Apostolic times. Those foot-prints which we first beheld in Eden, we trace in Patmos, where the beloved Apostle was 'in the Spirit on the Lord's day.'

"And to have the scriptural authority for any observance certified, is with a Christian to have the matter set at rest. Cavil then becomes impiety. The first question with a Christian is, 'What is written in the law? how readest thou?'-and it is his last question too. And so should it be with every man. Efforts are often made, however, by indirect means, to prevent the legitimate force of the scripture evidence. A prejudice is attempted to be raised against the Sabbath, by representing it to be oppressive, or it is insinuated to be unnecessary, or the opinions of a few great men placed in circumstances very much fitted to mislead, are triumphantly paraded against the almost unanimous voice of the evangelical churches."

"That Jewish habits should linger among the converts to Christianity was a thing to be expected. Hence their continuing to observe the seventh day as well as the first. But at length those habits died away without any authoritative interference. It was felt to be unmeet to rejoice on that day during which the Redeemer's body lay buried,-held in the earth by the bonds of death. This fact could only awaken mournful recollections, To rejoice on that day were like dancing round the tomb of the dearest friend. This could not be "The Lord's day."

The Lord's day must have been to them, as well as to us, the day on which he triumphantly rose from the dead, bringing life and immortality to light, and gladdening the world with the morning beams of a new creation a moral creation, whose glory excelleth the physical. Was it not fitting that this day should be a sacred festival for ever. Should not this blissful event, which filled heaven with new raptures, and shed the light of hope on our guilty world, be kept in perpetual remembrance by the holy convocations of the people of God?

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We have seen that there is the clearest Scriptural proof that the apostles, guided by their risen Saviour, who remained forty days on earth, instructing them in the things regarding his kingdom, kept the first day of the week holy instead of the last. And history teaches that the primitive church followed their example. The testimony of Ignatius, Justin Martyr, Irenæus, Pliny, and others, corroborates the conclusions fairly deduced from the written code of our religion. This supplementary evidence shows how the Divine record had been understood and acted on in this matter. In relying on this, we do not build on tradition or church authority. One of our most important witnesses is Pliny, who was not one of "the Fathers.' There are some who maintain that we keep the Sabbath on the first day of the week without any authority but

that of the church. Those who have accompanied us in our argument will see how far this is from the truth. Not without meaning was the law of the Sabbath placed in the midst between those precepts which relate to God, and those which relate to man. It appropriately connects the two classes of duties. Abolish the Sabbath, and Jehovah will be neglected or denied; other gods will publicly take his place: or if he be remembered at all, it will be to profane his name. Abolish the Sabbath, and you instantly loosen the bond of all the duties of man towards his neighbour which the Decalogue enjoins.

"The Sabbath stands before the nations, and will stand to all posterity as a pillar, on which this twofold code is suspended to be read by all the world. Without the Sabbath morality no less than religion, would in the course of ages perish from the minds of men.

"The state of France is a melancholy instance of the danger of this abrogation. The King who lends the Jesuits his ships of war to proselyte the Polynesian Christians, transacts business in the public offices on Sunday. The Queen, who is a strict Catholic, used to go to horse races in the Camp de Mars, on Sunday. The Chamber of Peers sit on Sunday to conduct the trial of political prisoners. The French fairs always occur on Sunday. Every theatre in France is open every Sunday. The people employed by the Government work on Sunday. It is the day selected for all sorts of public amusements. are assured by travellers that for nine-tenths of the people there is no Sabbath in France. The moral results are too notorious to be dwelt on here. Let England take warning."

We

Another objection made by some pious people to the observance of the Sabbath, as a matter of Divine obligation, is the alleged inconsistency of such a positive institution with the spirituality and freedom of the Christian dispensation.

Let the following be taken as an answer:

"Is it really spirituality of mind that exults in such a freedom, and that looks upon others as wearing chains which Christianity entitles them to burst and throw off? Is there any one

divine Institution more eminently fitted for the advancement of spirituality of mind, than the day of God when duly observed? So strong is the impression of this on our mind, both from the obvious nature of the thing, and from the general experience of the children of God,-an experience put upon record by many a happy and grateful heart, that it forms a powerful presumptive argument for the unlikelihood (we had almost said the impossibility) of its having, under the new economy, been set aside. A spiritual dispensation, surely, is not a dispensation under which the means of spirituality are taken away. And when we consider the spiritual constitution of the Sabbath, and its admirable adaptation to spiritual improvement, along with

