SERMON XVII.

A CHARITY SERMON,

FOR THE BENEFIT OF A SUNDAY SCHOOL, AT BALLY. HAISE, AUGUST, 1789,

ST. LUKE, CHAP. vi. VER. 9.

Is it lawful on the Sabbath Days to do good or to do evil?-to save life, or to destroy it?

THIS was our Saviour's rebuke to the Scribes and Pharisees, who thought to convict him of sin, in healing a man on the Sabbath-day. They who had artfully watched every opportunity of throwing contempt upon his sacred character, fondly flattered themselves they had now found sufficient matter of accusation against him,

in having despised the law of Moses, and violated the commands of God. Though his answer carried reason and conviction with it, to silence their imaginary scruples, yet long after this, in the dark ages of ignorance and superstition, when it was usual to put the most strict and rigid interpretation upon all religious observances, the minds of weak men not yet released from the strong fetters of bigotry, shuddered at the idea of any kind of work upon the Sabbath-day; and, therefore, to avoid what appeared to them a breach of God's statute, they not only abstained from manual labour, but conceived it to be a sin even to do good on the Sabbath-day.

He who came to enforce and not to violate the law of Moses, had already given that liberal interpretation to the Fourth Commandment that might have satisfied the most scrupulous mind; in reconciling the religious part of it to the

dictates of reason and prudence, "What "man shall there be among you," says he, "that shall have one sheep, and if it fall into a pit on the Sabbath-day, "will he not lay hold on it, and lift it "out?-how much then is a man better "than a sheep? Wherefore" he adds, ❝ it is lawful to do well on the Sabbath"day." These various appeals to the sense and judgment met with no objections even from the Pharisees; for they were in themselves unanswerable: one would therefore conclude, that the same mode of reasoning might have proved a sufficient answer to any future doubts that could be raised upon the same subject; and so it would, had there been the same easy access to the knowledge of our Saviour's doctrine, as there is at this day. But it was not till a long time after the first publication of the gospel that any encouragement, or even permission, was

given to study the Holy Scriptures. For many centuries the gospel was preached in a language known only to the priests and a few learned men of the age; in order to keep the minds of the people enslaved, which was the barbarous policy of those days, it was necessary to keep them in ignorance also. The poor had not the gospel preached unto them-those who pretended to interpret the Holy Scriptures, explained them to the ignorant as it suited their own convenience, and perverting the true sense of the doctrines they professed to deliver, instead of the commands of God, they taught the commands of men. But as mankind advanced in religious knowledge, the clouds of bigotry dispersed. God said, "Let "there be light, and the light shone "over all." Ignorance, and superstition its inseparable companion, fled like phantoms at the approach of day, and the

dawn of reason began to be made more clear by the light of the gospel reve lation.

But the work was not yet finished-the errors of ages could not be destroyed in a moment; the improvement of the mind is slow and gradual;-by degrees learning and education became more general, religion began to wear a milder aspect, and to cast off the veil which had so long, concealed her from the greater part of the world; she disdained the yoke of slavery, and spurned the fetters by which she had been so long held in bondage; liberal opinions began to take place of dogmatic errors; reason directed the sentiments, as well as the actions of men. For this enlightened and discerning age, amongst other clear interpretations of the word of God, it was reserved to explain the true spirit of that commandment that enjoins us to keep holy the Sabbath-day; to make