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the one do not apply to the other. Sabbath, but not identical with it.

It is analogous to the
And if you require

any explanation of its authority, we may say with Dr. Hessey that it is 'of scriptural indication and of apostolical precedent ;'-in other words, you find indications in the New Testament that the first day of the week was looked upon as a day of rest and worship, and you find that the apostles in the early Church actually did use it as a day of rest and worship. It is of scriptural indication and of apostolical precedent.

Then it remains for us to ask, what are our duties on the Lord's day, and upon what are those duties founded? I found the duties of the Lord's day upon the spirit, and not upon the letter. I found them upon certain principles in human nature, which are permanent and not transitory. I do not found them upon any arbitrary laws or ordinances of man, but upon that law and ordinance which is engraved upon his bodily and spiritual constitution, and written in the fleshly tablets of his heart. Our faith and our practice will then only be reasonable and beyond assault when it is based, not upon apostolical precedent, nor upon scriptural indication, nor external authority such as 'the laws of the Medes and Persians which do not alter,' but when it is based on the whole constitution of man, and has its roots deep down in the fundamental instincts of the human soul. Nobody can shake that ground; therefore that is the foundation for you to build upon.

Show me then that for the body, as constituted by God, rest is necessary, rest is sweet, rest is wholesome;

show me further that for your interests as spiritual beings you do require a certain time, a certain definite, periodical time, when you shall gather yourselves together, and when you shall, in obedience to the impulses of your higher nature, pour out your prayers to the Supreme Father; show me that the world has been improved by such an institution, that you are being supported by such an institution as this; show me that your faith is being kindled, that your religion is being made pure and vital; aye, that you are lifted up and comforted by these periodical public prayers and pulpit ministrations; then, I say, you have a sure and impregnable basis for the observance of the Lord's day, the first day of the week, as a day of rest and worship.

99. The duties, then, of the Lord's day are, first, rest for the body. In this fevered city, when men are toiling like slaves in a second Egypt, and building up mighty pyramids of wealth for themselves and others; in the heated controversies of the age, amidst pressing and fighting for high position, or for bare food and clothing in the struggle for existence, when the strong run. together in the race, neck to neck, and when the weak wrestle with the strong, and are thrown and crushed, when forces seem drawn out to the highest degree of tension, when long hours consume the vital powers, and make even the young jaded and weary before their time -rest is sweet for the body. Therefore, use this Lord's day rest bountifully, as it is bountifully given you for your bodies. Depend upon this, if your bodies are

right, your minds and spirits will somehow or other have a tendency to come right; but if you dispense with rest for the body; if you say, for instance, 'I am bound by a duty to hurry off to church, though my eyes are heavy, and I shall sleep in my pew; but I will not stay at home, because I must, at all hazards, go to church on Sunday morning'-What is the use of that? You had better sleep a little longer. It is not the voice of the sluggard which tells you you had better sleep a little longer; it is the voice of Nature, it is the voice of God -sleep-'so He giveth His beloved sleep'-on the Day of Rest. If you cannot get up and go out without that prostrate weariness of body and a jaded feeling, then rest on your Sunday morn, and let not the church interfere with your Christian liberty. Say, 'When I am refreshed, when I have gathered up a portion of my exhausted energies, I will go and give my recreated strength to God, to God I will pour out my spirit, when I have got something to pour out, when there is some little animation and strength in me; but I will not go with a worn-out body, I will not give to God what is not fit for man, and then say, 'Oh! but I have done my duty to God.' You have not done your duty to God, because you have not done your duty to yourself. God is pleased when you take care of your precious body, and intellect, and spirit which He has given you; and do not suppose that in the exhaustion of body and mind. you can be pleasing God by going through any mere outward observances. Rest then to the overworked men and women in this great city-a proclamation of

beneficent rest-goes forth with the dawning of the Lord's day, from One who made man, and knows what is in him.

100. Then, as regards worship. When we come together we ought to have something to say, we ought to have something and to feel something different from our private prayers, which are also good and indispensable to the religious life; still there is, when we meet together, sometimes a spirit there which is not with us when we are at home, and difficulties and perplexities are often cleared up in the great congregation that would never be cleared up by simply saying our prayers quietly alone. Conscience and private prayer ;-people sometimes think that this is all that is needed for life and practice; but be sure of this, conscience may often go wrong, even when a man is good and prayerful, because he has got narrow, because he has considered himself, too much apart from his fellow-creatures. His private conscience wants to be guided and set right, and kept healthy by the public conscience. No man lives to

himself, and no man dies to himself. Remember, then, that we are all bound up together-bound to help each other, and bound to enlighten each other-bound to bear one another's burdens. Many things-flashes of duty, new revelations of truth-come to you when you associate with those who are different from, if not wiser than yourselves, and when you bow down with a mixed multitude in prayer. The individual diseases of the mind are often corrected by the common act.

But indeed there seems often a quite peculiar power in public prayer and in public preaching, which comes not to the spirit through any other channel. I would you could look forward to the Lord's day as a day on which a more perfect light was sure to shine upon you. I would you could use your church as a comfort and a refuge, and say, 'I am now going up into the house of the Lord. I will join the prayers in no captious mood. I will go there to be taught by the Spirit. I will see what message comes to me from the preacher's lips, from the rolling anthem, from the hymn, from the chapter, or Psalm, or prayer.' So bring your troubles to God's house, my friends. Spread them out there before Him just as Hezekiah, when at his wit's end, spread his griefs out before the Lord. Ah! there are some in this church who have had their heavy burdens lifted. There are some upon whom the light has shined—who have been drawn nearer to God and nearer to man, and seen clear, and been comforted.

101. But public prayer suggests especially your failures of duty, your commissions of sin, your coldness, your want of heart; you find yourself condemned on the right hand and on the left. You know that you have to sit in church beside a sister with whom you have been quarrelling all the week; and are you not ashamed to come and ask God to forgive you your trespasses, when you do not mean to forgive your sister, and is not your sister ashamed, who does not mean to forgive you? You see in the opposite gallery your

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