And all of these things are meant and expressed by the word worship; and when I said there was one thing which you might see it must be proper to do on the Sabbath, and then mentioned all these things, the one thing I intended to speak of, was worship; the worship of the Lord.

For this purpose we all go to church on the Sabbath; and when we pray to the Lord, or join in singing reverently from His Word, with the endeavor to have such feelings as I have spoken of just now, then we are worshipping our Father in heaven, and then we are doing on the Sabbath day one thing, which will help us very much indeed in coming into that state of regeneration of which the Sabbath is the sign and image.

This lesson is intended, as I said in the beginning of it, to tell you what things we should do if we would observe the Sabbath in the best way. We have found one of these things to be worship; and there is another, which I am now going to speak of. I must first ask you to recollect some things I said in former lessons. You have a will, which,

before regeneration, is disposed to love what is

evil; and the change of will, whereby you love only what is good, is regeneration. You have an understanding for the purpose of learning truths which may assist this change of the will; that is, you have an understanding for the purpose of assisting that work of regeneration of which the Sabbath is the sign. And you may see, that one other of observing the Sabbath aright, is, by making a proper use of the understanding; that is, by using it to learn those truths which may help forward your regeneration. These truths you may learn by instruction; and this instruction may be drawn from teachers, from books, or from meditation; or, finally, from all these together.

way

Thus, we consider the origin of the Sabbath, the purpose of it, and the signification of it, and in this way we learn that there are two chief and principal things which belong to the Sabbath; namely, worship and instruction.

In the morning of the Sabbath, we all meet in the place of public worship, and there we, all of us together, young and old, hear the word of God

C

read; and we also hear a sermon preached. This

is instruction for us all.

In the afternoon we separate.

You come to

the Sunday School, and meet your teachers; and there you receive such instruction as we are able to give you.

given to all,

But the in

The instruction of the morning, though addressed principally to grown persons, is because we are all together there. struction given in your school in the afternoon, is intended for you; and we try to make it such as will be most useful to you, in the way in which all truths and all instruction should be useful.

But you may wish to know what kind of truths, and what kind of instruction, are most proper on the Sabbath, rather than on the week days. You go to school every day; and you go for the purpose of learning something which is true; and I have often said that all that you learn should help forward your regeneration. Therefore the purpose of the instruction you receive on week days, and the purpose of that you receive on the Sabbath, may seem to be the same.

And

you may wish to

know what is the difference in the instruction. To answer this I must begin with telling you, that the instruction you receive on week days is chiefly such as may help forward your regeneration, only in one way. And that is by making you able to do your duty and be as useful as possible in your daily life, after you have grown up, and come into those places in society which the Lord may give you, and into those duties which His providence may appoint you to perform.

This is an extremely important way. Every time you do a duty because it is your duty, you do something which confirms your love of what is good, and weakens your love of evil. The duties of life are very various and very numerous. What particular ones will fall to you, cannot now be foreseen. Therefore, all we can do with your instruction in this respect, is to make it such as will most probably be of service to you, in the stations and ways of life which are most likely to be yours, when you are grown up. Now, long experience has taught instructers of youth a good deal about this. And the books and teach

ing provided for you in the week days are such as the experience of a great many teachers, and a great many schools, and the consideration of many sensible persons, have shown to be on the whole the best.

But besides this teaching and these truths, there are truths of a different kind. There are such truths as I will call religious truths. Perhaps you will understand me when I say that religious truths are those which make other truths useful to your regeneration. Religious truths are those without which other truths are of no use. Thus, you are learning grammar, or geography, or French, or how to sew. Well, these things would not and could not be of any use to your regeneration, unless you know you have a soul, and that there is a God, and that He commands us to love our neighbors as ourselves. The reason of this is, that whatever you do, unless you do it with a wish to obey God, and because God commands it or puts it before you as a duty, the thing you do does not help forward your regeneration. So that you may see, that it does not depend only on what you do, whether