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THE SABBATH DAY:

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BY THE

Ret. W. W. EELLS

THE SABBATH DAY:

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PREACHED IN THE
SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, CARLISLE, PA.,
September 11th, 1859.
BY THE
Ret. W. W. EELLS.

CARLISLE:
PUBLISHED BY REQUEST.
1859.

Carlisle, September 12, 1859.
Eev. W. W. Eells.
Dear Sir — Believing that the circulation of your excellent dis
course, delivered yesterday on the Sabbath question, is called for by
the movement of those hostile to its observance, we respectfully
request a copy for publication, in the hope that its distribution will
contribute to maintain the sanctity of the Lord's day.
Yours, truly and respectfully,
J. Hamilton, J. Graham,
A. Blair, Wm. M. Beetew,
W. H. Miller, E. Parker.
G. Metzger,

THE SABBATH DAY.

Partly, as directed by the judicatories of our Church,
and partly, as observing that the secular papers most
in circulation in this community are engaged in a
crusade against the sanctity of the Sabbath day, I
feel it my duty, in rightly dividing the word of truth,
to call your attention at this time to a few thoughts
on the command of our God, as recorded, Exodus
xx. 8:
EEMEMBER the sabbath day to keep it holy.
The Sabbath is the oldest positive religious institu
tion in the world. It came, with the institution of
marriage, out of the ruins of Paradise. It wadset
up, in honour of His own work, by the Great Master
Builder, when he finished "the heavens and the earth,
and the host of them," and looked upon "everything
that he had made, and behold it was very good." He
had created all things out of nothing ; and day after
day, did the Almighty One, who might at once have
spoken all things into order and into beauty, go on to
form and fashion and perfect the work of his hands.
With most wise designs, did the Creator thus arrange
his work, that all things might bear an adaptation to
the creature man, for whom he was fitting up this

4 THE SABBATH DAY.
magnificent dwelling-place. "Light dawned upon chaos
on the first day, and then, in the Divine order, this
broad firmament was expanded over us — the waters
were separated from the dry land — the earth pro
duced the grass, and herb, and tree, at the command
of God ; — those great light bearers, the sun and moon
and stars, the measurers of our times and seasons,
were hung «p in the sky ; — the waters send forth all
their fishy tribes, and the winged fowl that fly above
the earth, in the firmament of heaven : the earth also
produces every living creature after his kind, and the
cattle, and the creeping things : and last of all, when
all was made ready for his reception, God created
man in his own image, and placed him in this world
of beauty and of happiness, and gave him dominion
over the works of his hands.
Now, first of all, the Almighty Maker and Ruler
will put a mark upon his creation, that shall com
memorate his work, and that shall point his intelligent
creatures up to him, to the end of time. Upon the
revolutions of the heavenly bodies are laid the divi
sions of days, and months, and years. Then, in the
heavens above us, is the dial-plate, where those
changes are registered, and where we may read them.
But independent of all these, and not coinciding with
them, nor to be learned by them — of the same sove
reign good pleasure of his own will, by which he
spread the work of creation over six days, and then
set one day as a day of rest, has God appointed to
man this same arbitrary, septennary, division of his
time. Six days for labour ; for in six days the Lord

THE SABBATH DAY. 0
God made the heaven and the earth, and the seas, and
all that in them is, and the seventh day for rest;
because on the seventh day the Lord rested from his
work, which he created and made.
Here then stands the fact. There is this arbitrary
separation of time, into periods of seven days, with one
day of peculiar sanctity, known and observed among
all the nations of antiquity, and yet resting upon no
foundation, that can be discovered by unaided human
reason. The life of man is thus subdivided into these
strictly conventional periods of six days for labour, cut
off, distinguished, from one another by a day of rest,
a day in which he must not labour. And when we
wonder and are astonished at this, and when we ask,
"Why is it?" then we go backward, and we mount
upward to the great Creator. We learn that he has
so appointed it, because it pleased him to do all the
work of creation in six days, and on the seventh to
rest, and to refresh himself in the contemplation of
the work of his hands. This is his perpetual memo
rial, as the Creator. Six days beheld all things, at
the Almighty fiat, rushing and struggling, and heav
ing and tossing to and fro, and rising out of confusion
and chaos into order an,d beauty. But then the work
was done. The sun of the seventh day rose in tran
quil glory upon a world of loveliness — a world of
rest. God rested from his labours. He looked abroad
upon all his works, and pronounced them good. The
Creator and the creature in unbroken harmony re
joiced together. Then was the first Sabbath — the
Sabbath that God sanctified — a day of holy joy —
1*

