thousands of travellers, and of all engaged in this unholy traffic. This was the crowning sin of Israel: My sabbaths they greatly polluted ;—then I said I would pour out my fury upon them. Jeremiah was to proclaim to Judah and Jerusalem the way of duty and safety, in these words: Take heed to yourselves, and bear no burden on the sabbath-day, nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem, neither carry forth a burden out of your houses on the sabbath-day, neither do ye any work, but hallow ye the sabbathday as I commanded your fathers, but they obeyed not. Still, God promised, if they would hearken, the throne of Israel should be safe, and the city remain for ever, but added the solemn warning, If ye will not hearken unto me, nor hallow the sabbath-day, and not to bear a burden, even entering in at the gates of Jerusalem on the sabbathday, then will I kindle a fire in the gates thereof, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and shall not be quenched. After our rejection of a Sabbath-bill by the Legislature, and our increased Sabbath violation, we are specially exposed to this threatening, and in the increase of very calamitous fires since, have seen something of its fulfilment. Among the sins of the last days of Jerusalem, this is recounted; Thou hast despised mine holy things, and hast profaned my sabbaths. There is, then, great national danger from neglect of the Sabbath. Oh, that God's word was but believed by British Christians! It is disregarded and slighted, and so our sins become aggravated till there is no remedy. But would we repent, would we call the sabbath a delight, holy of the Lord, honourable, and honour him, immediately national blessings follow: I will cause thee to ride on the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father, for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. 5. REAL HELP IS GAINED

FOR ALL WEEK-DAY

DUTIES, BOTH PHYSICALLY AND SPIRITUALLY.

A re

markable testimony was given by an able physician, Dr. Farre, before a Committee of the House of Commons, of the necessity and advantage of one day's rest in seven from our ordinary employment, with reference to bodily health and mental powers, apart from all religious considerations. No human being can stand incessant toil and labour without rest, change and relaxation. The suicides of some of our leading Statesmen and Lawyers has been attributed to their not giving the Sabbath to those sacred duties, which would have relieved and refreshed their minds from the wearing toil of their ordinary work.* A Sabbath given to God procures bodily and spiritual strength. Sir Matthew Hale, 200 years since, testified this to his children; 'I have found by a strict and diligent observation, that a due observance of this day has ever had joined to it, a blessing on the rest of my time; and that the week that has been so begun, has been blessed and prosperous to me; and on the other side, when I have been negligent of the duties of this day, the rest of the week has been unsuccessful and unhappy to my own secular employments.' And if it be so in earthly things, it is yet more so in spi

Mr. Wilberforce, speaking of Lord Londonderry's destroying himself in 1822-says, "The strong impression of my mind is, that it is the effect of the non-observance of the Sunday, both as abstracting from politics, and from the constant recurrence of the same reflections, and as correcting the false view of worldly things and bringing them down to their true diminutiveness. . . . It is very curious to hear the newspapers speaking of incessant application to business, forgetting that by the weekly admission of a day of rest, which our Maker has graciously enjoined, our faculties would be preserved from the effects of this constant strain. I am strongly impressed by the recollection of the endeavour to prevail on the lawyers to give up Sunday consultations, in which poor Romilly [who destroyed himself in 1818] would not concur. If he had suffered his mind to enjoy such occasional remissions, it is highly probable the strings would never have snapped as they did from over-tension."

ritual things. The divine life is feeble when the Sabbath is carelessly spent, the divine life is prosperous when the Sabbath is strictly observed. The soul is again and again revived, strengthened and invigorated by Sabbath duties and privileges, for the daily, arduous, and self-denying duties of the Christian life.

6. THIS OBSERVANCE OF THE EARTHLY SABBATH PREPARES US FOR THE HEAVENLY AND ETERNAL

SABBATH ABOVE. The Sabbath is not only a shadow of good things to come, a type of the future rest and some foretaste of its employments and joys, it directly assists us in preparation for the happy enjoyment of them for ever. Remarkable are the words of St. Paul to the Hebrews, There remaineth a rest, a keeping of the Sabbath, to the people of God: as if he would thus join together Sabbath observance here, with eternal rest hereafter, one a symbol, a stepping-stone, and a preparation for the other. Certain it is, the children of God delight in this holy day, and have been noted for remembering to keep it holy. The conscientious and constant observer of the Lord's Day, in the Church of Christ on earth, is the least likely to fall short of the Heavenly rest. Availing himself of one of the most important means of grace which God gives, he is in the way for receiving those supplies of grace, which make us meet for the inheritance of the saints in light. O Christians, cultivate then a Sabbath spirit on earth; try to rise on the wings of faith and love in a due observance of the Sabbath, to those heavenly joys which are above, where Christ sitteth at God's right hand, looking forward to the happy time, when Christ who is our life shall appear, and we also shall appear with him in glory. It may be an effort and struggle at first, it may be a selfdenial and sacrifice at the beginning, but it will become

your rest and relaxation, your richest joy and consolation.

I do not feel it necessary to enter at large into the OBJECTIONS that men make to this duty. They have often been considered and fully answered. They all proceed not from faith, but from sight and sense; they would all set the flesh before the spirit, and man before God: or the second table above the first, while the Lord of the Sabbath says plainly, the first of all the commandments is, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart; placing duty to God first, and duty to man second.

I deny not the very great cost of fulfilling this command, in the case of many servants, clerks, office-bearers, and persons now in situations which require a constant breach of God's law, and which if they retain, they are disabled from keeping holy the Sabbath. It may be like a martyrdom. Families may be dependent on them. Long habits may have made it familiar to them. It may seem like total ruin. Count the cost well. But then remember, a pure conscience is worth every sacrifice; the martyrdoms of faith are the way to its most blessed triumphs. Never did Latimer and Bradford, Cranmer and Ridley, do so much for the Gospel, and so much for their eternal blessedness, as when they gave their bodies to the flames. If we suffer with him, we shall also reign with him. Be assured also that God is mighty enough, and faithful enough, rich enough, and kind enough, to make the faith that would sacrifice even an Isaac in obedience to his plain command, fruitful in blessings in this life, as well as the world to come, infinitely beyond any that you could have had in the path of disobedience. Let me then earnestly exhort every reader, cost what it may, to begin at once a strict and conscientious observance of all the hours of the Sabbath;

sanctifying the whole day to God. You must have seen in the numerous passages of Scripture already quoted, how much God's heart is set on this subject. How repeated are his testimonies upon it. He knows how important this is to our salvation. He foresees all the ruin which the violation of the day brings on each soul, each family, each neighbourhood, and each kingdom, and, full of wisdom and love, he repeats admonitions in every age of the Church. His first book begins in one of its early chapters, with an account of the sanctifying the day for all mankind. The law, the prophets, the Evangelists and the Apostles repeat the admonitions; or shew the continued observance of one day in seven; and the closing book of Scripture again in its first chapter, stamps it with its most endearing title the Lord's Day. If you neglect it, the whole voice of Scripture condemns you, and remember the solemn warning of your Redeemer: He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him : the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him at the last day. Consider then every thing that would lead you to live in the neglect of the Sabbath, as Satan's snare to entrap that he may destroy your soul.

And let those readers who are aiming at obedience to this command, be encouraged to persevere. We are going in the way all the children of God before us have trodden. Our gread Head and Leader, when on earth regularly observed the Sabbath. We read; He came to Nazareth where he had been brought up, and as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day. The Apostles seem from the beginning to have observed the first day of the week for assembling together. On the very next Sunday after that on which the Lord arose, they were gathered together, (John xx. 26.) The prim