Book_v iV\35 BOOKS PUBLISHED BY G. LANE & P. P. SANDFORD, AT THE CONFERENCE OFFICE, 200 MULBERRY-ST. NEW-YORK. A Treatise on Self -Knowledge, BY JOHN MASON, A. M. To which is prefixed a brief Memoir of the Author. A new Edition. Large 18mo. Forty -four cents. This has now been a standard work for nearly a century, and is one of the best that can be placed in the hands of an intelligent young person to promote his advancement in knowledge and piety. It is divided into three parts ; X\\e first treats of the "na- ture and importance" of self-knowledge ; the second, shows " the excellence and advantage of this kind of science ;" and the third points out "how self-knowledge is to be obtained." The work itself is too well known to need any recommendation : of the present edition we may say that it is one of the neatest and most complete ever published in this country ; it contains all the notes, inserted in their proper places, while in many editions, both En- glish and American, they are either altogether omitted, or else lumped together at the end of the book. Misericordia; OR, CONTEMPLATIONS ON THE MERCY OF GOD, Regarded especially in its Aspects toward the Young. BY REV. J. W. ETHERIDGE. Large 18mo. Price Forty-four cents, in muslin. BOOKS PUBLISHED BY LANE & SANDFORD. Life of Thomas Walsh, Composed in great part from his own Accounts. BY JAMES MORGAN. A new Edition. Large 18mo. Thirty-eight cents. Mr. Walsh was brought up a rigid Papist, but was early led by the Spirit of truth to forsake the errors of Romanism. He soon afterward commenced his labours as a Methodist preacher, and closed his brief and useful life at the early age of twenty-eight. He was remarkable for his extraordinary acquaintance with the original Scriptures. " Such a master of Biblical knowledge," observes Mr. Wesley, " I never saw before, and never expect to see again. . . Whenever he preached, whether in English or Irish, the word was sharper than a two-edged sword ; so that I do not remember to have known any preacher who in so few years as he remained upon earth was an instrument of converting so many sinners from the error of their w T ays. O what a man to be snatched away in the strength of his years !" Memoirs of several Wesleyan Preachers, Selected gtintipullg from Jackson's Lives of early Methodist Preachers, and the Arminian and Wesleyan Magazines. One volume, 12mo. Seventy-five cents. This interesting volume comprises Memoirs of Thomas Olivers, James Creighton, Sampson Staniforth, Thomas Taylor, James Rogers, Thomas Roberts, and George Darby Dermott, chiefly written by themselves. Some of these were among the early coadjutors of Mr. Wesley. PRACTICAL CONSIDERATIONS THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH, BY REV. PETER M'OWAN. NEW-YORK: PUBLISHED BY G. LANE 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 sabbath-keeping 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 ; while 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. O THE SABBATH. 17 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 over-wrought. 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 2 18 THE SABBATH. "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, inter- posed the shield of his authority between the servant and his master, the labourer and his employer, the injured beast and its cruel proprietor ; 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 indus- trious 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. Those workmen w r ho labour on the sabbath, in constructing rail- ways, (melancholy instances of which have been enacted all over the country,) generally spend more than their extra w r ages in pur- chasing 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. THE SABBATH. 19 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 dis- sipation.* 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 * See Appendix. 20 THE SABBATH. 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 mock-patriots, who, under pretence of emancipating the poor from priestly domination, and magisterial rule, deny the divine obligation of the sab- bath, 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 pro- portion 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 THE SABBATH. 21 innocently deprive them. Let the divine authority of the sabbath be given up, and the working man's right to it is irretrievably sacrificed. It is then left to his employer's caprice, to decide whether he shall rest, or redouble his toil ; and the essential selfish- ness of human nature justifies us in affirm- ing, that the decision will be against rest, as often as avarice concludes that labour will be most profitable. Let the divine authority of the sabbath be given up, and then all days are alike. The merciful arrangements of the humane will be neutralized by the exorbitant exactions of the cruel ; the w T ill of the righteous (if righteousness could exist without a sabbath) will be resisted by the wicked ; the weak will be coerced by the strong ; in a word, the sabbath will be lost, the landmarks of morality will be destroyed, and a flood of worldliness and oppression will sweep over the whole earth. Thus, while the appointment of the sabbath proves the prescience of God, in his perfect ac- quaintance with the constitution, and the future circumstances, of our fallen race, it also illustrates his tender solicitude for the 22 THE SABBATH. . happiness of his creatures generally, and of man in particular. " With dove-like wings, peace o'er yon village broods : The dizzying mill-wheel rests ; the anvil's din Hath ceased ; all, all around is quietness. Less fearful on this day, the limping hare Stops, and looks back, and stops, and looks on man, Her deadliest foe. The toil-worn horse, set free, Unheedful of the pasture, roams at large ; And as his stiff, unwieldly bulk he rolls, His iron-arm'd hoofs gleam in the morning ray. But chiefly man the day of rest enjoys. Hail, sabbath! thee I hail, the poor man's day. On other days, the man of toil is doom'd To eat his joyless bread, lonely, the ground Both seat and board, screen'd from the winter's cold And summer's heat by neighbouring hedge or tree ; But on this day, imbosom'd in his home, He shares the frugal meal with those he loves ; With those he loves he shares his heart-felt joy Of giving thanks to God — not thanks of form, A word and a grimace, but rev'rently, With cover'd face, and upward earnest eye." Grahame. 4. It was designed, in connection with bodily rest, to secure to every man time for the public and private exercises of religion. Where there is no sabbath kept, there is no true religion enjoyed, neither any standard THE SABBATH. 23 lifted up against abounding iniquity. There Satan reigns ; and man, who was made in the image of God, either renounces his rationality, and worships idols, or, in the spirit of atheism, he frames to himself a system of philosophy which transmutes the soul into matter, turns providence into chance, and blots God out of the universe he has made, and on each particle of which he has stamped indelible traces of his wis- dom, power, and goodness. In proportion as the sabbath is desecrated, in countries where its divine authority is formally acknowledged, the sanctuary of God is forsaken, the fervour of piety is quenched, the ordinances of religion are neglected, the poor are oppressed, the right- eous are persecuted, God is forgotten, and profligacy corrupts all classes. The history of every Popish country in Europe esta- blishes the truth of these allegations ; and, but for the partial preservation of the spirit and principles of the Reformation in this land, truth would, long ago, have been treated as a fiction, immortality would have been regarded as a dream, and the sabbath 24 THE SABBATH. would have been turned into a day of pas- time, — on which, field-sports, theatrical amusements, card-playing, buying, selling, and promenading would have been prac- tised by priests and people, high and low, young and old. The connection which subsists between the observance of the sabbath, and the maintenance of true religion, by nations, families, and individuals, is not accidental, but natural ; not partial, but universal ; not occasional, but constant. It is a connection founded in the nature of things, which har- monizes with the physical and spiritual con- stitution of man ; and which is confirmed by the appointment, and sanctified by the bless- ing, of God. Though the sabbath was de- signed, in the first instance, to heighten the joys of innocence, it was also adapted, and prospectively intended, to restrain vice, pre- serve truth, and bring God and eternity to our remembrance. The most hardened sab- bath-breaker can witness, how difficult he found it, at the commencement of his career, to be wicked while others were worshipping ; and to forget God, while the stillness of the THE SABBATH. 25 country, the pealing of the church-going bells, the open doors of the sanctuary, and the streaming multitude, who went up to the house of the Lord — all seemed to say, " O come, let us worship and bow down ; let us kneel before the Lord our Maker, For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand.' 7 As there is a time for everything under the sun, it was necessary there should be a stated day for the worship of God, that the universality of the custom might shame par- tial dissent, and check individual indifference ; that one man's business might not interfere with another man's devotion ; and that the regular return of the day might correct the treachery of the memory, the worldliness of the affections, and the alienation of the mind. In the sabbatic institution, God con- templated our happiness no less than his own glory. He made the day 'his, by a solemn appropriation, that he might convey it back to us, under the guarantee of a divine charter, that none might deprive us of its rest, without incurring the guilt of robbing him of his right. To his command he 26 THE SABBATH. added his example, that the proud might be shamed into imitation, or, at least, be deterred from disobedience, under the dread of a double curse ; that the lowly might be en- couraged to obey, under the hope of a great reward, and by the influence of a heavenly pattern ; and that rich and poor, bond and free, learned and illiterate, might have the same mighty motives to meet together — at the same time, in the same place, on the same level — uttering the same penitential confessions, supplicating the same blessings, and joining in the same ascriptions of praise to Him who is above all, and through all, and in them all. " Solemn the knell, from yonder ancient pile, Fills all the air, inspiring joyful awe : Slowly the throng moves o'er the tomb-paved ground ; The aged man, the bowed down, the blind, Led by the thoughtless boy ; and he who breathes With pain^and eyes the new-made grave, well-pleased : These, mingled with the young, the gay, approach The house of God : these, spite of all their ills, A glow of gladness feel. With silent praise They enter in ; a placid stillness reigns, Until the man of God — worthy the name — Opens the book, and reverently reads The stated portion." Grahame, THE SABBATH. 27 5. To commemorate the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ, and pre- figure the rest which remaineth for the people of God. That the sabbath was not designed to be exclusively commemorative of the creation, is certain; for, in Deut. v, 15, the deliver- ance from Egyptian bondage is assigned as an additional reason why the Jews should rest themselves, and allow their servants to rest also. That deliverance was a type of the redemption effected by the death of the Lord Jesus ; and if it was the will of God, that the shadow should be commemorated, how much more that the work itself should be held in everlasting remembrance ! By the incarnation, death, and resurrection of our Lord, a new dispensation was introduced, new manifestations of love were vouchsafed, and matter for new and unending songs of praise was furnished : God then bestowed his richest gift, and completed his greatest work — a work in which the glory of his perfections shone so illustriously, that all former displays were cast into the shade. There was, therefore, a necessity why his 28 THE SABBATH. people, in their sabbath worship, should dis- tinctly adore his love, and utter his praise, for having fulfilled his promises, and accom- plished his predictions, in raising up " a horn of salvation for them in the house of David his servant." The Jewish sabbath intimated that God was their Maker, and that it was he who had brought them out of the house of bondage ; but ours proclaims the redemption of our whole race ; and by keep- ing it, we avow our belief in the love of the Father, in the deity of the Son, in the vica- rious character of his death, the triumphs of his resurrection, and in the eternal "rest which remaineth for the people of God." Without forgetting or undervaluing the stu- pendous work of creation, or the emancipa- tion of Israel, the burden of our sabbath songs should be, " Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which, according to his abundant mercy, hath begotten us again unto a lively hope, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead." Reserving other branches of this great subject for future discussion, we trust the preceding remarks are sufficient to convince THE SABBATH. 29 our readers, that the design of the sabbath was holy and benignant ; that the institution itself stands essentially connected with the rights of God, and the dearest interests of man ; that it is, at once, a guard to truth, and a witness against error ; that its sancti- fication is equally necessary to the refresh- ment of our bodies, and the salvation of our souls ; and that we cannot devote it to pastime, or to labour, without robbing God, without infringing on the rights of others, and without wronging our own souls by for- feiting the blessings of grace here, and the rest of glory hereafter. 30 THE SABBATH. CHAPTER II. MORAL OBLIGATION OF THE DAY. That branch of the sabbath-question which now falls under our consideration, is, the moral obligation which we, and all to whom the word of God comes, are under, to keep the day holy. This may be proved, 1. By an appeal to the time when the sabbath was instituted, and to the general character of the reasons assigned for its early observance. " Thus the heavens and the earth w r ere finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended 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." Gen. ii, 1-3. Dr. Paley and others have employed much learned ingenuity to prove, that these words are introduced by way of anticipation, to secure the order of connection, and to give additional weight to the subsequent enact- ment at Sinai : in other words, that they do THE SABBATH. 31 not describe what then took place, but what God had determined to do two thousand five hundred years afterward. But their reason- ings are inconclusive ; they contradict the obvious meaning of the text ; and are, as we think, highly injurious to the interests of religion and morality. The laws of God stand in no need of rhetorical artifice ; they are binding on his creatures from the first moment of their promulgation ; and the im- press of his authority alone invests them with a character of solemnity which human expe- dients cannot increase. The above account bears on its face such evidence of being a real, an original, and a consecutive history of what then took place, that not one of a thousand common-sense readers would ever dream of its being an anticipatory parenthesis. Not only is it manifestly a part of the history of creation, but it bears the same affinity to that history which the capital does to a column, which the chief corner-stone does to a temple ; for it gives majesty and beauty to the whole ; and in its polished lines we trace the holi- ness, the sovereignty, and the goodness of 32 THE SABBATH. God ; the moral obligation of man, the origin of ordinances, and the type of eternal rest. The creation of the world, under any circum- stances, must have been contemplated as a gigantic manifestation of power, and a con- summate device of wisdom ; but had it not been sanctified by the keeping of a sabbath, it would have wanted a character of holiness ; and, wanting this, it would have been un- worthy of God. If we admit, that the sabbath was not in- stituted till the time of Moses, it follows, that the human race were not only without a chartered holy day for the space of two thousand five hundred years, but that they were left, for this vast period, to worship God as often, or rather as seldom, as they thought meet. But had this been the fact, it is difficult to imagine how they came to learn, that to neglect his worship was a sin, or that its regular performance was a duty, and acceptable in his sight. It appears to us a libel on the Most High, to suppose that, while he gave rational and immortal man instructions respecting the keeping and dressing of the garden, the replenishing of THE SABBATH. 33 the earth, and the subduing of the animals, he should have left him wholly ignorant of the time when, and the reasons why, he should evince his gratitude and loyalty, by engaging in his worship ; that, while he made ample provision for the supply of his bodily wants, he should have neglected to institute an ordinance essential to the improvement of his mind, and the maintenance of fellow- ship with himself; and that, though he fore- saw our apostacy, the spread of idolatry and impiety — though he had determined to re- deem, enlighten, and exalt us to his favour and image — he, nevertheless, delayed to enact the keeping of a sabbath, for the term we have specified, though this, above all other means, was best calculated to restrain vice, preserve truth, promote piety, and carry out the designs of redeeming love ! The sup- position is impious ; the text, taken in its natural and obvious meaning, gives it the lie ; and all our conceptions of what became the wisdom, grace, and holiness of God, for- bid that we should entertain it for a moment. No ! the sabbath was not postponed till the days of Moses. It was established at the 3 34 THE SABBATH, birth of time, in the world's infancy, on the first entire day of man's existence — before his body was wearied with toil, or his soul stained with sin ; and, consequently, before any ceremonial ordinances existed, or were at all necessary. It was, in truth, a part of God's original plan ; he was determined not to have a world without a sabbath ; for, in his estimation, man's privileges and bliss were incomplete, till the divine example was set, and the royal edict promulgated, which required that he should spend each seventh day in uninterrupted fellowship with himself. The reasons assigned to our first parents, for the sanctincation of the sabbath, were of a universal and primary character ; and, as such, were equally obligatory on them and on their posterity. They were, the com- memoration of the creation ; the example of God; his solemn appointment; and the de- pendant circumstances of man. The first three are clearly expressed in the text, and the latter is plainly implied. " God rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made ;" that is, he suspended the operations of his creating energy ; not be- THE SABBATH, 35 cause he was weary, nor because lie could not have created other works and other beings, possessing properties and powers widely different from those to which he had already given existence ; but because he would set man an example of working six days, and of resting on the seventh; " God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it :" he set it apart from common, for sacred uses ; he said, in effect, " It is mine ; and I award a special blessing to those who shall* on it, imitate my example, revere my ordi- nation, and adore me as their Creator and sovereign Benefactor." Such were the de- signs, and such the will, of God respecting the sanctification of the sabbath. Now, we argue, that if our first parents, in their ori- ginal state, were bound to copy the example, to reverence the appointments, and to use the means of grace which their sovereign Creator instituted, for the confirmation of their happiness, and for the increase of their knowledge ; that if they were obligated to meditate on the works of his hands, to adore the perfections of his nature, to praise him for his creating and preserving goodness, 36 THE SABBATH. and to testify their love by obedience to his will ; then we, also, are bound to do the same, seeing we are not only his workman- ship, and the objects of his providential care, but also the purchase of the blood of his only-begotten Son, and the objects of his long-suffering goodness. If our first parents stood in need of a weekly rest, and of a seventh day for contemplation and worship, though they lived in the paradise of an un- fallen world, though they were possessed of intuitive knowledge, and though, in their approaches to God, they had only to adore, to love, and to praise ; how much more do we, who live in a world blighted by the curse, who have to eat our bread by the sweat of our brow, who know not how to order our speech, by reason of the darkness that is in us, and who, to other branches of duty, have to add confession of sin, depre- cation of merited wrath, resistance to the flesh, and a laborious search after truth ! Thus, whether we consider the time when the sabbath was instituted, the primary rea- sons for its sanctification, the relations we sustain to its great Author, the blessings we THE SABBATH. o7 have received at his hand, or our general circumstances of peril, and of pressing ne- cessity ; we are as clearly and as fully bound to keep it holy, as were Adam and Eve. Yes ! the sabbath was made for man, in his fallen and unfallen condition, in his regene- rate and unregenerate state, in all the ages of his existence, in all the variety of his cir- cumstances, and in all the lands where his lot may be cast ; and nothing but ignorance, involuntary ignorance, can excuse us, if we neglect to keep it holy. Instead, therefore, of cavilling with the ordinance, or endeavouring to evade its obligation, let us revere it for its antiquity, love it for its benignity, and sanctify it in obedience to the authority, and in imi- tation of the example, of its great Author. Our obligation to keep the sabbath holy may be proved, 2. From the moral law, which expressly enjoins its observance. It might have been anticipated, that Paley, and the writers at whose head he stands, after having attempted to invalidate the pri- mitive institution of the sabbath, would have strenuously maintained its perpetual and uni- 38 THE SABBATH. versal obligation, on the ground, that its sanctification is commanded in the moral law. But, instead of this, they have labour- ed to prove, that, though found in the deca- logue, it is really a part of the Jewish cere- monial ; and is binding on us only by human and conventional considerations. But, " My counsel shall stand, saith the Lord ; and I will do all my pleasure." A part of his " counsel" and " pleasure," most certainly, is, that we should " remember the sabbath- day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work : but the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God : 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, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates. For 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 sabbath-day, and hallowed it." The ten commandments were clearly dis- tinguished from all ritual enactments and ceremonies whatsoever, by the following circumstances : — First. The ceremonial law THE SABBATH. 39 was given by the ordinary methods of in- spiration ; whereas God spake all the words of the moral law with his own lips, in the audience of all the people, accompanied by such signs of majesty, that even Moses said, " I exceedingly fear and quake ;" and the people entreated that the words might not be spoken to them again, lest they should die. Secondly. The ceremonial law was written by Moses on parchment, or some such perishable material ; but God wrote the moral law, with his own finger, on tables of stone. Thirdly. The ceremonial law was placed by the side of the ark, and might, at any time, have been removed ; but the tables of stone, which contained the moral law, were laid up within the ark, in token of its superior excellence, and of God's supreme concern for its preservation. Fourthly. To show its everlasting connection and harmony with the economy of grace, it was sprinkled with blood, covered with the mercy-seat, overshadowed with cherubim, and enshrined with the shechinah, or " glory of the Lord."/ By these extraordinary circumstances, a broad line of demarkation was established 40 THE SABBATH. between it and the Jewish ritual : and the sabbath law, standing, as it does, in the centre of the decalogue, serves as a seal to the first table, and as a guard to the second ; an arrangement which seems to imply, that, in the divine estimation, its perpetuity and due observance are essential to the preserva- tion of the whole law, and to the perform- ance of the duties of both tables. Dr. Paley endeavours to overthrow the argument in favour of the moral obligation of the sabbath, drawn from the fact of its incorporation with the decalogue, by plead- ing that, in several passages of Scripture, ceremonial, political, and positive duties are blended with others which are moral, and, consequently, universally binding. But we need only reply to this, that not one of the passages he adduces was written by the finger of God on tables of stone, or was spoken by God in the hearing of all the people, or was deposited in the ark, or was overshadowed with the cherubim and the glory. None of them constituted what God and his church have called " the law," " the two tables of the law," " the ten command- THE SABBATH. 