Many praise God on this day. And heaven will be a scene of praise. "And give thanks to Him that sitteth on the throne for ever and ever." The Sabbath is a day of communion with God. Then we leave the world, and direct our thoughts to heaven; and our Father speaks to us, and refreshes our souls. And heaven will be a scene of eternal communion with the everblessed God. The redeemed will see His glory; feel His presence; live in His smiles; engage in His service; rejoice in His loving kindness. The heavenly Sabbath is kept in the temple above; and kept in the presence of the Saviour; kept in a state of perfection; kept in harmony with the vast congregation of happy worshippers. There we shall never be weary of the service.

The Sabbath is a day of blessing. Then we are blest with heavenly instruction, divine comfort, quickening grace. The manna of the Gospel falls on this day, and our souls are fed. Many souls are saved on this day. Many wanderers reclaimed. Many mourners cheered. Many travellers guided in the way everlasting. The advantages of Sabbath observance are many. The divine appointment of this day reminds us of the loving care of God. "This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice, and be glad in it."

There are ways in which we may show our delight in the Sabbath. There will be a careful preparation for its approach. What we delight in, we think about. And if you delight in the Sabbath, you will think about it; and as far as you

can you will manage your affairs so as to retire in good time on Saturday night, that you may be up in comfortable time on Sabbath morning; and be ready for the service of the house of God. These are the persons who can say, "I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord," And if you delight in the Sabbath, there will be constancy in its observance. When there is this delight, trifles do not keep us away. Then every Sabbath is valued as the gift of God, and as given for our preparation for heaven. The command is, "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy." God requires us to remember the Sabbath day, not merely now and then, but every Sabbath day; and if we delight in it, there will be pleasure in its sacred engagements. The word of God will be read with delight; the Gospel heard with delight; prayer offered with delight; the new song sung with delight; the Saviour served with delight. "Serve the Lord with gladness: come before His presence with singing." And if we delight in the day, we shall try and help others to delight in it. There are advantages resulting from taking delight in the Christian Sabbath. This promotes our meetness for the eternal Sabbath in heaven. This world is the scene of our preparation for the next. The Sabbath is given to help us to make this preparation, and is well adapted for the purpose. This seeks to turn our thoughts towards God; to raise our minds to heaven; and to bring our souls into communion with revealed truth. And is not meetness

for heaven all-important? Delight in the Sabbath is pleasing to God. This is clear from the promises He makes to all who delight in His day. "Then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord, and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father; for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it." His favour is essential to the welfare of our souls; and this shall be enjoyed by all who delight in the Sabbath. He is pleased to see us obedient, and seeking our happiness in Himself. And He who delights in the Sabbath, sets a good example. This is a good example for a master to set his servants; for a parent to set his family; for a monarch to set his subjects. If you value these advantages, then cherish delight in the Sabbath. This requires supreme love to God. Love makes obedience delightful. This you see in Christ. Here learn the true reason many break the Sabbath. They have no delight in its sacred exercises. They feel more pleasure in lying in bed, in good dinners, in worldly conversation, in reading the news of the day, in visiting their friends. The heart is not given to God, hence needs spiritual renovation. When the heart is given to God, love to Him prompts us to seek our happiness in doing His will.

"And call the Sabbath a delight." Here observe the notice God takes of the spiritual state of men. He knows all who delight in His day, and all who do not. He will see them all at the last day, and will be able to decide their eternal destiny.

Are you delighting in the Sabbath? Then you may rejoice in the knowledge of God, for His eye sees you, and He approves of your piety. Are you taking no delight in His day? Then tremble, careless sinner, for the eye of the Holy One is upon you, and He is angry with you every day. Let His frown awaken your fears, and move you to confess your sin, and alter your conduct, and to seek a change of heart. Have you not been guilty of robbing God of the time which ought to have been devoted to Him? "Will a man rob God?" and rob Him while He is looking on, and warning him of the consequences?

