THE SABBATH DAY. 627 



Out of the numberless blessings which have thus been conferred on our 

 race by the Church, the physiologist may be permitted to se- The Sabbath 

 lect one for remark, which, in an eminent manner, has con- da ^- 

 duced to our physical and moral well-being. It is the institution of the 

 Sabbath day. Not that this originated with, or is peculiar to the Chris- 

 tian faith, since, as is known to all, it dates from the remotest times, and 

 was directly adopted from the Hebrew ceremonial. Its sanctification and 

 enforcement by the Church was at once an object important in the high- 

 est degree in ecclesiastical polity, and a boon to all classes of men ; for 

 in whatever position of life we may be placed, it is needful for us to have 

 an opportunity of rest. No man can for any length of time pursue one 

 avocation or one train of thought without mental, and, therefore, bodily 

 injury nay, without insanity. The constitution of the brain is such 

 that it must have its time of repose. Periodicity is stamped Necessity of 

 upon it. Nor is it enough that it is awake and in action by P eri <> d sofrest. 

 day, and in the silence of night obtains rest and repair; that same perio- 

 dicity which belongs to it as a whole, belongs to all its constituent parts. 

 One portion of it can not be called into incessant activity without the 

 risk of injury. Its different regions, devoted to different functions, must 

 have their separate times of rest. The excitement of one part must be 

 coincident with a pause in the action of another. It is not possible for 

 mental equilibrium to be maintained with one idea, or one monotonous 

 mode of life. There is a necessity even for men of great intellectual en- 

 dowments, whose minds are often strained to the utmost, to fall back on 

 other pursuits, and thus it will always be that one seeks refuge in the 

 pleasures of quiet country life, another in foreign travel, another in social 

 amusements. Pitt sought a relaxation from the cares of politics in the 

 excitement of the chase ; Davy found a relief and consolation in the rod 

 and line ; and among men whose lot is cast in the lowliest condition, whose 

 hard destiny it is to spend their whole lives in the pursuit of their daily 

 bread, with one train of thought and one unvarying course of events, the 

 same principle imperiously applies. It is often said that the pleasures 

 of religion are wholly prospective, and to be realized only in another 

 world ; but in this there is a mistake, for those consolations commence 

 even here, and temper the bitterness of fate. The virtuous laborer, though 

 he may be ground down with the oppressions of his social condition, is 

 not without his relief: at the anvil, the loom, or even the bottom of the 

 mine, he is leading a double existence the miseries of the body find a 

 contrast in the calm of the soul, the warfare without is compensated by 

 the peace within, the dark night of life here serves only to brighten the 

 glories of the prospect beyond. Hope is the daughter of Despair. And 

 thus a kind Providence so overrules events that it matters not in what 

 station we may be, wealthy or poor, intellectual or lowly, a refuge is al- 



