the Lord-even them will I bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer."* Love, choice of God, joy in the house of prayer, stand in complete contrast with a yoke, a burden, a mere task, as too many represent the duties of religion to be.

But the most ample account of the spirit which should pervade the sabbatical duties, is in a passage which, in common with the preceding, we have formerly quoted for another purpose; "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, honorable; and shalt honor him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words; then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord." Here, the spirit of the right observance of the Lord's day is expressed in a most striking phrase "if thou call the Sabbath A DELIGHT, THE HOLY OF THE LORD, HONORABLE, AND SHALT HONOR HIM. "" We are to esteem it honorable, above all other days; we are peculiarly to honor Him, whose bounty created us, whose long-suffering has preserved us, and whose unsearchable goodness has provided for us a way of eternal redemption. Then joy will fill our hearts. The glory of our divine Lord, his majesty, his sovereignty over us, his infinite excellency, his continued benefits, his omnipotent, never-failing providence, will possess our minds; and we shall feel, as the Sabbath morn returns, that we are going to the palace of the great King, that we are approaching the abode of a heavenly Father, that we are going up to God, to "God our exceeding joy." From this temper will flow the appropriate dispositions which should govern the details of the day. The chief of these is, spiritual repose of heart in God, in opposition to earthly, sensual, intellectual pleasure "If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing THY PLEASURE, on my holy day.' " Here is the main difficulty: so long as sensual repose, instead of spiritual; intellectual effort, instead of devotional; the pleasure of the mere appetites, instead of the pleasure of the soul in God, is the governing principle in our religion, the Sabbath will never be kept aright. A change in our taste and estimate of things, must first touch the main springs of happiness. Then we shall cease from "doing our pleas* Isa. lvi. 2. 7. Isa. lviii. 13, 14.

ure;" and shall willingly aim at doing the pleasure of God. Amusement, recreation, pastimes, indolent repose, satisfaction in worldly company, worldly society, worldly banquets, will cease; new pleasures will be sought for in the pleasures of devotion, of faith, of hope, of communion with God. Then will the Sabbath be a "delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable;" and we shall HONOR GOD in it. And thus will our pleasure, ways, words, works, be newly directed. Instead of "doing our own ways," we shall choose the ways that God commands, and occupy the Sabbath with its appropriate duties. Instead of "finding our own pleasure," we shall find God's, or rather, shall perceive a new and more elevated pleasure in his service; instead of "speaking our own words," we shall order our conversation to the glory of God, and the edification of our neighbor. Perhaps there are few sins more common, and more insidious than that to which these last words refer, "speaking our own words," that is, secular conversation on the Sunday -news, inquiries, discussions on matters literary, political, philosophical. Thus all impression of spiritual things fades from the mind; the seed of the word is lost; the ordinary associations and habits of the six days' labor are insensibly resumed, and the Holy Spirit is quenched and grieved.

I need not add here, that the reading of Sunday newspapers is directly in contradiction to the whole spirit which should be cultivated on that blessed day. It encourages the most flagrant violation of the Sabbath, in those who print, who sell, who circulate these monstrous productions -too commonly filled with matter of the most licentious and sceptical tendency; and more injurious and contaminating, from the day on which they are disseminated. They totally unfit the mind for the religious duties before it; or rather, they make those duties impracticable.

But how delightful is the Sabbath, when occupied as it should be! Can any picture be more inviting than that of a family, a neighborhood, a parish, honoring the day of God with cheerful and grateful hearts-meditating on that sanctification which is the great design of the day of rest-filling up its hours with the various and important exercises of public and private devotion-and imbuing every act of duty with the Christian temper, with the filial spirit--the spirit not "of bondage again to fear, but the spirit of adop

tion, crying, Abba, Father?""* How quickly would difficulties be overcome, if once we found our pleasure in the exercises of religion! See how men contrive, labor, surmount obstacles, for the enjoyment of what they love! Observe how eagerly they hasten on the hour, when the pleasure returns. Mark how they endeavor to lengthen the period of its continuance--then contrast with this the weariness they feel in the duties of the Sabbath--how they abridge the heavy employ-how they encroach insensibly on its prescribed limits--how they contrive pleas of necessity for escaping from some of its services--how tame and formal they are in the discharge of themhow late in their arrival at the house of God! What irreverence in their manner! How insensible to the sympathies of devotion! How awake to every slight inconvenience, every occasional prolongation of the prayers or sermon-every pressure of heat or cold-every defect in the manner or voice of the minister! What does all this betray, but the inward dissatisfaction, the want of harmony of feeling in the services! Let the spirit of the Christian dispensation imbue their minds, and all would change its appearance. Pleasure, delight, would beam in the countenance, and all would be in keeping with the designs of the Almighty, in the institution of the day.