b THE SABBATH DAY.
such a day as this world has not since seen — as it
will not see again until the dawn of that final Sab
bath of which this day is to us now the sacramental
pledge. On that day heaven and earth were com
mingled. From the throne of Jehovah poured down
the great floods of Divine blessing, and hill and dale,
and tree and flower, the rustling brook, and the 'great
swelling ocean, reflected back the glory of their
Maker. Man, in his original holiness, sent up sweet
notes of praise; — "the morning stars sang together,
and all the sons of God shouted for joy."
Thus was established the law of this world. What
ever God may have done upon other planets, or in
other worlds, upon this globe which we inhabit, he has
set the rule of six days for labour, and the seventh
for holy rest. This rule thus established, in its radical
principles, is as much a part of this system, as the
revolution of the seasons, or the law of gravitation.
It was set upon man, as man, as the intelligent crea
ture of God. Even then, in his innocence, by labour
without weariness, by a refreshing and invigorating
labour, was he to keep the garden, in which God had
placed him, during the six days of the week. And
then, though all was pure, and all his work was to the
glory of God — even then, in quiet and repose, looking
upward to the great, and holy, and beneficent Creator,
and communing with him in peace and in joy, and
looking forward to the time when even these, not
laborious, toils would be ended, and the bright Sab
bath of eternal rest would swallow up all things in
its unchanging glory, was man to keep the seventh

THE SABBATH DAY. '
day holy to the Lord. Even then, and thus, was
man taught that he was not his own, but the crea
ture and the subject of a higher Power, to whom
he was indebted for all things, aiid by whose rule he
must in all things be governed. Even then, and
thus, was man taught that this world was not his
home; that there were more abundant blessings in
store for the pure and obedient. Even then, and
thus, in the world of holiness and peace, it pleased
God to give the intimations and the foretaste of a
more glorious and perfect state of full and unchanging
blessedness. Even then, when every pulse of the
heart of man throbbed in unison with his Maker,
these special seasons of holy worship, of communion
with Heaven, were set to him, both as a privilege and
as a duty. Even then, was man called away from
earthly cares, and for one day in' seven, the gate of
heaven's temple was opened, and as the harmonious
strains of angelic music floated downward, he was
invited to join with voice and heart in these songs,
and to prepare for the time when all his labours here
should cease, and he should rise to enter upon the
joys of their' eternal Sabbath. Thus, in the days of
man's innocence, this Sabbath, this seventh day reser
ved to himself, was God's mark of his favour put
upon his own work — the pledge of his present com
munion with his creatures, and also of their final rest
in blessedness with him.
And now that man has fallen from his high estate,
and earth and heaven meet no more as one, in the
choral song of unending praise, this alone remains to

8 THE SABBATH DAY.
us of those religious institutions, which were the glory
and the bliss of Eden. God has not taken away his
Sabbath from this world, because he has not wholly
withdrawn his goodness from us; because pity and
compassion now follow the ruined, the rebel. When
the Sabbath ceases, through our sins, to be the mark
of complacency and approbation, then it remains as a
pledge of mercy. It is the sign that God will yet do
us good — that he will redeem the world — that not
withstanding our iniquity, he will yet bring out of our
race his ransomed ones, to that "rest which remaineth
for the people of God." It was because the Lord
God promised a Saviour to our fallen first parents,
that he allowed them his Sabbaths; that he did not
leave this blessing also with the others, under the
terrible guard of the double flaming sword. There is
no Sabbath in the world of despair, because there is
no gospel of mercy there. But God has continued
his Sabbaths to this fallen, sin-ruined world, because
he here reveals himself in the riches of his forgiving
love, by his Almighty Son, our blessed Saviour. He
has left this remembrancer of his own rest; this anti
cipation of future rest, because he will yet bring mul
titudes of our race to enjoy that forfeited blessing.
While man and beast, yea and the ground also, bear
continually the curse of sin, the Lord of mercy has
yet left this holy thing pure, untarnished, as from
paradise, among us. That day, which he blessed and
sanctified, remains yet a blessed and holy day. He
has not obliterated its sanctity, nor will he do it.
Amid all the wreck and the ruin of the fall — in all