41 merits ;" and though we fully admit their inspiration, yet neither Christ nor his apos- tles ever recognised any of them as com- plete summaries of duty, which they often did as to the moral law. In conducting his anti-sabbatic argument, Dr. Paley adverts to the temporal penalties, and Jewish restrictions, which were ap- pended to the law of the sabbath ; and argues, that, because we are not subject to them, neither are we bound by the law to which they were subjoined. But, by a similar mode of arguing, the infidel might neutralize and invalidate every precept in the two tables. The Jewish government was a theocracy — God was their King ; and the moral law formed the basis of their national polity. Hence heavy temporal penalties were annexed to the worshipping of idols, to the taking of the name of God in vain, to disobedience to parents, as well as to the violation of the sabbath ; and various cere- monial and political arrangements were made for the detection of murder, adultery, theft, and the bearing of false witness, which are not obligatory on us as Christians. If, there- 42 THE SABBATH. fore, the fourth commandment is to be reckoned ceremonial, because it was guard- ed by temporal penalties, and political re- strictions, then they are all ceremonial ; if it has been abrogated, then they have all been abrogated ; and if so, it follows, that there is no divine code of laws in the Bible ; and if not in the Bible, certainly not in the world ; consequently, man is without law, the distinction between right and wrong is arbitrary, and our terrors of conscience are unnecessary ; for the doctrines of human responsibility, and of eternal rewards and punishments, are, on this hypothesis, idle dreams. These, we maintain, are the legi- timate consequences of the theory which stamps this commandment with a ceremo- nial character. But we reject the theory, and we abhor its consequences. " Though the appointment of the seventh day, as distinguished from other days, be of a positive character, yet the law itself is intimately, perhaps essentially, connected with several moral principles of homage to God, and mercy to men ; with the obliga- tion of religious worship, of public religious THE SABBATH, 43 worship, and of undistracted public worship : and this will account for its collocation in the decalogue with the highest duties of re- ligion, and the leading rules of personal and social morality. Our Lord Jesus declares, I that he 'came not to destroy the law and the prophets, but to fulfil.' Take it that, by ' the law,' he meant both the moral and the ceremonial : ceremonial law could only be fulfilled in him, by realizing its types ; and moral law, by upholding its authority. For ' the prophets,' they admit of a similar dis- tinction : they either enjoin morality, or utter prophecies of Christ ; the latter of which were fulfilled in the sense of accomplish- ment, the former by being sanctioned and enforced. The apostle, in answer to an ob- jection to the .doctrine of justification by faith, asks, ' Do we then make void the law through faith?' Rom. iii, 31 ; which is equivalent to asking, Does Christianity teach that the law is no longer obligatory on Christians, because it teaches that no man can be justified by it ? To which he answers, in the most solemn form of expression, ■ God forbid ; yea, we establish the law.' Now, the sense in which 44 THE SABBATH. the apostle uses the term, ' the law,' in this argument, is indubitably marked in Rom. vii, 7, ' I had not known sin, but by the law : for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet:' which, being. a plain reference to the tenth command of the decalogue, is • the law' of which he speaks, This, then, is the law which is established by the gospel ; and this can mean nothing else but the establishment and confirmation of its authority, as the rule of all inward and outward holiness. Whoever, therefore, de- nies the obligation of the sabbath on Chris- tians, denies the obligation of the whole decalogue ; and there is no real medium be- tween the acknowledgment of the divine authority of this sacred institution, as a uni- versal law, and that gross corruption of Christianity, generally designated Antino- mianism."* We plead the moral obligation of the sabbath, 3. From the example of the church and people of God in all ages. That our first parents kept the sabbath in paradise, is certain ; for such was the will * Watson's Theo. Diet., article, Sabbath. THE SABBATH. 45 of God concerning them ; and we know that, for one day at least, they must have perfectly served his pleasure. That they sanctified it, after their fall, and expulsion from paradise, may be confidently inferred, from their peni- tence, from the Scripture intimations tve have of their restoration to the favour of God, as well as from what is said in Gen. iv, 3, as to the time w T hen Cain and Abel presented their offerings to the Lord. In the text we read, " And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain," &c. ; but in the margin it reads, " At the end of days Cain," &c, — a mode of expression used in other parts of the Old Testament* to denote the expiration of a measured term. As, therefore, one of the earliest, simplest, and most sacred divisions of time was that into weeks, it may be pre- sumed, that these brethren presented their offerings on the day that the Lord had hal- lowed. This opinion is strengthened, if we suppose, with Dr. Kennicott, that it was then their father invested them with the right of sacrificing • and that this was the first instance in which they offered on God's altar, in their own name, and in behalf of 46 THE SABBATH. their respective households. Such a service must have been felt to be peculiarly solemn ; and, in the absence of all other sacred days, the day which the Lord had blessed, and sanctified by his example, was doubtless chosen for its performance. That the sabbath was sanctified by the patriarchs and their families may be inferred from the general fidelity with which they served God, and maintained his worship in the world ; from the import of those eulogies which God bestowed upon them ; (Gen. v, 22-24 ; vi, 8, 9 ; vii, 1 ; xviii, 19 ; xxvi, 5 ; 2 Peter ii, 7, 8;) and from the repeated references, in their memoirs, to the division of time into weeks, and the almost worship- ful respect which they, and the nations of antiquity, paid to the number seven. The history of the flood demonstrates, that Noah, by God's direction, regulated all his official acts, in connection with this dreadful catas- trophe, by a strict reference to the seventh day. And we ask, What possible reason can be assigned for the studied respect which was thus paid to it, if its sabbatic character be denied ? And by what other means could THE SABBATH, 47 it have been distinguished from the other days of the week, through the lapse of two thousand five hundred years, except by its regular consecration to the worship of God f On this supposition, the problem is satisfac- torily solved ; but on every other it is utterly inexplicable. We concede^ that the Scriptures do not make express mention of the sabbath, from the time of its first institution up to the days of Moses. But if this silence be admitted as evidence that it was forgotten and disre- garded during the whole of this period, we must further admit, that it was forgotten and disregarded throughout the reign of the Judges, including the administrations of holy Samuel, and of regal Saul ; for in all this period (about six hundred years) it is not once named. Dr* D wight has proved, that there are only five passages in the Scrip- tures in which the sabbath is mentioned, as distinguished from other holy days, from the time of Moses to the return of the Jews from Babylon, being a period of one thousand years ; and he concludes his argument in these words : — " Now, let me ask, can any 48 THE SABBATH. person wonder, that, in an account so sum- mary as the history of the patriarchs, there should be no mention of the sabbath ; when it is considered, that, in the space of a thou- sand years — during which period the Jews existed both as a nation and a church, with kings to rule them, and prophets to teach them; and historians and poets to record and immortalize their wars and religious services — it is mentioned only five times ?" That the sabbath was sanctified by the Israelites, before the law was given from Sinai, is evident from Exod. xvi, 22-28 ; where we learn, that on the sixth day after the manna had begun to fall, the people, of their own accord, and in apparent contra- diction of the words of Moses, " gathered twice as much bread, two omers for one man, 5 ' as they had done on the five preced- ing mornings. Their rulers, doubtful whe- ther they had done right, came to Moses for direction ; and he said, " This is that which the Lord hath said, Bake that which ye will bake to-day, and seethe that ye will seethe ; and that which remaineth over lay up for you to be kept until the morning. And they laid THE SABBATH. 49 it up till the morning, as Moses bade : and it did not stink, neither was there any worm therein. And Moses said, Eat that to-day ; for to-day is a sabbath unto the Lord: to- day ye shall not find it in the field. Six days ye shall gather it ; but on the seventh day, which is the sabbath, in it there shall be none." From this history it is manifest* first, that the sabbath was sanctified by the Israelites at least two months before the law was delivered from Sinai ; and that the peo- ple prepared for its sanctification before they received any instructions to that effect from their rulers. Secondly. That Moses vindi- cated the preparatory arrangements which the people had made, though they were contrary to the literal import of one of his own general instructions ; and he did this, not by announcing the law of the sabbath in form, with the reasons for its sanctification in detail, as if newly revealed ; but simply by recognising the fact, that the morrow was a holy sabbath unto the Lord. Thirdly. That God, instead of punishing them for introducing novelties into his worship, testi- fied his approbation of their conduct, by 4 50 THE SABBATHc giving them, in continuance, a double por- tion of manna on the sixth day — by preserv- ing their sabbath portion sweet, and free from worms — and by denouncing the attempt to gather it on the sabbath, as a refusal, on their part, to keep his commandments and laws. Thus, it is plainly proved, that the sabbath was known and observed before the moral law was promulgated, or the ceremo- nial existed in its Mosaic form : and this of itself is fatal to the whole* of Dr. Paley's argument, as he himself admits. " If the divine command was actually delivered at the creation, it was addressed, no doubt, to the whole human species alike ; and con- tinues, unless repealed by some subsequent revelation, binding upon all who come to the knowledge of it." And he afterward adds : "The former opinion" (namely, that the sabbath was instituted at the creation) "pre- cludes all debate about the extent of the obli- gation."* That the Jews kept the sabbath, with more or less strictness, according to the degree of their fidelity in the service of God, after * Moral Philosophy. THE SABBATH. 51 their settlement in Canaan, is not questioned by any. In the days of their degeneracy, it was indeed extensively violated ; but its violation brought down the judgments of God, and the stern rebukes of their prophets. Their daily sacrifices were doubled on this day, and all their annual festivals recognised its permanent sanctity. Nehemiah, and other reformers, laboured to restore it to its original purity ; and some of God's richest promises w 7 ere given on the express condition, that they should turn away their foot from pro- faning it, and should call it " a delight." In the days of the Redeemer, they were super- stitiously exact in every thing relating to its outward rest. He called himself " the Lord of the sabbath ;" he went, as he was wont, into the synagogue on the sabbath-day ; he taught his disciples to pray, that their flight from the impending destruction of Jerusalem might not be on the sabbath-day— -implying that, in his estimation, the want of its rest and ordinances would vastly enhance the distress of that day, a day of dire calamity. And though his disciples, after his resurrec- tion, transferred the festival to the first day 52 THE SABBATH. of the week, (for reasons to be afterward adduced,) yet they sacredly, and at great risk, consecrated to God a seventh part of their time. Ignatius, a companion of the apostles ; Justin Martyr, who lived at the close of the first century ; Irenaeus, a con- temporary with Polycarp, the disciple of St. John ; together with Tertullian, and all the early fathers, declare that the Christians kept the sabbath, but that they kept it on the first day of the week. Thus the concurrent testimony of history bears us out, when we say, that exalted piety, whether national or personal, has been invariably characterized by a reverential re- gard for the sanctity of the sabbath ; and that declension in religion has been as regu- larly marked by its desecration. If, then, the sovereign appointments of God ought to be reverenced ; if his glorious works ought to be commemorated ; if his gracious designs ought to be respected ; if his promises ought to be valued, and his threatenings feared ; if his commandments ought to be obeyed ; and if his example, and the example of his in- carnate Son, together with that of patriarchs, THE SABBATH. 53 prophets, apostles, martyrs, and saints, ought to be imitated ; then we are hound to keep the sabbath holy ; and we cannot profane it without identifying ourselves with his ene- mies, trampling his goodness under foot, and setting his authority and his judgments at defiance. " Thine earthly sabbaths, Lord, we love, But there's a nobler rest, above : Thy servants to that rest aspire With ardent hope and strong desire, There languor shall no more oppress ; The heart shall feel no more distress ; No groans shall mingle with the songs That dwell upon immortal tongues. No gloomy cares shall there annoy, No conscious guilt disturb our joy ; But every doubt and fear shall cease, And perfect love give perfect peace." 54 THE SABBATH. CHAPTER III. ITS CHANGE FROM THE SEVENTH^TO THE FIRST DAY IN THE WEEK. Infidels and Jews are not more forward to charge us with having made this change, than we are to admit that it did take place. Indeed, we regard it as a fact of considerable importance, in proving the divinity of our holy religion, that, from the time of our Re- deemer's resurrection, his disciples comme- morated that event by a weekly sabbath. But while we admit, and even rejoice in, the change of the day, we deny that any change took place in the festival itself, except it was that of being " changed from glory to glory." The apostles neither abrogated it, as if it were useless ; nor abridged it, as if it were too long ; nor secularized it, asr if it were too spiritual ; nor did they weaken its moral obligation, as if it were too binding. They only transferred it from the seventh to the first day of the week : and by thus conjoin- ing the new creation with the old, and the rest of God our Maker with that of God our THE SABBATH. 55 Saviour, they invested the day with ad- ditional interest, and made its grateful ob- servance more binding on the hearts and consciences of our ransomed race. This transfer, we conceive, was no way incon- sistent either with the original design of the institution, or with the spirit of the fourth commandment. Its chief design was, the commemoration of the creation of the world by Jehovah, in the space of six days; and the spirit of the commandment requires that, after six days' labour, we should dedicate the seventh to the worship of God. As, therefore, the sabbath still returns after six days' toil, the same truth is taught, and the same end is as fully secured, as though it had continued to be solemnized on the very seventh day from the creation. It will be readily admitted, that the seventh day had no inherent sanctity in itself ; that it became a holy day simply because " God blessed and sanctified it ;" hence the marked distinction which is made between the sab- bath, and the day on which it was kept : " Remember the sabbath-day," not the seventh day, " to keep it holy." And 56 THE SABBAT'S. again : " Wherefore God blessed the sab- bath-day, and hallowed it." It was r there- fore, the blessing and the hallowing example of God which constituted the essence and efficacy of the sabbath : and these being, for the time, identified with the seventh day, it was called " the sabbath," and was sancti- fied as such by the Old-Testament church. In the last chapter of the book of Nehemiah, this holy day is referred to nine times ; and in no one instance is it called the seventh day, but invariably the " sabbath," or the " sabbath-day." And in all the other pas- sages where it is mentioned, whether in the Old or New Testament — excepting those in which the creation, or some Jewish observ- ance, is spoken of — it bears the same desig- nation. Now, from this studied, and almost uniform, substitution of the proper name for the number of the day, we draw this general inference ; namely, that the keeping of the sabbath, or sacred rest, on the seventh day, was a mere circumstance connected with its sanctification, wisely ordered at the first, and binding on man while the appointment con- tinued in force ; but which was alterable at THE SABBATH, 57 the will of God, and not essentia} to the sanctity or blessedness of the sabbath itself. That the keeping of the seventh day, from the creation, was not essential to the sancti- fication of the sabbath, is certain ; for, in consequence of the diurnal motion of the earth on its own axis, our hemisphere is shrouded in darkness while the light of day irradiates the other ; so that we are only beginning our sabbath w T hen the Orientals have concluded theirs. Not only so, but the regular succession of time into days of twenty-four hours each was interrupted by God himself in the time of Joshua. That great captain, moved by the Spirit of inspi- ration, said, in the sight of Israel, " Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon ; and thou, moon, in the valley of Ajalon.' 5 "And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies. So the sun stood still, and hasted not to go down about a whole day. And there was no day like that before it or after it, that the Lord hearkened unto the voice of a man : for the Lord fought for Israel ." Josh, x, 12-14. As to the mode of 58 THE SABBATH. this miracle, we say nothing ; but the fact is declared, that, through the special intervention of Jehovah, the light of that day was super- naturally prolonged to nearly twice its ordi- nary length ; and, consequently, the follow- ing sabbath was displaced to the same ex- tent. While we adduce these facts, in proof that the sanctity of the sabbath did not depend on its exact identification with the seventh day, we repeat, that the appointment to keep it on that day was obligatory upon man while it was matter of divine injunction ; for none may presume to alter even those parts of God's worship which are circumstantial, without his authority. This leads us to state the grounds on which we rest our be- lief, that the change in question was not made by man, but by him who is both God and man, in one person, for ever ; who is " Lord of the sabbath ;" and " Head over all things to the church, which is his body ; the fulness of Him who filleth all in all." In proof of this we plead, 1. Prophetic intimations that such a change was contemplated. We have showed above, that the law of THE SABBATH. 59 the sabbath clearly distinguishes between the festival itself, and the day on which it was held. Now, we would ask, why was this distinction made, when, by the alteration of a few simple terms, the retaining of the day might have been made essential to the keeping of the sabbath in all countries, and in every age ? When every form of speech was present to the mind of the divine Law- giver, and when he foreknew, with absolute certainty, that his people would, under the new dispensation, transfer the sabbath from the seventh to~ the first day of the week, why was no guard thrown in to prevent such a transfer ? Why, but because God willed that it should take place. He contemplated it from the beginning, as being, in itself, wise and beneficial ; and as being called for by the superior glory of the work of redemption ; and that there might be no discrepance be- tween the requirements of his law, and the institutions of his gospel, he adopted that mode of expression which, of all others, was best calculated to suggest, to men of a dis- tant generation, that the change of the day was an open question — that the sabbath was 60 THE SABBATH. not essentially connected with the seventh day — that when the proper time should ar- rive, there was no bar in the decalogue to the substitution of the first day, as commemora- tive of our redemption, and the new creation to which it gave birth. Psalm cxviii is called, by Bishop Home, " a triumphal hymn, sung by King Messiah, at the head of the Israel of God, on occasion of his resurrection and exaltation." These glorious events, and the day on which they were to be commemorated, are referred to in the following words : — " The stone which the builders refused, is become the head- stone of the corner. This is the Lord's doing ; it is marvellous in our eyes. This is the day which the Lord hath made ; we will rejoice and be glad in it." This passage is quoted six times in the New Testament, as applicable to the Lord Jesus, and to him only. The rejection he suffered from " the builders" — the chief priests and rulers of the Jews — was consummated on the cross : for, by dooming him to that ignominious death, they not only denied him as the Son of God, and the Saviour of the world, but they loaded THE SABBATH. 61 him with the nation's curse, and did their utmost to bury his person, his claims, his memory, and his cause, in the rubbish of a dishonoured grave. But he took the wise in their own craftiness ; and, by means of that very death, "he destroyed death, and him that had the power of death ; that is, the devil :" and through his resurrection, which followed, he was declared to be " the Son of God with power," " the Hope of Israel," " the Desire of all nations," " the Messiah," and " the Head-stone of the corner" of God's spiritual temple. Now, the day, on which this rejected Stone was exalted, the Lord is said to have made ; not literally, (for in this sense he made all days,) but metaphorically. By choosing it as the day on which death and hell should be vanquished, by consecrat- ing it to his worship, and by appointing that it should be the sabbath of his New-Testa- ment church, he made it illustrious, he raised it above all other days ; and, by associating it with those glorious services, triumphs, recollections, and anticipations, which the cross exhibits and sanctions, he rendered it a day of power and of grace to 62 THE SABBATH, the world. The psalmist not only foretells the happiness which the resurrection should occasion, but the joy and gladness which his people should take in " the day" on which it should be accomplished ; for he introduces them as saying, " This is the day which the Lord hath made ; we will be glad and re- joice in itP That it was to be a day of public worship, is apparent from the royal commission to "open the gates of righteous- ness ; this gate of the Lord, into which the righteous," of all lands, " shall enter;" from the Church's prayer for present and abound- ing prosperity, "Save now, I beseech thee, O Lord ! Lord, I beseech thee, send now prosperity ;" from the praise ascribed to " Him that cometh in the name of the Lord ;" as well as from the blessing which his people are represented as receiving " out of the house of the Lord" — the new light showed to them by the Lord — producing an increase of zeal in sacrificing, confirmed con- fidence in God, as their God, and rapturous praise because "his mercy endureth for ever." In Isaiah lxv, 17, 18, the prophet pre- THE SABBATH, 63 diets, that a time would come, when the work of redemption would be commemo- rated in surpassing preference to the work of creation. " Behold, I create new heavens and a new earth : and the former shall not come into mind. But be ye glad and rejoice in that which I create : for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy." That this passage relates to the church mili- tant, in her New-Testament estate, is evi- dent from what is said in the context con- cerning death, answers to prayer, and the blessings of temporal prosperity. In Heb. ii, 5 ; vi, 5, the New-Testament economy is called " the world to come ;" and in the book of Revelation, the church is often called " heaven," in opposition to the secular and persecuting governments of the earth. What the prophet describes as " new heavens and a new earth," is explained as being accom- plished in the creating " Jerusalem a rejoic- ing, and her people a joy." In other words, it is here predicted, that, through the re- demption and reign of Christ, the New-Tes- tament church shall be so adorned with holi- ness, and so enriched with gifts and heavenly 64 THE SABBATH. influences, that she shall become an occasion of universal rejoicing ; and that her renovat- ing and joyous agency shall render the world a kind of paradise, as compared with its former alien, warlike, miserable, and un- evangelized state. This change is called " a new creation ;" and it is predicted, that the former creation shall not " come into mind ;" that is, in Hebrew phraseology, shall be remembered less, x>r commemorated only as an inferior event. " This passage," says Dr. Dwight, " appears to me to place the fact in the clearest light— that a parti- cular, superior, and extraordinary commemo- ration of the work of redemption, by the Christian church, in all its various ages, w T as a part of the good pleasure of God, and was designed by him to be accomplished in the course of his providence. But there neither is, nor ever was, any public, solemn comme- moration of this work by the Christian church, except that which is holden on the first day of the week, or the day in which Christ completed this great work by his re- surrection from the dead. This prophecy has, therefore, been unfulfilled, so far as I THE SABBATH. 