their views and conduct, and then divulge the truth, that under all their seeming gaiety they have been wretched men. But justice overtakes others in their profligate career, and they become amenable to the outraged laws of their country. In these circumstances, as has often been observed, the confession is very commonly made, that their fall and ruin are traceable, in particular, to one great error-that of contemning the sacred day. The acknowledgment is entitled to all credit. It has not been bribed or wrang from them. It has been given spontaneously, and at a time when there is no possible temptation to falsehood. Why those persons uniformly fix on the desecration of the Lord's day as the primary cause of their undoing can be explained only on these two suppositions-that what they utter is true, and that there is a potency of evil in their conduct proceeding from the despite of no ordinary blessing, from the infraction of no human law.

Finally, the preservation of such an institution in such a world as ours affords evidence of an inward vitality, and an external guardianship, that are more than human. That it should have been continued in the decayed state in which we find it in some heathen countries, is a testimony to its original power, and to its deep seat in the wants and consciences of men. But that it should for many centuries have been maintained, as in other cases it has been, in its pristine vigour, is a fact which nothing can explain but its having been planted and cared for by a Divine husbandman. The Sabbath has had to contend with many adverse elements sufficient to have long ago withered any production reared and tended by human hands. There is the desire of change. There is the aversion to holy duties. There is the love of unrestrained pleasure. There is a grasping avarice. There is the strong passion for worldly eminence and fame. Under the influence of some one or other of these feelings, many pervert the institution-one class spending the day in amusement and revelry -another, in merchandise-a third, in prosecuting their literary or scientific studies. Many, again, compel those who are under their authority to ply their exhausting labours that they themselves may be enriched, though at the expense of the ruined health. and neglected minds and morals of their servants. All this, which

has nearly obliterated a holy Sabbath over the entire continent of Europe, shows how little patronage such a day receives from the world, and sufficiently accounts for the deterioration which in any instance it has suffered. Whence is this state of matters not universal Whence has it never been universal? Whence is it that the institution flourishes in some places, and is seen springing up in others where it had been trodden down? The only answer is, it is a tree which has been planted, and is under the care of the superintending Providence,-of Him who, while in justice He removes it from the hands of violence, is in mercy disposed not utterly to take away, but even to cherish and restore what is so medicinal to the nations. In our motto we have applied to the Sabbath the words of the sagacious Gamaliel, uttered 1800 years ago. According to him, Christianity must have long ago perished if it had been of men. It has not been overthrown. Neither has the Sabbath. Let his warning be pondered by all who set themselves against the friends of either: "Refrain from these men, and let them alone; lest haply ye be found even to fight against God."

TESTIMONY OF REVELATION TO A SACRED

AND PERPETUAL SABBATH.

CHAPTER I.

DIVINE INSTITUTION OF THE SABBATH AT THE CREATION, AND ITS OBSERVANCE BY THE PATRIARCHS.

"The Sabbath was made for man."

THE evidence for a weekly day of rest and devotion is of great variety and amount. Geography points to traces of the institution in almost every region of the globe. History records its early existence, its course of many centuries, and its remarkable preservation amidst the countless changes and hostile influences of society. Physiology concedes its sanitary power. Mental philosophy proclaims its intellectual adaptations. Ethics, law, and biography, together attest its importance to man as a moral and religious being; and economic science acknowledges its intimate connexion with individual comfort and social prosperity. Contributions such as these are of no slight value to the cause which they favour. They are, independently, capable of showing that the distribution of our time into six days of labour and one of holy rest is an arrangement too long-lived, too wide-spread, too wise, pure, and benevolent, to have "sprung of earth." echo the announcements of Scripture. They ought thus to confirm the faith of the Christian, and induce unbelievers to bow to claims which so many witnesses concur without collusion to establish. It is no depreciation, however, of the evidence supplied by reason and experience on behalf of the institution, to say, that the Sab

274

They

bath derives its best support and defence from the sacred Scriptures, which in its turn it so eminently serves to make known. It is in the testimony of revelation that perfect confidence as to the Divine origin and authority of the ordinance finds its inspiration and strength, and it is there alone that we discover the infallible rule, which must be followed, if we would rightly discharge the obligations, and fully receive the blessings of the day of rest.

The testimony of revelation concerning the Sabbatic institution may be comprised under three heads-its Divine obligation on mankind in all time, its Duties, and its Importance. Following this order, we proceed, in the first instance, to the illustration of a series of propositions on the subject of the Divine, universal, and permanent obligation of the institution.

FIRST PROPOSITION.THE SABBATH WAS INSTITUTED BY GOD

AT THE CREATION.

In the Book of Genesis, after his beautifully simple but magnificent account of the creation of the heavens and the earth, the sacred historian proceeds as follows:" Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made."1

:

No improvement in the translation would affect the substantial meaning of these words, which are generally admitted to be a faithful version of the original language. A critical examination of the terms employed, and the light of parallel texts, would only confirm the views of the passage which a first reading at once ascertains.

Without dwelling on the superlative value of the information here and in the preceding chapter for the first time recorded respecting the original of the world and of man, let us mark the leading facts as they bear upon our subject.

God rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. As the Almighty "fainteth not, neither is weary,"

1 Gen. ii. 1-3.

and as "the Father worketh hitherto" in the production of human spirits, and in the sustentation and government of the universe, his rest on this occasion is obviously to be understood in a sense compatible with the constant activity and worthy of the majesty of the Creator-as a rest not from all work, but from the one work specified-a rest of cessation and satisfaction, not of languid repose. He who afterwards on renewing the face of the earth rejoiced in his works, did, after making heaven and earth in six days, rest on the seventh, and "was refreshed," regarding with complacency and delight his completed creation..

1

While the Creator pronounced all the works of the six days to be very good, he reserved his benediction for the day of rest. "And God blessed the seventh day." When human beings utter words of blessing, they are only helpless petitioners. But it is the practice, as it is the prerogative, of the Divinity to impart the good which he pronounces with his lips. And he blesses creatures variously according to their natures; men, by bestowing favours which rational beings can alone relish and enjoy; the lower animals, agreeably to their limited capacities, opening his hand and satisfying the desire of every living thing; and "things. without life," by making them the means of benefit and pleasure to intellectual and sentient creatures. In this last-mentioned form did he bless the seventh day. In no other mode could unconscious, insensible time be blessed. That day was distinguished above the others by being constituted a season and means of peculiar advantage and happiness.

The seventh day was devoted to sacred use, "God sanctified it." The radical idea in "sanctify," as the word is employed by the inspired writers, is separation from a common to a holy purpose, consecration to the Divine service.3 Like blessing, sanctification is predicated of beings according to their natures. As all days are God's, and ought to be spent in his work, the sanctify

1 Shabath, as in 1 Sam. xxv. 9; Job xxxii. 1, "signifieth not such a rest as wherein one sitteth and doeth nothing, as the word Noach doth, but only a resting and ceasing from that which he did before."-Leigh, Critica Sacra, sub. voc. "It implies resting from, not in work."-New Translation, by De Sola, etc.

2 Ex. xxxi. 17.

"Usi

3 "Ab usu et statu communi ad peculiarem et sacrum separare."-Eichhorn. bus divinis accommodavit-a communi et profano usu segregavit in usum sacrum—ad cultum Dei destinavit."-Kirch. Concord.