THE SABBATH DAY. V
the dark phases of man's iniquity, and man's guilt —
and amid all the fierce outpourings of Jehovah's
wrath, here, in the Sabbath, is the bright seal of hea
ven, to show that God has not entirely forsaken us ;
the pledge that we shall not be utterly consumed.
It is the halo of glory that surrounds the hand of
God, as he upholds this world from the abyss of
woe. It is a fragment of that bright sky of heavenly
peace, which shone upon the world in its primeval
loveliness. It is the proof that one day these dark
clouds of sin and of the curse shall be rolled away,
and the Sun of heaven shall again shine with an
abiding lustre upon the new earth wherein dwelleth
righteousness. It is a single, lonely strain of that
song of the morning stars, and of the sons of God,
sounding ever, through the discords of this dark and
troubled world — telling of mercy, and telling of hope,
until it shall at last be caught up by the mighty cho
rus, and re-echoed by all the redeemed ones on mount
Zion above.
This is why the Sabbath should be our delight,
why it is the holy of the Lord, and demands all our
honour and reverence. It is the seal of God's mercy
to a ruined world. It is the rift in the dark clouds
of the curse about us, through which we may look up
and behold the sky of heaven's peace, whence we have
fallen, and may hope and long again to rise thither.
In it are wrapped up all the blessings of God to man.
Where there is no Sabbath, there is no light from
heaven ; no saving knowledge of God ; no communion
with him; no hope of eternal bliss. All is dark, and

10 THE SABBATH DAY.
desolate, and dreary. Sin, and contention, and strife,
and abounding wickedness here on earth, and the
fearful prospect of eternal darkness in the world of
wrath. But where the Sabbath dawns, with its peace
ful light upon our troubled, noisy, guilty world, there
is quiet, and rest, and wholesome restraint. There is
God manifest in his mercy and his grace. And there
is the promise and the hope of a Sabbath of rest, in
that blessed kingdom, into which sin enters not;
"where they go no more out, and where God shall
wipe away all tears from their eyes."
This is why the Lord God reiterated this command
out of the thunders and the lightnings of Sinai: —
why he wrote it with his own finger upon the endu
ring tables of stone ; yea, and re-wrote it, when Moses
had broken the tables, as man had broken the laws
contained by them. It is a law for all men and for
all time. He will not have his goodness forgotten,
nor his thoughts of mercy frustrated. Wicked men
may despise his holy laws. They may sin against
the seal of his mercy, by polluting his holy day. But
they cannot prevent that mercy, nor destroy its pledge;
They can only secure their own destruction. If they
will trample on his Sabbath, they shall have no en
trance, through these holy gates, into the blessed city
of his eternal rest. In darkness they shall go on
into outer darkness. But the renewed ones, those
that love his earthly Sabbaths, and rejoice here to
draw near in them to God, and to remember his word,
they shall come home to the eternal joy, which is thus

THE SABBATH DAY. 11
prefigured, and shall exult in the blessed Sabbath of
eternity, in the kingdom of God and of the Lamb.
This is why that blessed One — the mighty God and
the Son of Man, who is Lord of the Sabbath — by
his own example when risen, and by the teachings
of his Spirit to the inspired Apostles, changed the
Sabbath from the seventh to the first day. Forfeited by
man's sin, since Paradise, it is continued as an insti
tution of mercy, through the mediation of the Son of
God in our behalf. It was proper therefore, when
this great sacrifice was finished, and the work of the
new creation was accomplished, that the day of the
Almighty Saviour's rest should be the day of our com
memoration. "This is the day which the Lord has
made, we will rejoice and be glad in it." The Sab
bath of the covenant of works and of the law was the
seventh day, preceded by the days of labour, to show
that only by a full obedience to the law could a title
to this rest be obtained. But the Saviour of sinners
has set the Sabbath anew, upon the first day, to show
us, that not by works, but only in his righteousness,
and of free gift do we obtain a title to eternal joy; —
yea, and that from him alone springs all strength for
the duties which are enjoined upon us. God himself
has made this change from one day to the other, in
their relative position as we number the week. But
he has made no change in the spirit of the institution,
at the creation, of one day in seven, as a day of rest.
He has made no change from the precept, which he
thundered out from Sinai: "Remember the Sabbath
. DAY TO KEEP IT HOLY."

