them against surprise-so must it be with the heart; which always worships in peril. While knowledge is refreshed from the oracles of truth, while faith grows strong by gazing on the cross,—while hope brightens in the prospect of open vision,-while joy and love are ready "to sit and sing themselves away, to everlasting bliss," the graces of holy watchfulness and godly jealousy must be the guard of the rest, and must stand on the outskirts, ready to sound the note of alarm. "Blessed is the man that feareth alway." To the want of watchfulness, alas! how many wasted Sabbaths may be attributed.

Let it be a day of diligent practice. Amongst the duties that claim our attention, there is the reading of the Scriptures. We cannot help strongly advising that no book be read on the Sabbath but the sacred Scriptures; or if any book be allowed besides, none but one of a highly devotional tendency. The practice common in some families of gaining amusement at such a season from looking over religious magazines, encourages a desultory state of mind, and takes off the edge of spiritual fervour. We do not here allude to young persons who are not of decided piety, or to children, to whom undue strictness would render the Sabbath wearisome; but to the Christian who reads simply for himself, our remark applies, and we urge on him to seize the quiet hours of the day of rest, for studying his Father's word; and that neither indolently on the one hand, nor critically on the other, but with simplicity, with earnestness, with humility, and with prayer. And he shall grow thereby.

Again, some part of the Sabbath should be spent in selfexamination. Another week has passed. It brought with it duties were they discharged? It was thronged with temptations were they resisted? It was enriched with opportunities of usefulness: were they embraced? Perhaps sin has been committed, and left a burden on the conscience. Perhaps love to God has imperceptibly cooled, and the heart is out of tune for spiritual exercise. The Sabbath is a fit season for a fresh application to the blood of sprinkling, for fresh prayer for Divine grace, for a fresh act of consecration to dying love. It must not pass till the burden is lightened, till guilt is wasted away, till the cloud of separation vanishes, till the heart is brought again, and bound to the altar, and the soul returns to its rest.

But the duties of religion are not all of a private nature. Public worship claims our regard. The example of the first churches is left on record for our imitation. They came together on the first day of the week to break bread. The fellowship of believers is a blessed provision for the recruiting of spiritual languor.

"Lord, how delightful 'tis to see

A whole assembly worship thee!

At once they sing, at once they pray,

They hear of heaven, and learn the way."

Domestic instruction ought to occupy a part of the time. There is nothing that so much advances the spirit of family religion, as the sacred observance of the Sabbath. On the evening of that happiest of days, to gather round the hearth, and unite, from the eldest to youngest, in holy services that form at once the delight of youth and age, not only deepens the piety of those who conduct the worship, but implants in young and tender minds recollections which when old shall not depart from them.

Meanwhile the Sunday school is not to be forgotten. This is work of the most useful kind. For it is work to be done amongst the young, on whose religious training the welfare of the world depends: it is to be done amongst the poor, who form an immense proportion of the community, and whose privations and difficulties have a strong claim on our Christian sympathy; it is to be done in great measure among those who have no other means of acquiring religious knowledge, and who, were it not for their teacher on the Sunday, would be left to cry, "No man careth for my soul."

A part of the Sabbath is employed by some in seeking out the abodes of ignorance and sin, that the gospel may be conveyed to those who have no desire to obtain it for themselves. Christian Instruction Societies are now formed everywhere; but who needs to wait for a society? Perhaps our reader can remember many houses in his neighbourhood, where none ever sally forth on the morning of the Sabbath to go up to the house of the Lord. A duty rests upon him in regard to them. If they perish, while he has made no effort to save them, he cannot be guiltless. Let him not say, It can be no part of my duty to seek them; unless he is prepared to sustain the character and

to share the guilt of him, who asked, "Am I my brother's keeper?" Does not Jesus command-"Go out into the highways and hedges and compel them to come in ?"

Visiting the afflicted is a work of mercy, which, under certain limitations, is lawful to be done on the Sabbath-day. Visiting, in the usual sense of the term, is opposed to the sanctity of the time; but if its purport be religious, it is accepted as service done unto the Lord.

