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WHILE the institution of the Sabbath is a fence to the general interests of religion, and a bulwark thrown up to repress the floods of ungodliness, it also operates as a test to the children of men; discovering their love or their hatred, their loyalty or their rooted enmity, to Jehovah, their sovereign Lord. In proportion as nations, churches, or individuals, have risen in the scale of religion and morality, they have venerated and religiously improved this holy day; and in the same degree as they declined from the love of God, and the belief of his truth, they have despised and profaned it. The righteous call it "a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable; and they honour Him, not doing their own ways, nor finding their own pleasure, nor speaking their own words. But the ungodly say, When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell corn? and the Sabbath, that we may set forth wheat?" Some deny its moral obligation,—representing it as a piece of state policy, an invention of priestcraft, or a figment of the Jewish economy. Others admit that it is a holy, wise, and gracious institution; but, on the score of public utility, want of time, or the heavy stake they have in the trade or commerce of the country, they pervert it, more or less, to purposes of secular toil, or of worldly pleasure. Many, among the working classes, spend it in roaming through the fields, in club-houses, or in Lyceum reading-rooms: while great numbers avail themselves of the facilities afforded by steampackets and railways, to visit teagardens and public-houses, in distant towns and villages. By these and other methods, the law of the Sabbath is made void, the house of

God is forsaken by multitudes, the ordinances of the Gospel are despised, and practical infidelity, like a flood, spreads through the land. Convinced that the desecration of this blessed day is one of the national sins for which God is now chastising us, and that its sanctification is essentially connected with the glory of God, and the permanent revival of religion, we invite the prayerful attention of our read

ers,

I. To its primeval and general design.

The designs of the Most High are all worthy of himself; and, except when he purposely veils them in impenetrable mystery, it is no less our duty than our interest to search them out. As far as this institution is concerned, they are as obvious as they are gracious; and, being understood, they cannot fail to be appreciated by all who fear His

name.

1. The Sabbath was instituted to commemorate the creation of the world, in the space of six days, by the word of Jehovah's power.

That the world was created, and that it was "not made of things which do appear," but was an actual creation, produced by the one living and true God, are fundamental truths in the scheme of revealed religion; and, by many, they are regarded as self-evident truths. Those who assume the latter position, however, err, not knowing the darkness and natural atheism of the human heart. Though the distinctions between mind and matter, dependence and independence, finite and infinite,-between the LIVING GOD and a thing, whether a sun, a star, or a stone,—are to us palpable; many of the wisest Heathens either could not, or would not, discern

them. They believed that the world was eternal; and they worshipped the creatures of God, animate and inanimate, together with images and imaginary beings, who they supposed presided over the elements, and the destinies of men. God, who knew the end from the beginning, foresaw this irrational lapse; and, to prevent it from becoming universal, to guard his people against the sin, and to furnish the world with a standing demonstration of the falsehood and absurdity of idolatry, he instituted the Sabbath; which, by its weekly return, challenged for himself supreme and undivided worship, on the obvious ground, that the heavens and all their host, the earth and the sea, with all that is in them, were created by his power; and were, consequently, dependent on him for their continued existence.

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Thus, "the heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth his handy work. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge. There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard. Their line" -“rule," or "direction," as it reads in the margin-" is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world." this passage David, with elegant propriety, and in perfect accordance with the principles of sound philosophy, represents heaven, with its sun, moon, and stars; the firmament, with its vapours, winds, meteors, and winged fowl; day, with its radiance, and night, with its darkness; as being vocal with God their Maker's praise, and responsive with instruction to universal man. The import of their adoring and edifying speech, or or voice, was, "Sons of men, why marvel ye at us? or why look ye so earnestly on us, as though, by our own power or holiness, we had made ourselves, or were able to bless you? No! we are creatures 'fearfully and wonderfully made,' it is true, but still creatures. Jehovah is our Maker; he alone is infinite, eternal, and unchangeable. Whatever beauty, power, or benign influences we possess,

he has imparted; and he has imparted them to us that, as his instruments, we might serve and benefit you. Therefore, turn your eyes from us to Him; express your gratitude to Him; let your adoration and praise be exclusively given to Him: for He alone is 'God over all blessed for ever.""

