Monday, he took a boat for Cincinnati. Before Tuesday night, he passed the boat which started on Saturday evening. It had repeatedly gotten aground, and in various ways been hindered; and he arrived at Cincinnati, after a pleasant trip, much sooner than he would have done had he gone in the Saturday evening boat.

96. DUELLING FASHION. A lad in Massachusetts went out with a pistol, on the Sabbath, in order to shoot some birds. He saw one, and determined to shoot him, as men shoot when they attempt to murder one another in a duel. He raised up his pistol, and carried it so far back that it pointed toward his own shoulder. In that position it was unexpectedly discharged, and he was shot through the body. He lingered for a time in great agony, and died. Duelling fashion is not a good fashion, especially on the Sabbath.

97. THE BANKRUPT ACT. Great efforts were made in at a certain time, to close all warehouses, stores, and shops, on the Sabbath, that all employed in them might enjoy the rest and privileges of the day. One man, supposed then to be worth half a million of dollars, violently opposed these efforts, and said he would keep his store open and continue his business on the Sabbath, whether others did or not, and his men should continue their work. He did so, but failed in business, and was one of the first men in that place who took the advantage of the bankrupt act.

98. THE INSOLVENT POSTMASTER. -A postmaster was accustomed to open his post-office on the Sabbath. He became convinced that it was wrong thus to violate the command of God; but as his office was lucrative, he concluded to continue in it, and open it on the Sabbath, till he should acquire money enough to pay for his farm, and then he would leave his office. No. 5.

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But before he was ready to leave it, he was found to be insolvent, and to the amount of more than ten thousand dollars. Had he left his office when he became convinced that to open and distribute the mails on the Sabbath was wicked, he might have saved his property, and avoided a vast amount of guilt.

99. THE CASK OF SUGAR. — At a wharf in a seaport, a number of men were unloading a vessel. Having raised a cask of sugar up over their heads, the rope broke, and down it came, grazing, as it fell, the head of one of the men. He started, and exclaimed, "That is working on the Sabbath." They all stood astonished at his narrow escape, then went away, and did nothing more to unload the vessel on that day. Men who work on the Sabbath know that it is wrong. Their conscience, when awakened, condemns them. Had the cask of sugar fallen a few inches farther one way, that man had been instantly killed; and what good reason could he have offered to his Judge for breaking his command-"Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work, but remember the Sabbath day, keep it holy, and in it do no work"?

- With re

100. TESTIMONY OF BOSTON CIVILIANS. gard to the crimes of fraud, theft, arson, burglary, robbery, and murder, a number of distinguished civilians in Boston, in a public document, use the following language, viz.: "Who does not know that these crimes are perpetrated, almost exclusively, by persons who have been in the habit of violating the Sabbath? In one of our state prisons, containing five or six hundred convicts, particular inquiry was made on the subject. The history of one was the history of all. They had never observed the Sabbath, or they had ceased to observe it before they committed the crimes for which they were suffering the vengeance of the laws."

101. A RESPECTED CITIZEN.-A gentleman, highly gifted and much distinguished by civil honors, soon after the Erie Canal was opened, invested many thousand dollars in a line of packet-boats, which he, against the wishes and remonstrances of many of his friends, ran on Sundays. The receipts were large, and promised great and speedy acquisitions to his already competent fortune.

Not long after, the friends of the Sabbath made a united and public effort to arrest its desecration. This gentleman opposed them with all his gigantic powers; and on one occasion, at the head of a mob he had collected, entered a meeting convened to consider what could be done to promote the better observance of that day, and broke it up. Thus things went on from bad to worse. At length, suddenly, as in a moment, his whole system was paralyzed; his mind. lost its vigor, and sunk into a morbid state of deplorable melancholy; a more unhappy mortal apparently never existed. A dreadful sense of sin, especially the sin of Sabbath-breaking, rested upon him. This he confessed to his minister, adding, that he expected to go to hell; everything was against him; what he felt was a judgment from Heaven, in consequence of his opposition to the Sabbath and Sabbath efforts. He seemed to feel, he said, for such wickedness, the arrows of the Almighty, barbed and pointed as the lightnings of heaven, penetrating his vitals, and he warring and pressing against them; the poison whereof drank up his spirits. After remaining in this situation eight or ten years, a terror to himself, and an object of inexpressible anxiety to his family, a kind Providence restored him again to his right mind.

102. THE CAPTAIN. The captain of a line of packet-boats, being much labored with to keep him from contracting to run them on Sunday, said, "If I should cause the teams to lie by on Sunday, it would

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cost me three hundred dollars at least, and I am not able to sustain the loss." "But sir," it was answered, "there will be nothing lost, in the long run, in obeying the laws of God and of our country touching the Sabbath." "I don't know as there would be; but I cannot now sustain any loss." "But sir," it was replied, if you violate in this way the law of God and infringe the rights of those you employ, how will you answer it at the bar of God?" As quick as thought, he replied, “O, I expect to repent before I die!"

The next day, being a civil man, he called to apologize for the remark. No doubt his conscience set home the answer that he might die suddenly, lose his reason, or become hardened in iniquity, and die accursed. Nevertheless, his line was fitted out in fine style-run on Sundays as on other days, but, as we are informed, at a loss of nine thousand dollars. The next spring, the entire concern - horses, boats, furniture, &c. was sold at auction to the highest bidder. The captain was a bankrupt nine thousand dollars worse off, at least, than he was when he said, "I expect to repent before I die.”

103. THE LAWYER. A distinguished lawyer was kindly reproved for drawing declarations and doing other official business on Sunday; for he was surrounded with applicants and crowded with business. At this he was offended, when the following conversation took place: "Sir, you, too, have a case, to be tried in the court of Heaven, which will come, sooner or later, and you are not prepared for it. witnesses are not summoned; your advocate is not secured; and all, of any importance in insuring success, remains undone. The case is not a petty one, but involves your all-your eternal life; and it may

come on to-morrow.

Your

"The Sabbath is given you" (for the conversation took place on Sunday) "that you may secure your

counsel, and make every necessary preparation for the important trial; but here you sit, drawing this declaration for your client devoting the precious hours to the comparatively worthless interests of your client, of the consequence, perhaps, of ten or twenty dollars, to the entire neglect of your eternal well being.

"Now, would you, if you knew the summons would be sent to call you to that dread trial to-morrow, sit here and finish this declaration?" After a moment's pause, for he had been religiously educated, and could not easily do the violence to his conscience he was about to do,he tremblingly replied, "If I neglect the interests of my clients, I shall lose my business." And here again he hesitated. The speaker, beholding the struggle in his breast, witnessing the sudden changes in his countenance, and fearing lest he should seal his ruin, was about to relieve him, when he resolutely proceeded "Yes, I would first do my duty to my client!" This was some fifteen years ago; and though he still lives, doing very little in his professional business, from that time he began to wane. Long has he been nearly bankrupt in character and in present and future prospects as to the riches of this world. His ambition and covetousness seem to have done him no good.

104. THE FORWARDING HOUSE. -A few years since, in a northern city, great effort was made to persuade forwarders, sailors, and boatmen to give up their Sunday occupations. Most of the forwarders readily consented. One of the firms that did not, among the largest, and supposed to be very wealthy, raised many objections, which called for much labor with them, and from many individuals; but all without success. They opened their warehouse, run their steamboats, vessels, and canal-boats on Sundays, notwithstanding all remonstrances.

But before the year came around, their large ware