God, much, must reckon upon being discomfited in certain respects. She must, then, PROTEST BOLDLY AND

FEARLESSLY AGAINST THE SINS WHICH ARE PERSIST

ED IN. Nothing honours God more than the confession of his truth, which his faithful servants make, when they are unable to succeed fully in their honest endeavours. A body of devoted followers of Christ, allowed to preach his truth in the world, and entering their open protest against flagrant evils, is a token for good in a country, of the most hopeful character. God never gives up a nation to his desolating judgments, when there is a considerable number of worshippers, thus avowing their allegiance, and crying out aloud against the dishonour done unto his name and Sabbaths.

7. Lastly, HUMILIATION

FOR PAST TRANSGRESSIONS, AND HOPE IN THE DIVINE MERCY FOR FUTURE DELIVERANCE AND ULTIMATE TRIUMPH, are the dispositions of heart which we should most cultivate. After we have done all, we shall leave much, very much to be humbled and abased for before our God; and our hope must be reposed, not in man, but in his power, mercy, and grace. The holy Sabbath, which, as a nation and as individuals, we have abused in times past, the dishonour we have done to it and to God thereby, the loss to our own souls which has followed, the injury to the spiritual welfare of others which has been occasioned, the slight put upon the blessed Spirit of grace, are topics of deep sorrow and penitential confession before God. To humble ourselves under his awful majesty, to deprecate his wrath, to accept the punishment of our iniquity; this is the way to to obtain mercy; this will bring back our people as the heart of one man, to the Lord; this will prepare us for all the holy duties of our Sundays, and all the communion with God which they bring with them.

Thus our hope will be placed in the unmerited grace of God, for deliverance and triumph; we shall wait his holy will; we shall expect and look for his powerful succour, we shall despair of nothing under his mighty protection; we shall rejoice in the sanctification of his day, the conversion of souls, the consolation and edifica

tion of his faithful servants, the pledge and anticipation of heaven.

Having now completed our original design in these seven sermons; having established the divine obligation of a weekly Sabbath in the first four, and the practical duties arising from it in the last three.

Let us in conclusion of the whole series, remark,

I. That it is not for the Sabbath in itself that we have been pleading in the course of this work, but THE SABBATH AS A MEANS TO CERTAIN ENDS, as the channel and conveyance of the waters of life, as the standing institution for the declaration of God's glory, of the Saviour's resurrection, the rest of heaven; as the moment of calm granted for rational and irrational creatures to breathe from toil, and recruit their exhausted powers; as the needful interval of repose and cessation to a feeble creature like man; as the appointed period for the instruction and salvation of souls; as the most visible representation of our faith in our Maker and Benefactor, and the grand peculiarity of revealed religion.

Let then this thought ever be present with us. It is for no inferior matter we have pleaded; it is for no external and formal point; no ceremony; no superstitionwe teach not that "man was made for the Sabbath" we should never be contented with any observation of it which was merely decorous, constrained, reluctant. We plead for the simplest and noblest institution of the religion of the Bible, which includes and embraces within its range every other. We plead for the most important means of grace and instruction, which is the platform upon which every other is erected. We plead for the highest testimony man can bear to the glory of God; in which the praise of creation, of redemption, of eternal happiness is united. We plead for the most merciful of all the divine appointments, which suspends the struggle of nature, and bids all creation repose, and refresh itself from its labour and toil.

Let us not, then, undervalue, or misunderstand the subject we have been treating. We have not been dri

velling about a questionable, an indifferent, a secondary. duty. We have pleaded the cause of God, the interests of man, the peace of the world, the instruction of the poor, the knowledge of Christ, the doctrine of salvation, the hope of heaven. We have treated the greatest question in all the compass of practical theology, because it provides for every other duty, lies at the foundation of every other duty, gives space and time for every other duty, derives the divine blessing upon every other duty.

II. We have been pleading, in the next place, for these and other ends of the Christian Sabbath, because of THE UNSPEAKABLE VALUE OF THE SOUL OF MAN. For what is the gist of all we have argued ?—that the soul of man is so noble, so precious, so inestimable in the eyes of God, so endless in its future state of happiness or misery, that a seventh portion of all man's time is taken out from ordinary employments to be dedicated to this his immortal part. Yes, the Sabbath proclaims the responsibility of man, the unfathomable and inexpressible value of his soul, the price put upon it by the Father of spirits, the dignity and capacities which it possesses. The Sabbath unites man with spiritual objects, connects him with his invisible Creator, Redeemer, Friend; teaches him what he is, and whither he is going. It is for the soul, then, that we have been pleading, that it may be blessed with the salutary knowledge of its fall and its recovery, of its sin and its remedy, of its guilt and condemnation in the first Adam, and its pardon and acceptance in the second.

