take away his property, and break his wife's heart, and beggar and starve his children. No; his object is only to get the man's money; and he does these things, because that seems to him the shortest way to secure his three cents. It is not, therefore, strictly correct to say, that he is a murderer.

Still, all the money he makes, is worse than taken dishonestly. It is the price of blood! Every dollar he receives, instead of being a certificate of the amount of good he has done, is a certificate of the misery and ruin he has spread around him. His coin should be inscribed, "This certifies that the bearer has made a man beat his wife." "This half dollar is a memorial of four nights of wretchedness, which were given to a whole family in exchange for it." "This bag of money certifies, that the possessor has sent two of his neighbors to the jail, and his wife and children to the poor-house." What money for a man to hold in his coffers! IT IS THE

PRICE OF BLOOD!

Observe now the difference between the different modes of making money. An honest carpenter, who spends ten years in a village, and carries away two thousand dollars of his earnings, actually leaves the village two thousand dollars richer than it would have been without him. You will see the barns and houses, and stores which he has erected, and which remain permanent memorials of his useful labors. The counterfeiter, who should carry away two thousand dollars of good money in exchange for his worthless bills, does no harm, but simply to carry off the money. The village is just two thousand dollars poorer, and no more. He benefits himself at least as much as he injures his neighbor. But the man who has made his two thousand dollars by selling rum,-why, for every dollar he gets himself, he does his customer fifty dollars worth of injury. Fifty dollars! Shall I estimate the destruction of soul and body, of wife and children, of character and life, in dollars? Oh, he does an injury, which cannot be estimated. The marks he leaves behind him are dilapidated dwellings,-miserable children,-widowed and broken-hearted mothers, and an impoverished neighborhood.

We had written exactly to this place, and had our papers actually before us on the table, when an event occurred, it is this moment over,-which we must stop to describe. It is a cold November evening, and we are writing in a dwelling, situated in one of the principal Places, in the city of New York, opening upon Broadway. While sitting thus, our attention is

arrested by a disturbance in the street ;-a cry of "Watch !" "Watch!" "Watch!" It draws nearer and nearer, and at length a confused sound of angry voices seems to arise from the side-walk below, very near the house. We open the window and look down to the pavement below.

The light of the city lamps reveals a small crowd of men and boys, pressing around the steps of the door; confused voices are heard, among which, however, are distinguished the tones of a female, who seems to have fled for refuge to a corner, made by the projecting steps; and, the vociferations of an intoxicated and angry man, who with the most awful oaths and imprecations, calls her to come out. He swears he will cut her down. She is his wife. He can prove it. She is his legal wife, and she has been abusing him, and tearing his clothes, and he will not submit to it. He'll die on the very spot, before he will leave it, till she comes out, and he cuts her down. These are his words, with the omission of the most awful oaths and blasphemies which tongue can utter.

The confusion and uproar increase, until the crowd break up, and move away, with loud vociferations, from various voices'; threats from the drunken husband; appeals of the terrified wife; and, "to the watch-house," "to the watch-house," from the officers of police. We shut the window, and returned to our fire, with a heart ready to sink at the guilt and miseries of

man.

And now, as we finish the description of this illustration of our subject, which Providence has thus almost miraculously sent to our very door, the wretched husband and wife have, probably, just about reached their place of confinement for the night; and, somewhere in this city, is the man, who, in counting up his gains for the day, finds a few cents, which he has received from this husband, and perhaps, father. For the sake of those few cents, he has made a night of misery, at least for two. He has sent a poison into a family, which has destroyed its peace, and driven the wretched wife away from her home, out into the streets, in the cold bleak wind of a November night, to seek, in some corner, a refuge from the murderous threats of her intoxicated husband! Oh, how can a human being be found, cruel and merciless enough to be willing to make money by selling rum?

THE SABBATH.

For the Magazine.

On a Sunday morning, a young lady at breakfast made this remark; "What a tedious day Sunday is." When I heard the exclamation, the painful thought rushed into my mind, that God was dishonored by it, and I could not but exclaim, "How entirely it condemns the religious character." As the lady was dear to me, I could not help revolving the subject in my mind, and asking such questions as these. "What is it that makes Sunday a tedious day? Do others feel it so?" As these, and many more inquiries presented themselves, while the subject occupied my thoughts, this conclusion seemed to me inevitable, -that the expression made by this individual was a common one, and that the feeling existed in many minds where the mouth did not utter the expression. I also felt, most powerfully, that the remark was self-condemning.

I propose, in a very brief way, to bring the light of Scripture to bear upon the subject.

Such a remark expresses such feelings as these "I have no taste for the occupations of Sunday. I cannot find employment for the day. How shall I kill the time?" And does it not express even more-is it not virtually to say-"I am at issue with God on the subject of the Sabbath-I have no taste for holiness. I am unprepared for an eternal Sabbath in heaven."

Before I proceed in an investigation of the subject, I will notice one or two circumstances, which lead me to conclude that a great many people find the Sabbath a very tedious day.

