A MINISTER of one of the New-Jersey Presbyteries, riding slowly along the road, overtook a young woman travelling in the same direction on foot. She looked timidly into his waggon, and asked if she could be permitted to ride a certain distance on her journey. The Minister assented, and she ascended the vehicle. When all was adjusted, and they had begun to jog on again, he said to her, "What would you think, if at the end of our ride you should find I was a Clergy man, and had not spoken a word about religion to you all the way?

Why, Sir, I should be obliged to think, I suppose, that you had not done your duty." Well then," he rejoined, "you must let me do my duty now." He began, and occu

GENUINE

THE inveterate enmity of a sincere Roman Catholic against books which directly or indirectly dissent from his Church is unconquerable. There is a family in England who, having inherited a copious library under circumstances which make it a kind of

pied the whole distance, in explaining and enforcing repentance toward God, and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ ;" and had the satisfaction of putting her down, at parting, to all appearance, deeply impressed, if not powerfully awakened. O that all Clergymen were like this one! But all are not so. A young lady in Massachusetts, who had taken offence at another individual of the same character, for a similar proceed ing, expressed her disapprobation of his conduct by saying, "They are not all like him; there is Mr.→→→→ a pious, excellent man; I was with him six weeks, and he never introduced the subject of religion."Princeton Journal.

BIGOTRY.

heir-loom, have torn out every leaf of the Protestant works, leaving nothing in the shelves but the covers. This fact I know from the most unquestionable authority.—White's Evidence against Catholicism.

THE obligation of a Sabbatical observance upon Christians being established, the inquiry which naturally follows is, In what manner this great festival, at once so ancient and venerable, and intended to comme morate events so illustrious and so important to mankind, is to be celebrated? Into this our author has largely entered; and though there are points in which we think he has conceded somewhat too much, his general principles appear, upon the whole, to be scriptural; they are too, in some respects, happily at variance with the concessions, in which he has somewhat leaned to the side of laxity.,

Mr. Holden occasionally speaks of the difficulty of settling rules of Sabbath observance. We think, in this respect, he too often, follows the example of those writers whose, views he is laudably anxious to counteract, and to whom he has shown himself much superior in investigation and argument. It is true, that we have not many particular rules given us in Scripture for our direction; but the application of the different parts of the general directory is not difficult. We allow that it requires judgment, and prudence, and charity, and, above all, a mind well-disposed to the spiritual employment of

the Sabbath, to make the application. But this is the case with other precepts also; such, for instance, as loving our neighbour as ourselves: with respect to which we seldom hear any complaint, that it is difficult in the application. But, even if some want of special direction should be felt, this can only affect minor details and probably the matter has been so arranged by the Lawgiver, to try us, and prove us, and to know what is in our heart." Something may have been left, in this case, for the exercise of spontaneous obedience; for that generous construction of the precept which will be dictated by devotion and gratitude; and for the creation and operation of a feeling of indignant shame, that the one day which God has reserved to himself, should be grudged to him, and trenched upon by every petty excuse of convenience, interest, or sloth, and pared down, and negociated for, in the spirit of one who seeks to overreach another. Of this we may be assured, that he who is most auxious to find exceptions to the general rule, will, in most cases, be a defaulter upon even his own estimate of the general duty.

The only real difficulties with which men have entangled themselves, have arisen from the want of clear and decided views of the law of the Sabbath as it is a matter of express revelation, and which the Author has so ably assisted his readers to acquire. There are two extremes, either of which must be fertile of perplexity. The first is, to regard the Sabbath as a prudential institution, adopted by the primitive church, and resting upon civil and ecclesiastical authority; a notion, which has been before refuted. For if this theory be adopted, it is impossible to find satisfactory rules, either in the Old or New Tes tament, applicable to the subject; and we may therefore cease to wonder at that variety of opinions, and those vacillations between duty and license, which have been found in different churches, and among their theological writers. The difficulty of establishing any rule at all, to which conscience is strictly amenable,

