morning on which my Lord rose again from the dead. He paid the wages of my sins and they laid Him in the sepulchre cold and dead. There He rested on the Sabbath, but in the morning when the light began to shine from the east He burst the bonds of death and rose again, showing that He has truly made atonement for my soul. And now let me put away worldly labors and cares and devote this day to meditate on God's wondrous counsel.' Those are Lutheran and evangelical thoughts on Sunday morning, and they give a very different cast to the keeping of the day than thoughts of the old Sabbath commanded the Israelites at Sinai, thunder bursting over their heads and the earth quaking under their feet. Make it your habit to think of Christ's resurrection on Sunday morning. It gives a cheerful and a joyous character to the day.

This is what we learn from the office of Christ, how to keep Sunday. As He on the Sabbath healed that man having the dropsy and gave him rest from his bodily pains, so He heals our souls from sin and gives them rest from the terrors of death and the torments of hell; and that is keeping Sunday as the Lord's day, if we ascribe this honor to Him that He is our rest; if we rest assured of this and with thankful hearts meditate upon it.

II.

From this fact that to rest with heart and soul in Christ is keeping the Lord's day in spirit and in truth, we must not conclude, it would make no difference, what we do externally on this day. If a man says that he keeps the day unto the Lord, but neglects public worship by following his every-day occupation, or spends the day with hunting, fishing, card-playing, or in laziness, or in frivolous company and the like, who will believe that man? "Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh." Matt. 12, 34. The outward behavior will certainly be in keeping with that which lives in the heart. If the Lord is truly the light of the soul, that light will shine forth in the deeds of the hand and the words of the mouth. What our actions and what our conversation is to be on Sunday

we may learn from the example of the Lord. What He did on the Sabbath, we should be eager to do on Sunday.

What did He do on the Sabbath? Our text says: "He went into the house of one of the chief Pharisees to eat bread on the Sabbath day." How came Jesus to go to the house of this chief Pharisee? Very simply in this way: On that Sabbath morning He was at public worship in the synagogue; this man invited Him to dinner and He accepted the invitation. Of this there can be no doubt that He came from public worship; for in his 4th chapter Luke writes of Him: "As his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day." This was the Lord's standing custom. Every Sabbath morning He wended His way to the house of worship. While He sojourned on earth He never neglected public worship. If one wanted to find Him on Sabbath morning, he had to seek Him in the house of worship. How is it with you? What do your neighbors know about you? Do they know, if they want to see you on Sunday morning about the time for public worship, they must go to the church to find you? If your neighbors do not know this, if they have reason to think, although or because it is Sunday morning they would be likely to find you at home, then things are not with you as they ought to be. A Christian ought to be so unfailing a church-goer that everybody in the neighborhood would know it useless to go to his residence about church-time to see him. It was the Lord's invariable custom, to attend public worship, and He says: "Follow me." On Sunday morning the Christian should say with David: "So will I compass thine altar, O Lord; that I may publish with the voice of thanksgiving, and tell of all thy wondrous works. Lord, I have loved the habitation of thy house, and the place where thine honor dwelleth." Ps. 26, 6.

After public worship the Lord went to the house of this chief Pharisee, where there was evidently a large company together. Is that the right way to keep Sunday, after attending worship to have frolics, parties, balls and the like? So the world thinks. It makes the Lord's day a day for frivolity, pleasure-seeking, gluttony and drunkenness. That is serving

the flesh and not the Lord, and from such things the Christian must keep himself unspotted. Neither does the example of the Lord afford a pretense for such gatherings; for He went to that house" to eat bread," and how He behaved there the following part of the text shows. On the other hand we must not think it a sin to cook a meal on Sunday, to invite a guest, or to accept an invitation. It is highly commendable when Christians, coming from public worship, do meet together, are joyous in the Lord and edify one another by godly conversation; for thus the apostle exhorts: "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord." Col. 3, 16. Sunday being set apart by the Church for the Lord's service the very simple rule is to avoid all gatherings where the heart and the mind are drawn away from the Lord, but seek company where you find nourishment for the soul.

In conclusion, let me point out but one thing more which we learn from this text as to the right manner of keeping Sunday. The Lord went to the house of this Pharisee on the Sabbath into a company of lawyers and Pharisees, when He could not be ignorant of the fact that they were His enemies, watching for a chance to harm Him. He knew they hated Him, yet He went there and sought to win them for truth and right. That is an excellent Sunday work, to put away enmity, spite and hate out of the heart, and to gain the erring and sinning for truth and right. It so very easily occurs that quarrels take place during the week; then, if the difficulty is not sooner adjusted, at least on Sunday morning we should remember: This is the Lord's day, the day of the Prince of peace who has commanded: "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you," and we should put away all bitterness out of the heart. When on Sunday morning you see the sun rise to give light both to the evil and to the good, remember that you, too, are to forgive your enemy, and you should not appear in the house of God with a heart filled with

rancor and hate. And if it goes hard to overcome the vindictiveness of your own heart, do what the Lord did for those nailing Him to the cross, pray for your enemy. And if during the day you have an occasion, as the case may be, either to remind your enemy of his wrong in a spirit of kindness, or to ask his pardon, or to do him a favor, do it. That, I say, is an excellent Sunday work, because our chief desire in keeping the day is to seek rest from our sins in Christ Jesus, and on every recurring Sunday anew to assure our hearts that He is our peace. But if on Sunday we seek the forgiveness of our sins in Christ, we must also forgive those who have sinned against us; for thus the Lord teaches us to pray: "Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us." Praying the former we must practice the latter; then we have the promise: "Forgive, and ye shall be forgiven." AMEN.

XVIII. SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY.

TEXT But when the Pharisees had heard that he had put the Sadducees to silence, they were gathered together. Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying, Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, saying, What think ye of Christ? whose son is he? They said unto him, The son of David. He said unto them, How then doth David in spirit call him Lord, saying, The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool? If David then call him Lord, how is he his son? And no man was able to answer him a word, neither durst any man from that day forth ask him any more questions. Matt. 22, 34-46.

This text, set apart by the Church for this day, again lays before us the two chief doctrines of the Bible, the Law and the Gospel, teaching us that we are sinners and that Jesus Christ alone is our Savior.

Hearing this some one might perhaps say within himself: 'Forever the same old thing! Why can not the parson at least sometimes preach something new.' I say, some might be apt to think so; for our present generation is very much like the Athenians, of whom St. Luke writes in the 17th chapter of · Acts: "All the Athenians and strangers which were there, spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell, or to hear some new thing." New doctrines, new theories, new systems of philosophy were eagerly taken in and discussed by the teachers and students at the various schools of learning which were found at Athens. No one will deny that the same is characteristic of our age and country. People want something new and whatever is new, or has the name of being new, is much