me eyes? I would be directed by them, to walk in the paths of holiness. Has he given me feet? Then I will run in the way of his commandments. Has he given me a mind? Then I will use it to his glory.

A person remarked to a truly converted Christian, "I hope you will not lay aside your once favourite book-The whole duty of man." The reply was "No, but I need not keep it in my pocket, for I trust I have it written on my heart."

I love my bible in its commands, as well as in its promises. I do not need it merely to tell me that sin may be pardoned, but I want it to tell me how my conduct should be regulated.

God be praised that I must have his presence in my soul, if ever I serve him according to his holy law.

I once heard an antinomian say, the law was no rule of life to believers, and I silenced him by asking, which of the commandments he wanted to get rid of.

I know I am pardoned only through the blood

of Christ, and I am now seeking the effect of pardon-grace to live obediently to his glory.

Angels cannot possess a higher privilege, than permission to execute the commands of God.

The law not only condemns what is wrong in the eyes of men, but such things as are sinful in the sight of a heart-searching God. Thus it teaches, that an evil thought, though not brought into action, is sin. By this I learn, that I must please God in the spirit of my mind. An unregenerate man may do a good deed, but not with a motive which renders it acceptable to God.

I should be like Pharaoh who commanded Israel to make bricks without straw, if I taught my hearers to give obedience to God's law, without his grace upon their hearts.

108

SECTION XIII.

The Sabbath-The Sacrament.

I NEVER visit truly pious persons confined by sickness, who do not universally say, that the loss of sabbath worship in the house of God, is one of the greatest trials their affliction brings upon them.

When laws are but obscurely revealed, the transgressor may have some pretext for the violation of them; but surely the plain quotation of the fourth command, must leave the sinner without excuse. "Remember that thou keep holy the sabbath day. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all that thou hast to do; but the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God. In it thou shalt do no manner of work, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, thy man servant and thy maid servant, thy cattle, and the 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 seventh day and hallowed it." What comment can be needed on expressions so explicit as these? Though this commandment stands last of the first table of duties, yet from its importance, it demands our most serious attention. While some have concluded erroneously, that it is only to be considered as part of the Mosaic dispensation, we find it throughout the volume of sacred writ, more or less practised and enjoined. If there be a God to be worshipped, and his sacred name is to be solemnly revered according to the third command, of what avail could all this be, if there was not a specific time announced for the adoption of such worship? Do not matters of fact also prove the truth, that wherever the sabbath is openly violated, immorality is more or less sure to abound, while ignorance and depravity hover over the human mind, introducing that long train of evils, so fatal to the good of society, and injurious to the souls of men?

Blessed be God for the command that one day in seven, is to be a day of dedication of ourselves, our time, and our services, entirely to him. We must recollect, however, that we can keep no

day holy, without the assistance of God's Holy Spirit. We shall not be the better for being in holy places, unless we are in a holy frame. The great preparatory work on the Lord's day, is to seek to be under the influence of a spiritual mind.

The sanctuary of God is the banqueting house of the regenerate soul. There the believer partakes of heavenly provision, which so enriches his graces, and increases his hopes, that he goes home saying "Blessed be God for my sabbath privileges, I would not be deprived of them for the world."

The cruelty and injustice of the sabbathbreaker is fully equal to his profaneness. It is cruel to the dumb creation, and to all dependent on us, to deprive them of that rest which is their right by God's command; and it is unjust to permit ungodly traffic to be carried on during the Lords' day, to the injury and offence of conscientious observers of the laws of God and man. Hence if Christianity is a part of the law of our land, the civil magistrate ought to interfere, in enforcing external respect to the sacred day of rest.