is most evident, and entirely insuperable; and men in vain attempt to make a partial Sabbath by their own authority, when they reject “the day which the Lord hath made." If, on the other hand, a proper distinction is not preserved between the moral law of the Jews, which re-enacts the still more ancient law of the Sabbath, (which law we have seen to be obligatory upon all Christians, th the end of time,) and the political and ceremonial law of that people, which contains particular rules as to the observance of the Sabbath; thus fixing both the day on which it was to be held, viz. the seventh of the week, and issuing certain prohibitions not applicable to all people, and which branch of the Mosaic Law was brought to an end by Christ, difficulties will arise from this quarter. One will respect the day; another the hour of the diurnal circle from which the Sabbath must commence. Some difficulties will arise from the inconvenience or impossibility of accommodating the Judaical precepts to countries and manners totally dissimilar; and others, from the degree of civil delinquency and amenableness with which violations of the Sabbath ought to be marked in a Christian State. The kindling of fires, for instance, in their dwellings, was forbidden to the Jews; but for extending this to harsher climates, there is no authority; and this rule would there make the Sabbath a day of bodily suffering, and in some cases, of danger to health, which is inconsistent with that merciful and festival character, which the Sabbath was designed every where to bear. The same observation may apply to the cooking of vietuals, which was also prohibited to the Jews by express command. To the gathering of sticks on the Sabbath, the penalty of death was assigned, on one occasion, for reasons probably arising out of the Theocratical government of the Jews; but surely this is no precedent for making the violation of the Sabbath a capital crime, in the code of a Christian country

Between the Decalogue, and the political and ceremonial laws which followed, there is a marked distinc

which are the proper and the only lawful occupations of the day; it is a day of public worship, or, as it is expressed in the Mosaic law, of holy convocation," or assembly a day for the exercise of mercy to man and beast;-a day for the devout com memoration, by religious acts and meditations, of the creation and redemption of the world; and, consequently, for the cultivation of that spirit which is suitable to such exercises, by laying aside all worldly cares and pleasures; to which holy exercises there is to be a full appropriation of the seventh part of our lime ; necessary sleep, and engagements of real necessity, as explained by our Sa viour, only being exeluded. To illus trate some of these heads, we extract several important observations of our author; leaving some remarks for the close. Our extracts first respect the Sabbath as a day of rest :-

tion. They were given at two dif ferent times; and in a different manner; and, above all, the former is referred to in the New Testament, as of perpetual obligation; the other as peculiar, and as abolished by Christ. It does not follow, how ever, from this, that those precepts in the Levitical code, which relate to the Sabbath, are of no use to us. They show us how the general law was carried into its detail of application, by the great Legislator, who condescended to be at once a civil and an ecclesiastical Governor of that chosen people; and though they are not in all respects binding upon us, in their full form, they all embody general interpretations of the fourth command of the Decalogue, to which, in cases where they are applicable to a people otherwise circumstanced, respect is reverendly and devoutly to be had. The prohibition to buy and sell on the Sabbath, is as applicable to us as to the Jews; so is the forbidding of travelling on the Sabbath, except for purposes of religion, which was allowed to them also. If we may lawfully kindle fires in our dwellings, yet we may learn from the law peculiar to the Jews, to keep domestic services under restraint; if we may cook victuals for necessity and comfort, we are to be restrained from feasting; if violations of the Sabbath are not to be made capital crimes by Christian governors, the enforcement of a decent external observance of the rest of the Sabbath, is a lawful use of power, and a part of the duty of a Christian Magistrate.

"The Sabbath, according to its original institution, is to be a day separated from all others, and devoted to sacred purposes, which implies a cessation from worldly labours and employments; and this is further confirmed by the express enactment of the fourth Commandment: Six days shalt thou labour and do all thy work; but the seventh is the sabbath of the Lord thy God; in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy man-servant, nor the stranger that is within thy gates.' thy maid-servant, nor thy cattle, nor From the various applications of the Hebrew word here rendered work,' it appears evidently to denote, as Taylor in his Concordunce explains it, any work, business, or affairs donc or transacted by God or man; and of course the prohibition is full, direct and unequivocal against secular employment points out the proportion of time which on the Lord's Day. The Almighty he allows for the management both of our temporal affairs, and spiritual concerus; and to let the former trench on the time which he demands for his own immediate service, is incompatible with this solema requirement, (pp. 361,362.)