12 THE SABBATH DAY.
Upon this high and solemn ground stands the insti
tution of the Sabbath. It is not a device, nor an
invention of man. It is an appointment of God. It
was not designed for a particular people merely; nor
simply for a specified and limited time. It is the
token of God's power, and the pledge of his gbodness
to man as man ; to all the race, everywhere, and at
all times. It is his law for all his intelligent creatures
on this earth. Man cannot abrogate this law. He
cannot modify nor change it, any more than he can
stay the uprising of the morning sun. He may dis
regard it. He may set it at defiance. He may blot
out of his own heart all regard to it, and he may
teach others to do the same. But just so surely as
the stone cast upwards into the heavens will return
upon the head of the one who projected it, will the
penalty of this law of God come down upon its viola
tor. The Lord Almighty is jealous of his honour.
He has set blessings, temporal and spiritual, upon the
observance of this day. He has set curses, in time
and in eternity, upon its violation. Neither the
blessings nor the curses will fail.
1. Crod has set this law upon our physical system.
The adaptation of man to the world which he inha
bits, is one of the clearest indications of an all-wise
and beneficent Creator. When he launched forth
this globe to take its position in the regions of space,
he gave it that motion upon its own axis, which causes
it alternately to be bathed in sunlight, and to be
shrouded in darkness. And in accordance with this
has he formed our physical frames; — yea, and our

THE SABBATH DAY. 13
minds also, as they are in connection with our bodies.
The day for labour and the night for rest. This is the
law of the human system that cannot be violated with
impunity. He that sets himself against it, sets him
self against the Creator, and will be sure to suffer.
So deeply is it impressed upon our nature, and so
universal is its application, that in those portions of
the earth where the alternations of light and dark
ness are at greater intervals, even there men are gov
erned by the same law, requiring them to change
labour for rest, constantly, within the period of the
twenty-four hours. The human frame will not long
endure any other order, and where the necessities of
any course of life infringe upon this, there, almost
invariably, the average duration of life is diminished.
With equal certainty and force has God set upon
our frames the need of one day in seven for rest.
He has so constituted us, that the night does not
repair all the loss of energy, the wear and tear of the
day. There is yet every day a balance against us,
which can be wiped off only by the weekly rest. We
need quiet and repose in the daytime, and in the
sunlight, as well as in the darkness. We need the
repose of the waking, active mind, as well as of the
mind in 'torpor, and in sleep. We need to refresh
ourselves, by casting aside all our worldly cares, and
by employing our thoughts upon the high, and calm,
and tranquilizing themes of eternity. Yea, it may
be, that the mind of man shall be more active, shall
be more exalted, and be filled with deeper, stronger,
greater thoughts on the Sabbath, than in all the days
2

14 THE SABBATH DAY.
of the week beside, and yet he shall enjoy this rest.
It runs in other channels — in channels that invigorate
and refresh. It is relieved from all that tends to
harrow, and irritate, and perplex, and weary. It
rises from earth, and soars heavenward. It rejoices
in the light of heaven, and is strengthened by the
purer air that breathes above. And on the morning
of the day of labour, man returns to his work with
renewed vigour of mind and of body. The bow has
been unbent, and has recovered "its elasticity, and
with fresh zeal, with cheerful activity, man now lays
hold of his accustomed toil.
Thus has God constituted us. Thus has he, who
worked six days in creating the- world, and then rested
on the seventh, formed us, his creatures, likewise, for
six days of labour, and one of rest. This is the order
for which our systems are adapted. Just as we are
made to recover from the fatigues of the day, by the
sleep of the night, are we made also to repair the
fatigues of the week, and to recruit our wasting ener
gies, by the sacred rest of the Sabbath. This is the
law of our being — the law of every one that comes
into the world, just as much as it is that we should
live by the food which we eat. True, we feel not so
soon and so sensibly the penalty of its violation. But
this penalty is equally certain and equally unavoid
able. Other things being equal, he that properly
observes the Sabbath, will live longer, will enjoy
better health, and will do more work, than he who
violates this day of rest. This is a fact, so established
that it cannot 1>e denied. It is a fact, too, in regard

