DISCOURSE III. SATURDAY EVENING. To-morrow is the rest of the holy sabbath unto the Lord. Exod. xvi. 23. ANOTHER week is drawing to a close. Another period has been added to the season of God's long suffering patience, and to the time of your preparation for an eternal world. These hours are gone to appear before God-what can they testify in your favor? They are gone to return no more-how have you improved them? What use have you made of your trials, your mercies, your means of religious instruction and edification? On such an occasion as this, it is well to look back and review the past-but I wish you also to look forward to-morrow is the rest of the holy sabbath unto the Lord. Let us consider the sabbath as a rest, and see with what dispositions we should think of its approach. The sabbath is a rest; and it is so even to the brute creation. The mercies of God are over all his works: He takes care for oxen. OI love to hear him say, that thine ox and thine ass may rest as well as thou. If animals were endued with reason how would they bless God for the kind and tender design of a sabbath!—but alas in how many instances does the wickedness of man counteract and defeat the goodness of God. The sabbath is a rest for the body. Those who live in ease and idleness feel little importance in this: all days are nearly alike to them. But think of the condition of thousands and millions of your fellow creatures think of a man sitting six days at a loom, or standing six days at a forge, and so of others :-how inviting, how soothing, how useful, how necessary is a day of repose! Man is impelled to labor : "in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou "art and unto dust shalt thou return." But is there nothing to soften the rigor of the obligation? Who could bear everlasting drudgery and fatigue? Behold a refreshing pause: a day of relaxation. The laborer lays aside the implements of industry-changes his apparel-unbends his wearied limbs-enjoys the fresh air of heaven. The alteration of scene conduces to the preservation of health-enlivens the dull sameness of toil, and renews the waste of spirits. Who would be cruel enough and senseless enough to blot out the sabbath from the days of the year! How heavily and joylessly would time pass away without these precious intervals. How many pleasing emotions associate themselves with the idea of a sabbath!-our charming poet therefore has not forgotten to notice the want of this in the lines supposed to have been written by Alexander Selkirk, in his solitary abode. "But the sound of the church-going bell, ; "Nor smiled when a sabbath appeared." But it is principally designed to be a rest for the mind-a spiritual rest-and thus it is not a day of inactivity, but of reflection and devotion-a day in which disengaged from the concerns of time and sense, we may attend to the things which belong to our peace, examine our state and our character, inquire where we are going, and whether we are fit for the journey. It is almost the only opportunity some of the laboring poor have to gain religious information. It is the return of this day that reminds them that they are men, that they are heirs of immortality. It is the worship of this day that preserves in them a sense of that dignity and importance which they are so likely to lose while grovelling always in the earth or toiling among the beasts that perish. A pious mind will overflow with joy to behold them under the sound of the gospel, and to think of the accomplishment of these words, "though the Lord give "you the bread of adversity, and the water of affliction, 66 yet shall not thy teachers be removed into a corner "any more, but thine eyes shall see thy teachers, and "thine ears shall hear a voice behind thee saying, this "is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right “hand, and when ye turn to the left." A pious mind will love to enter the cottage and witness the Sunday scene the bible is taken down, and while one child is stationed between the knees, and the rest are sitting around, a portion is read of that blessed book which brings glad tidings to the poor, and teaches us in whatever state we are, therewith to be content. The real christian indeed does not confine his devotion to particular seasons, He will mingle piety with business, and endeavor to acknowledge God in all his ways-but still he finds week-days to be worldly.days. He wants a retreat he wants a time of refreshing from the presence of the Lord. When therefore he awakes in the morning he can say, "Welcome sweet day of rest, "That saw the Lord arise; "And these rejoicing eyes.” Blessed be his name, he has fed me through the week -but "The king himself comes near, Here is such a day as christians want-a day entirely for their souls and their God. They feel impressed and sacred; every thing wears a new appearance. And "With joy they hasten to the place, "Where they their Saviour oft have met; "And while they feast upon his grace, "Their burdens and their griefs forget." This leads us, secondly, to inquire with what dispositions we should think of the approaching sabbath. We should endeavour to finish all our worldly affairs as early as possible on a Saturday evening, that we may feel free and composed. Edgar one of our Saxon kings passed a law that the sabbath should be observed from nine o'clock Saturday evening till Monday morning. I wish the custom if not the law was revived. How wrong is it for tradesmen, and masters, and mistresses of families to drive things off so as to create hurry and confusion on the very eve of the sabbath, and to retire later and with a mind less fitted for devotion than on any other day in the week! Where something of this is unavoidable, persons are to be pitied. We should expect the return of this season. -With thankfulness. Let us bless God for an institution which shews his concern for our present and everlasting welfare, and marks his loving kindness more than his sovereignty: for the sabbath was made for man. Let us bless God that our lives are spared, and that in a few hours we hope to hear the multitude who keep holy-day, saying, let us go into the house of the Lord. Let us bless him that we are in circumstances which promise us ability to join in the sacred exercises, and that we are not by accidents and diseases doomed to pass a solitary sabbath, and impelled to take up the melancholy complaint, "Lo the sweet day of sacred rest returns -But not to me returns "Rest with the day. Ten thousand hurrying thoughts "And heavenly work: alas! flesh drags me down "Unholy idleness; a painful absence "From God and heaven and angels' blessed work ; "That sickly flesh, and shattered nerves impose." We should expect the return of the day with holy awe. It is a solemn thought—and we should impress it upon our minds at this season-that every sabbath, every sermon, every prayer and every psalm is a step taken, which brings us nearer heaven or hell-that the means of grace with which we are so frequently indulged will prove either the savor of life unto life or of death unto death. Yes-these are privileges which will not leave us as they find us; if they are not food, they will prove poison: if they do not cure, they will be sure to kill. They are talents for each of which we shall be called to give the strictest account, and unimproved, they will sink us deeper in condemnation than jews or heathens. We should meet the sabbath with pious resolution. Here is at hand a returning season of mercy, let me embrace it. By how many will it be profaned-but as for me and my house we will serve the Lord. How many of these invaluable opportunities have I already trifled away! how many have I sinned away! O let me now awake, and be serious and diligent: let me not shorten the day by rising late; let me not lose it by inattention. Let it not be a price in the hand of a fool. But what is resolution without prayer. "The preparation of the heart and the answer of the tongue in man are from the Lord"-without him we can do nothing. แ Let us therefore betake ourselves to him in humble and earnest prayer; let us beseech him to grant that we may be "in the spirit on the Lord's day;" that his grace may be sufficient for us-that we may "wor ship the Lord in the beauties of holiness"—that we may not be forgetful hearers, but doers of the word" -that in waiting upon him our strength may be renewed" that we may mount up with wings as eagles |