a champion and a leader for them, who was enabled to baffle all the might and malice of their oppressors.

Thus we see that the Jewish Sabbath was an institution of a mixed character: it was founded on a precept, which was partly moral and partly ceremonial. The duty of worship to GOD was moral, and this was the essence of the precept: but the circumstance of time was intrinsically indifferent, and therefore ceremonial, and consequently ceased to be binding when the ceremonial law was abolished. But it did not follow, because Christians were at liberty to set apart any other day in the week for the same purpose, that they should not have continued to conform to the Jewish usage, if there had been no good reason for departing from it: and it may be questioned how far it would have been a sufficient reason, that they were thus asserting and manifesting their liberty, and witnessing against the superstitious observance of the Sabbath. There were, however, reasons independent of this, which rendered it not only expedient, but almost unavoidable, and in a manner necessary to Christian feelings, to substitute the first day of the week for the seventh. Both alike answered the purpose of commemorating the work of creation, only with the difference, that the one represented its end, the other its beginning-the first issuing of the Almighty Fiat, by which light sprang up out of darkness, and therefore might also represent the still more glorious beginning of a new creation, "the dayspring from on high," which was "to give light to them that sat in darkness, and in the shadow of death, to guide their feet in the way of peace." But for those who acknowledged CHRIST as their SAVIOUR, it was hardly possible that they should continue to celebrate

a deliverance which was so far inferior in importance, as that by which the children of Israel were brought out of Egypt, and which concerned them so much less than that which CHRIST had wrought for His people. A change in the day was almost necessary to mark the incomparably higher value of the recent deliverance, which was completed when JESUS broke the power of death, and rose triumphant from the grave. It would have looked like ingratitude, while they observed the commemoration of the lesser benefit, to omit that of the greater, or only to place it on a level with the other. These perhaps were reasons sufficient for a change, which abolished nothing that belonged to God's honour, and added much that was conducive to the salvation of men. But yet it would be undervaluing the importance of this change in another point of view, if we should say that it only substituted one day for another. It cannot be denied, and it ought, not only to be admitted, but to be maintained, that there is an essential difference between the character of the LORD'S Day and of the Jewish Sabbath. The commandment which made the Sabbath day holy, made it a day of rest as the CREATOR might be said to have rested after His works were perfected; as the people had rest from the service of their Egyptian task-masters. The only directions expressly given as to the mode of keeping the Sabbath holy, related to the cessation from labour. They were not positive, but simply prohibitive-thou shalt do no manner of work. No doubt the spirit of the commandment comprehended a great deal more. It was clearly implied that a day which God set apart as His own, should not be wasted in torpid inaction: that the time withdrawn from worldly occupations should be in some way employed in His service. But

we know that in fact the Jews clung to the letter of the commandment, and believed that they fully satisfied it, so long as they abstained on the Sabbath from every kind of bodily exertion which was not indispensably necessary. Now it is true that the Christian festival has always been celebrated likewise as a day of rest from the common business of life: but according to the intention of the Church, only that it might be the more diligently employed in exercises of piety and charity. These are its proper work. And it must not be forgotten, that this description includes whatever may be subservient to these ends, though in itself foreign to the legitimate uses of the day. We indeed have not received any express directions on this subject, any more than the Jews. We are left free to follow the dictates of our reason and conscience, enlightened by the general principles contained in the Word of GOD. But the change of the day itself was highly significant in this respect. Who could imagine that the day which recalls to our minds the beginning of creation, the time when the SPIRIT of GOD moved on the face of the waters, and light first sprang up out of darkness, may be fitly solemnized by a state of intellectual vacuity or spiritual slumber? Or, again, how can it be supposed, that the great display of Divine power, by which our LORD, as on this day, burst the bands of death, is worthily commemorated by thoughtless minds, and languid hearts, and stagnant spirits? But farther, we know, that even while the Jewish Sabbath remained in force, our LORD HIMSELF, Who observed it in the most perfect manner, frequently reproved the superstitious practice and arbitrary rules of the Pharisaical doctors, who not only would not allow an ear of corn to be plucked, but even

a work of mercy to be done on the Sabbath day; and that no part of His conduct and of His doctrine roused their malice against HIMSELF more violently than this. And as, when HE declared that the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath day, He may be considered as having sanctioned that change by which its outward form was brought into a more perfect accordance with its true meaning and its original design; so when HE taught that "it was lawful to do well on the Sabbath days," He must be deemed not only to have permitted but to have enjoined His disciples in all after ages to imitate His example in this point. And accordingly we find that, in the early ages of the Church, certain offices of charity and labours of love, such as the visiting of prisoners and relieving the wants of the indigent, were expressly prescribed to be regularly performed on the LORD's Day: and though this may be thought to savour a little of the Jewish formalism, the spirit of the injunction was conformable to that of the Apostle's direction to the Church at Corinth, when he wrote concerning the collection for the Saints, even as he had given order to the Churches of Galatia": upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him." And much it is to be deplored, that this primitive and Apostolical order should ever have fallen into desuetude. Much is it to be desired that it should be, as it has been partially, generally revived. Who can calculate, who can express, the innumerable mighty benefits which would be produced by its restoration! Who can doubt that the stream of Christian charity, issuing from this hallowed source, would flow in their various channels, not only more purely and more constantly, but also more copiously than hitherto, that

they would draw into them much that is now wasted in frivolous ostentation or enervating luxury: that the relief which they dispense would be attended with far more of the Divine blessing both to the receivers and to the givers!

But I will now proceed to make a few remarks on the words of the text, for the purpose of drawing from them some inference more particularly applicable to this day's solemnity.

I. The first thing I would observe is, that as the disciples at Troas came together on the first day of the week, so we, who are met on the return of the same day, thereby show and profess that we have come together for the same purpose, namely, to celebrate the great event which is the foundation of all our Christian hopes, the Resurrection of our crucified LORD-only with the difference, that we are doing so on this day in a more solemn manner than on any other LORD's Day in the year. But let us consider, that when the disciples came together for this purpose in St. Paul's time, they were not only celebrating, but witnessing, and proving our LORD's Resurrection, as a fact which was known to some of them from the immediate evidence of their own senses, and which the rest had received on the testimony of eye-witnesses, whose trustworthiness was established beyond all possibility of doubt, by the display of supernatural gifts and graces, by the steady and eminent holiness of their lives, and by the dangers and sufferings to which they exposed themselves by the testimony which they bore to this very truth. And, further, let us observe, that nothing but the most entire conviction of its certainty could have induced the first Christians to select this day for the purpose of their stated meetings.