The testimony thus given, in expressive silence, to the supreme divinity of Jehovah, together with the wide-spread tradition of the creation, the sacredness of the seventh day, the fall of man, the divine institution of sacrifice, and the promise of a Saviour, constituted that "truth of God," which the fabricators of idolatry "changed into a lie;" and that "witness of himself," which God gave "to all nations;" and for the disregarding of which they were, in the emphatic language of the Apostle, "without excuse. The Sabbath, by thus commemorating the creation, evidenced the relation of God to our race, as our Creator and Preserver. It was a sign (Ezek. xx. 12) between him and them, which, while it proved his eternal power and Godhead, evinced their obligations to worship him in spirit and in truth. Those who "did not like to retain God in their knowledge," who had become "vain in their imaginations," "whose foolish heart was darkened," and who, though "professing themselves to be wise," had become "fools,"-in utter disregard of the voice of reason, the testimony of tradition, the remonstrances of conscience, and the import of the sabbatic sign,-" changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things; and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator." But the faithful owned the sign; and, by keeping it holy, they avouched Jehovah to be their God, and testified their dissent from, and their abhorrence of, idolatry, which said there were many gods; and of atheism, which averred there was no God. (Acts xiv. 17; xvii. 24-27; Rom. i. 18-25; x. 18.)

By blessing the Sabbath and hallowing it, by resting upon it, and by challenging it for himself, God stamped it with his own image and superscription;" and hence its desecration was reckoned, among the Jews, as a sin of treason against his infinite Majesty. This suggests a satisfactory reason, why its profanation in the desert was punished with death. The people had but recently left Egypt, a land of idols; where the sabbatic mound was nearly, if not quite, obliterated: they were about to take possession of a country inhabited by nations who ascribed the creation and conservation of the world to false deities; and, as God intended them to be depositaries of his truth, and witnesses of his Godhead, it was imperative, that the violation of that day, which was so intimately connected with the preservation and purity of his worship, should be punished with the utmost rigour. The stoning of the man who was found gathering sticks on the Sabbath, is narrated Num. xv. 30-41: and, from the context, it is apparent, that the offence was committed presumptuously; that is, in contempt of the law, and in defiance of the Lawgiver. The treasonable character of this sin also accounts for the fact, that while the inhabitants of other countries, resident in the promised land, were left to choose whether or not they would submit to the Jew ish ceremonial, "the stranger within their gates" was as peremptorily required to keep the Sabbath-rest as strictly as themselves. This, also, more than justifies the holy indignation with which Nehemiah contended with the Tyrians, and with the nobles of Israel who patronized them, in the sale of their wares in Jerusalem. (Neh. xiii. 15-22.)

2. It was intended to remind us, that God is our sovereign Proprietor; that time is his gift; and that the chief end of our existence is to glorify and enjoy him.

By enjoining that we cease from the prosecution of our worldly avocations on each seventh day, for the purpose of holding fellowship with himself, God impressively reminds

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us, that this world is not our home; that its productions and possessions are insufficient to make us happy; that its service does not constitute our chief business; and that as he is our Author, so he is our chief end, our life, and the only satisfying portion of our souls. By commanding us to "keep holy the Sabbath," he teacheth us, that time is his, that it is ours only in trust, and that it is our duty to spend it according to his will; that is, to fulfil the duties of our station during "six days," and on "the seventh" to worship him in the beauty of holiness. Viewing the suspension of worldly toil as an act of worship, there is a glorious sublimity, and an emphatic meaning, in the stillness of a Sabbath-morning, in a Sabbathkeeping country. It is nature doing reverence to God, time paying homage to eternity, earth imitating heaven, mind triumphing over matter, and truth reigning over error; whilst piety gives expression to the whole, as she chants, "The Lord is great, and greatly to be praised: he is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the nations are idols; but the Lord made the heavens. Honour and majesty are before him : strength and beauty are in his sanctuary. Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name; bring an offering, and come into his courts.

worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness! Fear before him all the earth."

