revered and
sustained. One of the principal occupations of this day is to illustrate
and enforce the great principles of sound morality. Where this sacred
trust is preserved inviolate, you behold a nation convened one day in
seven for the purpose of acquainting themselves with the best moral
principles and precepts; and it can not be otherwise than that the
authority of moral virtue, under such auspices, should be acknowledged and
felt.

We may not, at once, perceive the effects which this weekly observance
produces. Like most moral causes, it operates slowly; but it operates
surely, and gradually weakens the power and breaks the yoke of profligacy
and sin. No villain regards the Sabbath. No vicious family regards the
Sabbath. No immoral community regards the Sabbath. The holy rest of this
ever-memorable day is a barrier which is always broken down before men
become giants in sin. Blackstone, in his Commentaries on the Laws of
England, remarks that "a corruption of morals usually follows a
profanation of the Sabbath." It is an observation of Lord Chief Justice
Hale, that "of all the persons who were convicted of capital crimes, while
he was on the bench, he found a few only who would not confess that they
began their career of wickedness by a neglect of the duties of the Sabbath
and vicious conduct on that day."

The prisons in our own land could probably tell us that they have scarcely
a solitary tenant who had not broken over the restraints of the Sabbath
before he was abandoned to crime. You may enact laws for the suppression
of immorality, but the secret and silent power of the Sabbath constitutes
a stronger shield to the vital interest of the community than any code of
penal statutes that ever was enacted. The Sabbath is the keystone of the
arch which sustains the temple of virtue, which, however defaced, will
survive many a rude shock so long as the foundation remains firm.

The observance of the Sabbath is also most influential in securing
national prosperity. The God of Heaven has said, "Them that honor me I
will honor," You will not often find a notorious Sabbath breaker a
permanently prosperous man; and a Sabbath-breaking community is never a
happy or prosperous community. There is a multitude of unobserved
influences which the Sabbath exerts upon the temporal welfare of men. It
promotes the spirit of good order and harmony; it elevates the poor from
want; it transforms squalid wretchedness; it imparts self-