65 can see, unless it has been fulfilled in this very manner. But if it has been fulfilled in this manner, then this manner of fulfilling it has been agreeable to the true intention of the prophecy, and to the good pleasure of God expressed in it; and is, therefore, that very part of his providence which is here unfolded to mankind."* Other prophetic intimations might be quoted ; but the above will suffice to show that the change harmo- nizes with the analogy of revealed truth. 2, We plead New-Testament evidence, in proof that the change was made with the approbation, and by the will, of our Lord. It was on the first day of the week that our Lord finished the term of his humiliation, rose from the dead, and entered into that state of meritorious and triumphant repose which he now inherits. This was not acci- dental ; and it would be blasphemy to in- sinuate, that it was done either in contempt of the divine example, or in deliberate disre- gard of the divine law. No ! Like every other event connected with his spotless life and atoning death, it was the result of a pre- * System of Theology, 66 THE SABBATH. ordination ; it " so seemed good in the sight" of the eternal Father. Pilate had no power over him for arrest, or for condemnation, ex- cept as it was given him from above. He himself had power to lay down his life, and he had power to take it up again ; yet he remained in the grave the whole of the Jewish sabbath. He postponed his triumph over death and hell ; he left his disciples to weep and lament, and suffered his enemies to re- joice, till the morning of the first day ; and then he took to him his great power — came forth from the grave, leading " captivity cap- tive" — and, appearing to his disciples, he turned their sorrow into joy. Now, if we admit that our Lord intended to honour the first day above the Jewish sabbath — to iden- tify it with his resurrection, to endear it to the affections, and embalm it in the grateful recollections, of his disciples — we have ade- quate reasons for his conduct ; but by no other theory can it be satisfactorily ex- plained. It was on the first day of the week that the Redeemer comforted his disciples with his royal "Peace be unto you!" that he THE SABBATH. 67 " expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself;" " opened their understandings, that they might under- stand the Scriptures ;" made himself " known unto them in the breaking of bread ;" "breath- ed on them, saying, Receive ye the Holy Ghost;" instructed them in "the things pertaining to the kingdom of God ;" and on this day, too, he commissioned them to preach " repentance and remission of sins in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem." His studied preference for the first day was strikingly evinced in his con- duct toward Thomas. That disciple was not with his brethren when Jesus showed himself on the day of his resurrection ; and though " the other disciples said unto him, We have seen the Lord," he rejected their testimony, saying, " Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe." This was daring unbelief; and, besides ex- posing himself to great risk, it was likely, at that critical juncture, to endanger the faith of others : yet the Lord Jesus allowed the 68 THE SABBATH, week to elapse, and the Jewish sabbath to pass away, before he afforded him the desired demonstration. " After eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them ; then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you. Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands ; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side ; and be not faithless, but believing. And Thomas answered and said, My Lord and my God." This solemn scene, it should be observed, not only took place on the first day of the second week, but the meeting was the first general meet- ing which the disciples had held since the preceding " first day." This is intimated in these words : " After eight days again his disciples were within ;" or, " After eight days his disciples were again within." Taking this circumstance into account, to- gether with the fulness of the assembly, and the absence of all signs of terror and sur- prise, when the Lord appeared in the midst of them, we think it more than probable, that the disciples met, on this occasion, by THE SABBATH, 69 his appointment, and under a promise that he would manifest himself to them. It is worthy of remark, that though the disciples, no doubt, attended the temple and synagogue services, on the Jewish sabbaths which intervened between his resurrection and ascension, the Redeemer did not once appear to them while they were so employ- ed ; but his visits, in every instance, were vouchsafed when they were met apart, as his disciples, and " with the doors shut for fear of the Jews," or when " they communed together and reasoned" by the way concern- ing his tragic death and glorious resurrection. From the whole it is undeniable, that the Lord Jesus gave a marked preference to the first day of the week ; and if he meant thereby to encourage his disciples to sepa- rate themselves from the ceremonial and un- evangelical worship of the Jews, to comme- morate his resurrection by a weekly sabbath, and also to assure them of his blessing and presence, while they did so— his conduct was wise, gracious, and intelligible. Where- as, if we deny that such were his intentions, and suppose that, on the contrary, it was his 70 THE SABBATH. sovereign will the seventh-day sabbath should have continued, then his whole procedure was unwise, unintelligible, and calculated to mislead and perplex his half-informed dis- ciples. This his love forbade, and his wis- dom rendered impossible. The conclusion, therefore, is inevitable, that it was his good pleasure that his disciples should transfer the sabbath festival from the seventh to the first day of the week. That the apostles and primitive Christians so interpreted his conduct, is proved by their uniform practice ; which was, to meet to- gether, for religious purposes, " on the first day of the week'*— a clear instance of which is given in connection w r ith the effusion of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. The feast of pentecost was invariably cele- brated on the fiftieth day from the passover ; and, computing from the Friday on which " Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us," we find that the feast that year fell on the seventh first day in succession ; and we read, that " when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they" (the disciples) " were all with one accord in one place." That they fHE SABBATH. 71 were not met to celebrate the Jewish feast, after the Jewish form, is certain ; for none but disciples were present ; and the sole exercise in which they were engaged, when the Holy Ghost came down, was that of social prayer. This, then, was their sab- bath ; and the baptism of the Spirit which they received, in answer to their joint sup- plication, offered up in the name of their risen Saviour, may properly be viewed as the affixing of the divine seal to the change of the day ; and as constituting the reward for that courageous faith which led them so early, and so openly, to withdraw from the abrogated feasts of Judaism. It was on the first day of the week the disciples at Troas came together to " break bread," and to hear Paul preach. Acts xx, 7. It appears, from the context, that the apostle spent seven days at Troas, and, consequent- ly, was there on the Jewish sabbath ; but no mention is made of any meeting of the church on that day; or, indeed, on any other, till the first day arrived ; and then he sanctified it with them, by administering the Lord's supper, and by preaching, till mid- 72 THE SABBATH". night. It was on this day, too, that the Christians at Corinth, and in all the region of Galatia, assembled to worship God. 1 Cor. xvi, 1, 2. Hence the apostle Paul directed that the collection for "the poor saints at Jerusalem" should be made when they were so assembled. Among the Jews, the giving of alms, and the casting of gifts into the treasury, were reckoned appropriate sabbath- day duties ; and as the first day had taken precedence of the seventh in the Christian church, the apostle taught the disciples to connect the exercise of benevolence with its sanctification, that in all things it might have the pre-eminence. By this arrangement, their convenience was not only met, but the day was honoured ; their alms were made a part of their worship, a tribute of gratitude to their Lord, and an expressive memorial of brotherly love to their fellow-saints. In Rev. i, 10, St. John calls the first day, " the Lord's day." " I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day." This was its common ap- pellation among the early Christians ; and its being so called by the disciple who leaned on the bosom of Christ, and who, at the THE SABBATH. 73 time he wrote, was under the plenary inspi- ration of the Holy Ghost, is, of itself, suffi- cient to prove, that the day was chosen and hallowed by Him whose royal name it bears. As the prayer which Christ taught his dis- ciples is called " the Lord's prayer," because he dictated it ; and as the sacrament which he instituted before his death is called " the Lord's supper," because he appointed it to be a memorial of his death, and a badge of discipleship among his people ; it follows, that the Lord's day was so called, because he ordained that it should be the sabbath of his church, separated for holy uses, comme- morative of his victory over the grave, and a chief means of perpetuating and of establish- ing his kingdom in the earth. If it be pleaded, that the apostles and evangelists frequently went into the synagogues of the Jews on their sabbath, and reasoned with them out of the Scriptures ; we reply, they did this on the same principle that ministers and missionaries, in our day, enter places of public resort, to secure a large congregation. They visited these places on the seventh dny, on the principle of expediency ; where- 74 THE SABBATH. as they met, in their own assemblies, on the first day, from a deep conviction of duty. Both sacred and profane history testify, that the first day of the week was the Christian sabbath. Ignatius called it " the queen of days ;" and he enjoined, " Let all who love Christ keep holy the Lord's day, renowned by his resurrection, in which death is overcome, and life is sprung up in him." Irenasus says, " On the Lord's day every one of us Christians keeps the sabbath, medi- tating on the law, and rejoicing in the works of God." Origen explains, at length, the reasons why the Lord's day was substituted for the seventh day. Augustine says, "As the Virgin was blessed above all women, so the first day is blessed above all days :" and he asserts, that " the apostles appointed the first day to be kept with all religious so- lemnity, because upon that day our Redeem- er rose from the dead, which also is there- fore called the Lord's day." But to cite individual testimonies comports not with the brevity of our plan ; nor are they necessary; for the uniform tenor of ecclesiastical history teaches, that, on this day, Christians^ in all THE SABBATH. 75 countries, held their religious assemblies ; and that, in these assemblies, the writings of the prophets and apostles were read, the doctrines of Christianity were explained, solemn prayers and praises were offered up to God, hymns were sung in honour of Christ, the Lord's supper was constantly celebrated, and collections were made for the maintenance of the clergy and the relief of the poor. On this day, too, the faithful abstained from bodily labour, as much as their persecuted and servile circumstances permitted. They looked upon it as a day of joy and gladness, and, therefore, all fast- ing on it was prohibited. Such was their zeal, that when they could not meet for wor- ship in the daytime, because of their ene- mies, they assembled in the morning, before it was light; and severe censures were passed on all who absented themselves without necessity. When the Roman em- pire became Christian, Constantine prohi- bited all judicial pleadings and prosecutions in courts of justice, and also all unnecessary labour, as being inconsistent with the design and duties of the day. 76 THE SABBATH. Thus, it is proved, that, from the time of our Lord's resurrection, up to the close of the third century, the first day of the week was celebrated, in all the churches, as the Christian sabbath. And when we take into account the unbending integrity of the apos- tles and first Christians, their love to their Lord, and their steadfast adherence to the letter of his instructions ; the name by which the day w r as distinguished ; the total absence of all controversy in the church, on the sub- ject of its sanctity, for several centuries ; together with the marked preference which our Lord showed for it, in his example, and the high honour which the eternal Father has put upon it, in succeeding ages, by awakening and saving sinners in its ordi- nances ; we possess evidence, amounting to demonstration, that the change was made by 'the will, and ivith the sanction, of Him whom we adore as " Lord also of the SABBATH." But to adduce proof of the lawfulness of the change, is only part of our design : we think it admits of proof, that the change was necessary, as a part of the New-Testament THE SABBATH. 77 economy ; and that it had the direct sanction of apostolic authority. In illustration of its assumed necessity we offer the following remarks :— 1. The superior glory of the event com- memorated, rendered the change neces- sary. There is a comparative importance, and a due order, in the scale of events, which is as real, as obvious, and, in some instances, as influential, as the difference of numbers, or the distinction between primary and second- ary principles in science and theology : and the Most High, because of the absolute per- fection of his nature, cannot but respect this order in the one case, as well as in the others ; that is, he cannot esteem, or teach his creatures to esteem, that as first, which is, in truth, last; nor that as secondary, which, in its nature and efficiency, is primary. That the redemption of our race, by the sufferings of " God manifest in the flesh," was a much more glorious event than the creation of the world by the word of his power, will not for a moment be questioned. It therefore became the wisdom of him who 78 THE SABBATH, is a God of order, and is not the author of confusion, to appoint, that the greater should take precedence of the less ; that the re- deeming work of three and thirty years should be honoured above the creative effort of six days ; and that the work in w r hich the whole circle of the divine perfections shone with surpassing splendour — by which the powers of hell were vanquished, the treasures of grace purchased, the redemption of our race accomplished, and the gates of heaven open- ed to all believers — -should be commemorated by the church, in preference to that work in which certain of the divine perfections were quiescent ; and which, though glorious, and worthy to be had in everlasting remembrance, " had no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory which excelleth." 2. The change was necessary, to guard the disciples against the sin and danger of Judaizing. The great error into which the early dis- ciples of our Lord were in danger of falling, (they being, for the most part, Jews,) was that of blending Christianity with the abro- gated rites of the law ; an evil which — THE SABBATH, 79 though less glaring than those to which the servants of God, under preceding dispensa- tions, were exposed— was equally inimical to the glory of God, the purity of his worship, the efficacy of his ordinances, and the spi- ritual interests of mankind. The apostolic epistles afford abundant evidence of the proneness, both of the converted and uncon- verted Jews, to cleave to the ceremonies of the law, and of their inclination to force the observance of them on the consciences of the Gentile converts. And as they did this on the principle, that they were auxiliary to justification, the peace of the church, and the salvation of both classes, required that this proneness should not only be restrained, but cured and condemned ; for, in seeking justification by the deeds of the law, in whole or in part, they fell from grace, and made Christ of none effect. These ceremonies either pointed to the Messiah, as yet to come, or they prefigured the blessings of his reign. Many of them were performed on the Jewish sabbath, and all of them were enjoined or eulogized in its appointed ministrations. The disciples who 80 THE SABBATH. believed that Christ was already come in the flesh, and who had realized the good things of which the law was a shadow, could not, therefore, have kept the Jewish sabbath, without tacitly conceding that the objections of the unbelieving Jews were valid, that the prophecies respecting the Messiah were un- accomplished, that the law was preferable to the gospel, and that Moses was worthy of more honour than Christ. It was impossible for them to have taken part in the Jewish worship, without witnessing the performance of ceremonies which they knew had been abrogated, without sanctioning the perpetua- tion of a priesthood which had been dis- annulled, and without listening to teachers who denied the divinity of their Lord, and who sought the destruction of his cause, and plotted their death, because they were his followers. Thus the essential difference between the Christian and Mosaic dispensations, taken in connection with the bigotry of the Jew, on the one hand, and the Judaizing tendencies of the disciples on the other, required that a broad line of demarcation should be placed THE SABBATH. 81 between them and their respective adherents ; that there should be no mingling of the spi- ritual worship of the one with the carnal ordinances of the other ; and that every- thing which seemed to compromise the superiority of the gospel, and its great Author, should be avoided, discountenanced, and condemned, as leading to apostacy, and as implying a renunciation of the truth. The destruction of Jerusalem was no less a bless- ing to the Christians than it was a judgment to the Jews, because of the extinguishing effect it had on the question of the perpetual obligation of Mosaic rites. But, far beyond all other events and arrangements, the change of the sabbath proved the most effectual guard to the disciples, against their being entangled again with "the yoke of bond- age." By this change the new dispensation was rendered complete ; time was secured for the due performance of gospel worship ; an emphatic protest was instituted against modern Judaism ; and the merited exalta- tion of the Lord Jesus as " head stone of the corner" was secured and openly pro- claimed, 82 THE SABBATK. 3. It was necessary to show forth the glory of Christ, his equality with the Father., and his Headship in his church, Under the Christian dispensation, "the Father judgeth no man ; but hath committed all judgment unto the Son ; that all men should honour the Son even as they honour the Father. He which honoureth not the Son, honoureth not the Father, which hath sent him." The Old-Testament church honoured the Father, by keeping a sabbath in commemoration of his resting from the work of creation ; and it was meet that the New-Testament church should, in like man- ner, honour the Son, by commemorating his rest from the more arduous work of re- demption. In doing this, w r e alienate none of the Father's claims ■ we only carry out his original design : we do not disparage his work, we only combine it with that of his well-beloved Son ; and, instead of establish- ing a rival worship, we glorify alike the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost; for our sabbath commemorates, and our sabbath songs celebrate, the winders of creation, the mystery of redemption, together with the THE SABBATH. 83 descent and gracious operations of the eter- nal Spirit. The New-Testament church is Christ's household, kingdom, fold, temple, mystical body, and bride ; and both his glory and the church's safety required that it should be made manifest to friends and foes, that he, and not Moses, nor any of the apostles, was the Ruler of the household, the King of the commonwealth, the chief Shepherd of the sheep, the Glory of the temple, the Head of the body, and the Bridegroom of the bride. This was, in part, accomplished by the " new name" which his people received, in virtue of their discipleship ; but it was rendered much more palpable by the sub- stitution of baptism for circumcision, the Lord's supper for the passover, the Christian ministry for the Jewish priesthood, and, especially, by the keeping of the first-day sabbath in the place of the seventh, as com- memorative of his entering into his rest. The keeping of the seventh-day sabbath, under the old dispensation, was a sign whereby the worshippers of Jehovah were distinguished in all the earth from atheists 84 THE SABBATH. and idolaters. But when it pleased the Fa- ther to place the Son upon his holy hill of Sion* and to set him "forth as the Pro- pitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but for the sins of the whole world/' it be- came indispensable that the sign should be changed and Christianized ! for the enemies of God then became the enemies of the cross of Christ, and his people were con- fined to such as believed in the name of Christ. The great truths which had then to be demonstrated, in opposition to Jews, atheists, and idolaters, were, the deity of Christ's person, the atoning character of his death, and his headship in the church, As the salvation of men, and the very existence of Christianity in the earth* hinged on these truths, their easy and triumphant establish- ment was a point of paramount importance. Had they been left to be reasoned out by laboured deductions, or proved only by re- fined and learned criticisms, the progress of the gospel must have been impeded, and the sphere of its triumphs circumscribed, especially among the uneducated classes. It was, therefore, not only kind and wise, THE SABBATH. 85 but necessary, that our Lord should render the form, the character, and even the names of his gospel ordinances declarative of these cardinal truths ; and that the fact of his re- surrection, which demonstrated the truth of each and all of them, should be commemo- rated in his church by the keeping of a iveekly rest. In this commemoration the most unequivocal evidence is given, that Jesus is "the Son of the Highest," "the Saviour of the world," and " Head over all things to his church ;" and its efficiency as a sign is most marked ; for in no one point is there a more manifest difference between his friends and his foes, than in the religious ob- servance of his day. Nothing can more clearly indicate the antichristian character of Socinianism and Popery than the studied obscuration of the Redeemer's divine supremacy in his church, with which they are respectively chargeable. On the Socinian hypothesis, no satisfactory reason can be assigned why Jesus should have taken precedence of Moses, and of all the prophets ; why his advent should have formed the commencement of a new dispen- 86 THE SABBATH, sation ; why his death should have been commemorated by a sacrament, or his re- surrection by a sabbath. Instead of leaving him in the possession of a legitimate and divine headship, the abettors of this system, by denying his deity, tacitly charge him with blasphemy and usurpation, in altering God's ordinances, in appointing that they should be called by his name, and should be adminis- tered to his honour, jointly with the Father and with the Holy Ghost. As for Popery, the prayers which its devotees address to Christ are "few and far between," com- pared with those they offer to the Virgin, and to other saints. Their fellowship with Him is made to serve only as a foil, to set off their imaginary connection with the apostle Peter, and his boasted successor, the bishop of Rome. For once that they appeal to the inspired testimony of Christ and his apostles in attestation of the dogmas of their creed, they appeal a hundred times to tradition, and to the writings of the fathers ; and their profanation of the sabbath stands in appalling contrast with their super- stitious reverence for their numerous holy*- THE SABBATH. 