very soon obliterated. It is absolutely necessary that the chain of our ideas should be broken, and a new system of reflections introduced; the cessation of business and amusement, the quiet of the Sabbath, the unusual appearance of objects, the solemnity of manner, and deportment, observable on this day, have all some little tendency to rouse the most thoughtless, to awe the most profligate into a sense of duty, and to inspire feelings of contrition, and remorse: The remembrance of youthful feelings has ever a strong influence on the minds of men; those who have been brought up, when young, in a pious observance of the Sabbath, to whom religious instruction has been rendered pleasant by sweetness of manner, and dexterity of management, can never meet the Sabbath without experiencing, in some small degree, the same interesting feelings; and when they have tried in vain the pleasures of sin, and found (as I firmly believe every man must find, that happiness is derived only from that righteousness which the gospel of Christ prescribes,) they will return to the Sabbath, and seek from the

alm sanctity of that day, the pure enjoyments of their youth.

ટામ The importance of the Sabbath admitted; the first question arising from the subject, concerns the best method of pass ing it. The rule our Saviour has given us is one of the greatest importance; the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath; that is, man was not created for the mere purpose of complying with cer tain ceremonies, and obeying certain prohi bitions; but these ceremonies were insti tuted, and these prohibitions enacted to produce an effect upon man, to mortify in him all sinfulness of the flesh, to cherish in him the spirit of righteousness, and to meliorate his fallen nature: The Sabbath, in fact, was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. Taking the text in this sense, I shall proceed to observe upon the method of passing the Sabbath.

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o vodoab

The commonexcuse, in the minds of those who are so unhappily frivolous that they can not abstain from unbecoming amusements, even on the Sabbath, is, that if they were not doing what they do do, they should be doing

something worse. But this style of reasoning, if it can possibly justify any fault, must justify all, except the greatest: things are either good, or bad in themselves; a bad thing is not good, because others are worse, nor is it any excuse for walking in the paths of sin, that we are only mid-way, and have not yet reached the extremity; the answer is surely very obvious to such an excuse; why do you continue in such an ungodly state, that you must either do that which you do not approve, or something else, which you approve still less? Why must your progress be from negligence to guilt, and why the very moment that you abstain from levity on the Sabbath must you be charged with crime? the fact may be true; but it is no justification of your contempt for the Sabbath; it is only to say, though we are unwilling to make those sacrifices, and exertions, necessary to a discharge of our duty, we will not deviate from that duty grossly; we will disobey God in a method as little burthensome to our conscience as possible; but disobey him we must: such is the plain meaning of that style of reasoning, which many of us are unfortunate enough to con

sider as an excuse for the violation of the Sabbath. Amusement on the Sabbath is not vice, perhaps, but untimely amusement leads to ungodliness, by checking seriousness, and sanctity of thought, and by breaking down the barriers of propriety: The greater part of those, who avail themselves, to any Christian purpose, of the institution of the Sabbath, do not do so perhaps, from any preconceived resolution; but the quiet solemnity of the day, and the total alteration of the usual appearances, insensibly introduce a new train of ideas, which could never be the case, if the same resources of frivolous dissipation were equally accessible at every period. On this day, the pastor, standing between God and the people, and clothed about with doctrines of truth, boldly speaks of faith, and charity, and holy love, and preaches Christ crucified, and the sound of the trumpet, the dead rising from their graves, and the life of the world to come; and when he 'hears these things, (for on this day alone he does hear them,) the miscreant of this earth trembles, the loftiest guilt gathers paleness, the cross is lifted. up on high,

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and every soul is prostrate at the feet of Christ. It is on this day, perhaps, that the man who has been gathering, and hoarding all his life, begins first to find his confidence in earthly treasures weakened and impaired; on this day, the strong think of death; the youthful of old age; the comely of pale disease; on this day, the son of pleasure starts from his delicious. vices, and thinks of a world to come.

F

!

Those common amusements, the innocence of which is, by some, so strongly contended for, must have a tendency to destroy completely the virtue, and efficacy of the Sabbath; it is in the absence of our usual occupations, and at the season of leisure, that conscience regains her empire over us, and that man is compelled to hear the reproaches of his own heart; the mind turned inwardly upon itself, beholds the melancholy ravages of passion, the treacherous power of pleasure, and the sad waste of life: Every recurring Sabbath properly spent, is a fresh chance for Salvation; if dignity is ever recovered after the feeling of self-degradation has been long endured; if