pointed loan of sacred worship is from the Lord, the manner of it is from revelation, and the strength for its sacred performance is from the grace of our God.

I might here refer you to the primitive church of Christ, for the purpose of showing how this day of sacred rest ought to be kept, but we may go farther back still, and learn a lesson from God's ancient people. The Jews had several solemn preparations for the Sabbath, and such heed was given to these preparations, that they amounted to a law; they would not take a longer than a Sabbath-day's journey, lest, coming home too late, they might want leisure, and not be in a fit state for its due celebration. Does not their conduct put many Christians to open shame, who never prepare themselves for this solemn ordinance at all? Some, when the Sabbath morn dawns, enter into the sanctuary late, others so irreverently and heedlessly, that their very appearance is an insult to God, and a great annoyance to the more faithful worshippers.

There are some who keep the Sabbath, but then it is formally and hypocritically; they appear to hold the notion, that a certain space of time, spent in outward rites of the church, has a certain inherent holiness in it, whereas time is but the medium of duration, and has neither good nor evil in it; it is then only a holy season to us "when the Sabbath is the means of producing holy feelings and affections in us; its sanctity is only then maintained, and the Lord only then sanctifies it to us when he sanctifies our heart.

But however the ungodly may profane it, or

nominal Christians try to lower it; it was an institute so good in itself, that it existed in Paradise: it was instituted before the fall, and was sanctioned by many Scriptures afterwards; the Lord himself had special regard to it on earth, (Matt. ix. 35.) and in heaven there will be a whole eternity of Sabbaths.

Ye, therefore, who are opposed to the spirit and the letter of this sacred day of rest, ye who make it a day of pleasure and pastime, of travelling and pandering to the vices of our age; how could ye endure heaven, which is laid under the everlasting continuance of one unbroken Sabbath? Surely if ye so complain, and so much abuse one day in seven now, ye can never wish to enter into that perpetual rest that remaineth for the people of God!

PART V.

OLD AGE OF PHILEMON.

SECTION XLII.

MATURITY OF EXPERIENCE.

TIMOTHEUS.-EPAPHRAS.

Timotheus. A steadfast and progressive piety is the offspring of sound christian principles, and Christianity itself, you know, dear Sir, is like unto a grain of mustard seed, which groweth into a great tree. (Matt. xiii. 31.)

Epaphras.-Your observation is good: yet there be few that follow it out. Many professed followers of the Lord Jesus seem to care very little, whether they are increasing or decreasing in vital godliness: there are some I know, who have many years sat under a full and searching ministry, and yet the number of their mercies, and the frequency of their recurrence, has only produced an unfeeling frame of mind and growing insensibility: they do not lay it to heart; neither do they reflect within themselves whether they are going forward or backward: I stand in doubt of them. The candle of the Lord must often be trimmed, in order that it may burn pure and bright to the end; but in many instances, it is to be feared, it suffers almost total extinction, and nearly quite goes out.

Timotheus. Of all outward and nominal professors of religion, what you say will be found but too true; (Matt. xxv. 11.) this is a common fault which applies to them all; they cast up their accounts with the world every night, but they suffer all the days and nights of their whole life to pass over their heads, and yet never cast up their account with God at all!

Epaphras.-When we speak of others we must speak charitably and truly,-something is due to one's self as well as to them; and the manner in which we view the state, or talk of the spiritual condition of others, whether in youth, manhood, or old age, is an evidence of our own: the guage we take of them is the exact measure of our own spirituality.

Timotheus.-How much then do we need spiritual discernment and a right judgment in al things, when we have to decide upon the growth and attainments of any one of God's people; and yet all that are God's must and do pass through successive stages of experience.

Epaphras.-It is the duty of all to do so; but duty is one thing, facts another. How many, even in old age, resemble stunted shrubs in the crevices of rocks, struggling to the last with a bare existence; yet, when the Lord's people do make progress spiritually, as others naturally, the sight is most cheering: it delights the hearts of their faithful pastors; it animates them to greater exertion; it is an encouragement to us all.

St. Paul was never satisfied but with the growing state of the churches; he would not

have his converts always children; (1 Cor. xiv. 20.) he prayed and longed to see them go on to perfection. It is maturity in divine things that gives joy to the saints, that gladdens angels, and surrounds with fresh lustre the throne of God.

Timotheus. We have, thanks be to God, a goodly number of aged saints among us. God has greatly prospered the ministry of his word to them, and he now exercises his paternal care over them, manifests his interest in them, and fulfils his promises towards them. For it may be said of many, that " length of days is in their right hand, and in their left hand riches and honour." (Prov. iii. 16.)

Some of

Epaphras.-Truly so; and Solomon has well said, that "the hoary head is a crown of glory if it be found in the way of righteousness." (Prov. xvi. 31.) Yet there are many old professors who are every thing but what they should be, for they are not found in the way of righteousness. Timotheus. In that I fully agree. them, I know well, are propping up their tottering frame with animating views of their supposed goodness and moral worth, and others live in an inward consciousness (as they term it) of their own rectitude, and cheer their declining years with the thoughts thereof; others are so full of self-praise and adulation, that they have learned the happy art of hiding from themselves their own image, and of divesting themselves of all serious consideration; they satisfy their conscience by the approbation they still receive from their aged associates, as ignorant as themselves. And on all occasions, when you try to point