in commemoration of the Creation of the world, and of the deliverance of the Is

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raelites out of Egypt. Christians, in commemoration of their Lord's Resurrection, have changed it from the seventh to the first day of the week.

Now you will, no doubt, readily acknowledge, that it is your duty to observe whatever God has commanded you to observe; and likewise, that if you disobey his word, there is every reason to expect that he will punish you for your transgression. Let no consideration, therefore, induce you to violate the Sabbath; for you cannot do so without committing grievous sin against the Majesty of God. Observe this day as a day of Rest, as a day of holy Worship and Meditation, and as a day of Charity and Love. Make it a principle never to do any unnecessary work thereon. Never suffer the business of the six days to break in upon the duties of the seventh day. Go not in pursuit of amusement, when you ought to be attending to the worship of your Maker, and the concerns of your souls; for there are no creatures more abhorred in the sight

of God, than they who despise his Sabbaths, and withhold from him the pay, ment of that tribute, which he has de manded as his due.

You will be assailed by the ridicule of your contemporaries; you will be solicited by the scoffer to follow him into pleasure; nay, you will be often tempted by a more insidious enemy than these, by your own hearts, to omit the performance of your duty: but let not the counsel of the wicked betray you into sin; let not the desire of a fleeting gratification deprive you of the enjoyment of a lasting satisfaction; put it not in the power of your consciences to say to you at night, "You have broken the Sabbath of your God."

As this day is appointed to be a day of Rest from temporal concerns of every kind, so is it enjoined to be observed as a day of Holy Worship and Meditation. As there is no happiness without religion, it is the part of wisdom to make yourselves acquainted with that from which, and from which alone, so great profit is to be derived. Now it is certain, that if

you will not avail yourselves of those op. portunities which God has offered you, of meditating upon Him and on religious truths, of looking into and examining your own hearts, and of endeavouring to become wise unto salvation, you will live in apostasy from your greatest Friend, and in ignorance of the desperate state of your own souls, and will carry on your worldly concerns, uninfluenced by that holy prin ciple, which alone can render the management of those concerns honourable to yourselves, useful to your fellow-creatures, and conducive to the glory of God, and your own ultimate happiness.

Always, therefore, on the Sabbath-Day, abstract your thoughts, as much as possible, from worldly matters, and fix them to con God, and on * "the one thing needful." Let nothing, but absolute necessity, ever induce you to omit Public Worship. I do not mean to teach, that a regular appearance at Church is to be considered as the soul and substance of religion, or that it is a convincing proof of a sincere piety;

* Luke, x. 49.

but it is very certain, that there can be very little religion without it; that very little piety can dwell in their breasts, who will not uniformly offer up their prayers and praises to God in the congregation of his people. And it is fair and reasonable to conclude, that a constant attendance at Church, especially of those whose youthful hearts are yet, it is to be presumed, strangers to any deep hypocrisy, is an evidence, that a spirit of true devo tion has taken possession of the soul.

Here let me take the opportunity to commend that constant attention to the Worship of God, which I have long witnessed in this House of Prayer; at an hour too, when the sons of levity, who seem to think that their exalted stations give them a licence to break the Sabbath, are wasting their time in places of public resort, where the mind is, of course, abstracted, as much as possible, from serious contemplation, and the heart and soul totally separated from all intercourse with God. I am no friend to that austerity in

St. Margaret's Church, Westminster.

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religion which admits of no relaxation, and which enforces an exertion that weak-. ens and distresses nature; for it is evident, that the mind, if we would preserve its strength, and enable it to return with fresh vigour to its devotional labours, must be occasionally unbent; and that if it is not, a gloom will be spread over the whole soul, and the health of the reason be endangered. I am no enemy to innocent recreation during the intervals of devotion; but I cannot conceive how that recreation can be innocent, or how it can be, in the slightest degree, conducive to mental satisfaction or improvement, which is sought for amidst the bustle of the world, and in the violation of a divine command. Let me earnestly exhort you, not to introduce into this sacred day what belongs peculiarly to the other days of the week; for it is a shame to leave your devotion at the Church-doors, and to enter upon secular considerations and pleasures the moment you go forth again into the world.

This advice of St. Paul is excellent;