pleasure, some transitory self-indulgence, cause others to neglect the proper business of this holy season: much also will those have to answer for who are guilty of voluntarily disparaging so great a blessing. If subjected by their destiny to the labour of six days, the seventh should be sincerely and assiduously devoted to the care of their souls; the less leisure they enjoy, the more earnestly should they convert the little that may be afforded them to the business of their heavenly vocation. Having their peculiar obstacles to surmount, they should give the greater heed to the sacred services of the day to keep alive the thoughts of eternity, which would otherwise be banished by the business and occupations of life. Let them especially beware, lest, through eagerness for recreation and enjoyment, that which should be a sanctified rest become to them an occasion of licentiousness, or of forgetfulness of God. Many a soul has been lost through supineness and neglect; and if they have any reverence for their Lord and Master, any attachment to his laws, any regard for their own future happiness, let them employ the rest of that day which is sacred to him, in those acts of public and private religion, without which it cannot be acceptable in his sight.

Nor can those who are blessed with more ample leisure plead any exemption from the duties

of the Lord's day. If the talents with which they are intrusted are not duly improved, they will not be able to bear that strict account which will one day be demanded of them. Many are the temptations with which they have to contend, temptations too often successful in winning upon their affections. Wealth presents before their eyes its dazzling splendours; ambition pictures all its glories to their imagination; and pleasure dances before their eyes in all the gaiety of its delusive charms. Thus buoyed up by delusive expectations, thus allured by fond hopes, how often do they neglect the things eternal, in the wild career of worldly pursuits and enjoyments? To them this holy festival, by its regular return, supplies an useful and solemn admonition. It withdraws the attention from things vain and perishable; it gives them a little pause from the follies and vanities of the world, a little respite from the unceasing importunities of business or of pleasure. Let them hail its return with sober joy; let them not slight its admonitory call; but, remembering that it is a day which God claims as his own, let them seek his favour by disengaging themselves, for a time, from the scenes of life, by attending on public worship, by diligence in the duties of retirement, of secret prayer, and devout meditation.

A festival not more salutary to the rich than

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the poor, to the fortunate than the unfortunate, to the happy than the wretched, should be kept sacred to its destination by all ranks and conditions of men. The devout observance of it is instrumental, I had almost said absolutely necessary, to the growth and cultivation of those holy sentiments and affections which should inhabit the bosom of the Christian. There is a lurking attachment in the heart to objects of sense; the world is ever displaying its fascinations to the view; the arch-enemy of man is continually spreading his delusions before our path; and, if we wish to resist the influence of these seductions, the mind must be fortified by the offices of religion. If the sabbatical duties of piety be neglected, the principles of faith will languish, and the impressions of virtue, which have been imprinted in youth, will gradually wear away. By setting the affections on the things of this lower sphere, by dissolving in ease and pleasure, by too eagerly pursuing the honours and emoluments of the present life, the pure flame of religion will be extinguished. It can only be kept alive in the heart by withdrawing the thoughts at stated seasons from temporal things, by deep contrition for our past offences, by earnest supplication for pardon and acceptance through the merits of Christ, by a humble prostration of ourselves before the throne of grace, in fervent prayer for the sanc

tification of the Spirit. Withdrawing on every Lord's day from the tumultuous scenes of life, we must attend to the things which belong to our eternal peace; we must retire into our chambers to commune with our own hearts, to hold converse with our Maker, and to implore our heavenly Father to deliver us in all time of our tribulation, in all time of our wealth; in the hour of death, and in the day of judgment. Thus alone can the principle of faith be preserved pure and unsullied in the breast; thus alone can we become worthy of that divine grace, without which our souls cannot be purified and harmonized for celestial blessedness.

According to the manner in which the sabbath has been kept in all ages, religion has been found to flourish or decay. Wherever the desecration of it has prevailed, it has been attended by a corresponding decay of vital Christianity. Look at the spiritual condition of several continental kingdoms; look at the Roman Catholic countries; look at the state of France, whose rebel sons, in the phrenzy of revolutionary madness, endeavoured to banish the very remembrance of every thing sacred, while with sacrilegious hands they tore down the altars of their God. In these fair portions of the earth, where the Lord's day is systematically disregarded and profaned, fair religion veils her face, and the tone of public morals

is proportionably low. Impiety, and the desecration of this festival, must, in the nature of things, have a mutual relationship. Do you see a family blind to the truths of Revelation, averse to prac⚫tical godliness, and regardless of their eternal interests? There the fear and the worship of God are habitually neglected. Where are the individuals addicted to open profligacy, or secret sensuality? They are to be found among those who contemn this holy ordinance. Is there a remorseless villain, a cool deceiver, an abandoned violator of the laws of earth and heaven? They are, every one, profaners of the Lord's day. It may be laid down as a maxim, indisputably true of nations, of families, and of individuals, that their piety and virtue are in exact proportion to their observance of the sabbatical institution.

The sanctification of the sabbath is not only the best preservative of the religious principle, but is likewise attended with the approbation of God. He blessed the seventh day, pronounced it the time for conferring his choicest blessings, and for being propitious to those who strive to keep it holy in the true spirit of faith and piety. It would betray an unholy scepticism to doubt the fulfilment of this promise. That the devotional services of the sabbath are accompanied with the especial favour of the Deity is a truth, to which every humble Christian can bear ample