If we believe in the divine origin of the commandment, the Sabbath is
instituted for the express purposes of religion. The time set apart is
the "Sabbath of the Lord;" a day on which we are not to work our own
works, or think our own thoughts. The precept is positive, and the
purpose clear. He who has to accomplish his own salvation, must not
carry to tennis courts and skittle grounds the train of reflections
which ought necessarily to be excited by a serious discourse of
religion. The religious part of the Sunday's exercise is not to be
considered as a bitter medicine, the taste of which is as soon as
possible to be removed by a bit of sugar. On the contrary, our
demeanour through the rest of the day ought to be, not sullen
certainly, or morose, but serious and tending to instruction. Give to
the world one half of the Sunday, and you will find that religion has
no strong hold of the other. Pass the morning at church, and the
evening, according to your taste or rank, in the cricket-field, or at
the Opera, and you will soon find thoughts of the evening hazards and
bets intrude themselves on the sermon, and that recollections of the
popular melodies interfere with the psalms. Religion is thus treated
like Lear, to whom his ungrateful daughters first denied one half of
his stipulated attendance, and then made it a question whether they
should grant him any share of what remained.--_Quart. Review._
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