of the year, the parliament ratified all the acts, which had been passed in 1560 in favor of the protestant religion; and Knox had the felicity of seeing the supreme government in the hands of the regent, the earl of Murray, an intelligent and pious protestant, in whose wisdom and integrity he had the greatest confidence.

But the regent being soon assassinated, the country was involved again in dissensions. Grief preyed upon the spirits of Knox, and in Oct. 1570 he had a stroke of apoplexy, which for a short time impaired his speech. In 1571, his life was in imminent danger from the hostility of a party, who wished to restore the queen. One evening a mus ket ball was fired in at his win dow. His friends were under the necessity of watching his house during the night, and they at length persuaded him to retire to St. Andrews. Here he continued to preach, although unable to walk to the pulpit without assistance. But when warmed by his subject he was all life and eloquence. One of his hearers represents, that he was obliged to lean on the pulpit at his first entry; "but ere he had done with his sermon he was so active and vigorous, that he was like to ding the pulpit in blads, [or pieces,] and fly out of it." In August 1572, he returned to Edinburgh in feeble health, and anxious to leave the world. When he preached, his voice could not be heard by half the congregation. On receiving the news of the general massacre of the protestants in France, he was conveyed to the pulpit, and thundered the vengeance of

heaven against the cruel murderer, the king of France, and desired his ambassador to tell his master that sentence was pronounced against him in Scotland, and that divine vengeance should pursue him unless he repented. The ambassador, having in vain required the regent to silence Knox, left the king. dom.

In November, James Lawson was installed as his colleague, on which occasion he presided and preached for the fast time. As he returned to his house, his hearers thronged the streets to take the last sight of their beloved pastor.

It was his ordinary practice to read every day some chapters of the Old and New Testament; to which he added some of the psalms of David, the whole of which he perused regularly once a month. Nov. 13th he was obliged by sickness to desist from his course of reading;' but he directed the 17th chapter of John, the 53d of Isaiah, and a chapter of the epistle to the Ephesians to be every day read to him. He exhorted his serwants, when he dismissed them, to walk in the fear of God. Nov. 15th be sat at table for the last time. A friend dining with him, he ordered a hogshead of wine ta be pierced, and with hilarity requested him to send for some of it, as long as it lasted, for he himself should not tarry until it was all drunk. Nov. 17th he had a most affecting interview with the session of his church, and addressed them in the foilowing words: "The day now approaches and is before the door, for which I have frequently and vehemently thirsted, when

ly return, their first care, when they came to this country, was to adopt such regulations, as might secure at once its blessings and its perpetuity. They laid it as the corner stone of that noble edifice of morals and religion, which has in these latter times been so much defaced, and received so many rude shocks, from the hands of their degenerate sons an edifice, the very ruins of which are still so magnificent. Justly regarding the Sabbath as, in a sense, the palladium of their infant settlements, they raised around it a strong rampart of wise laws, and constituted some of the best and most influential of their number its sentinels and guardians.

Nor did they rest here. Sound wisdom and, sincere piety were no less conspicuous, in the means employed by our ancestors to perpetuate a reverence for sabbatical institutions, than in the first legal protection of those institutions. Fully sensible of the strength of early habits, and of the potent and abiding influence of first impressions on the minds of children, they applied themselves with zeal and perseverance to the government and instruction of the rising generation. This they made a part of their daily business. But the Sabbath was more particularly devoted to these important objects. Each tender twig was bent, almost as soon as it began to shoot. Children were taught, both by precept and example, to remember the Sabbath-day, and in anticipation of its approach, to prepare themselves seasonably to enter upon its appropriate duties. Instead of being indulged in their child

ish sports at home, or allowed to range the fields and walk the streets, as is but too common in our day, they were kept close from morning to night; and were not in general allowed to go abroad, or engage in any vain recreation, either on the evening preceding, or on that succeeding God's holy day.

Nor was the weekly rest, which they were taught to observe, permitted to be wasted by them in sloth; nor yet was it devoted to what, in strictness of speech, are termed mere mental improvements. The grand object of parents, in that golden age of New-England, was to instil correct moral and religious principles into the tender minds of their children, and to mend their hearts. In the prosecu tion of this object, they persevered from Sabbath to Sabbath, and from year to year. To this end the young members of almost every family were required to commit to memory select portions of Scripture, and appropriate psalms and hymns, as well as the catechisms of Dr. Watts, and of the Assembly of divines. In the mean time, great care was taken to inspire the rising generation with such a love for public worship, and other religious exercises, that the Sabbath might not be considered as a burden, but as a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable. It was reasonable to indulge the hope, that a course of religious instruction so early begun, so judiciously pursued, and so powerfully enforced, by the general example of heads of families, would, by the divine blessing, produce the happiest effects. This hope, if not realized in all its extent,

was so far answered, in the con duct of those concerning whom it had been indulged, as to glad den the hearts of the pious pilgrims, as they descended to the grave, imploring a thousand be nedictions upon their posterity. It is certain, from the most faithful and candid records of those times, that for many years after the first settlers were dead, things remained, as nearly as could be expected, in the state in which they left them.

When at length, innovations began to be made, their progress was too slow and insidious, at first, to excite any considerable alarm. If parents of the third and fourth generations, were not quite so exact in sanctifying the Sabbath, as their fathers had been, they certainly reverenced it as an institution of God, the gross profanation of which would inev itably jeopardize the best interests of society. If they yielded to their children some few indul gences, which they had not received themselves in childhood, their family regulations were still such, as would be esteemed extremely rigid, by most of the present generation. But though the decline was slow, it was steady, and at length became rapid. The laws against Sabbathbreaking were less and less faithfully executed. Occasional travelling upon business and pleasure came in time to be winked at, by informing officers and magistrates. Each succeed ing generation took greater liberties than the preceding had done, and, with some few excep. tions hereafter to be mentioned, the evil has been increasing to this very day. I will not say, that the corner stone is remov

ed from its place; though I am certain, that it retains but little of its ancient beauty: nor that its enclosure is wholly taken away; because the laws for its protection still retain their place in our statute-books. But surely the general inefficiency of these laws must be obvious to every one. We might almost suppose them buried under every turnpike road, so that the men of this generation pursue their gains and their pleasures, with almost as little interruption, as if no divine or human laws, requiring the sanctification of the Sabbath, were now in existence. To a most alarming extent has light and vain conversation usurped the place of family prayer, and the pious instruction of children. Voyages, travels, news-papers and novels, have gained quiet possession of the shelf, which was once occupied by sermons, Bibles and cate chisms. Many a closet is converted into a counting-room. The frugal meals of our ances tors, which were usually prepared on Saturday, have given place to luxurious dinners, prepared with much labor upon the day which the Lord hath made, and in the hours which he calls his own.

Instead of regularly attending public worship, as servants were once permitted and requir ed to do, they may now be found employed in their ordinary work, or driving their masters' vehi. cles of pleasure. Many persons of high rank, and very extensive influence, take the lead without hesitation in violating the laws, and setting the magistracy at de fiance. So fashionable has it become, especially in some of