The good of man, the improvement of the labouring classes, the softening of their character, the refinement of their tastes, the development of intellect, and the correction of what is low and sensual in their enjoyments, are named as the objects of pursuit: and no one can hesitate as to the importance of these points, nor as to the value which all things lovely and of good report possess in christian estimation. With a view to the promotion of these objects, the advantages of a day of rest; its beneficent influence on the mind as well as the body; its increasing importance in a state of society like the present; its absolute necessity when man is exposed to the exhausting circumstances of manufacturing or commercial life, are admitted,—and not only admitted, but urged with as much zeal as was ever shown by those who contended for the strictest observance of the Sabbath in the days of religious controversy. Surprise and regret are therefore mixed together, when we find that those who see the importance of the institution in one sense so clearly, and can advocate its claims with so much power, should disappoint the expectations that had been indulged of their co-operation, and should finally become the assailants instead of the supporters of the principle we feel bound to maintain. They see so much in the institution of the Sabbath that is adapted to the weaknesses and wants of our nature, that they cannot help acknowledging its necessity. Under that conviction, forced upon them by the outcry of the whole creation, groaning and travailing together in pain, by the testimony of exhausted bodies and paralyzed intellect, they admit, they assert, as a fact that can no longer be denied, that the Sabbath was made for man, and accept it as a merciful provision made by God for the relief and consolation of his creatures; but as to the specific purpose which it is to serve in respect of man, as to the way in which the balm is to be used and applied, they have their own views, and those views they are determined to carry out in opposition to all that has been established and believed on the subject. It is clear, then, that we have not gained much by the concessions made by those who have been induced, under these representations, and with these views of the ordinance, to admit the divine authority of the Sabbath. They have attempted to disarm our opposition by professing to receive the same truth, while they were introducing views which superseded its application; and the controversy must now be transferred from the religious authority of the Sabbath, as a day of rest, to the form and manner of its observance by those who, on these grounds, acknowledge its obligation.