But the rules by which the observance of the Sabbath is clearly explained, will be found in abundant copiousness and evidence in the original command; in the Decalogue; in incidental passages of Scripture, which refer not so much to the political law of the Jews, as to the universal moral code; and in the discourses and acts of Christ, and his Apostles so that, independent of the Levitical code, we have abundant guidance. It is a day of rest from worldly pursuits; a day sanctified, that is, set apart for holy uses,

'the

for the promotion of our temporal m Six days of t week are allowed terests, and the abstraction of the seventh for concerns of infinitely higher moment, so far from being a rigorous exaction, must be deemed a law at

once merciful towards man, and neces sary to the purposes of devotion. Were all employed on that day, as they ought to be, in giving attendance to the concerns of an eternal world, they would have no leisure for secular employments. The ordinary labours and occupations of life are, therefore, to be suspended on that day, which is peculiarly the Lord's; the business of the shop, the counting-house, and the manufactory is to cease; the labouring classes are to rest from their toils, the higher from their professions and pursuits; and the mind is to be kept as free as possible from the distraction of secular cares and avocations.

"In this view of the sabbatical law, he who sincerely purposes obedience, will rarely, if ever, hesitate concerning the nature of his compliance. The least consideration must show to every man, whether he have abstained from the customary labours of his station. They are as various as the various ranks of society; but, of whatever description they may consist, the performance of them is a violation of the statute. The Sabbath may be equally profaned by the labour of the head as of the hand, by mental no less than bodily exertion, in privacy as well as in the busy hum of men. The desecration of this holy season is not extenuated by veiling it from public view; the retired prosecution of profane literature, the perusing and writing letters on business, the balancing of accounts, the arrangement of worldly concerns, or engaging others in such employments, is as culpable as public commercial transactions, or the culti vation of the ground. To enumerate particulars, however, were a waste of time, as every one is competent to decide, in his own individual case, in what manner the law is to be obeyed. If he do not abstain from those occupa tions, of whatever kind, which he pursues during the six days, with worldly views, and for worldly ends, he violates the sacred rest. So far from consecrating the season to the offices of religion, he profanes it by secular em ployments; and let not such a one lay the flattering unction to his soul that he will escape merited punishment for refusing to the Deity the homage which he claims as his unalienable right.

"What we are forbidden to do ourselves, it is evidently wrong to do by our servants and dependants. On this point the law is particular and express, ex-・ tending the sacred rest to those who are in subordinate situations; and to

employ them in worldly business, is in direct contradiction to the statute. It is but too common, even with such as refrain from secularpursuits themselves, to engage others in occupations inconsistent with the sabbatical rest. So much is often required from servants as leaves them but little leisure for exercises befitting the season, sand sometimes scarcely opportunity for ate tendance on public worship Any em ployment of dependants beyond what necessity demands, is opposed by the clear declaration of God's word, and is as much a breach of the commandment as if their masters did it in their own persons. It is an act of oppression and tyranny to infringe, for the sake of a little interest or pleasure, upon that rest and relaxation which those who are in humbler situations have a right to enjoy, and which to them is a boon granted by a merciful... Providence. A Cruel as it is to deprive them, as mem-bers of society, of the repose to which. they are entitled, it is doing a still more fatal injury to their immortal souls. The profanation of the Sabbath is, in general, among the lower orders, the forerunner of every crime; and aggravated is the guilt of leading them, by any means, disregard an ordis nauce, the reverence of which is so important to the preservation of their religious principles. Dreadful is the account which we must render at the tribunal of Heaven, if we have been instrumental in the eternal ruin of : those whose virtue and piety át is our duty to promoted jer le no data

"From the benefits of the law, which provides a weekly rest for the labours ing classes, the animal creation are not excluded. On the Sabbath day: thou shalt not do any work,-nor any of thy cattle.' Here, then, is a direct prohibition against all unnecessary using or working of the domesticated animals on this day, and of course the loading of beasts, the driving of teams, the running of horses in carriages, beyond what is requisite for the real benefit of man, are unquestionably forbidden. The usual employment of beasts is contrary to the general law against working on the Lord's Day; but it is prohibited by a specific enact ment in the Decalogue, ordaining a regular time in which they are to rest front labour, and to recruit their exhausted strengthé Divine Providence . surveys, with benignant cye, the vast circuit of creation, in every minute párt. of which, as far as we can trace it, we see the manifestation of his wisdom, power, and mercy y nor is any creature