The-papacy-its-history-dogmas-genius-and-prospects-wylie

NO SABBATH IN POPISH COUNTRIES. 465lottery, and attempts to compound with heaven by devotingthe proceeds to the support of jjaupers. It is believed toyield seven millions of francs to the apostolic exchequer.The shops for selling lottery tickets are all open on Sabbath.Nothing could more fearfully demonstrate the powerof avarice, first, over governments, who license these establishmentsfor the sake of revenue; and, second, over themasses, who, impelled by an uncontrollable greed to possessthe property of others, and altogether unscrupulous as tothe mode of obtaining it, flock to the gambling-table, andthere lose health, character, fortune, reason, and often lifeitself. How weak must be the power of principle wheresuch courses are so generally indulged in !and how far mustthe heart of man have strayed from its rest, when happinessis sought amidst such maddening pursuits !One other feature only is awanting to complete the darkpicture of the popish world. It has no Sabbath. Whocan calculate how much Christian lands owe to the Sabbath?It is equally impossible to tell how much popishlands lose by the want of it. The Sabbath descends uponthe earth like a visitant from another sphere, laden withblessino^s which ffrow not in this world. It is as if Edenhad returned, with its innocence and its joy ; or as if time,with its sorrows and its cares, had rolled past, and God's" unsuffering kingdom" had come. How many, worn outwith toil, had withered and sunk into their graves ere theirtime, but for its rest ! How many minds, never unbent,would have lost their spring, and ended in madness oridiotcy, but for the Sabbath ! How many weak spiritswould have yielded to temptation, and been for ever lost,but for its salutary and oft-recurring counsels ! How manyhad sunk, broken-hearted, under the afflictions of time, butfor the prospects beyond earth which the Sabbath openedto them ! It purifies the social aff*ections, heightens thestandard of public morality, elevating toa higher platformthe general community. Even the man who never entersthe sanctuary,—who habitually desecrates the Sabbath,—is2 H