THE SABBATH DA5T. 15
also to the animals that man employs in his labours.
To these also, in Divine Providence, does this law
extend, as they are connected with man. And it is
also a fact, that this result does not follow any other
interval of days. It is the rest of one day in seven
that God has appointed. It is the need of just pre
cisely this rest, which he has enstamped upon our
nature. And as the physical penalty of this law, has
he set disease, and insanity, and premature old age.
But be it remembered, that a change of dissipation
for labour is not the rest which God has appointed,
and which God has blessed. It is God, our Maker,
who has formed our systems to this need. And that
which we need, is such an "employment of the day as
he has enjoined. He has fitted the one to the other.
When he has commanded us to keep the day holy to
his service, then just this holy service, and nothing
else, is what our systems, made conformably to this
law, require. We may plead that we need other rest ;
that we must lounge upon our beds, or escape into
the green fields, or seek the frolic and the dance.
But we only deceive ourselves. We cannot thus
secure the physical benefit of the day. We cannot
thus escape the penalty of its violation. These are
not what God has commanded. They are not what
the system needs, and they will not refresh it. They
are what God has forbidden ; and they will wear us
out more and more. No man ever went to his work
refreshed and invigorated, after a Sabbath of idleness,
or of dissipation, or of unholy pleasure. Strange as
it may seem to an ungodly world, he that has spent

16 THE SABBATH DAY.
his Sabbath in the house of God, and in holy com
muning with his Maker, he it is that enters anew upon
his daily toils with cheerful alacrity. He has gone
up to the fountain of life, and has come back with
new vigour, and new strength. It is one of the false
hoods of Satan, that man cannot bear the confinement
of the Sabbath after the confinement of the week.
In the house of God, and in his service, has our Maker
set the green pastures, and the still waters of our
refreshing and our rest. There alone must we seek
and find them. Everywhere else God has set weari
ness and a curse, now and for ever.
But, 2. Above this physical law, is ihe moral use
of the Sabbath.
This has God placed as the great regulator of
human society. It was first set, as we have seen, as
the mark of the Creator upon his own work — the
proof of his delight in it; the day in which the
Creator and the creature might rejoice together ; and
the pledge to man, that at last, he should enter upon
an eternal rest.
And so, when we had sinned agamst God, and had
forfeited his favour, we lost all right to the rest'of the
Sabbath.' We could no longer keep it to the first
designed end. And it had been just in God to
deprive us of this privilege; to take away all bar
riers from the evil of our hearts: to let us go loose
and unrestrained into all iniquity. But he is a God
of mercy, as well as a God of justice. He had before
determined not to leave us to ourselves. Even in
this sinful world he purposed to set up his kingdom,

THE SABBATH DAY. 17
and to gather its subjects from among the guilty, pol
luted children of Adam. He had determined not to
allow to Satan the full enjoyment of the victory he
had gained over the creature, but to deliver the prey
from the hands of the mighty. And so he will set
metes and bounds to the wickedness, and the wrath
of men and of devils. They shall rage only as he has
ordained to overrule them to his own glory; and
"the remainder of wrath will he restrain."
And with the spiritual blessings of salvation by
Christ Jesus, has God connected all temporal bless
ings, all the welfare of individuals and of society.
The promise of the life that now is, is joined to that
which is to come. The stability, and the quiet, and
the good order, and the well-being of human society
are found in close and inseparable connection with
the gift of heavenly grace. These earthly and tem
poral blessings are the flowers of heavenly fragrance,
that drop from the robe of the angel flying in mid-
heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach to all
nations. Now, all the means which God has set in motion,
all the instrumentality that he has appointed to the
perfecting of his mighty designs of mercy, are found
wrapped up in this institution of the Sabbath. We
do not disparage any of the works of God, when we
say, that such is the dependent harmony of means,
which he has established, that without a holy, sancti
fied Sabbath, the Bible is robbed of its power — the
Church ceases, and true religion is swept from the
face of the earth.
2*

18 THE SABBATH DAY.
Here, then, is the great barrier which our God has
set up against the floods of iniquity; the great puri
fier of the moral atmosphere of this world. Once in
seven days God stoops down from heaven; and he
calls all his creatures to behold him upon his throne,
as the Sovereign and the Judge. For six days the
world is in the heart of man. The cares, the desires,
the follies, the passions of this world, go on from
strength to strength. Day after day they increase in
power over him; they threaten to debase him — to
degrade this child of immortality to the earth-worm —
the slave of things earthly and perishing.' But the
light of the peaceful Sabbath dawns upon him. The
voice of the Almighty Jehovah is heard, in its quietness
and rest. Its holy hours speak to him of immor
tality, of his destiny in eternity. The church of God
and the word of God send forth their hallowing influ
ences, like oil upon the troubled waters. There is
time for reflection and for meditation; for the chafed
and excited passions to subside; for man to remember
his true position in this world of God — his relations to
his God, and to the community of his fellow-men.
There is a pause in the turmoil and the whirl of life,
and man can recover himself from the bewilder
ing passions of the week, and let judgment and wis
dom resume the throne. There is time for man to con
sider himself as the creature of the holy God, and to
look away from earth,. and from the things of time, to
the judgment of the great day ; to bring the influences
of that dread tribunal to bear upon his present con
duct, and now, in the day of mercy, to prepare to

