EVENING VI.

SABBATH NECESSARY FOR THE BODY.

Susan. How beautifully the fire burns in the grate this evening, mother.

Mrs. M. Yes, my dear, this is a beautiful world we live in, and how well fitted one thing is to another.

Susan. What do you mean, mother?

Mrs. M. If that coal in the grate were as hard as stone, it would not give out heat enough to do us any good. And then, again, if it gave out a hundred times more heat, I suppose it would melt the grate. It is as well fitted as it can be to the grate, and to our wants.

Susan. But God did not make the grate, did he, mother?

Mrs. M. No, a man made the grate, but God made the iron of which it is formed.

How well fitted the ground is to our use! If it was as soft as a marsh, we could not walk about upon it. And if it was hard as a rock, we could not plough it, and get grain and vegetables to eat. And how well fitted the cattle are to our wants. If they were no larger than sheep, they would not have strength enough to draw carts and logs. And if they were fifty or sixty feet long, as some ani

mals were, whose bones are now and then found, they would be so large that we could not manage them. If the cows were ten or fifteen feet high, how inconvenient it would be to milk them; and if the handsome colt which your father gave George the other day should grow to be as tall as one of the cherry-trees in our fruit garden, how could George ever contrive to mount upon his back?

And the light, too, how well fitted it is for the eye! It goes two hundred thousand miles in a second. Light is matter, as much as a table is matter -only it is made up of very, very little particles. But if the particles of light were as large as the point of a needle, moving so swiftly, they would batter out our eyes every time we open our eyelids. I could not look a minute at my dear Susan without losing my sight. How well fitted one thing is to another in this beautiful world which God has made, and how well fitted every thing is to the use of man!

Susan. O how glad I am light is so well fitted to our eyes, that I can look at my dear mother and not be made blind, as my cousin Jane is!

Mrs. M. You ought to be quite as glad that God has made the Sabbath-for it is just as well fitted for man, as the light is to the eye. And this is what we will converse about this evening. I shall try to show you the fitness of the Sabbath to man's nature and condition.

George. Do you expect, mother, to show that the Sabbath is fitted for man's use, as the light is to the eye, or the size of oxen and horses to our strength?

Mrs. M. Certainly I do, George. Why should there not be such a fitness? Why should we not expect it? For God, who made the light for our eyes, and oxen for our use, also made the Sabbath for man! I think we might expect to find the Sabbath perfectly fitted for man's use, perfectly suited to his wants and condition.

George. I shall be glad to have you show this, mother; for uncle John said, the other day, it was a useless waste of time. He said that if a man lived to be seventy years old, and kept every Sabbath, it would amount to ten years. This, he said, was a great deal of time; and his life was already too short to have so long a piece cut off from it.

Mrs. M. And what did you tell him?

George. I told him I did not believe he would gain any thing by breaking the Sabbath; and that though I could not answer his objection then, I hoped I should be able to answer it before my mother had finished her conversations about the Sabbath.

Mrs. M. Does your uncle John ever sleep any? George. Sleep, mother! Why, he must sleep every night like other people. And besides that, he sleeps some every day; for the last time I went to see him I found him asleep. He said, while he

sat in his easy chair rubbing his eyes, that I was young and vigorous now, but when I was as old as he, I should find a short nap after dinner a very comfortable thing.

Mrs. M. I suppose your uncle John sleeps, then, about eight hours in a day. This is a great deal to take out every day from the time of one whose life is so short! At this rate he would spend one-third of his short life in sleep-what a waste!

George. But, mother, men must sleep, they cannot help it.

Mrs. M. I know it, my son; but this does not show that sleep is any more fitted to the nature of man than the Sabbath is. Nor does it show that it is less a waste of time to sleep, than to keep the Sabbath. It only shows that a man can get along awhile without keeping the Sabbath better than he can without sleeping. But it does not show that in the end he will not suffer from violating the Sabbath, as really as he would from want of sleep. If your uncle John were kept from sleeping three or four nights at a time, he would suffer for it immediately. He would break one of the laws of his nature, for God has made him so that he needs sleep, and he would be punished at once. If he were to keep no Sabbath for three or four years, but work hard every day, he would also break a law of his nature, as he did by not sleeping,-for God has made him so that his body needs the Sab

bath. And I think he would suffer for it; he would be punished for it as really as he was punished for not sleeping, only the punishment would be longer in coming. He would grow old faster than if he rested on the Sabbath. He would wear out sooner. This would be one part of his punishment.

George. What makes you think, mother, that God has made men so that their bodies need the rest of the Sabbath as really as their bodies need sleep?

Mrs. M. Because I have the same kind of evidence that men need rest on the Sabbath, as that they need sleep. What evidence have you that men need sleep?

George. Every body sleeps,-and besides, when any one's rest is broken for several nights, he suffers for it. And those who should be often broken of their rest would not live as long as if they slept soundly every night.

Mrs. M. Well, George, I have the same kind of evidence that men need to rest on the Sabbath. When they rest on the Sabbath, they are more vigorous than when they do not rest. They are more healthy. They can do more work, for they are stronger, and they live longer.

George. If this is so, mother, then the Sabbath is indeed fitted for man's use, as much as light is fitted for the eye.

Mrs. M. It is said by writers on slavery, that the