this commandment. For Jesus' sake forgive me every time I have offended against the spirit or letter of it in time past, and henceforth enable me to keep it holy. Cause me ever to have a deep and worthy sense of Thy great and terrible name. May it never be heard on my lips without a holy awe in my heart. Make it a name ever dear to me, as the Father of my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Make it too great and too much beloved to be used lightly and without thought. Cause me to hate and avoid all vain words and idle expressions. May I keep my mouth as it were with a bridle. And may all my conversation be pure and simple, coming from a pure heart and clean thoughts. May no corrupt communication at any time proceed out of my mouth, but only that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace to the hearers. May I love to plead Thy great and glorious name in prayer. May it be the subject of my praises here, until I am called to praise Thee for ever in glory, through Jesus Christ, my Saviour. Amen.

THE FOURTH COMMANDMENT.

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Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.

"Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:

"But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates. "For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it." EXODUS xx. 8-11.

THIS Commandment is enjoined in somewhat different terms from the others. It begins with "REMEMBER the Sabbath Day." From this circumstance we are naturally reminded that when it was placed on the tables with the other nine, it was not a new one, but had been in force, though perhaps much forgotten, before this time. Another reason may also be that God well knew the proneness that would be in the people to whom he gave the law, to forget this all-important commandment; and so He enforced it by asking them to "Remember," and not forget.

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Some persons there have been, and perhaps are now, who deny that this law concerning the Sabbath day has any force now in this Christian dispensation, and they think that it was done away with, when so much of the ceremonial law was set aside by the bringing in of the Gospel, which was the substance of which many Jewish observances were shadows.

But there seems to be abundant answer to this mistaken view of the Christian obligation to keep holy the Sabbath day.

If we look at its first institution, and at the intent and purpose of it, and pay attention to the way Scripture speaks of its perpetual obligation, we shall be afraid of such views, as being not warranted by Scripture, contrary to God, and very dangerous to all who listen to them.

When, and on what occasion, was the Sabbath instituted ? Our Lord says, "The Sabbath was made for man." And so we read after the creation of man on the sixth day, God sanctified the seventh. (Gen. ii. 2, 3.) "And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made: and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made; and God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it; because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created

and made." Now if God's resting on it, was the cause of God's sanctifying this day, it is obvious it was sanctified on and from that very day. This was the time the law of the Sabbath began. It was reenforced with the other laws from mount Sinai, and so it was said "Remember."

If it be said, but we do not read of it being observed in the after history, let us remember in the first place, that history does not enter into minute particulars, as it is the history of a very long period, and so was not likely to touch upon such a subject. But in the next place we observe there are incidental references to the observance of the Sabbath in the interval before the law was given. In Genesis xxix. 27. we read of "weeks." It is probable then, to say the least, weeks were reckoned by Sabbaths. But in Exodus xvi. we find an actual observance of the day is named, although the law was not given. There the Israelites are ordered to gather a double rate of manna on the sixth day, for "tomorrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord."

Surely if this law had been intended to be less binding, and to have been done away as an obligation upon Christians, so great a matter would have been mentioned. But instead of this, we find our Lord speaking

of it to His disciples with reference to their future conduct. He said, (Matt. xxiv. 20.) "Pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the Sabbath day." He was here referring to the destruction of Jerusalem, which took place about forty years after the death of Christ. So that our Lord reckoned Christians would still then be keeping a Sabbath day.

It would indeed have been strange if this commandment had been singled out of all those written by the finger of God on those tables of stone, in order to be set aside. It was sanctified on account of God's resting from all His work of creation,-that reason for its sanctity holds good as much among Christians as Jews. The only difference is other reasons have been added for its being counted holy.

The Sabbath is a "sign" between God and His people, the people that were His by creation and purchase from the bondage of Egypt. It would have been strange if that sign should not have been ordered to be kept up between God and the people, whom he has not only created and given a temporal deliverance, but whom He has redeemed and purchased from eternal death, by the ransom of His Son.