in which he resides. It makes him personally acquainted with the pastor. He is led to feel that he is one of that congregation. This appeals to his interest and sympathy. To him the society is a religious enterprise around which his sympathies begin to cluster; and the attachment strengthens from year to year. He delights to see it prosper. There he becomes interested in objects of benevolence, presented from the pulpit, and laboured for by the people. This new interest in benevolent movements alone exerts a conservative and blessed influence upon his life. So long as he continues to cherish abiding interest in that society, and the objects of charity there presented, he is not likely to be drawn away and ruined by the allurements around him. In other ways, also, the connection in question is of great benefit to the young person. This is true of him whether he resides in city or country, whatever be his pursuit.

Take another view of the matter. Will not the young man who forms the above connection, and contributes something to support the Gospel, respect himself much more than he can if he follow the example of those who stand aloof from all religious associations? Certainly he will; and the community will at once attach far more worth to his character. He will have their confidence and esteem. Notice that young mechanic or clerk who spends money freely for dress and pleasure, while he does not pay a farthing for the Gospel to which he listens from month to month. Perhaps even the seat which he occupies in the sanctuary costs him nothing. While many around him are making sacrifices to support the means of grace, he is enjoying the privi

leges without contributing a farthing, when he is perhaps far more able to contribute than half the poor men who are sitting around him. Is he as much of a man as his associate who comes forward, joins the parish, and becomes a supporter of the Gospel? The question carries its own answer. There can be but one opinion on this subject.

"The ruin

A city merchant said to us not long ago: of young men in the city begins on Sunday. They are then relieved from their secular business, and consider the time their own in a special sense. Perhaps they lie in bed so late as not to be able to attend religious service in the morning; and it is generally true that the young man who begins life in the city by attending church but a half-day, will end it by turning his back upon all religious worship. If he feels so much of a stranger as to resolve to remain in his room through the day, the attractions of the street will soon call him out, and he will be walking on the common, or riding out for pleasure. A few weeks since," he continued, “I met a young man of my acquaintance, who left his country home two or three years ago, and I asked him where he went to church. He blushed, and, after some hesitation, replied: "I go sometimes to Park Street, and sometimes elsewhere.' Then you have no particular place,' said I. 'No, I have not yet decided where to attend.' 'Where did you attend last Sabbath?' This question was unexpected, and he finally stammered out that he did not go anywhere. Where did you attend a week ago last Sabbath?' Very reluctantly he responded: 'Nowhere.' 'Where two weeks from last Sabbath?' and where three weeks from that time?' were ques

tions put to him; to all of which, with much evident mortification, he answered, Nowhere.' But where do you spend your Sabbaths?' This inquiry, followed by two or three additional interrogatives, brought out the confession that he walked with companions on the common, and rode out to B and other places. Now," said the merchant to me, "I interrogated that young man in this way because I have been suspicious for some months that he was going down hill, and I knew that I could ascertain how it was with him by learning how he spent Sunday. I was satisfied that his ruin had commenced, and I plainly told him so, and counseled him to connect himself with some religious society, and to attend church constantly, as his only moral safety."

The substance of this merchant's remarks might be used with reference to youth and young men in the country with equal appropriateness. Irreverence for the Sabbath is one of the prolific causes of immorality and crime.

An eminent merchant once said: "When I see one of my apprentices or clerks riding out on the Sabbath, on Monday I dismiss him. Such an one cannot be trusted." Where is the employer who would think of securing the services of a young man whom he knew to be spending his Sundays in pleasure? On the other hand, if an advertisement should appear in a daily paper, setting forth the claims of a clerk who had lost his place because he would not violate the Sabbath, how many men would hasten to employ him! His reverence for the Sabbath would be evidence of a general uprightness of character in the view of all.

A warden of large experience says that he does not recollect a single case of capital offence where the party had not been a Sabbath-breaker, and in many cases they have assured him that Sabbath-breaking was their first step in vice. "Nineteen out of twenty," he says (of all classes of prisoners), “ have neglected the Sabbath and other ordinances of religion."

"Seven young men in a town in Massachusetts started in the same business nearly at the same time. Six of them had some property or assistance from their friends, and followed their business seven days in a week. The other had less property than either of the six. He had less assistance from others, and worked in his business only six days in a week. He is now the only man who has property, and has not failed in his business.” An old gentleman in Boston remarked: "Men do not gain anything by working on the Sabbath. I recollect men who, when I was a boy, used to load their vessels down on the Long Wharf, and keep their men at work from morning to night on the Sabbath day. But they have come to nothing. Depend upon it, men do not gain any thing, in the end, by working on Sabbath."

"A father, whose son was addicted to riding out for pleasure on the Sabbath, was told that if he did not stop it his son would be ruined. He did not stop it, but sometimes set the example of riding out for pleasure himself. His son became a man, was placed in a responsible situation, and intrusted with a large amount of property. Soon he was a defaulter, and absconded. In a different part of the country he obtained another responsible situation, and was again intrusted with a large amount of property. Of that he defrauded the

owner, and fled again. He was apprehended, convicted, and sent to the state-prison. After years spent in solitude and labour, he wrote a letter to his father, and after recounting his course of crime, he added: 'That was the effect of breaking the Sabbath when I was a boy."

"Of one hundred men admitted to the Massachusetts state-prison in one year, eighty-nine had lived in habitual violation of the Sabbath and neglect of public worship."

These facts serve to substantiate our views expressed in regard to the importance of the young man connecting himself with some particular religious society, where he will constantly attend divine worship. When he forms the habit of violating the Lord's day, it is very easy for him to slide into greater sins. It is more difficult for him to form and maintain good habits than the opposite. John B. Gough once said: "I have found by my own experience and the experience of others, that there is this difference between the two-that a good habit is harder to attain and easier to give up than a bad one; and this is evidence to me of the deep depravity of the human heart. A good habit requires selfdenial, and moral courage, and manliness to acquire; an evil habit is just to yield to the feeling of pleasure, without thought, without principle, without care." Lest the young reader may still think that we attach too great evil results to the neglect of the Sabbath, and its worship, we here remark that all nations that have habitually disregarded this holy day have gone to ruin. The same is true of communities. Find one, wherever you can, in which the Sabbath is made a day of work and pleasure, and there you find a people without pros