e an active, restless, laboring people. Their
industry had enriched Egypt, and having escaped from her oppressive
bondage, they were liable, in their efforts to found a nation of their
own, to carry their habits of industry to excess.

Probably they overworked their slaves, their cattle, themselves, and the
"stranger within their gates." Their wise lawgiver, under the direct
influence of spiritual guides, promulgated this law: "Six days shalt thou
labor and do all thy work, but the seventh is the Sabbath of the Lord; in
it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy man-servant, thy
maid-servant, thy cattle, nor the stranger within thy gates."

And this commandment has been handed down from the Jewish to the
Christian nations. With the early Jews it was a day of recreation, of
dancing, and of song. The early Christians employed the day at first in
social intercourse, afterwards it became a day of sacred ordinance; and,
as copies of the Scriptures were rare, they met on that day to hear them
read, and in their simple faith would select passages and apply them to
their own necessities.

When the Christian religion invaded Pagan countries and became
established, the days which had formerly been appropriated to feasting
and sacrificing to the gods and goddesses became the fast-days of the
Romish Church.

When Protestantism arose, she swept off from her calendar these
fast-days, and returned to the simplicity of the Jewish Sabbath.

Puritanism followed and gave a literal meaning to the text, "Thou shalt
do no work." Under her reign, all labor was suspended on the seventh day.
A strict watch was set upon the actions of the individual: household
duties were neglected: fires were not lighted or food cooked. The great
world of activity stood still.

Rest so severe embittered men's judgment, and the Sabbath became a day
for prying into the derelictions of each other. A rigid observance was
placed upon men's actions, and stringent laws were made to punish the
offender against this enforced rest.

So tyrannous and exacting did the Puritan observers of the Sabbath
become, that their rigid formulas created a rebellion in the minds of the
succeeding generation, and so great has been the reaction, that in our
day it has become a common assertion that "all days are alike," and the
steam-car and the horse-car, the coach, and the hack, ply their busy
wheels through the streets of our large cities, and the church-goers
travel thereon