right. From the pre-eminent place which REDEMPTION holds in the revelation of God, being its grand discovery, and the pervading theme of its celebration, it is no more than we might have been prepared to expect.

him from the provisions of the other; He is specially owned and adored, on the Christian Sabbath, in the character of "THE GOD OF OUR SALVATION." Now, such an arrangement recommends itself to our minds as reasonable and Having established this antecedent probability, he comes to facts, directing the attention of his readers to the assemblage at Troas, (Acts xx. 6, 7,) on the first day of the week, the celebration of Christian worship, and the charitable contributions from the earnings of the preceding working-days, in the churches of Galatia and Corinth, (1 Cor. xvi. 1, 2,) and the mention of "the Lord's day," in which St. John was in the Spirit; (Rev. i. 10;) besides some calculations as to the first days included in the history of those events which occurred from the day of our Lord's resurrection to that of Pentecost. With reference to the early sanctification of the first day of the week by the Christian church, under the name of "the Lord's day," the sum of copious evidence is compressed into the brief statement, that "such was the designation which that day had acquired among Christians at that early period." Joining with the Doctor in admiration of the wisdom which conferred on the day of our Saviour's resurrection from the dead the distinctive appellation of "the Lord's day," we may add a few sentences confirmatory of the fact, on the testimony of undoubted history.

In the first century, it was the custom of our Lord (Luke iv. 16) and of the Apostles (Acts xiii. 14, 42) to worship in the Jewish synagogues on the Sabbath, or seventh days; and on one of those days we find St. Paul in an oratory used by the Jews resident in Philippi. (Acts xvi. 13.) These, however, are not examples of Christian worship, but only of the conformity of Christ and his Apostles to the worship then established, when as yet they had no established time or place of their own. Clear examples of Christian worship on the first day are already referred to; but the passage from the Apocalypse deserves careful consideration. St. John, writing after the destruction of the temple, when the old worship had been set aside by the direct act of divine Providence, says that he was in the Spirit év tŷ kupiakî ýμépa," on the Lord's day," using so definite a form of words as to preclude all misunderstanding of the implied fact, that the designation was already familiar to his readers. Even the ancient versions supply excellent interpretation of this phrase, if, indeed, any be required; the Syriac translating the Greek adjective literally, and indicating the reference to the Lord Jesus Christ by a word which, according to the usage of that language, is uniformly appropriated to Him who is acknowledged by Christians to be their Lord. The Ethiopic, being made for a body of Christians who retained the Jewish manner of naming the days of the week from first to fifth, vigil or preparation, and Sabbath, and to this last paid a religious regard, translates "on the first day," expressing the undoubted agreement of Christians to sanctify this day to their Lord.

In the second century, the divinely-authorized example of St. John, and the other Apostles, was universally followed, as we learn by the testimony of Justin Martyr, who describes the customs of Christians throughout the world. In his time, "an assemblage was made in one place, on the day called Sunday, of all who dwelt in town or country; and the memorials of the Apostles and writings of the Prophets were read as far as time allowed." Then followed an exhortation from the presiding Minister; and after this prayers were offered, the eucharist administered, and alms collected. "And we all assemble on the Sunday," says the venerable apologist, "because it

is the first day, in which God, when he had dispersed darkness and confusion, made the world; and Jesus Christ, our Saviour, on this same day, rose from the dead; for, on the day before Saturday they crucified him ; and on the day after Saturday, that is, on Sunday, he appeared to his disciples and Apostles, and taught them the things which we have submitted for your consideration also." (Apologia prima, 67.) Barnabas and Ignatius deliver their testimony to the same effect, and in language especially explicit; and from the history of the paschal controversy, which arose in this century, it is abundantly evident the Christian Sabbath was kept on the first day of the week.