But we hasten to complete our review of the manner in which the Christian Sabbath should be observed, by suggesting, that in addition to what we have noted, we must IV. Especially glorify God for THOSE MIGHTY BLESS

INGS WHICH ARE APPOINTED TO BE COMMEMORATED ON

THE LORD'S DAY-Creation, Redemption, Heaven.

These are the express topics in the divine praise, for which the Sabbath was constituted. We must join the commemoration of these to the other duties of sanctification, of public and private devotion, and of a temper of filial repose and joy in God. I conceive we are often lamentably deficient in those direct acts of adoration and gratitude, for the peculiar and stupendous blessings of providence and grace, which the Sabbath is designed to celebrate. We enter perhaps into the other branches of our duty with some feeling; but our minds are too exclusively occupied with

* Rom. viii. 15.

ourselves, and our own immediate circle of trials and duties -we are selfish and contracted in our gratitude—we do not rise up to God in the magnificence of his benefits--we forget that songs ever new should be chanted to him who doeth such great things for us.

Call to mind how expressly CREATION is assigned as a reason for the appointment of the sacred day--"For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all things that are therein,"-not merely at the institution in Paradise, but in the Mosaic law, in the various recapitulations of it, and even in the epistle to the Hebrews, where the subject is merely referred to. Yes, the Sabbath is the celebration of God's glory in nature. We confess ourselves the worshippers of the one living and true God. We separate ourselves from atheists, unbelievers, sceptics, profane contemners of God, now; just as the patriarchs and Israelites of old separated themselves from heathens, from idola-` ters, from the pagan worshippers of the nations around them. We should every Sabbath, when we rehearse our articles of faith in the temple of the Lord, or when the sacred histories, and psalms which relate to the creation, are read, as well as in our own private and domestic devotions, glorify expressly the great God of heaven and earth, adore the wonders of his hand, meditate on his wisdom, goodness, and power, and ascribe to him the praise of creation, preservation, continual deliverance. A Christian is the only true philosopher. He sees God in every thing. He acknowledges the traces of his matchless skill on every side. He discovers a father's love in all the order of the universe. He imitates the song by which the first Sabbath was celebrated at the creation of man, when "the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy." The Sabbath is to him a sign, a badge, a cognizance of his allegiance to his glorious Creator, the "King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God." He "in whose hands our breath is, and whose are all our ways.'

2. But REDEMPTION is a yet higher note in the choir of praise, which on the Sabbath surrounds our heavenly King. At the deliverance from Egypt this song was begun; but at the great deliverance from the spiritual Egypt, it was amplified and exalted. This temporal redemption was prefixed to the promulgation of the whole decalogue, from

the Mount of Sinai: "I am the Lord thy God which brought thee out of the Land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage;" and it was attached especially to the fourth commandment, in the last recapitulation of it by Moses: "And remember that thou wast a stranger in the land of Egypt, and that the Lord thy God brought thee out hence, through a mighty hand, and by a stretched out arm; therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the Sabbath-day." And the spiritual redemption was the reason of that change of the day of celebration, which from the temporal, transferred it to the eternal blessing. Yes; on the first day of the week we adore a triumphant Savior, we meditate on his ceasing and resting and being refreshed from the work of the new creation; even as Almighty God ceased from his. No Sabbath should pass without the praises of our rising, ascending, interceding Redeemer being sounded in the church. It is his own day, the day of his glory, the day of his resting from his labors, the day of his "opening the kingdom of heaven to all believers." The song is already prepared to our hands: "Thou hast ascended up on high; thou hast led captivity captive, thou hast received gifts for men, yea for the rebellious also, that the Lord God might dwell among them."*. We must add to the other special duties of the Sabbath, this record of our faith in Christ. We must subjoin to our praises to God the Father who created us, the adoration of God the Son who redeemed us. We must make our public confession of Christ Jesus our Lord. The Lord's day is the badge of the covenant of grace. "He that offereth praise glorifieth me," saith the Lord by the psalmist, "and to him that ordereth his conversation aright, will I show the salvation of God."t

3. Nor should the praise of the Holy Ghost be omitted amongst the especial blessings celebrated on the Sabbath. THE REST OF HEAVEN is, by his grace and the anticipations he vouchsafes, sealed to our hopes. This is that eternal repose in God which from the record of the first institution in paradise, to the latest argument of St. Paul, has been presented as the final object of the day of rest. It typifies, sets forth, assures to every sincere believer the ultimate ↑ Psalm 1. 23.

* Psalm lxviii. 18.