SERMON I.

WORSHIP IN HOLY COMMUNION, AND ALMSGIVING DUTIES ON THE LORD'S DAY.

ACTS XX. 7.

AND UPON THE FIRST DAY OF THE WEEK, WHEN THE DISCIPLES CAME TOGETHER TO BREAK BREAD, PAUL PREACHED

UNTO THEM.

IT is a reflection full of matter for interesting and delightful meditation to every worshipper who takes part in the assemblies of the Church on the LORD'S day, that multitudes of his fellow Christians are assembled at the same time for the same purpose, and he can hardly be a Christian more than in name, if he does not find his devotion enlivened by the thought, that the return of the same day which affords him an opportunity of withdrawing from earthly occupations to seek communion with his brethren, and his Heavenly FATHER, is engaging numbers besides in like devotion, and raising their hearts from earth to heaven. Surely our prayers and praises ought to rise with increased fervour, when we consider that countless voices are at the same time, though in different forms and languages, addressing similar offerings to the Throne of Grace.

And this is a reflection in which we have a deeper interest than we may be at first aware of. The sacred services thus concordantly celebrated in so many remote quarters of the globe, are not a matter of indifference to us. Though their effects are not directly visible to the eye of sense, there can be no doubt that we are continually experiencing the benefit of them. Genuine breathings of Christian piety, we are assured, never rise to Heaven without bringing down a blessing in return. And this blessing, in its consequences, is not confined to those on whom it immediately descends. They indeed receive its first and most direct and active influence. But the gracious fruits which it ripens in them are a common good, and minister to the sustenance of the whole body. The members of CHRIST'S Church, however remote from each other in position, and however different in their circumstances, are bound together by a mighty chain of love and it is impossible for any of them to receive an impulse from on high, which does not in a measure thrill the whole. And so the worship which they address to One GOD, in the Name of One SAVIOUR, through the assistance of One SPIRIT, is one worship, and so far as it is accepted, its operation is shared by all.

But the interest we feel in this meditation must be greatly enhanced, when we carry it back into the earliest ages of the Church, and consider our religious meetings on the LORD's Day as a repetition, and continuation of those which have taken place from the first preaching of the Gospel to our own time. The instance recorded in the text is the first example of the practice related in Scripture: but we see that it was not then any new thing: it is already mentioned as a usage of long standing. And it has never since

been interrupted: never has the first day of the week passed by from that time to this, without being hallowed in like manner, by many congregations of disciples who have come together for like purposes. It was while he was in the SPIRIT on the LORD's Day, that St. John received the revelation which disclosed to him the future vicissitudes of the Church. We can only be carried back in spirit to the scenes of its past history. But certainly those will not be the least delightful and profitable moments we can spend in any of these holy days, in which we in a manner lose and forget ourselves in the consciousness of our uniting with the long series of generation which has gone before us to rest from its labours, and in which we contemplate the Church, militant and triumphant, as one undivided whole.

This is a reflection which may very fitly occupy a portion of our thoughts on the ordinary occasions when we meet for worship on the LORD's Day and we ought at least never to let any pass without calling to mind, that all we are and have, as Christians, all our means of grace and hopes of glory, belong to us only as branches engrafted on the true vine, as members of CHRIST's spiritual Body: and that its other members are so many instruments by which we are kept in active union with our Head; so many channels through which we receive the largest part of the ordinary graces and blessings which are derived from HIM. But the reflection is more especially suitable, when we come together on the first day of the week, for the express purpose of commemorating the Resurrection of our LORD. For this naturally leads us to turn our thoughts toward the origin of the Christian. Sabbath, and to the occasion which caused this day to

be set apart in the Church of CHRIST for the public worship of GOD.

We shall, then, better understand the connection between these subjects, if we consider the principal points of agreement and of difference which may be observed between the Jewish Sabbath, and the corresponding institution in the Christian Church. The Jewish Sabbath was kept on the seventh day of the week. It could not be in itself a matter of any importance, which day of the seven was consecrated to the worship of GOD. It was not, it must be remembered, for the sake of GOD, but for the sake of men, that one day was set apart to this purpose at all. It is the frailty of human nature which renders it necessary that men should be admonished and invited at stated seasons to do that which, though it is both their duty and their happiness to be doing always, they would, as experience proves, never do at all without such a special inducement. It is no doubt both right and good for them, that God should be always in their thoughts, and that they should never cease to lift up their hearts toward HIM. But it is certain that if they never did so more at one time than another, they would never think of HIM at all. On another ground, stated seasons are absolutely necessary for public social worship, as without them each assembly would require a special summons: and where there was no cause for preferring one time to another, no such distinction would ever be made; that is, there would be no such thing as ordinary social worship. It was necessary; therefore, that some portion of time should be regularly set apart for it. But at what intervals, whether every fifth, or sixth, or seventh day, and whether, if one day in seven, this should be the first,

or the last, or any other day of the week, these are points not material in themselves, and only important so far as they are fixed by a positive ordinance, proceeding from a competent authority. To the Jews GOD appointed six days for labour, and the seventh HE ordained to be a day of rest, to be kept holy for His services. And in the commandment which prescribes this, a reason is added: that God hallowed the seventh day as that on which HE HIMSELF is said, in language adapted to human conceptions, to have rested from His finished work of creation. So the Jewish Sabbath reminded the Jews of their obligations to GoD as their CREATOR, and was well adapted to preserve them from the idolatry of the surrounding nations, and to prevent them from suffering any created thing to occupy any share in those thoughts and affections which belonged of right to the Supreme GOD, the MAKER of heaven and earth.

Again, the Jewish Sabbath in later times, reminded every faithful Israelite of the day on which their forefathers were delivered from their Egyptian bondage. "Remember," he was told in the Book of Deuteronomy, "that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the LORD thy God brought thee out thence, through a mighty hand and a stretched out arm therefore the LORD thy GOD commanded thee to keep the Sabbath day." And so this season reminded them of their peculiar obligations to GOD, for favours by which He had distinguished them above the rest of mankind: it awakened their gratitude toward the GoD of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Who had not forgotten His promise and His covenant, but when His people were reduced to the last extremity by weakness and misery, and all hope of deliverance was lost, raised up