In the third and fourth centuries, the same custom continued established and undisturbed. Not to enter into details incompatible with the necessary brevity of a review, we will only adduce one eminent instance of Christian zeal in the sanctification of this "Queen of days." When the Emperor Constantine assumed the profession of Christianity, and gave his authoritative sanction to the order of ministry and to the ceremonial of worship, not changing anything essential, however much he might think fit to add to the external form of his new religion, he found this day sanctified by all his Christian subjects, and essayed to make the same observance universal in the empire. Eusebius relates that he declared that the salutary day of the Lord should be devoted to prayer; and, not satisfied with publishing an edict for the government of others, himself set the example, and, surrounded by the inmates of his palace, recited with them forms of prayer which he had either composed or sanctioned. On that day his army was relieved from military duty, every martial display ceased; and while the Christian soldiers were assembled in the churches nearest to their garrisons, the heathen members of the legions were paraded on some convenient ground, where they offered up an appointed prayer to the one God, the God of Constantine. (De Vitá Constantini, 18, 20.) And Sozomen further records, that "he issued a law requiring all judicial proceedings and ordinary labours to be suspended on the Lord's day, which the Hebrews call the first day of the week, and the Greeks, Sunday, as well as on Fridays, that his subjects might then have leisure for offering up their prayers to God; and that he honoured the Lord's day, because on it Christ rose from the dead; and the Friday, because on that day he was crucified." (Hist. Eccles., lib. i., cap. 8.) Opinions differ as to the right of Sovereigns to exercise control over sacred things; but that question does not belong to our present argument. We adduce the fact as completing the chain of historical proof. Before Constantine, the sanctification of the Lord's day was not only universal, but voluntary, in free obedience to the institution of God, signified by men acting under the plenary inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

Under the head of direct inspired authority, Dr. Wardlaw "hesitates not" to refer to Heb. iv. 9, 10: "There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God: for he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his." He believes that this rest which remaineth is none other than the Christian Sabbath; and the reasons alleged in support of his peculiar view of the passage may be summarily stated as follows:

The inspired writer does not here employ the usual word, karánavois, "rest," but oabbarioμòs, "the solemnization of a Sabbath." He is satisfied that there is more under this change of the term than can be accounted for on any mere principle of taste in composition, or the desire to represent

the rest of heaven under the figure of an eternal Sabbath." He thinks that the Apostle, writing to Hebrews, introduces an allusion to the change of the Sabbath under the new economy, and vindicates the change. Or, to express his view by a paraphrase of the text: "There remaineth therefore a keeping of Sabbath for the New-Testament Israel, who are the people of God." He discovers confirmation of his idea of the passage in the word "remaineth," as analogous with the following sentence in the same epistle : "These all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise, God having provided some better thing for us, that they, without us, should not be made perfect." He observes, that although there did not remain any more sacrifice for sin, sacrifices having been set aside by the offering of Christ himself, there did remain a new sabbatic rest for the people of God; for He that entered into his rest—that is, Jesus Christhath ceased from his own works, as God did from his.

As, when God ceased from his work of creation, the day of his resting was hallowed as a Sabbatism, or a day of commemorative rest and religious celebration; so, when Jesus finished his work, the work of redemption, and rested from it in his resurrection and his reception to the right hand of God, that blessed day was, in all time coming, to be the day of sabbatical rest and celebration. In the ordinary interpretation, the spirit of this allusion, and of the analogy suggested by it, is entirely lost. There is not a vestige of it left. But, interpreted as

above, so completely is it preserved, that the language of God, in Gen. ii. 1-3, might, in the full spirit of it, be accommodated to the work of Jesus when he rose from the dead, and the consequent sanctification of the first day of the week: "Thus the work of redemption was finished, and all its glorious ends secured. And on the first day of the week, Jesus rose from the grave, and finally rested from the work he had done: -wherefore the ascended Lord blessed the FIRST DAY, and sanctified it."