Let it not be objected that, in presenting the above sketch of the engagements of the Sabbath, we have fenced it round with needless rigour. "Rigour" is a word whose meaning is unknown in the Saviour's service. "His yoke is easy, and his burden is light.". To spend a day in communion with Him,-in thinking His thoughts, in speaking His words, and in doing His will,— this surely is no penance to His disciples. It is true that nowhere in the New Testament is the routine of our duty thus marked out; but the day is called "the Lord's day," and, from the general character of His instruction, we are left to infer the manner in which He would have us spend a portion of time which He has claimed as peculiarly His own.

A conscientious observance of the Sabbath brings with it an abundant reward. It not only furnishes us with the means of usefulness named above, but our silent example of reverence to Christ's appointment is in itself a proof of our sincerity, and a censure of sin. It is remarkable that since commencing this paper-accidentally turning over the leaves of "The Mission of the Scotch Church to the Jews"—we have met with a striking anecdote confirmatory of the statement. While at Hamburgh, the Mission states, “We found our way to the house of Mr Moritz, missionary of the London society, by birth a Jew. When he first went to London, before his conversion, he lived at the house of a Jewess. One Saturday, instead of going to the synagogue, he spent the whole day in going through the city gazing at every novelty. On Sunday morning, he was astonished at the quietness of the town. Inquiring what it meant, his Jewish landlady said, 'The people of England are a God-fearing people, and if we had kept our Sabbath as they keep theirs, Messiah would have come long ago.' This word from the lips of a Jewess was the first arrow of conviction that pierced his heart. The arrow remained, and never left him till he was brought to the feet of Jesus.”

We doubt not that many such instances might be adduced. The keeping of the Sabbath is an evidence of the fear of God, and as such sends a reproof to the heart of the disobedient. It is a fact not to be controverted, that many who are without God in the world, find an excuse for their own thoughtlessness in the levity of professing Christians on the Lord's day.

But not only is our usefulness thus promoted-our religious progress and joy are advanced. The solemnising influences of the services of God's house are aided by private devotion, which in its turn derives a zest from the public engagements of the sanctuary. The impression left by an hour or two of public worship might be soon effaced; but an entire day spent in holy exercises calls back the soul from earth to heaven-brings it, as it were, to the very threshold of eternity, and fixes it there. Absorbing vision!-far away beneath our feet is the hum of commerce, but yesterday so engrossing--the entangled web of circumstances, but yesterday so perplexing-the call of worldly ambition, but yesterday so loud. Other voices steal upon our ear. Other visions than of earth enchain our gaze. "We are come unto Mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the first-born which are written in heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than the blood of Abel."

Is the Christian's heart yet heavy? Does he mourn that he cannot celebrate, as he would, the day of his Saviour's resurrection? Does he weep for the coldness of his services, the languor of his faith and love? Traveller to Zion, take thy harp from the willows. A Sabbath is about to dawn on thee, the like of which thou hast never yet seen. "Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain; for the former things are passed away."

SELECT SENTIMENTS.

XXII.

NEVER are we called to drink a cup of unmingled tribulation. Whatever our affliction may be, we need never be at a loss for some word exactly suited to it, and which we could not have understood without it. "I will show you a privilege," said good Mr Rutherford, "that others want, and you have in this case. Such as are in prosperity, and are filled with earthly joys, and increased with children and friends, though the word of God is indeed written for their instruction, yet to you who are in trouble, and from whom the Lord hath taken many children, and whom he hath otherwise exercised, there are some chapters some particular promises in the word of God, made in an especial manner, which would never have been yours, so as they now are, if you had had your portion in this world like others. It is no small comfort that God has written some scriptures to you, which he hath not to others. Read these, and think God is like a friend, who sendeth a letter to a whole house and family, but who speaketh in his letter to some by name."

XXIII.

Suppose the Christian is led to see that his standing is secure, and that God is pacified toward him. Will he weep then? Yes, he will weep the more. He will sorrow after a godly sort: like a dying saint, who, being asked why he wept, answered, "I weep-not that my sins may be pardoned-but because I trust they are pardoned." It is not easy, or, perhaps, possible, to make others comprehend this-but there is a pleasure even in the frame itself; and they who are the subjects of it well know that their happiest moments are their most tender ones; and with Augustine they can bless God for the "grace of tears." There is nothing more useful in the divine life than this disposition. It endears the Saviour, and his atonement, and his righteousness, and his grace. It makes me cautious and circumspect; in this temper of mind, I cannot expose myself to temptation, or trifle with sin.