out the fourth commandment the other nine would all probably be neglected. You said, too, that when the Holy Spirit writes God's law on the hearts of christians, he writes the fourth commandment as plainly as either of the ten; and that this is strange if the fourth commandment ceased to be binding on men eighteen hundred years ago.

EVENING IV.

SABBATH BINDING ON ALL.

Mother, said Charles, as soon as they were seated, as usual, around the table the next Sabbath evening, Thomas Bradish wanted me to go out into the woods with him to-day, after we got through Sabbath school, and pick up some chesnuts.

Mrs. M. What did you tell him?

Charles. I told him that it was wicked, mother. Mrs. M. And what did Thomas Bradish say to that?

Charles. He said that nobody would know it, if it was wicked. But I told him God would see us, and be very angry with us, and I would not go with him.

Mrs. M. And what did Thomas say then? Charles. He said that I was frightened by what my mother told me about the Sabbath. He said his mother never talked to him about keeping the Sabbath, and if she did he would not be so foolish as to mind her.

Mrs. M. Thomas Bradish is a very wicked boy to talk so, and I fear he will come to no good end. But did Thomas go into the woods after chesnuts?

Charles. Yes, mother, I saw him and another boy, going across the fields, toward the mountain, just as the bell began to ring for meeting.

Mrs. M. Do you think, Charles, that Thomas Bradish and the other boy would have dared to go to Mount Sinai, and climb up into the trees after chesnuts, if there had been any there, when the dark clouds were all around the top of the mountain, and the lightnings were flashing thick, and the thunder roaring very loud, and God was commanding the people to remember the Sabbath-day to keep it holy?

Charles. No, mother, he would have been terrified, as the Israelites were, and wanted to fly as far from the mountain as he could.

Mrs. M. But, Charles, God was as near, when Thomas Bradish went to get chesnuts on the mountain, to-day, as he was to the people of Israel when he came down on Mount Sinai, and gave the fourth commandment. And though it did not thunder

and lighten, and though Thomas Bradish did not hear any voice from the top of the mountain, telling him to remember the Sabbath-day to keep it holy, God was just as angry as he would have been if Thomas Bradish had gone to Mount Sinai to look for fruit, on the next Sabbath after God gave the ten commandments to Israel.

Here Mrs. M. was called to the door;-when she returned she said,

You ought to be very thankful, Charles, that you did not go with Thomas Bradish and break the Sabbath to-day. He fell down from a tree this afternoon, and was almost killed.

Charles. Did he, mother?

Mrs. M. I have just heard so. One of his neighbors has come, in haste, to get your father to go and dress his wounds. The man said, that Thomas and the other boy wandered over the mountain till almost night, without finding many chesnuts. There had not been frost enough to open the burs. At last they came to a high tree which was loaded with chesnuts. They tried to beat them off with clubs and long poles, but they could not get many in that way. So Thomas said he would climb up into the tree, and shake some off. The other boy told him he had better not, for the branches were slender and would easily break. But Thomas said he would not come so far, and look so long, and go home without any chesnuts in

his pockets. So he climbed up into the tree and began to shake. He went out too far on one of the limbs, and it broke. Thomas caught hold of another limb, but that broke too, and he fell to the ground. He was hurt badly, and if he escapes with his life, he must be very thankful.

Susan. I am glad that our mother tells us to keep the Sabbath, are not you, Charles?

Mrs. M. Children are very apt to think their parents make them keep the Sabbath too strictly. But Thomas Bradish will wish, to-night, that his mother had taught him to observe the Sabbath better. Poor boy! I hope he will learn from this accident to "remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy;" and I hope, too, that his mother will learn to be more faithful in giving good advice to her children.

Charles. Are there not more people wounded and killed on the Sabbath than on any other day?

Mrs. M. A great many accidents happen on the Sabbath. I see some mentioned in the newspapers almost every week. I think there are more, in proportion to the number of people employed in labor, and in amusements, and on excursions of pleasure, than on other days.

There is something striking in the many accidents that happen on the Sabbath. It would be dreadful to be taken out of the world while violating one of the commandments of God.

George. But, mother, uncle John says, that the accidents which happen on the Sabbath would happen, in the same circumstances, on any other day. He says accidents are no proof that God is angry with those who break the fourth commandment, or that it is still binding.

Mrs. M. I know, my son, that this is not a world in which God rewards men, fully, according to what they do; and that we ought to be cautious how we think God is more angry with men who meet with accidents and misfortunes, than he is with others. But the Bible tells us that God in former days sometimes cut down men suddenly when they were guilty of great sins. When God did so, he was said to punish men by special judgments. When we see similar things happening now, we cannot tell that he does not punish men in the same way. The best people in the world have thought that God sometimes punishes, now, by special judgments, those who are very bold and daring in sin. When, for example, a profane person dies, instantly, with an oath on his tongue, they think that if the reason of his sudden death was given, as the reason for the death of some wicked men is given in the Bible, it would appear that God cut him down, by a special judgment, for his profaneness.

Your uncle John says that the same accidents would happen, in similar circumstances, on any