A more

the fearfully anti-spiritual tendencies of its cessation, we cannot bring ourselves to imagine that such an institution should be ranked among the worldly rites cf a transitory ceremonial,— the 'beggarly elements' of an introductory and carnal dispensation, the burdensome observance of a yoke of bondage!' That a Christian should be solicitous to add as much more of his time for the cultivation of the principles and affections of godliness as he can redeem from the necessary engagements of this world, we can easily understand. But that such a mana man under the real power of heart felt evangelical pietycan listen with complacency to reasonings that would rob him of a portion of his spiritual enjoyment, and abridge the instituted means of his advancement in grace, and in "meetness for the inheritance of the saints in light,'-it is surely no very wide or unwarrantable breach of charity to doubt. convincing proof could not be furnished of secretly begun spiritual declension, than the manifestation of a disposition to insinuate doubts about the obligation of the Sabbath, and to do this without any apparent concern or trembling of heart at the conclusion:-nor can a clearer evidence appear in a christian church of a mere name to live' or a symptom more ominous of its approaching darkness and desolation, than the prevalence of such a spirit,—the rise and progress of a tendency to speculate about the abrogation, or even the curtailment, of the Sabbath of the Lord- THE LORD'S DAY.'" "Everything ceremonial,' it has been said, was done away when Christ arose from the dead, not one lingering shred of carnal ordinances remains, under this mature and spiritual economy.' Admitted, but what then? Is the Sabbath-law therefore repealed? Oh, most preposterous conclusion! The law which provides for the children of toil and sons of commerce

'Hackney'd in business, wearied at that oar

Which thousands, once fast chained to, leave no more'

opportunity of undisturbed attention to spiritual things, this day the badge of an immature economy, a burdensome rite which was against us and contrary to us, too carnal for Christtianity or for Christians! Surely it is enough to put such a suggestion as this in plain language, in order to expose it. Would not the real state of the case be found to be, not that the Sabbath was too carnal for those who speak thus, but that they are not spiritual enough for the Sabbath. At least it is a significant fact, which these objectors might do well to ponder, that the most eminently spiritual Christians have ever been those, who relished the Sabbath most. 'Oh, surely,' was the frequent exclamation of the pious Philip Henry, at the close of a well spent Sabbath, if this be not heaven, it must be the way to it.'

"These, and similar objections are easily disposed of, and yet their very existence and public reiteration prove to us, that we have reached a crisis in the cause of the Sabbath in our land. And we shall be sinfully blind to the magnitude of the interests that are imperilled, and to our own responsibility, if we do not strain every nerve to make the crisis terminate favourably. It is a thing of no secondary or transient interest that is assailed, when the weapons of an unhallowed warfare are lifted up against this institute of heaven. With our Sabbathday, all that is most valuable to us as citizens, and most sacred to us as Christians, stands in jeopardy. Call for testimonies to its importance and benignant influence, and what a crowd of witnesses instantly compass us about. View it simply as a day of rest, and the whole medical world will arise to proclaim its beneficent tendencies. View it in its relations to the industrial wealth of kingdoms, and statistical enquiries will attest that six days of labour, followed by the weekly rest, are more productive than a system of continuous toil. View it in its bearings on the stability of commonwealths, and the greatest of modern statesmen, Edmund Burke, will tell you it is inestimable. View it as a bulwark against the inroads of infidelity, and Voltaire, who not only rejected Christianity, but vowed to crush it, will confess he despaired of effecting his object, so long as people assembled every week for religious worship. View it as affecting the prosperity of Christian churches, and all history will point to observance or neglect as the infallible index of spiritual prosperity or decay, and the churches of Great Britain, New England, and of the Waldenses, will be named as having been for years the most Sabbath-keeping and the most pure. View it as contributing to fan the flame of personal piety, and to deliver the soul from the gathering mists of earthly feeling, and Wilberforce will hasten to assure you, that it was his Sabbath-musings which raised his soul, when it was ready to cleave to the dust, and saved him from plunging into the troubled and turbid waves of party-warfare; and every man of living piety will tell you, that it accords with the instincts of his new nature, and that, if God had not given him a Sabbath, he would have prayed for one."

CONCLUSION.

It was my intention to have added a third supplementary lecture, on a subject closely connected with the last, namely Public Worship. But on examining Mr. Barker's tract, I find that with the exception of some remarks on the Christian Ministry, to which our fifth lecture is a sufficient answer, and some very just censures on certain notorious abuses, he really admits in theory almost every thing one could wish. I was aware, that his followers differ from one another in their practice with regard to this point; but I certainly was not prepared to find him teaching, that Christians ought to meet together for prayer and praise; and what is much more, that they ought to meet in a place, where any unbelievers or ungodly person, that chooses, may come in to see and hear what is going on. Some of my readers may be as much surprised as myself, and may feel inclined to ask, Then what in the world does he object to in the usual mode of public worship? Why in the first place, he objects to Christians "going into a place of public resort, for the purpose of prayer or praise." Now, unless by "a place of public resort" he means the streets or roads (which, as our Church does not sanction the practice of meeting in such places for worship, we have nothing to do with) I am utterly at a loss to understand what he does mean. He may attach some peculiar meaning to the word "public" but one would think a place, where his own kind of worship was to, be performed, could not be very private. For he says, that all the Christians in one place should meet together for worship; and if so, unless they meet in the open air, which would be the most public place of all, they must meet in some building. This building must be set apart exclusively for the purpose, at all events during the hours of worship, or the worshippers would be subject to all sorts of interruption and annoyance. It cannot be a very small one, as it has to admit, not only the Church, but anybody else that likes to come. The time of meeting there must not be concealed, as, even supposing it to be privately arranged amongst the Christians, unbelievers could not attend, as Mr. B. says they ought to be allowed to do, unless they knew when and where the meeting was held. Now I should like to know, whether Mr. B. calls such a building as this a place of public resort; a place, where according to his own plan the Church should, and any one else may, resort. Perhaps he will