extent that many regarded his success as almost miraculous.

"Examples like the above might be multiplied to almost any extent. So far as I can learn by diligent inquiry, all who have left off fishing on the Sabbath, without an exception, think the change has been for their temporal advantage.

"He who has been more successful than any other among us, this season, has strictly kept the Sabbath, as have also his men. They went to the coast of Labrador, were gone less time than usual, took more fish than the crew of any other vessel, and more than they could bring home. They gave away thirty-five hundred fish before they left the ground. In thirteen days they caught eleven hundred quintals."

A gentleman belonging to another fishing town, which sends out more than two hundred vessels in a year, writes as follows: "I think it may safely be stated that those vessels which have not fished on the Sabbath have, taken together, met with more than ordinary success. The vessel whose earnings were the highest, the last year and the year before, was one on board which the Sabbath was kept by refraining from labor, and by religious worship. There is one firm which has had eight vessels in its employ this season. Seven have fished on the Sabbath, and one has not. That one has earned seven hundred dollars more than the most successful of the six. There are two other firms employing each three vessels. Two out of the three, in each case, have kept the Sabbath, and in each case have earned more than two thirds of the profits."

The sabbatical institution is in accordance with the nature of man, and the observance of it is profitable unto all things.

The same law is impressed, by the same divine

hand, on the nature of the laboring animals. When employed but six days in a week, and allowed to rest one, they are more healthy than they can be when employed during the whole seven. They do more work, and live longer.

The experiment was tried on a hundred and twenty horses. They were employed, for years, seven days in a week. But they became unhealthy, and finally died so fast, that the owner thought it too expensive and put them on a six days' arrangement. After this he was not obliged to replensih them one fourth part as often as before. Instead of sinking continually, his horses came up again, and lived years longer than they could have done on the other plan.

A manufacturing company, which had been accustomed to carry their goods to market with their own teams, kept them employed seven days in a week, as that was the time in which they could go to the market and return. But by permitting the teams to rest on the Sabbath, they found that they could drive them the same distance in six days that they formerly did in seven, and, with the same keeping, preserve them in better order.

At a tavern in Pennsylvania, a man, who had arrived the evening before, was asked, on Sabbath morning, whether he intended to pursue his journey on that day. He answered, "No." He was asked, "Why not?" "Because," said he, "I am on a long journey, and wish to perform it as soon as I can. I have long been accustomed to travel on horseback, and have found that, if I stop on the Sabbath, my horse will travel farther during the week than if I do not.' 19

A gentleman in Vermont, who was in the habit of driving his horses twelve miles a day seven days in a week, afterwards changed his practice, and drove them but six days, allowing them to rest one. He then found that, with the same keeping, he could

drive them fifteen miles a day, and preserve them in as good order as before. So that a man may rest on the Sabbath, and let his horses rest, yet promote the benefit of both, and be in all respects a gainer.

Two neighbors in the state of New York, each with a drove of sheep, started on the same day for a distant market. One started several hours before the other, and travelled uniformly every day. The other rested every Sabbath. Yet he arrived at the market first, with his flock in a better condition than that of the other. In giving an account of it, he said that he drove his sheep on Monday about seventeen miles, on Tuesday not over sixteen, and so lessening each day, till on Saturday he drove them only about eleven miles. But on Monday, after resting on the Sabbath, they would travel again seventeen miles, and so on each week. But his neighbor's sheep, which were not allowed to rest on the Sabbath, before they arrived at the market, could not travel, without injury, more than six or eight miles in a day.

Two men from another part of the same state, each with a drove of sheep, started at the same time for another market. One rested, and the other travelled, on the Sabbath, through the whole journey. And the man who kept the Sabbath arrived at the market as many days before the other, as he rested Sabbath days on the road.

A number of men started together from Ohio, with droves of cattle for Philadelphia. They had often been before, and had been accustomed to drive on the Sabbath as on other days. One had now changed his views as to the propriety of travelling on that day. On Saturday he inquired for pastures. His associates wondered that so shrewd a man should think of consuming so great a portion of his profits by stopping with such a drove a whole day. He stopped, however, and kept the Sabbath. They,

thinking that they could not afford to do so, went on. On Monday he started again. In the course of the week he passed them, arrived first in the market, and sold his cattle to great advantage. So impressed were the others with the benefits of thus keeping the Sabbath, that ever afterwards they followed his example.

A gentleman started from Connecticut, with his family, for Ohio. He was on the road about four weeks, and rested every Sabbath. From morning to night, others, journeying the same way, were passing by. Before the close of the week he passed them. Those who went by late on the Sabbath he passed on Monday; those who went by a little earlier he passed on Tuesday; and so on, till, before the next Sabbath, he had passed them all. His horses were no better than theirs, nor were they better fed. But having had the benefit of resting on the Sabbath, according to the command of God and the law of nature, they could out-travel those who had violated that law.

A company of men in the state of New York purchased a tract of land in Northern Illinois, and started, with their families and teams, to take possession of it. A part of them rested on the Sabbath. The others continued their journey on that, as on other days. Before the next Sabbath, those who had stopped passed by the others. This they did every week, and each succeeding week a little earlier than they did the week before. Had the journey continued, they would soon have been so far ahead that the others would not be able to overtake them on the Sabbath. They were the first to arrive at their new homes, with men and teams in good order. Afterwards the others came, jaded and worn out by the violation of the law of nature and the command of God.

Great numbers have made similar experiments,

and uniformly with similar results; so that it is now settled by facts, that the observance of the Sabbath is required by a natural law, and that, were man nothing more than an animal, and were his existence to be confined to this world, it would be for his interest to observe the Sabbath. Should all the business, which is not required by the appropriate duties of the Sabbath, be confined to six days in a week, the only time which God has made, or given to man, or to which he has a right, for that purpose, both man and beast might enjoy higher health, obtain longer life, and do more work, and in a better manner, than by the secular employment of the whole seven.

But man is an angel as well as an animal. He has a soul as well as a body. The Sabbath was made for both, especially for the soul. It derives its chief importance from its influence on that which is deathless. It is the great institution for elevating, purifying, and blessing, the soul, and fitting it not only for usefulness and happiness on earth, but for glory, honor, immortality, and eternal life, in heaven.

Even the intellect, incessantly employed, becomes jaded, enfeebled, and deranged. Men of strong and vigorous powers, disciplined and trained for the most effective efforts, have found, by experience, that they can accomplish more, and in a better manner, by employing the mind, especially in one continued train, not over six days in a week, and resting one, than they can by employing it the whole seven. After trying both ways, they find that they can accomplish in one what they cannot accomplish in the other, and have thus proved that the Sabbath was made for the intellect, as well as the other parts of man. Scientific and literary men, who study but six days in a week, ordinarily make greater progress, in the course of the year, than those who study