God, which are comprehended under the hallowing, or keeping holy the day, calculated to strengthen our faith, to promote our growth in wisdom and in grace, and our increase in the love of God and of our fellow creatures.

We are directed by the Church, and by our own sense of what is the proper and reasonable mode of hallowing the Lord's day, to resort to God's temple, and employ ourselves in the prayers and ministrations appointed for our edification. There, as we stated in a preceding discourse, we hear from the mouth of God's ministers His word and will-we are reminded of our guilt and unworthiness—we are led to confess our sinfulness-to pray for the mercy and grace of God-we are reminded also of His unwearied love and goodness, and join in the exercise of praise and thanksgiving. We occupy ourselves in those acts of devotion which will best incline us, and we receive that promised aid which will best enable us, to carry into effect the lessons of duty which we hear. If we enter into the services of the day with seriousness, and with a due sense of that great and merciful God, of our connexion with whom the seventh day is His appointed sign, we cannot fail to profit greatly by such an exercise. We must come out of the Church better men than when we entered into it, and we shall carry from it a spirit and disposition which will be a blessing to ourselves and to the society of which we are members.

Nor must we lose sight here of the beneficial tendency of the social character of public worship, which I have already described.

Here we assemble as a body reminded of our holy union not only with the Head, but with all the members. Here this body truly acts as such. Here it displays its unity of spirit in unity of action. It is what the reformers of our Church well called Common Prayer. It is the worship of brethren of the universal family offered to their common Father. It is the confession of sinners under one common sense of guilt and unworthiness. It is the prayer of fallen and weak creatures under one common necessity. It is the praise of the receivers of one common grace and bounty; all that is there heard, said, and done, reminds them of their joint hopes, fears, and interests, and inculcates the same lesson, Sirs, ye are brethren." Love the brethren. As God so loved us, let us love one another. Let no master of a family, no member of it, as he desires unity and holiness, diligence and peace, justice and purity, kindness and joy, man's esteem and God's favour, to prevail in that family; let none, say, himself neglect, or teach others to despise, the offices and obligation of the sacred seventh day. For the Lord has blessed it, and those that hallow it will find that it is indeed a sign to them, whether they be nations, or families, or individuals, that He is their God-gracious, true, and bounteous-honouring those that honour Him and requiring from

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all His creatures no other obedience than that which leads to their happiness and safety. It is truly the Lord's day,—a day in all its offices, all its purposes, reminding us of His love who careth for us, who died for our sins, rose again for our justification, and yet liveth to make intercession for us.

Indeed, this merciful intention and use of the Sabbath is to be discovered not only in its effect upon our spiritual relations, and our dispositions, and general conduct, but also over our mere bodily health and comfort. But as upon this point the testimony of a physician may have more weight, the following observations of Dr. Farre given before a committee of the House of Commons, will be read with deep interest by every reflecting man :—

"I have been in the habit during a great many years of considering the uses of the Sabbath, and of observing its abuses. The abuses are chiefly manifested in labour and dissipation. The use, medically speaking, is that of a day of rest. In a theological sense it is a holy rest, providing for the introduction of new and sublimer ideas into the mind of man, preparing him for his future state. As a day of rest, I view it as a day of compensation for the inadequate restorative power of the body under continued labour and excitement. A physician always has respect to the preservation of the restorative power, because if once this be lost, his healing office is at an end. If I show you, from the physiological view of the question, that there

are provisions in the laws of nature which correspond with the Divine commandment, you will see from the analogy, that "the Sabbath was made for man" as a necessary appointment. A physician is anxious to preserve the balance of circulation, as necessary to the restorative power of the body. The ordinary exertions of man run down the circulation every day of his life; and the first general law of nature by which God (who is not only the giver, but also the preserver and sustainer, of life) prevents man from destroying himself, is the alternating of day with night, that repose may succeed action. But although the night apparently equalizes the circulation well, yet it does not sufficiently restore its balance for the attainment of a long life. Hence once day in seven, by the bounty of Providence, is thrown in as a day of compensation, to perfect by its repose the animal system. You may easily determine this question, as a matter of fact, by trying it on beasts of burden. Take that fine animal, the horse, and work him to the full extent of his powers every day in the week, or give him rest one day in seven, and you will soon perceive, by the superior vigour with which he performs his functions on the other six days, that this rest is necessary to his well-being. Man, possessing a superior nature, is borne along by the very vigour of his mind, so that the injury of continued diurnal exertion and excitement on his animal system is not so immediately apparent as it is in the brute;

but in the long-run he breaks down more suddenly: it abridges the length of his life and that vigour of his old age, which (as to mere animal power) ought to be the object of his preservation. I consider, therefore, that, in the bountiful provision of Providence for the preservation of human life, the sabbatical appointment is not, as it has been sometimes theologically viewed, simply a precept partaking of the nature of a political institution, but that it is to be numbered amongst the natural duties, if the preservation of life be admitted to be a duty, and the premature destruction of it a suicidal act. This is said simply as a physician, and without reference at all to the theological question : but if you consider further the proper effect of real Christianity, namely, peace of mind, confiding trust in God, and good-will to man, you will perceive in this source of renewed vigour to the mind, and through the mind to the body, an additional spring of life imparted from this higher use of the Sabbath as a holy rest. Were I to pursue this part of the question, I should be touching on the duties committed to the clergy; but this I will say, that researches in physiology, by the analogy of the working of Providence in nature, will establish the truth of Revelation, and consequently show that the Divine commandment is not to be considered as an arbitrary enactment, but as an appointment necessary to man. This is the position in which I would place it, as contradistinguished from precept

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