6. And for what reason?

To celebrate the great work of our redemption, which was completed by the resurrection of our Lord on a Sunday, or the first day of the week.

7. Then as to the manner of keeping it, how does the Sunday differ from the Sabbath?

In two respects: 1°. the rest from work is not so comprehensive: 2°. It is accompanied with the duty of religious worship.

It

Church, which teaches that the obligation has come down to us from the apostles, or their immediate successors. It is one of those traditions which the Reformers were compelled to admit in practice, whilst they rejected tradition in theory. 7. The rest from work.-On this head the Mosaic law was as severe as it was comprehensive. forbade labour and traffic of every kind, and that too under the penalty of death. It did not permit so much as a fire to be kindled on the sabbath, and condemned to death the poor man who had gathered a few sticks on that day. Ye shall kindle no fire in your habitations on the sabbath-day. (Ex. xxxi. 15.) Every one that shall do any work on the sabbath-day shall die the death. (Ibid.) Now they found a man gathering sticks on the sabbathday: and the Lord said to Moses, let that man die the death... And the whole people led him without the camp, and they stoned him with stones, and he died as the Lord had commanded. (Num. xv. 32-5-6.)

But this law bound no people except the Israelites. It was enacted as a sign of the covenant between the Lord and them. (Ex. xxxi. 16-17.) There is no reason to believe that the teachers of Christianity, when they selected the first day of the

8. What then are the works forbidden on the

Sunday?

Every sort of handicraft and servile work, unless it may be excused on the ground of its moral necessity.

9. And what particular religious duty does it impose?

That of offering to God the sacrifice of the

mass.

week for a day of rest, had any other object in view than to procure for all men the leisure and opportunity of joining in the public service, and of celebrating with joy the memory of our Lord's resurrection. Servile work was therefore prohibited, that is, all that kind of labour which, in those ages, was generally exacted from slaves. But the prohibition was tempered with a due regard to the wants and habits of men, and therefore with the allowance of those works which custom and civilization have rendered morally indispensable, or which cannot be omitted without very considerable loss or inconvenience. the preparation of food, attention to personal cleanliness and domestic comfort, the necessary care of cattle, the occasional sale or purchase of small articles, which cannot be conveniently procured on any other day, and similar matters, have always been tolerated, as not incompatible with the rest enjoined on the Sunday.

Hence

9. Offering the sacrifice.-The Scripture nowhere states on what particular days, or how often the Christians held their religious assemblies. But we find as early as the second century the custom of meeting on the Sunday everywhere established, and the obligation of attendance at the sacri

10. Is that all that is required by way of divine. worship?

It is that which is chiefly required; but he displays little of the Christian spirit, who does not also assist at the rest of the service appointed for the day.

11. But if circumstances will not permit it? Then he ought to supply the omission by private devotion.

fice uniformly admitted.

66

says

99 "What excuse, a writer in the Apostolic Constitutions, (ii. 59), can be pleaded before God by the man who neglects to attend on the Lord's day, on which the prophets are read, the gospel is preached, the sacrifice is offered, and the sacred food is adminis. tered?" See also Justin Martyr about one hundred years after the death of Chirst. (Apol. ii. p. 99.)

Now, this forms a distinguishing feature of the Christian Sunday, from the Jewish sabbath. The Sunday, from its institutions, was a day of worship the sabbath was not. The Christian sacrifice could be offered in every place, and therefore Christians might everywhere be called upon to attend the Jewish sacrifices could be offered. in one place only, and therefore it was unreasonable to expect that a whole people, scattered over the country, should attend at those sacrifices on the sabbath. Hence, for more than nine hundred years, the Israelites had neither any particular form of worship, nor places in which they might assemble for worship, on the day of rest: and it was only after their return from captivity that synagogues were opened in the towns and more populous places, for the twofold purpose of

12. Is it proper to call the Sunday the sabbath? No for the sabbath was a Jewish ordinance, and the name is nowhere given to the Sunday in Scripture.

public worship and public instruction. The consequence was, that the people who had previously lived in ignorance of the covenant (4 Kings, xxii. 8; xxiv. 4; 2 Chron. xvii. 9; Neh. viii.), and who were perpetually falling into idolatry, sometimes to the exclusion of, sometimes in conjunction with, the worship of God, now became the most uncompromising enemies of every idolatrous practice, and continued to the end, faithful adherents to the law of Moses. 12. A Jewish ordinance. - From the preceding notes it is plain that the Sunday is a very different institution from the sabbath, and belongs to the ceremonial code of a different form of worship. It is therefore desirable that they should not be called by the same name, which leads men to confound them together, and to attribute to the Sunday that severity of discipline which belonged exclusively to the sabbath. There is also another mistake prevalent among some who consider themselves serious Christians. They make the Sunday a day of gloom and sadness they prohibit on it every kind of innocent and cheerful recreation; they devote it exclusively to prayer, humiliation, repentance, and religious instruction. But with the ancient Christians it was a day of religious joy and thankfulness; of joy for the resurrection of Christ, of thankfulness that he had delivered his disciples from ignorance, error, and captivity. (Cons. Apos. vii. 30.) On the Sunday we indulge in joy. (Tertul. Apol. c. xvi.) "He is

THE FOURTH COMMANDMENT.

1. Which is the fourth commandment?

"Honour thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long upon the land, which the Lord thy God will give unto thee." 2. What is commanded by this?

That the child pay due respect to his parents, and obey their lawful commands.

guilty of sin who shall fast on the Lord's day : for on that day it is our duty to rejoice and not to mourn." (Cons. Apos. v. 20.)

1. Honour.-Our blessed Lord has declared that the keeping of this commandment is necessary for the acquisition of eternal life (Matt. xv. 4): and St. Paul remarks that it is the first to which any promise is annexed. (Eph. vi. 2.)

2. Due respect. Such respect is perpetually inculcated in the Scriptures. Honour thy father with thy whole heart, and forget not the pains of thy mother. Make a return to them for the things which they have done for thee. (Eccus. vii. 27-28.) He that forsaketh his father is of evil fame, and he that angereth his mother is cursed of God. (Id. iii. 8.) To injure a parent by word or blow was deemed an inexpiable offence. He that smiteth his father or his mother shall die the death. (Ex. xxi. 15–17.)

Obey their lawful commands.- Children, obey your parents in the Lord; for this is just, (Eph. vi. 1.) My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother. Hearken unto thy father that begot thee, and despise not thy mother when she is old. (Prov. i. 8; xxiii. 22.) It should, however, be kept in mind that the duty