87 days, instituted in honour of real or ficti- tious saints, and in commemoration of the lying wonders said to have been wrought at their shrines. The title of " the Lord's day," which St. John gave to the Christian sabbath, stamps it with a dignity and sacred- ness so peculiar and transcendent, that, to a well-instructed mind, it appears sacrilegious, either to profane it, or to exalt other days into rivalship with it : this that " man of sin, the son of perdition, who opposeih and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped, so that he, as God, sitteth in the temple of God, showing him- self that he is God," has done ; and for this, and his other blasphemous usurpations, the Lord of the sabbath, the true Head of the church, " shall consume him with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy him with the brightness of his coming." One thing remains to make this argument complete ; and that is, to furnish a brief ex- position of those passages in Paul's Epistles, which some have misconstrued into meditated censures on the strict observance of the day, whether held on the first or the seventh day. 88 fHE SABBATH -c The first of these to which we shall allude is Gal. iv, 8-11 : " Howbeit then, when ye knew not God, ye did service unto them which by nature are no gods. But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage ? Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years. I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain." A slight attention to this passage and its context is sufficient to discern, that the observances here condemn- ed had no connection either with the Chris* tian sabbath or with any branch of Christian worship; but that they were such as the Galatians had practised, when they " knew not God." These " days, and months," &c., were obviously parts of that " service" which they rendered to "them which by nature were no gods ;" and which they renounced when they were " known of God." The sin with which they were chargeable, there- fore, was not that of keeping the Christian sabbath with too great strictness, but that of turning to " the weak and beggarly elements" THE SABBATH. 89 of astrological signs, and of heathen super- stitions, relating to lucky and unlucky days, to which the heathen were then, and are still, in bondage; and from the whole of which the gospel was intended to free them. To suppose that the apostle Paul could have calmly condemned the religious observance of the day on which his Lord rose from the dead, and which the Holy Ghost, by the pen of the beloved disciple, called " the Lord's day," — or that he should have stigmatized the day itself as a " weak and beggarly element," — is a stretch of credulity of which igno- rance and infidelity alone are capable. Rom. xiv, 5, 6 : " One man esteemeth one day above another ; another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuad- ed in his own mind. He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord ; and he that regardeth not the day, to the Lord he doth not regard it." From this text it has been inferred, that Christians are left at liberty to keep the sabbath with more or less strictness, according to their inward convictions and inclinations : or not to keep it at all, if they are so minded. But the context proves, that 90 THE SABBATH, the lawfulness, or unlawfulness, of keeping certain festivals and national holydays, and not their obligations to sanctify the Chris- tian sabbath, was the subject in debate among the Christians at Rome. " The strong/' and more perfect among them, had completely disentangled themselves from all prejudices in favour of these days : the day on which their Lord rose from the dead was alone sacred in their estimation, and binding on their conscience ; all else were common, and their observance optional. But " the weak," while they, with the whole church, kept this day sacred, were, on various ac- counts, unable to divest themselves of a reverence for certain other days. They dread- ed lest they should fall under malignant in- fluences, or forfeit some desired benefit, if they did not somehow honour them. That these were the days to which the apostle alludes, is evident from his placing them on a level with " the meats and drinks" of Gen- tile, or, at best, of Jewish, worship ; as well as from the liberty he allows to both parties, in respect of both subjects. On these un- important points the church was divided ; THE SABBATH. 91 and he sought a union, on the principle of mutual forbearance. His judgment, on the one hand, was, that as " the weak" kept the day to the Lord, and not to the idol, nor with a Judaizing intent, it ought not to be reckoned sin by their stronger and better- informed brethren, though they thus turned an ancient festival to spiritual profit : and, on the other hand, he taught, that those who kept none of these days, but spent them in the common avocations of life, thinking it dangerous to trifle with the figments of super- stition, were wholly blameless; seeing the keeping of such days formed no part of the discipline of the church, or of the obedience they owed to Christ, their only Lord and Master. Such was the decision of the apos- tle ; and, admitting the matters in debate to have been non-essential, it was oracular. But had the keeping of the sabbath been the question litigated, such a decision would have implied a flagrant compromise of prin- ciple ; and, therefore, we may confidently assert, no such latitude would have been allowed the dissentient parties. No ! the day on which the sabbath was held had been 92 THE SABBATH. changed, but the law which enjoined the festival itself was still in force, and could not be set aside, either by the freaks of superstition, or the innovations of presump- tion. Prompt, undeviating obedience, was alike the duty of the weak and the strong, the pastors and the people. Neither Peter nor Paul had, or ever pretended to have, the dispensing power since claimed and exercised by the head of mystical Babylon. No ! they felt, and meekly confessed, that they, as well as the meanest member in the church, were " under the law to Christ." Therefore, "what the apostle hath written concerning Jewish holydays, in this passage, cannot be extended to the sabbath instituted at the creation, nor to the Christian sabbath."* The text on which the greatest stress has been laid, by those who desire to weaken the moral obligation of our sabbath, is Col. ii, 16, 17 : " Let no man judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of a holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath-days ; which are a shadow of things to come : but the body is of Christ." The rites and festi- * Dr. Macknight, THE SABBATH. 93 vals referred to in this passage are obviously Jewish ; for none of the pagan ceremonies were shadows of Christian privileges ; and there is nothing, either in the text or context, which can in fairness be construed into an argument against the Christian sabbath ; for it is impossible that it should have been a shadow of itself. To understand the pas- sage aright, it must be recollected^ that the Colossians, as Christians, regarded the whole Jewish ceremonial as abrogated ; and that they kept the first day of the week as their sabbath, in harmony with all the sister church- es. The Jews resident among them were incensed at this : they maintained, that the ceremonial law was still in force, that Chris- tianity was a corruption of the religion of their fathers ; that unless the Christians were circumcised they could not be saved ; that the seventh was the true sabbath-day ; and that to change the day was to nullify the ordinance. To induce, and, if possible, to force, the Christians to adopt these opinions, and to mingle Mosaic ceremonies with their simple and evangelical worship, the Jewish doctors threatened, flattered, dogmatized, 94 THE SABBATH, and endeavoured to usurp dominion over them, as if they had been lords of their con- sciences, arbiters of their fate, and their superiors in everything. This arrogance the apostle justly resented and strongly con- demned. To finish the controversy respect- ing legal observances, and put these proud boasters to silence, he describes the whole of that knowledge which was opposed to the knowledge of Christ, as vain and deceitful philosophy, which had no authority but un- certain tradition, and which in its character harmonized with the mercenary maxims and spirit of the world. He represents Christ not only as superior to all human teachers, but as being " the Head of all principality and power ;" as having " in him all the trea- sures of wisdom and knowledge ;" and " the fulness of the Godhead dwelling in him bodily." He declares that the Colossians were " complete in Him ;" and, consequent- ly, needed neither to have recourse to angels, nor to the law of Moses, nor to the Greek philosophers, for precepts to guide them, ordinances to edify them, or merit to justify them. After asserting, that they possessed THE SABBATH. 95 that inward " circumcision" which the cir- cumcision in the flesh typified, — even a death unto sin, and a new birth unto righteous- ness, — he states, that the Lord Jesus has blotted out "the hand- writing of" ceremonial " ordinances" which was against them, bar- ring them out of the covenant ; and that he had nailed it to his cross, as a covenant that had been cancelled. Having established these premises, he adds, " Let no man there- fore judge you," &c. : as if he had said, " You live under the highest and purest dis- pensation of grace ; for the rites and festivals of the former dispensation were only sha- dows of the blessings you enjoy in virtue of your union with the body of Christ. The Lord Jesus has annulled these shadowy ordinances, by his cross, and has sanctified all the bounties of Providence for your use ; so that no creature of God is now to be re- fused, but received with thanksgiving. As, therefore, he who is Lord of all has made you free, Met no man judge you,' or bring you into bondage, 'in respect of meat, or drink, or a holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath-days, which are a shadow 96 THE SABBATH. of things to come ; but the body*— the church, whose more spiritual ordinances and higher privileges they prefigured — -' is of Christ.' " Some commentators, we are aware, under- stand by " sabbath-days," in this text, Jewish feasts ; but as " holydays, new moons, and sabbath-days" are separately specified, we cannot doubt that the seventhly sabbath is intended ; and that the apostle included it for the express purpose of informing the church, that it was only a shadow of our more glorious sabbath, as ours is of the hea- venly ; and that, as far as the day on which it was held, and the Jewish restrictions with which it was encumbered, were concerned, it was abrogated, with the other Jewish festivals, and the ceremonial restrictions in meats and drinks. It may, therefore, be affirmed, that these passages, instead of militating against the moral obligation of the Christian sabbath, strongly corroborate it. That the apostle and first Christians kept the first day of the week, as a day for public worship, is cer- tain ; and, therefore, the cautions he address- ed to the churches, against the observation THE SABBATH. 97 of all other holydays, can be understood in no other light than as guards thrown around the Lord's day, and as implied injunctions that they should keep it as a sacred day. The sabbath is essentially a weekly ordinance, and both its typical and commemorative de- signs forbade that it should be duplicated. The Jewish church was cut off, and it ex- pired, when the nation rejected the Lord's Anointed, and refused to come to the mar- riage supper; and, since that time, their worship, no less than the curses they impre- cate on the head of Christ, bespeak their unbelief, and indicate their excommunicate state. They are still an interesting people ; but they are no longer a church ; and, there- fore, their sabbath cannot be the sabbath of the Lord. The church is now essentially Christian ; and God could no more have sanctioned two sabbaths in his one church, than he could have created two suns in the solar system ; because his wisdom is as in- capable of producing confusion, by means of redundancy, as it is of sacrificing order, by overlooking essential defect. Contradic- tions cannot proceed from him ; and, there- 7 98 THE SABBATH* fore, in his saving economy, the type gives place to the antitype, the shadow to the sub- stance, the wonders of creation to the bright- er glories of redemption ; and the Christian church, with its first-day sabbath, takes the place of the Jewish church, and its seventh- day sabbath. To assume, that the change of the sab- bath was made without divine authority, is, in effect, to affirm, first, that though the Lord Jesus, " through the Holy Ghost, gave commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to his kingdom ;" he, nevertheless, failed to make them acquainted with his will, and to give them a correct impression respecting his de- sign. Secondly. That though, in addition to his personal instructions, he gave them the Holy Ghost, to guide them into all truth, and to bring all things to their remembrance, whatsoever he had said unto them ; they, nevertheless, forgot what he had said, depart- ed from the truth, and led the churches into errors which implied a violation of the law, and a flagrant corruption of the worship of THE SABBATH. 99 God. Thirdly. That though the churches generally adopted this sacrilegious innova- tion, the Lord Jesus (who punished the Corinthians with divers diseases, and sundry kinds of death, for profaning his supper) not only did not punish or reprove them, but he met in the midst of them, answered their prayers, wrought miracles by their hands, and converted myriads of idolaters to his faith and worship through their instrumentality. These absurd and impious conclusions are clearly involved in the assumption, that the sabbath was changed without the concur- rence and sanction of our Lord ; but as dark- ness cannot proceed from the sun, so neither can folly flow from the Fountain of wisdom, nor impiety from Him who is glorious in holiness. True Christians, in all ages, have testified, that the Lord's day has been to them, above other days, what the year of jubilee was to the Jews among other years. And we, in unison with them, attest, that our brightest views of truth, our richest baptisms of grace, and our most transporting foretastes of heaven, are identified, in our recollection, 100 THE SABBATH. with its sacred hours and ordinances. Nearly all the sound conversions which have taken place in the w T orld, have been begun, or con- summated, on this day. There is no or- dinance in the church which God more uni- formly guards by the sanctions of his provi- dence, and honours with the blessings of his grace, than this. Those who keep it holy are blessed in their basket, and in their store; their souls prosper, and are in health ; and their children are, for the most part, found walking in the truth : whereas those who secularize it, or who turn it into a day of pastime, put their gains into a bag with holes ; they seek rest, but they find none ; their spiritual interests languish, if they are not entirely neglected ; and their children, with few exceptions, forsake the worship and ways of the living God. The judicial records of our country evidence, that, in a multitude of instances, the desecration of the Lord's day has been the first step to apostacy, to bankruptcy, to banishment, and to ignomini- ous death. Jews, Socinians, and such of the Quakers and Baptists as account it common, are left by the great Head of the church, THE SABBATH. 101 44 Like Gideon's fleece, Unwater'd still and dry ;" while on those communities and congrega- tions who sanctify it, as the " holy of the Lord, and honourable," the dews of sovereign grace " Fall plenteous from the sky." Unless, therefore, we are prepared to maintain, that the Spirit of prophecy lied, that our Lord erred, that his apostles and the primitive Christians misunderstood his in- structions, and misinterpreted his example ; that the redemption of our race was a less glorious event than the creation of our world ; that the Son is not entitled to equal honour with the Father ; that the demonstration of his headship in the church was a point of no importance ; — and unless we can suppose, further, that the eternal God can sanction the corruption of his own worship, can wink at the annulling of his own ordinances, can approve of the violation of his own law, can bless error, and can reward those who cross his purpose and contradict his will ; — unless we can suppose these absurdities, are pre- pared to maintain these blasphemies, we 102 THE SABBATH. must admit, that the sabbath was changed to " the first day of the week under the divine sanction, and with the divine concurrence ; that the change was called for by the sur- passing glory of the new dispensation, and was in harmony with the highest wisdom, the glory of God, and the best interests of mankind. And, if this be admitted, it follows, that our obligations to keep our sabbath holy are as much stronger than those which bound the Jews to keep theirs, as our dis-^ pensation surpasses theirs in light, in grace, and in power. THE SABBATH. 103 CHAPTER IV. THE SPIRIT AND MANNER IN WHICH IT OUGHT TO BE SANCTIFIED. We now enter on what may be termed the application of the arguments adduced in our preceding observations. If the design of the sabbath be not only benevolent, wise, and holy, but coextensive with the ages of time, and with the successive generations of men ; if the law of the sabbath be essentially moral, and, consequently, of perpetual obli- gation ; and if the change of the day was made with the approbation, and under the direct sanction, of the Lord Jesus ; it follows, that it is our duty to keep it holy, regardless of human opinions, and at the risk of suffer- ing the loss of all things. Satisfied that our arguments on the above points are incontro- vertible, their soundness is here assumed, and their consequences are carried out. The plan of sabbath-sanctification advocated in the following pages, may be denounced by some as utterly incompatible with the present state and habits of society. To all 104 THE SABBATH. such objectors we have only to say, that our appeal is " to the law and to the testimony," to the facts of history, and to the practice of our Lord and of his first disciples ; and unless those objectors can overturn our pre- mises, it is at their peril if they reject our consequences. Without further preface we remark, that the sanctification of the sabbath implies, 1 . That we regard the day as the Lord's, and keep it holy out of respect to his au- thority, and with a distinct reference to his glory. Though the sabbath is characterized by supreme wisdom, enlightened benevolence, and tender humanity, there is no institution, bearing the impress of divine authority, which has been so generally neglected, or so frequently desecrated. The proud neglect it because it encroaches on their fancied in- dependence ; the avaricious, because it limits their opportunities of amassing riches ; the lovers of pleasure, because it interferes with the gratification of their lusts ; the undevout, because of the spirituality of its duties ; and the unbelieving, because it assumes the being THE SABBATH. 105 of a God, the existence of providence, the responsibility of man, and the truth of re- vealed religion. It is "the holy of the Lord ;" and, because it stands identified with the honour of his name, the preservation of his truth, and the purity of his worship, it has to encounter opposition from all who take up religion merely out of deference to public opinion, or from a regard to outward decency. None but those who are controlled by a deep and reverential respect for the au- thority of God, and the vital interests of re- ligion, either enter into its lofty design, or yield a cheerful submission to its holy re- strictions. The Scriptures abound with allusions to the motives from which human actions spring ; and they contain numerous exam- ples of God's displeasure against those who, through pride or carelessness, violated the in- stituted order of his worship. When Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, offered strange fire, the Lord slew them, and said, " I will be sanctified in them that come nigh to me ; and before all the people will I be glorified." The breach which was made upon Israel, by 106 THE SABBATH. the death of Uzzah, when the ark was brought up from the house of Abinadab, in Gibeah, was occasioned by a disregard of the command respecting the mode in which that sacred vessel was to be removed. Num. iv, 15, compared with 1 Chron. xv, 12, 13. When the Jews ceased to respect the authority of God, and failed to make his glory their ultimate end in his worship, he that killed an ox was as if he slew a man ; he that sacrificed a lamb, as if he cut off a dog's neck ; he that offered an oblation, as if he offered swine's flesh ; and he that burned incense, as if he blessed an idol. And if we, on the sabbath, abstain from la- bour, and attend ordinances, merely to re- fresh the body, to escape the charge of irreligion, or out of deference to human au- thority and custom, or because we delight in pulpit oratory, in music, or in dress ; he will scorn our worship, and will punish us with those who sacrifice to their own net, and who burn incense to their own drag. For though a good motive cannot sanctify a bad action, a corrupt motive does vitiate a service which is otherwise correct. THE SABBATH. 107 The Pharisees gave alms ; but it was that they might have glory of men : they made long prayers ; but it was for a pretence : they fasted ; but they disfigured their faces, that they might appear unto men to fast : and, therefore, they had their reward ; that is, they gained the praise of men, and incurred the curse of God. The service of God is a " reasonable service ;" and, to be acceptable, it must be performed from pure motives, and in accordance with the directions contained in his written word. " God is a Spirit ; and they that worship him, must worship him in spirit and in truth." In his worship the posture of the body is important, only so far as it expresses or promotes the lowliness and fervour of the mind ; the language of the lips is valuable only as a vehicle for declar- ing the desires, and as an index to the dis- positions of the inner man ; and unless our cessation from secular toil, on the sabbath, be associated with a distinct recognition of the authority of God, a grateful recollec- tion of his creative goodness and redeeming love, faith in the mediation of the Lord Je- sus, and an unreserved surrender of our- 108 THE SABBATH. selves to his service ; our worship, being devoid of faith and love, will be rejected as bodily exercise, and as mere lip-service. The Lord of the sabbath trieth the hearts and the reins of his worshippers. He know- eth what is in man ; and no language, however Scriptural, — no offerings, however costly, — can procure acceptance in his sight, if inward submission, and a single intention to please him, be wanting. Independently of profit or loss, praise or blame, popular custom or human caprice, we must keep the sabbath holy. We must keep it holy because it is his, set apart for his worship, claimed by his commandment, sanctified by his ex- ample, and associated with his honour and our salvation. Instead of resting in the form, we must subordinate that to the spirit of the ordinance, and maintain a sweet har- mony between the motives of our minds, the language of our lips, and the whole of our outward deportment. In the closet, in the sanctuary, and in the domestic circle, — morning, noon, and night, — we must honour Him, not doing our own ways, nor finding our own pleasure, nor speaking our own THE SABBATH. 