The doctor stepped up and said, "Give me the axe," and then quietly chopped the wood himself. Returning the axe to the young man, he said, in his peculiar manner, "You see now the wood may be cut without swearing." The reproof was effectual, and led the young man to abandon his impious habit.

66

"Sir," said a lady travelling in Scotland with a gentleman who swore often, can you talk Gaelic?" "Yes," said he; "and I will be happy to converse with you." The lady politely asked him to use that language for his oaths, as swearing was very offensive to herself and others who knew the English language.

"Th' eternal Lord doth reign as king,

Let all the people quake;

He sits between the cherubims,

Let th' earth be mov'd and shake.
The Lord in Sion great and high

Above all people is;

Thy great and dreadful name (for it

Is holy) let them bless."-Psalm xcix. 1-3.

QUEST. 56. What is the reason annexed to the third commandment?

ANS. The reason annexed to the third commandment is, That however the breakers of this commandment may escape punishment from men, yet the Lord our God will not suffer them to escape his righteous judgment.

DEUT. XXViii. 58. If thou wilt not observe to do all the words of this law that are written in this book, that thou mayest fear this glorious and fearful name, THE LORD THY GOD; Ver. 59. Then the Lord will make thy plagues wonderful.

GAL. iii. 10. Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to them.

do

MAL. ii. 2. If ye will not hear, and if ye will not lay it to heart, to give glory unto my name, saith the Lord of hosts, I will even send a curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings.

Ps. 1. 21. These things hast thou done, and I kept silence; thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself: but I will reprove thee, and set them in order before thine eyes.

It is difficult to bring human laws to bear on all cases of profanity, though they apply rigidly to perjury.

I. Those who take God's name in vain may escape punishment from men.

1. People may swear falsely, yet not be detected and punished by law. Many give false evidence even on oath in the courts of law.

2. Many think very lightly of profane swearing, and of taking God's name in vain.

3. Human laws do not and cannot reach every transgression of this divine law.

II. Those who take God's name in vain cannot escape his righteous judg ment.-There are instances in Scripture of God's judgment upon transgressors of this law: Zech. v. 3, 4; Jer. xxiii. 10; Acts xii. 21-23. All must appear before his judgment-seat at last, and must render an account of all the deeds done in the body, whether good or bad: Eccles. xii. 13, 14.

LESSONS.

1. The fear of God is a great preventive of sin.

2. Sin, though hidden here, will be found out and punished hereafter. 3. Much may be done for improving language regarding God and preventing false oaths.

ANECDOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

When the Elector of Cologne, who was also an archbishop, was one day swearing profanely, a peasant standing beside him looked amazed. The archbishop asked what he was surprised at. "To hear an archbishop swear," he replied. "I swear not as an archbishop, but as a prince," said the dignitary. "But, my lord," said the peasant, "when the prince goes to the devil what will become of the archbishop?"

Two soldiers at Chatham once laid a wager on the greatest oaths they could respectively utter. After one of them had uttered many shocking and blasphemous expressions, he hesitated, and said that one more would be his last, when he was instantly struck speechless, and died in three hours. officers made his body a public spectacle, as a warning to others.

The

A gentleman of property and eminence, but of profane and impious life, was taken seriously ill, and sent for a physician. The medical man was from home; whereupon the invalid vented his rage in horrid oaths. When at length the doctor called, he was saluted with a volley of curses. The swearer's agitation was so great that he broke a blood-vessel and speedily died.

John Howard used to button his pockets when he heard men swearing, saying that if men could take God's name in vain they might also steal.

An American planter was in the habit of using the name of God frequently in his talk, whereupon one of his slaves made a solemn bow as often as he heard him. On being asked why he did so, he said that the name of God filled his soul with awe. The master took the hint, and was reclaimed from

his profane habit.

"The Lord is King! Who then shall dare

Resist his will, distrust his care?

Holy and true are all his ways;

Let every creature speak his praise."-Carden.

QUEST. 57. Which is the fourth commandment?

ANS. The fourth commandment is, Remember the Sabbathday, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy 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 Sabbath-day, and hallowed it.

The fourth commandment differs from the preceding ones, which are all put negatively-"Thou shalt not." This one is positive, and says, "Remember the Sabbath-day, to keep it holy." It is not a law which the light of nature could teach, or which could be suggested by the moral constitution of man. It is a positive enactment and a special revelation from God. The Sabbath-day is designed for rest, and for consecration to the service of God. It has thus a most important place in the economy of toil and in the worship of God.

ANECDOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

I have, by

Sir Matthew Hale, Chief-Justice of England, thus wrote: long and sound experience, found that the due observation of this day has ever had joined to it a blessing upon the rest of my time; and the week that hath been so begun hath been blessed and prosperous to me: and on the other hand, when I have been negligent of the duties of this day, the rest of the week has been unsuccessful and unhappy to my own secular employments; so that I could easily make an estimate of my successes the week following by the manner of my passing of this day. And this I do not write lightly or inconsiderately, but upon a long and sound observation and experience."

