RELATIONS OF MANKIND. 



known, the true God is never adored, the soul of 

 man is debased, and prostrates itself before the 

 sun and moon, and even before demons, mon 

 sters, insects, reptiles, and blocks of wood and 

 stone. In France, where the Sabbath was for 

 a season abolished, an .Tipious phantom, called 

 the GrCcMess of Reason, was substituted in the 

 room of the Omnipotent and Eternal God ; the 

 Bible was held up to ridicule, and committed to 

 the flames ; man was degraded to the level of 

 the brutes ; his mind was assimilated to a piece 

 of clay, and the cheering prospects of immortali 

 ty were transformed into the shades of an eternal 

 night. Atheism, Scepticism, and Fatalism, al 

 most universally prevailed ; the laws of morality 

 were trampled under foot ; and anarchy, plots, 

 assassinations, massacres, and legalized plunder, 

 became &quot; the order of the day.&quot; With the loss 

 of the knowledge of God, all impressions of the 

 Divine presence, and all sense of accountable- 

 ness for human actions, would be destroyed. The 

 restraints of religion, and the prospect of a future 

 judgment, would no longer deter from the com 

 mission of crimes ; and nothing but the dread 

 of the dungeon, the gibbet, or the rack, would 

 restrain mankind from the constant perpetration 

 of cruelty, injustice, and deeds of violence. No 

 social prayers, from assembled multitudes, would 

 be offered up to the Father of mercies ; no voice 

 of thanksgiving and praise would ascend to the 

 Ruler of the skies ; the work of creation, as 

 displaying the perfections of the Deity, would 

 cease to be admired and commemorated ; and 

 the movements of Providence, and the glories of 

 redemption, would be overlooked and disregard 

 ed. The pursuit of the objects of time and sense, 

 which can be enjoyed only for a few fleeting 

 years, would absorb every faculty of the soul ; 

 and the realities of the eternal world would 

 either be forgotten, or regarded as idle dreams. 

 In short, were the Sabbath abolished, or, were 

 the law which enforces its observance to be re 

 versed, man would be doomed to spend his mor 

 tal existence in an unbroken series of incessant 

 labour and toil ; his mental powers would lan 

 guish, and his bodily strength would be speedily 

 wasted. Habits of cleanliness, civility of deport 

 ment, and decency of apparel, would be disre 

 garded ; and the persons, and the habitations of 

 the labouring classes, would soon resemble the 

 filthiness and the wretched objects which are 

 seen in the kraal of a Hottentot. Their minds 

 would neither be cheered with the prospect of sea 

 sons of stated repose in this world, nor with the 

 hope of eternal rest and joy in the world to come. 



THE FIFTH COMMANDMENT. 



&quot; Honour thy Father and thy Mother.&quot; 

 The four preceding commandments, whose 

 Importance I have endeavoured to illustrate, were 

 written on a septral? tablet from those that follow, 

 27 



and have been generally considered as enjoin 

 ing the practice of piety, or those duties winch 

 more immediately respect God as their object. 

 But they also include the duties we owe to owr- 

 selves ; for in yielding obedience to these require 

 ments, we promote our best interests in this 

 world, and are gradually prepared for participa 

 ting in the enjoyments of the world to come. 

 These laws are binding upon angels and arch 

 angels, and upon every class of intelligent beings, 

 in whatever quarter of the universe their local 

 residence may be found, as well as upon the in 

 habitants of the earth. The fourth command 

 ment, indeed, in so far as regards the particular 

 portion of time to be set apart for the worship of 

 God, may possibly be peculiar to the inhabitants 

 of our world. Even although the inhabitants of 

 such a world as the planet Jupiter were com 

 manded to set apart every seventh natural day 

 for the stated public worship of God, the propor 

 tion of absolute time allotted for this purpose, 

 would not be the same as ours ; for the natural 

 day in that world is equal to only ten hours of 

 our time. But the spirit of this precept, or, the 

 principle on which it is founded, must be common 

 to all worlds . For we can conceive of no class 

 of intelligent creatures, on whom it is not obli 

 gatory to devote a certain portion of time for the 

 social worship and adoration of their Creator, 

 and for commemorating the displays of his 

 Power and Benevolence; and all holy intelli 

 gences will cheerfully join in such exercises, and 

 will consider it as a most ennobling and delight 

 ful privilege, to engage at stated seasons, along 

 with their fellow-worshippers, in admiring and 

 extolling the Uncreated Source of their enjoy 

 ments. But the stated seasons appointed by the 

 Creator for such solemn acts of worship, the 

 manner and circumstances in which they shall 

 be performed, and the number of worshippers that 

 may assemble on such occasions, may be diffe 

 rent in different worlds, according to the situa 

 tions in which they are placed. 



The fifth commandment, to which I am now to 

 advert, is one of those moral regulations which 

 may possibly be peculiar to the relations which 

 exist in our world ; at least, it cannot be suppo 

 sed to apply to the inhabitants of any world 

 where the relations of parents and children, of 

 superiors and inferiors, are altogether unknown. 

 But, in the circumstances in which man is plac 

 ed, it is a law indispensably requisite for pre 

 serving the order and happiness of the social 

 system. It requires the exercise of those dis 

 positions, and the performance of those duties, 

 which are incumbent upon mankind, in the va 

 rious relations in which they stand to each other. 

 It, consequently, includes within its spirit and 

 references, the duties which children owe to their 

 parents, and parents to their children ; the duties 

 of husbands and wives, of masters and servants, 

 of teachers and scholars, of brothers and sis- 



