distinct from the idolatrous nations round about them by the institution of a special Sabbath to them in their generations, we can well account for this omission.

That there was such a specialty, and one bearing on the events we have just been considering, will very plainly appear if we examine the terms in which the Fourth Commandment is repeated by Moses, in the 5th chapter of Deuteronomy and 15th verse, with peculiar reference to the Jewish people. We find in that repetition all mention of the creation rest omitted, and these words taking the place thereof—“ And remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the Lord thy God brought thee out thence with a mighty hand and with a stretched out arm; therefore the Lord hath commanded THEE to keep the Sabbath-day." A similar specialty is mentioned in the prophet Ezekiel, 20th chapter, 12th verse-"Moreover I gave them my Sabbaths to be a sign between me and them." And again in the 20th verse—“ Hallow my Sabbaths, and they shall be a sign between me and you." The terms used in these cases would not be applicable if spoken of a generally observed or universal Sabbath. But, as if to mark that this peculiarity did not free the Jewish Sabbath from the solemnity and sanctions. of the moral law, we read both combined in the 31st chapter of Exodus, 16th and 17th verses "Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, for it is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever; for in six days the Lord. made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed."

I conclude, therefore, that while the Jewish Sabbath was a distinct and peculiar ordinance to them in their generations, yet that both they and we and all the posterity of Adam are equally bound to observe and keep the Fourth Commandment, as well as every other precept of the moral law of God.

The consideration of the Lord's-day, or Christian Sabbath, next claims our attention. In treating of this deeply interest

ing subject I shall first advert to those portions of the New Testament in which distinct mention is made of the first day of the week and the attendant circumstances which stamp peculiar sacredness upon it. I shall then bring before you those types in the Old Testament which appear to me to find their antitypes in the events which took place on that day, and afterwards allude to those prophetical Scriptures, which, as I believe, point to the religious observance of the first day of the week, as being the Lord's-day.

There can be no doubt of the fact that the day of our Lord's resurrection was the first day of the week, the morrow after the Sabbath of the Passover feast. It is distinctly stated by St. Mark that He rose early on the first day of the week; and in the 23rd chapter of Luke, 53rd and following verses, we read, "And he took it down (i.e. the body of Jesus) and wrapped it in linen, and laid it in a sepulchre, that was hewn in stone, wherein never man before was laid. And on that day was the preparation, and the Sabbath drew on, and they returned and prepared the spices, and rested the Sabbath-day according to the Scriptures." It then follows: "Now upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulchre, and they entered in, and found not the body of Jesus. And as they were much perplexed thereabout, two men stood by them in shining garments; and as they were afraid, and bowed down their heads to the earth, they said unto them, Why seek ye the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen."

It is impossible to read the narratives in which each of the evangelists records the deeply interesting events of this first day of the week, from its dawn to its very close, without being struck with the solemn importance of the whole. I shall not now detain you by attempting to give even a brief outline of their narratives: they are well known, I am convinced, to most of you; and if you will but follow in mind each step of the sacred story, you cannot fail to realise some

what of the ardent love, and the thrilling, heartfelt joy, which mark the words which were uttered and the events which took place. You will be ready to exclaim with the devoted Mary, "Raboni-my master!" to say with the two sorrowing disciples whom Jesus instructed and comforted, "Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked with us by the way and opened unto us the Scriptures ?" and to join the exulting shout of the eleven who met them on their return, the same day, to Jerusalem with the triumphant salutation, "The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared unto Simon." Surely such a Sabbath may well be called ever after, "the Lord's-day " And no doubt the weekly return of it would be hailed by the followers of Jesus with delightful recollections of the dying love and the rising glory of their beloved Master, and with all the precious memorials which consecrated its sacred hours.

But there were some among them who doubted, and Thomas boldly stipulated the only terms upon which conviction could be brought home to his mind: "Except I see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe." How thankful should we feel for the fidelity of this narrative! If this unbelief of Thomas had not been placed before us we could scarcely have been prepared to estimate the simple and beautiful record of what took place on the next Lord's-day. "After eight days again the disciples were within, and Thomas with them. Then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you. Then said he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands, and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side, and be not faithless, but believing. And Thomas answered and said, My Lord and my God! Jesus said unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me thou hast believed; blessed are they which see not, and yet have believed."

This is the last positive mention made of the actual ap

L

pearing of the Lord Jesus to his disciples on the first day of the week, unless indeed we can so consider, as I fully believe we may, his remarkable appearing to the beloved John in Patmos when he was "in the Spirit on the Lord's-day." But as we read that he was seen by five hundred brethren at once, and that he was seen of the disciples alive after his passion forty days, "speaking to them of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God, until the day that he was taken up," I think we may regard it as more than probable that he who is ever spiritually present with his people, where two or three are met together in his name, was then bodily present with them when so met on the first day of the week; and that it was their custom to meet on the first day of the week "for breaking of bread and for prayer" is abundantly proved by many subsequent passages in the New Testament.

I turn now to the significant types of the Old Testament evidently pointing to the peculiar sanctity of the first day of the week. You will remember that it was on the morrow after the Sabbath of the Passover feast that our Lord rose from the dead. The Passover was to be killed on the fourteenth day at even, that is, between the hours of three and six, at the going down of the sun, within which space it was that our Lord was crucified. The next day, the fifteenth, was the Jewish Sabbath, on which he lay in the grave. The day following, being the first day of the week, he rose from the dead. On this day, the sixteenth day of the month Abib (Nisan), was offered the sheaf of the first-fruits of the barley harvest, which was usually ripening at this season of the year. This ordinance is thus appointed in the 23rd chapter of Leviticus, 10th verse, "Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye be come into the land which I give unto you, and shall reap the harvest thereof, then ye shall bring a sheaf of the first-fruits of your harvest unto the priest; and he shall wave the sheaf before the Lord, to be accepted for you: on the morrow after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it."

Can there be any doubt that this finds its antitype in the resurrection of "Christ, the first-fruits"? "Now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first-fruits of them that slept." How clearly does this type point to the very day on which Jesus rose from the dead, and was accepted for the justification of His people!

Now, in a most remarkable connection with this typical foreshadowing of the resurrection on the first day of the week, we read in the 15th verse of the same chapter the appointment of another typical ordinance, in these words: "And ye shall count unto you, from the morrow after the Sabbath, from the day that ye brought the sheaf of the wave-offering, seven Sabbaths shall be complete; even unto the morrow after the seventh Sabbath, shall ye number fifty days, and ye shall offer a new meat-offering unto the Lord. Ye shall bring out of your habitations two wave loaves of two tenth deals; they shall be of fine flour, they shall be baken with leaven; they are the first-fruits unto the Lord." Thus we are brought to the feast of Pentecost, the morrow after the seventh Sabbath from the Passover feast, the first day of the week. I say again, Can there be any doubt that the type of the first-fruits here mentioned finds its antitype in the gathering of the firstfruits of the spiritual harvest-in the conversion of about three thousand souls by the preaching of St. Peter on the day of Pentecost" begotten," as St. James says, "by the word of truth, to be A KIND of first-fruits of his creatures "-predicted, as the Israel of God, to "be holiness to the Lord, the first-fruits of His increase "-and called in Revelation, "the first-fruits unto God and the Lamb"?

These are the only first-fruits to be waved and presented unto the Lord which I find in the Bible, and I think that on a close examination it will be found that there is so marked a distinction between them, that the one can only refer to Christ's resurrection, and the other to the first gathering of his spiritual increase. "The first of the first-fruits,"