principal season when all the means of sanctification should have their effect-when man's immortal nature should be restored to its true elevation-when his spiritual and accountable powers should be especially exercised-when his relation to God, his dependance upon him, his obligations, his gratitude and love, his offerings of praise, his prayers and aspirations for future blessings, should be declared and presented.

To rise up to the dignity of the Sabbath, and perform any of its duties aright, we must understand what sanctification is, who the great God is to whose service we are to be devoted, what that Creator and Redeemer claims of us who on this day rose from the dead, what are the terms of that covenant of which he is the Mediator and Lord.

Even before the fall, man in paradise, as we have said, needed a Sabbath, a day of religion; and for the like ends -to be a sign between God and him—to be a means of exercising and carrying on that sanctification, the principles and habits of which he already possessed. He was permitted to cease, he was commanded to cease, one day in seven from the gentle toil of dressing the garden of Eden, that he might devote the time more immediately to his Almighty Creator-to his glory-to the meditation on his perfections and works-to the duties of holy worship and praise that thus the sanctification of all his powers to his service might be confirmed and heightened.

How much more, then, must man since the fall need this holy day, both as a sign of the covenant and a means of sanctification. He has now not merely to carry on and strengthen habits of holiness, like his first parent, but to acquire them. The covenant, as it respects him, is not a covenant of creation, but of restoration; not of works, but of grace; not to show his obedience by observing a law to which his will is already conformed, but to obtain redemption by believing in the divine Mediator of a new and better covenant. Sanctification as to man since the fall, is the recovery of the soul to the lost image of God, the illumination of a darkened understanding, giving a right direction to the will, changing the whole bias and course of his affections and conduct, bringing him back to God, his great end, and preparing him for the enjoyment of God, his ultimate felicity.

And this answers the objection which is sometimes ab surdly or ignorantly made, "That under the gospel every day is a Sabbath-all we do is to be done to the glory of God-a spiritual and perfect dispensation claims all we have and are." And yet in paradise, where man walked before God in his original uprightness, he was called on to keep a Sabbath. How idle then is the plea, now that man is fallen. Those who urge it, know little of the nature of true sanctification, and of the difficulties under which it is attained in this world of conflict. Even if entire holiness could be reached in this imperfect state, a day of rest would be indispensable for the honor of God's name, for the more immediate duties of public and private devotion, and for carrying out into full exercise the principles of holiness. But it is folly, it is presumption to talk thus, whilst man in his best attainments is full of defects and errors, full of corrupt tendencies--needs a day of sanctification to remind him of his dangers, to bring him out from the snares of life, to lift his heart more entirely towards heaven. Those who talk of every day being a Sabbath, mean in fact that no day should be such. Besides, the expression "keeping holy," as it applies to the ordinary days of the week, and as it fixes itself on the day of God, has a different force and application. To keep holy the six days of the week, means only that we intermingle family and private devotions with our lawful labor and work on those days-that we direct our secular calling to God's glory-that we implore his blessing upon all our occupations. But "to keep holy" the seventh day is to suspend those occupations, to forbear all our ordinary works, to renounce all our secular business, and to devote all the hours of the day to the immediate care of our souls, and the immediate worship of God. We are as much called to work the six days, as we are to rest on the seventh.

This is, then, the first practical duty of the Lord's day, to keep ever in view its great end. The sanctification of it begins, as to us, when our dedication to God begins. We hallow the Sabbath when we ourselves are hallowed to God. "We awake to the true importance of the institution, when we feel our fallen and sinful state, when we receive the covenant of grace as proposed in the gospel, when we seek to be sanctified, body, soul and spirit, to be the Lord's.

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divine life infused into the soul of man-a perception of the nature and excellency of spiritual things-a view of the glory and majesty of the great Redeemer-a reliance upon his death and resurrection-a dependance upon the influence of his Holy Spirit,-these bring the Sabbath and the human heart together. The Sabbath is born to man when he is born to God. Then it recals, revives, strengthens, all the principles of sanctification. Then it not only gives him the time, and affords him the means, and calls him to the duties of sanctification; but it leads him to employ all these to their proper end. And thus the Lord is pleased to sanctify man; thus the day is a sign between him and us; thus the final ends of all religion are advanced.

And here lies the fundamental defect in so many of Our cases--we do not feel the unspeakable importance of holiness--we do not desire sanctification-we stop in the external and official parts of the sabbatical institution: we have lost the due sense of what consecration of heart to God means, and therefore of what we should aim at on the day with which it is connected.