109 words. And if we, and our respective households, thus delight ourselves in the Lord, and in his holy day, he " will cause us to ride upon the high places of the earth, and will feed us with the heritage of Jacob ; for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it." The sanctification of the sabbath implies, 2. That we devote the whole day to the Lord, — not a part of it. The spirit, as well as the letter, of the law requires, that we consecrate each seventh day to the worship of God. No one doubts, whether the six days given for worldly busi- ness are to be taken entire ; and were not the carnal mind enmity against God, and not subject to his law, the Popish distinction of "church hours" would never have been heard of. This is one of the many ways in which the Church of Rome, and those who symbolize with her, make void the law of God ; and the fact, that some of our statutes, and many of our church-going population, still recognise " church hours" as possess- ing an extra sanctity, and a special obliga- tion, which do not appertain to the other parts of the day, proves, that the Reforma- 110 THE SABBATH. tion was incomplete, and that Protestants have much to learn, both in respect of duty and of privilege. This distinction has not even the shadow of Scriptural authority , ; and, if admitted, it would utterly destroy the harmony which exists between the type and the antitype, the earthly and the heavenly rest. It is ob- viously based on the impious assumption, that our obligations to keep the day holy are human and conventional ; and it involves the double guilt of taking from, and of adding to, the things written in the book of God. It implies, that the duty we owe to God is al- together public and ceremonial ; that family worship, the religious training of our chil- dren, and the cultivation of a devout spirit, are matters of trivial importance, and may be neglected without loss, or guilt, or any great risk. Nay, more : it implies, that God has claimed an undue proportion of our time ; that his sabbath is a tax on our tem- poral interests, and a bar to our happiness ; and that, consequently, we do well to alienate part of it to business or pleasure, as we may feel inclined. These are some of the guilty THE SABBATH. Ill assumptions with which this irreligious mu- tilation of the Lord's day is chargeable ; and the bare mention of them is sufficient to in- spire each lover of the sabbath with holy indignation. Every sound * argument which can be adduced, to prove that a part of the sabbath ought to be sanctified, when carried to its legitimate issue, would prove that the entire day is holy, and ought to be employed in the public and private exercises of religion. Let none, therefore, deceive themselves, by imagining, that if they attend a place of worship once or twice, they are at liberty to spend the remainder of the day in journeying, pleasure excursions, domestic amusements, or preparatory arrangements for the business of Monday. " God is not mocked." The day, the whole day, is his, and he commands us to keep it holy. He scorns a divided alle- giance ; and it is at our peril if we divide its hours between his worship and the ser- vice of mammon. If we mar the type, we dishonour its Author, we destroy its efficacy, and we forfeit our interest in its heavenly antitype. To rob God of a part of his day in private, after we have been professing to 112 THE SABBATH. worship him in public, is rank hypocrisy ; it is to enact the sin of Ananias and Sapphi- ra ; and if we become partners in their guilt, we shall, sooner or later, be made sharers in their punishment. If we condemn the secularity of the Jews, who turned the temple into a house of merchandise ; and abhor the impiety of Belshazzar, who, " with his princes, his wives, and his concubines," in their proud revelry, " drank out of the golden and silver vessels which Nebuchad- nezzar had taken out of the house of the Lord in Jerusalem ;" let us shrink from the no less palpable sacrilege of prostituting the evening hours of the Lord's day to the pur- poses of worldly toil, or domestic con- viviality. If we would escape the curse of him " that doeth the work of the Lord de- ceitfully," there must be no mistake in this matter, — no halting between two opinions, no trimming between God and mammon. The " sign" will take effect, proving, either that we are for the Redeemer, or that we are against him ; that we are of those who gather with him, or that our ignominious employment is to scatter and destroy. The THE SABBATH-. 113 ^commandments of the Lord are not griev- ous ; and he will not allow us, with impu- nity, to asperse him 7 either by word or deed, as if he were an austere master, u reaping where he had not sown, and gathering where he had not strawed." " But wisdom is justified of her children V' and the sons of God confess, that " his ser- vice is perfect freedomJ 5 u A bay in thy courts is better than a thousand. I had rather be a door-keeper" (or, as the margin reads, " I would choose rather to sit at the •threshold") 4i of the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness." This is the genuine language of all that love God. To them the sabbath-day is the best and brightest of the seven. They long for its dawn; they regret its decline; they rejoice that on it u God rested from all his work ;" and that he has instructed them to keep it holy, from its commencement to its close. They exult in the fact, that their Lord broke from the captivity of the grave " very early in the morning, while it was yet dark;" and ceased not to commune and to break bread with his disciples, till it was " toward eve- 8 114 THE SABBATH. ning, and the day far spent." Whether they consider the example he has set them, the commandments he has given them, the claims of his love, the interests of his cause, the happiness of their fellow-men, the wants of their own souls, or the fatigues of their bodies, they dare not alienate any part of it from its divine and legitimate uses ; and to all who tempt them to join in its desecra- tion they say, " How can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?" The sanctification of the sabbath implies, 3. That we make timely preparation for it before it arrives. Religion is no enemy to industry. On the contrary, the Scriptures commend it as a virtue, while they denounce idleness as an odious and destructive vice. The fourth commandment, in particular, is not more ex- plicit in enjoining that we rest on the seventh day, than that we labour and do all our work on the preceding six days. It is the will of God, that we so despatch and arrange our worldly and domestic affairs during the week, that they may stand still, without detriment to them, or distraction to us, while we wait THE SABBATH. 115 upon God on his own day. The history of each religious family in the land proves, that such a plan is both practicable and profitable. " Remember the sabbath-day, to keep it holy? — That is, look before you to the con- clusion of the week. Do not allow your- selves to be so immersed in the affairs of the world, that the sabbath shall come upon you unawares : have respect to it through the whole of your week-day employments. En- ter into no engagements which will entangle your consciences, or lay you under tempta- tions to neglect its duties, or to desecrate its hours. The Jews were led, by this solemn injunction, to spend the day before their sab- bath in preliminary duties ; and hence it was called, " the day of preparation." At a convocation of Scottish clergy, held in Perth, in the year 1180, it was ordained, "That every Saturday, from twelve o'clock, should be set apart for preparation for the Lord's day ; and that all the people on Saturday evening, at the sound of the bell, should ad- dress themselves to hear prayers, and should abstain from worldly labours till Monday morning." In 1 644 the English parliament 116 THE SABBATH. enacted, " That the Lord's day ought to be so remembered beforehand, as that all world- ly business may be so ordered, and so timely and seasonably laid aside, that they may not be impediments to the due sanctification of the day when it comes." The practice which still prevails in some parts of the country, of liberating servants, labourers, and scholars on the afternoon of Saturday, had its origin in a laudable desire that they should " remember the sabbath-day to keep it holy." Had those professing Christians who are share-holders in railways, and other sabbath- breaking companies, remembered this divine injunction, they would have demanded a legal pledge, that no sabbath-trading would, under any circumstances, be allowed, before they bought a share, or subscribed a dollar. But they forgot, if they did not disregard, the word of the Lord ; and they are now paying the penalty. Had some professing parents remembered it, before they appren- ticed their children to sabbath-breaking tradesmen, they would not now have had to deplore, as they have, the irreligion and un- dutifulness of those who ought to have been THK SABBATH. 117 the joy and the glory of their declining years. And of others it may be said, that if they had so remembered it as to stipulate with their employers, that they should neither work at home, nor travel abroad, on this holy day, they would not have been so lost to God, to virtue, and to honour, as they unhappily are. Neither the sabbath nor its ordinances operate as a charm on the soul of man. It is awfully possible for us to enjoy the day* without answering its design ; to be in the house of God, without realizing his presence ; and hear his gospel, without feeling its pow- er. These results are not only possible, but they will infallibly ensue, unless we " set the Lord alway before" us, and so order our worldly affairs, and prepare our hearts, that we may wait "only upon the Lord," yield- ing ourselves up to his teaching with meek and undistracted attention. Considering how intimately the efficacy of ordinances, and the salvation of men, are linked with the observance of the sabbath, and how essential previous preparation is to its s an ctifi cation ; those masters incur a fear- ful responsibility who, by tasking their ser- 118 THE SABBATH. vants, by giving them extra wages, or by- postponing the payment of their wages till a late hour on Saturday night, lay them un- der strong temptations not only to neglect all preparation for the services of the day, but to desecrate the day itself. Those heads of families also are culpable who permit their children and servants to leave certain departments of household service to be per- formed on the Lord's day morning, which, with management, might have been done on the previous night ; or who, to save time, encourage them to anticipate certain duties on the Sunday evening, which properly be- long to the following morning. We are fully aware of the temptations which some tradesmen have to break the sabbath ; but no temptation, however strong, can justify the breach of the law of God. There is such a thing as suffering for righteousness ; and to them that do so, even to the forsaking of " houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father* or mother, or wife* or children, or lands," the Redeemer has promised " a hundred-fold now, and in the world to come eternal life." Sufferings and losses are not to be chosen THE SABBATH. 119 for their own sake ; but when they can be avoided only by the sacrifice of a good con- science, it is at once our duty and our gain to embrace them, in their most aggravated forms. The inefncacy of gospel ordinances is a ground of grief and surprise to all godly persons and faithful ministers. With a minis- try which is plain, powerful, and persuasive, and with the most unrestrained liberty to profess and practise true religion, a large proportion of those who attend our sanctua- ries remain unsaved. Without denying the existence of auxiliary hinderances, it is our firm conviction, that a chief cause of the inutility of gospel ministrations, with multi- tudes, is, the hurry and distraction of mind induced by the cooking, cleaning, dressing, and visiting which are crowded into the Lord's day. If the ground be unprepared, it avails nothing though the seed be good, and the sower diligent, — for it will lie on the surface ; and, in that case, it will either be devoured by the birds of the air, or scorched by the sun, or choked by the briers and weeds. If we grieve the Holy Spirit 120 THE £AB&ATB\ during the week r how can we hope he will comfort us on the sabbath t If we do not supplicate bi& aid in private, how can we ex- pect to be blessed with his celestial influences in public ? The sabbath must be remember- ed before it comes, in order to be enjoyed when it comes. Sabbath ordinances must be approached in a sabbath frame,, otherwise they will harden, rather than soften, and blind, rather than enlighten : and y to secure this frame, we must not only lay the world aside with our hands,, in proper time, but eject it from our hearts ; praying, with all prayer, that the Lord of the sabbath would possess them, and subdue all things to himself. Anciently the people of God met as regu- larly, though not so numerously, for Satur- day-evening prayers, as they did for Sunday- morning worship. In this, as in other points, Methodism is a revival of primitive Chris- tianity. In most of our town chapels devo- tional services are held on Saturday night ; and those who frequent them are witnesses of their utility in disburdening the mind of worldly care, and in preparing the soul for THE SABBATH, 121 beholding the beauty of the Lord in his tem- ple. These meetings, like the pulse of the body, indicate the healthiness or sickliness of our societies. "When the power of religion is low, they languish ; when it flourishes, they prosper. To some, we are aware, they are inaccessible ; but to those who can at- tend, we earnestly and affectionately recom- mend them. What can be more appropriate than for Christians to meet together, to give God thanks for the mercies and deliverances of the week which is drawing to a close ; to praise him for the prospect of another sabbath on this side of heaven ; and to crave his blessing and presence in those ordinances with which their salvation is so closely identi- fied ? Our confident, expectation is, that, in proportion as our own and other churches become leavened with the power of godliness^ these services will be multiplied ; and that a majority of the Lord's people will be found worshipping in them. The sanctification of the sabbath implies, 4. That we not only avoid the sins forbidden in the other precepts of the law, but that we rest from worldly employments and recreations. 122 THE SABBATH; Swearing, lying, thieving, drunkenness, disobedience to parents, and lewdness, are aggravated offences, at any time, and under any circumstances ; but when committed on the Lord's day, they indicate the deepest depravity of heart, and the highest possible contempt of God. Transgressors cannot give a more unequivocal proof of proficiency in vice, than to sin openly on the sabbath. The law, however, not only forbids sin, in the ordinary acceptation of the term, but worldly employments and recreations. " In it thou shalt do no work." — The na- ture of the case, as well as other texts of Scripture, requires, that this prohibition be so interpreted, as to except works of necessity and mercy. Our Lord taught, that it was lawful to heal diseases, to flee from danger, to do good, to satisfy hunger, to save life, to pull an ox or an ass out of a pit, and to loose and lead cattle away to watering. These exceptions are obviously specimens, rather than a perfect catalogue, of permitted works. No one can doubt, that it is lawful to quench fire ; to defend ourselves from aggression, whether of war or of robbers ; to guide the THE SABBATH. 123 helm and shift the sails at sea ; to visit the sick ; to prepare necessary food for our households ; to make collections for the poor and the cause of God ; to teach the children of the poor and the profligate to read the word of God ; and, when it cannot be delayed, to bury the dead. But, while we glorify God, and exemplify the benignant character of Christianity, by engaging in exercises which are clearly works of neces- sity and mercy, we need to guard lest sloth, or self-interest, plead necessity where none exists. Medical men often impose on them- selves in this way. Except in seasons of epidemic disease, and on some other extra- ordinary occasions, they might generally, by diligence and prudent foresight, secure time for attending public worship. The skepti- cism which prevails in the medical profession is, no doubt, nursed, if it be not occasioned, by habitual absence from the means of grace ; and young practitioners, who yet believe there is a God, that man has a soul, and that Christianity is divine, will do well to " re- member the sabbath-day to keep it holy," lest they also be given up to " strong delu- 124 THE SABBATH, sions." Captains of vessels, and seafaring men, generally err in this matter. Under the pretence, that the sabbath is a lucky day, that the tide serves, or that the wind is fair, they contrive to make it a common day for fitting out, and for leaving the harbour ; as if chance, and not Providence, ruled the winds of heaven, the tides of the ocean, and the affairs of men ; as if God could be pro- pitiated by a practice implying a direct breach of his law, or could permit those to be ultimate losers who prefer the interests of eternity to those of time, and the glory of his name to the favour of men and the figments of superstition ! No class of men can be trained to habits of religion and morality, without sabbath worship ; and the proverbial irreligion of those sailors who are debarred from it, constitutes an argument in favour of the sanctification of the day which, we trust, will ere long lead to the discontinu- ance of the practice of which we complain. The owners of factories, and other public works, greatly err, if they think they are justified in repairing their machinery on the sabbath, on pretence, that they thereby pre- THE SABBATH. 125 vent their hands from losing a day's wages. No ! such men seek their own interest, not that of the poor; and while the harsh clank- ing of the Sunday hammer publishes their profanity in the ears of men, the pretence on which it is wielded proclaims their hypocrisy in the ear of God. Neither can those shop- keepers be exculpated who trade on the sab- bath, on the plea, that they deal in. perish- able articles. In most instances, the supply of such articles can be regulated according to the demand ; and, admitting that, occasion- ally, some loss be sustained by preserving a good conscience, it is our duty to keep the law of God at all hazards, and despite of all sacrifices. " The Lord God is a sun and shield : the Lord will give grace and glory : no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly." We have known many tradesmen and shopkeepers, who were poor and ignoble while they traded on the sabbath ; but who, from the day they sacri- ficed their ungodly gains, prospered, and grew in favour both with God and man. And we could specify many powerful firms that have been ruined, and rich families which 126 THE SABBATH^ have been impoverished, whose contempt of the sabbath was notorious. In those factories in which the practice of repairing machinery on Sunday is kept up, repairs are continually required ; which may be accounted for on the ground, that fractures are aggravated by postponement, that the repairs made on Sun- day are often necessarily superficial, and that they are effected by men destitute of reli- gious principle. The law of the sabbath presupposes the existence of a remunerating and retributive Providence ; and it is so framed as to con- fute and silence the unbelieving fears and avaricious reasonings of the human heart. " In it thou shalt not do any work." As if he had said, " However low your wages, or large your family ; however elevated your rank, or extensive your trade ; however threatened by your employers, or tempted by your customers ; you must on no account rob me, and wrong your own souls, by doing ordinary work on my holy day." Such is the sovereign will of God ; and though by a strict adherence to it, we may be overtaken by difficulties, and may have to sustain THE SABBATH, 127 losses, yet our salvation depends on our fidelity ; and though we may not be remu- nerated in time, we shall in that day when we enter into the " rest which remaineth for the people of God." It may be affirmed of all who buy, or sell, or labour, on this holy day, that they neither fear God nor regard man ; for they violate the laws, and invade the rights, of both. They manifest an atheistical distrust in Pro- vidence ; they pour contempt on one of the most benignant institutions to which the God of mercy has given existence ; they betray an utter indifference about the enjoyment of God's favour, and a total disregard of his threatened vengeance. It strikes us as a remarkable fact, that while common trading and ordinary shopkeeping are generally re- garded as flagrant breaches of the sabbath, the sale of spirituous liquors is scarcely reckoned a sin. In London, porter is openly hawked about the streets ; and those families are thought excessively precise who do not take it in on the Lord's day. In the country, public-house keepers who will not entertain company, nor sell spirits, are spoken of as 128 THE SABBATH. paragons of goodness. How comes this about? How is this lenity to this most pernicious practice to be accounted for ? In our estimation, those who retail spirituous liquors on this day, and who afford harbour to the sons and daughters of dissipation, are pre-eminently guilty. They not only neglect the means of grace themselves, but they furnish that which unfits and indisposes others for worshipping God, either in public or private. They poison and pauperize the working classes by wholesale. They are factors for the devil, and a curse to our nation. Though it might be an eqnal sin in the sight of God, it would be far less injurious to society were the mason to take his plummet, his trowel, and his other im- plements, and proceed with the building he had been erecting the preceding week. There is a wo recorded against the man who giveth his neighbour drink, that putteth his bottle to him, and maketh him drunken ; but a tenfold wo shall be the portion of those who make a trade of this practice on the sabbath. The persons addressed in the fourth com- mandment are parents, masters, and magis- THE SABBATH. 129 trates ; and, under and through them, all others whatsoever. Hence the following in- junction :— " Nor thy son, nor thy daughter." — Though it is possible that our children might work by way of amusement, and without being observed by neighbours, or censured by ministers ; though they are not bound by so many vows and professional engagements as we are ; and though their own depraved hearts might incline them to desecrate, rather than to sanctify, the Lord's day ; yet He who made them, and who is entitled to their worshipful subjection, de- mands their obedience, and holds us respon- sible for their compliance. Therefore, as we love them, and value his favour, we must neither seduce them by our example, nor coerce them by our authority, nor permit them, through mistaken fondness, to profane this holy day. On the contrary, we ought, by precept and example ; by the exercise of our authority ; by the lure of our love ; by the dread of our displeasure ; and by a fre- quent and faithful exposition of the law, the threatenings, and the promises of God ; to 9 130 THE SABBATH* encourage, persuade, and constrain them to spend it in public worship^ private prayer, religious reading, and godly discourse. Our own peace and our children's salvation are intimately involved in this matter. Juvenile delinquency generally commences in some form of sabbath profanation ; whereas early piety is uniformly fostered and confirmed by conscientious sabbath-keeping. If we be- gin early, and persevere steadily, in setting a consistent example before our children, supplying them, at the same time, with Scriptural instruction, we may confidently hope that, by the blessing of God, they will choose him as their portion, and account his sabbath a delight. But if we permit them to trample on God's authority, by absenting themselves from his house, by doing servile work, by reading newspapers and novels, or by taking Sunday excursions ; then the most calamitous consequences, to them and to us> may be anticipated. " Nor thy man-servant, nor thy maid- servants—hi a community like that of the Jews, where limited slavery was tolerated,, masters might have surmised^ that though THE SABBATH. 131 they and their children were forbidden to labour on the sabbath, their domestics, whom they had bought with their money, or to whom they paid wages for a' term of years — whose business it was to obey, and who, probably, would rather work than wor- ship — might dispense with the law, and pro- secute domestic employments. But no such license was allowed, " The sabbath was made for man ;" for the servant-man, as well as for the master-man ; for the maid, as well as for her mistress. The conven- tional engagements into which we enter with one another cannot dissolve the primary re- lations we sustain to God, nor free us from the obligations which these relations involve. Household servants ought, therefore, not only to stipulate for a certain rate of wages, but for liberty to worship God on his own day. The sabbath is theirs for rest and for worship ; not theirs to be let out for hire, or to be spent in pastime. While it is the duty of masters and mistresses to grant their ser- vants opportunities to wait on God, servants ought to accept of those portions of the sab- bath for this purpose which best comport 132 THE SABBATH. with the general convenience of the family in which they live. The practice of allow- ing servants to spend the sabbath out of their master's house is fraught with evil ; and ought never to be permitted, except on spe- cial occasions, and then for good and sub- stantial reasons. To prevent gossip and Sunday gadding, as well as to encourage punctual attendance and devotional habits, masters would do well to provide accommo- dation for their domestics, not only in their own place of worship, but in their own pew. Though the above injunction refers spe- cially to hired servants, and such as work on their masters' premises, or with their mas- ters' cattle, it obviously inculcates, that we ought not to employ any who violate the sabbath, though they may work in their own houses, and on their own account. The king of Israel said, " I will not know," or approve of, " a wicked person. Mine eyes shall be upon the faithful of the land, that they may dwell with me. He that walketh in a perfect way shall serve me." Were Christians, generally, to imitate David in this noble resolve; were they invariably to THE SABBATH. 