VII. Rev. xxii. 4. spirits. We are called by His name. We are His LECTURE covenant people. "His name on our foreheads" is to be the signet of our redemption. His name, therefore, in our warfare upon the earth should be the watchword of all we do, and say, and think. Reverence to the name of Christ Jesus is the the very root, the sap, life of religion. Let us glorify that name and verily we shall be saved. There is a deep meaning in the prayer; "Hallowed be Thy name," and in that command of the Apostle, "Whatsoever ye do in word, or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus." The name is, indeed, nothing in itself, but then it represents to us a person. And when we duly consider this, we may see that a religion founded upon reverence and service to a person is a very different kind of religion to that which merely receives abstract doctrines, and strives only to keep an abstract law. Man's heart is the centre point of religion, and man's heart, as we found, craves for, and p. 107. needs one to love and to live for who first loved us. Reverence and allegiance to a person is our strength and our salvation. And the name symbolises the person. The name of Jesus Christ, be it remembered, is the name of God our Saviour,-our Brother, Teacher, Guide, Prince, Priest, and Sacrifice,-and can we hear and use it without a thrill of reverential awe and love? Yea, must not that dear name be to us a tower of strength, a standard of salvation? The name of one great and mighty man has, before now, led thousands of followers to glorious victory, or willing death. Can the name of Him Who took our nature LECTURE and became man to show how love can conquer by VII. Eph. i. 21. stooping; how power is victorious in weakness, selfabasement, and self-sacrifice, be nothing to us? Nay; go forth, Christian brethren; go forth into the world, and let that name be to you, “above every name that is named;" reverence it, sanctify it, hand it down to your children's children with still brighter lustre than you received it; for it is a name that shall grow more and more glorious to all eternity; and if thoughtless or wicked men, who know neither the power nor the beauty of that name, would persuade you to give up your loving trust and confidence therein, and take that name in vain, tell them that yet there shall be a day Phil. i. 10,11. in the which at that name every knee shall bow, of things in heaven and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue shall confess its glory, and therefore that you are resolved for that name to live and in that name to die. LECTURE VIII. THE JEWISH SABBATH THE REST OF A DAY. EXODUS XX. 8-11. "Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: for in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it." VIII. ONE special object of these lectures is to call attention LECTURE to the marked distinction that must, in some particulars, characterise our exposition of the decalogue, when we view it as the law of Christ. In no instance is it so important to bear this in mind as in that of the commandment which we are now called to examine. There have been very many controversies as to how far, and in what sense, this commandment is binding upon us, as Christians. And, since a right understanding of these questions is a matter not only of great interest, but of the highest practical importance, I will VIII. you LECTURE endeavour, by God's help, to set before in some detail, what, after the best thought I can give it, I believe to be the Christian interpretation of this law. May God's holy name be thereby glorified. My plan is first to give an account of the Jewish sabbath, and afterwards, separately, of the Christian Lord's day. In the present lecture, the Jewish sabbath will exclusively occupy our attention; and I shall treat it under the following heads. I. Was the sabbath revealed in patriarchal times? II. The history of the institution of the sabbath. III. The nature and obligation of the sabbath. IV. The history of the observance of the sabbath. I. The preliminary question to be determined is, whether the ordinance of the sabbath was revealed first to the Israelitish nation, or whether it was previously known to the patriarchs. When Moses gives an account of the creation, he concludes the history in these words; "And on the Gen. ii. 2, 3. seventh day God ended His work which He had made; and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it He had rested from all His work which God created and made." Now, does it follow from these words that God revealed His sabbath to the old world as an institution to be observed by them? I think not, and for the following reasons: 1st. After this mention of the sabbath, in the second chapter of Genesis, we never again read of it; nor do we find the seventh day in any way distinguished in VIII. the sacred narrative from other days until the children LECTURE of Israel had arrived in the wilderness of mount Sinai. 2nd. Had the sabbath been given to the old world, as it was to the Israelites, we should certainly expect to hear the men who lived before the flood accused of its profanation. 3rd. We should also expect to find God giving directions to Noah concerning its observance when He entered into covenant with mankind, through him, not to destroy the world again by a flood, and to send Gen. viii. 20. summer and winter, seed-time and harvest, in their appointed course. If God, at that time revealed to Noah His ordinance as to abstaining from blood, can we believe that He would have omitted all mention of His sabbath; especially when we remember how frequently the commandment is reiterated to the Jews? 4th. Again; had the sabbath been known by or revealed to Noah, we should expect to find some tradition of that institution existing among heathen nations. Go where you will, you find a tradition of a deluge, and I cannot conceive it to be at all probable that the tradition of such a striking institution as that of the sabbath could have been entirely obliterated; for, whatever scattered notices the learned may fancy they have traced of a period of seven days in ancient monuments, &c., are too far-fetched and too uncertain in their character to merit much attention. 17. 5th. The sabbath is also said to be a sign between God and the people of Israel; "Wherefore the child- Ex. xxxi. 16, ren of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations for a perpetual |