It may be observed that most families rise later on Sunday morning, and retire earlier on Sunday night than on other days. By thus shortening the day,-taking off a part at its commencement and its close, they plainly say, "What a tedious day Sunday is?"

Physicians generally observe that they cannot be admitted to the sick rooms of their patients so early on the Sabbath as on other days.

It may be seen that those circulating libraries which contain novels and books of high-wrought fiction, are open later, and are more thronged on Saturday night than at other times; and how careful a great many people are to provide, for reading on the Sabbath, some book which will strongly excite the imagination. Supposing that the object is to keep out serious thoughts, which might intrude themselves, must it not be con

cluded that they may exclaim, "What a tedious day Sunday is ?"

It may be noticed how readily a great many people catch at those amusements and recreations on Sunday, which the public do not prevent, or which public opinion may be considered as sanctioning. How many people ride on the Sabbath ;-how many go out on the water on excursions of pleasure, and even fish or shoot on Sunday, at watering places, where they think, they are unobserved. And how quick young people in the country avail themselves of sun-set to go abroad. They, indeed, seem to wish to interpose a hill, to intercept the sun's declining rays, that they may anticipate, a little their recreations. all such cases, (and they are very common) must we not consider the individuals as saying, "What a tedious day Sunday is?"

In

When the different branches of a family select the Sabbath to meet at one another's houses,--not for the purpose of devotion or religious instruction, but to dine or sup, does it not appear, from their conduct on such occasions, that while the ostensible object is to unite them in affection, the real design may be to strip the Sabbath of its tedium?

How listless and weary the members of some families are on the Sabbath! betraying by their countenances and manner the feeling," What a tedious day Sunday is." Some individuals who happen to be residing in pious families, steal away on Sunday, to spend it with their more worldly or fashionable friends. Do not all these and a great many other things, which any observer may notice, prove that there are a great many who might with truth exclaim, "What a tedious day Sunday is ?"

Now, all such persons, even if they are nominal Christians, do not accord with God on the subject of the Sabbath. Let us apply to his holy word, and find how the Sabbath is regarded by the Supreme Being.

When God had finished the creation, he looked with entire complacency upon the work of his hands. "And he rested on the seventh day from all his work" which he had made. "And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it; because that in it he had rested from all his work."

This is the institution of the Sabbath, showing that the day was given as a day of rest to man, as its name implies. Subsequently God says, "It is a sign between me and the children of Israel forever for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed." Ex. 31: 17. In reference to this perfect work, and the rest

which followed, Job says, "the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy." Job 38: 7. Thus the first Sabbath was begun by spiritual intelligences in heaven.

Let us now consider what is the nature of the rest for man implied by the Sabbath. We shall see from what God further says, in giving the Sabbath to man, that it is a day of rest with God, and not from God,-a day of rest in his service, and not from his service,-a day of rest from all bodily labor, and from all mental exertion, in things which do not immediately relate to God, a day in which, with sweet complacency, we may contemplate divine works, and, in view of their perfection, join the sons of God in singing praises and shouting aloud for joy. On this point, the Bible says,

"But the

"Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work." Ex. 20: 8. seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God in it thou shalt not do any work; thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thine ox, nor thine ass, nor any of thy cattle, nor the stranger that is within thy gates; that thy man-servant and thy maid-servant may rest as well as thou." Deut. 5: 14, 15. "The seventh day is the Sabbath of rest." In earing time, and in harvest thou shalt rest." Ex. 34: 21.

From all this, (and much more might be adduced) it is evident that the Sabbath is to be a day of rest from bodily labor; it is also clear, that it is to be a rest with God, devoted to his service.

'The seventh day there shall be to you an holy day, a Sabbath of rest to Lord." Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Ex. 20: 8. Verily my Sabbaths you shall keep, for it is a sign between me and you, throughout your generations, that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you. Ye shall keep the Sabbath, therefore, for it is holy unto you. Ex. 21: 13, 14.

God showed his own regard for the Sabbath day, by refusing to send manna to his children in the wilderness on the holy day: he, moreover, forbade the Israelites to kindle any fire on that day "throughout their habitations;" thus absolutely preventing any culinary preparations whatever. Ex. 31: 3. See also Numbers 15: 32, and the sequel.

When God states the occasion of his anger toward the Jews, and specifies their iniquities, he almost always includes the violation of the Sabbath, as if this sin was a prominent one in their lives, and peculiarly displeasing to him.

Thou hast despised mine holy things, and polluted my Sabbaths. Ezek. 22 8. They have defiled my sanctuary on the same day, and profaned my Sabbaths. Ezek. 23: 38. "They despised my judgments, and walked not in my statutes; but polluted my Sabbaths. Ezek. 20. Then I said, I would pour out my fury upon them. Ezek. 20: 27. Every one that defileth it, shall surely be put to death; for whosoever doeth any work therein, that soul shall be cut off from among his people. Six days may work be done,