us. From the duty of observing the Hebrew Sabbath, we are sufficiently exempted by the fact, that it was actually not observed by the apostles of Christ. The early Christians met, not on the last day of the week, but on the first. Whatever reason may be assigned as a motive for this rejection of the ancient Sabbath, I think it will tend to discountenance the observance of any day, as such: for if that day did not possess perpetual sanctity, what day does possess it? It does not appear that the obligation of observance was transferred from one day to another; because no injunction is to be found in the Christian scriptures respecting the observance of any day. The practice of meeting on the first day of the week is mentioned in four places in the New Testament; it is enjoined in none. It is spoken of as an existing practice, not as a binding duty. The simple fact that the apostles met on this day, however it may recommend it to us, does not make it obligatory, any more than the fact that they washed one another's feet makes that practice obligatory upon us. Upon such a subject, an universal obligation cannot be constituted except by a specific expression of the Divine will. Besides, amongst the Jews, both Christ and his apostles taught on the Jewish Sabbath; and if their practice merely constitutes a binding law, I know not why we should not observe two days instead of one.

1 John xx. 19, 26; Acts xx. 6,7; 1 Cor. xvi. 1, 2. In Romans xiv. 5, 6, there is a parallel passage.

1

And with respect to the general tenor of the Christian scriptures as to the sanctity of particular days, it is, I think, manifestly adverse to the opinion that one day is obligatory rather than another. "Let no man, therefore, judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holy day, or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath days; which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ." Although this "Sabbath-day" was that of the Jews, yet the passage indicates the writer's sentiments, generally, respecting the sanctity of specific days: he classes them with matters which all agree to be unimportant; with meats and drinks, and new moons; and pronounces them to be alike "shadows." That strong passage addressed to the Christians of Galatia is of the same import: "How turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage? Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years. I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain." That which, in writing to the Christians of Colosse, the apostle called "shadows," he now, in writing to those of Galatia, calls “ beggarly elements." The obvious tendency is to discredit the observance of particular periods of time; and if he designed to except the first day of the week, it is not probable that he would have failed to except it.

Nevertheless, the question whether we are obliged to observe the first day of the week,

1 Col. ii. 16, 17.

because it is the first, is one point ;—whether we ought to devote it to religious exercises, seeing that it is actually set apart for the purpose, is another. Bearing in mind, then, that it is right to devote some portion of our time to these exercises, and considering that no objection exists to the day which is actually appropriated, the duty seems very obviousso to employ it. But if for any sufficient reason, (and such reasons, however unlikely to arise, are yet conceivable,) the Christian world should fix upon the second, or third, or fourth day instead of the first, I perceive no grounds upon which the arrangement could be objected to. As there is no sanctity in any day, and no obligation to appropriate one day rather than another, that which is actually fixed upon, is the best and the right

one.

Cessation from labour on the first day of the week, is no where enjoined in the Christian scriptures. Upon this subject, the principles on which a person should regulate his conduct appear to be these: he should reflect that the whole of the day is not too large a portion of our time to devote to public worship, to religious recollectedness, and sedateness of mind; and therefore, that occupations which would interfere with this sedateness and recollectedness, or with public worship, should be forborne. Even if he supposed that the devotion of the whole of the day was not necessary for himself, he should reflect that, since a considerable part of mankind are

obliged, from various causes, to attend to matters unconnected with religion during a part of the day, and that one set attends to them during one part, and another during another, the whole of the day is necessary for the community, even though it were not for each individual: and if every individual should attend to his ordinary affairs during that portion of the day which he deemed superabundant, the consequence might soon be, that the day would not be devoted to religion at all.

These views will enable the reader to judge in what manner we should decide questions respecting attention to temporal affairs on particular occasions. The day is not sacred, therefore business is not necessarily sinful; the day ought to be devoted to religion, therefore other needless concerns generally are wrong. The remonstrance-" which of you shall have an ass or an ox fallen into a pit, and will not straightway pull him out on the Sabbath day?" sufficiently indicates that, when reasonable calls are made upon us, we are are at liberty to attend to them. Of the reasonableness of these calls every man must endeavour to judge for himself.

EXTRACTS

FROM THE BRITISH CRITIC.

1839. p. 185, 189.

THOSE Who maintain the perpetual obligation of the Sabbath, contend, that when God had completed the work of his creation, he blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, and appointed it to be kept as a day of holy rest by Adam and all his posterity; and they say, that in the command- "Remember the Sabbathday to keep it holy"-there is a clear reference to the original institution in Gen. ii. 3. The whole of this argument proceeds on mere gratuitous assumption, and has no support from scripture. That God blessed that day on which he rested from the labour of creation, is certain-He made it, if we may so speak, a festival in heaven, "when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy," 2-but that He appointed every succeeding seventh day to be observed thenceforth by Adam and his descendants, can neither be proved from scripture, nor gathered from it in the way of probable inference; for there is not in scripture the faintest hint, that the Sabbath was observed by Adam, or Abel, or Seth, or Enoch, or Noah, or Melchisedec, or Abraham, or any saint or patriarch from the creation to the Exodus. But we are told, it is implied in the Sinaitic precept―