Martinsburg Gazette And Public Advertiser

THE SABBATH.
From a Sermon by the Rev Gardiner Spring.

Ignorance and barbarism form no part of the character of men who revere the Lord's day. Carry the privileges of this day to the most abject on the Globe, and just in the proportion in which they are subjected to its influence, do you elevate them from their intellectual degradation. It addresses its obligations, and presents its privileges to all orders and classes of men—

Conceive then the great mass of the community, devoting one day in seven to the attainment of knowledge; one day in seven, searching the Holy Scriptures, and then appreciate the benefits of the Sabbath. It is obvious that temporal prosperity would be the natural result of the observance of the Sabbath; if it secured no other blessings than those to which we have already referred. But there are other particulars in which the tendencies of this day exert a most salutary influence on human society. The provisions which this day affords as a season of rest to the laboring animals, the rest and refreshment secured to mankind, the neatness and cleanliness it promotes, especially among the lower classes of men, the softness and civility of manners which it diffuses throughout a community, all these evince that the "Sabbath was made for man."

Blot out the Sabbath, and you blot out the last beam of hope from the troubled and desponding soul, and "darkness will cover the earth, and gross darkness, the people." To you who are Magistrates, and invested with authority permit me respectfully to say, the ordinance of God, and the voice of a free people, have elevated you to posts of dignity and power, that you may be the sentinels of public virtue. Never lose sight of this day. You cannot put yourself beyond the reach of hope and heaven, so long as you sanctify the Sabbath.