Cabinet of Things New and Old. THE LORD'S DAY. BY REV. J. N. DANFORTH. LET us so call it hereafter. It is altogether an appropriate designation. The public mind is waking up to promote its observance. A few thoughts here may be seasonable. "We never," says Dr. Chalmers, "in the whole course of our recollections, met with a Christian friend, who bore upon his character every other evidence of the Spirit's operation, who did not remember the sabbath day to keep it holy." This testimony is true. Here is an institution established by the law of Heaven. It completely adapts itself to the physical, intellectual, and moral nature of man. The great Expounder of the law declared that "the sabbath was made for MAN." This is the key to the whole matter. If for universal man—if no age, no generation of men be excepted, then, like redemption, it must necessarily be coeval with the existence of man. We should expect that such a law, being at all times necessary to man, would be enacted from the beginning, and duly published as the ordinance of Heaven. If rest for the body, repose for the intellect, and a pause for the improvement of our moral nature, be necessary at one time, they are at all times. The particular day for sabbath sanctification, as distributed into minutes and seconds, is not the main point. The very structure of the globe renders identity in time a natural impossibility. But the hallowed INSTITUTION-that is it: the holy, immutable, unrepealable law of God, which, equally with the other nine precepts of the Decalogue, is founded in the nature of God, and fitted to the nature of man-" And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it, because that in it he had rested from all his work, which God created and made." This law is just as requisite to men as the commandment, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart. Indeed, if any of the ten illustrious enactments of the government of God may claim a lofty precedence in the view of the human race, it is the fourth and the fifth, which enjoin-the one, honour to God, as the Lord of the sabbath; the other, honour to parents, as his representatives on earth. Both of them would be perfectly appropriate to man in his unfallen state, even amid the bloom and beauty of paradise, ere the sanctity of his nature had been defiled by the touch of sin, and the rampant corruptions of his heart and life had demanded that God should say in penal tones, Thou shalt not bow down to idols-not kill-not steal-not commit adultery. These precepts seem to have been framed to meet the monstrous developments of human depravity that had risen in the face of Heaven. But the sabbath, it smiled in paradise itself. Its bright sun gilded the innocence of man. Its gentle gales, in the language of Milton, "Fanning their odoriferous wing, dispensed Native perfumes, and whisper'd whence they stole The sabbath, with its twin sister MARRIAGE, dwelt within the gates of paradise before the cherubim and "double flaming sword" were assigned their awful ministry at those gates in consequence of the fall of them to whom these blessed institutions were given, but from whose posterity Heaven in its wrath did not withdraw them. That "perpetual fountain of domestic sweets" has never been dried up; that mysterious law, wedded love," has never ceased to operate; and thus these ancient, heaven-born blessings have survived the desolations of every age. As they were the first to be bestowed on the race of men, they will be the last to be withdrawn from them. Not until the last groan of expiring nature shall die upon the ear of listening worlds will their auspicious influence cease. When all "the people of God" shall have attained to that "rest that remaineth for them," and they shall have "become like unto the angels" in that pure world where "they shall die no more," as they shall no more "marry, nor be given in marriage,” then, and not till then, shall these institutions cease, for then only will their reason cease. Nothing can be clearer than that both these laws of Heaven are absolutely necessary to the peace, beauty, and order of society, and to the happiness of mankind; that, properly observed, they tend to promote the moral, intellectual, social, and spiritual improvement of those who are under the government of a holy God; that they are among the strongest safeguards of mental and moral purity; that he, therefore, who attempts to subvert their authority, or to impair their influence, strikes at the glory of God and at the happiness of his fellow-men, and thus declares himself an enemy to God and man. He would insult Heaven, and despoil earth-blot out the mercy of the one, and extinguish the hopes of the other. Combine these two ideas that came from God-the SABBATH and the FAMILY. Think of a sanctified sabbath in a pious family. It is an image-shaded, indeed of heaven: a sweet dawn blushing into a cloudless day. Domestic life has no beauty like that which a well spent sabbath sheds upon it; no fruits so fair as those that grow on this heavenly tree; no blessings so rich and pure and permanent as those which flow through this celestial channel. COVENANTING WITH GOD. "Another shall subscribe with his hand unto the Lord."-ISA. xliv. 5. EVERY intelligent reader of the Scriptures admires their various manner and form of instruction. These display the manifold wis dom of God. The fact is particularly remarkable in the modes of expression which he has employed by his inspired servants to convey his promises of blessings which should arise from their enjoyment. Look at that for the consolation of godly parents in answer to their prayers for the spiritual welfare of their children :-" I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground; I will pour my Spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring; and they shall spring up as among the grass, as willows by the watercourses. One shall say, I am the Lord's; and another shall call himself by the name of Jacob; and another shall subscribe with his hand unto the Lord, and surname himself by the name of Israel," Isa. xliv. 3—5. Thousands of the children of praying parents have thus been blessed, and have thus, relying on the atonement of Christ, been led to enter into covenant with God. The advantage of this practice may be illustrated from the "Memoir of Mrs. Harriet W. Winslow," wife of the Rev. Miron Winslow, an American missionary at Ceylon. She says, I "In the summer of 1808, when I was just twelve years of age, evening meetings were commenced by our pastor for one evening each week. They were at the different houses of the parishioners. Some time near the end of autumn, at a meeting in the evening, the 55th chapter of Isaiah was the subject of remark, especially the first two verses, "Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters," &c. Here I was, for the first time, overwhelmed by a consideration of the goodness of God in offering salvation to me. felt my need of such a Saviour as