the people in this country are not as wretched as the people were in the Sandwich Islands, is that we have the Gospel and they had it not.

The Gospel has given us good laws to guard our property when we get it, and so we have some encouragement to work. The Sandwich Islanders were without good laws, because they were without the Gospel. But no nation can have the Gospel and good laws without the Sabbath. You might as well look for rain without clouds. If your uncle John says again that it is a burden to the poor to keep the Sabbath, ask him to tell you why the people of the Sandwich Islands are so poor?

I have been anxious to show you, this evening, as clearly as I am able, the use of the Sabbath in refreshing the weary bodies of laboring men and beasts; for some persons, who deny that the Sabbath was instituted by God, if they will not keep it as he commands, may at least be restrained by such a motive from disturbing the rest of others. Still, as I shall show you before we close our conversations, mere rest is not the highest use of the Sabbath. To those that observe it aright, it is the emblem and pledge of a more glorious rest. Never forget this, my children. Never let the shadows of Saturday evening gather around you, without thinking of the rest and peace of heaven. I never feel so near to another world, and so much as if time was melting into eternity, as when the sun, at

the close of the week, setting behind the western hills, reminds me that another Sabbath is coming to release my hands and thoughts from the objects of earth, and to welcome my spirit home to God. Do you remember, George, the lines on Saturday Evening" which I gave you a few weeks agc? George.

"Sweet is the last, the parting ray,

"That ushers placid evening in ;
"When, with the still, expiring day,
"The Sabbath's peaceful hours begin.
"How grateful to the anxious breast
"The sacred hours of holy rest!

"Hush'd is the tumult of the day,

"And worldly cares and business cease;
"While soft the vesper breezes play,
"To hymn the glad return of peace.
"Delightful season! kindly given

"To turn the wandering thoughts to heaven.

• Oft as this peaceful hour shall come,

Lord, raise my thoughts from earthly things "And bear them to my heavenly home,

"On faith and hope's celestial wings,

"Till the last gleam of life decay,
"In one eternal Sabbath-day!"

EVENING VII.

SABBATH NECESSARY FOR THE MIND.

Mrs. M. My dear children, last Sabbath evening we saw how admirably fitted the Sabbath is to the human body. Now let us see if it is as well fitted to the human mind.

I think you told me, George, that your vacation is to begin next Wednesday, and last a fortnight? George. Yes, mother, and I am glad of it; for I am almost tired of studying, and wish to rest for a while.

Mrs. M. Perhaps your uncle John would consider this a useless waste of time.

George. If he were as young as he was once, and as I am now, I do not believe he would think So. Do you think our vacation is a useless waste of time, mother?

Mrs. M. No, my son. I have always noticed nat you love to study better, and make more progress after vacation than before. The mind, so long as it is connected with the body, must have seasons for resting. I know some people wonder how any one can be tired who has nothing to do but sit still and study. But the mind tires as well as the body; or rather, I ought to say, the brain gets tired of thinking, as much as the arms get tired of working. I suppose angels are never tired; and

when we get a spiritual body we shall not, perhaps, ever become weary by thinking and feeling.

Hard and long study, so physicians tell us, excites the brain and makes the blood flow to it more rapidly, and in larger quantity than at other times. The brain becomes heated, and the head often feels full and pressed. The blood inclines to rush to the brain constantly, and, if care is not taken in season, the man may become insane, and at last be a confirmed maniac. He did not stop thinking so soon as he ought. Perhaps he did not stop on the Sabbath, but kept thinking about his studies as on other days.

I read, not long since, in the life of Sir Isaac Newton, how he discovered the law of gravitation, or what makes all bodies, when thrown up into the air, fall to the ground, and what binds the moon to the earth, and the earth to the sun, and all parts of the world together. He had been thinking and studying hard a good while, and wishing very much to find out what made the apple fall to the ground, as he lay under an apple-tree in his garden. When he began to be almost sure that he should discover what he was seeking, he was so agitated and became so nervous that he durst not go on with his study. He gave his papers to a friend and told him to complete the calculations. If he had not diverted his mind, he would, very likely, have lost his reason.

Now we see how well fitted the Sabbath is to the nature of the mind. The brain calls for repose, and cannot long be kept in a healthy state without it. The Sabbath gives just the repose which the brain calls for, and so much needs. Light is no better fitted to the eye than the repose of the Sabbath is to the nature of the mind, or, as I might say, to the wants of the brain. For learned men, who have examined the subject, say that the mind makes use of the brain for thinking, just as it makes use of the limbs for walking, and of the arms for hammering the iron on the anvil.

The mind not only thinks, but feels. And the influence of deep feeling on the mind, when long continued, is often very great and unhappy. It is no uncommon thing for deep-settled grief to overpower the reason and make persons insane. You remember that when our neighbor Mrs. F. had lost her dear little Frederick, she was very melancholy, and her friends were afraid she would become deranged. So her husband went with her on a long journey, that she might see a great many new things, and sometimes forget her dear boy who was dead. They knew that if she stayed at home she would be thinking of him all the while, and this might at last make her insane. They did not wish her to be thinking about her loss all the time. So her husband tried to divert her mind on the journey as much as he could. He pointed out