you the sabbath, therefore he giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days; abide ye every man in his place, let no man go out of his place on the seventh day." Edodus xvi. 23, 29. "Ye shall keep the sabbath thereof; for it is holy unto you: Every one that defileth it shall surely be put to death for whosoever doeth any work therein, that soul shall be cut off from among his people." Exodus xxxi. 14 -16. See also Deut. v. 12. Neh. x. 31. xiii. 15. Isa. lviii. 13, 14. Jer. xvii. 21, 22, 24, 27. John xx. 19.

I am aware that there are those, who wishing to set aside the strict observance of the sabbath, will argue that the passages I have quoted were binding upon the Jews alone, and related exclusively to their particular relation to God. In answer to this, I remark, that the first quoted commands were given before the Law was published on Mount Sinai, and was only a confirmation of that law which God gave at the creation of the world; and in reply to the many fancies and suggestions of the natural heart, I would refer you, my brethren, to the example of Christ, and the first christians. The former is constantly mentioned as hallowing the sabbath day. Luke iv. 16. And also the command of God by the mouth of St. Paul. Heb. x. 25. "Not forsaking the assembling of yourselves together as the manner of some is."

Having thus examined what God says to us, examine in the next place how the sabbath day is observed by yourselves.

As regards public worship. I will leave it for you to decide how many frequent, and how many habitually shun the house of God. But surely I am right in saying by far too many of you forget, or despise the solemn admonition of the Holy Spirit, speaking by the mouth of St. Paul, and saying, Forsake not the assembling of yourselves together as the manner of some is:" too many are spending their sabbath hours in idleness, in pleasure, and in business; my brethren, this ought not so to be. I am aware that there are some who may be unavoidably prevented from leaving their homes, either from being mothers of infants, or under the affliction of illness, or bodily infirmities; and yet deducting this number, how many remain who are only prevented by their own evil hearts of unbelief, by ignorance of their spiritual wants, from seeking God in his house of prayer. I would solemnly and affectionately address you, who

are ranked in this number, and I would ask, why is it that you thus live in the neglect, how can you love to live in the neglect, of one of the most blessed soul-reviving means of grace, one of the earliest instituted for, and one which has ever been blessed to, the soul of man? I am aware of the reasonings and false arguments with which Satan blinds your minds. Some of you would tell me that others who go to church are not the better for so doing; but I ask, is this a reason, why you should live in the open and constant, and wilful neglect of God's precepts? If your neighbour refused to abide by the direction of his medical attendant, and therefore grew no better, is that a reason, why you should refuse to go to him when you know you have a diseased body? Some will argue, "we have been hard at work all the week, and we require the sabbath day to rest our weary bodies." Can you need a greater proof than this sort of argument, that your heart is at enmity with God, and a stranger to the beauties of holiness; when God's service is considered a hard service, the hearing of His blessed word

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toilsome duty? My brethren, the sabbath is made for man, not to slumber or fritter away its precious hours in idle security, but to refresh his soul by holding sweet converse with his God, and joining in worship and praise with the congregation of his saints. The affectionate son does not feel it a tedious task to have intercourse with a loving father,―The famished beggar does not shun the house of refreshment, when he sees written over the portal, "Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price."-The weak and helpless do not reject the aid of the strong and the mighty, and say it is too much trouble to ask for it,―The weary and the doubtful traveller does not hesitate to ask for the straight path which will guide him to the place whither, he is going,-Neither does the christian, nor the converted sinner, feel it a tedious duty to frequent the house of the Lord where he may, with his fellow creatures, hear proclaimed the glad tidings of salvation, of free, full, unmerited pardon, through a crucified Redeemer; where he may worship the God of his Fathers, and receive from that God an answer of peace. No! the language of the burdened sinner, and the weak and new born christian, and of the established servant

of God is, "I was glad when they said unto me let us go unto the house of the Lord," "for I would sooner be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of ungodliness. It is not six days of hard labour which will keep the child of God from his service, it will be his meat and his drink, his refreshment, and his delight, when the seventh arrives, to seek for, and to labour for, the "meat which endureth unto everlasting life." It is only the carnal and darkened mind, which regards religious services as duties merely, and not as privileges, blessings, and enjoyments; it is only the unconverted heart which will argue for what the world calls, "the rational enjoyment of the sabbath!" It is only the worldly man, who will find a greater pleasure in his ease at home, than in assembling with God's people at his house. It is only the slumbering sinner, who will make the sabbath a day of worldly pleasure, instead of a day of blessing. It is only the moralist who will think he has done quite enough, and kept within the narrow boundary of his religious duties, by frequenting the sanctuary once on the sabbath, and may have the rest of the day for what he terms, "his recreations." If, brethren, you thus loathe the spiritual exercises to which this day, most especially invites you, if you partially, or entirely neglect them, or unwillingly engage in them, how would you like a perpetual sabbath in heaven? The sabbath on earth is but a type of heaven's rest, "which remaineth for the people of God." If communion with your God is unwelcome to you here below, how could you bear to dwell with Him for ever in heaven? Oh, why is it, that the sabbath hours are idled away by so many around us? Why are there so many empty seats in our sanctuary on the sabbath morning?