"How still the morning of the hallow'd day! Mute is the voice of rural labour,-hush'd The ploughboy's whistle, and the milkmaid's

song.

The scythe lies glittering in the dewy wreath Of tedded grass, mingled with fading flowers, That yester-morn bloom'd waving in the breeze.

Sounds the most faint attract the ear,-the hum

Of early bee, the trickling of the dew,
The distant bleating mid-way up the hill.
Calmness seems throned on yon unmoving
cloud.

To him who wanders o'er the upland leas,
The blackbird's note comes mellower from the
dale;

And sweeter, from the sky, the gladsome lark Warbles his heaven-tuned song; the lulling brook

Murmurs more gently down the deep-sunk glen ;

While from yon lowly roof, whose curling smoke

O'ermounts the mist, is heard, at intervals, The voice of psalms, the simple song of praise."

GRAHAME.

3. It was intended to prevent the poor from being oppressed, and beasts of burden from being overwrought.

To teach man industry, God spent six days in making the world; though he could, with equal ease, have made it in six hours; and, to prevent industry from becoming a curse, and an occasion of consumption, he "rested on the seventh day, and hallowed it." Foreseeing the cruel exactions which avarice and perverted power would inflict, he, as became a sovereign Benefactor, interposed the shield of his authority between the slave and his master, the labourer and his employer, the injured beast and its cruel proprie tor; saying, "In it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cattle." The industrious classes, of all countries, are prepared to testify, that the rest of the seventh day is essential to the preservation of health, and the enjoyment of life. Before slavery was extirpated in the West Indies, the Negro population was diminishing at an annual ratio which, supposing no new importations to have taken place, would have extinguished the race in about eighty years. Those workmen who labour on the Sabbath, in construct ing railways, (melancholy instances of which have been enacted all over the country,) generally spend more than their extra wages in purchasing strong drink, to supply stimulus to their exhausted powers and we have been assured, by an extensive and conscientious contractor, that the work which these men execute in seven days, is generally less in amount, and worse in point of execution, than that which is done by others in six. Medical men, of the first respectability, have given it as their opinion, that to spend the Sabbath in devotional exercises, is much more healthful, than to lounge

it away in idleness, or to devote it to the revelry of dissipation. Thus, the gracious Author of our existence made the Sabbath for the happiness of man; and while it is the interest of all to keep it holy, it is especially the interest of the poor.

As for beasts of burden, they are no more capable of sustaining incessant labour than men. Coach-proprietors, and others, who let horses out on hire, know, that, without a weekly rest, their strength is speedily wasted, and their lives are materially shortened. In this way God avenges the wrongs of these generous animals, on such of their owners as abuse them and hence they have, for the most part, come to the conclusion, that it is more profitable to allow their cattle to rest one day in seven, than to run them down by keeping them constantly on the road.

Though the preservation of health, and the prolongation of life, be but secondary designs of this institution, they illustrate the tender mercy of God, and the benignant character of revealed religion; and they place in a true light the hypocrisy of those infidel philosophers and mockpatriots, who, under pretence of emancipating the poor from priestly domination, and magisterial rule, deny the divine obligation of the Sabbath, and encourage them in its habitual desecration. In this, as in other particulars, the way of infidelity is not equal: for, while the general profanation of the Sabbath would give license to the few, it would enslave the many; while it would place worldly pleasure within the reach of those who could pay the extravagant price at which alone it can be purchased, it would doom an immense proportion of the poor to perpetual and grinding servitude. Each party of Sabbath-breakers, who either feast at home, or jaunt abroad, not only rob God of the time which he claims for his own worship, but they rob either the brute creation, or certain of their fellow-men, of that rest which God gave them, and of which no earthly power can innocently deprive them. Let the divine authority of the Sab