over also I gave them my Sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, &c. And, again, in Isa. lviii., we have God's promise of favour, and prosperity to the man who keeps His Sabbath, in a well-known and eloquent passage,-If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable; and shalt honour Him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon 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!

No reader of the Bible can help being struck with this repeated reference to the Sabbath; this injunction, again and again enjoined, To keep the Sabbath from polluting it.

Let us, with all reverence, consider the reason for this-why God commands us to keep the Sabbath holy, why His blessing is promised to the man who does so keep it.

Surely He commands it for our good; for the well-being both of body and soul. Because He who made us and fashioned us, knoweth that we have need of the Sabbath; knoweth that we cannot do without it-cannot break it, or set it aside, without incurring great harm and loss.

That, I think, is the reason why our merciful Father repeats again and again His charge, that we should sanctify the Sabbath-keep it a day holy.

There are many lesser reasons that might be given, but they all run up into this chief one. God has commanded it for our good. His Sabbath, His blessed day of rest-rest once in every seven days-was made by Him from the beginning for man- for man's benefit, for man's comfort, for man's refreshment, for man's advancement in spiritual wisdom; in a word, for man's good.

And such being the case, must it not follow that they deal cruelly by their own souls, and the souls of their brethren; who, in spite of God's word, pollute the Sabbath? Is it not a throwing away of a great boon, a treading under foot of a most precious jewel, when men, not ignorant of the Scripture, able to read, able to understand what they read there, wilfully neglect God's Sabbath-God's Sabbath, given to them by Him for their good?

But let me show more particularly that it has been given for our good. And for this I must again recall to you what is said in the Bible about the Sabbath,- Verily my sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your

generations; that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you.

A sign between God and His people, that they may know Him to be their God, their Creator, their Redeemer, their Sanctifier. That is one great use of keeping the Sabbath. It is the way by which a nation publicly recognises the Lord for its God. By standing still on this day, and stopping our usual employments, and meeting together in solemn acts of worship, we do proclaim in the face of the world, that, as for us, we and our families, we will serve the Lord!

Then,. again, look at the advantage—the unspeakable advantage of public worship, for which the Sabbath affords the best-for many of us, the only opportunity.

What sight to a religious-minded man is so pleasant, so edifying, as a well-filled house of God? What speaks so clearly of brotherly help, and fellow-feeling, as when we meet, of every rank and degree, sex and age, on one common footing before our God in worship? What so proclaims us to be of one blood, of one family, of one hope, and of one faith, as this assembling of ourselves together in the Lord's house, on the Lord's day? Who does not feel when he comes within a church, and joins heartily in prayer and praise with others of the same place, that he and they

have common wants and common hopes, and common interests; there is a spiritual relationship between them; that they are members together of the same body-fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God? Who does not feel, at least for the time, less solitary, less alone in his struggle with sin, when, in his supplications to the throne of grace, he is seconded and supported by the accordant voices of his fellow-worshippers? Yes; and who that comes hither on a Sunday, with, perhaps, some sore-rankling wound, some resentment for real or fancied wrong, bearing malice and hatred in his heart, does not find a change creep over him for the better, and become of another temper, reconciled in heart with his brother? For how can we ask for mercy for ourselves? how can we, in any honesty, seek to have our own sins, many and grievous against God, remitted unto us, unless at the same moment we are ready from our heart to forgive our brother his trespasses ?

Or, again, who that comes here carrying his heavy burden with him into the temple-the weight of some remembered sin, and hears the promise, renewed at each of our services-the promise, that to God belong mercies and forgiveness-that He-God, not man-" pardoneth and absolveth all them that truly repent;" who, I say, oppressed with sin, that hears these com

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fortable words, but must find an instant and perceptible relief-an opening, as it were, of the doors of his prison, a falling off of the chains by which he had been tied and bound?

Here, then, are some proofs of what I started with, that the commandment of God to keep the Sabbath from polluting it, is for our good.

It must be good to hold fast as a nation to God, to come with our brethren at stated times into His sacred presence, in acts of prayer and praise. It must be good to meet together, at no long intervals, once in every seven days, as members of one family in Christ, to comfort one another, and to support one another, and to learn to feel kindly towards one another, and to express with one mind, and one mouth, our belief in God, and our dependence upon Him for everything.

It is impossible, I am sure, for any one to question this; and I might on these grounds alone claim from you, brethren, a careful and reverent observance of the Sabbath. But there is one further reason for doing this- a reason which greatly adds to that obligation, binds us yet more strongly to observe the Sabbath-a reason apparent in its very name.

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Sabbath," as you know, means rest. In six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is; and on the seventh day God