The female portion of my flock may tell me they have their Sunday dinners to provide, and family duties to perform. If you had any love to God, would not those arrangements be made on the Saturday evenings and all needful duties finished early on the Sunday mornings? Is there one male person who in health is unavoidably prevented from attending morning church? You prevent yourselves, my brethren, some by idleness, some by secular employments, some by newspaper readings, by indolent habits. Nothing would detain you from God's service, if you had a real knowledge of your dreadful danger, a concern for your perishing souls

a regard to God's precepts-a love to Jesus-a hope of heaven, or a dread of hell. Every means of grace would be eagerly and thankfully sought after, if you were awakened sinners. Neither heat, nor cold, nor poverty, nor fatigue, nor business, would keep you from worshipping God in the assembly of His people. You may tell me that you read your Bibles and pray at home. This is little else than a mockery of religion and a deceit of Satan, to suppose that these means will be blessed to your souls, so long as you wilfully live in the neglect of God's injunction, "to assemble yourselves together." You are retaining part of the form without the spirit of religion. Will God regard your prayers at home, when you refuse to worship Him publicly? Will your faith be increased, or can you justly hope for God's blessing by reading your Bibles at home, whilst you refuse to hear the preached word, when that word tells you, that "faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God?" Oh take heed, lest God should say to you as He did to Israel of old, "all day long have I stretched forth my hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people." Reflect how many sabbaths you have lost or mispent! how many opportunities which might have been blessed to your soul's conversion are now for ever gone, and during how many sabbaths you have by misemploying them, been growing in sin, and strengthening your indifference to religion. If you are twenty-one years of age, and have seldom attended divine service, or, if attended it, yet in other ways mispent the sabbath hours, you have lost, (calculating from the age of ten) 572 sabbaths in your life-if you are thirty, you have lost 1092-if forty, 1560and these you can never recal. Do not, I beseech you, allow your spiritual adversary to furnish you with vain excuses, If you do not love the sabbath as God's day, and wish to honour it as such, let this be a sufficient proof that your heart is not quickened by the Holy Spirit, that you are deadened to the joys of religion, and let this knowledge cause you to make use of those means of grace, by which alone you can hope that your souls, now cleaving unto the dust, will be quickened by God's almighty power.

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But I have something to say to you, my brethren, who may be considered habitual attendants at the Lord's house, for although it is quite certain that no person is a christian who absents himself from the house of God, we must not

suppose that all are christians who frequent it. Amongst those, indeed, who meet me at church on the sabbath days, I may justly hope that there are many devout worshippers of God, who by their demeanour shew that they not only honour Him with their lips, but worship Him in spirit and in truth: but is there not too much irreverence and want of devotion amongst us, (not so much during the preaching of the sermon, as whilst offering up our prayers,) a sad deal of listlessness and indifference manifested; instead of kneeling, some people will sit, thus consulting their own ease instead of the posture most becoming a sinner seeking for mercy: you may think this too trifling to need remark-far from it-we can often tell the state of heart by the outward conduct. If I see you listening to the discourse, I know you are interested in it: if I see you sitting down or staring about you during the time of prayer, I am sure you cannot be worshipping God in sincerity. There may be cases where the act of kneeling for a long time would be prejudicial to the health, but this cannot be the case with our male hearers : and as the humble heart will always assume the humblest posture when addressing the Almighty, so must we conclude that this humility is wanting, this sense of sin is absent when there are no outward indications of self-abasement. I want to see more spiritual devotion, as if you were all sending up your petitions to the throne of grace with one heart-with one supplicating voice-as if you all felt yourselves one family of hungry souls thirsting and panting for the bread of life-joining in one hymn of thanksgiving and of praise to your common Father and your common Saviour. We find that our Saviour, when he prayed, kneeled down,— see Luke xxii. 41. "And he was withdrawn from them about a stone's cast, and kneeled down, and prayed." Also Daniel, see Dan. vi. 10. Also St. Paul, xx Acts, 36.

And again, as regards the time of your attendance. Remember it is always better to be too early than too late; Much interruption will be caused to devotion by the late entrance of persons into church, especially by the noisy and irreverent manner in which young men sometimes enter it. And no less important is the mode of leaving the sanctuary, for much interruption is caused if you hasten out of church, the moment after the blessing is pronounced, as if, like prisoners, you were released from the most painful confine