morcy nnd love to our follow-men. Proclaiming the gospel, teaching the young, visitin 6 lhe sick, relieving the poor. II. IT IS OP DIVINE COMMAND. It is coeval with the creation of man (Gen. i. 31 · ii.1-3; Exod. x.x. 8-11). And its embodiment in the moral Law seems to denote it~ permanence and abiding obligation. III. lTB TRANSFER TO THE FIRST DAY OP THE WEEK DOES NOT ALTER ITS OBLIGATIO:s', Our Lord taught us "the sabbath was made for man," and therefore, though for various reasons its observance was in substance transferred from the seventh day to the first, yet, because the need is permanent, the obligation is likewise. IV. ALL GoD'B LAWS-AS WELL AS BIB WRITTEN LAW-SANCTION IT. Those that are: 1. Physical. The body requires it, is blessed by it, harmed if deprived of it. 2. Religious Religion demands set times and observances. Without these it will die out. The sabbath, therefore, is imperatively needed if religion is to be maintained amongst any people. 3. Moral. Secular pursuits tend to absorb all the energies of the soul. World- liness is dominant enough as it is in every man; but the break of the sabbath does much to hold these mighty but malevolent forces in check, and'gives opportunity for the exercise of other and counteracting ones. 4. Social. The indebtedness of happy family life, of prosperous national life, of friendship between man and man, to the weekly day of rest is unspeakable (cf. prize essay, 'Workman's Testimony to the Sabbath'). 5. Spiritual. What records have the sabbaths of spiritual blessing gained on and through the holy observances of that day? Sinners won to God, burdened consciences blessed with peace, tempted souls strengthened, sad and troubled ones made joyful in God, believers helped forward in the heavenly road, etc. All these facts attest the graciousness and the obligation of the command to hallow God's sabbath. And, on the other hand, its disregard has ever been followed by moral and spiritual and often secular deterioration. It has been ill with those who have set at nought this sure law of God. Therefore let us each one do what we may to preserve to our land the unspeakable blessing of the weekly sabbath. Better to err on the side of strictness in its observance than on the side of laxity. But let us not think that we have hallowed the sabbath unless the ends for which it was designed have been secured by us. It is but a means, not the enJ, and, unless it have furthered in us love to God and man, each sabbath as it returns is but a lost day.-C. Vers. 5-8.-T?'ust: human and Divine. The prophet here presents before us a vivin contrast between two types of human character. He does this by.the use of suggesti,e images drawn from the realm of nature, as one accustomed to see the great lessons of man's moral life and destiny reflected in visible forms in the sandy desert o.nd sterile places of the wilderness, and in the fertile valleys and woody banks of the flowing ri vcr. '!'he imagery is peculiarly Oriental. We can all appreciate it in some measure, but those who have seen the scanty, stunted vegetable growths of the desert side by side with the rich foliage that clothes the moist ravines and the borders of the wntcr-courses, cau best understand the exquisite truth and fitness of the analogies. Consider these two opposite kinds of trust-(!) trust in man, (2) trust in the Lord. I. TRUST IN MAN. To "make flesh one's arm" is suggestive of personnl reliance on merely human and earthly resources, in neglect of the spiritual and Divine. It tnkes the form of undue self-confidence-confidence in one's own wisdom and strength, or confidence in our fellow-creatures, who are as ignorant and weak and fallible as ourselves, or confidence in that which is outward and circumstantial-worldly riches, sensible gratifications, material guarantees. The features of such a trust are: 1. Vanity. Its hope is false and delusive. It has no sure foundation. It seeks life in the region o[ death. As the plant finds nothing to nourish it in the barren sand, so man can never draw the nutriment his being needs from mere human and earthly resources. "Unless above himself he can erect himself, How mean a thing is man I "
And how can that which is fleshly, and therefore perishable, ever satisfy the necessities of an immortal spirit? 2. Loss: " He shall not sec when good cometh." As the influences that come down upon it from the heaven above are lost upon the plant that is rooted TUE 13OOK Olt' THE PllOPHE'l' JEltEMIAll. [cu. xvu. 1-27.