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 " The Sundays of man's life, 
 Threaded together on Time's string, 
 Make bracelets to adorn the wife 
 Of the eternal glorious King. 
 On Sundays heaven's door stands ope, 
 Blessings are plentiful and rife, 
 
 More plentiful than hope." 
 
 GEORGE HERBERT. 
 

THE 
 
 PEARL OF DAYS: 
 
 THE ADVANTAGES OF THE SABBATH TO 
 THE WORKING- CLASSES 
 
 BY A LABOURER'S DAUGHTER. 
 
 WITH A SKETCH OF THE AUTHOR'S LIFE, BY HERSELF, 
 
 feg an Apttican 
 
 4 NEW-YORK: 
 
 EDWARD H. FLETCHER, 141 NASSAU STREET. 
 
 M DCCC L. 
 
GIFT 
 
 
TO THE 
 
 t ISxcdtot 
 
 MADAM 
 
 Humble as is this tribute of loyalty, it is not 
 without significance. No sovereign ever presented 
 stronger claims to the love and allegiance of her 
 industrious subjects ; and it tells how happy is our 
 Constitution, and how condescending is our Monarch, 
 that pages written by a labourer's daughter should find 
 a Patron in the Queen. 
 
 221 
 
vni 
 
 Nor will the Tract itself be without its interest to 
 
 your Majesty, to whose Royal Halls such glory is 
 
 added by the piety, virtue, and domestic affections so 
 often found in Britain's lowliest homes. 
 
 This Tract discusses the Temporal Advantages of 
 the Sabbath Day. The same topic has recently en- 
 gaged the pens of nearly a thousand working men. And 
 it is not the least advantage of the Lord's day, that every 
 labourer who learns to keep it holy is another peaceful 
 citizen gained to the community, and another added to 
 those best subjects who, hi their weekly assemblies, 
 pray, GOD SAVE THE QUEEN. 
 
 I have the honour to be 
 
 Your Majesty's 
 Most obedient and very humble Servant, 
 
 THE PROPOSER OF THE ESSAY. 
 JULY, 1848. 
 
PREFACE TO THE AMERICAN EDITION. 
 
 HAVE been requested by the publisher 
 to introduce this little volume to the 
 notice of American readers. " THE 
 PEARL OF DAYS ; The Advantages of the 
 Sabbath to the Working Classes. By a 
 Labourer's Daughter." How much is expressed 
 in such a title-page ! Does the book realize 
 the hopes which at once suggest themselves 
 to the intelligent and benevolent mind ? 
 
 To do this, the book should indicate on the part of the 
 author a degree of cultivation not usual in her sphere of 
 life, and attest this cultivation as the fruit of proper Sab- 
 bath observance. And such cannot fail to be the results 
 to which every reader will arrive. These pages will 
 reveal a mind of singular discipline and acuteness, of 
 large observation and much philosophical power, a 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 heart imbued with sentiments of devout and cheerful 
 piety, contented with its lot on earth, and looking for its 
 better inheritance in heaven ; and all these in necessary 
 connection with a domestic training, hi which a labour- 
 ing man's cottage illustrates the true idfea of the Chris- 
 tian Sabbath. 
 
 I commend the " Pearl of Days" to readers of every 
 class, but particularly I commend it 
 
 I. To PARENTS. To them its Sketch of the Author's 
 Life will exhibit hints and illustrations pertaining to 
 domestic discipline and happiness, such as convince by 
 their wisdom, and win by their beauty, such as adapt 
 themselves equally to the homes of princes and peasants, 
 and indicate the true methods of training children for any 
 grade of life in which their lot may be cast. 
 
 II. To THE FRIENDS OF SOCIAL PROGRESS. The evils 
 of society have awakened the sympathy of the benevo- 
 lent. The best methods of removing them, especially of 
 removing such as oppress the working classes, are sub- 
 jects which everywhere task the thoughts of the wise 
 and good. Let all such sit at the feet of the Labourer's 
 Daughter. She has received wisdom at the feet of 
 Christ. She teaches the true social regeneration. Phi- 
 
PREFACE. XI 
 
 losophers, economists, statesmen, can develop no theories 
 of progress so certainly promising and assuring virtue, 
 order, industry, plenty, concord, happiness. 
 
 III. To THE WORKING CLASSES THEMSELVES. In 
 America, more than in any other land on earth, the work- 
 ing classes may work out for themselves an honourable 
 destiny. To a wide extent, these classes are conscious 
 of their opportunities Many a mother in the hut of 
 poverty presses her child to her heart, and anticipates for 
 him a sphere of life higher than her own. How shall she 
 place his feet in the path which leads to it ? This ques- 
 tion starts in her thoughts a thousand times. Here she 
 may solve it. Asking a higher destiny, the working 
 classes cry, " Who will show us any good ?" And 
 responses come back to them in numberless forms, one 
 telling them that their rise in the social scale is to be 
 secured by the triumph of a political party, or by the 
 success of certain measures of public policy, another 
 bidding them seek relief in " Unions" for the regulation 
 of the wages of labour, and for mutual protection against 
 the oppressions of employers and another declaring that 
 their depression is the fruit of a false social organization, 
 and will find its remedy in the schemes of " Association." 
 But these are not responses of wisdom and truth. The 
 
Xll PREFACE. 
 
 labouring classes must work out their own rise, through 
 their own intelligence and virtue. Intelligent and virtu- 
 ous, they will command respect ; they will be neither the 
 dupes of the designing, nor the slaves of the tyrannicaL 
 On these points they will find this little volume, from one 
 of their own class, full of counsels gathered from the 
 source of all truth. Let them ponder thoughtfully its 
 pages. 
 
 I need not explain the occasion of the publication of 
 this Essay in England. That is sufficiently explained in 
 the Introduction which follows. It has had a large circu- 
 lation in that country, under the patronage of the great 
 and good, and dedicated, by her own cheerful pel-mission, 
 to the excellent woman who sits upon the British throne, 
 and exalts her lofty position by her exemplary piety. I 
 cannot doubt that the Essay will be equally acceptable 
 on this side of the water, and as fruitful in beneficent 
 influences. 
 
 New York, Nov. 15 1848. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 HE circumstances out of 
 which the following Es- 
 say, with its accompany- 
 ing Sketch of the Author's 
 Life, originated, are as remarkable 
 as they are deeply interesting and 
 hopeful. Jealous for the honour of 
 God's Sabbath, which men of the 
 world were periling jealous for the privi- 
 leges to man conferred by the Sabbath 
 jealous for the labouring man, whose feel- 
 ings respecting the Sabbath were often 
 misrepresented to his disadvantage, a 
 layman resolved to afford an opportunity 
 for the working classes to speak their 
 own mind freely on the matter, and to 
 
14 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 bear their testimony to the blessings and 
 privileges of the day, and thereby to the 
 glory of God, the author and giver of it. 
 With these views, he put forth a propo- 
 sal, about the end of the year 1847, 
 offering three prizes of 25, 15, and 
 10, respectively for the three best 
 Essays on the subject, written by labour- 
 ing men. Although this is the first 
 instance upon record of persons of that 
 class being invited to become competitors 
 in literature, and for literary honours ; 
 and although comparatively a very brief 
 time was allowed for preparing and send- 
 ing in the Essays, yet three months 
 the first three of the year 1848 sufficed 
 to produce the astonishing number of 
 more than nine hundred and fifty compo- 
 sitions, manifesting by the single fact, 
 without reference to the merits of these 
 productions, the wide-spread interest and 
 deeply-rooted principles with which the 
 
INTRODUCTION. 15 
 
 holy day of God is reverenced, loved, 
 and honoured, by the labouring people. 
 
 Amongst the Essays received was one 
 from a female, accompanied by a letter, 
 which will be found at the conclusion of 
 this Introduction, and which the reader 
 will peruse with interest, as indicating 
 the habitual tone of Divine and filial 
 piety which pervades the mind of the 
 writer. The Essay itself was found to 
 be correspondent in tone and spirit with 
 the letter. It is, indeed, a composition 
 of no ordinary kind, whether we regard 
 the source from whence it came, the 
 instructive matter it contains, or the man- 
 ner in which the materials are worked 
 up in the composition, and the diction in 
 which they are expressed. The Adju- 
 dicators, although, in faithfulness to the 
 other competitors, constrained to lay it 
 aside, as the work of a female, yet felt 
 at the same time that it w T as a production 
 
16 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 which ought not to be withheld from the 
 world, and that it was a duty as much to 
 humanity as to the talented writer her- 
 self, not to suffer it to return to privacy 
 and forgetfulness. It was, therefore, pro- 
 posed to her to allow of its publication, 
 independently of the forthcoming Prize 
 Essays when adjudged, and she was 
 requested, at the same time, to write a 
 sketch of her life to prefix to the Essay 
 when published. In both of these propo- 
 sals she willingly acquiesced; and the 
 reader has before him two equally re- 
 markable and interesting compositions, 
 the Essay and the Sketch.^ 
 
 To an ordinary mind the preparation 
 of the latter would have been even more 
 difficult than the former. Here was the 
 
 * It may be proper to state, that in preparing the Essay and 
 Sketch for publication, no liberty has been taken with the 
 author's composition, further than to render the language cor- 
 rect. For the satisfaction of any persons who may wish to see 
 the manuscript, it can be inspected" at the publishers. ED. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 17 
 
 opportunity for and danger of egotism. 
 But here also was the opportunity for 
 the exhibition and proof of real talent, 
 and of genuine piety. To sink self, and 
 to elevate principles, should be the sole 
 object of autobiography. To effect this 
 in a sketch is even more difficult than in 
 a tale of life. It requires the hand of a 
 master to give off with the pencil those 
 few but telling touches that convert sur- 
 face into substance, and place on the 
 blank void forms of life, and grace, and 
 comeliness. And no less talent does it 
 demand to portray in words those truthful 
 and instructive scenes which the homes 
 of the godly present, amid which our 
 authoress lived and was nourished, and of 
 which it may justly be said that she is 
 herself one of their noblest ornaments. 
 
 Our authoress has learned by experi- 
 ence, and has ably developed in her 
 sketch, some of the most useful and valu- 
 
 2* 
 
18 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 able lessons of life. One of these is 
 beautifully and powerfully given in the 
 following words : " How often are oppor- 
 tunities of doing small acts of kindness 
 and usefulness let slip, while we are 
 sighing over our narrow sphere and our 
 limited means of serving God or bene- 
 fiting man !" Would it not be a mel- 
 ancholy and unwholesome sentimentality 
 that should sit down and lament over 
 itself as having no space capacious enough 
 for its designs, and no arena worthy of 
 its visions, instead of contenting itself 
 with the many common opportunities of 
 doing good which every-day life sup- 
 plies ? It may sound, indeed, well to 
 sigh over oneself in such circumstances, 
 
 " Full many a flower is born to blush unseen, 
 And waste its sweetness on the desert air ;" 
 
 and, by appropriating the idea to our 
 own condition, hug ourselves with the 
 
INTRODUCTION. 19 
 
 fancy that we would, if we might, make 
 ourselves widely useful in our genera- 
 tion ; but far nobler, surely, and far more 
 worthy of our imitation, is the devout 
 and holy thought expressed in' the fol- 
 lowing stanza : 
 
 " The trivial round, the common task, 
 Should furnish all we ought to ask ; 
 Room to deny ourselves ; a road 
 To bring us, daily, nearer God." 
 
 How admirably are brought out, in 
 every part of this Sketch, some of those 
 lessons most profitable for the wife and 
 the mother to practise ! What a valua- 
 ble one, for example, is this ! My 
 mother "used to say that it was disa- 
 greeable and improper to be bustling 
 about while father was within ; and when 
 he was gone out, the work must be done 
 up." Oh that wives and mothers under- 
 stood and practised this wisely and well ! 
 What different scenes would the cot- 
 
20 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 tager's home present if they did ! How 
 many a man would be saved from the 
 alehouse firesfde, where comfort and con- 
 venience are studied to seduce him into 
 sin, if wives and mothers would but so 
 order their households that when the 
 father returns his coming shall be wel- 
 comed by cleanliness and peace, and his 
 home shall be made to him the most 
 blessed and grateful place that he can 
 find! 
 
 What a beautiful family picture is this 
 whole Sketch ! No wonder that our au- 
 thoress is capable of being such a daugh- 
 ter, when she has had such a mother to 
 instruct her. Think, reader, of the child 
 repeating her lessons beside the wash- 
 tub, and gleaning the rudiments of learn- 
 ing in so simple a school, and from such 
 a preceptor ; and then turn to the pages 
 of this Sketch and Essay, and as you 
 read, and admire, and wonder, as you 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 must, adore humbly as you ought, and 
 exclaim, What hath God wrought ! It is 
 His work. It is the edifying effect and 
 power of His grace. To Him be all the 
 glory and the praise ! 
 
 LETTER REFERRED TO IN PAGE 15. 
 
 " SIR, I have thought it unnecessary to inquire 
 whether a female might be permitted to enter among the 
 competitors for the prizes offered in your advertisement. 
 The subject of the Essay is of equal interest to woman as 
 to man ; and this being the case, I have looked upon your 
 restriction as merely confining this effort to the working 
 classes. Whether I judge rightly or not, matters but 
 little ; the effort I have made to gather a few thoughts 
 together upon this subject will at least be of use to my- 
 self; and should you consider these sheets as contain- 
 ing any thoughts of value, they are at your disposal. 
 They .cannot be expectetl to be free from errors, both in 
 diction and orthography, as this is the first effort of the 
 kind I have ever made ; and I may say I am one of those 
 who never enjoyed the advantage of attending school in 
 early days, except for two years, or rather for one ; for 
 it was but for two years that one of my sisters and myself 
 attended a sewing-school alternately ; one of us remain- 
 
22 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 ing at home one week, to assist mother with household 
 labour, or in attending to the younger children, and going 
 to school next week, while the other remained at home. 
 Since that time I have been constantly occupied hi house- 
 hold labour, either in my father's house, or as a servant in 
 other families ; and thus I may truly say, that all the 
 education I have enjoyed, was received at the fireside of 
 hard-working parents. While memoiy lasts I shall never 
 forget the indefatigable exertions of our beloved mother 
 to impart intelligence to our minds, and implant moral 
 principle in her children. How we used to enjoy our 
 Sabbaths ! When our father bent his knees, with his 
 children around, on the morning of the Lord's day, how 
 fervently he used to thank the Father of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ for its blessed hours ! That father is gone from 
 among his children ; but his voice yet falls upon my ear, 
 and his form yet rises before my eye, as upon the first 
 day of the week he used to read to us the sacred page, 
 and lead our devotions." 
 

 fofofr of % Inters life. 
 
I 
 
SKETCH OF THE AUTHOR'S LIFE. 
 
 fHE following sketch of my past history, 
 which, at your request, I furnish, can 
 be of little interest or value, any farther 
 than perhaps leading the minds of Christian 
 parents properly to estimate the import- 
 ance of the duties devolving upon them, 
 and begetting a higher appreciation of the 
 value of the weekly rest, as affording an 
 opportunity to all Christians, however poor 
 their circumstances, or laborious their em- 
 ployment, of imparting instruction to their 
 offspring. It may tend also to show that 
 no Christian mother, with the Bible in her 
 hand, and possessing the power of reading 
 and understanding the blessed truths it 
 reveals, can plead excuse if she allow her 
 children to grow up in ignorance of those 
 truths, the knowledge of which would lead 
 them in safety and happiness through all 
 the temptations to which youth is exposed 
 in this world of folly and wickedness. 
 
 3 
 
26 SKETCH OF THE 
 
 If she properly estimates the importance 
 of the blessings imparted by the knowledge 
 of God,. and really feels the power of the 
 love of God in her own heart, poverty may 
 surround her, the pressure of domestic cares 
 may lie heavily upon her, or she may be 
 engaged in the most menial and laborious 
 employment, but, in the midst of all this, 
 she will find opportunity to awaken and 
 enlighten the young minds of her offspring. 
 It is the duty of Christian parents, in what- 
 ever situation in life, to train up their chil- 
 dren in the nurture and admonition of the 
 Lord ; and it is a duty which they can 
 entrust to no one else without a direct vio- 
 lation of the command of their Saviour, and 
 incurring a fearful risk as regards the well- 
 being of their children. 
 
 Is it not a strange sight, to see a Christian 
 parent so deeply involved in business, so 
 engrossed with the cares of this life, or so 
 occupied with other matters, however impor- 
 tant, that he is compelled to entrust the 
 moral and religious training of his children 
 
AUTHOR'S LIFE. 27 
 
 to a hireling ? a preacher so much engaged 
 in proclaiming the Gospel to sinners in the 
 world, that he has no time to lead his own 
 little ones to the feet of Jesus ? a father 
 so occupied with the improvement of his 
 neighbours, with Sabbath-schools, prayer 
 and class meetings, or evening lectures and 
 sermons, that he has no leisure to lead, in 
 proper season, the devotions of his own 
 little circle at home ? Such a man substi- 
 tutes his own way for the will of God ; and, 
 in so far as he does so, the consequences 
 will be seen in the future character of his 
 children; and even he himself will suffer 
 loss in the health of his own soul. 
 
 Parents, with the Bible in their hands, 
 and the word of God hidden in their hearts, 
 having the blessed hours of Sabbath rest as 
 their birthright, however humble their cir- 
 cumstances or toilsome their life, can never 
 be entirely destitute of an opportunity for 
 training and instructing their offspring. 
 
 In glancing back on the years of child- 
 hood, and tracing the influences which have 
 
28 SKETCH OF THE 
 
 surrounded me through youth, I am convin- 
 ced, that, in so far as my mind has been 
 awakened to intelligence, and my character 
 formed to virtue, under God, I owe all to 
 my parents, but especially to my mother : 
 her earnest and indefatigable exertions, in 
 the face of difficulties which would have 
 deterred any common mind from attempting 
 such a task, together with her ceaseless 
 watchfulness, secured for us such an amount 
 of knowledge, and formed in us such habits, 
 as raised us above the temptations which 
 usually beset youth in the humble walks of 
 life. While the constant necessity existed, 
 as soon as we were able to do anything 
 for all our exertions toward the support of 
 the family allowed us little time to cultivate 
 acquaintances, whether injurious or benefi- 
 cial our mother's constant endeavour was, 
 even through the very early years of child- 
 hood, to keep our hands and heads fully 
 employed. 
 
 Memory carries me back to a period when 
 my parents, with five little ones around them, 
 
AUTHOR'S LIFE. 29 
 
 tenanted an obscure garret in the outskirts 
 of one of the principal towns of Scotland. 
 By some of those vicissitudes common to 
 all, my father was, at this time, out of 
 employment ; hardships were endured, 
 pinching want sometimes visited their fire- 
 side. Of these things I have heard, but 
 have no recollection of them, as I could not 
 then be much more than four years old. 
 Yet a shadowy vision sometimes rises before 
 me of a broad paved street, along which I 
 was running on before our father in joyful 
 haste, that I might be the first to apprise 
 mother that the meeting was dismissed ? 
 but as to whether the place of assembly we 
 had just left was an upper chamber where 
 a handful of disciples met together, or a 
 large and fashionable edifice, memory sup- 
 plies nothing. A dim dreary scene, too, 
 sometimes passes before me of some back 
 yard or lane where* I was standing with my 
 hand in my father's, gazing with childish 
 delight, and, at the same time, with a feel- 
 ing of awe and admiration, upon the starry 
 
30 SKETCH OF THE 
 
 heavens. I know not what, at that moment, 
 led my eye to the bright scene over head ; 
 nor yet what fixed these two incidents of 
 my childhood so indelibly upon my memory, 
 for they are associated, in my mind, with 
 nothing particular of which I ever heard any 
 one speak ; but they are almost the only 
 recollections I have of the short time spent 
 in this place. 
 
 I think that before this time I must have 
 been pretty far advanced in reading, as I 
 have no remembrance of ever learning, or 
 having any difficulty with common books. 
 Our father, at the time alluded to, was 
 exerting himself to find a settled situation 
 as a gardener, and, in the mean time, taking 
 whatever work he could get in the small 
 gardens in the neighbourhood. He was 
 soon noticed as an active and tasteful gar- 
 dener, and received into the employment 
 of a gentleman whose property lay in that 
 part of Scotland known by the name of 
 Strathmore, or " the great valley." 
 
 The dwelling we now entered was very 
 
AUTHOR'S LIFE. 31 
 
 pleasantly situated near a river called the 
 South Esk, which flows through that part of 
 the country. Between it and the high-way 
 was a large field, with a belt of trees on the 
 side next the house ; on the other side lay 
 the garden ; while beneath the garden, 
 stretching .to the river, was what we used 
 to call the haugh, a flat little meadow. 
 
 Our dwelling in appearance was not 
 unlike one of those houses which are ten- 
 anted by farmers in the south-east of Scot- 
 land. Its dimensions, its blue slated roof, 
 and its smooth grass plot, encircled with a 
 gravel walk before the door, bespoke it 
 the abode, if not of affluence, at least of 
 competence. It had not, when planned, 
 been intended as the abode of a servant, 
 but as a residence for the proprietor's 
 mother, who having been removed by 
 death, we were permitted to occupy it. 
 Had the reader visited that spot in the 
 spring of the year, when the young planta- 
 tions were arrayed in bright green, the 
 music of wild birds welcoming the morning, 
 
32 SKETCH OF THE 
 
 while the cowslip, the meadow-crocus, and 
 the primrose studded the banks, and the 
 butter-ball, the wild geranium, and num- 
 berless flowers besides, were shooting up 
 amid the tangled maze of yellow whins and 
 broom, wild rose, and scented sweet brier, 
 which covered that little haugh; or had he 
 sauntered down to the river, walked along 
 the pebbles on its shore, and seen the little 
 trout sparkling in the sunbeam as it leaped 
 at the insects that sported upon the surface 
 of the water, he would have called it a 
 pleasant dwelling-place. It was indeed a 
 sunny spot, and the gay children who used 
 to ramble at will amid its beauties, were 
 as happy a little band as could have been 
 found. 
 
 Yet, freely though they wandered among 
 the surrounding pleasure grounds, they were 
 carefully taught to avoid putting their foot 
 in an improper place, or setting forth a hand 
 to injure shrub or tree ; and this in itself 
 was calculated to form and strengthen in us 
 a hAbit of self-restraint. Even in infancy 
 
AUTHOR'S LIFE. 33 
 
 our parents began our moral training ; a 
 prompt and cheerful submission to parental 
 authority was the first habit they sought 
 to form ; and this once accomplished, the 
 instruction and training of youth are com- 
 paratively easy. As soon as we became 
 capable of understanding the reasons which 
 influenced them in their conduct towards 
 us, we were taught that our parents were 
 the guardians placed over us by our Cre- 
 ator, in his kind care for our welfare, and 
 that it was his will, that to them we should 
 in all things cheerfully submit ourselves 
 without hesitation or murmuring. 
 
 I have often thought, when I have seen chil- 
 dren allowed to demand a reason for every 
 trifling order, numerous reasons and excuses 
 having to be discussed, and thus a long alter- 
 cation entered into between parent and child, 
 in the shape of reasoning, before a lesson could 
 be attended to, or the most trivial command 
 obeyed, what an incalculable amount of evil 
 is done to children by such treatment ! 
 Not only is time wasted, but self-will is 
 
34 SKETCH OF THE 
 
 fostered, and a habit of tardy performance 
 of duty induced. 
 
 Few parents seem to comprehend how 
 soon even a very young child may be made 
 to understand such language as this : God, 
 who lives in heaven, made us all ; he gave 
 mother her little son that I might take care 
 of him, be kind to him, and teach him to be 
 good. He says little children must obey 
 father and mother, and he would be angry 
 with me and punish me if I allowed my boy 
 to be naughty and disobedient. Such lan- 
 guage firmly and kindly spoken by a parent, 
 even to a very young child, and steadily 
 and consistently acted upon, will very soon 
 subdue the self-will of the most wayward, 
 and thus render future training easy to both 
 parent and child. 
 
 Such was, in principle, the training to 
 which we were subjected in our early years. 
 Obedience immediate, cheerful obedience, 
 and the strictest regard to truth, lay at the 
 foundation of all our other training. A 
 thousand little follies, mistakes, and even 
 
AUTHOR'S LIFE. 35 
 
 graver faults might be passed over, but dis- 
 obedience and falsehood were unpardonable. 
 Yet there was nothing of sternness or sever- 
 ity in the conduct of our parents towards us. 
 Perhaps no mother ever lavished more fond 
 caresses upon her children, or exerted her- 
 self more to make their time pass happily, 
 and no father was ever more anxious to 
 secure the comfort and happiness of his 
 family. 
 
 Pleasantly did the days and hours pass 
 over us, during our residence in this seclu- 
 ded spot : ther v e was no school within reach, 
 and if there had, our father's small income 
 would not have allowed our education to be 
 paid for, without greatly diminishing the 
 comforts of the family ; therefore, it had to be 
 attended to at home. One by one, we used 
 to take our place beside our mother, read a 
 short lesson, have the larger words explain- 
 ed to us, when our mother would take the 
 book and read it over again slowly and dis- 
 tinctly, that we might the better understand 
 what we had been reading ; and then we 
 
36 SKETCH OF THE 
 
 were at liberty to indulge in active and 
 healthful amusement, or we were engaged 
 in some useful and necessary employment. 
 Four times a day, usually, each of us had 
 our short lesson ; and if it be considered 
 that the whole of the labour of the house 
 devolved upon our mother, it will be be- 
 lieved that this could be no light task ; 
 nothing, however, was allowed to interrupt 
 our lessons : and it was no uncommon thing 
 to see her busy at the washing-tub while 
 we by turns took our place beside her ; one 
 child would be found attending to the baby, 
 another gathering sticks and keeping the 
 fire alive, a third engaged in reading, arid 
 a fourth bringing water from a pure, soft 
 spring, at some distance from the house ; 
 while our eldest brother assisted father in 
 the garden. 
 
 Our morning lesson was usually from the 
 Scriptures, but throughout the day from other 
 books. Our parents were, themselves, as 
 eager to obtain knowledge as they were anx- 
 ious to impart it to us. An hour was allowed 
 
AUTHOR'S LIFE. 37 
 
 for meals : when our father came to break- 
 fast or dinner, as soon as the repast was 
 finished, (and a working man in health does 
 not usually loiter over his meals,) our 
 mother used to read aloud till the hour was 
 finished, either with the youngest child 
 upon her knee, or, if it was in the cradle, 
 knitting while she read. She used to say, 
 that it was disagreeable and improper to be 
 bustling about while father was within ; 
 and when he was gone out, the work must 
 be done up. 
 
 At these times, books of every kind that 
 came to hand were read, unless, indeed, 
 there was in their language or morality 
 something very bad. Nor were any of us, 
 so far as I recollect, ever restricted in our 
 reading ; books of all kinds, which came 
 within our reach, were free to us. Some 
 may be disposed to condemn this laxity, as 
 they may consider it ; but with the limited 
 means our parents possessed of purchasing 
 books, and being far distant from any town 
 or village where they might have had a 
 
38 SKETCH OF THE 
 
 choice from a library, it was not strange 
 that all that by any means came to hand 
 should be eagerly perused : books were 
 not then so plentiful, nor so various, as at 
 present. 
 
 Well do I remember my brother finding a 
 torn leaf of a little school-book in a bush in 
 the haugh it had been caught there when 
 the stream was swollen by heavy rains. 
 What a prize it was ! one by one, we com- 
 mitted it to memory, while stretched upon 
 the daisied sward, during the sunny hours 
 of a summer Sabbath-day ; and I do not be- 
 lieve that there is one of the young group who 
 then, learned the beautiful hymn that stray 
 leaf contained, who does not retain its sim- 
 ple words indelibly impressed upon the 
 memory, and feel in a renewed heart the 
 influences of the blessed truths taught in its 
 lines. It was the hymn beginning, 
 
 " Among the deepest shades of night, 
 Can there be One who sees my way 7" 
 
 If our parents' plan of reading, and 
 
AUTHOR'S LIFE. 39 
 
 allowing us to read, all that came in the 
 way, had any danger in it, it was in our 
 case counteracted by the free conversation 
 about what was read, which usually fol- 
 lowed, and by the duty constantly incul- 
 cated, and practised by themselves, of 
 reading and searching the Scriptures as the 
 standard by which every practice, principle 
 and opinion, in religion or moraluy, must be 
 tested. We were taught to view the Bible 
 as the words of an infallible Teacher, by 
 which the instructions of every other were 
 to be tried, and only to be received in so far 
 as they were in accordance with this heaven- 
 descended guide : we were, thus early, led 
 to analyse what we read, to exercise our 
 understandings upon whatever came in our 
 way, and to receive nothing as truth, until 
 it had been put to the test of the Divine 
 word. 
 
 Our Sabbaths were our happiest days ; 
 we were near no place of public worship 
 not so near, at least, as to permit any of the 
 children often to attend. As soon as we 
 
40 SKETCH OF THE 
 
 were dressed and had breakfasted, family 
 prayer was attended to, and then our father 
 would point out some hymn or passage of 
 Scripture which he wished us to learn, when 
 we would sally forth, book in hand, in dif- 
 ferent directions, one to stretch himself upon 
 the soft grass in the field close by, another 
 to pace backward and forward on the plea- 
 sure walk, or to find a seat in the bough of 
 an old bushy tree ; while another would 
 seek a little summer-house our father had 
 made of heather, and seated round with the 
 twisted boughs of the glossy birch, each 
 reading aloud till the allotted lesson was 
 thoroughly fixed upon our minds. If the 
 day was wet, or if it was the winter season, 
 we would gather around the table by the 
 window. During the afternoon, mother 
 would read to us, or all of us, father and 
 mother included, read by turns ; questions 
 were then asked, and conversation entered 
 into, about what we had been reading. 
 
 It was upon one of these occasions, when 
 some remarks made by one of my parents 
 

AUTHOR'S LIFE. 43 
 
 in endeavouring to call our attention to the 
 truth that we must be changed, renewed in 
 the image of God ; or, to take up the simple 
 figurative expression then made use of, that 
 we must have new hearts, else we never 
 could be happy with our Father in heaven, 
 that an impression was made upon my mind, 
 never to be effaced : from that hour, through 
 all my follies and all my waywardness, the 
 thought of that new heart still haunted me, 
 until I indeed found peace with God through 
 Jesus Christ, and felt the renewing power 
 of the truth of God. 
 
 Viewing the practice of allowing children 
 to consider their lessons as a part of their 
 amusement, as pernicious in its tendency, 
 as calculated to induce a habit of trifling 
 with serious things, and to form a giddy, 
 frivolous character, our parents never per- 
 mitted anything like levity in attending to 
 our lessons ; we never were allowed to 
 consider them as a recreation, but as serious, 
 though cheerful employment, which must 
 never be trifled with, but seriously and ear- 
 
44 SKETCH OF THE 
 
 nestly engaged in. A uniform veneration 
 for the word of God was evinced by them- 
 selves, and if we read or repeated any part 
 of it, we were taught to do so seriously ; if 
 a hymn was recited, or any piece in which 
 the name of our Creator might occur, we 
 were accustomed to do so in a solemn and 
 attentive manner. 
 
 We had been about six years in this 
 place, when my father's master died, and 
 his lady kindly recommended him to her 
 brother, who was in want of a gardener. 
 We now removed to the east of Scotland ; 
 and our dwelling, until the death of the 
 former gardener, who was laid aside by age, 
 was two rooms, rented for us, in the adjoin- 
 ing village. About two years after our 
 arrival, his decease allowed us to remove to 
 what was to us a pleasanter abode, as being 
 a little more secluded, but otherwise pos- 
 sessing little advantage. There, several of 
 us attended a female school, supported by 
 the lady, for the instruction of the children 
 of servants upon the estate. 
 
AUTHOR'S LIFE. 45 
 
 Our attendance, from various causes, was 
 by no means regular ; the necessity for one 
 of us remaining at home, to assist our mother, 
 prevented regular attendance, and the 
 change from a dry inland situation, to a 
 low, damp locality, upon the east coast, so 
 affected our health, that, for many years, 
 the spring of the year turned our dwelling 
 almost into an hospital. The loss of time 
 and expense incident upon sickness, in our 
 circumstances, were keenly felt ; however, 
 experience gradually taught us how to man- 
 age sickness without so much medical atten- 
 dance as we at first required. My brothers 
 procured employment in the neighbourhood, 
 and I entered the house of my father's mas- 
 ter. 
 
 I had little relish for the society I was 
 thrown into in this place ; all my habits 
 and pursuits were at entire variance with 
 what my fellow-servants practised ; though 
 the light of the Gospel had not yet entered 
 my mind it was only struggling for an 
 entrance. 
 
46 SKETCH OF THE 
 
 When I now look back to that period of 
 mental conflict, I am convinced that my 
 darkness and difficulty arose, not from any 
 mystery thrown around the beautiful sim- 
 plicity of the Gospel by my teachers, but 
 that I entertained a secret unwilh'ngness to 
 yield up my own will, and my own wishes ; 
 my heart was divided I was striving to 
 serve God and Mammon ; the love of the 
 world, and the things of the world, shut out 
 the light of the glorious Gospel ; and it was 
 not till my heart was subdued by the love 
 of God, till I became willing to do, or be, 
 or submit to, anything which God required, 
 that I found peace then I saw God as my 
 Father in Jesus, receiving me freely, through 
 him ; the burden of guilt was removed, and 
 I was led in the paths of obedience by love. 
 
 I had been a few years in my situation, 
 when my mother's health being very much 
 impaired, I felt it my duty to return home. 
 There were now ten of us, besides our 
 father and mother: my eldest brother was 
 employed in the garden ; my second worked 
 
AUTHOR'S LIFE. 47 
 
 with a tradesman in the neighbourhood; 
 and two of my sisters were employed in 
 the family I had left; while five younger 
 brothers and sisters were at school. The 
 eldest of these was soon after engaged by 
 the village teacher as his assistant. 
 
 When at home, our Sabbaths were spent 
 much in the same manner as formerly, only 
 we had now the opportunity of attending 
 public worship ; and instead of merely con- 
 versing, we had begun to try and commit our 
 thoughts to writing. Our parents would 
 request us to state our reasons for certain 
 parts of our belief, or our ideas of the mean- 
 ing of certain passages of Scripture ; we 
 would also, often exert ourselves to give 
 expression to our thoughts in a verse or two 
 of poetry. At these times, several of us 
 would apply our minds to one subject, and 
 it was interesting to observe the different 
 forms our thoughts would assume. 
 
 Our mother's health was re-established, 
 and our circle of acquaintance widened, but 
 not much, for few in the same walk in life 
 
48 SKETCH OF THE 
 
 as ourselves sympathized with us in our 
 pursuits, and we had as little relish for 
 theirs : our time fully occupied, we never 
 felt the power of the temptations to evil to 
 which young persons, in the same circum- 
 stances, are usually exposed : we had been 
 carefully taught in early childhood, that 
 
 " Satan finds some mischief still, 
 For idle hands to do;" 
 
 and idle empty hearts, too, he will fill with 
 sin and folly. I firmly believe, that the 
 only safety from temptation in this world of 
 sin, in this state of weakness, is to have our 
 hearts full of the love of God, our under- 
 standings enlightened by the truth of God, 
 and our hands actively engaged in whatever 
 useful employment the providence of God 
 places within our reach ; never sighing over 
 our limited opportunities of doing good, 
 never repining that we are not placed in 
 situations, and endowed with talents to do 
 and suffer great things for the cause of 
 Christ, or fretting, because our opportu- 
 nities of improvement are few and small. 
 
AUTHOR'S LIFE. 49 
 
 This has been my most besetting sin, and 
 the most powerful temptation to which I 
 have* been exposed ; and, so far as it has 
 prevailed, it has lessened my usefulness, 
 and retarded my improvement. Could we 
 comprehend how great is the blessedness 
 of being permitted to be fellow- workers with 
 God, we should not thus trifle with the 
 opportunities afforded us of doing what we 
 can ; but feeling that we are called to an 
 honour and felicity far above anything we 
 can deserve, eagerly seize the slightest, if 
 it be but to whisper a word of truth in the 
 ear of the poorest child, to lure on and 
 assist some ignorant one to spell out and 
 understand a passage, a phrase, or even a 
 word of the book of God, or even to minis- 
 ter to the comfort and happiness of those 
 around us in the things of this life. Thus 
 our Father in heaven stooped to lavish kind- 
 ness and care upon man's mortal frame, to 
 throw the sweets of summer at his feet, and 
 hang the luxuries of autumn overhead, to 
 enamel the field, to paint the flower, and 
 
50 SKETCH OF THE 
 
 carve the leaf; and shall we disdain to lay 
 hold of every opportunity of ministering in 
 the slightest degree, or in the humblest way, 
 to the comfort and enjoyment of those around 
 us ? And yet how often are opportunities 
 of doing small acts of kindness and useful- 
 ness let slip, while we are sighing over our 
 narrow sphere and our limited means of 
 serving God, or benefiting man ! 
 
 For a considerable time our family circle 
 was unbroken ; however, by the marriage, 
 at different times, of four members of the 
 family, six only remained around our parents. 
 Sorrow might have had a resting-place in 
 the bosoms of some of that family circle, 
 but to the eye of lookers-on they were happy 
 as ever. But change, death, and sorrow 
 were to come. Our beloved father was 
 suddenly and unexpectedly removed from 
 among us, and a long course of illness in 
 the family followed on his departure. Illness 
 prevented for a time our removal from the 
 abode which had so long sheltered us, and 
 where we had spent so many happy days. 
 
AUTHOR'S LIFE. 51 
 
 At this time, however, we all recovered ; 
 but shortly after our removal to another 
 residence, five of us were again prostrated 
 by fever, and our youngest sister our 
 gentle, quiet, affectionate sister, she who 
 lived but for the happiness of those around 
 her was removed. 
 
 I am now residing with three sisters and 
 our youngest brother, under the roof of our 
 widowed mother ; other two relatives live 
 with us, and I am still engaged in my old 
 occupation of managing the house, which I 
 have never quitted since I returned on 
 account of my mother's health, except for 
 about two years, when I was in the service 
 of others. 
 
 Many sources of enjoyment and comfort 
 have been removed ; but the spring to 
 which our beloved and revered parents led 
 us in our early years, that fountain whence 
 issued our sweetest and purest enjoyments, 
 is still open to us, even the well of living 
 waters which never can be dried up ; and 
 though those loved ones are departed, arid 
 
52 SKETCH OF THE AUTHOR'S LIFE. 
 
 we cannot but feel the loss of their society, 
 we are happy in the hope of soon meeting 
 them, where there are pleasures for ever- 
 more. Religion the knowledge of God 
 has been to us our strength and our happi- 
 ness, the source of all we have enjoyed 
 worth calling enjoyment : it has been the 
 sunshine which, in the hour of prosperity, 
 has made earth fair unto us as the bowers 
 of Eden ; and when the darkness of adver- 
 sity encompassed us, it has been the star 
 whose beaming indicated the approach of 
 the morning's brightness. 
 
of Imps. 
 
 5* 
 
THE PEAKl OF DAYS. 
 
 AN is not left, even in this state 
 of existence, like the lower ani- 
 mals, to draw his chief happiness from the 
 indulgence of his appetites, or to be led by 
 the blind, but unerring impulse of instinct, 
 
56 THE PEARL OF DAYS 
 
 to his chief good. He is endowed with 
 reasoning powers and moral sentiments, 
 which require to be enlightened and exer- 
 cised, in order to their proper direction 
 and healthful development. His happi- 
 ness is as inseparably connected with the 
 cultivation and exercise of the faculties 
 of his mind, as it is with the healthful de- 
 velopment and proper exercise of his bodily 
 organs. We meet with abundant proof 
 of this in the state of savage tribes, who 
 shelter themselves in clay-built hovels, wrap 
 themselves in the skins of beasts, and 
 obtain a precarious subsistence from the 
 scanty produce of the uncultivated ground, 
 or the flesh of wild animals. If we compare 
 their means of sustaining life, their sources 
 of enjoyment, their religious worship, their 
 daily habits, and their daily labours, in a 
 word, their whole state, with the state of a 
 
THE PEARL OF DAYS. 57 
 
 civilized and enlightened community even 
 could we bring ourselves to look upon man 
 as merely an intelligent and improvable 
 animal, formed exclusively for this present 
 life we are irresistibly led to the conclusion, 
 that whatever tends to elevate or refine his 
 nature, to give to his reasoning faculties and 
 his moral sentiments a controlling power over 
 his appetites and propensities, is of vast 
 importance to his well-being. It guards 
 him from evils to which, while his animal 
 nature is left without due restraint from his 
 higher faculties and sentiments, he is ex- 
 posed, opens to him sources of enjoyment, 
 and discovers supplies, of which, while his 
 intellectual nature is uncultivated, he is in- 
 capable of availing himself. 
 
 The labour to which, in the present state 
 of society, the majority of the working 
 population of our country is subjected, in 
 
58 THE PEARL OF DAYS. 
 
 order to obtain their subsistence, is of that 
 incessant and tasking nature, which, when 
 the daily hours of toil are closed, leaves the 
 system too much exhausted for mental appli- 
 cation or intellectual enjoyment. Hence, 
 among those of the labouring classes who 
 are not led by religious principle to avail 
 themselves of the opportunities for self-im- 
 provement which the weekly rest affords, we 
 find, with comparatively few exceptions, low 
 and degrading pursuits the principal sources 
 of their amusement ; while, their highest en- 
 joyments are derived from the gratification of 
 their appetites and propensities. Nor is this 
 strange ; no one who has for any considerable 
 length of time been subjected to severe and 
 unremitting toil, whose employment called 
 for the exertion of his muscular power 
 till real fatigue ensued, will deny, that, 
 while in such a state, man is equally in- 
 
THE PEARL OF DAYS. 59 
 
 capable of availing himself of the more 
 refined pleasure of social intercourse, or of 
 the improvement to be derived from mental 
 application ; that the craving is for animal 
 gratification, or nervous excitement ; and that 
 a continued routine of such labour, without 
 the seventh-day rest, would soon sink the 
 labouring population into a condition worse 
 than that of absolute barbarism. This is no 
 merely speculative theory ; we have only to 
 enter into social intercourse with those 
 around us, to meet with more than abundant 
 proofs of its reality. 
 
 Were it possible, then, to view man as 
 only formed for this world as a mere link 
 in the chain of causation doing his little 
 part, enjoying his brief existence, and then 
 reduced again to his original elements, pass- 
 ing away alike forgetting and forgotten ; and 
 were we to regard the Sabbath as merely 
 
60 THE PEARL OF DAYS. 
 
 a civil institution, the appointment of human 
 government ; even thus separated from all its 
 religious relations, it would, were it possible 
 for man destitute of the knowledge of God, 
 to improve the opportunities afforded by 
 it, confer benefits upon working men which 
 they could not otherwise obtain. The Sab- 
 bath limits, to some extent, the power of 
 employers, whom selfishness and avarice, 
 in not a few instances, have rendered 
 alike regardless of the comfort and the 
 health of their servants ; and secures to those 
 whose daily avocations require thsir absence 
 from the family circle, the pleasures and the 
 comforts of home ; the softening and refin- 
 ing influence of family relations and do- 
 mestic intercourse. Its rest refreshes and 
 invigorates the physical constitution, and 
 affords time to apply the mind to the attain- 
 ment of useful knowledge : it ought there- 
 
THE PEARL OF DAYS. 61 
 
 fore to command the respect of all who are 
 sincerely desirous of promoting the improve- 
 ment of the working population. 
 
 But it is impossible thus to regard man. 
 Man has a spiritual, never-dying, as surely 
 as he has an animal and mortal nature, which 
 act and re-act upon each other, so that the 
 well-being of the one is essential to the well- 
 being of the other. He, therefore, who 
 would confine man's views to this world, 
 and limit his endeavours after happiness to 
 the present life, snatches from him, along 
 with the Hopes of the future, the riches of 
 the present. Debarred from his Father's 
 house and his Father's table, he will soon 
 be wallowing in the mire of ignorance and 
 vice, and feeding on the husks of sensual 
 indulgence. He who chains man to con- 
 tinuous and unremitting exertion of his 
 physical system, unfits his mind for activity, 
 
62 THE PEARL OF DAYS. 
 
 and degrades him to a condition little above 
 that of a beast of burden. The Sabbath, 
 then, must be viewed in its relation to every 
 part of man's nature, in its influence upon 
 him as a whole, before we can fully appre- 
 ciate even the merely temporal benefits it is 
 calculated to confer upon the human family. 
 Some have said, that another arrangement 
 would be more beneficial, that, were more 
 time for repose allotted to each day without 
 a Sabbath, the purposes of Sabbath rest 
 would be more fully attained. Were the 
 Sabbath a human institution, appointed by 
 earthly legislators, for purposes relating to 
 this life, this point might be open to discus- 
 sion. As it is not the institution of man, how- 
 ever, but that of our all-wise Creator, I shall 
 merely ask those who advocate such a 
 change, how they propose to bring it about? 
 and how preserve it, when once obtained ? Is 
 
THE PEARL OF DAYS. 63 
 
 it not that the Sabbath claims to be an institu- 
 tion of Heaven, and thus laying hold of man's 
 conscience, ensures attention to its demands 
 from all who fear God and tremble at his 
 word is it not its appearing in this char- 
 acter which secures to it any degree of atten- 
 tion and respect from society ? It is the 
 influences of the Sabbath which will yet 
 introduce a better regulated system of labour 
 during the week ; and he who would abolish 
 it as a step towards such an improvement, 
 flings away the most safe and certain means 
 of accomplishing his object. 
 
 It is only by the advancement of the 
 labouring classes themselves in intelligence 
 arid civilization, that any really important or 
 beneficial change can ever take place in the 
 regulation of labour ; but even were such a 
 change effected, were the hours of daily toil 
 considerably shortened, would there not still 
 
64 THE PEARL OF DAYS. 
 
 be abundant room for a Sabbath ? How are 
 the moral and intellectual character, the 
 tastes and habits of working men to be 
 elevated, without the opportunities and the 
 influences of this institution ? 
 
 He who would abolish the Sabbath, and dis- 
 tribute its hours among the days of the week, 
 that he might increase the comfort, and im- 
 prove the character and the condition of 
 working men, would act as a builder would 
 do, who should dig up the foundations of a 
 house, that he might obtain materials where- 
 with to finish its upper story. Religion, like 
 the Father of lights, from whom it emanates, 
 bestows abundance of blessings upon many 
 who know not the bounteous Hand from 
 whence they come ; and the Sabbath, one 
 of its most glorious and beneficent institu- 
 tions, confers numerous benefits even upon 
 that portion of society who, trifling with its 
 
THE PEARL OF DAYS. 65 
 
 sacred obligations, and spurning its salutary 
 restraints, fail to reap from it that amount 
 of good which it is so well calculated to afford 
 them. 
 
 We can form no just estimate of what the 
 condition and circumstances of the human 
 race would have been, if left entirely destitute 
 of religion, from our intercourse with those 
 who, though perversely refusing submission 
 to its government, have, while their being 
 was dawning, their mind and habits forming, 
 been surrounded by its light and influences, 
 and who, in their childhood and youth, have 
 partaken largely of the blessings which this 
 heaven-bestowed institution, the Christian 
 Sabbath, affords. No ; it is only from the 
 condition and character of those tribes of 
 mankind who have little or no vestige of 
 revelation among them, that we are enabled 
 to form a correct idea of what our state 
 
 6* 
 
66 THE PEARL OF DAYS. 
 
 would have been, had the pure light of 
 Christianity never dawned upon us. So, in 
 like manner, in judging of the importance 
 of this Divine institution, we must compare 
 the condition and the habits of a labouring 
 population who have never known a Sab- 
 bath, whose bodies the Sabbath rest has 
 never refreshed, and whose minds Sabbath 
 instruction and Sabbath exercise have, to no 
 extent, strengthened or cultivated, awakened 
 or enlightened. We must compare their 
 character and condition, their hearths and 
 homes, with the hearths and homes, the state 
 and character, not of the mere Sabbath 
 sleeper, or Sabbath dresser, or even of the 
 mere church attender or sermon hearer, but 
 of those who, with activity and energy, avail 
 themselves of all the opportunities of self- 
 improvement and family culture which the 
 Christian Sabbath is so well fitted to afford, 
 
THE PEARL OF DAYS. 67 
 
 before We can have any correct idea of even 
 the merely temporal benefits which the Sab- 
 bath is calculated to confer upon the labour- 
 ing population, or of the immense loss its 
 discontinuance would prove to the temporal 
 interests of society. 
 
 Even as a cessation from labour, as a rest 
 to the worn-out frame, the Sabbath is no 
 trifling boon to the bowed-down sons of toil. 
 When we look upon it merely as a day on 
 which the most toil-worn drudge unchidden 
 may stretch his wearied limbs upon the couch 
 of rest ; whereon the most dusty, sweaty, dirt- 
 smeared endurer of the consequences of man's 
 transgression may wash himself clean, dress 
 genteelly, and enjoy the society of his fellow- 
 men ; a day when he, who, during the 
 six days of labour, must eat his dry, cold, 
 hurried, and comfortless dinner alone, can sit 
 in leisure and comfort, in the society of be- 
 
68 THE P^ARL OF DAYS. 
 
 loved relatives, with the clean, shining, glad 
 faces of his little ones around him, and his 
 wife, clean and neat, as upon her bridal-day, 
 by his side, and enjoy his neatly-prepared, 
 though homely, repast ; a day when broth- 
 ers and sisters, early forced, by necessity, 
 from the parental roof, to seek a hard-earned 
 subsistence elsewhere, may weekly enjoy 
 each other's society amid the blessed influ- 
 ences of the home of their childhood the 
 Sabbath, though looked upon as bestowing 
 only privileges like these upon working 
 men, must command the respect of every 
 enlightened and philanthropic mind. But 
 when viewed as a day in which all this is 
 associated with the hallowed influences of 
 religion in which man enjoys the pleasures 
 of social intercourse blended with, and ele- 
 vated by, the most sacred and purifying 
 associations in which the body enjoys 
 
THE PEARL OF DAYS. 69 
 
 repose, not only that the mind may be fitted 
 for exertion, but that it may engage in the 
 study of subjects supremely important to man, 
 that it may apply itself to the contemplation 
 of themes the most sublime and interest- 
 ing a day in which men not only meet to- 
 gether that they may be instructed, strength- 
 ened, and refined, by intercourse with each 
 other, that mind may have communion with 
 mind, and heart with heart ; but in which 
 they are invited to meet with God himself; 
 that their minds may have communion with 
 His mind, and their hearts with His heart ; 
 that they may be instructed, strengthened, 
 and refined, by the wisdom and love of God ; 
 that they may be moulded in His image, and 
 renewed in His likeness ; it seems strange 
 that any one who believes man to be pos- 
 sessed of a moral and intellectual nature, 
 capable of improvement, should set light by, 
 
70 THE PEARL OF DAYS. 
 
 or trifle with, such an institution ; and pass- 
 ing strange, that those who name the name 
 of Christ, who profess to be His followers 
 who emphatically taught that the Sabbath 
 was made for man, should despise such a 
 privilege, fling away its hallowed restraints, 
 and disregard its sacred obligations. 
 
 It needs but a glance at the toilsome life 
 of our rural or our manufacturing population, 
 to convince any one that the Sabbath, viewed 
 merely in relation to man's temporal well- 
 being, is of great value to the working man. 
 The important influence which the frequent 
 return of such a day, with all its cheering 
 and inspiriting exercises and associations, 
 must have upon the health of those who 
 observe it, is not to be overlooked. The 
 wearied frame is refreshed and invigorated, 
 the depressed spirits enlivened, and the flag- 
 ging energy restored ; while its public 
 
THE PEARL OF DAYS. 71 
 
 observances call for such attention to per- 
 sonal appearance as cannot fail to have a 
 beneficial effect at once upon the habits and 
 the constitution, as also to form a strong 
 inducement to exertion for the improvement 
 of their condition. Hence it is, that, when 
 we enter the house of the church-going, 
 Sabbath-keeping labourer, we generally find 
 a marked difference between hand the home 
 of him who rarely or never enters a place 
 of worship, and who regards not the sacred 
 claims of the day. 
 
 In the house of the Sabbath-observing, 
 church-attending labourer even though, as 
 is too often the case, he should know little or 
 nothing of the vital power of religion, though 
 his observance be mere outward observance, 
 and his religion but form we observe useful, 
 though sometimes rude furniture, clothing, 
 and food, cleanliness and comfort, a cheerful 
 
72 THE PEARL OF DAYS. 
 
 fire on the hearth, and a few books on the 
 shelf; every thing indicating some little relish 
 for the conveniences and comforts of civilized 
 life. 
 
 On Saturday evening, there is washing 
 of little faces, combing and brushing of 
 flaxen heads, laying out of clean little frocks 
 and pinafores, or jet black shoes set ready 
 for little feet, that, without hurry or confu- 
 sion, clean and neat, they may be ready on 
 Sabbath morning to accompany father or 
 mother, or, if possible, both, to the place 
 
 " Where Christians meet to praise and pray, 
 To hear of heaven, and learn the way ;" 
 
 or that they may trip joyously to their be- 
 loved Sabbath-school, there to sing of that 
 happy land where every eye is bright, ofthat 
 glorious city, the streets of which are of pure 
 gold, where the water of life is continually 
 flowing in a broad river, clear as crystal, from 
 
THE PEARL OF DAYS. 73 
 
 the throne of God and of the Lamb, into 
 which nothing that defileth can enter, neither 
 whatsoever loveth or maketh a lie ; to learn, 
 that to depart from evil is the highway to 
 those blessed mansions of love, and joy, and 
 life everlasting that that highway is called 
 holiness ; and to be told, in childhood's own 
 simple language, of the love of Him who is 
 himself the way, for he shall save his people 
 from their sins ; how he said, " Suffer little 
 children to come unto me," and took them 
 up in his arms, and blessed them ; how, 
 when they have journeyed along the rugged 
 path of this toilsome life, those that come 
 unto God by him shall never again taste of 
 death or sorrow, pain or disease ; for the 
 Lamb, which is in the midst of the throne, 
 shall feed them, and lead them to living 
 fountains of waters, and God shall wipe away 
 all tears from their eyes. 
 
74 THE PEARL OF DAYS. 
 
 What do we find in the place of all this, 
 in the home, and among the children of 
 the working man who profanes the sacred 
 hours of the Sabbath ? Squalor and wretch- 
 edness force themselves upon our observa- 
 tion. The appearance of the house and its 
 inmates tell, in language not to be mistaken, 
 what would be the condition of working men, 
 were this blessed day, with all its exalting 
 and purifying influences, set aside. How 
 often, on Saturday night, are the children 
 tossed into bed unwashed and uncombed, 
 
 while the mother puts their few rags of 
 
 
 clothing in the washing-tub, and then hangs 
 
 them up by the dusty hearth, that they may 
 be dry in the morning ! Even this little 
 attention to cleanliness, partial as it is, is 
 of some benefit, and the benefit, so far as 
 it goes, is from the Sabbath ; for, were it 
 not for that regard to appearance, and those 
 
THE PEARL OF DAYS. 77 
 
 ideas of decency which the public observ- 
 ances of the Sabbath have introduced, the 
 skin and the clothing of the working man 
 and his children would seldom indeed oe 
 subjected to the refreshing and purifying 
 process of washing. 
 
 Of the truth of this, did the limits of this 
 little essay permit, or did the time and cir- 
 cumstances of the writer allow of such 
 researches, I venture to affirm that abundant 
 evidence could be presented from the state 
 and habits, in regard to personal cleanliness, 
 of the labouring population of any country 
 where the Sabbath is disregarded, as com- 
 pared with the condition and habits of the 
 same class in countries where the Sabbath 
 is observed as a day of public assembly for 
 religious worship ; or from the habits of the 
 lower classes of our own, or of any other 
 country, before the introduction of the Chris- 
 
 7* 
 
78 THE PEARL OF DAYS. 
 
 tian Sabbath, as compared with their habits 
 in this respect, after the Sabbath has been for 
 some time received and regarded among 
 them, as at once a day of cessation from ordi- 
 nary labour, and a season for public religious 
 observances. And if the important influence 
 which cleanliness has upon health and com- 
 fort be taken into account, the improve- 
 ment of their habits in this respect will 
 be allowed to be no trifling advantage 
 resulting from the Sabbath to the labouring 
 population. 
 
 But to return to the family where the 
 Sabbath is not regarded as a day sacred to 
 the worship of God : how frequently do we 
 find the father, with his equally reckless com- 
 panions, taking on Saturday evening his seat 
 in the house of the spirit-dealer, there to 
 waste, in the gratification of his debased and 
 depraved appetite, his hard-earned wages ! 
 
THE PEARL OF DAYS. 79 
 
 But what need to describe the Sabbath hours 
 of such a family ? Who that has been at all 
 conversant with the labouring population of 
 this country, but has witnessed the comfort- 
 less and fretful confusion of the morning ? 
 while the succeeding hours are devoted to 
 the preparation of the noonday meal, the one 
 great feast of the week ; and, perchance, the 
 fields, the public promenade, or a trip by 
 railway to some place of public resort, is the 
 occupation of the evening. And thus are 
 all the rich opportunities which such a day 
 affords for self-improvement and family 
 culture, trampled under foot. And what is 
 the condition of the children of such parents ? 
 Do they not grow up in ignorance and vice, 
 in utter neglect, unless, indeed, tliey are 
 gathered together for Sabbath instruction by 
 the enlightened and benevolent, who would 
 seek to do what in them lies to rescue their 
 
80 THE PEARL OF DAYS. 
 
 fellow-creatures from ignorance and degrada- 
 tion ? This, however, will but slightly supply 
 the want of the fireside instruction of a Sab- 
 bath-keeping family ; and is it likely that 
 these children will ever attain to that degree 
 of mental culture, or be governed by those 
 moral principles which would enable them 
 to obtain an equal standing in society with 
 the children of those who conscientiously 
 observe the Lord's-day ? Let those who 
 think so, enter the house of him who keeps 
 holy the Lord's-day, and the home of the 
 Sabbath-breaker ; let them converse with 
 their children, observe their habits, and then 
 answer. Those who feel inclined to trifle 
 with the sacred obligations of this day would 
 do well to consider, ere they slight its bene- 
 ficial restraints, what a blessed privilege they 
 fling away what a glorious birthright they 
 would barter for less than a mess of pottage ! 
 
THE PEARL OF DAYS. 81 
 
 A birthright, the due appreciation and the 
 proper use of which would soon enable 
 them to cast off that yoke of bondage, those 
 servile feelings, with which the working 
 classes too often regard their superiors in 
 circumstances ; would enable them to stand 
 erect and unabashed in the presence of their 
 fellow-man, whatever his wealth or rank, as 
 brother in the presence of brother ; would give 
 them power of their own minds a conscience 
 illuminated by the light of heaven, and un- 
 fettered by subjection to man.. Moreover, if 
 the imbecility of mind, the consequent limit- 
 ation of resource, and liability to become 
 the dupes of imposture, the tools of crafty, 
 selfish, and unprincipled men, be considered, 
 which usually result from the dependence of 
 one class of men upon the mind and will of 
 another class, this will appear to be no mean 
 advantage, as regards temporal condition, 
 
82 THE PEARL OF DAYS 
 
 which the proper observance of the Sabbath 
 is calculated to confer upon the labouring 
 population. For proof that such happy 
 results do invariably follow the introduction 
 of the Sabbath among the working classes, in 
 proportion to its proper observance, we have 
 only to glance at the character and condition 
 of the people in countries where the Sabbath 
 is, in some measure, rightly understood and 
 observed, as compared with the state of the 
 people in lands where the Lord's day is 
 unknown, or devoted to mere amusement. 
 
 The rest of the Sabbath is invaluable to 
 the labourer who is desirous of cultivating 
 his own mind by study, of strengthening 
 and gaining the control of his intellectual 
 powers, or of increasing his stock of know- 
 ledge by reading. When he returns from 
 his daily labour, to enjoy his brief hour of 
 leisure in the evening, his system is too much 
 
THE PEARL OF DAYS. 83 
 
 exhausted by his previous exertion, and, con- 
 sequently, his animal spirits too much de- 
 pressed, for close application of mind or 
 energy of thought. If he attempt to peruse 
 any really serious and useful author, he not 
 unfrequently falls asleep with the J3ook in 
 his hand. The lighter pages ofLjhe novelist, 
 with their intellectual intoxication, and too 
 often pernicious views of human life and 
 human nature, may be able, by their excite- 
 ment, to overcome, for a time, his fatigue ; 
 and, therefore, if he reads at all, for these, 
 the works of the natural and moral philoso- 
 pher, of the historian, the moralist, and the 
 theologian, are laid aside ; and thus his moral 
 and intellectual nature, not receiving whole- 
 some food or healthful exercise, becomes 
 weak and diseased, and unfitted to fulfil the 
 offices of enlightening him ; his passions and 
 appetites, unrestrained by an enlightened 
 
84 THE PEARL OF DAYS. 
 
 conscience and cultivated understanding, 
 lead him captive at their will ; and his whole 
 character and condition strikingly prove, that, 
 as a general rule, the degradation of one part 
 of man's nature is the degradation of the 
 whole. 
 
 Is his temporal condition abject, his body 
 subjected to unremitting toil ? his intellect- 
 ual condition, too, is debased, and his mind 
 enslaved. Is his intellect uncultivated, and 
 his moral nature vitiated ? his outward ap- 
 pearance* and condition are degraded, rude, 
 and comfortless. The Sabbath, by the repose 
 it affords, not only renews man's physical 
 energy, renovates his animal system, it also 
 qualifies his mind to apply itself to self-culture 
 and to the acquisition of solid and useful 
 knowledge. Nor does it stop here it leaves 
 
 * This is strikingly verified by LAVATER, in his celebrated 
 work on Physiognomy. ED. 
 
THE PEARL OF DAYS. 85 
 
 him not unaided and unguided to grope in 
 darkness for the knowledge which is essential 
 to his well-being ; it pours upon his path a 
 flood of light, opens wide the gate of know- 
 ledge, and bids him enter. It leaves him not 
 to mope alone over the dreamy speculations 
 of sceptical philosophers who have attained 
 to no belief, who have no certainty or know- 
 ledge, but have chosen their perpetual abode 
 in those gloomy regions of darkness where 
 the dense fogs of doubt are for ever settled, 
 till his mental energy is exhausted and his 
 mind unhinged. No ; it calls him forth in 
 exulting joy to seek the society of his fellow- 
 men, that mind may awaken and strengthen 
 mind, and heart warm heart that they may 
 ponder together the meaning of facts facts 
 attested by incontrovertible evidence facts 
 the most sublime and interesting that have 
 ever engaged the attention of man. It calls 
 
 8 
 
86 THE PEARL OF DAYS. 
 
 men together to study, in each other's society, 
 a system of morality pure and perfect, 
 founded upon these facts. It furnishes him 
 with subjects surpassingly glorious, in the 
 contemplation of which he may exert and 
 cultivate his intellectual powers. It inspires 
 him with hopes which give him fortitude to 
 endure the unavoidable evils of his condition, 
 and energy to surmount its difficulties. Yes, 
 the Lord's day, with its communion with God, 
 its memorials, its exercises, its instructions, 
 and its social intercourse, ever as it returns 
 gives a fresh impulse to human advance- 
 ment. It is, truly, a fountain whence spring 
 innumerable benefits. 
 
 Not only does each returning Sabbath give 
 a new and powerful impetus to man's ad- 
 vancement in his heavenward course ; but in 
 so doing, it urges him onward and upward in 
 civilization, refinement and comfort. 
 
THE PEARL OF DAYS. 87 
 
 A day of rest, of cessation from active and 
 toilsome exertion, is, doubtless, as minister- 
 ing to the health and vigour of the animal 
 system, of immense value to working men. 
 I have no hesitation, however, in affirming, 
 that, amongst those who view it in no other 
 light than as a day of rest and recreation, 
 as a season set apart to no higher purpose 
 than that of refreshing and invigorating the 
 body, it generally fails of accomplishing 
 even this : they almost invariably devote the 
 day to the service of their divers lusts and 
 pleasures, while the neglected appearance of 
 their families, and the jaded and abused state 
 of their bodies, wofully testify to the degrad- 
 ing effects of misusing its hallowed hours ; 
 and clearly demonstrate, that it is " the Sab- 
 bath of the Lord," the Lord's day alone, as 
 appointed by himself, which is really calcula- 
 ted to benefit mankind, and not a day of man's 
 

 88 THE PEARL OF DAYS. 
 
 devising. And why ? Because the Sabbath- 
 day is appointed by our all-wise Creator, 
 by Him who knoweth what is in man, and 
 what is needful for man. And it is exactly 
 suited to man it meets the wants at once 
 of his physical and intellectual constitution, 
 and of his social and spiritual nature. He 
 who wears purple and fine linen, and fares 
 sumptuously every day, whose hand has 
 never been hardened, nor his brow moistened 
 by toil, whose every day makes him the 
 companion and instructor of his family, and 
 who, fresh and unwearied, can seat himself 
 in his quiet study, and enjoy his daily re- 
 turning hours of leisure, may slight the 
 obligations of the Sabbath, and break loose 
 from its restraints, without, in the eye of his 
 fellow-man, appearing to suffer in mind, 
 character, or condition. But on him whose 
 daily returning wants call for strenuous and 
 
THE PEARL OF DAYS. 89 
 
 incessant exertion, that they may obtain a 
 needful supply, the abuse of Sabbath hours 
 is soon visible in a beggared and degraded 
 mind, a depraved moral character, and a 
 consequently degraded condition in society ; 
 in squalid, untrained children, and a com- 
 fortless home ; and not unfrequently, in ab- 
 solute want of the very necessaries of life. 
 
 It might easily be shown, that, among the 
 numerous advantages which the weekly rest 
 affords the working man, is this, namely, that 
 it gives him its rest, without diminishing, in 
 any degree, his means of subsistence and 
 comfort. By preventing the seventh day 
 from being brought into the labour market, it 
 enables him to procure a remuneration for 
 six days' labour equal to that which, were 
 there no such day, he would be able to obtain 
 for seven. Although those who degrade the 
 Sabbath from its place as a religious institu- 
 
90 THE PEARL OF DAYS. 
 
 tion, to a day of mere bodily rest and recrea- 
 tion, enjoy this advantage in common with 
 him who regards the day in its proper char- 
 acter, as a day set apart for the public wor- 
 ship of God and the study of his word ; yet, 
 they are generally by far his inferiors in com- 
 fort and independence. It is no uncommon 
 thing to find them, while actually engaged in 
 some kind of employment which brings high- 
 er wages than the occupation followed by 
 their neighbour obtains, before the close of 
 the week begging or borrowing from him the 
 necessaries of life. Few will have mingled 
 much among labouring men and their fami- 
 lies, without meeting with many instances 
 of this kind, all demonstrating the truth of 
 what has already been advanced, that it is 
 the Christian Sabbath, observed as appointed 
 by our Lord himself, that can ever really 
 improve even the temporal character of the 
 
THE PEARL OF DAYS. 91 
 
 labourer, and that no human institution 
 ever can supply its place, or have the same 
 beneficial influence upon society. 
 
 To the husband and father, whose family 
 require his daily labour for their support, and 
 who is anxious to impart to them that instruc- 
 tion which is so necessary to the perfect and 
 healthful development of their mental powers, 
 the Sabbath is of inestimable value. Dearly 
 as he loves to meet the joyous welcome of 
 his little ones upon his return from his 
 day's labour, pleasant as it is for him to 
 enjoy their childish prattle, while they are 
 seated together around the evening fire, yet, 
 having just returned, exhausted by a day of 
 toil, while they climb his knee, and chat 
 over the little adventures of the day, they are 
 more to him as playthings, than as beings 
 the training of whose minds and habits 
 for after life is entrusted to him. This, 
 
92 THE PEARL OF DAYS. 
 
 during the six days of labour, devolves, 
 almost exclusively, upon the mother, or, as 
 is too often the case, it is utterly neglected, 
 because it requires the most incessant and 
 laborious exertions of both father and mother 
 to enable them to obtain a subsistence for 
 themselves and their offspring ; and were it 
 not for the weekly return of Sabbath-rest, 
 and its opportunities for improvement, they 
 would grow up untrained, as the wild ass's 
 colt. But the Sabbath places the Christian 
 father refreshed and vigorous in the midst of 
 his family, his mind enlightened and enrich- 
 ed by its instruction, and his feelings soothed 
 by its devotional exercises ; thus fitting him 
 to impart instruction, in a manner at once cal- 
 culated to reach the understandings and win 
 the hearts of his little ones. 
 
 What a delightful scene of tranquil enjoy- 
 ment is to be met with in the family of 
 
I 
 
THE PEARL OF DAYS. 95 
 
 the labourer where the Sabbath is properly 
 appreciated and actively improved ! Ha.s 
 the reader ever spent a Lord's day in such 
 a family ? has he seen the children, awaking 
 from the light slumbers of the morning, 
 glance round on the more than usual order, 
 cleanliness and quiet of the humble apart- 
 ment, and then ask, Mother, what day is 
 this ? and heard the reply, This is the Sab- 
 bath, the best of all days, the day which 
 God has blessed ! Has he seen their father 
 dandling the baby, till their mother should 
 finish dressing the elder children, and then, 
 when all were ready, heard the little circle 
 join in the sweet morning hymn, and seen 
 them kneel together, while their father offered 
 up a simple, but heart-felt thanksgiving for 
 life, health, and reason preserved, through the 
 toils of another week ; and for the privilege 
 of being again all permitted to enjoy, in each 
 
96 THE PEARL OF DAYS. 
 
 other's society, the blessed light of the first 
 day of the week ; that morning-light which 
 brings to mind an empty grave, and a risen 
 Saviour ; those peaceful hours which, undis- 
 turbed by the labour, hurry, and anxieties of 
 the week, they can devote to the advance- 
 ment of that spiritual life in their souls, 
 which shall outlive the destruction of death 
 itself? Has he heard the words of prayer, 
 the questions of the father, and the replies of 
 the children ; and has he not felt assured 
 that the mind-awakening influences of such 
 subjects of thought, and such exercises, would 
 be seen in the after years of these children ? 
 Or, has he, on their return from the 
 meeting-place of Christians, witnessed their 
 afternoon and evening employments ? Has 
 he seen the eager and intelligent expression 
 of those young faces, as the beautiful 
 story of Joseph and his brethren was read 
 
THE PEARL OF DAYS. 97 
 
 aloud to them ; or that of Daniel cast into 
 the lions' den ; or how the servants of the 
 living God walked unhurt in the midst of 
 the fire, whilst its flame slew those men 
 who cast them in ; or the narrative of the 
 wandering prodigal, wretched and despised 
 in a foreign land, whilst the meanest of his 
 father's servants were living in abundance 
 and comfort? Has he heard their voices, 
 each low but earnest ; and then listened to 
 the reading of the Word of God ? heard the 
 reciting by turn, some beautiful hymns, or 
 reading some interesting chapter, or engaged 
 in conversation familiar and pleasant, though 
 serious and instructive ; children asking 
 questions -of parents, and parents of chil- 
 dren, concerning what they have been hear- 
 ing and reading during the day ? And is not 
 he who has been the spectator of all this, con- 
 vinced, that such a day is to the labourer 
 
98 THE PEARL OF DAYS. 
 
 and his children, an inheritance of surpass- 
 ing value ; that it is weekly adding a fresh 
 impulse to their progress in improvement, 
 and preparing them to take advantage of 
 whatever opportunities the week may afford? 
 Will not the Sabbaths of their childhood 
 leave an impression upon their future years, 
 which will never be effaced ; an impress 
 of superiority in intelligence and morality, 
 and a consequent superiority in circumr 
 stances ? 
 
 One important advantage which is con- 
 nected with the observance of the Lord's 
 day, among the labouring population, is the 
 influence which it has in elevating the mind, 
 character and condition of the female portion 
 of the community ? Where Christianity and 
 its weekly rest are unknown, the condition 
 of woman is abject in the extreme ; but the 
 religion of Jesus raises her from her degraded 
 
THE PEARL OF DAYS. 99 
 
 situation, by calling her forward to engage in 
 the exercises, share the instructions, and 
 receive the influences of its Sabbath. The 
 Lord's day calls her thinking powers into 
 action, gives her a mind and conscience of 
 her own, cultivates her intellectual and moral 
 nature, and gives her to man a helpmate 
 indeed, fitted to become, not merely his slave 
 or his toy, but the companion of his labours 
 and his studies, his devoted friend, arid his 
 faithful and judicious adviser; not merely 
 the mother and nurse of his children, but 
 their intelligent instructor and guide his 
 most efficient assistant in their intellectual 
 and moral training. And if we consider the 
 influence which the training that man re- 
 ceives in his early years has upon his char- 
 acter in after life that, for the most part, in 
 the families of working men, infancy arid 
 childhood are spent in the society of the 
 
100 THE PEARL OF DAYS. 
 
 mother, and therefore the impressions by 
 which the character is, in a great measure, 
 formed, are made by her, we shall feel con- 
 vinced that the cultivation of the female mind 
 and character must have an incalculable in- 
 fluence upon the condition of the labouring 
 population. 
 
 It were worth ascertaining, how many of 
 those who have risen up from among the 
 labouring population to adorn and bless 
 humanity by their talents and their philan- 
 thropy, to enlighten and benefit society by 
 useful and important discoveries in art and 
 science, or by patient persevering labour to 
 advance mankind in virtue and intelli- 
 gence how many of these had their minds 
 awakened to activity, and their principles 
 formed, by the instructions which hard- 
 working parents were enabled to give them 
 upon the Lord's day, the only time they 
 
THE PEARL OF DAYS. 101 
 
 could devote to such a purpose. And would 
 it not shed a fearful light upon this subject, 
 could we possess ourselves of the history of 
 the early Sabbaths of those who have made 
 themselves notorious by their crimes ; or of 
 those, who, having sunk themselves deep in 
 moral pollution, have destroyed themselves, 
 degraded humanity, and cursed society by 
 their vices ? Would not such records give 
 startling evidence of the ruinous effects re- 
 sulting from the abuse of the weekly rest, 
 and clearly demonstrate the truth of what has 
 been already advanced, that, were the Sab- 
 bath abolished, or given to working men as a 
 day of mere bodily refreshment and recrea- 
 tion, and not as a religious institution, they 
 would soon be reduced to a condition worse 
 than that of the untaught savage V 
 
 Yes ; man is equally liable to degenerate 
 as he is capable of improvement more 
 
 9* 
 
102 THE PEARL OF DAYS. 
 
 so, for he must be aroused, urge4 forward, 
 forced on almost against his will : to take 
 the downward path of degeneracy, he needs 
 only to be left unmolested to choose his own 
 way. 
 
 Are there those who deny this who look 
 upon man as not a fallen and depraved 
 being, shorn of the glory of his primeval ex- 
 cellency, ever liable to sink lower and de- 
 generate farther, unless influences from with- 
 out reach him but as a being who has 
 raised himself by the unaided exercise of the 
 powers of his own mind, from a condition 
 little above that of the brute creation, to his 
 present state ? I ask them but to survey the 
 page of human history, to become convinced 
 of the absurdity of such an idea. Can they 
 point to the records of any tribe of the 
 human family which, from a condition of 
 rude barbarism, and shut out from all inter- 
 
THE PEARL OF DAYS. 103 
 
 course with civilized nations, has ever raised 
 itself above such a state ?* They cannot it 
 has uniformly been the entrance of the mis- 
 sionar} r , the trader, the emigrant, from more 
 enlightened and civilized nations, which has 
 changed the condition of such a people. 
 
 Had it been as they say, had man been 
 formed the being they represent him, and 
 had the voice of God never reached his ear, 
 bad no celestial visitant ever arrived upon 
 our planet, man had never risen one step 
 above his first condition. If, then, as the 
 history of mankind abundantly proves, reli- 
 gion founded upon revelation be the only 
 really efficient means by which man can be 
 raised to that state of perfection he is capable 
 
 * Such as desire further information on this important 
 point, may obtain it, at a very small expense of time and 
 labour, by consulting Dr. Doig's " Three Letters on the 
 Savage State" addressed to Lord Kames. ED." 
 
104 THE PEARL OF DAYS. 
 
 of attaining ; if, as we trace the progress of 
 Christianity among the nations, we find an 
 advancement in civilization following in her 
 footsteps, and an amelioration of the social 
 condition of the people marking her progress, 
 may we not reasonably attribute to her 
 seventh-day rest all the temporal blessings 
 which, as she advances, she is conferring 
 upon the labouring population ? And would 
 not the abolition of this institution, or the 
 appropriation of Sabbath hours to other than 
 their proper use, be effectively to exclude 
 those who obtain their daily bread by the 
 labour of their hands, from a participation in 
 the benefits which the knowledge of revela- 
 tion confers upon man ? No more effectual 
 step could be taken towards the demoraliza- 
 tion, I had almost said the brutalization, of the 
 labouring population, than that of inducing 
 them to look upon it as a mere human holi- 
 
THE PEARL OF DAYS. 105 
 
 day, which may be occupied in any way 
 fancy may dictate. Barbarous and degrading 
 sports, bull-baiting, cock-fighting, and such 
 like ; drunkenness, revelry, and riot, would, 
 with fearful rapidity, take the place of the 
 solemn assembly. 
 
 He who would seek to enslave and degrade 
 the working man, could not more effectually 
 accomplish his object, than by persuading 
 him to regard and occupy the Sabbath as 
 a day which he might spend in amusement. 
 Were the Lord's day blotted out, or spent 
 in mere recreation were the sons of toil 
 no more to enjoy or avail themselves of 
 its rich provisions for their instruction and 
 elevation not only should we soon see 
 religion disregarded, that blessed light of 
 heaven, that sunshine of the sky which is 
 chasing the shadows of ignorance, and dissi- 
 pating the mists of error and superstition ; 
 
106 THE PEARL OF DAYS. 
 
 which is awakening man to spiritual life, 
 arousing to healthful activity in him all the 
 springs of 'moral feeling and intellectual 
 energy ; not only would this morning beam 
 be shut out from the sons of toil, those glad 
 tidings which Jesus so frequently preached 
 to the poor in the weekly assembly upon the 
 Sabbath-day, be put without the reach of 
 working men but we should soon see them 
 deprived of those civil institutions which 
 secure to them personal liberty, and de- 
 graded to a condition of mere vassalage. 
 
 Let no one be startled when I affirm 
 that it is the Sabbath which has bestowed 
 upon the labouring population the civil 
 privileges they enjoy, and raised them to 
 the position they occupy ; that it is the 
 Lord's day which is the great, the ever- 
 lasting bulwark of human freedom. It is 
 that moral force which intelligence and vir- 
 
THE PEARL OF DAYS. 107 
 
 tue bestow upon a people, which unlooses 
 effectually the iron grasp of the oppressor ; 
 which makes their voice heard clearly and 
 distinctly in the legislation of their country, 
 and blots pernicious, partial, and unjust 
 laws out of the statute-book ; and it is, as 
 we have already seen, the knowledge of God 
 obtained from revelation, which awakens 
 man's dormant powers of mind, which leads 
 him onward and upward in virtue and intel- 
 ligence. 
 
 Deprive religion of its weekly rest, and 
 by what means is it to gain access to the 
 ears and to the understandings of work- 
 ing men, and their children ? When is it 
 to pour its light into their minds, and the 
 influence of devotion into their hearts ? 
 When shall the labourer study the book of 
 God, or working men gather together to hear, 
 not the teachings of erring man, but, with the 
 
108 THE PEARL OF DAYS. 
 
 Scriptures of truth in their hands, to listen 
 to the voice of that infallible Wisdom which 
 was with God when he laid the foundations 
 of the earth ? Shall it be after a day of labo- 
 rious exertion has rendered them unfit, by 
 exhaustion, for the close application of their 
 minds to any serious study ? Alas for the 
 advancement of the labouring portion of 
 the community in intelligence and morality ! 
 Alas for the refinement of manners, and the 
 cultivation of mind among them, if it is to 
 be left to such seasons ! So absolutely 
 essential to the well-being of man does the 
 Sabbath appear, whether viewed in rela- 
 tion to his eternal or his temporal interests, 
 that, could we suppose it possible for man, 
 destitute of the weekly rest, to become con- 
 scious of the wants of his own nature, we 
 should conclude that he would have insti- 
 tuted, of his own accord, a Sabbath for him- 
 
THE PEARL OF DAYS. 109 
 
 I 
 
 self. Those who, either for worldly gain or 
 the pursuit of pleasure, profane the sacred 
 hours of Sabbath rest, are not only despis- 
 ing one of the most important institutions 
 of religion, but they are doing what in them 
 lies to undermine one of the most enduring 
 defences of human liberty. 
 
 He who would take from the working man 
 his Sabbath, would take with it the mind- 
 awakening influence of religion ; would keep 
 the gate of knowledge, and forbid his en- 
 trance ; would throw an impassable barrier 
 in the way of his progress in civilization, and 
 leave him the slave of the despot, the tool of 
 the crafty politician, and the follower of the 
 superstitious zealot, or the religious impostor. 
 
 Let those, then, who would seek to transmit 
 to their children that liberty and those rights 
 for which their; fathers have struggled and 
 bled, rear them amidst Sabbath influences, 
 
 10 
 
[110 THE PEARL OF DAYS. 
 
 fill their minds with those subjects for the 
 study of which the weekly rest was insti- 
 tuted, and accustom them to Sabbath exer- 
 cises ; and, most assuredly, they will rise 
 above the oppression of the tyrant, see 
 through the devices of the crafty, the sub- 
 tlety of the sophist, and the deceit of the 
 impostor. 
 
 All the efforts which have ever been made 
 by the rude arnr of physical force, to rescue 
 mankind from oppression, have been utterly 
 futile ; and if any one will survey the state 
 of the nations at the present moment, he will 
 find the liberty and the privileges enjoyed 
 by the people, to be exactly proportioned to 
 the extent to which general intelligence and 
 the knowledge of the word of God are dif- 
 fused among them. What has the sword ever 
 effected for the redemption of mankind from 
 tyranny ? It may have wrenched power from 
 
THE PEARL OF DAYS. Ill 
 
 the hand of one party, but it has only been 
 to give it into the hand of another equally 
 liable to abuse it. Has it been torn from the 
 hand of a lawless and merciless despot ? It 
 has been given into the hands of an insolent 
 and brutal soldiery, or a superstitious mob, 
 who soon trampled under foot that liberty 
 which had been purchased for them with the 
 blood of their brethren. Every revolution 
 which has been effected by violence, affords 
 proof of this. 
 
 It has been the blood of the martyr the 
 patient endurance and unshaken fortitude 
 of him who would rather yield up liberty 
 and life itself, than deny the truth the 
 peaceable, but persevering and indefatiga- 
 ble missionary, whose exertions have been 
 devoted to the spread of the knowledge of 
 God among men, who, by introducing reli- 
 gion and its Sabbath, and bringing man into 
 
112 THE PEARL OF DAYS. 
 
 intercourse with his God, the great Lord 
 of all, to whom all are equally responsible, 
 the governed and the governor, the subject 
 and the prince, the servant and his master ; 
 and thus, by awakening in men a sense of 
 their personal responsibility, has aroused 
 their minds to activity. It is the knowledge 
 of their responsibility of the great truth 
 that all must stand before the judgment-seat 
 of Christ, to give, each one, an account of 
 the deeds done in the body which causes 
 men to think and act for themselves, and 
 thus raises them above the subtlety and 
 power of selfishness and ambition. 
 
 Although the Sabbath comes laden with 
 blessings for the sons of men, yet let it never 
 be forgotten, that he only whom the truth has 
 made free, he who has left the service of sin, 
 to become the Lord's free man, doing the will 
 of God from the heart, can fully appreciate 
 
THE PEARL OF DAYS. 113 
 
 or enjoy, not only its spiritual, but even its 
 merely temporal blessings. He who has 
 never tasted that God is good, who has never 
 in joyful confidence committed the salvation 
 of his soul into the hand of Jesus, will but 
 abuse its benefits, neglect its duties, and 
 despise its privileges. 
 
 How often does Monday morning give 
 painful evidence of the total uselessness of 
 the weekly rest to those who look upon it 
 merely as a day of rest from toil, and a sea- 
 son for recreation ! Even the rest they talk 
 of is thrown away, and they are jaded and 
 exhausted by folly and intemperance. Mon- 
 day finds them scarce fit for the labour of the 
 day : instead of the animal system being 
 refreshed and health improved, the body 
 is abused, and disease engendered ; while 
 among those who, though knowing nothing 
 of the living power of religion, yet influ- 
 
 10* 
 
114 THE PEARL OF DAYS. 
 
 enced by the customs and opinions of soci- 
 ety around them, show no small regard 
 for the Sabbath, how often are its blessed 
 influences almost entirely buried under- 
 neath the rubbish of mere ceremonial sanc- 
 tity ! No wonder, if childhood, sternly 
 commanded to assume the serious gravity 
 of age, through the long, weary, empty 
 hours of an inactive Sabbath, should imbibe 
 a deep-rooted dislike to religion and its Sab- 
 bath. No wonder, if, in families where it is 
 thus observed, the minds of the young should 
 become disaffected to that religion, of which 
 such an empty, gloomy institution is viewed 
 as a part ; that, having received such a false 
 idea of religion, they should plunge head- 
 long into the pleasures, follies, and vices of 
 the world, thinking that such lifeless and 
 gloomy exercises will better suit the weak- 
 ness and infirmity of age, than the fresh 
 

 THE PEARL OF DAYS. 115 
 
 and buoyant activity of youth ; and thus 
 reap the results of an irregular and intem- 
 perate life, in a shattered constitution and 
 depraved character. No wonder, if youth, 
 coming forth from the bosom of such fami- 
 lies, should be easily deluded by sophistry, 
 and, caught in the snares of scepticism, 
 should step into the ranks of unbelievers, 
 or sink to the fate of the criminal and the 
 vicious. 
 
 He who blessed the seventh day and 
 sanctified it, never meant that that day, 
 whose first morning beam fell upon the joyful 
 activity of a new and perfect creation ; whose 
 dawning light saw the Son of man arise 
 triumphant over death and the grave, should 
 be spent in listless, motionless silence, or in 
 soulless, meaningless ceremony. No; holy 
 its hours indeed are, sanctified, set apart ; 
 not however to solemn, gloomy, lifeless inac- 
 
116 THE PEARL OF DAYS. 
 
 tivity ; but hallowed to rest and refreshment, 
 sacred to joy, set a/ art to active, cheerful, 
 and strenuous exertion for the improvement 
 of ourselves and others in holiness, virtue, 
 and intelligence. Doubtless, thousands who 
 have never felt the power of the truth in an 
 awakened conscience and a renewed heart, 
 are reaping many and important benefits 
 from the Lord's-day, in the more general 
 diffusion of knowledge, and the advancement 
 of civilization, besides the comfortable rest 
 and refreshment it affords their bodies. But 
 they can only to a limited extent enjoy the 
 beneficial influence of the weekly rest, 
 whether viewed as increasing their enjoy- 
 ment in this present life, or as fitting them 
 for happiness hereafter. 
 
 While, then, considering it of the utmost 
 importance, that this day should be pre- 
 served from the encroachments of labour 
 
THE PEARL OF DAYS. 117 
 
 and amusement, that working men should 
 be protected by the law of their country in 
 the observance of it, and regarding it as of 
 paramount importance, that it be preserved 
 in its unimpaired sanctity as the birthright of 
 every Briton, I would earnestly, solemnly, 
 and affectionately, urge upon the attention of 
 those who, seeking the improvement of the 
 temporal condition of the labouring popula- 
 tion of our country, and aware of the pow- 
 erful influence which a proper observance of 
 the Sabbath would have in effecting their 
 elevation, are endeavouring to call the atten- 
 tion of the legislature to tho, subject, that, 
 here, legal enactments can do but little ; they 
 may put down, to some extent, the more 
 public and glaring forms of Sabbath profa- 
 nation, but this will only increase the 
 amount of secret desecration. Those who 
 have no heart for the proper observance of 
 
118 THE PEARL OF DAYS. 
 
 this day, may be prevented from spending 
 it in certain kinds of labour or amuse- 
 ment, railway travelling, pleasure excur- 
 sions, and such like : by being prevented 
 from enjoying themselves in such pursuits, 
 however, they will be driven into the secret 
 haunts of dissipation and vice ; and thus, 
 although it is no doubt well, that, where 
 wickedness cannot be eradicated, it should 
 be made ashamed to show its head, yet com- 
 paratively little good can be effected by the 
 civil ruler, in promoting the cause of Sab- 
 bath observance. I would entreat them to 
 bear in mind, that it is only the truths of the 
 Gospel imparting spiritual life, implanting 
 moral principle, bringing the will of man into 
 subjection to the will of his Creator, and 
 awakening the intellect, that can enable man 
 to reap that full harvest of temporal good 
 
THE PEARL OF DAYS. 119 
 
 from the weekly rest which it is so well 
 fitted to afford him. 
 
 -J Let, then, all who would see man 
 redeemed from ignorance and slavery, 
 vice and degradation all who would see 
 the working man refined in manners and 
 elevated in character and condition, exert 
 their utmost energy in the diffusion of 
 knowledge, in the education of youth, but 
 above all, in calling the attention of men to 
 Divine truth, to the glad tidings of salvation ; 
 and for this purpose let them rejoice in, and 
 employ the Sabbath as connected with reli- 
 gion, as affording time for spreading abroad 
 the knowledge of God : this is the lever 
 which is to lift man from the degradation of 
 the fall, and make him fit to be the inhabitant 
 of a new earth, wherein all the evils which 
 at present surround him shall be unknown. 
 What varied agencies is not the Sabbath 
 
120 THE PEARL OF DAYS. 
 
 calling into operation, to press forward and 
 give fresh impulse to the onward movement ! 
 Not only is the stolid mind of the untaught 
 workman aroused, impelling motive and un- 
 tiring energy imparted, to carry him on in the 
 upward path of self-improvement ; but the 
 sympathies of his nature are also awakened, 
 and, looking on the moral and intellectual 
 degradation, and the physical wretchedness 
 around him, his heart is yearning over his 
 fellow-men, and the weekly rest affording 
 him time, he is stretching out the hand of a 
 brother to those who are sunk in ignorance 
 and vice, he is pointing the upward path, 
 and stimulating to the upward movement. 
 See that young man, whose daily earnings, 
 perchance, are needful, not merely for his 
 own support, but it may be, for the 
 support of aged parents, or of young and 
 helpless brothers and sisters ; the circum- 
 
THE PEARL OF DAYS. 121 
 
 stances of whose early years had prevented 
 his enjoying more than the limited advan- 
 tages of a common grammar-school educa- 
 tion, or, perhaps, not even allowed of his 
 receiving so much as a common school edu- 
 cation, but whose knowledge has been 
 picked up in Sabbath classes, or at the 
 fireside of hard-working parents, whose 
 straitened circumstances required that even 
 in his boyhood he should strain every nerve 
 to assist them in supplying, by his labour, 
 the wants of a young and numerous family : 
 he is not only walking steadfastly and firmly 
 himself in the path of improvement, but 
 taking the lead, and urging on his fellow- 
 men, devoting his little hour of Sabbath 
 rest, and Sabbath leisure, not to mere 
 repose, or sensual indulgence, but gather- 
 ing his fellow-men around him that he may 
 reason with them out of the Scriptures, or 
 
 11 
 
122 THE PEARL OF DAYS. 
 
 calling together, for instruction, a class of 
 ragged, untrained children, or wending his 
 way to yonder wretched garret, or that damp 
 cellar, where want, disease, and vice have 
 taken up their abode together, that he may 
 ascertain why that squalid child was absent 
 from the Sabbath-school class, and drop a 
 word of encouragement to the boy, or address 
 a word of warning and entreaty to the parent's. 
 Who has not felt convinced, on viewing 
 scenes like these, agencies like these called 
 into operation, that it is the weekly rest 
 in the hands of living, active religion, which 
 is destined to reach the very lowest depths of 
 society, to lift humanity from the degrading 
 pollutions of vice, and from the servile de- 
 pendence and helplessness of ignorance ; 
 and that to take from the children of toil 
 the Lord's-day, were to take from them at 
 once the means of self-improvement, and 
 
THE PEARL OF DAYS. 123 
 
 also the opportunity of doing anything 
 towards the improvement of others? 
 
 Let those, then, who seek the elevation 
 and refinement of the labouring population, 
 do all that in them lies to spread among 
 them the knowledge of true religion and the 
 observance of the Sabbath. Science may 
 advance, art and philosophy instruct those 
 who have means and leisure for their study ; 
 but of what avail would they ever become 
 to labouring men, did not Religion by her 
 Sabbath open up the way for them ? Yes ; 
 Christianity is the pioneer, and they follow 
 in its footsteps. Besides, what is man, 
 with his moral nature unimproved ? His 
 intellect may be powerful and highly culti- 
 vated ; he may be learned in art and sci- 
 ence, acquainted with all the properties of 
 matter, and with every system of philosophy, 
 ancient and modern ; he may be capable of 
 
124 THE PEARL OF DAYS. 
 
 bringing creation, animate and inanimate, 
 into subserviency to his pleasure and con- 
 venience ; the lightnings of heaven may, at 
 his bidding, fly with his message ; and the 
 hidden treasures of the earth may come forth 
 to the light of day : at the command of art 
 and science, starting into motion, he may be 
 conveyed almost with the rapidity of thought, 
 to his desired destination ; fire, water, and 
 air, may accomplish his labour for him ; but, 
 if his religious feelings are dormant or mis- 
 directed, or if his moral nature is depraved, 
 he is but the more capacitated to spread 
 destruction and misery around him ; to be 
 miserable in himself, and a curse and a 
 scourge to mankind. He can use, with more 
 ability, the subtlety and the arts of the 
 impostor ; he can, with more dexterity, forge 
 or use weapons of war, or set armies in bat- 
 tle array ; or he may be a more able and 
 
THE PEARL OF DAYS. 125 
 
 dangerous leader in riot and insurrection ; 
 a more dexterous highwayman, robber, or 
 assassin ; but, without the cultivation of 
 his moral nature by religion, he is neither 
 fitted to receive happiness himself, nor im- 
 part it to others. 
 
 Religion not only awakens and culti- 
 vates man's intellect, it also subdues and 
 governs his animal propensities, exalts and 
 refines his moral feelings, and by doing so, 
 redeems him from much present suffering, 
 and opens to him inexhaustible treasures of 
 enjoyment in himself and others, impelling 
 him to exert all the energies of his nature, 
 not in seeking merely his own, but in securing 
 the well-being of his fellow-men, making him 
 more willing to impart than to exact, more 
 yielding than commanding, more ready, to 
 bear with, than to claim forbearance in a 
 word, writing upon his heart, in living char- 
 
 11* 
 
126 THE PEARL OF DAYS. 
 
 acters, the truth that it is more blessed to 
 give than to receive, and thus putting an end 
 to all strife, emulation, broils, and discord, 
 and war in every form, with all its attendant 
 miseries. 
 
 Yes ; let those who long for that blissful 
 period when men shall be united in one 
 universal brotherhood ; when peace shall 
 make her dwelling among them, and good- 
 will fill every heart ; when the reward of 
 the husbandman's toil the yellow fields of 
 waving grain shall no more be trampled 
 beneath the hoof of the war-horse, nor his 
 hard-won earnings wrung from his hand, to 
 keep in repair the machinery of war when 
 men shall no more study the art of destroying 
 each other, but shall beat their swords into 
 ploughshares, and their spears into pruning- 
 hooks ; let those who long for, and labour 
 to introduce this happy era, see in the Sab- 
 
THE PEARL OF DAYS. 127 
 
 bath the oil which is to still the waves of 
 human strife in its memorials, its influences, 
 its exercises, the links of that chain of love, 
 which is yet to bind heart to heart, from 
 one end of the earth to the other, and en- 
 circle the whole with an unbroken and ever- 
 lasting bond of union. 
 
 When men meet together on the first day 
 of the week, to break bread, to surround the 
 table of their Lord, to pass from hand to 
 hand the cup of blessing, to hear the words 
 and study the character of Him who, when 
 he was reviled, reviled not again ; when 
 he suffered, threatened not, but committed 
 himself to Him who judgeth righteously ; 
 when they, as the children of that God who 
 is by his love manifested in the gift of his 
 well-beloved Son, subduing the enmity of 
 his enemies and reconciling them to himself, 
 meet thus together on the first day of the 
 
128 THE PEARL OF DAYS. 
 
 week, not to hear the voice of a human 
 orator, nor to attend to the words of a falli- 
 ble instructor, but to gather around the 
 Scriptures of truth, the word of the living 
 and true God, to learn his will, that with 
 willing and ready feet, they may run in the 
 way of his commandments ; when they 
 study his character, as he there reveals 
 himself, that their moral nature may become 
 assimilated to his, that they may be like 
 their Father in heaven, who maketh his sun 
 to shine upon the evil and the good ; what 
 must be the result ? Who will hesitate to 
 say, were working men all to meet weekly, 
 thus to keep the Lord's-day .as appointed 
 by Himself, that soon the oppressor would 
 cease out of the land ; that intemperance, 
 ignorance, vice of all kinds, with all the 
 poverty, disease, and wretchedness, inse- 
 parably connected with them, would be for 
 
THE PEARL OF DAYS. 129 
 
 ever banished ; and peace, descending from 
 the skies, whither sin had caused her to take 
 her flight, again dwell with redeemed man? 
 
 And ever as we approach nearer and near- 
 er to such a use of the weekly rest ; and ever 
 as the circle widens of those who feel it not 
 their duty only, but their dearest, choicest 
 privilege, thus to spend and enjoy this day 
 do we approach more nearly to the long-pre- 
 dicted age of milennial glory, to the dawn of 
 the great Sabbath of the world, that Sabbath 
 of rest from sin and suffering, strife and 
 oppression, when the Lord himself shall 
 judge the nations in righteousness, when the 
 lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the 
 haughtiness of man shall be brought low, 
 and the Lord alone be exalted. 
 
 The Lord's-day can never be trifled with 
 but ai our peril. Like every appointment 
 of our benevolent Creator, it was instituted 
 
130 THE PEARL OF DAYS. 
 
 for the benefit of his creatures, wisely 
 adapted to fulfil its purpose ; and he who 
 sells its privileges for gain, or barters them 
 for pleasure, makes a poor bargain indeed. 
 Selfishness narrow, ungenerous, short- 
 sighted selfishness generally outwits itself ; 
 and this is especially the case with employ- 
 ers, who, regardless of the comfort, health, or 
 morality of the employed, engage them in 
 labour on this day, and thereby deprive them 
 of its benefits. The interests of employers 
 are inseparably connected with the well- 
 being of the employed. The labour of a 
 healthy, steady, honest, intelligent workman, 
 is of double value to that of him who cannot 
 be depended upon, whose moral principles 
 are unsound, or his habits irregular ; whose 
 mind is uncultivated, or his body debilitated 
 by disease. And those who engage men in 
 labour or business upon the first day of 
 
1 
 
 THE PEARL OF DAYS. 131 
 
 the week, may blame themselves, if, in a few 
 years, they find it difficult to have their 
 work well performed, and discover that their 
 property is far from being secure. 
 
 The Sabbath has, with beautiful propriety, 
 been called, " the poor man's day ;" and it 
 seems, indeed, peculiarly adapted to confer 
 important advantages upon him : not one of 
 these, however, is obtained at the expense 
 of the employers. Its blessings are suited 
 to all classes, but the working-classes more 
 especially require its provisions for their 
 happiness. If the servant, after a week of 
 labour, enjoys a day of rest, and appears in 
 the meeting of the disciples of Jesus, clean, 
 comfortably dressed, and respectable as his 
 master, it is, that, fresh and vigorous, he may 
 with hearty good-will enter upon the labours 
 of another week. A feeling of self-respect, 
 and a sense of moral obligation, raise him 
 
132 THE PEARL OF DAYS. 
 
 above eye-service, or anything like slight, 
 sluggish, or improper performance of labour; 
 a feeling which, though it cannot stoop to 
 cringing servility, would sooner brook dis- 
 respect than show it to another, whether 
 employer or fellow-servant ; and a sense of 
 moral obligation, whicji makes him faithful 
 in whatever he is entrusted with, enables 
 him to understand and claim his own rights, 
 and induces him without reserve, to give to 
 all others their due. 
 
 The Sabbath interferes with the interests 
 of none but those who live by the ignorance, 
 superstition, vice, and degradation of man- 
 kind ; those who have their wealth from 
 Babylon the great, who traffic in " slaves 
 and souls of men." 
 
 Let all, then, of every class and station, 
 examine this subject ; the more it is viewed 
 in the light of truth, the more its importance 
 
THE PEARL OF DAYS. 133 
 
 will appear. He who is desirous of the well- 
 being of his fellow-men, ought not, and can- 
 not consistently, pass it lightly by ; and even 
 he whose contracted mind looks only at his 
 personal interest, may not safely slight it. 
 
 12 
 

THE 
 
 Christian Union and Religious Memorial. 
 
 EDITED BY 
 
 REV. ROBERT BAIRD, D. D. 
 
 PUBLISHED MONTHLY, 
 
 AT TWO DOLLARS PER ANNUM, IN ADVANCE. 
 
 THIS magazine is devoted to the cause of Christian 
 Union among all Evangelical denominations, and its 
 great object will be to make the Church below more 
 like the Church above, by the infusion of that spirit of 
 Christian love and brotherly kindness which should 
 distinguish all the members of Christ's body, whatever 
 name they bear on earth. It will contain essays 
 on Christian union and collateral subjects, by some of 
 the best writers at home and abroad. 
 
 Another essential feature of our work will be a 
 monthly memorial or resume of the progress of religion 
 in all lands. We shall pay particular attention to mis- 
 sionary operations throughout the world, and keep our 
 readers acquainted with the progress of religion in 
 foreign countries by the various missionaries there em- 
 ployed. 
 
 Our foreign correspondence will be extensive and 
 various, and our readers will thus be kept informed of 
 the changes and progress of events in Europe. 
 
 Although we shall keep clear of discussions on doc- 
 trinal points, we shall feel at full liberty to animadvert 
 
THE CHRISTIAN UNION, 
 
 freely on whatever we may deem errors in practice, 
 wherever they may exist. At the same time, we shall 
 advocate, with all our powers, every time Christian 
 reform which shall tend to improve and elevate man- 
 kind. 
 
 Our work has already received the highest commenda- 
 tions, and our arrangements will enable us to make con- 
 siderable improvements the coming year. 
 
 SAMUEL HUESTON, 
 
 139 Nassau street. 
 
 RECOMMENDATIONS. 
 
 The Christian Union and Religious Memorial, edited 
 by DR. BAIRD, is a rich repository of valuable matter, 
 statistical and historical, bearing upon the interests of 
 religion in all parts of the world. N. Y. Observer. 
 
 It breathes the spirit of Christianity, and contains no- 
 tices of the progress of Christ's kingdom among the differ- 
 ent branches of the Church. Conducted by DR. BAIRD 
 and his able associates, it cannot fail to do great good. 
 Its view of foreign Churches is peculiarly valuable, from 
 the Dr.'s long residence in Europe. Lutheran Observer. 
 
 Under the supervision of the Rev. DR. BAIRD, the 
 Christian Union is becoming a highly valuable publica- 
 tion, and will, no doubt, obtain an extensive circulation. 
 The principles of Christian Union, as advocated by the 
 editor, are such as all evangelical denominations may 
 unite in, without sacrificing any peculiar principles of 
 their own. Christian Secretary. 
 
THE CHRISTIAN UNION AND RELIGIOUS MEMORIAL. 
 
 It is a precious monthly, published by S. Hueston, 
 139 Nassau street, New York. Christian Intelligencer. 
 
 We deem the Union an important auxiliary in spread- 
 ing a knowledge of the condition and prospects of reli- 
 gious denominations a knowledge, which, we are sorry 
 to say, is not as extensively cultivated as it should be, 
 either by the ministry or the private members of the 
 church. S. W. Baptist Chronicle. 
 
 Every bishop, minister, elder, deacon and class-leader 
 should have this valuable monthly. Christians of eveiy 
 name must unite against the works of darkness, banish 
 for ever their little sectarianisms, or the world cannot be 
 saved. Golden Rule. 
 
 The statistical information furnished by this publica- 
 tion, and its notices in a comprehensive view and per- 
 manent form, of the manifestations and progress of the 
 Church of Christ in all lands, render it valuable and 
 worthy of patronage. Southern Christian Advocate. 
 
 The missionary and statistical information upon its 
 pages must render it of great value as a book of refer- 
 ence, while its essays and discussions combine much to 
 interest and instruct the serious mind. Its catholic 
 spirit entitles it to the confidence of Christians of every 
 name. REV. B. T. WELCH, 
 
 Pastor of the Pearl St. Baptist church, Albany, N. Y. 
 
 Each number of the work contains 64 
 closely printed royal octavo pages, and 
 will form a yearly volume of 768 pages. 
 
HEAVEN'S ANTIDOTE 
 CURSE OF* LABOR: 
 
 Or the Temporal Advantages of the Sabbath to the 
 
 Working Classes. 
 
 BY JOHN ALLAN QUINTON. 
 
 With a Prefatory Notice by Rev. Stephen H. Tyng, D.D. 
 
 This beautiful Essay on the Sabbath, from the pen of a 
 journeyman printer, of Ipswich, England, received the first 
 prize which was offered by Mr. Henderson, of Glasgow, 
 for essays on that subject by working men. The fact that 
 it was selected for the first prize, out of 1045 compositions, 
 must be sufficient proof of its merit. The American edition 
 contains a very interesting preface by Dr. Tyng. It is illus- 
 trated, neatly bound in clolh, and is sold for 37 cents. 
 
 NOTICES OF THE PRESS. 
 
 " It is a manly, direct, and most conclusive presentation 
 of the temporal benefits of observing the Sabbath, which 
 we should suppose no one could peruse without a definite 
 impression. It should especially reach laboring men its 
 strong sense and clear logic are finely suited to make an im- 
 pression upon the popular mind." 'New York Evangelist. 
 
 " The work should be scattered broadcast over the laud." 
 Protestant Churchman. 
 
 "The treatise considers the advantages of the Sabbath 
 under the heads of Physical, Mercantile, Intellectual, Do- 
 mestic, Moral, and Religious. The author does not write 
 theoretically, but from personal experience ; and no work- 
 ing man can read his essay without feeling that the Sabbath 
 is one of the greatest temporal blessings. We trust that the 
 volume will have a wide circulation among all classes in our 
 own country; for all need its salutary counsels. It is writ- 
 ten iri a very attractive style, and neatly printed." Indepen 
 dent. 
 
 " This is a strong, clear, and admirable essay on the Tem- 
 poral Advantages of the Sabbath, considered in relation to 
 the working classes." Courier and Enquirer. 
 
 JUST PUBLISHED BY 
 
 S. HUESTON, 138 NASSAU-ST., NEW YORK. 
 
BOWLING'S CONFERENCE HYMNS. 
 
 A NEW COLLECTION OF HYMNS, 
 
 DESIGNED ESPECIALLY FOR USB IN 
 
 Conference anb Jprauer Jtteetings, 
 
 AND FAMILY WORSHIP. 
 
 BY J. DOWLINO, D.D. 
 
 THB design of the present compilation is, in the first place, 
 to add to the life and spirituality of the Conference and the Prayer 
 Meeting; and, secondly, to be an acceptable pocket companion to 
 the Christian, in the family or in the closet. 
 
 From most of the Conference hymn books which the editor 
 has examined, a large number of devotional pieces, cherished in 
 the memory and the hearts of the fathers and mothers in our 
 American Zion, have been excluded ; probably because the poe- 
 try was not regarded as of a sufficiently high order of excellence. 
 The opinion of the present editor is, that sacred songs, embodying 
 scriptural sentiments and genuine religious experience when not 
 objectionable on the score of vulgarity or grammatical in accu- 
 racyshould not be discarded because they fail to stand the test 
 of a rigid poetical censorship. 
 
 To mention a few of the favorite pieces omitted in some recent 
 collections, many Christians will at once recognize the following, 
 associated as some of them are with their sweetest seasons of holy 
 religious enjoyment: "Sweet land of rest, for thee I sigh" 
 " Whither goest thou, pilgrim stranger" " The Lord into his 
 garden comes 1 ' " Farewell, dear friends, I must be gone" 
 " Amen, amen, my soul replies" " Come, my brethren, let us try" 
 1 Vain, delusive world, adieu" " O come, my loving neigh' 
 
 of this world's vain store" " To-day, if you 
 " Beside the gospel pool" " The Good Old Way," commenc- 
 cing, " Lift up your heads, Immanuel's friends" " The Harvest 
 Home," commencing, " This is the field, the world below" " The 
 Bower of Prayer" ''The Saints' Sweet Home" and Newton's 
 
 and, '-The Lord will provide," commencing, " Though troubles 
 assail and dangers affright." 
 
 One great motive in the present work was to restore, for the 
 nse of the Editor's own congregation and of such others as desire 
 them, the above, and a number of similar devotional and familiar 
 " Sacred Songs," omitted in some recent Conference hymn books. 
 
 l3r" Copies for examination furnished gratis to post-paid ap- 
 plications unbound copies sent by mail. 
 
 Published by EDWARD H. FLETCHER, 
 141 Nassau Street, N. Y. 
 
CHEAP CASH BOOK STORE, 
 
 EDWARD H. FLETCHER, 
 
 No* 14:1 Nassau street, 
 
 NEW YORK. 
 
 Has constantly on hand, at wholesale and retail, a general 
 assortment of Theological, Classical, Miscellaneous, School 
 and Blank Books and Stationery. 
 
 A complete Depository of SABBATH SCHOOL BOOKS. 
 
 Booksellers, Traders, Teachers, Schools, Academies and 
 Individuals supplied, wholesale and retail, on the most lib- 
 eral terms. 
 
 Religious books of every variety which are to be found 
 in the market, may be obtained here at the very lowest 
 prices. 
 
 SECOND-HAND BOOKS. 
 
 Valuable Standard Theological and other Books from 
 private libraries will be sold at a fraction of the price of 
 new. 
 
 MARRIAGE CERTIFICATES, 
 
 A new and beautiful article, with a silver border, sam- 
 ples of which will be sent gratis to post-paid applications. 
 Published by 
 
 EDWARD H. FLETCHER, 
 
 No. 141 Nassau street. 
 
THE copartnership heretofore existing between the Sub- 
 scribers, under the firm of LEWIS COLBY & COM- 
 PANY, is this day dissolved by mutual consent, All ac- 
 counts will be settled by Lewis Colby, who is authorized 
 to use the name of the firm in liquidation. 
 
 LEWIS COLBY. 
 EDWARD H. FLETCHER. 
 New York, September 5th, 1848. 
 
 CIRCULAR, 
 
 The subscriber respectfully announces to his friends and 
 the public that he has opened a store at 141 Nassau street, 
 where he will continue the same line of the BOOKSELL- 
 ING and PUBLISHING business which has been pur- 
 sued by the late firm. 
 
 Having been regularly bred to the business, added to 
 which is his experience in the late concern from its com- 
 mencement, he feels confident that he can offer to his patrons 
 advantageous terms. 
 
 The primary object of this establishment will be the pub- 
 lication and sale of Religious Books. 
 
 A large assortment "of Sabbath School Books will be 
 kept, and to this department much attention will be paid. 
 If Sabbath Schools, wishing to replenish their libraries, or 
 to purchase new ones, will forward their funds, and a list 
 of such books as they already have, their orders will re- 
 ceive prompt attention, and the selection will be carefully 
 made. 
 
 Also will be kept, School and Blank Books, and Sta- 
 tionery of -every variety Sermon Paper, Marriage Certifi- 
 cates, &c. 
 
 FOREIGN BOOKS imported, for a small commission. 
 
 {Pif" A liberal discount will be made to Booksellers, 
 Ministers, and Teachers. 
 
 EDWARD H. FLETCHER. 
 
 New York, September 23d, 1848. 
 
THE 
 
 BAPTIST SABBATH SCHOOL 
 
 HYMN BOOK. 
 
 A NEW edition of this work, which was compiled by 
 Rev. JOSEPH A. WABNE, has just been issued. It con- 
 tains five hundred hymns, in fair type, and is well printed. 
 
 Extract from the Preface. 
 
 "The denomination for whose use this volume is prepared, is 
 one of the most numerous in the land ; and one which therefore 
 may claim, as justly as any other, to have a volume of hymns for 
 use in its Sabbath Schools, all of which shall be such as may be 
 employed without doing violence to its denominational peculiar- 
 ities, or covertly undermining its foundations ; and if there is such 
 a collection in existence, the compiler has not been so fortunate 
 as to meet with it. 
 
 " Sabbath Schools have, of late years (and long may it continue 
 to be so), been favored with the special grace of the Spirit of God ; 
 and great numbers, from their classes, have been led to profess 
 publicly their attachment to the Redeemer. It. need not be said 
 that a volume of Hymns, compiled on the principle of merging all 
 denominational peculiarities, could not admit into its pages hymns 
 on the subject of baptism. But need Baptist schools be thus re- 
 stricted 1 Surely not : and though our books of hymns used in 
 public worship contain those adapted to this ordinance, they are 
 yet generally both quite limited in their number and quite defi- 
 cient in allusion to the early age of those candidates who are from 
 the Sabbath School, and who often constitute a majority of the 
 whole number. This volume contains several hymns on this 
 subject, not found in books in common use in this vicinity, in 
 New England, or, it is believed, in the South or West generally." 
 
 |^" Copies for examination furnished gratis to post- 
 paid applications. 
 
 EDWARD H. FLETCHER, 
 
 Publisher, 
 
 141 NASSAU ST., N. YORK. 
 

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