THE SABBATH DAY. 19
meet his God. Upon this holy Sabbath day, our God
sets his hand to stay the surging billows of earthliness.
Out of heaven, he speaks the command, "Peace, be
still," to the storm-troubled waters. And as the calm
of the world of glory settles down upon this world of
sin, all holy influences cluster around us to allure us
to that blessed service, which ends in the sanctuary
of eternal joy and eternal rest.
And to this end, the all-wise Jehovah, who has
appointed to us his Sabbaths, because we need them,
and has also appointed to his Sabbaths that peculiar
service, which we need; to this end has he set open
the doors of his sanctuary — the outer gates of heaven
— and has commanded his ministering servants to
speak to the people all the words of his holy law.
This is God's day. Six days has he given to his crea
tures for all their labours. But the seventh day he
has not given to us. He has reserved it as holy time
to himself, and he appoints its duties and its employ
ments. On this day, we are to cast the world from
our thoughts, and from our hearts. We are to draw
near to God, as his creatures, and to hear the words
of truth at his mouth. God alone has the right to
speak on this his own holy day. This day we are to
recognize ourselves the creatures of God, and the sub
jects of his kingdom. This day are we to come to the
house of God; to compare ourselves with his holy
law; to learn our true condition in his sight; to
charge home upon our consciences all our guilt, and
all our danger, and the fearful doom of those that sin
against the Lord Jehovah. This day are we to turn

20 THE SABBATH DAY.
off our eyes from beholding vanities — to look in ear
nest upon the fearful realities that surround us; to
flee for refuge to the hope of glory set before us in
Christ Jesus.
Now when the Lord our God has set all his re
vealed glory upon the gospel of his Son ; when he has
made all the instrumentality for the declaring of that
gospel, so intimately to depend upon the sanctification
of the Sabbath; then also, of necessity, upon this
foundation of a holy and reverent regard for this
blessed day, has he laid all the well-being of society,
all sure trust for morality and virtue in any individual
man. He who founded human society, and who
knows its wants, and the sure means of strengthening
and supporting it, has set this day, and this solemn
observance of it, as the only firm and certain bond of
good order and stability. Those that seek his honour
in the greater and spiritual blessings, shall have those
also that are temporal. Those that despise him in
regard to the first shall fail of all.
Here upon this point turns the welfare of human
society. A Sabbath keeping community is always a
well regulated, an intelligent community. A Sabbath
keeping man is guarded against vice and evil, in all
their forms, just as strongly as it is possible for man
on earth to be guarded by anything outward — by any
power but the grace of God shed abroad in his heart
by the Holy Spirit. And he is also in the way where
God meets men with this gift of his heavenly grace.
And, on the other hand, a Sabbath breaking com
munity is always a disorderly, a vicious community.

THE SABBATH DAY. 21
And if the individual, habitual, Sabbath breaker, be
not a vicious man, and a bad member of society, he is
an exception to the general rule. He has thrown
away the last safeguard, which a God of mercy has
set to restrain our fallen sinful nature. He avoids
that one thing on earth, which brings us into contact
with a preserving influence. He is out of the way of
all good. He is in the way of all evil.
Here in the Sabbath of God, devoted to his service,
in his holy house, is found the sheet anchor of human
society, set of God to this end. By this alone can
society, or an individual, swing safely at their moor
ings, over the troubled waves of life. Cut loose from
this, man is surely and certainly cast off from the
favour of God, both now and for ever. He is adrift
— out of reach of that all-comprehending influence for
good, which God has appointed. He is in the midst
of every influence for evil. In this land of the gospel,
and of Christian Sabbaths, no man can deliberately
turn his back upon the house of God, and the wor
ship of God, and thus pollute his holy day, without a
fearful hardening and searing of his conscience. And
if he has come to this point in the career of evil,
where will he go ? It is a fearful question for him to
ask. But he should ask it. He should know that
the community, now aroused to consider the appalling
evils of Sabbath breaking about us, has begun seri
ously and Sflberly to ask this question. He "should
know that good and intelligent men are setting the
mark of suspicion, especially upon those young per
sons who are habitually absent from the house of

