy the God of heaven. The impious legislator represents a mass of impiety at home. This he knows, and is thus emboldened in his course of sin.

"The members of the last Congress knew what they were doing, when they blotted out one Sabbath day from the calendar. They well knew the character of the men whom they represented. Never had they heard their constituents declare, that a regard for the moral law was an indispensable qualification for office.

“That these men did not reckon without their host, is painfully evident. Scarcely a voice has been raised to rebuke this highhanded profanity. Very few of the conductors of the press have sounded a single note of warning. What else could we expect from the daily press, that know no Sabbath? They could not speak, except in a very few instances, without sealing their own condemnation. But the weekly papers had passed it by; and

even our religious periodicals have given but a paragraph or two of faint rebuke. Some of them which, week by week, made the land to ring with notes of warning, when a legislator from Maine was shot down in cold blood, are almost silent in regard to this more signal defiance of the Almighty. It is not talked of in the marts of business, nor the place of concourse, and scarcely in the great congregation. The people slumber. The slightest breach of the Federal Constitution is enough to wake up the Union—a thousand presses teem with the complaints of an injured people. But the constitution of God's moral government, the most sacred articles in that constitution, may be trodden under foot by the representatives of a nominally Christian people, and the nation feels it not. All things continue as they were.'

"But we have slept long enough. It is time to act. Infidelity has gained a signal triumph. If the people will bear this engrossment of the Sabbath for national legislation, if they will take it patiently, and smile upon their guilty representatives,

'Next year the fatal precedent will plead.'

The Sabbath will be taken whenever a corrupt legislature may think that it is wanted. 'Thus on, till' its sacredness shall be gone, and the occurrence which we now deplore shall, by its frequency, cease to excite a feeling of surprise. And if Congress will sit on the Sabbath, why should not our State legislatures? What is to hinder them? particularly in those sections of the land where religious restraint is but feeble. And when it has become a common occurrence in the west and south-west, how long will it be before the venerable State House of Boston shall witness such a sight? And when the high places have become thus polluted, what is to withstand the streams of corruption that shall thence be poured down upon the land? Our public men, from the highest to the lowest, will, without restraint, and at length without remorse, pursue their own course of business or pleasure on the Sabbath day.

"So rapidly have the temptations to this vice accumulated among us for the last ten years, and so large have been the importations of habitual Sabbath-breakers from lands where the

pilgrim's Sabbath is unknown, that the evil has become of the most alarming kind. The standard must be lifted up. The hosts of God must rally round it. Every one of the people of the Most High must take his stand-must search himself, and see if, in this respect, there be any evil way in him, and break off his sins by righteousness."

From the above facts is there not conclusive evidence that this institution is losing its hold on the public conscience? At first Congress only occasionally, and for a few minutes, or at most, hours, desecrated, in this public manner, that holy rest. The case is parallel with that of Sunday mails, boats, and stages. They were started at first, fearfully, cautiously, and hesitatingly; but, gaining by little and little, a thousand mails can now be sent; a thousand boats and stages can be kept in motion, the whole of that day, and during all the Sundays in the year, instead of occasionally an hour or two on one of them. So Congress now, with little apparent compunction, can hold its sessions during a whole Sunday; and soon, unless the act should meet with merited rebuke from all parts of the nation, it is to be feared that they will be as ready to do business on that, as on any other day of the week.

What would be the result, should every friend of the Sabbath, publish to the world, that the men who thus trampled on the laws of the Sabbath, are unworthy our confidence, and should never again be elected to enact and administer laws for a Christian people? No national legislature, during the life of this generation, would be guilty of the same impropriety. And can men, who thus wantonly violate the laws of God and man, be safely trusted as the leaders and guides of our national concerns? Can God approve of such conduct? Will he bless a people who do, and who countenance such highhanded rebellion? Will he hold the man guiltless who, under such circumstances, feels no anxiety for the safety and honor of his holy day? And do the friends of the Sabbath yet sleep? As well, and perhaps more safely might they sleep on Etna or Vesuvius. The man who can now hold his peace, and neglect to cry aloud, gives little, if any evidence, that he is awake to his duty, or has a proper regard for the welfare of his country, or the honor of his God.

Philanthropist, Patriot, Christian, where are your sensibilities, your sense of obligation to your country, to the world, and to God? Is it possible that you will longer imitate the criminal example of those who, by their apathy and silence suffered Sunday mails, boats, stages, and rail-cars to prevail in this land? Is it possible that you will thus aid in introducing a practice which, it is to be feared, will result in a total disregard of that day, not only by our national legislature, but by all the departments of our government, from the highest to the lowest ! Longer silence on your part is treason:-TREASON against your country, the church, and the court of heaven. And it is difficult to know which are most in the fault, you or the more immediate aggressors. WATCHMAN, 66 where art thou?" comes sounding from above, with a voice of loudest thunder, reverberating from center to circumference, and do you not hear it? Or, hearing, is it unheeded? Awake, awake, for the corner stones of this republic are being removed; the last hope of the good man is flickering, and ready to be extinguished. AWAKE, or the celestial lights of republican liberty and Protestantism will grow less and less brilliant until they are shrouded in the thick darkness of infidelity and atheism. And, for the consequences of such a calamity, hastened by your neglect, prepare to render an account at the judgment. God cannot hold you guiltless for such neglect of duty.

GOVERNOR ELLSWORTH.

We add the following appropriate remarks on the same subject, by Gov. Ellsworth, of Conn., in his Message to the Legisture of that State.

"Connected with Congress as we are, and feeling its influence and example, it will not be deemed presumptuous to remark** Its late appropriation of the day of rest and devotion, to secular business, is a disregard of an institution of divine appointment, consecrated in the affections and hallowed by the usages of a large portion of the citizens of the United States. The Christian religion owes its extension, and its power over the consciences of men, to the institution and influence of the Sabbath. Repeal that institution, or treat with indifference its

observance, as was done in the National Convention of France, and you banish religion, as they did, from the land. Let me say, fellow citizens, it is not political power; it is not extent of territory; nor accumulated wealth; nor knowledge, nor science, alone, which renders a people really great and truly happy. 'The most High ruleth in the kingdoms of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will."

SABBATH UNION.

“The General Union for promoting the observance of the Christian Sabbath,' was formed in the city of New York, May 9, 1828, by about 200 ministers and laymen, of different denominations, from fifteen States and Territories. The Constitution provides that the Society should consist indiscriminately of the friends of morality and religion of all denominations, who may choose to combine their influence for the promotion of this interesting object;' and states that, as the weapons of the Christian warfare are not carnal, but spiritual, the means employed by this Society for effecting their design, shall be the influence of personal example, of moral suasion, with arguments drawn from the oracles of God, from the existing laws of our country, and appeals to the consciences and hearts of men.' The following was the pledge required of all the members of the Union: 'We, whose names are undersigned, do hereby acknowledge our obligation to keep the Sabbath according to the Scriptures; and we pledge ourselves to each other, and to the Christian public, to refrain from all secular employments on that day, and from traveling in steam-boats, stages, canal-boats, or otherwise, except in case of necessity or mercy; and to aim at discharging the duties connected with that sacred day; and also, that we will, as circumstances admit, encourage and give a preference to those lines of conveyance, whose owners do not employ them on the Sabbath.'

"A forcible Address to the People of the United States,' written by Rev. Lyman Beecher, was published, with the proceedings of the Convention. and circulated throughout the country