moned to bow the knee, and to thank the Fountain and the Author of it, as the man that has a sanctified heart feels it his privilege to bow his knee, and to bless the Holy Spirit that gave it, for this his distinguishing grace and mercy.

- to

After recapitulating all those things which these artisans were raised up to construct, God reverts to his Law, referring to the law repeatedly stated before, respecting the Sabbath. Now just notice that, he warns them, while telling them that they were thus to accomplish and complete the furniture of the tabernacle, that they were, at the same time, not to go on with this work upon the Sabbath day. Now mark you, the work that He assigned to Bezaleel, the son of Uri, the son of Hur, was essentially a sacred work; but He says, Though it be so, you are not to carry on that work upon the Sabbath day. For instance, now, to study God's wisdom in the beautiful flowers of the field, study his beneficence in all the laws that regulate living organisms, is so far a divine work; but yet it is work that belongs to the week day: it does not specifically belong to the Sabbath. The six days of the week are for teaching what God the Creator is; but there is one day in the week that ought to be specially devoted to inquire what God the Redeemer has done. Let Saturday, if you like, be for the commemoration of creation work; but let the Sabbath days be consecrated to the study of Redemption work. And hence, to build a church is a sacred work. But it would be just as wicked to build churches on Sunday, as to build theatres. It is not the end of a work that will vindicate that work, upon a day on which it is not proper: that day has its own peculiar service, it is sanctified to its own peculiar study. And you may depend upon it, that those who are trying to teach the working man to give up the Sabbath to worldly amusements and enjoyment, are taking away from him stealthily, it may be unintentionally, his best and his most precious birthright. Once take the Sabbath off its

divine foundation, and say it is lawful to go to the Crystal Palace for amusement on the Sabbath, instead of going to the house of God, and the next step in these avaricious, grinding days will be, "Well, you admit that the Sabbath has no divine warrant; why should you have one day out of the seven for play, when we want to have you do more in the workshop?" If the Sabbath be once taken from the service of God, you may depend upon it that it cannot long be kept from the drudgery and slavery of Mammon. At the same time, I have always felt, in reference to that subject about which so much has been said, and so much wrongly said, that we cannot practically maintain the Sabbath for the Christian instruction of the people of this country, unless we contrive to give them Saturday, or a portion of Saturday, for a holiday. You may depend upon it, that Christian people who love the Sabbath will never give it up; but many think that the minister of the gospel, in advocating the claims of the Sabbath, is only trying to keep a congregation for himself, which he is conscious that he cannot interest or amuse, and therefore he is afraid that they should go and be better amused elsewhere than in the house of God. But when we know, looking at this great city with its nearly three millions of inhabitants, that there are men toiling in it from six, from seven o'clock in the morning till eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, at night; some in underground cellars, others in miserable garrets, never breathing a breath of fresh air, forgetting what flowers are, or how they smell, or how green grass looks; I say, when we think of this, it appears most cruel to say to these men, You shall never go out on the only day on which it is possible for you to see the flowers, and to breathe the fresh air. And when we feel that we cannot give up the Sabbath, because it is a divine institution when we feel that the fourth commandment is a law that we never can compromise when we feel that the soul of man demands it, we may say

to those men that are attempting the desecration of the Sabbath, "You just give up a little of your six days; let your young men free every Saturday at two o'clock; let them go and enjoy the flowers, and breathe the fresh air, and visit the Crystal Palace, which will be worth any one's while to visit, and in which there will be much that is fitted to instruct and to edify, and much that is good. Do this. Just take a little from the exactions of Mammon, but do not intrude upon the holy day of God." The injunction that is by many laid upon the working man is this: "You may trespass upon God's day as you like; but you must not trespass, for the life of you, upon Mammon's." Now you say, "We will not trespass upon God's day, we will dedicate it to its right ends; we believe in its divine foundation; but we do insist upon your giving up a portion of a week day; and you may depend upon it that you will not be one whit poorer, or in any degree the loser, and we shall be richer; you will do that which will not rob you, and which will make us rich indeed." Of course all that I have said upon this subject assumes that the Sabbath is still obligatory upon man: I do not attempt to prove it here, though it is very easily done. It has always been found, that the instant the Sabbath is sacrificed to pleasure, that moment the sanctuary loses all its blessings, and a nation retrogrades and sinks in all that dignifies and beautifies a land. Just take the Sabbath as it is in parts of Prussia; see the Sabbath as it is there; view it still more so as it is in France; and you will see that the sacrifice of the Sabbath is the sacrifice of one of the most precious springs of Christianity; and a nation suffers necessarily in consequence in all its interests.

But while we contend for the Sabbath, let us, as ministers of the gospel, try to make the sanctuary so interesting that the people shall find more pleasure in texts than they ever can in the contemplation of the beauties of a Crystal

Palace and let those who keep the Sabbath because they are Christians, show that it is not a day that God has cursed, but a day that God has blessed; let them show that it is not a Pharisaic day, for fasting, and for all that can sadden and make sorrowful; but a day of joy, a delightful day, a day of privilege:-not Jewish, but Christian; and breathing the air and feeling the sunshine of love, and joy, and peace, which are constituent elements of the gospel of Christ.

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CHAPTER XXXI.

TABERNACLE FURNITURE.

WE find a summary of all the furniture, about which we have been reading, in the Epistle to the Hebrews, in these words:

"Then verily the first covenant had also ordinances of divine service, and a worldly sanctuary. For there was a tabernacle made; the first, wherein was the candlestick, and the table, and the shewbread; which is called the sanctuary. And after the second veil, the tabernacle which is called the Holiest of all: which had the golden censer, and the ark of the covenant overlaid round about with gold, wherein was the golden pot that had manna, and Aaron's rod that budded, and the tables of the covenant; and over it the cherubims of glory shadowing the mercy-seat; of which we cannot now speak particularly."

HEBREWS ix. 1, 5.

Let me, first of all, explain the connection of the passage I have read with the argument of the apostle in the previous chapter. He tells them, that the covenant made, or the bargain if I may use a familiar expression, the arrangement made with God's people- has passed away, and that " this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people." And, "In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away." This was not merely suited to the people of the day, but suited for the worship of God; for it had also ordi