_VIOLATION OF THE SABBATH._
A few weeks since, a meeting of the citizens was called, to
devise some efficient means to suppress the violation of the
Sabbath. A committee was appointed to report a plan for that
purpose. I wish to inquire what that committee have done, and
when another meeting is to be called to receive their
report.--The evil still remains, and is certainly accumulating
under the most aggravated forms.--Our churches are nearly
deserted on the Sabbath, while every place of amusement and
pleasurable retreat is thronged. Good authority states the
numbers that frequent Brooklyn every Sabbath, at from ten to
twenty thousand, and a proportionable number may be computed to
visit every other island and place of resort in the vicinity. We
have forty-five churches, and a population of one hundred and
twenty thousand; admitting one thousand to attend each church, it
follows that seventy-five thousand violate that command of the
Apostle which requires Christians "not to forsake the assembling
of themselves together." Let the citizens organize societies to
suppress the violation of the Sabbath and all other vice and
immorality.
* * * * *
"Sabbath-breakers" had multiplied to such an extent in 1815 that
conventions were held in many of the counties in Massachusetts to see what
could be done in reference to the evil. We have a report of the Essex
convention at Topsfield, Oct. 4, 1815. The Committee say, among other
things,--
Although most men, even if they have no regard for the Divine
Being or the welfare of society, when they know that
Sabbath-breaking is offensive to the great body of the community,
will, from regard to themselves, refrain from it, yet there are
some abandoned individuals, who are so lost to all proper regard
even for themselves, as well as their Maker, and their
fellow-men, that in violation of laws, human and Divine, and in
direct opposition to the wishes of the community, they still
continue to travel and labour upon the Sabbath.
Such persons ought _surely_ to be prosecuted, and made to feel
that they cannot violate the laws of the Commonwealth, and
profane the Sabbath with impunity.
If their conduct is suffered to continue, others will be
emboldened to follow their example; the evil will again increase,
and eventually become as great as before.
But if they find that they cannot profane the Sabbath without
being subjected to the trouble, shame and expense of a penal
prosecution, this enormous evil, which has so long been
undermining the best interests of the community, and drawing
down upon us Divine judgments, will be prevented. For past
experience has fully demonstrated, that wherever the laws are
prudently, and at the same time promptly and faithfully executed,
the evil will cease.