NISBET & CO. BERNER'S STREET; WARD & CO. PATERNOSTER ROW. WOOLWICH: E. JONES, THOMAS ST.; W. P. JACKSON, "JOURNAL OFFICE." PREFATORY NOTE BY THE EDITORS. THE following Lectures on the Sabbath were prepared and delivered in the Town Hall of Woolwich, at the request of the Association for Promoting the Better Observance of the Sabbath in that town and neighbourhood. It was hoped that the public exposition of the great principles involved in the Sabbath question by Christian men representing different sections of the Church of Christ, might be the means, under God, of diffusing sound and scriptural views upon the subject, and so of preparing the way for those practical measures with which it was the desire of the Association that these lectures should be followed up. The Divine blessing, it is believed, rested upon the effort thus made in defence of the holy Sabbath. Public attention was awakened, and the Hall was crowded by an intelligent audience on all the successive evenings on which the lectures were delivered. At the conclusion of the course, a very general wish was expressed by the Association, and other friends of the Sabbath, that the lectures should be published; both that an effort so pleasant to all who had the privilege of participating in it might have some permanent memorial, and also that the statement of truth contained in them might remain a blessed testimony to the love which all God's people bear to the day of rest, and a standing protest against the desecration of that day, which exists to so alarming an extent in this town, and throughout the land. To this application, those who delivered the lectures, although deeply conscious of their many imperfections, could not but give their consent, and this volume is the result. If the lectures contained in it be made, by the blessing of God, in any way instrumental in promoting the better observance of the holy Sabbath, then to Him shall be all the glory. The seed is cast upon the waters,—may it be found after many days! The Editors cannot refrain from expressing the feelings of apprehension and dismay with which, in common with the people of God throughout the land, they have learned the proposal to open, and that by Royal Charter, the New Crystal Palace at Sydenham, on the afternoon of the Lord's day. Should this proposal be carried into effect, and the day of God be thus nationally profaned, then, if the teachings of God's word, and the lessons of His providence as gathered from the history of other lands in connexion with this very subject, are to be regarded at all, the divine judgments will not be far distant. May the Lord of the Sabbath arise, and plead His own cause, and may he do it in mercy and not in wrath! The Editors cannot conclude this prefatory note without alluding to the bereavement which the Church of Christ in this town has sustained in the death of their beloved brother in the Lord, the Rev. Richard Martin. By him the last of these lectures was delivered, and but a few weeks after, he fell asleep in Jesus. To those who were privileged to hear his lecture, his quotation from God's word is now peculiarly applicable" The Lord watch between me and thee when we are absent one from another." For himself, the earthly Sabbath which he loved so well has been exchanged for the eternal Sabbath of heaven, and in the light of glory he knows more fully than he did while he was yet on earth," the spirit in which the Sabbath should be kept, and the blessings connected with its spiritual observance." Woolwich, Nov. 1852. |