We cannot now thread the labyrinth of critical investigation which this ingenious exposition of those difficult verses might seem to challenge, but recommend the reader to peruse that part of the tract with care, and give due attention to the reasons brought in support of the hypothesis; reasons, however, which may not convince him that there is any other basis on which to rest another textual sanction for the Christian Sabbath than a pleasing thought, accepted with the pleasure which would follow a real discovery, and announced with an earnest ingenuousness which does honour to the writer. It is a prerogative which must be allowed to profound theologians and acute critics, to put forth striking conjectures, which may serve, at least, to refresh the spirit of research, and, in their conception, produce ideas which could not have had birth in feebler minds. Whatever may become of this particular interpretation, the interpreter has justly shown the adorable Redeemer as resting from the sacrificial work of redemption; surveying his toil, and the glorious eternal results; blessing the day when he entered into his triumphant rest; and conferring on the church militant the benefit of a new Sabbath, not so much commemorative of the creation of the material universe, or of the going up out of Egypt, as of the new creation in which he now rejoices. Thus does the Saviour use his divine authority as Lord of the Sabbath, and in that character receives the devout and joyous worship of the universal church. Whether or not this is to be found in the verse before us, it is found elsewhere. The statement may possibly be rested, for once, on a sentence of divine revelation, which was not written to support it; but, after all, it is perfectly consistent with the analogy of faith. Let the conjectural note be laid up among those original thoughts with which the world is now and then favoured, and, as such, had in thankful remembrance.

This Tract closes with a weighty "reflection" on those who talk about the outward observance of the Sabbath, as if it were beneath the spirituality of the dispensation under which we live. Foolish and self-destructive argument! As if you should say that the spirituality of Christians would be promoted by the secularization of a holy day! that because all days are the Lord's, the Lord's day, so called through eighteen centuries, bearing the name of Him who died and rose again for us, and until now devoted to his honour, might now be desecrated for the promotion of your exalted spiritualism, and this under the guise of high devotion, and the sophistical pretence of what is true enough, when sincerely stated, that all days should be days of rest from sin! But God's own institute may not thus be made of no effect. Here and there there may be a well-meaning dreamer, who aims in this way at making every day alike; but, if those few could be gathered together into one society, acting every day alike, they would bear no resemblance to a Christian church. For, "who does not see, whether judging theoretically or experimentally, that every day a Sabbath is the same as no day a Sabbath? that every day alike, is not every day alike spiritual, but every day alike secular?"

(To be concluded in our next.)

SELECT LIST OF BOOKS RECENTLY PUBLISHED,
CHIEFLY RELIGIOUS,

WITH CHARACTERISTIC NOTICES.

[The insertion of any article in this List is not to be considered as pledging us to the approbation of its contents, unless it be accompanied by some express notice of our favourable opinion. Nor is the omission of any such notice to be regarded as indicating a contrary opinion; as our limits, and other reasons, impose on us the necessity of selection and brevity.]

The Basis of the Evangelical Alliance unfolded by J. De Kewer Williams, F.A., Author of " Mutual Christianity." Foolscap 8vo., pp. xii, 228. John Snow. We should add, that though the words do not appear on the title-page, yet the volume is lettered, significantly, "Catholic Theology." Who the writer is, we do not happen to know; but the "Preface" is dated at "Tottenham." Mr. Williams takes the nine articles agreed upon as the "basis" of the Evangelical Alliance, and devotes a chapter to the consideration of each; and these, with an introductory and a concluding one, constitute the volume. In the "Preface" this sentence occurs:

"To the Reviewers he will only say, Read this, I pray you.'" We have done so, and with every disposition to be pleased. Years ago, the principles declared by the Evangelical Alliance we had adopted; and as far as we had opportunity, and not always in vain, we

endeavoured to promote the objects which are now systematically sought to be secured. Still, we rose from the perusal of this volume very dissatisfied. The author appears to have given his "chapters" in the form of Lectures to his own congregation; and had he paused there, his remarks might, in this their original sphere, have been useful. But we see no reason whatever for his coming beyond this. On eight of the articles, his observations are generally correct; though with a denominational mode of expression which, however unobjectionable within denominational limits, unfits the work for a more public exposition of Alliance principles. But to one lecture (or chapter) we have far more serious objections. In explaining the "Work of the Holy Spirit," he writes as if it were a fact not at all to be doubted, that the article in question is a clear assertion of the views of Calvinists. If this be the meaning of the article, the Wesleyans

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