fit of sickness, and without telling you, should place one of them among other rules which I made for you to keep as long as you live, would you not think it very strange?

George. It would be very strange, mother, but then it would be possible for you to put it there by mistake.

Mrs. M. Yes, my son, I might do so. But suppose I had placed it there on purpose, would you not think that I was not so careful as I ought to be to keep you from error?

George. I should not know what to think, mother. Mrs. M. If I were very sick, and thought I should soon die, I should call you around my bed, to bid you farewell, and to give you my last counsels. There would be a great many things which I should wish to say to you; I could not tell you a thousandth part of them. I should have strength to mention only a few. Now, if when I was so feeble that I could only just speak, I should say, there are ten things which I wish you to do, and should ask one of you to take a pen, and sit by my bed, and write these ten things down, would you not think I wished to have you do them more than any thing else?

Susan. I should, mother, and I should never forget them.

George. All of us would think so, mother.

Mrs. M. Now, my children, God once came down

from heaven, on purpose to tell the Israelites ten things which he wished to have them do. He had informed Moses that on the third day he would descend in the sight of all the people, upon Mount Sinai. The Israelites were three days in preparing to meet God. On the third morning there were thunderings and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the trumpet, exceeding loud, so that all the people in the camp trembled. The smoke of Mount Sinai ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain shook as if rocked by an earthquake. And so terrible was the sight, that even Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake. The Lord appeared upon the top of Sinai, and in the midst of the clouds, and thunders, and lightnings, spake to the whole host of Israel, who were around the foot of the mount. The words which God spake are recorded in the twentieth chapter of Exodus. They are the ten commandments. The people heard the fourth commandment as distinctly as they heard any of the rest.

When God had given the ten commandments, he ceased to speak. He called Moses up into the mount, and then gave to him the laws which were designed only for the Jews, which are called ceremonial laws.

Now, can we suppose that the Sabbath, which was given the fourth in order of these ten things, which God came down on Mount Sinai himself to

tell the Israelites, was meant only for the Jews, when all the rest were meant for the whole world? By what authority shall we separate what God hath joined together?

There never was a more solemn and terrific scene than that in which God gave the fourth commandment. Fire, darkness, lightnings, thunderings, a loud and terrible voice of a trumpet, all show how God regards the Sabbath, and how dangerous it must be to reject or to break the fourth commandment. It would be no more a violation of God's holy law, to bow down and worship a Hindoo idolor to take your Maker's name in vain—or to disobey and abuse your parents-or to kill one of your playmates or to steal-or to lie-than it is to profane the Sabbath. The other commandments were given by the same authority as the fourth-were spoken amidst the same darkness, and lightnings, and thunders-and were engraven by God on the same tables.

Remember this, my dear children, whenever you are tempted to break the Sabbath. If your companions urge you to play with them, or to do any other wrong thing on the Sabbath, think how God spake from the top of Sinai and said-" Remember the Sabbath-day to keep it holy."

The Sabbath is a memorial, or sign, that God made the world. And if God made the world, then, doubtless, he watches over it, and rules it. He

made us, and rules us, and watches over us. We are bound to serve and worship him. We are under obligations to please him, and to obey his commandments. He must be glorious and powerful, wise and good. Every Sabbath was fitted to remind men of these truths, and to impress them on their hearts. Can we believe, then, that this memorial was meant only for the Jews?

The fourth commandment occupies a peculiar place among the commandments. The first three tell us of our duties to God, and the last six, of our duties to our fellow-men. The Sabbath stands between these two sets of commandments, and binds them together. Without it, neither piety to God, nor love to men, would long exist. An old writer remarks, "The fourth commandment is put into the bosom of the decalogue, that it might not be lost -it is the golden clasp which joins the two tables together."

I will mention only one more reason, this evening, why I think the Sabbath was not a part of the Jewish ceremonial law, but was designed for all mankind. The Holy Spirit writes the moral law on the hearts and consciences of God's people. This is what God promised. "I will put my laws in their minds, and write them in their hearts." They love God's law. But it is a fact, that good men love the fourth commandment as well as either of the ten. The Sabbath is a precious day

to their souls. The more they become like the Saviour, the more they love the Sabbath. The fourth commandment is engraven on the fleshly table of their hearts, as plainly as it was engraven by the finger of God, on the tables of stone. Now, it would be very strange that the Holy Spirit should always engrave the fourth commandment on the hearts of christians as deeply as either of the other commandments, if it ceased to be a law, and became a dead letter, eighteen hundred years ago.

Mrs. M. Before we close our conversation, this evening, let me see, George, whether you remember what reasons I have given, for thinking that God designed the Sabbath to be observed to the end of the world, and by men of all nations.

George. You told us, mother, that if the Sabbath was sanctified at the close of the work of creation, it must be meant for the whole world as much as for the Jews. You said that if it had been meant only for the Jews, it would not have been engraven on the two tables of stone with the other nine commandments which every body ought to keep; and that God would not have spoken it with the other nine commandments on Mount Sinai.

You said that the fourth commandment is placed between the three commandments which teach our duties to God, and the six which teach our duties to men, as if to bind them together; and that with.