What sin is here! What infatuation is here! What guilt is here! Is it not wise to pause, to consider, and to repent, and turn to God?

"And call the Sabbath a delight." These are the persons who may hope to spend an eternal Sabbath in heaven. They take delight in the earthly Sabbath; and they shall enjoy the heavenly Sabbath. The one is a preparation for the other. The good seed sown on this day shall spring up in a glorious harvest. This delight will increase by cultivation. The faithful observance of this day will increase our knowledge, our piety, and our happiness. The young should cultivate this delight in the day of God. They will have temptations to neglect it, but if they live in the fear of God, they will resist and overcome. They will find true happiness in the service of God, for conscience will approve; God will smile; hope of a glorious future will spring up their souls. The pleasures of religion

on earth will be a sweet foretaste of the pleasures of Paradise.

"And call the Sabbath a delight." The godly not only possess this delight, but they profess it. Sinners are not ashamed of their neglect of the Sabbath; they break it in the presence of many witnesses, and shall we be ashamed to own our delight in it? This delight in the Sabbath would effect a great and happy change in families, congregations, and in the world. Then there would be an increase in the number, and in the piety, and in the joys of the worshippers of the living and true God. The world would have less hold of us, and heaven would have far greater attractions. Then earth would be more like heaven. The holy Sabbath is a day when weary pilgrims should turn aside from the turmoil of life, and refresh their souls at the wells of salvation. The house of God is open for their spiritual refreshment; and the mercy of God invites them to come and to partake of the rich provisions of His everlasting love. He says, "Eat, O friend; drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved." He sends His ministers to set these provisions before you, and urges you to come and enjoy the feast. Happy are they who have an appetite, and accept the invitation, and live by faith upon this true bread. They shall find their strength renewed; they shall grow in grace; and they shall be fitted for the marriage supper of the Lamb in the new Jerusalem. Let me beseech you to cultivate increasing delight in the Sabbath, and you will find your anxious minds soothed by the con

solations of the Gospel; you will find your hearts enlarged in the way of God's commands; and you will find that Christ will manifest Himself to you as He does not to the world.

"In holy duties let this day,

Heaven's type and emblem, pass away;

And may we thus each Sabbath spend,

In hope of that which shall not end." H. H.

GRACE ABOUNDING. "But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound."-ROM. V. 20. WHAT a conception do these words afford of the goodness of God, of His great and abundant mercy? None ever so vile need despair of salvation, who seriously ponder this most blessed truth. They are written as an encouragement to persevering prayer, and afford the strongest proof of the Divine scheme of redemption, as wrought out for us by the Lord Jesus Christ, and the willingness of God to receive into His favour the most sinful and degraded among men, who come to Him through faith and repentance to have eternal life. The glorious truth here unfolded lies at the root of all our hopes, and without it there would be room for despair. What a wondrous act of mercy to make such a revelation, to unfold to us the mind of God in relation to our condition here, and our future prospects when called to appear before His throne of judgment? Sin has abounded in each-in all, without any exception. If only one sin in our moral character were un

pardoned, there must be eternal banishment from His presence hereafter. The provision made is ample and sufficient to atone for the sinfulness of an entire world. So perfect, so complete is the forgiveness here described, that sins of the deepest dye are no sooner confessed with deep contrition, than they are blotted out for ever, and cancelled from the book of His remembrance. The display of God's grace is so great, that none need despair. He is the covenant-keeping, the unchangeable, the sin-pardoning God. He invites all to come to Him to have life, to receive a full and entire remission of sin, without money and without price. He willeth not the death of a sinner. And this refers to his eternal state, that God in the greatness of His mercy and sovereign love, wills him to come near and accept salvation, and hereafter an abundant entrance into His everlasting kingdom. What barrier is there, then, to the salvation of the most hardened and impenitent sinner? None, surely, on God's part. Man writes his own condemnation; and if he is lost, he is lost simply because he will not come to Christ to have life. Is it not a strange infatuation that he should love darkness rather than light; choose for himself the pathway of sin; hew out a broken cistern that can hold no water; become absorbed in all that is earthly, and so soon to perish; forget the great account to be given; be inattentive to the vast and stupendous interests of the soul; be unmindful of his obligations, his responsibility, his spiritual and eternal welfare? And yet such is

the fact, such is the experience we meet with in the every-day life of man. Nothing surely portrays in more vivid colours human depravity, and the alienation of the heart from God. 66 'All," said Paul, "seek their own, not the things of Jesus Christ."

