is often difficult to find proper time for meditation, prayer, and praise. The sabbath, therefore is a welcome day to the christian; it is a day in which he wishes to forget all the toils and cares of the week, that he may hold communion with God, praise him for past mercies, implore the blessings of spiritual strength and peace, and anticipate that "rest which remaineth for the people of God." Heb. iv, 9.

The christian should avoid every thing that has a tendency to weaken his regard for the sabbath; he should begin, continue, and end it with God. He should consider it as his best day; a day sacred to God: a day in which every person, who loves and fears God, will engage himself in the solemn acts of divine worship. No circumstance, except that which may be occasioned by illness, charity, or absolute necessity, should prevent the christian from attending the public worship of God.

But, though it is an express command of God to "remember to keep holy the sabbathday, yet the sabbath is lamentably profaned in our christian land! the irreligious and profane are more or less engaged in their worldly

business or worldly pleasures! And, if it were not for the good laws of the land, the law of God respecting the Sabbath, would probably have been much more set at defiance even than it now is!

The Laws of our country command the strict and religious observance of the sabbath, forbidding, under certain penalties, any secular work or labor, sport or diversion; and enjoining the duties of religion both in public and in private; therefore not to keep holy the sabbath-day, is DISLOYALTY as well as

IMPIETY.

"It is our duty to inform the magistrates of those who profane the sabbath, where their crimes come within the cognizance of the law, and in this respect, as the prophet expresses it, " to call for justice." If we do see persons profaning the Sabbath, it is our duty from every principle of christianity, loyalty, and benevolence, to lay an information against them. It is pity that any should be backward to come in as witnesses in behalf of God and his day. To say, I will not turn INFORMER, is in effect to say, I am a hypocrite, or a trifling lukewarm christian, that have very little love to God or to my brethren. It is to say with cursed Cain," Am I my brother's keeper?" Can this negligence be reconciled with love to God, with concern for the happiness of men?" Is it not odious in the sight of God?—and in the sight of good men? The Lord of the sabbath was called Beelzebub. There is, as it were, a conflict in the world between God and Satan,between piety and profaneness; and can he be a good man, that stands neuter? When God says, "who is on my side?" shall we cowardly draw back, and never appear for him and his cause? Vice is a

Public worship should be attended with reverence, sincerity, and gratitude: it is a great privilege to be born in a christian land, where the pure worship of Jehovah is celebrated; the great, sublime, and saving truths of christianity taught and preached, and the cause of God at large promoted, for the good of the whole human race; therefore those people who disregard these privileges, evidently shew the want of the fear and love of God; they shew proofs of that" carnal mind" which is enmity against God, and which is alienated from the life of God; they shew themselves to be in a state of nature, "children of wrath," "dead in trespasses and sins.”*

Duty to God, their own best and selfinterest, the influence of example, and the good of their country, invite people to attend the solemn and public worship of God in his

mean and sneaking thing; and a resolute christian, who is zealous for the Lord of Hosts, will be had in reputation by those, whom he is even the instrument of punishing. I heartily wish we had more christian courage and selfdenial, that we may bring to punishment those who contemn God, and may "rise up against those that rise up against Him."

JOB ORTON,

* See Bickersteth's Treatise on Prayer, ch. vi; an excellent work, to which the writer acknowledges himself often indebted in this little volume.

house. May God incline the heart of the reader, if he has habitually neglected public worship, to his service which is perfect freedom! May our christian churches be crowded with sincere worshippers. May those venerable and sacred walls echo with the praises of God and the Lamb. May they resound with the glad tidings of the sun and moon last.

salvation as long as

And thus
And thus may thou-

sands be made "joyful in the house of the Lord for ever and ever!

ESSAY II.

ON PROPRIETY OF CONDUCT IN PUBLIC WORSHIP.

1 Tim. iii, 15. "That thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God."

WE often witness great inconsistencies in many who profess to worship God in sincerity and in truth. We perceive many things in them which are not consistent with that reverence, which we should always shew to the Father of Spirits, when we appear before his divine majesty in his house of prayer. There are many who seem quite indifferent about the manner of entering into a place of worship: they rush into the presence of God with indifference; approach the house which HE fills with his glory, with a levity or vacancy of mind, as if they were going to a public shew, desirous only to see and to be seen. Such persons should pause ere they enter the