Consider, then, I entreat you, my dear brethren, the only manner in which you can enter on the practical duties of the Lord's day aright. Examine your state before God: Have you any desire to be made holy, to be pardoned, to be separated from sin, to be dedicated to God? Do you wish really to know the demands which Christianity makes upon you? Do you seek earnestly the way of salvation?Behold, then, what you want. There is the day when all this is to be learned. There is the covenant of which that day is a sign. There is the sanctification which all the ordinances and exercises of that day are calculated to produce. Implore, then, the grace of the Holy Spirit to affect your heart seriously with these truths, and thus will all the other directions we may offer fall into their due place. For sanctification being proposed as the great end of the Sabbath,

II. THE PUBLIC AND PRIVATE DUTIES OF IT will follow most naturally.

These will demand of us less time, because the main design being comprehended and felt, the details of particular rules will be easy; and yet we must not omit them. They relate to the public worship of the Almighty; the

care of our family; our personal and private communion with God; a due attention to all dependant on us, extending even to our cattle; together with such necessary offices of charity as arise in the course of the sacred duties of the day.

1. THE PUBLIC EXERCISES OF GOD'S WORSHIP and the fellowship of Christians with each other in common acts of prayer and praise, are the leading business of this holy season. The rest from temporal employments is in order to perform the solemn services of the sanctuary in the first place. A holy convocation was a part of the sabbatical worship under the law. The psalmist, and the prophets after him, dwell much upon the public ordinances, the temple, the house of prayer, the courts of the Lord's house. The first mention of our Lord's conduct on the Sabbath, is that his CUSTOM was to attend the synagogue.

He appeared to his disciples, also, more than once, on the first day of the week, after his resurrection, and changed the day of rest to honor this event. It was on the first day of the week, again, that the apostles met the Christian churches, and preached the gospel to them, and celebrated "the breaking of bread," as the Eucharist is sometimes called. The precept "not to forsake the assembling of themselves together," completes the proof and devolves the duty upon us. Man as a social creature, never glorifies God more, nor advances his own sanctification in a larger measure, than when he openly recognizes the Christian religion, and honors the resurrection of its divine Founder in public assemblies. There the Holy Spirit loves to dwell

there the people unite in the confession of sin to the glory of God's righteousness-there they implore in common the gift of pardon and receive its assurances--there they hear the word of God solemnly read-there the sacraments are administered--there they pour out their litanies at the throne of grace-there they hear the gospel preached and its truths applied to their hearts and consciences,and there, finally, they sing the high praises of their Maker, Benefactor, Redeemer, and Sanctifier. Such worship resembles that of the angelic choirs of heaven. The six days' work and toil and temptation are forgotten-. Christ himself is present-it is "none other than the house of God, it is the gate of heaven." Heaven is the place

of the public uninterrupted worship of God. Angels and glorified spirits unceasingly cry "Holy, holy, holy is the "Lord of hosts." And in nothing does the church on earth so nearly approach the church above, as in the harmonious and devout exercises of public worship.

An early attendance--a devout interest in all the parts of the service-an application to our own case of the prayers, lessons, sermons-fervent gratitude in the offerings of praise an edifying posture and demeanor--a candid and docile consideration of the doctrine delivered-these are the indications of the true worshipper; who confines not his public duties to one attendance, but rejoices twice to appear in those "courts" where his heart wishes to "dwell." 2. THE CARE OF OUR FAMILIES must not, however, be neglected, whilst we first discharge our public duties. We must not leave our children and servants to do as they please, but we must stop all the secular work which might tempt them to violate the holy day, dispose of our concerns with the best management, so as to admit of our household devoting themselves to their religious offices, and encourage them to perform those offices both public and private, by every suitable means. And therefore the fourth commandment is A FAMILY COMMANDMENT. The heads of families are made answerable for all who are under their roof. "Six days are we to labor and do," not the greatest part, but "all our work." There is no exception for the idle, the busy or the sick. But lest any should feign at plea, the commandment goes on and prohibits us expressly from doing any work. "In it thou shalt not do any work. And that a depraved heart, fertile in evasions, may not be able to suggest that children, servants, and cattle, are not included, each class is enumerated; "In it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor the stranger that is within thy gates;" and the merciful reason is adjoined in the recapitulation of the law, "that thy man-servant and thy maid-servant may rest as well thou." The discharge of them from all ordinary and servile work is indispensable. If they serve us the six days, we are to take care that they serve God on the seventh. The boon and grant of one day's rest extends to the whole human race; and we must see that in our household the gift is not lost. It is