The main anxiety with every one should be, deliverance from the power of sin, and its penal consequences. The soul in danger is like the ship exposed to the fierce storm, or dashing furiously against the breakers, and threatened with instant and entire destruction. Every hour lost in not earnestly seeking the one thing needful, the one great deliverance from the dominion of iniquity, the cleansing power of the atoning blood of Christ, the escape from the condemnation of the broken law of God, is only the heaping up of wrath to the day of wrath. The want of obedience to Christ, and surrender of heart to His will, constitutes determined opposition to His perfect mind, and is a contempt of His most gracious invitations to come to Him to have life. "Thou hast set our secret sins in the light of thy countenance," is the record of the inspired writer.-Psalm xc. 8. He is the i

searcher of the hearts of the children

of men. All things are naked and opened to His eyes. All which transpires, either in motive or in action, is recorded. For every idle word men shall speak, they shall give account. It is evident that all our daily actions have their influence on our eternal condition, and indicate our real character in the sight of God. We cannot escape from His constant and unremitting observation and cognizance of our

position of man is either earthly or heavenly, and there is no mistaking the condition of the one or the other. To be worldly-minded is death. How fearful, then, the responsibility of him, who, in spite of the light of Gospel truth, the revelation of the Divine will, continues deliberately and wilfully in a course of sinful disobedience, preferring earthly things to spiritual, and loving intensely this present evil world! We must come to Him who is the light of the world, to have the germ of spiritual life implanted in the soul. As the beam of light comes from the natural sun to shine on the face of nature, even so must the ray of light coming from the Sun of Righteousness illumine the darkness of the human heart, and by its heaven-imparting influence lay the foundation of that holy transformation which is to ripen it for neverending bliss. It is the Spirit which quickens, and as He first moved on the dark waters of creation, and said, "Let there be light, and there was light," even so must He now come with His almighty power to raise the dead soul to spiritual and eternal life. To this end the promise is given. He giveth the Holy Spirit to them who ask Him. We are as certain to receive, in answer to prayer, the gift of the Holy Spirit, as that God has given us the promise; and He alone begins the good and gracious change in the sinner's heart, to perfect it unto the end. In vain can we expect the vital change of heart, the regeneration of the soul, the newness of life, the washing in the fountain of the

Saviour's blood, the pardon of sin, the peace in Him, the assurance of acceptance, the hope of eternal life, until the Holy Spirit works in us to will and to do of His own good pleasure. How can a plant grow without the light of the sun? how can it thrive without the rain or dew from heaven? Even so do we need the constant operation of the Spirit's influence to lead us to Jesus, to open to us the Scriptures, to make us wise unto salvation, to enlarge our hearts with love divine, to guide us into all truth, to make us partakers of divine grace, to open the kingdom of heaven. Constant, earnest, and continued prayer to God for the bestowment of His Spirit will meet with a gracious answer. "Ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full." What, then, is our path of safety to escape the wrath to come? It is to come now, at once, to the footstool of divine mercy; to rest not, night nor day, until in answer to prayer the Holy Spirit has been given. He who seeks to win the crown must first run the race set before him, and so run that he may obtain. Prayer is the appointed means to secure the end, and the only way to receive the blessing as offered in the Gospel. The present moment flies. What depends on present decision? It may be now or never to enter into life. Tiverton, May, 1861. F. S. G.