133 prefer and encourage sober, conscientious, and religious servants, shopkeepers, carriers, and tradesmen ; and were they to discard and discountenance drunkards, Socialists, and sabbath-breakers, the benefit to the church and the world would be great and lasting. By acting thus, we may expect to be stigmatized as persecutors, and narrow- minded bigots, by all who worship the great idol — liberalism ; but if we fail to act thus, how can we acquit ourselves of the heavier charge, of being " partakers of other men's sins ?" Most assuredly, if we love God more than ourselves ; if his glory be dearer to us than our money ; and if we are as im- patient of the dishonour which sin casts on his name, as we are at the losses to which fraud and violence subject us, we shall act thus. But, alas ! many masters care not how God's work is neglected, provided their own be duly performed. Nay, some of them, to the scandal of the Christian name, refuse to take men into their employ, or to encourage them in trade, unless they for- mally stipulate to profane the sabbath as they may direct, and as circumstances may 134 THE SABBATH. require. Need we wonder if the servants of such men rob them, and if the curse of God pursues them? " Nor thy cattle" — Previously to the in- troduction of steam conveyances into this country, horses were made extensively sub- servient to sabbath-desecration ; pleasure- excursions and business-journeys having been effected chiefly by their means. The injunction under consideration extends to all beasts of burden whatsoever; and it was added, not only in mercy to them, but as an additional check on the sabbath-breaking propensities of their proprietors. So far as ill health, distance, or the inclemency of the weather may render their services necessary, to carry us to the house of God, or to the beds of the dying, on this day, we may inno- cently use them ; but no further. To hire them, or to let them out for hire, for the pur- poses of trade, for the gratifying of pride, or the securing of pleasure, are clearly violations of the law of God. It is a melancholy consideration, that, in this Christian country, abounding with the means of grace, thousands of coachmen, THE SABBATH. 135 omnibus and cab drivers, are as effectually debarred from the house of God as though there were no sabbath kept, no gospel preached, and no worship performed in the land. We loudly complain of the impo- sitions and general wickedness of these men, without considering that we are accessaries to their evil deeds, as far as we contribute to shut them out from the means of salvation, by employing them on the sabbath. Some of them are alive to their danger, and lament the necessity they are under of ruining their souls, or of leaving their families to starve. Others are as ignorant, and as insensible to moral propriety, as the beasts they drive ; and, consequently, have no desire to mingle in our worshipping assemblies : while many strengthen themselves in wickedness by arguments drawn from the inconsistencies of those who, while they profess to reve- rence the sabbath, and to delight in the worship of God, pay them for breaking the former, and for slighting the latter. The Rev. R. Treffry, in his valuable Treatise on the Sabbath, tells us of a lady in London, who, one sabbath morning, as she was step- 136 THE SABBATH. ping out of a hackney-coach, at the door of her place of worship, asked the coachman if he ever went to church. " No, ma'am," said he ; "I am so very busy in taking others there, that I cannot possibly go my- self." Another, in Manchester, replied to a similar interrogation, though not proposed on the sabbath, " I have not been in a place of worship for seven years ; nor do I see how I can go for seven more, unless ladies and gentlemen make up their minds to walk to church and chapel." This man not only confessed his sin, but he pointed out the remedy : yes ! the simple remedy by which thousands of our fellow-immortals may be emancipated from sabbath slavery, is, for "ladies and gentlemen" to use their feet, and improve their health, by walking to the house of God. With what consistency can we profess to love God or our neighbour, if we refuse to make this easy effort ? How can we stand clear of the blood of these men's souls, unless we determine that, as far as we are concerned, their Sunday- driving shall terminate ? and that we, at least, will no more rob them of opportunity THE SABBATH. 137 of -doing their duty to God, their own souls, and their families ?"* Formerly horses were abused, and the sabbath was desecrated to an awful extent by the running of stage-coaches. But that practice is now nearly superseded by the introduction of steam-packets and railway- carriages. As far as this change indicates the progress of science and mechanical skill, and diminishes the demand for animal and physical labour, it is cause of joy. But it sorely grieves us, that the inventions of genius, in connection with the giant agency of steam, should be so generally prostituted to sabbath-profanation. We grieve, because the evil has been increased in the same pro- portion as the new agency surpasses the old in splendour and in power ; because its con- tinuance, in this aggravated form, must bring down the curse of God with accumu- * We are happy to place it on record, that Lord Francis Egerton, with his lady and family, present an example to the nobility and gentry in the land ; for, except when the weather is unusually stormy, they invariably walk from their mansion to the parish church. 138 THE SABBATH. lated weight on our beloved country ; be- cause it has yoked a new class of men to the car of mammon, and made those the patrons of sabbath-desecration, who, if the thing had been foretold a few years ago, would have indignantly said, " Is thy servant a dog, that he should do this great thing ?" But, alas ! the abhorred event is accomplish- ed. The sin of pandering to the sabbath- breaking propensities of the w r orldly and the gay is no longer left to men who make no profession of piety, and who live beyond the pale of the Christian church. The melan- choly fact cannot be denied, that infidels, Socialists, drunkards, and all who are " lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God," now leave our large towns, by thousands, every Lord's-day morning, for distant tea-gardens, public-houses, and gaming-tables, in elegant carriages, fitted up and propelled at the expense of men whom fame describes as scientific, patriotic, friends of the poor, ad- vocates of national education, and communi- cants at the Lord's table. O " tell it not in Gath ; publish it not in the streets of Aske- lon !" Christ is betrayed in the house of his THE SABBATH. 139 friends ! His law is made void by those who profess faith in his divinity, and who glory in the grace of his gospel. Members, yea, officers, in his church, who in words admit the perpetual and universal obligation of the moral law, are trampling one of the plainest precepts of that law under foot ; and, either through the fear of man or igno- rance of their duty, or the love of filthy lucre, they stand connected with one of the most daring systems of sabbath-profanation that was ever set up in any Protestant country. It will not avail these gentlemen — for many of whom we have a high personal es- teem — to say, the evil complained of is the work of a company. What is the company, but a number of individuals voluntarily asso- ciated for the accomplishment of gainful ends, by the adoption of common and ap- proved means ? The individuals furnish the capital, reap the profits, share the responsi- bilities, and appoint the executive. They, in fact, constitute the company, which is no- thing more nor less than an extensive part- nership, into which they freely entered, and 140 THE SABBATH. from which, by selling out, they may retire when they please. Nor will it avail the shareholders, who are the true proprietors, to throw the blame on the directors, and the servants they employ. We ask, Who ap- points the directors ? In whose name do they act ? With whose property do they trade ? Who are answerable for the liabi- lities into which they enter ? Do those shareholders who wish to be regarded as sleeping partners, sleep when the profits are divided ? Would they sleep, were the direc- tors to misappropriate the funds ? or to divide the proceeds among their own purses ? The guilt of the directors, and the agents they employ, i§ great ; but the shareholders are far from being innocent. The man who hires another to do an act which he knows will issue in murder, is himself a murderer, as truly as he who administers the poison, or who uses the poniard. And so those who carry on trade on the Lord's day by deputy are, in his sight, sabbath-breakers, to all in- tents and purposes. Confederation does not annihilate individual identity, nor cancel individual obligation. The accessary is, in THE SABBATH. 141 law, responsible for the deeds of the prin- cipal. To consent when sinners entice, to cast in our lot, and to have one purse with them, in bringing evil devices to pass, — are acts expressly forbidden in the Scripture. Instead of constituting their excuse, it is mentioned as an aggravation of guilt, that " the kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against Je- hovah, and against his Anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us." But it is said, " The government of the country not only sanctions Sunday travelling, but enforces it by act of parliament." This is true, as far as the transmission of the mail is concerned. But, admitting, for a moment, that it is wise and proper in the government to do this, why should their injunction be made a pretext for running trains at those hours when there is no mail to be transmit- ted ? or for providing accommodation for multitudes, not one in a hundred of whom can plead either necessity or mercy in justi- fication of his journeying ? But we hold, that governors are as much bound to obey 142 THE SABBATH; God, as the meanest who are under their authority ; and that the best interests of na- tions are as intimately bound up with the conscientious observance of his laws, as are those of individuals. The almost lightning speed with which letters, passengers, and goods can now be conveyed from one end of the kingdom to the other^ completely obviates the plea of necessity which was formerly urged in defence of Sunday travel- ling ; and the arrangements into which the government entered with some of the Scot- tish companies prove, that the mail-question involves no insuperable obstacles to the en- tire extinction of the evil. Our governors have no personal interest in the transmission of the mail on Sunday ; it can afford them no personal pleasure to know that it is done ; and it is our deep conviction, that were the Christian congregations in the land, with their ministers, — and the different railway companies, with their respective boards of directors,— to petition parliament on the sub- ject, the iniquity would at once be put down. The much-lauded expedient of keeping Sunday profits separate from the proceeds THE SABBATH. 143 of the week-day traffic, that they may be re- fused, or appropriated to benevolent or reli- gious purposes, implies something worse than trifling with great and sacred principles. We regard it as a direct compromise with mammon, a subterfuge for unquiet con* sciences, a snare to catch unwary souls, a new attempt " to wash the Ethiop white ? Anciently the torn, and the lame, and the sick were debarred from the altar of God by a curse ; and, to the present, no offering can find acceptance in his sight, which is not clean and unblemished. The popularity and commonness of this species of sabbath-de- secration afford no justification to its patrons. It is just as sinful to convey passengers on business-journeys and pleasure-jaunts, as it would be to carry cattle to Smithfield mark- et ; and it would not be a whit more crimi- nal in the farmer to drive manure to his fields on Sunday, in a common cart, than it is for railway directors to transmit bales of silk and chests of bullion in their wagons. " Sin is the transgression of the law ;" and if the multitude do evil, we are commanded not to follow them. The sins of others are 144 THE SABBATH. beacons for our warning, not patterns for our imitation. Our obligations to obey are based on the indissoluble and personal relations we sustain to God ; and the misdeeds of millions will not excuse us, if, in a single instance, we belie these obligations, and resist his claims. His law — not the worldly expe- dients and wayward conduct of our fellow- men — is our rule of duty ; and as there is life in his favour, it is our highest in- terest to yield obedience, at all possible risks.* If the practice we condemn were right, it would stand the scrutiny of that day. But what shareholder is prepared to stake his eternal destiny on the success of the follow- ing plea, which contains nearly every point of defence which can be urged by its most ingenious advocates ? " Lord, it is true, our company traded on thy sabbath ; but we did it on a magnificent scale, in a scientific * Some of the preceding remarks appeared in a memorial which the Wesleyan ministers in Manches- ter addressed to the directors of the Leeds railway in 1841, and which was prepared by the writer at the request of his brethren. THE SABBATH. 145 manner, and in an age of extraordinary commercial enterprise, We did it to reduce the expense of travelling, to put down the cruelties of horse-carriage conveyance, to provide a profitable investment for our sur- plus capital, and to keep the trade and com- merce of our country in advance of those of other nations. Had the concern been under our personal management, some of us would have suffered the amputation of an arm, rather than have desecrated thy day ; but, having agreed to merge our individual opinions and scruples in the combined wis- dom and conscience of the company, we were obliged to submit to the majority. The whole plan was framed according to act of parliament ; and, in carrying it out, we were favoured with the patronage of many who were accounted wise and pious. Though we furnished the capital, others did the work; and as for the Sunday profits, they were so small, that, after appropriating them for a short time to charitable purposes, we suffered them to mingle in the common stock. The convenience we provided was for others, not ourselves ; nothing but necessity ever induced 10 146 THE SABBATH, us to travel on thy day ; and as for the thoughtless crowd who did it from choice, we pitied them, and promoted town missions, and tract distribution, that they might see the error of their ways. Whenever it could be done, without incurring great loss, we stopped our trains during church hours ; and had our servants been religiously disposed, they might in most instances have heard one sermon at least. As for the workmen who wrought on Sunday at our tunnels, and such parts of the line as required despatch, we en- couraged good men to preach to them, and to distribute religious tracts among them, after they had finished their toil. Besides attending thy house ourselves, some of us frequented thy table ; and deep were our searchings of heart while we prayed, ' Lord, have mercy upon us, and write all these thy laws in our hearts, we beseech thee/ Indeed, the sabbath-breaking part of the concern never had the consent of our con- science ; and, but for the immense sacrifice of property which the step would have in- volved, and a hope that the company would some time or other abandon the Sunday THE SABBATH. 147 traffic, we should have sold out, regardless of reproach." We leave those concerned to imagine the overwhelming rebuke which such an apology, if presented, must draw down from the great Lord of the sabbath. That practice which will not bear the light of truth now, cannot stand the scrutiny of the holy God then. The distinctions between right and wrong, truth and error, sophistry and argument, consistency and inconsistency, are essential and eternal ; and God can neither confound them nor allow us to confound them with impunity. The Judge of all the earth will do right. He has not abrogated the sabbath- law ; and wo to us, if, by word or deed, we bring it into contempt. There are limits beyond which he will not permit pride and profligacy to proceed, however they may be backed by genius, wealth, power, and public opinon. Those who profane the sab- bath, whether personally or by proxy, whether singly or in a confederated character, make God their enemy ; and they can expect nothing else but that he will curse their blessings, and make their sabbath-gains a 148 THE SABBATH, consuming rust to the treasures they were intended to increase. It has been said, that God infatuates those whom he designs to destroy. Without pledging ourselves to the truth of the maxim in all cases, and earnestly deprecating its fulfilment in the present case, we cannot listen to the interested, unscrip- tural, and contradictory arguments, which are urged by the men who compose our railway companies, without perceiving that, in their proceedings, expediency outweighs principle ; that the opinions of men prepon- derate over the laws of God ; that an appeal to their purse is much more convincing than an appeal to their conscience ; and that the dread of losing money is much more influ- ential than the terror of enduring " the wrath to come." The judgments of God are abroad in the earth ; yet who is learning righteous- ness ? In a time of profound peace, with neither plague nor pestilence in our borders, our capitalists are impoverished, commerce is stagnant, multitudes of our industrious poor are unemployed, our legislators, mer- chants, manufacturers, and railway directors, are at their wits' end ; and the very expe- THE SABBATH. 149 dieiits by which we hoped to lay up gold as the dust have been the means of impoverish- ing us. Thus God is demonstrating his sovereignty, and calling us to repentance, by placing our sins in the light of his counte- nance ; yet there is none that calleth upon his name, that stirreth tip himself to take hold of him, or that owns, "We are con- sumed because of our iniquities." Party censures party ; second causes, and human expedients, are deified ; mammon is preferred to God ; and gain, to a good conscience. Instead of turning unto him that smiteth us, we say, " in the pride and stoutness of our heart, The bricks are fallen down ; but we will build with hewn stone : the sycamores are cut down ; but we will change them into cedars." " Who is wise, and he shall un- derstand these things ? prudent, and he shall know them ? For the ways of the Lord are right, and the just shall walk in them ; but the transgressors shall fall therein." No matter how wealthy and honourable the company may be by whom the sanctity of the sabbath is invaded ; no matter how gen- teel, or how lucrative, the mode of desecra- 150 THE SABBATH. tion may be ; all who prefer the favour of God to the honour of men, and the happiness of heaven to the torments of hell> must wash their hands both of their gains and of their guilt, saying, " My soul, come not thou into their secret ; with their assembly, mine honour, be not thou united." Without de- signing to palliate other forms of sabbath- breaking, we are bold to say, that the voice of God, to the mercantile and trading com- munities in this country, is, in reference to all such companies, " Come out from among them, and be ye separate, and touch not the unclean thing." Happy will it be for us, and for our posterity, to the third and fourth generation, if we obey ; but wo to us, and to our beloved country, if, notwithstanding multiplied reproofs, we harden our necks. " Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall." " Nor the stranger that is within thy gates" — This injunction may be understood as referring, 1. To the visiter who sojourns in our house. Religion enjoins hospitality, and it fosters THE SABBATH. 151 friendship ; but it requires that our friend- ships be religious, and that our hospitality be administered in the name, and in harmony with the law and the glory, of God. It is God who sets the solitary in families, as a flock. He is the God of the families of the whole earth ; and, as their God, he holds their heads responsible for the moral conduct of all under their roof ; and he will require it at their hand, if they permit even visiters to profane his holy day. Some of these may plead, that it is not their custom to keep the sabbath so strictly as we do ; and they may think us rude unless we relax our Sunday discipline to gratify their love of gayety. But the law is the Lord's ; our own obligations to obey are imperative ; and we possess no power to absolve others from bonds equally binding. While, therefore, we exercise all the warm-hearted amenities of Christian friendship, we must neither, through fear or favour, neglect the family altar and the house of prayer, nor permit the intervals of public worship to be filled up with amusements or frivolous discourse. Heads of families cannot be too particular 152 THE SABBATH. in this matter. The backsliding of many young disciples may be traced to intercourse with genteel sabbath-breakers ; and the con- version of others has been the result of a friendly visit, to a faithful sabbath-keeping family. See, then, that, for the honour of God, the salvation of your children, and the spiritual benefit of the stranger within your gates, you resolutely maintain the sanctity of the Lord's day. If reflections be at any time cast upon you for your fidelity, say, in the language of the apostles, "Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye. But we can- not but speak the things which we have seen and heard." But, while the phrase admits of the above interpretation, we believe its primary appli- cation was, 2. To the foreigner who sojourned in the cities of Israel. The cities and towns of Palestine were generally surrounded with walls, and de- fended by gates ; whereas only a few of their dwellings were so secured. They themselves were called " brethren ;" and THE SABBATH. 153 the title " stranger" was applied, exclusive- ly, to men of other countries. The religious observance of the sabbath was intimately connected with the honour of Jehovah's name, and the best interests of mankind. He foresaw, that, if it were abolished, or brought into contempt, truth would suffer an eclipse, the poor would be oppressed, and the mind and manners of the entire com- munity would become corrupt. To prevent this, he not only prohibited them, their chil- dren, their servants, and their cattle, from working ; but, aware of their proneness to copy the customs of other countries, and of their liability to be seduced from his worship, by intercourse with irreligious foreigners, he added, "Nor the stranger," &c. This clause, as we before remarked, affords proof of the moral character of the sabbath-law, and of the obligation of all nations to observe it, to whom it might be revealed. The nature of the case requires that we consider this in- junction, not only as obligatory on the strangers resident in the country who felt inclined to obey, but as obliging the magis- trates to restrain such as were disposed to 154 THE SABBATH. offend. The magistracy alone could enforce obedience in such a case ; and, considering the vital importance of the institution, it was no less kind than wise in the Almighty to guard its sanctity by the double fence of magisterial and parental authority. That the obedience of the stranger might be cheerful, the following promise — which admitted him and his children almost to an equality of privilege with the Jew — was recorded : — " The sons of the stranger, that join them- selves to the Lord, to serve him, and to love the name of the Lord, to be his servants, every one that keepeth the sabbath from polluting it, and taketh hold of my covenant ; even them will I bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of pray- er : their burnt-offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted on mine altar; for mine house shall be called a house of prayer for all people," Isa. lvi, 6, 7. Persuasion and argument are the only weapons which individuals or governments can innocently employ in enforcing articles of belief and modes of worship. But to pre- vent open trading on the sabbath — which is THE SABBATH. 