Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1835, by LEAVITT, LORD, & Co. in the Clerk's office of the District Court for the Southern District of New-York.

Right of publishing transferred to the American Tract Society.

PREFACE.

The children and youth of the present generation will, without doubt, have to decide whether the Sabbath shall be preserved to our country, as a day holy to the Lord. Ought they not, then, to know the nature and value of this institution, and the dangers which threaten its existence? However others may feel, the author must regard this subject as one respecting which the young ought to be faithfully and fully instructed. If, with a fair view of the design of the Sabbath; of the authority by which it is established; and of its close connection with the interests and eternal destinies of men, the youth of our country shall say, "Let the Sabbath cease to be holy, let it be a day of dissipation and merriment," we should weep over their decision. But, having set before them their duty, we should still have the satisfaction of feeling that we have done what we could to prevent this calamitous result.

It has been the design of the author, in the following pages, to employ such language and modes of illustration as shall render the subject not only intelligible, but interesting to the young. At the same time, he has kept in view persons of more advanced age; and he indulges the hope that what he has written may not be unprofitable to readers of this class.