Religious Sabbath-breaking

From the Methodist. If the church would have the people show a proper regard for the Sabbath, i must set thein the example. Good men may sometimes be insensibly drawn into acts regarditg Sunday which afford en couragement to those classes that aim to make the day one of pleasure and frivol ity. The aggressive attitude of these classes is calling for the conoentration o religious effort everywhere into associa tions to counteract their movements. I is our plainest duty carefully to avoid al acts and practices which may weaken in the least the moral forcé of the advocates of a pure Sabbnth. The Northwestern Christian Advocate speaks of two Method ist churches in the neighborhood o Chicago as having recently contemplatet running Sunday trains to convey people to the dedication of their new houses o worship. Ono of them purposed to share the proceeds of the sales of tickets with the railway. With what grace can the people who have committed themselves after this fashion protest against a Germán Sunday excursión or a Roman Catholic Sunday festival with military bands And in what way is any forni of Sunday trading, in business ordinarily respectable, moro objectionable than the scheme of sharing proceeds with the railway company. In the face of these instances, we have found in a St. Louis paper a protest of the Evangelical Alliance of that city against the appointment of Sunday for the dedication of the Lyon monument. To hold the exercises on that day was pronounced an offense to thousands of Christians, and a deprival of rights to them. Of course the protest was net heeded. Why should it be, while the churches select Sunday for secular acts P We do not know what the managers of the monument thought in their hearts of the iirotest ; but we can imagine the contempt in which they would have held it if any of the siguers had been connected with a roligious Sunday train enterprise and they hadknown it. The question has torced itself into the camp-meetings, and has given much trouble there. It has had to bo met by summary measures. Some meetings hare had to discontinue their servioes during Sunday; others have had to close their grounds and keep their attendants prisoners for the day, in order to avoid encouraging speculative and holiday-seekinp; schemes of Sabbath-breakers. The eneruy is ready enough to find prptexts for wrong doing, and to use them. The church will find it hard enough to keep him down, without furnishing him with weapons to use against her.