most important opportunity of religious instruction. The beneficial effect of this, when generally kept up through a whole nation, cannot easily be estimated.

But public worship is A PRIVILEGE AS WELL AS A DUTY. To the Christian it is not a burdensome task, but a delightful employment, under the influences of the Holy Spirit, to join his fellow Christians in prayer and praise. Observe how David speaks; one thing have I desired of the Lord, and that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to enquire in his temple. Ps. xxvii, 4. 'How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts; my soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God.' Ps. lxxxiv, 1, 2. Hence the sabbath is to the Christian a happy day. He looks forward to it with pleasure. He regrets its departure. He would not on any account, willingly deprive himself of its privileges, or lose its worship.

The observance of the SABBATH is so intimately connected with public worship, that it may be useful to shew the obligation to keep holy the Lord's day.

The sabbath was sanctified and set apart for God from the beginning.* 'God blessed the seventh day and

* It has, indeed, been objected, that there is no subsequent mention of the observance of the Sabbath by the patriarchs; but not to say that there are intimations of a division of time into weeks, (Gen. viii, 10, 12; xxix, 27; 1, 10.) it might, for the same reason, have been thought, that the Jews did not observe the sabbath from Moses to David, since in the history of all that time there is no mention of that day. Those who object to the institution of the sabbath, from the beginning admit that "if the divine command was actually delivered at the creation, it was addressed no doubt to the whole human species alike, and continues, unless repealed by some subsequent revelation, binding on all who come to the knowledge of it,

sanctified it; because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.' Gen. ii, 3. Hence we may infer not only the advantage, but the absolute necessity, as the world now is, if we would pay any suitable regard to religion, or to the salvation of our immortal souls, of time set apart for the immediate service of God.

The command to remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy, though given to the Jewish church with many circumstances of peculiar strictness, occurs among the moral laws in the Ten Commandments. Mr Cecil thus explains its true character. "The Jewish Sabbath was partly of political institution, and partly of moral obligation; so far as it was a political appointment, designed to preserve the Jews from other nations, it is abrogated; so far as it was of moral obligation, it rcmains in force. Christ came not to abolish the Sabbath, but to explain and enforce it, as he did the rest of the law. Its observance was no where positively enjoined by him, because Christianity was to be practicable, and was to go into all nations, and it goes thither stripped of its precise and various circumstances. I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, seems to be the soul of the Christian Sabbath." The circumstance of the continuance of the Jewish Economy, while our Lord and his Apostles lived, sufficiently accounts for their being no positive precept in the New Testament respecting the observance of the first day of the week, our Sunday. Yet the practice of the primitive church, (Acts xx, 7; 1 Cor. xvi, 1, 2.) their freedom from the Jewish Sabbath, (Col. ii, 16.) and the actual appointment in our country of the first day, plainly require our observing Sunday,

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the Lord's day, (Rev. i, 10.) being the first, instead of Saturday, the seventh day of the week.

While our Saviour, who is Lord even of the Sabbath day, has rectified the superstitious abuse of the Institution, and allows us to perform works of necessity and charity, (Matt. xii, 1-12.) yet it is clear that he would never have reformed the abuse of this fourth Commandment, had the Sabbath been an ordinance which was to die in a little time. Hence it is our plain duty, as far as it is possible, to devote the first day of the week wholly to the service of God. "We are going," says Mr Cecil, "to spend a Sabbath in eternity. The Christian will acquire as much of the Sabbath spirit as he can. And in proportion to a man's real piety in every age of the church he will be found to have been a diligent observer of the Sabbath day."

Alas! how perpetually is this holy day profaned in our Christian land! what multitudes transact their usual business! how many shops in large towns are more or less open! how many thousands of Sunday newspapers are published, sold, and read! what needless travelling, visiting, writing letters, settling of accounts, &c!

But how much more holy and more happy is the Christian's employment of this day. It is to him a delight and a joy. He gives it wholly to its varied, but sacred duties. He reads the Scriptures, and other devotional books, examines his heart, thinks on his ways, and meditates on spiritual and eternal things.He attends public worship, and instructs his family, or visits the poor and afflicted. He seeks to have his heart with God all the day long, and thus passing his Sabbaths here below, he becomes better prepared for an eternal Sabbath above.

But to return to the duty of public worship.

My readers may be of two classes:--either more or less neglecting public worship, or constantly attending it. Are you LIVING IN THE NEGLECT OF PUBLIC WORSHIP? To such it may be said, though it be no certain mark of the truth of a man's religious profession that he comes to public worship, yet the habitual or frequent alisence, when he has it in his power to come, is a plain mark that a man has no real religion. He is unlike his Saviour, and unlike the disciples of that Saviour: and thus continuing to despise the earthly house of his God, he will fail of an entrance into his eternal mansions. It was foretold, that in the days of the Messiah, his followers should generally and unitedly assemble together, to engage themselves in his service. Many people shall say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths.' Isa. ii, 3. May you, then, be excited by the considerations which I have stated, to begin a constant, regular, and habitual attendance at the house of God; and thus not only gain inestimable benefits to yourself, but also by your example and your influence bring others thither. But perhaps you may imagine that you have sufficient reasons to induce you to stay at home.

It is not an uncommon objection made to a due attendance on the duty of public worship, I CAN PRAY BETTER AT HOME I CAN LEARN MORE AT HOME BY READING GOOD BOOKS.-The preceding observations have already furnished a sufficient answer to this objection. Those who make it not unfrequently totally neglect also religious duties at home. Public worship is a means of grace of divine appointment, and therefore must not be neglected. Though you may

not seem to derive that profit and edification which you think you gain from reading a religious book, you do in reality lose all the peculiar benefits of public worship yourself, and do all that the power of example can effect to keep others from its advantages. Besides, did you really know more than your teachers, you might still learn, from the example of our Saviour, in whom were and are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, to attend public worship. We read of him as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day. Luke iv, 16.

Others think that it is UNNECESSARY ΤΟ GO CONSTANTLY.-The same reasons which require you to go at all, call on you also to be constant in going. It is the regular return of the duty which makes it so valuable in the Christian life. You do not think it necessary to partake constantly and regularly of food for your body; nor is it less necessary to be regular in seeking food for your soul. A leaky vessel in the ocean, continually letting in the waters, needs continual pumping and bailing to keep it free; and thus the corrupt heart of man calls for a constant use of every means to keep it free from sin. There is a great advantage in a constant attendance. "Those that be planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God; they shall bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be fat and flourishing.' Ps. xcii, 13, 14. It would appear from Heb. x, 25-27, that remissness respecting the assembling of ourselves together, was the first step to apostacy. Will not the constancy of the early Christians in frequenting their assemblies for worship in great difficulties, and often at the risk of their lives, condemn you who refuse to attend, though the house of God is open, and you have full liberty to go thither?