628 PUBLIC WORSHIP. 



ways at hand, and the mind, worn out with one thing, turns to another, 

 and its physical excitement is followed by physical repose. 



By the enforcement of the observance of the Sabbath the Church gave 

 Influence of effect to this providential system of physical and mental re- 

 public worship. Ji e J have already said that her chief strength lay in this, 

 that she concerned herself with the common man, who never in the 

 world's history before had had any to watch over or to care for him. 

 She humanized him by the devotional solemnities of a sacred day a 

 day of entire relief from toil. Ignorant and rude though he might be, 

 it was not possible for him to enter her hoary temples without being 

 made a better man. The atmosphere of rest, the twilight streaming 

 through the painted windows, the prayer in an unknown tongue, the slow 

 chanting of old hymns, or the swelling forth of those noble strains of 

 music, which, once heard, are graven in remembrance forever these she 

 had made, with more than worldly wisdom, the elements or incidents of 

 public worship. She gratified the manly sense by asserting before her 

 altar the equality of all men, by making the vain and transitory grada- 

 tions of society disappear, and by teaching the rich and the poor, the 

 great and the humble, their common dependence on the mercy of God. 

 Under her powerful influence, inarticulate Nature, as if spellbound, seem- 

 ed to acquiesce in the tranquillity of the Sabbath day, and to assume 

 an air of rest. In the cottage they rose at a later hour. The father 

 cleansed himself with more than usual care, and, if it was the custom 

 of his country, shaved his face, perhaps sadly neglected in the interven- 

 ing week, and dressed himself in his better clothing. His honest pride 

 found a gratification in the neatness of his wife and children. His table 

 was more bountifully supplied, his heart humanized by the grateful re- 

 lief from labor, and the society and converse of those dearest to him. 

 Physically and mentally he rests, and by that rest is enabled to sustain 

 the cares of a life of toil. It is not without a reason which we may turn 

 to our profit, that the Scriptures have placed upon lasting record that 

 the Great Head of the Church has taught us both by precept and personal 

 example how to use this day ; and that, for the sake of the many gen- 

 erations of laboring and weary men who were to follow him, he inflexibly 

 resisted every attempt at encroachment upon it by the grim bigots and 

 hypocrites of his times. 



Though Kome did little for Europe in the production of knowledge, 

 The civil s ^ e ^ us serve< ^ * ts i n terests well in the most vital respects. 

 She gave it her system of law and her religion. With the 

 introduction of Roman usages among barbarians came the Roman law, 

 modifying or abrogating the existent imperfect polities. To a consider- 

 able extent, its spread was due to the influence of the ecclesiastics and 

 the wants of the rising municipalities. 