22 THE SABBATH DAY.
God on the Sabbath. He should look upon the devel
opments of every day in this respect, and ask himself
solemnly, what is the tendency of his course. He
should cast his thoughts upward to the just and jeal
ous Jehovah, whom he is setting at defiance, in the
point of his greatest honour, and ask himself how he
can escape the wrath and the curse of Almighty God,
both now and for ever.
Finally, my brethren, here is the law of our safety.
It is God's law for his creatures, the same yesterday,
to-day, and for ever. It is that alone which he has
set as our security and our strength. It is that alone
which will assure our welfare as individuals, and as a
community. ^"Kemember the Sabbath day to keep
it holy." This is the law appointed by Him who
worked six days, and so has given us six days to
labour. It is His law, who rested the seventh day,
and who therefore commands us to rest, and to re
member him. It is the law of Him, who died to
redeem us — the great and glorious Author of salva
tion. It looks back to the rest of holiness in the
garden of Eden, whence we are fallen. It looks back
to the morning of Christ's resurrection, when the
powers of hell were robbed of their spoil, and life and
immortality were brought to the sons of Adam. It
looks forward to the full triumph of the ascended Re
deemer and bids us, frail, sinning mortals, aspire to that
rest which remaineth for the people of God. It is the
pledge of God's love to a sin-ruined world. It is the
only point in which this world resembles heaven,
where reigns an eternal Sabbath of holy joy. And

THE SABBATH DAY. 23
so it comes to us from the skies freighted with every
blessing. It upholds the soul in good, by all the
motives of this world, and of the world to come. It
is the shield that heaven Ijas set against all the tempta
tions of iniquity. It is the tranquil barrier that divides
the billows of evil, the surging waves of man's pas
sions, and the torrents of earthliness and sensuality ;
that prevents them from rolling on ever, in one tre
mendous, overwhelming, unbroken, ever increasing
line of breakers, to sweep away all that is fair and
lovely in this sinful world. The land of Sabbaths can
never be a land of strife and discord, and heaven-defy
ing contention. The conscientious keeper of the Sab
bath can never be carried away headlong by wickedness
and crime. Upon all the uprisings and outbreakings
of the six days, comes down the calm and tranquil
Sabbath rest, an angel of mercy to soothe the troubled
waters. Judgment is called again to her throne: —
the roaring waves are rebuked in the presence of
heaven's quiet, and all is peace. Here is our strength
and confidence for time. Here do we find, and nour
ish our hopes for eternity. But remove the Sabbath ;
shut out this glorious light of heaven ; — disturb by the
storms of earth this calm and peaceful atmosphere of
the blessed; — drive away the holy angel of peace,
coming thus at these hallowed intervals, to stay
the tempests of evil, and all barriers against the
full outworking of depravity are at once removed.
Wickedness mounts upon wickedness, crime upon
crime, and evil upon evil, until this world becomes a
pandemonium, a fit threshold to that eternal hell

24 THE SABBATH DAY.
where there are no Sabbaths — but endless sinning,
and endless wrath.
Now, because this is so great a blessing, the cover
ing and conveyance of all our blessings, the God of
love has set it home with power upon our consciences,
and upon our hearts, and has enjoined its strictest
observance. " In it thou shalt not do any work, thou,
nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy man-servant,
nor thy maid servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger
that is within thy gates."
Here then is our duty as individuals, as fathers,
and as mothers, as employers, as good citizens, as
lovers of our country, and as those who fear God.
Especially is it our duty, at this moment, when
ungodly men, for the love of gain, are working with
all the energy of wickedness, to pollute and banish
this holy day from our cities, from our commonwealth
and from the land. In every station and in every
relation in life, we — each one of us — every one that
would do good, and not evil — that would bring God's
blessing, and not his curse upon himself and upon his
fellow-men, we all are to see to it, that we ourselves
keep this day holy to the Lord, and that we do all in
our power to cause others to do so likewise. And may
God, in his mercy, save this people from the great sin
of despising and trampling upon his holy Sabbaths !
Amen !

THE END.

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