the cows. On his way, he came to a creek, and went in to bathe. After wading some distance from the shore, he saw, or thought he saw, a large snake coming after him, and he ran with the utmost haste toward the shore. His feet became entangled in a thicket of weeds, and he fell on his face into the water and was drowned, although the water there, when he stood upright, was not up to his chin.

A third took his gun, and went out on the Sabbath to shoot some game. On his way he came to a fence. He put over the gun, keeping hold of the top of it with his hand; and while getting over himself, his gun unexpectedly went off, shot him through the body, and killed him. His expected pleasure in hunting vanished as a dream when one awaketh.

A fourth stole some powder on the Sabbath, and put it into his pocket. He afterwards put into the same pocket part of a cigar which he had been smoking. The powder exploded, and he was so burnt that he died the next evening.

36. IT SEEMED TO VANISH. What seemed to vanish? The property of a man who was noted for his disregard of the Sabbath. He worked on this as on other days, and required those whom he employed to do the same. He finally went so far that he would not hire a man unless he would work on the Sabbath. He was active and enterprising, and acquired a large property. He owned a sloop, and went in her up the river, by which he lived, to a distant place. Having finished his business, he set out on Sabbath morning to return. The wind was high, the water rough, and in changing the sails he was knocked overboard. He sank, but rose again, and cried loudly for help. They heard him also calling upon God, and beseeching him, whose day he had desecrated, to have mercy upon him; but before they could stop the vessel and get back to him he had sunk, and it was a number of days before his body was found. Said his friend, in relat

ing this case, "After his decease, his great houses went into other hands, and his property seemed to vanish."

37. THE INFIDEL AND HIS HORSES. An infidel was the owner of a large number of horses. He had been engaged for many years in extensive business, and had observed the effects of working horses six days in a week only, and also the effects of working them seven. Some of his acquaintances were making special efforts to promote the observance of the Sabbath. He favored their object, and aided them in their efforts. They maintained that the Bible requires men to keep the Sabbath. He said he did not know about that; he did not know much about the Bible; but one thing he knew" Horses require a Sabbath, and they cannot live and be healthy without. They must have a day of rest, or they will be sickly, weak, and will soon die.' So say the facts; and also that horses which are permitted to rest one day in a week, according to the command of God, will, in the course of their lives, do more work, and in a better manner, than those can do that are kept at work the whole seven. The nature of man and beast requires obedience, on the part of man, to the command of his Maker; and in obeying it he will find great reward.

38. THREE WEEKS' EXPERIMENT.-In constructing a canal through one of the United States, the workmen on one part of it uniformly rested from their labors on the Sabbath. At one time, however, as they went forward with their work, they came to a point where it was thought by the director that it would be needful to let in the water in about three weeks. Fearing that the necessary work would not be done, he gave orders not to stop on the Sabbath, but to keep both men and teams at work. The first week, as related by a man employed in the work, things went on well, and they made good progress. Before the close of the second week, men and teams began

By the

evidently to falter, for want of the day of rest and refreshment to which they had been accustomed. They, however, continued their labors through the second Sabbath, as they had done through the first. close of the third week they were so jaded and worn out that they could not do in a day what they had been accustomed to accomplish with ease; and the man gave it as his opinion that they had not accomplished, in those three weeks, as much as they would have accomplished had they continued, as before, to rest on the Sabbath. What, then, would be their condition, should they continue to work on the Sabbath for three months, and through the year?

When the French atheists, for the sake of banishing from the French mind the idea of a God, decreed that their periods of labor should be ten days each, instead of six,-after trying it, the French farmers became very much dissatisfied with it. They said

it injured their cattle. And it was found that neither men nor beasts could do as much work on that plan as they could on the plan of divine appointment.

· A number

39. TRAVELLERS FROM The Pacific. of men who had been engaged in the fur trade, travelled from Oregon to St. Louis. For some weeks, they travelled without regard to the Sabbath, and without any day of rest. The men became fatigued, enfeebled, and sickly. They were obliged to stop. They were apprehensive that they should not succeed in accomplishing their journey. After consultation, they concluded to rest every Sabbath. They

did so.

Their health became better. Their strength was increased. They made greater progress, and with less fatigue, and were all convinced that one prominent cause of their former difficulty was their want of rest. "Indeed," said an old man of eighty, who was himself one of the company, "I do not believe, if we had not altered our course, that we should have reached St. Louis." However that

might have been, one thing was certain they had practical demonstration that the Sabbath was made for man, not as a day of secular business, or travelling, but as a day of rest; and that in devoting it to its appropriate use, men are gainers.

A number of loaded teams, on a certain occasion, started from Baltimore for Providence. A part of them lay by on the Sabbath, and the other part travelled every day in the week. The former were the first to arrive in Providence, and with their teams in much better order than were the teams of their neighbors.

The number, variety, and uniformity of such facts show conclusively that the foundation for the Sabbath is laid in the nature of things; and that when God commands men to remember it, and keep it holy, he only requires what their own nature demands; and that when he forbids men, on this day, to employ in worldly business their beasts of burden, he does it for their good. It is saying, in the kindest and most emphatic manner, "Do thyself no harm."

40. SIX DAYS AND SEVEN. A young man established himself in one of our principal cities in the business of a physician. He was told, by a friend, that his earnings, by needful attention to the sick on the Sabbath, he ought not to lay up for himself, but he ought to devote them to charitable objects. He, however, thought it not best to do so, and he put them in with his other earnings. He had a good run of business, and for a time prospered. But there was a change, and he failed, lost his property, and was still in debt beyond his ability to pay. He, however, continued the business of his profession, but changed his course with regard to his earnings on the Sabbath. Instead of appropriating them to his own use, as before, he devoted them to charitable objects. He paid off his debts, acquired a handsome

property, and when he related to the writer the above facts, was in business which was worth to him several thousand dollars a year. In his vicinity, he said, were two brothers, who started in good business about the same time. One of them followed it diligently six days in a week, the other seven. The latter failed, and lost all; the other continued to do well, and is still in prosperous business.

Through the whole street in which the physician above mentioned lives, embracing a large number of business establishments, every man who has prosecuted his business on the Sabbath has failed; while others, who confined their efforts to six days in a week, have succeeded, and are doing well.

41. THE BUFFALO SCHOONER. A schooner lay at Buffalo. Her papers were made out, and her cargo was ready on Saturday night. On Sabbath morning before she left the harbor, a gentleman went on board, to distribute among the sailors religious books. They treated him with scorn, and harshly drove him from the vessel. He went away, and prepared a letter to be delivered to them on their return. But they never returned. They met a tremendous storm, ran into port, and cast anchor, but were driven out again into the lake, and were afterwards not heard of. The vessel was found blown upon the beach, but nothing was heard of the men. They had, probably, all found a watery grave; which, had they remained in the harbor of Buffalo till Monday, they might have escaped.

42. THE THREE VESSELS. They were all, at a certain time, during the war of the United States with Great Britain, in the same harbor, and were bound to the same port. They were loaded and ready for Two of them sailed on the Sabbath; the other waited till Monday. She had a good voyage, and

sea.