worship? How can it be expected that the blessing of God should rest upon the habitation where no altar is erected to his honour? How can the members of the family be expected to discharge their duties to each other, if they be unmindful of the paramount duty of rendering homage to God? On the contrary, how much of beauty, how much of harmony, how much of blessedness is there, in the united supplications of a family, where the blessing of God is implored on all the relations, on all the engagements, and on all the enjoyments of life! Inexpressibly pleasurable is it to utter and to hear "the voice of rejoicing and salvation in the tabernacles of the righteous." Psa. cxviii. 15.

Let it also be ever impressed upon our minds, that the house of God is the house of Prayer, that "the Lord loveth the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob," Psa. lxxxvii. 2; and that it becomes us to "enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise." Psa. c. 4. Of the services of the sanctuary, many appear to regard the discourse of the preacher as the leading and most essential part, while they are disposed to consider the engagements of prayer and of praise as only inferior appendages. This is a great and lamentable mistake, proceeding upon an entire misapprehension of the nature and importance of worship. Alas! how many, in our public assemblies, seem almost uninterested in the offering of prayer! Their eyes interpret the character,

Father, and that, by the blood of his cross, he had obtained eternal redemption for us." Heb. ix. 12. Well might the first day of the week receive, from that most glorious of events, a new and appropriate designation; well might "the Lord's day" be elevated to the distinction of the Christian Sabbath. "This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it." Psa. cxviii. 24. This is the day which the primitive Christians, guided by apostolic example, and animated by every grateful and joyous impulse of the heart, consecrated to the honour of their risen and glorified Lord. This is the day on which the Holy Spirit descended, with all his wonder-working powers, on the assembly of the worshipping and expecting disciples. This is the day on which his enlightening, convincing, and renovating influence has in every age been most abundantly enjoyed, when even two or three have agreed together to implore, in the name of the exalted Saviour, this hea venly gift. This is the day on which the work of the new creation has been carried on with the most rapid and most signal advancement. This is the day on which benignant angels, who rejoice in the repentance of a sinner, have had most frequent and abundant occasions of delight and praise. Then, O my Christian friends, let the Sabbath of the Lord, let the day sacred to the honour of the Saviour, be ever to you a day of holy rejoicing. Let it be the utterance of your habitual feelings, when you "call the Sabbath a delight." Isa.

lviii. 13. Let your very first moments, on the morning of this holy day, be moments of pleasurable anticipation and grateful praise; so that with your inmost soul you may be prepared to sing,

"Welcome sweet day of rest,

That saw the Lord arise;
Welcome to this reviving breast,
And these rejoicing eyes."

3. The Sabbath affords the most valuable opportunities for the pleasures of social worship.

Were it not for the appointment, by Divine authority, of one particular day for the purposes of religious worship, fruitless and abortive would be the attempt to convene, on ordinary occasions, a numerous assembly in the house of God. Conflicting opinions and clashing interests would render it almost impossible to fix, by general agreement, the seasons for public worship. "One man's business," to use the words of Dr. Paley, "would perpetually interfere with another man's devotion; and the buyer would be calling at the shop, when the seller is gone to church." All this embarrassment and confusion is prevented by the Divine appointment of a Sabbath. Its return invites us to the sanctuary. "We are glad when it is said to us, Let us go into the house of the Lord.-How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts!—A day in thy courts is better than a thousand.-One thing have we desired of the Lord, that will we

seek after, that we may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of our life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and inquire in his temple.

ness.

-Our soul longeth, yea, even fainteth, for the courts of the Lord; our heart and our flesh crieth out for the living God;-to see thy power and thy glory, so as we have seen thee in the sanctuary." Psa. cxxii. 1, 2; lxxxiv. 1, 10; xxvii. 4; lxiii. 4. Our pleasurable recollections stimulate our desires, and encourage our expectations. It was there, perhaps, we first tasted of true delight by tasting "that the Lord is gracious." 1 Pet. ii. 3. It was there that we felt the first susceptibilities of heavenly pleasure, and made the first approaches to the fountain of blessedIt was there we felt the first relentings of a broken heart, and offered the first sacrifice of a contrite spirit. It was there we enjoyed the first manifestations of a reconciling God, and first embraced the overtures of a beseeching Saviour. It was there the hope of forgiveness first cheered our desponding minds, and the hope of glory first dawned upon our rejoicing spirits! Or, if that eventful period of our history, when we trust we passed over from the region of death to the region of life, be involved in some obscurity, so that we cannot determine when or where we first experienced the power of the vivifying Spirit, still we are deeply aware that the advantages and the pleasures we have realized in the sanctuary surpass our power of expres sion. To read and study the volume of inspi

ration is our habitual solace in the hour of retired devotion; but those very truths which we read, not without impression, and not without delight, in the solitude of the closet, we hear, with still deeper impression, and still more vivid delight, in the social worship of the sanctuary. Nor is it difficult to assign the reasons for this augmentation of pleasurable feeling it is to be traced not only to the sympathies of our nature, but also to the express appointment and ordinance of God. We are not strangers to the power of the living voice, even when not gifted by nature or by art with the power of pouring forth the mellifluous and varied tones of a well-tuned instrument. We are not strangers to the power of sympathetic emotion, when heart vibrates with heart, and mind responds to mind, throughout the whole extent of a numerous and attentive auditory. But in the pleasures of which we speak, there are elements of a still sublimer character, and there are excitements of more vital and commanding energy. When thus engaged, we are in attendance on the God of the sanctuary; when thus employed, we are observing an ordinance of heaven; when thus assembled to honour the law of the Sabbath, we are authorized to expect the purest and the highest delight. For the Lord hath chosen Zion; he hath desired it for his habitation. This is my rest for ever: here will I dwell; for I have desired it. I will abundantly bless her provision; I will satisfy her poor with bread. I will also clothe her priests with salvation: