who are formed in a softer mould, who are blessed with finer feelings and purer sentiments, it must be greatly influential. How is it possible for those who are endowed with ordinary sensibility, to behold the holy preparations of the sabbath without some serious thoughts arising in the mind? The noise of rustic labour ceases, the din of mercantile tumult is hushed, the shops and marts of business are closed, and the opened gates of the temples of our God invite the multitudes who crowd the streets to assemble in the consecrated precincts. Who can witness so many human beings congregating together for the purpose of divine worship, without feeling a desire to join in paying adoration to the Sovereign Lord? He who can be a cold and unmoved spectator of thousands of his fellow-creatures assembling to celebrate their Creator's praise, must possess a heart but little susceptible of any gentle and virtuous impulse.

"I have often heard it remarked," says an eloquent writer, " by Christians of a serious and devout disposition, to whom the sacred day of rest had become, through habit and principle, a season of hallowed delight, that it seemed to their eyes as if, on the sabbath, the sun did shine more bright, the works of God appear more beautiful, the fields more fresh, the flowers more sweet, and all the face of nature to wear an unusual and a

fitting stillness. It is not that the sun does shine more bright, or that the fields are indeed more

more sweet upon this than

fresh, or the flowers upon any other day. It is only that we are apt to think thus, because our minds are attuned to order, and to piety, and to contemplation. It is because our hearts are harmonized by the general repose and regularity around us. We look upon the joyful countenance of man, we hear no strife, we see no sorrow; labour is at an end, quietness is upon the scene, and our affections are weaned from earthly, and fixed upon heavenly things. The goodness of God and the beauty of holiness force themselves into our thoughts, and in the fulness of the feeling we almost fancy that the inanimate creation has been taught to sympathize with the benevolence of our souls, and to remember, like ourselves, the sabbath of God. This is mere imagination; but then it is a godly imagination, and, God forbid, that by pointing out the cause of the delusion, I should rob the amiable mind of any Christian of a pleasing sentiment which he would wish to cherish, and which cannot possibly be productive of any evil effects "."

These feelings, indeed, depend much upon the strength of imagination, and constitutional sensibility, and cannot, therefore, be laid down as a test whereby it may be known whether the heart h Benson, Hulsean Lectures for 1820, Disc. 16.

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has a proper relish of spiritual things. Many sincere Christians there doubtless are who have never been touched by feelings of this description; yet they are so allied to piety and virtue that the bosom in which they dwell will rarely be a stranger to the sentiments of religion. Permit me, then, to address a few questions to those into whose hands these pages may fall. Have you felt no emotion of delight when present at the consecrated rites of religion? Have you heard the bell's solemn invitation to Church without a wish to unite with your brethren in prayer and thanksgiving? Have you witnessed the quiet of the town, the tranquillity of the village on the sabbath morn, and not felt your bosoms swell with philanthropic joy? Have you beheld the rustics assembling from the scattered hamlets, or the city's throng crowding to the temples of the Lord, and not winged a thought to Heaven? If you have done this, look well into your hearts, for there is some cause to suspect that all is not right within. To be unmoved with what is most calculated to move, to be unaffected with what is best adapted to affect, generally, it must not be said always, bespeaks the callousness of a heart as yet unsoftened by religion. If it be found upon examination to proceed, not from constitutional apathy, but from carnal insensibility to divine things, rouse your dormant powers; awake

from your spiritual lethargy; apply to the instituted means of grace, and the commencement of a Christian course will be the commencement of new views, warmer affections, and brighter hopes, Those holy offices, once your aversion and distaste, will become your most transporting delight. Ere long you will be glad when they say unto you, Let us go into the house of the Lord; and the morning which ushers in the sabbath will wake you to enjoyment, because it will wake you to the service of your God.

Let the careless and the gay, arising from their dream of levity, bestow a few moments to seriousness and reflection. Such not unfrequently have minds acutely sensitive, which only require proper culture to glow with the warmest feelings of devotion. There are those among them whose thoughts are dissipated by the world's allurements, while their hearts are strangers to base principles, who are giddy through health and fortune rather than corrupt, and who have a native bent to the sedate virtues which they neglect. Let such be invited to pause, to contemplate with attention the sabbatical observances, and their minds will probably be roused from the slumber of indifference. Theirs is not the soul to remain untouched by that which is so well fitted to call forth the deepest interest; nor is theirs the heart that can witness the orisons of piety without catching some por

tion of its fervour. Impelled by the excitement of the moment to join the congregation of the faithful, the virtuous impression may be confirmed, and a transitory emotion converted into a permanent habit of religion.

Say not that these are visionary notions, the day-dreams of one who suffers his reason to be led away by a heated imagination. The customs `and solemnities connected with the seventh-day festival must operate with some efficacy; and most minds of the ordinary construction can, from experience, attest their influence. Numbers, it is true, behold with frigid indifference the rites and ceremonies which are wisely ordained to hallow the Lord's-day. They make no impression upon hearts hardened with vice, or a benumbing attachment to the world. Yet though often disregarded, they are often effectual, often the happy means of recalling wandering souls to the worship and service of God. The children of idleness and levity are lured to the sacred ordinances, in attending which the good seed that is sown not unfrequently takes root, and through the divine mercy shooting up, bears the acceptable fruits of righteousness and peace. Instances there are, and not very uncommon, of those who.coming to mock, remained to pray; and thousands can testify that their first serious impressions were received in the courts of the Lord's house,