milder than in the United States.) France once presented a fearful example of what a nation would be without a Sabbath.  The testimonies of Drs. Spurzheim and Rush were cited in confirmation; also that of a respectable merchant in New York, well known to the preacher, who, after the observation and experience of twenty-five years in that city, declared that of those who kept their counting-houses open on the Sabbath not one had escaped insolvency.  A poor boy was apprenticed to an apothecary in a large city.  To increase his wages and encourage his efforts, his master gave him a recipe and materials for making blacking on his own account.  The blacking was made, and placed in pots in the shop window; but day after day passed, and no purchaser appeared.  One Sunday morning, while the shop was open for medicine, before the hour of public service, a person came in, and asked for a pot of blacking.  The boy was in the very act of stretching out his hand to reach it, when he reflected it was the Lord’s-day.  Falteringly, he told the customer it was the Sabbath, and he could not do it.  After this the boy went to church.  The Tempter there teased him about his folly in losing a customer for his blacking:  the boy held in reply that he had done right, and, were the case to occur again, he would do just the same.  On Monday morning, as soon as he had taken down the shutters, a person came in, and bought every pot of blacking there was; and the boy found that, after deducting the cost of materials, he had cleared one dollar.  With more faith and fortitude than some of you possess (said the preacher), he went and took that dollar—­the first he had ever earned—­to the Bible Society.  That poor boy is still living, and is now a wealthy man.

The preacher said he knew a man, in his own native State of Tennessee, who on his arrival in America had nothing but a pocket Bible; but he made two resolutions,—­1st.  That he would honour the Sabbath; 2nd.  That he would remember his mother.  The first dollar he got he sent to her, and declared that he would never forget the Sabbath and his mother.  He also was now a wealthy man.

The punishment of Sabbath-breaking was sure, though not immediate.  Like the punishment of intemperance or impurity, it would come.  Here the celebrated testimony of Sir Matthew Hale was adduced.  Dr. Johnson’s rules respecting the Sabbath were read, with the observation that no doubt he owed much of his celebrity to their observance.  Wilberforce had declared that, at one period of his life, parliamentary duties were so heavy that he would certainly have sunk under them, had it not been for the rest the Sabbath afforded.  But the Sabbath was not merely a day of rest,—­it was a day for improvement.  Where there was no Sabbath, all was bad.  The inhabitants of Scotland and New England were distinguished for industry and mental vigour; and they were equally distinguished for observance of the Sabbath.  The universal observance of the same day was of great importance.  It guarded against neglect.  It told upon the ungodly, as was shown by an eloquent induction of circumstances,—­the shops closed—­the sound of the church-going bell—­the throngs of decent worshippers going to and fro, &c.