is provided in the gospel. According to the advice of Doddridge and Hawes, I privately dedicated myself to God, in a written form, resolving to be his, and his for ever. I seemed to receive a blessing in the act, and was greatly encouraged to persevere. Our house was filled with company; and sometimes I could not find a retired spot except in the garret, which often witnessed my importunity with God. My parents, not then professedly pious, and knowing little of my feelings, said nothing, but in their treatment carefully avoided hindering the work of God. No one spoke to me with any particularity, and I felt no freedom to speak to any one; so that I had no counsellor, no guide, but the Bible and the Holy Spirit.' During the period of twenty-five years this admirable woman adorned the doctrine of God her Saviour according to this covenant which she "subscribed with her hand unto the Lord." She died, it appears, of cholera, at six o'clock on Monday morning, January 14, 1833, after being able to attend public worship, both forenoon and afternoon, on the Sunday. "On Saturday evening," says her husband, "she expressed her feelings in her diary, and on sabbath noon renewed her covenant with God-a covenant made twenty-five years ago. This was her finishing work. It was the last time she signed her name!" She was in mourning for her son Charles, who died, as she had lately heard, about three weeks after landing at New York, aged eleven years. Mrs. Winslow's entry in her diary is as follows:-" January 12th, 1833. My time for writing is nearly gone, at least for the present; and my dear Charles's birth-day reminds me that I owe it to the Lord for his merciful affliction to say more than I have of what I hope it has done for me. I have even thought at times, that, had I appeared before him previous to this stroke, I should have had my portion with hypocrites and unbelievers. I have thought, Is it possible that, after so long a life of profession, after many unspeakably precious seasons at the throne of grace, after so long feeling assured that my poor prayers were heard and answered, after experiencing in many trials that good is the will of the Lord,' and rejoicing to have him rule and reign; and after hours, weeks, and months of bitter agony and abhorrence of myself on account of sin, and counting the holiness of heaven more to be desired than all the world can offer a hundred times told,—after all, have I never submitted to Jesus as my Lord and Saviour?-never before embraced the gospel as a little child?-never come unto Jesus so as to be saved? Oh, can it be! And yet, sure I am, that I never before saw the Saviour so lovely, so desirable-never considered, as now, the length, and breadth, and height, and depth of that love which passeth knowledge; the value of that fountain which is set open for sin and uncleanness-never saw the whole plan of salvation so perfect, so wonderful-never with such feelings could say, 'My Lord, and my God.' And while this view of the subject has seemed greatly to endear the fond object whose removal has been the means, I have been thankful that the Lord did not wholly forsake me. Oh! I bless him for this chastisement, and long that it should bring forth more fruit. Sometimes heaven has seemed very near, and as though it would be easy to die. At other times I have had less confidence, and more fear whether all is yet right between me and my God. Should I now be called from my little family, from my dear husband, O my Saviour, let me rest in thine arms! Carry me all over the Jordan through. Oh be with me, even as I cannot ask or think! Support, sustain my sinking feet. Oh uphold me! Be thou my Saviour in that dark hour; and do thou most graciously bless my dear, dear husband. Uphold him with thine everlasting arms. My dear babes! Oh may they be thine, thine only, and that for ever. O my Saviour, enable me this night to give myself unto and do thou receive me in that well-ordered covenant which thou didst die to secure." thee; She was interrupted, and did not finish this record of her devotion to her Redeemer, but left it thus to enter into the joy of her Lord! KINDNESS TO SERVANTS. SIR, AS the stream of your Christian philanthropy flows in a thousand channels, visiting and benefiting even the most neglected, do you not think that a word might be fitly spoken to heads of families on the wisdom of recommending true religion by their instruction and example to servants? I heard of a master, having returned from a church-meeting where a servant, amongst others, had been proposed, when his household assembled for devotion, kindly addressing the servant, observing how much he would have rejoiced had her name been mentioned, presenting to her "The Anxious Inquirer," and praying affectionately for her in the family. She read, and thought, and prayed as directed; was encouraged to visit her minister; and became, it is hoped, a humble Christian. She was young, and an orphan; but she now found a Father and Protector in God. When visited as a candidate, she said the friendly appeal of her master, with the consistent example and Christian solicitude of the family for her, had been the means of forming her character. A family, known to me, settling in a neglected village, on receiving into it a quiet country girl, employed their efforts much as in the former case for her instruction and conversion, and with the like success. She is now a member of the church, the eldest of seven or eight children. Her influence is wonderful with her relatives, and exerted with simple earnestness for their good. How amply the family employing her is repaid! How well worth while to every Christian family, by thus doing their duty, to have the benefit of the respect, the devotedness, the principle, shown by this grateful domestic! as On visiting a gentleman one evening, and remarking to him the apparent happiness and intelligence of the servant-man who waited, he said, "When I first engaged that man groom, he was so truly clownish as to appear almost without intellect. I conversed with him, instructed him, brought him under religious training, encouraged the study of his Bible. His mind suddenly started into activity, as it were, for the first time. He was, indeed, a new man; became thoughtful, began to love our family-worship, and pray for himself. He is truly devoted to his employers, is now a confidential servant, and useful member of the church." The truth of this was delightfully proved afterwards on attending the social prayer-meeting, and hearing his humble, scriptural, fervent supplications; and his zeal, I am told, is remarkable in winning others to the way of holiness. O how much have we yet to learn of our duty and interest on this subject! This is beginning at home; and who shall say how much it depends on servants what children are; or how truly the piety of a servant forms a fountain of blessings not only to a family, but, through it, to generations to follow? But such thoughts are |