W

THE FOURTH COMMANDMENT (continued).

WHEN children are asked, Why do we keep the Sunday? we often hear the answer, "Because God rested from the work of creation."

But this is really mixing up two quite distinct things together.

The Jews kept their Sabbath on the seventh day of the week, in remembrance of God's rest after the six creation days but Christians keep the Sunday, the first day of the week, because on that day Christ rose again from the dead.

But, you may say, if this is so, why do we repeat the Fourth Commandment, and what does that Commandment teach us?

Well, what it really teaches us is this, that not one day in seven, but all our days belong to God, and are to be spent in His service, and in doing the works of our calling.

Just as God chose out one nation to show, not that this was the only nation that God cared for, but that He cared for all nations: so God chose out one day to be kept sacred to Him, to show that all days belonged to Him.

So you know we are taught in the explanation of the Ten Commandments, that part of our duty to God is to serve Him truly all the days of our life.

And now I want to explain to you a little more fully why we keep the Sunday, and what authority we have for keeping it.

Now I have already told you that the day which is now specially set apart for the worship and service of God is Sunday, the first day of the week. We call this, when we speak more carefully and solemnly than usual, the Lord's Day-the day, that is, on which our Lord Jesus Christ rose from the dead.

And if you ask what authority we have for observing the Lord's Day, I should answer that we ground its observance on the practice of the Apostles as recorded in the New Testament, and upon the custom of the Universal Church.

And now I will say a word or two about the way in which we ought to keep the Sunday.

And I think it ought to be said, that as the Old Testament laid down no special rules for the keeping of the Sabbath except the one rule that no unnecessary work should be done, so also the New Testament does not lay down any precise rules as to how Christians ought to keep the Sunday.

This indeed we may gather, that we are to keep it as the Lord's Day; and that we ought to worship God publicly with the congregation.

We ought to make a point of attending Church on Sunday, and particularly in joining in the celebration of the Holy Communion. We should read some portion of the Bible, and we may read besides any books that are good and innocent.

One thing we ought specially to remember-that the Sunday ought to be a happy day. We should try and be cheerful ourselves, and to make those about us cheerful and happy also.

And at the same time we should be careful also not to use our Christian liberty, in what we think right to do on Sundays, in such a way as to grieve or shock any one.

And it should be also a useful day as well as a happy day. There are many ways in which we can be useful to others, as by reading to the sick and blind, or by teaching in a Sunday school.

No act of kindness is out of place on the Lord's Day.

YOU

THE FOURTH COMMANDMENT (continued).

will remember that I pointed out to you that the principle of the Fourth Commandment, as it stands in the Book of Exodus, is that as man was created in the image of God, and was to grow up into His likeness, so man's life should be modelled upon God's life.

As, then, under the Law the life of the Israelite was modelled on God's work and rest, so under the Gospel the Christian's life should be modelled on Christ's work in the new creation.

It seems only reasonable, then, that the great facts of man's redemption should be commemorated by the followers of Christ.

Hence the principle of the Fourth Commandment may be said, without violence, to extend to the holy days of the Church other than Sunday.

The principal Festivals of the Church are:

Christmas, with its preparatory season of Advent; the Circumcision of Christ; Epiphany, or the Manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles; Easter, with its preparatory season of Lent; Ascension Day, with its preparatory Rogation Days; Whitsunday, and Trinity Sunday.

There are, besides, the Commemorations of the Twelve Apostles; and of S. Mark, S. Luke, and S. Barnabas. The Conversion of S. Paul, the Nativity of S. John the Baptist, the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Purification of the Blessed Virgin, and the Feast of All Saints. For all these a special service is appointed in the Prayer-book.

Though, in its original institution, the Sabbath among the Jews was a Festival, and so may be considered as the shadow of greater festivals to come; yet the Fourth Commandment included in its scope such fasts as the great Day of Atonement. And, therefore, the spiritual application of the Fourth Commandment may be considered to extend to Fasts as well as Festivals.

The Fasts of the Church are

All Fridays in the year; the forty days of Lent, especially

its opening day, Ash Wednesday, and Good Friday; the Ember Days, the fasts of the four seasons. These are intended to be special seasons of prayer for God's blessing upon the fruits of the earth, and for prayer for those who at these seasons are admitted, as priests and deacons, into the ministry of the Church. And the Rogation Days, or days of special supplication; being the Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday before Holy Thursday, or Ascension Day. And besides these, the eves or vigils of certain festivals.

These days should be marked in some way, even if in a slight way, by acts of sorrow for sin; by abstinence from things that are specially pleasant; by more earnest prayer; by alms-giving, or in some other way bearing one another's burdens, and so fulfilling the law of Christ.

THE FIFTH COMMANDMENT.

Honour thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.

T has been usual to divide the Ten Commandments into

stituting the Commandments of the First Table, and the remaining six the Commandments of the Second Table.

But the best modern authorities divide the Ten Commandments into two equal divisions of five.

In confirmation of this division it may be pointed out that S. Paul, in the Epistle to the Romans (ch. xiii. 9), gives a list of the Commandments of the Second Table, and places them in this order VII, VI, VIII and X. There is no mention of the Vth, which there would have been if it properly belonged to the Second Table.

Also you may notice that the first five Commandments contain the words "The Lord thy God," while the last five do not contain the name of God.

According to this division, the First Table sets forth our duties as sons, whether to an earthly or to a heavenly Father; the Second Table sets forth our duties as brothers.

Thus the Fifth Commandment is seen to be the connecting link between the two Tables of the Law.

By placing the Fifth Commandment in the First Table rather than in the Second, it is removed from the commandments which regulate man's social and civil life, into the domain of divine duties. All through the Bible God has set His stamp upon human relationships, as being holy and sacred things. The family and the nation are Divine institutions. Family life is a reflexion of the Divine life, the life of an Eternal Son with an Eternal Father.

Honour thy father and thy mother. This declares our duty to love, honour, and succour our father and mother.

But what about the promise which is attached to the commandment, and because of which S. Paul calls it "the first commandment with promise?" (Eph. vi. 2.)