155 a manifest invasion of both the temporal and spiritual privileges of a Christian community, as well as a public insult to almighty God — is a very different thing ; and here the magistrate may and ought to interfere. — " If," says the late Rev. Richard Watson, " violations of the sabbath are not to be made capital crimes by Christian governors, the enforcement of a decent external observance of the rest of the sabbath is a lawful use of power, and a part of the duty of the Chris- tian magistrate." " Governors are sent for the punishment of evil-doers, and for the praise of them that do well," 1 Pet. ii, 14. Were they not to restrain sabbath-desecra- tion, they would encourage the bad to make prey of the good, and the unscrupulous to engross the trade of the conscientious : they would, in effect, license atheism, infidelity, and profanity ; and thereby wound the vital interests of the nation through the side of its religion and morality. While we rejoice that our Protestant con- stitution recognises the right of the poorest to choose his place of worship, his creed, and his minister; we should grieve to see the 156 THE SABBATH. day when our law did not denounce, as a transgressor, the man w r ho, rejecting all creeds and modes of worship whatsoever, openly traffics on the sabbath. The strangers resident in Israel w T ere, for the most part, idolaters ; and they might, with some plausi- bility, have pleaded exemption, on the ground of the vast difference in their religious be- lief. But no such plea was admitted by God, or the Jewish legislature ; nor ought it to be allowed in our land. Unbelief is, in itself, a sin against God and his truth ; and, being a principal cause of disobedience, it cannot be pleaded as its excuse. The sab- bath was made for man ; and hence the home-born, the stranger, the believer, and the unbeliever, were alike commanded to rest during its sacred hours. In the history of the creation, Moses adduces no argument to prove the being of God ; as if he judged that those who disputed that fundamental truth merited a rebuke rather than a reason. In like manner, the command to honour God with a seventh part of our time — which, with our being, and all our other blessings, he has given — carries its own reason with it; and THE SABBATH. 157 the man who pleads conscientious scruples against it, proves that infidelity can play the hypocrite as well as religion. If men who enjoy the shelter of our laws, and who share the meliorating influence of our national in- stitutions, will perversely transgress a pre- cept so just, so merciful, and so vitally con- nected with the honour of God, and the highest interests of the community ; nothing can be more salutary for them and the pub- lic than that they should suffer the penalty which our law awards. If individuals have rights which a Christian magistrate ought to protect, so have the nation ; and, of all our common rights, the undisturbed enjoyment of the ordinances and rest of the sabbath is one of the sweetest and dearest. While it affords us pleasure, that the statutes in which our forefathers recognised the universal obligation of the sabbath are not repealed, we lament that, in our day, they are little more than a dead letter. It forms a dark line in the history of the last parliament, that they not only neutralized the godly endeavours of Sir Andrew Agnew, and others, to render these statutes more 158 THE SABBATH, efficient ; but they scouted the attempt with unmeasured scorn. In point of legislative guarantee, the sabbath question has retro- graded in our age. The railway-desecration, over which the righteous in town and country weep, is carried on under the sanction of acts of parliament. The keepers of the gin-palaces in London can plead the same authority for the iniquity they commit, pro- vided they do not vend their health-destroy- ing and soul-murdering poisons before a certain hour of the day. Notice was given last session of a motion for opening the Bri- tish Museum to the public on the Lord's day ; and should this be effected, it will only be consistent for the same honourable mem- ber, or some one like-minded, to move, that the theatres be opened next. These movements in high places have produced their natural results elsewhere. Numerous lyceum and other reading-rooms have been opened in our large towns on this day, for newspaper reading and political dis- cussion ; than which, we know of no prac- tices, short of absolute profanity, that have a more direct tendency to secularize the THE SABBATH, 159 mind, obliterate serious impressions, and be- get a contempt for the word and ordinances of God. That the infidel and profligate, who professedly trample truth under foot, and have laid the reins on the neck of their lusts, should indulge in such practices, is no matter of surprise ; but that professing Christians should do so, is ground of aston- ishment. This, however, is only one of the modes in which the Lord's day is desecrated. Tea-gardens have, of late years, been mul- tiplied ; and, in their season, they exhibit scenes of riot on this day not to be described. Zoological and botanical gardens, also, draw multitudes away from their families, and from the house of God ; and, by dissipating the mind, and by leading to unhallowed as- sociations, they prepare for grosser scenes, in places of less reputable resort. Musical concerts are held on Sunday evenings, in public-houses, of the worst description, at which tea, coifee, and spirituous liquors are sold, sacred and profane music are impious- ly blended, and the praises of Jehovah and of his redeeming love are chanted to the sound of the viol and the organ, in connec- 160 THE SABBATH. tion with the foul orgies of Bacchus and Venus. Subscriptions to sick-clubs and political societies are extensively collected on Sunday mornings ; business letters are written ; stock in trade taken ; shop goods are arranged for Monday's sale ; and the machinery of factories is repaired, at a rate of double wages, to prevent the loss of week-day time. Many commercial travel- lers so contrive their journeys, that three- fourths of their Sundays are spent at sea in ships, or in coaches and railway-carriages on land : all to save time, and do a " capital stroke of business." It has been ascertained, that, in Scotland, not less than five thousand persons are oc- cupied on the sabbath in the post-office ser- vice ; and it is computed, that tw T ice that number are similarly employed in England. The author of " Mammon" estimates the number of sabbath-breakers in London alone at six hundred and fifty thousand. A few years ago, fourteen Sunday newspapers had a weekly circulation of ninety thousand copies ; and if we suppose that each paper was read by only three persons, we have a THE SABBATH. 161 total of two hundred and seventy thousand readers of these, the most licentious and seditious papers that issue from the British press. The railway-carriages of Philadel- phia, in the United States, carry nearly four- teen thousand individuals every Lord's day on errands of business or of pleasure ; in- dependently of twenty steamboats which regularly leave the harbour for similar pur- poses. Thus, at home and abroad, the holy sabbath, that monument of divine sovereign- ty, creative energy, and redeeming love, — that palladium of our liberty and religious greatness, — is assaulted, undermined, and trampled down. The law of the Lord is made void ; public worship is accounted a weariness; faithful ministers are reckoned disturbers of the peace ; and all who testify against the abounding iniquity are stigma- tized as narrow-minded bigots, who have entered the world too late by at least a century. " The sabbath, that great cable of our future safety, is fast giving way. Strand after strand is breaking ; and if we do not hasten to strengthen the things which re- 11 162 THE SABBATH. main, it will soon be too late. The great orb of our moral day, the sabbath, is going out in our heavens ; its blessed legislation is ceasing ; its holy attractions are failing ; and the angels of mercy are lifting their rustling wings, and saying, ' Let us depart !' and already the fire of divine indignation is beginning to kindle upon the fuel ourselves have heaped up for the day of vengeance. " Unless there be an immediate effort to preserve the sabbath from desecration, we are undone ; the temptation to break it is every moment increasing ; and the amount and intertwinings of business are such, that if the sabbath be once gone, a universal tide of worldliness and unsanctified enterprise will sweep over every barrier, and the wave of moral desolation will roll unresisted over what was once the fairest heritage beneath the beams of heaven. " I come to lift up my voice, and cry in your ears, ' Remember the sabbath-day, to keep it holy,' amid winds and waves, and the hissing of steam, and the rumbling of carriages, and smoke and clouds of dust, and din of business. You must stop ; you THE SABBATH. 163 must withdraw your capital from establish- ments which violate the sabbath. The stock of our railway and steamboat lines is much of it in "Christian hands. God is ex- lending the wealth of his church, and bring- ing great masses of our business population within her pale. And what is it for ? To make the breach between Him and the na- tion wider and wider ? I know there is a disposition to censure the influence and in- terference of ministers and Christians ; but rely upon it, that if we Christians break the sabbath, there will be no keeping it ; but if we observe it ourselves, and resolve that our capital and example shall all go one way, then we shall preserve it. Heaven has thrown our civil immunities into our ow T n hands, and we ought at once to form a reso- lution of new obedience."* This eloquent passage is worthy of its author : and with it we conclude this part of the subject ; beseeching all who fear God, who love their country, and who desire to see religion, truth, happiness, and social or- der universally diffused, honestly to inquire, * Dr. Be eerier. 164 THE SABBATH. in what way and in what degree they have failed to sanctify this holy day ; and, without conferring with flesh and blood, or listening to the pleadings of worldly interest, instantly to amend their ways. If they have unwit-* tingly entered into partnerships which involve them in guilt, let them take the first oppor- tunity of confessing their sins, and protesting against its Continuance. Let them, while there is a probable hope of success, combine with the friends of the sabbath in energetic and well-directed efforts to extirpate the iniquity ; but, as soon as this hope is cut off, the partnership must be dissolved, or the favour of God will be forfeited. Concern- ing this step, ignorance will dogmatize, and worldliness will invent plausible excuses for unwarrantable delay ; but, as the mind of God on the subject is recorded in unambigu- ous terms, — as he will not be mocked, — and as we shall reap that which we sow, — we must not allow ourselves to be deceived. " To the law and to the testimony ; if they speak not according to this word, it is be- cause there is no light in them." Delays are dangerous, especially when interest THE SABBATH. 165 pleads against conscience. " Evil commu- nications corrupt good manners." There- fore, to all who are halting between the per- formance of self-denying duty, and gainful worldly conformity, we say, " Awake to righteousness, and sin not." Do your duty to God, your own souls, and your families, dauntlessly, in the face of a mocking world, despite of pecuniary loss, and regardless of the example of those who love the wages of unrighteousness. The influence which some of you have acquired in commercial circles is great ; your station is commanding ; your example is influential ; and your responsi- bility, therefore, is tremendous. You have reached a turning point in your probationary circuit ; " God is proving thee to know what is in thy heart, whether thou wilt keep his commandments or no." Your own eternal destiny, the destiny of your children, depen- dants, and acquaintances, tremble in the balances, while you hesitate; and your de- cision will probably turn the scale, for bliss or wo. Not only so ; but the purity of the church, and the efficiency of her ordinances, are at stake. While the sin of sabbath- 166 THE SABBATH. desecration was a sin of the world ; while the " Babylonish garment" flaunted on alien shoulders ; while the " golden wedge" en- riched alien coffers ; God went forth with the armies of our Israel : but if the wedge and the garment be coveted, and kept in the camp; if we, who are called by the name of the God of Israel, do after the abomi- nations of the people of the land ; then the Lord our God will forsake us, the tide of victory will be turned against us, faintness of heart will come over us ; and, instead of dividing the spoil, we shall suffer all the terror, confusion, and ignominy of discom- fiture and retreat. Both God and man must hold us in derision, if, while we repel from the Lord's table the barber who shaves, the baker who bakes, the engineer who conducts an engine, the clerk who sells railway tickets, and the widow woman who deals in groce- ries on this holy day, we permit gentlemen to enjoy the fellowship of saints, though they hold shares in, and direct the affairs of, companies which desecrate the sabhath by wholesale. And if we exclude none, but wink at the iniquity under all its forms, and THE SABBATH. 167 among all its practitioners, then is " the beauty of holiness" compromised ; and, with it, "the glory," and its accompanying "de- fence," will assuredly evanish. These are not the notes of sedition, but the warnings of a devoted and self-sacrificing loyalty ; and we implore our readers to look at the whole subject in the light of Scripture, and in its direct bearings upon the present belligerent circumstances of the church. — ■ Look at the resuscitated energies and con- centrated forces of Popery, at home and abroad ; at the deep-laid and expensive schemes which infidelity is carrying out for the subversion of truth, order, religion, and morality ; at the unseemly divisions, and soul-destroying errors, which distract Pro- testant churches ; at the visible tokens of divine displeasure which rest upon our trad- ing and commercial interests ; at the wants of the heathen world, and the humiliating proofs which are, in continuance, given of our inability to meet them ; look, we say, at these things, and judge whether it be not mad and suicidal, as well as impious, for members of the church, under such circum- 168 THE SAB HATH o stances, to provoke God further, by perse- vering in practices which are manifest vio- lations of his law. We love science ; and therefore we grieve to see it made the minister of sin. We love Christian consistency ; and therefore we mourn to see it sacrificed at the shrine of mammon. We love our country;; and there- fore we tremble to see millions of its money y and tens of thousands of its sons and daughters, devoted to confederacies which unblushingly publish their rival schemes of sabbath-profanation in placards and news- papers.- This is no lime for cant or compli- ment ; plain, unexaggerated truth must be spoken, if, peradventure, the Lord may grant us repentance, and " turn the fierceness of his wrath away from us/' We joyfully acknowledge that our sabbath is disencum- bered of all merely Jewish restrictions ; but we protest against the inference, that, there- fore, we are at liberty to prostitute it to pur- poses of pleasure or of profit. Are we to be ungrateful because God is good ? Are oar obligations diminished by the multiplication of his mercies ? Do we owe him less than THE SABBATH, 169 the Jews, because he has given us more? Are we to take Antinomian liberties with his law because he has superadded to it his gos- pel ? If we may not attribute it to ignorance, does it not look exceedingly like hypocrisy to plead the spirituality of our dispensation, and our obligations to universal holiness, as an argument for relaxing the obvious mean- ing of the sabbath-law ; and to argue, that, because God is to be found everywhere, it is of small importance whether we worship him in his " house of prayer," or in the tem- ple of nature ; at his table, or in a railway- carriage ? "I speak as unto wise men ; judge ye what I say." " The wise shall inherit glory ; but shame shall be the promotion of fools." It is now our design, by way of conclusion, to give the serious reader a brief plan for keeping the sabbath holy ; and we therefore observe, the sanctification of the sabbath im- plies, 5. That we spend the whole day in the public and private exercises of religion. God enjoins, not simply that we rest, but that we keep a holy rest. We are to cease 170 THE SABBATH, from worldly things, to the intent we may devote ourselves to the contemplation and pursuit of heavenly things. Were we merely to rest from our own work, we should keep the sabbath idly ; but our duty is, by dili- gence in God's work, to keep it holy. Idle- ness is a sin on any day, much more on the Lord's day. Rest from toil is the sabbath of the brute ; whereas rest in God, through the medium of religious exercises, constitutes the sabbath of the saint. " I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day." Memorable and instructive words ! Though the beloved disciple was an exile and a pri- soner, on the convict isle of Patmos, for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ ; though he was shut out from public ordinances, from the fellowship of saints, and from all the blessings of freedom, he forgot not the day which commemorated his Lord's victory over death and hell. Deprived of the privilege of preaching, he had conse- crated the day to meditation and prayer; and, while thus employed, the Holy Spirit came upon him with plenary light and power. He heard the voice of God, he THE SABBATH. 171 saw the visions of God, he held converse with the angels of God, and his soul was rapt into an ecstasy of reverential awe, of humble love, and of divine desire. He be- held his Lord, in his glorified humanity, standing " in the midst of the golden candle- sticks ; and he had in his right hand seven stars : and out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword ; and his countenance was as the sun shining in his strength. And when I saw him," says the apostle, " I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not ; I am the first and the last : I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen ; and have the keys of hell and of death." O glorious truths ! O en- rapturing sight ! How confirmatory of the Deity, the atonement, the resurrection, and the supreme headship of Christ in his church ! Happy apostle ! who on the Lord's day saw the Lord himself; felt the strengthening energy of his pierced hand ; beheld, in prophetic vision, the final triumph of his cause ; and, by a thousand tokens of love, was reassured that he and his fellow- 172 THE SABBATH, disciples fulfilled his sovereign pleasure, in keeping the first day of the week as the Christian sabbath. Such visions and revelations we may not hope for. But there is a sense in which we also may be "in the Spirit" on this holy day; may behold the glory of our Lord ; may hear his voice ; may stand in his presence ; and may be strengthened with his right hand. "Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." Matt, xviii, 19, 20. "Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son." " I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever ; even the Spirit of truth ; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him : but ye know him ; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you com- fortless : I will come unto you." John xiv, THE SABBATH. 173 16-18. These promises are the portion of all believers, and they belong to all ages. Never do we so specially meet in his name, as when, on his day, we commemorate his resurrection, rely on the merits of his death, acknowledge his kingly power, and worship him in union with the Father and the Holy Ghost. To be " in the Spirit on the Lord's day," ought to be our supreme concern ; and, as a means of securing this, we recom- mend — Early rising. Each moment of our pro- bationary term is precious ; but our sabbath moments are the most precious. As the week generally takes its character, for good or evil, from the manner in which its sab- bath has been spent ; so the character of our sabbaths greatly depends on the improvement or non-improvement of their morning hours. This admits of an easy solution. As soon as we awake, we are called to make a new election between God and mammon, between things divine and thoughts of earth, between holy self-denial and fleshly indulgence ; and our subsequent spirituality and power de- pend, in a high degree, on the promptitude 174 THE SABBATH. with which we choose the former, and reject the latter. Morning impressions are often like those of youth — indelible. As the rising sun shoots his bright beams upward, tinging the clouds with purple, and gilding the mountain-tops with golden hues ; so ought we, on this hallowed morn, to send up our virgin thoughts and morning songs to the great Lord of the sabbath, to whom we owe our redemption, and with whom is " the residue of the Spirit." Let us, as we spurn the bed of sloth, call to remembrance his precious death, his glorious resurrection and ascension, the majesty in which he now reigns, the prevalent intercession he carries on before the throne, and his glorious ap- pearing to judge the world. Let us " praise the Trinity adored" for the mercies of the night, for the blessings of a new day, for the institution of the sabbath, and for the pros- pect of assembling with the faithful in the life-giving ordinances of the gospel. Let us meditate on the perfections of the glorious Being we are about to worship, on the holy place in which we have to appear, and on the solemn responsibilities which the posses- THE SABBATH, 175 sion of sabbath-privileges involves. As soon as we are dressed, let us fall down on our knees, and pray that no vain thoughts may lodge within us, that " all carnal affections may die in us, and that all things belonging to the Spirit may live and grow in us ;" that our past sins may be blotted out, that our persons and worship may be accepted in the Beloved, and that we may have grace to " receive with meekness the engrafted word which is able to save our souls ;" that a door of utterance may be given to the ministers of the gospel, that they may open their mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel ; so that, through them, the stout- hearted may be made to tremble, the mourn- ers may be comforted, and the righteous built up on their most holy faith. To the exercises of prayer, praise, and devout meditations, should be added Scrip- ture reading. In this duty our chief concern should be, not how much we can read, but how well. Marginal readings should be marked, parallel passages compared, and prayer should be intermingled with the whole. If we are unencumbered with do- 176 THE SABBATH. mestic and official duties, we shall find our reward in attending the morning prayer meeting. All those in our societies who have shone in the ways of religion, and who have been eminent for consistent holiness and extensive usefulness, prized these early services. It was in them they first ventured to pray in public ; and with them were as- sociated in their memories sweet recollections of early friendships, divine baptisms, and extensive revivals. With the habit of early rising which these meetings tended to foster, they contributed, under God, to mellow their devotional feelings, to confirm their religious decision, and to prepare them for receiving the word of the. kingdom into good and honest hearts. To our young people we, therefore, most earnestly and affectionately recommend them, as an antidote against sloth and self-indulgence, as a certain means of doing and receiving good, and as an effi- cient preparative for the solemnities and pri- vileges of public worship. To those heads of families on whom the domestic arrangements of the sabbath morn- ing devolve, we would say, In prudent fore- THE SABBATH. 177 sight, in godly order, and in early rising, be ensamples to your respective households. Let your esteem for the day, and your reve- rence for its Lord, be apparent in the clean- liness of your houses, in the neatness of your dress, in the subdued tones of your voice, in the tranquillity of your spirits, in the kindness of your carriage, and in the edifying and evangelical tenor of your conversation. In the preparation of food, and the giving out of garments, labour to maintain a devotional frame of mind, a single eye, and a lively sense of the presence and love of God. Having despatched indispensable duties of this kind, with zealous haste collect all the members of your family around the altar of God ; and be sure you suffer none to absent themselves on the ground of dislike to reli- gion, pleasurable projects, or selfish and in- dependent plans. At this service let the praises of God be sung with ardour, and the Scriptures be read with reverence. If you have a brief Commentary at hand, read it in connection with the text ; or if a pertinent remark strike your own mind, give it utter- ance, and trust God for its application. In 12 178* THE SABBATH, your intercessions and thanksgivings inter- weave the Scriptures you have read with the circumstances of the family, the events of the past week, the state of the church, and the affairs of the nation. Approach the Fa- ther through the Son • and be as free in peni- tential confessions as you are fall in grateful acknowledgments. Crave the forgiveness of sins, in unwavering assurance that Christ died for your offences ; and wrestle for sup- plies of grace, to effect the renewal of your minds, and enable you to perfect "-holiness in the fear of the Lord." Plead for the church in all its sections, for your country in all its interests, for the world with all its in- habitants ; and pray, especially, for your ministers, that they may lead the flock into green pastures, and beside the still waters ; and that the great end of the ministry, the salvation of the sotil, may be accomplished in you, and in all under your care. When you rise from your knees, take oc- casion to caution your family against worldly reading and trifling conversation. Place suitable books in their hands, enjoin atten- tion to secret prayer, and timely preparation THE SABBATH. 