The Doctor gave us to understand that he was about to deliver the fifth
of a series of lectures to young men in great cities. The text was,
"The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath;" the
subject, "The importance of the Sabbath to young men in great cities."

The text (he observed) involved the principle, that man was not made to
observe certain ceremonies and obey certain precepts, but that the
observance of rites and laws was enjoined for man's own sake. This
principle applied to the institution of the Sabbath. The body, the
intellect, the affections--all required the rest which the Sabbath
affords. The experiment had been abundantly tried; and it had been
invariably found that more could be done, in every department of
labour, with the regular observance of the Sabbath as a day of rest
than without it. The farmer, the student, the legislator, had all tried
it. Man could no more do without the Sabbath than he could do without
sleep. Writers on slavery, however they differed on other points, were
all agreed on this,--that the withholding of the Sabbath from the
slaves in the West Indies, together with the other cruelties inflicted
upon them, had materially shortened their lives! (How telescopic, by
the way, are our views with regard to evils at a distance! West India
slavery never wore the hideous features which slavery presents in the
Southern States of America. Slavery even in Cuba, with all its horrors,
is far milder than in the United States.) France once presented a
fearful example of what a nation would be without a Sabbath. The
testimonies of Drs. Spurzheim and Rush were cited in confirmation; also
that of a respectable merchant in New York, well known to the preacher,
who, after the observation and experience of twenty-five years in that
city, declared that of those who kept their counting-houses open on the
Sabbath not one had escaped insolvency. A poor boy was apprenticed to