Let the importance of our subject be measured by this standard. Let all the souls of all the race of men be brought before our view, and let all the unutterable happiness of each of those souls be weighed and balanced; and then let the value of that DAY be estimated, when the means of the repose, consolation, guidance, illumination, pardon, holiness, salvation, of all these immortal minds are congregated and concentered-when all the love of God our heavenly Father, all the grace of God the Son, and all the operations of God the Holy Ghost,

are poured forth and brought into effect. It is this sublime thought which elevates the topic we have been considering. The violation of the Sabbath sinks, degrades, materializes, destroys the soul of man; the observation of it raises, honours, spiritualizes, saves it. If the Lord's day be annihilated, religion fades away, secular pursuits bewilder man, the bodily appetites prevail, the knowledge of salvation is lost, the soul wanders wretched and ignorant, wayward and distressed, without a teacher, without a hope, without a refuge. The holy day sheds its gentle rays upon the lost traveller, sends religion to his succour, interrupts the din of false alarms, recalls him from the clamour of passion to the soft voice of conscience, gives him the knowledge of salvation, satisfies all his doubts, soothes his distresses, becomes his comforter and guide to a heavenly and eternal rest.

III. But we have pleaded, further, for the Christian Sabbath-thus valuable from its combination of means bearing upon the welfare of the soul of man-because it

APPEALS PLAINLY AND FULLY TO THE HUMAN CON

SCIENCE, and puts in its claims upon every reasonable and accountable being, on the footing of its own divine institution and authority.

Truth cannot be trifled with. Men may turn away from any statement of it. They may cavil. They may object to this or that particular argument. They may set up the sophisms of controversialists. But conscience

cannot be thus silenced. The broad undeniable truth is, that a day of weekly rest has ever accompanied revealed religion under every dispensation of it. A Sabbath was celebrated even before the fall. A Sabbath forms a part of God's moral law. A Sabbath is insisted upon by the prophets. A Sabbath was observed by our Lord and his apostles. A Sabbath has been kept in every church, in every part of the world, in every age since. To cavil, then, at minute omissions in the history of it, or petty difficulties in the details of its progress, is worse than folly; it is dishonesty to truth. Nor can we escape the responsibility which attaches to knowledge proffered and

set before us. There stands the institution. Great efforts have been made to impress its obligation upon the public mind. Discussions, sermons, treatises, tracts, have been circulated. Public meetings have been convened, and resolutions passed to enforce the better observance of the day. The public conscience has been aroused. God has givien us a call, a special call to repent. If we refuse the call," if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven," if we "stop our ears," if we harden our hearts," what can we expect but to be given up to a reprobate mind, and left to our own folly and presumption? With conscience, then, is the case left to this inward vicegerent of the Almighty is our appeal. At its tribunal stands our cause to be adjudged. Let every one, then, yield to its sentence. Let every one bow to the voice and decree of this witness, judge, avenger. Let conscience stimulate us to hallow the Christian Sabbath, that coming within the sphere of the means of grace, we may actually learn the value of our souls, and the way of salvation for ourselves.

66

IV. But, lastly, we have pleaded for the Sabbath, because it is an indispensable preparation for THE HEAVENLY BLESSEDNESS. Its appeal to the human conscience terminates here. Heaven or hell is at stake. We all profess to look for a heavenly rest. There are

few who do not desire and expect to pass to a happy eternity when they die. Their ideas of its nature may be obscure, their preparations for it may be most defective. Still a vague hope of it, as opposed to eternal misery, and under the idea of a state of repose and felicity, occupies most minds. But let us consider the strict connexion which subsists between the employments and delights of the Sabbath upon earth, and those of that endless and beatific Sabbath which " remains for the people of God" at last. Do we recollect the descriptions given in the Bible, of the company, the praises, the spiritual and unceasing employs of that exalted place? Is a carnal repose which it offers? Is it bodily indulgence? Is it mere cessation from toil and sorrow? No.

it