179 for public worship, Late attendance on the house of God is a most disreputable prac- tice, and we fear it is a growing evil in our day. It bespeaks a defective system of family government, a low state of personal piety, and a want of reverence for God, his ordinances, and his authority. It argues a want of self-respect, and a criminal indiffer- ence to the comfort of our ministers, and the spiritual interests of our fellow^worshippers. It indicates great ignorance of the nature of Christian worship, the extent of Christian obligation, and the worth of Christian privi- leges. If, therefore, you value your own and your family character, if you reverence God, if you would not desecrate his house, nor distract his worshippers, nor grieve his ministers, nor incur his curse, be early in his sanctuary. Having ascertained how long it will take to walk leisurely to your place of worship, make it imperative on the members of your household that they be ready to ac- company you at the appointed time. Before you leave your dwellings, enter your closet, and pray to your Father who seeth in secret, that he would grant you the 180 THE SABBATH. preparation of the heart and the answer of the tongue ; that he would go with you to his temple, and there bless you with an un- derstanding heart, a retentive memory, and an appropriating faith. On your way avoid worldly conversation as you would fellow- ship with a fiend ; and, as a guard against worldly thoughts, repeat a psalm, or ejacu- late heavenly aspirations after the presence and benediction of God. When you reach the porch of the sanctuary, tread lightly, and say in your inmost soul, " How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts ! Blessed are they that dwell in thy house : they will be still praising thee." As you approach your seat, say, " How dreadful is this place ! This is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven:" or, " Praise waiteth for thee, O God, in Sion ; and unto thee shall the vow be performed." When you have reverently given God thanks for bringing you to his house again, and im- plored his aid in the different branches of his service, compose your thoughts, and wait in solemn silence the commencement of his worship. THE SABBATH. 181 In singing our beautiful hymns, recollect you address God, as truly as when, on your bended knees, you pour out your hearts be- fore him in prayer. Though their subjects are so varied, that they describe every state and shade of feeling which intervenes be- tween the depths of penitential wo and the most triumphant and rapturous anticipations of coming glory ; they are all, with only a few exceptions, direct addresses to God. You cannot, therefore, allow your thoughts to wander, or your affections to grovel on earthly objects, without being guilty of offer- ing " the sacrifice of fools." Sing with your might, and hold that irreligious gentility in abhorrence which accounts it vulgar to lift up the voice with the congregation in the praise of his excellent grace. While, how- ever, you sing with spirit, be careful to sing in unison ; and guard against formality by endeavouring, in every song, to glorify the great Three One with the melody of the voice, the affection of the heart, and the homage of the understanding. During public prayer devoutly kneel, or reverently stand ; and, either by silent assent, 182 THE SABBATH. or an audible " amen," unite in the petitions which the minister presents in the name of the congregation. Remember you are sin- ners in the sight of God, and can claim nothing on the ground of merit at the hand of God. Endeavour to obtain abasing views of your character and conduct ; and be at pains to stir up penitential feelings and grateful emotions in your hearts. Prayer is the offering up of the desires of the heart unto God. Where there is no desire after God, there is no prayer ; and even our de- sires must be regulated by the written word, and be presented in exclusive reliance on the atonement and intercession of our divine Surety. If you would worship with an un- distracted heart, resist all temptations to let the eye wander ; and endeavour to feel in your hearts each petition you utter with your lips. Believe that God is high ; that he is propitious, through the Son of his love ; that- effectual, fervent prayer availeth much ; and that he can enlighten, convince, and convert the whole congregation with as much ease as he can change the heart of an individual. Expect that he will answer while you are THE SABBATH. 183 yet speaking, by sending showers of blessing on the whole catholic church, and by making his gospel the power of God to the salvation of all that are under its sound. In hearing the word, recollect that your business is not to judge, but to learn ; not to admire the servant, but to worship his Lord ; not to criticise the manner of the messenger, but to embrace his message. Bear in memory that you are not only in God's house, but in his presence ; and that the thoughts of your heart, and the frame of your mind, are as obvious to his eye as are the features of your face, or the posture of your body. The gospel is a proclamation of pardon to the guilty, of good tidings to the meek, and of deliverance to the captives ; it invites the poor, the halt, the maimed, the lame, and the blind, to a royal banquet ; it is, there- fore, addressed to you ; and your life and happiness, in time and eternity, depend on your prompt compliance. Hear in faith, with self-application, in the spirit of prayer, and with a firm determination to obey. Re- collect that for your gospel opportunities you will have to give a strict account ; that each 18 i THE SABBATH. sermon you hear may be your last ; and that the ministers who preach Christ crucified will be to you either the " savour of death unto death, or of life unto life." Guard, therefore, against ungrounded prejudices, and capricious preferences ; esteem each of your ministers very highly in love for his work's sake ; endure sound doctrine, and avoid fellowship with those who, " after their own lusts, heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears." Let your home ar- rangement be such, that you can always stay till the conclusion of the service ; and then silently and reverently depart, with the bene- diction of God resting on your consecrated hearts. As soon as you reach your dwellings, re- tire for a few minutes to meditate on what you have heard, and to pray that it may dwell in you "not in word only, but in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance." When you meet your house- holds at the family board, be cheerful, and endeavour to make them happy while par- taking of the bounties of Providence. Sun- day ought to be a privileged day in food, in THE SABBATH. 185 clothes, and in family fellowship. The trials and crosses of the past week should be forgotten. The grace of redemption, the kind interventions of Providence, the pro- gress of the work of God in the earth, the virtues of the Lord's people, and the beauties of creation, ought to form the themes of your sabbath-day discourse. As you value the favour of God, and desire the salvation of your children, put down every thing like evil-speaking and religious gossip. The most impressive parts of "the sermon ought to be repeated, and each member of the family group should be encouraged to advert to that part which most interested himself. The regular repetition of these conversation- al exercises will strengthen the memory, impress the heart, increase knowledge, and inspire confidence between you and the dif- ferent members of your family. For the afternoon no general plan can be laid down. Those who have but few oppor- tunities for improving their minds, and at- tending to the duties of the closet, during the week, will do well to spend it in religious reading, meditation, and prayer ; with which 186 THE SABBATH. exercises they may profitably intermingle tract distribution, and visits to the beds of the sick and dying. Servants who are preclud- ed from attending morning worship ought, by all means, to spend the afternoon in the house of God, and in the fellowship of the saints. Those who devote this part of the day to the religious instruction of the chil- dren of the poor and profligate, render a most acceptable service to God and his church. Sunday-school tuition involves a great amount of self-denial ; but when it is conducted on religious principles, and with a direct reference to the glory of God and the salvation of the children's souls, the benefit, both to the teacher and the taught, will be great and endless. To such of our readers as have devoted themselves to this arduous vocation we would say, Watch against dis- traction, irritation, and despondence ; pre- serve in your soul the fervour of a deep- toned piety ; draw your instructions from the book of God, and let them be imbued with, and enforced by, the love of Christ ; be punctual, be faithful, be prayerful, and rest not satisfied till you see your scholars THE SABBATH. 187 " clothed and in their right mind, sitting at the feet of Jesus." In those families where the children do not attend school, the father, or, in case he be irreligious, or officially engaged, the mo- ther, ought to take them apart for religious conversation, prayer, and catechetical in- struction. Thousands and tens of thousands will have cause to bless God through eternity for maternal counsel and prayer, in the secret chamber, on the Sunday afternoon. A mo- ther's eloquence is all but irresistible ; and her influence, when consecrated to the Re- deemer, and perseveringly employed in his name, for the conversion of her children, is sure, sooner or later, to be crowned with success. These afternoon exercises, how- ever, must be so ordered, that the family may be duly present at the commencement of the evening worship ; concerning which, the advices given in connection with the morning service will apply. At the close of the day, the young, and such as have their time at their own com- mand, ought to retire, either to their chamber, or to some secluded spot, for the purpose of 188 THE SABBATH. reviewing their conduct and demeanour be- fore God and man ; of calling back to their recollection the truths they have heard ; of humbling themselves for their conscious de- fects ; and of offering devout thanksgivings for the mercies and privileges they have en- joyed. With renewed repentance for what has been said or done amiss, there must be a fresh application to the blood of sprinkling. And that the out-goings of our evenings and mornings may rejoice together, let us repeat our acts of consecration, and, committing the keeping of body and soul to God, let us say with David, " I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep : for thou, Lord, only makest me to dwell in safety." Heads of families ought to endeavour to make the concluding hours of the sabbath pleasant and profitable to all under their care. Servants and children should be congregated together. Shy distrust and lordly reserve should be banished from the circle ; and all should be encouraged to join in singing hymns, in spiritual discourse, in Scripture reading, and in prayer. At such a time, and in such circumstances, the parent and master, who THE SABBATH. 189 has been " in the Spirit on the Lord's day," must feel his heart warmed and enlarged ; and, anxious to diffuse the peace and joy which soothe and animate his own breast, he will delight to bless his household, saying, " The Lord bless thee, and keep thee ; the Lord make his face to shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee ; the Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace." This is to keep the sabbath holy ; and they that do so shall in nowise lose their reward. The blessing of God that maketh rich, and is free from added sorrow, shall descend on them and their families, on their temporal and eternal interest, on the purposes of their hearts, and on the labours of their hands. In conclusion, it is manifest that the law of the sabbath remains uncancelled ; that its proper business is the worship of God ; and that its leading design is the diffusion of truth, and the salvation of men. Whatever labours or recreations, therefore, are incon- sistent with this design, and tend to indispose us for this service, are clearly sinful — though in themselves, and when practised on other days, they may be innocent. If we are not 190 THE SABBATH. to find our own pleasure, nor speak our own words, on this day-— but to " call it a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable ;" then it follows, that it is a sin to employ any part of it in painting or pencilling ; in singing carnal songs ; in telling idle stories ; in con- versing about politics, and trading transac- tions ; or in reading newspapers, novels, plays, and profane history. None of these exercises have any connection w r ith the wor- ship of God ; some of them are utterly in- imical to the spirit of piety, and all of them are manifest infractions on the sanctity of the sabbath. In many families, where God has an altar, the evenings of the Lord's day are fearfully desecrated by worldly discourse. Relatives and near neighbours collect : and, after a few pious preliminary topics have been touched, they slide, by degrees, into a free conversation about politics, prices, and pass- ing events : and, ere they break up, they fix the time of projected journeys, repeat the scandal of the week, and discuss the cha- racters of magistrates and ministers, to the infinite damage of the souls of their servants THE SABBATH. 391 and children. This is a soul-destroying and a God-dishonouring custom. It has indeed an air of friendship to man, but it betokens enmity to God. If any of our readers have opened their houses for such gatherings, or have mingled in them, we entreat them, as they regard the honour of God, the credit of religion, and the salvation of their fami- lies, to give them up at once and for ever. It matters not whom you offend, or what reproach you incur, the practice must be renounced, or the curse of the Lord will be in your house. The practice of walking out into the country, though not essentially sinful, (pro- vided the worship of God be not neglected,) is, to say the least, highly inexpedient, on the part of those who fear God. We admit, that the sight of Jehovah's works may assist us in forming lofty conceptions of his perfections, and in approaching his throne with aug- mented confidence : but, as we are sur- rounded with sabbath-breakers, to whom we cannot explain our motives, nor tell the se- crets of our hearts, and who are sure to jus- tify their sinful excursions by an appeal to 192 THE SABBATH. our brief meditative walks ; we are bound, alike by regard for the glory of God, and love to the souls of men, to abstain from that which, under other circumstances, we might have done without condemnation. " Let no man put a stumbling-block, or an occasion to fall, in his brother's way ;" " Let not, then, your good be evil spoken of ;" are apostolic precepts, which have a direct bearing on the case in hand. To walk .or ride out, on pre- tence that health cannot otherwise be pre- served, implies a reflection on God — as if obedience to his law were incompatible with the enjoyment of his providential blessings. Thousands have ascribed their religious de- clension, and subseo^ent ruin, to Sunday walks. Indeed, we know no practice which more rapidly leads to the obliteration of se- rious impressions, and to the depravation of principle, than that of habitual Sunday walk- ing Those w T ho extol the beauties of nature, and magnify the advantages to be derived from studying her lessons, as portrayed in the " cloud-capped mountain," the verdant valley, the winding stream, and the forest foliage, generally despise the beauty of THE SABBATH. 193 Christian holiness, and scoff at the doctrines of revealed religion. As is their zeal for liberalizing the sabbath-law, such is their negligence in practising the Christian vir- tues. With them the principles of morality are conventional ; Christian experience is enthusiasm ; the preaching of the gospel is an expensive expedient, which might be well merged in a general system of education ; and the God of nature supplants the God of grace, both in their creed and in their worship. Were this to be the last stroke of our pen, ) and had we reached the last moment of our life, we should employ both the one and the other in enforcing on our readers the divine injunction, " Remember the sabbath-day, to keep it holy." For if the threatenings of God are to be believed; if all history is not a lie ; if it be notorious, that genteel sabbath- breakers are totally destitute of Christian experience ; and if the confessions which the profligate have made in our jails, and on our gibbets, cannot be invalidated ; then the face of the Lord is set against them that turn the sabbath into a day of pastime, or of gain- 13 194 • THE SABBATH. ful toil : and, on the other hand, if the pro- mises of God are true ; if the concurrent voice of sacred and profane history is to be received ; if the testimony of righteous kings, just judges, godly bishops, and the holiest men, in all lands, is entitled to credit ; and if the joyous experience, the domestic happi- ness, the sanctified prosperity, and the peace- ful and triumphant deaths of myriads of God's people, are to be regarded as evidences of his favour, then it is demonstrated, that God loves, honours, and saves all those who " re- member the sabbath to keep it holy." We have now done ; and, while thankful for the opportunity of bearing testimony on such a subject, we earnestly pray that the great Lord of the sabbath may write his law on all hearts. To dispense reproof is not our delight ; and if faithful love could have calculated on a cure by milder means, stern rebuke would have been spared. The de- tached form in w r hich our observations ori- ginally appeared, no doubt tended to weaken their moral effect ; and though conscious that they can lay little claim to originality, we venture to request such of our readers as we THE SABBATH. 195 have failed to convince, to give them a se- cond and consecutive perusal. The evil we have exposed is great, growing, and popular ; and for the freedom with which ^ve have de- nounced it, we offer no apology, save the paramount regard we bear to the truth, and the pity we feel for the souls of those who have fallen under the demoralizing influence of error. From the censures of men, we appeal to the decision of God. Had we not been firmly persuaded that " the battle is the Lord's," oar " sling," and our " five smooth stones," would still have remained in the privacy of the " scrip," and in the bed of the "brook." Our prayer, from the beginning, has been, that we might neither err through ignorance, nor keep back aught through fear or faithlessness : and our desire now is, that the great Lord of the sabbath would establish and bless whatever bears the stamp of truth ; but that each sentence which savours of error may be neutralized, forgotten, and dis- regarded. THE SABBATH. 197 OBSERVANCE OF THE SABBATH. The following is the testimony of John Richard Farre, M. D., of London, a physician of great eminence, before a committee of the British House of Commons in 1833, on the observance of the sabbath : — " I have practised as a physician between thirty and forty years ; and, during the early part of my life, as the physician of a public medical institution, I had charge of the poor in one of the most populous districts of Lon- don. I have had occasion to observe the effect of the observance and non-observance of the seventh day of rest during this time, I have been in the habit, during a great many years, of considering the uses of the sab- bath, and of observing its abuses. The abuses are chiefly manifested in labour and dissipation. Its use, medically speaking, is that of a day of rest. As a day of rest, I view it as a day of compensation for the inad- equate restorative power of the body under continued labour and excitement. A physician always has respect to the preservation of the restorative power ; because, if once this be lost, his healing office is at an end. A phy- sician is anxious to preserve the balance of circulation, as necessary to the restorative power of the body. The ordinary exertions of man run down the circulation every day of his life ; and the first general law of nature, by which God prevents man from destroying himself, is the alternating of day and night, that repose may succeed action. But, although the night apparently 198 THE SABBATH. equalizes the circulation, yet it does not sufficiently re- store its balance for the attainment of a long life. Hence, one day in seven, by the bounty of Providence, is thrown in as a day of compensation, to perfect, by its repose, the animal system. You may easily deter- mine this question, as a matter of fact, by trying it on beasts of burden. Take that fine animal, the horse, and work him to the full extent of his powers every day in the week, or give him rest one day in seven, and you will soon perceive, by the superior vigour with which he performs his functions on the other six days, that this rest is necessary to his well-being. Man, possessing a superior nature, is borne along by the very vigour of his mind, so that the injury of continued diurnal exertion and excitement on his animal system is not so immedi- ately apparent as it is in the brute ; but, in the long run, he breaks down more suddenly ; it abridges the length of his life, and that vigour of his old age which (as to mere animal power) ought to be the object of his preservation. I consider, therefore, that, in the bounti- ful provision of Providence for the preservation of human life, the sabbatical appointment is not, as it has been sometimes theologically viewed, simply a precept par- taking of the nature of a political institution, but that it is to be numbered among the natural duties, if the preservation of life be admitted to be a duty, and the premature destruction of it a suicidal act. This is said simply as a physician, and without reference at all to the theological question ; but if you consider further the proper effects of real Christianity, namely, peace of mind, confiding trust in God, and good-will to man, you will perceive in this source of renewed vigour to the mind, and through the mind to the body, an additional THE SABBATH. 199 spring of life imparted from this higher use of the sab- bath as a holy rest. Were I to pursue this part of the question, I should be touching on the duties committed to the clergy : but this I will say, — that researches in physiology, by the analogy of the working of Provi- dence in nature, will show that the divine commandment is not to be considered as an arbitrary enactment, but as an appointment necessary to man. This is the position in which I would place it, as contradistinguished from precept and legislation ; I would point out the sabbatical rest as necessary to man, and that the great enemies of the sabbath, and consequently the enemies of man, are, all laborious exercises of the body or mind, and dissipa- tion, which force the circulation on that day in which it should repose ; while relaxation from the ordinary cares of life, the enjoyment of this repose in the bosom of one's family, with the religious studies and duties which the day enjoins, — -not one of which, if rightly exercised, tends to abridge life, — constitute the beneficial and ap- propriate service of the day. " I have found it essential to my own well being (as a physician) to abridge my labour on the sabbath to what is actually necessary. I have frequently observed the premature death of medical men from continued exer- tion. In warm climates and in active service this is painfully apparent. I have advised the clergyman also, in lieu of his sabbath, to rest one day in the week ; it forms a continual prescription of mine. I have seen many destroyed by their duties on that day ; and to preserve others, I have frequently suspended them, for a season, from the discharge of those duties. I would say, fur- ther, that, quitting the grosser evils of mere animal living from over stimulation and undue exercise of body, the 200 THE SABBATH. working of the mind in one continued train of thought is destructive of life in the most distinguished class of society, and that senators themselves stand in need of reform in that particular. I have observed many of them destroyed by neglecting this economy of life. . There- fore, to all men, of whatever class, who must necessarily be occupied six days in the week, I would recommend to abstain on the seventh ; and, in the course of life, by giving to their bodies the repose and to their minds the change of ideas suited to the day, they would assuredly gain by it. In fact, by the increased vigour imparted, more mental work would be accomplished in their lives. A human being is so constituted that he needs a day of rest both from mental and bodily labour." BOOKS PUBLISHED BY G. LANE & P. P. SANDFORD, jFor tpe j^et^oTust Hpfscojpal