"Sir," said a man, addressing a minister going home from church one Sabbath afternoon, "did you meet a boy on the road driving a cart with rakes and pitchforks in it?" "I think I did," said the minister; a boy with a short memory, wasn't he?"-" What makes you think he had a short memory, sir?" said the man, much surprised. "I think he had," said the minister; "and I think he must belong to a family that have short memories." "What in the world makes you think so?" asked the man, greatly puzzled. "Because," said the minister, in a serious tone, "the great God has proclaimed from Mount Sinai, 'Remember the Sabbath-day, to keep it holy,' and that boy has forgotten all about it."

"O day of rest and gladness!
O day of joy and light!
O balm of care and sadness,

Most beautiful, most bright !......
Thou art a cooling fountain

In life's dry dreary sand;

From thee, like Pisgah's mountain,

We view our promised land."-Bishop Wordsworth.

QUEST. 58. What is required in the fourth commandment? ANS. The fourth commandment requireth the keeping holy to God such set times as he hath appointed in his word, expressly one whole day in seven, to be a holy sabbath to himself.

Ex. xxxv. 2. Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day there shall be to you an holy day, a sabbath of rest to the Lord: whosoever doeth work therein shall be put to death.

LEV. xxiii. 3. Six days shall work be done: but the seventh day is the sabbath of rest, an holy convocation; ye shall do no work therein: it is the sabbath of the Lord in all your dwellings.

DEUT. v. 12. Keep the sabbath-day to sanctify it, as the Lord thy God hath commanded thee.

NEH. xiii. 19. And it came to pass, that when the gates of Jerusalem began to be dark before the sabbath, I commanded that

the gates should be shut, and charged that they should not be opened till after the sabbath: and some of my servants set I at the gates, that there should no burden be brought in on the sabbath-day. Ver. 20. So the merchants and sellers of all kind of ware lodged without Jerusalem once or twice. Ver. 21. Then I testified against them, and said unto them, Why lodge ye about the wall? if ye do so again, I will lay hands on you. From that time forth came they no more on the sabbath.

NEH. X. 31. And if the people of the land bring ware or any victuals on the sabbathday to sell, that we would not buy it of them on the sabbath, or on the holy day.

I. God has appointed a set time for sacred service.-This could not have been discovered by man. The Sabbath is therefore wholly a divine institution.

II. God has appointed one whole day in seven.

1. The length of the time is one whole day.

2. The name of the time-a Sabbath, day of rest.

3. The character of the day-holy; that is, set apart from a common to a holy use.

4. The purpose-to be kept holy to God, for his worship and glory. III. God requires our remembrance of it.

1. Why remember it? Because of its antiquity. It was instituted in Paradise after the creation of man. We are prone, through sin, to forget and pervert it.

2. Who are to remember it? Three classes of persons::-individuals, parents, magistrates or masters. It thus comprehends all.

3. For what is it to be remembered? For what it commemorates: God's

great work finished-creation, redemption. For what it signifies: rest of the soul in God—the peace that passeth understanding. For what it pledges or typifies: the rest in glory that remaineth to the people of God.

4. How are we to remember it? By setting it apart for the service of God.

LESSONS.

1. The weekly Sabbath is a great privilege.

2. Sabbath-keeping brings a blessing.

3. Every lover of God loves the Lord's day.

ANECDOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

"By the 'set times' here mentioned we are to understand those stated feasts and holy convocations for religious worship which were instituted of old under the ceremonial law, and which the Jews were bound by divine appointment to observe during the period of that ceremonial dispensation. (See an account of these stated feasts in Leviticus xxiii.) But matters are now totally altered; and accordingly in the New Testament we do not read of any day to be observed as a stated time for public worship but the Sabbath. All the Jewish festivals being purely ceremonial, they have been entirely abolished since the resurrection of Christ; so that we have neither a command to observe them nor an example of observing any one of those which in some Churches are called holy days. Everything of this nature we find condemned in the New Testament: Gal. iv. 10; Col. ii. 16. But although we are not to observe any stated times of worship except the Sabbath under the New Testament dispensation, yet we are undoubtedly called upon at times to worship God publicly on other days besides that one which he hath appointed for his stated worship. These, however, are not stated but only occasional times of worship; and they are to be observed only as his providence calls us."-Paterson on the Shorter Catechism.

The celebrated William Wilberforce said: "Oh, what a blessed day is the Sabbath, which allows us a precious interval wherein to pause, to come out from the thickets of worldly concerns and give ourselves up to heavenly and spiritual concerns. Observation and my own experience have convinced me that there is a special blessing on a right employment of these intervals. Oh, what a blessing is Sunday, interposed between the waves of worldly business like the divine path of the Israelites through Jordan. There is nothing in which I would recommend you to be more strictly conscientious than in keeping the Sabbath holy. By this I mean not only abstaining from all unbecoming sports and common business, but from consuming time in frivolous conversations, paying or receiving visits, which among relations often leads to a sad waste of this precious day. I can truly declare that to me the Sabbath has been invaluable."

"Thou art a day of mirth,

And where the week-days trail on ground,
Thy flight is higher, as thy birth.

Oh, let me take thee at the bound,