defence, at every season during this chequered life. Convert not into an enemy the only real and effectual friend of helpless man, but rather pray that you may be sanctified and "renewed day by day," until the promises of the Redeemer

be realized to you and all returning sinners.

"I m the Lord your God: wilk ʼn my stars and keep my judgments, and do them; and allow my Sabbaths: and they shall be a sign between me and you, that ye may know that I am the Lord your God"

Ar the present advanced state of religious knowledge, it would almost appear superfluous for the minister of the Gospel to enforce, from the pulpit, a duty so well known, and so easy of observance, as that which forms the theme of my present discourse. But alas! my Christian brethren, owing to the perverseness of men's dispositions, and the hardness of their hearts, God's sacred day is more or less despised, and even by many persons, totally disregarded.

I have more than once felt it necessary to call your most serious attention to this momentous

subject; and still am I impelled by a deep sense of duty to him, whose servant I am, and from an earnest regard for the spiritual welfare of those committed to my charge, to remind you again and again, of the immense importance of yielding obedience to the divine injunction on this head; and to point out to you the tremendous danger you incur by neglecting to do so.

Let me, therefore, on the present occasion invite you to consider with me the words of the text, which are addressed to those of the present day, as well as to the rebellious Israelites of old; and which are an exhortation to obey the commandments of the Lord, and especially that, in which is enjoined the strict observance of the holy Sabbath. And may that Almighty Being, who can alone dispose "the hearts of the disobedient to the wisdom of the just,” direct us to such contemplations, as may best tend to benefit the souls of his creatures, and conduce to his own honour and glory.

The word "Sabbath," according to the Hebrew language, signifies "rest;" God having rested from the stupendous work of Creation on the seventh day. We read in the second chapter of the Book of Genesis ; "Thus the heavens and

the earth were finished, and all the host of them; and on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it, because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made." Here, then, we have in the Bible a plain account of the institution of the Sabbath; and we find, too, that it was of general obligation from that time to the giving of the Law upon Mount Sinai. That the Israelites, God's chosen people, were very particular in observing it before that momentous period, is evident from what we find recorded in the Book of Exodus, where Moses is represented as using the utmost caution, lest, when it pleased the Lord to send down manna from heaven to sustain the people in the wilderness, they should be tempted to act in opposition to his commandment, by gathering it on the Sabbath-day. He thus addresses them : "This is that which the Lord hath said, tomorrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord:-six days ye shall gather it, but on the seventh day which is the Sabbath, in it there shall be none-therefore he giveth you on the

sixth day the bread of two days :-let no man go out of his place on the seventh day. So the people rested on the seventh day1." After which, when the Law was delivered from Mount Sinai, with all the awful indications of the divine presence, and tremendous accompaniment of Jehovah's wisdom and power; and when the finger of God marked his will to man, with indelible impression on the tables of stone;—then was this commandment enrolled among the Ten, and has ever since been binding on mankind, as essential to their "working out that salvation," which the Lamb of God, "slain from the foundation of the world," purchased with his blood on the cross.

The fourth commandment of the decalogue runs thus: "In six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day; wherefore the Lord blessed the seventh day, and hallowed it." It was the custom of the Jews to keep their Sabbath on the Saturday, the last day of the week: but after our Lord's Resurrection, his disciples changed it to the following day, which we call

1 Exod. xvi. 23-30.