restriction and without mercy, we may buy, and sell, and get gain!

But, by the laborious and pious of the Jewish people, the Sabbath was esteemed the most cheerful of all their days, and hence the hyperbolical terms in which they sometimes speak of it. While it was the holy of the Lord, and honourable, it was also a delight. Gloom and sorrow on that day, "the best of all the seven," was the symptom of great domestic or national distress. Thus (Hos. ii. 11), "I will also cause all her mirth to cease; her feast days, her new moons, and her sabbaths, and all her solemn feasts." On this day, especially, the admonition of the Levites was appropriate" This day is holy unto the Lord your God; mourn not, nor weep. Go your way, eat the fat and drink the sweet, and send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared; for this day is holy unto our Lord; neither be ye sorry, for the joy of the Lord is your strength."

Surely a day thus spent in refreshing and healthful rest-in devout and reverential intercourse with Jehovah -in the consideration of subjects so invigorating in their influence on the intellect in the exercise of duties so softening and refining in their operation on the heart-such a thing could not be otherwise than pleasant and profitable. In truth, the Jewish Sabbath, if fully examined, would be found to be one of the finest manifestations of the wisdom, benevolence, and compassion of God.

It is readily granted that the Sabbath, in the later times of the Jewish nation, was rendered a weariness by the numerous, irksome, childish, and ridiculous prohibitions and observances enjoined by the Scribes and Pharisees. The law of the Sabbath, as indeed all the laws of God, were perverted and burdened by their vain traditions. Thus, in our Lord's time, on the ground that the law prohibited sowing and reaping on the Sabbath,

they found fault with him, because he had permitted his disciples to gratify the cravings of hunger by plucking a few ears of corn; and on the general principle, that it was unlawful to do on the Sabbath anything that might have been done before, or left undone till after, they repeatedly found fault with the Saviour for healing chronical diseases on the Sabbath. But, on all such occasions, our Lord, while he vindicated the Divine law, rebuked their hypocrisy, and denounced their false refinements, and showed that the Sabbath was designed for the benefit and comfort of man, "not man for the Sabbath." To form, then, a correct estimate of the nature of this institution, we must look away from the absurd glosses of the elders. When we look to the law itself, as illustrated by the instructions and the example of Christ, we at once perceive that the declamation about the austerity and rigour of the Jewish Sabbath has no foundation in fact. In this, as in every other case, the command of God is not grievous but joyous.

In opposition to what we have said, there are, we are aware, two circumstances alleged and dwelt on by those who decry the strictness of the Jewish Sabbath; namely, the fact that it was forbidden to kindle a fire on that day, and that the open violation of its rest was punishable by death. The prohibition and the penalty are stated, Ex. xxxv. 2, 3.

The injunction not to kindle a fire, is thought exceedingly severe, especially as the weather, in many parts of Palestine during the winter months, is very cold. But what really is the extent of the prohibition? The Jews did not understand it as forbidding absolutely to kindle a fire in their houses. Even in their strictest moods, they regarded it as prohibitory only of fire for ordinary business and unnecessary cooking. They did not consider the precept as in any way interfering with the warmth and comfort of their

habitations. And in this they were undoubtedly correct, for a precept that would have impaired their health, and occasioned a mass of human wretchedness, could never come from that infinitely benevolent Being who delights in mercy rather than sacrifice -who is kind even to the unthankful and unworthy.

But when we look to the connection of the passage in which the precept is given, it will, we think, appear at least doubtful whether it has reference to fire for ordinary cooking. We are persuaded it refers to fire for the purpose of labour. It is to be observed that Moses, in this passage (Ex. xxxv.), is giving directions for the erection of the tabernacle. The people, in their zeal, might think that, as this was sacred work, bearing directly on the honour and worship of God, they might lawfully devote sacred time to it, especially as by labouring at it on the Sabbath, it would be sooner erected, and so increased opportunity be afforded for public worship. But No; Moses tells them God will not be served by the violation of his law; they are not to do evil that good may come; he did not think that the end sanctified the means. Six days they might labour for the erection of the tabernacle, but on the seventh they must rest; it is the Sabbath of the Lord, and holy; on it they shall not lift a hammer; they shall not even kindle a fire for the purpose of preparing materials for the following week's work. The people then might think, as some do now, that, though it might be becoming to abstain from public labour, yet they might expedite the business by doing such work, in their own houses or tents, as would not disturb their neighbours. But this is effectually prohibited by the terms of the precept :-" Ye shall kindle no fire throughout your habitations on the Sabbath-day,"-such a fire as was designed for heating tools, or melting metals, or, to use the words

of Matthew Henry, "a fire for any servile work, as smiths' or plumbers' work, for the erection of the tabernacle." Such, we do think, is the nature of this injunction, which uninquiring prejudice has represented as so unreasonably rigorous. And that this is the correct view of the passage, will, if possible, be still more obvious, when it is considered, that this is the only place in which the injunction is given-a circumstance which we think proves, beyond doubt, that the precept was given to meet a special case; though, of course, it must be legitimately applicable in all similar cases. point of sabbath-law, it is as applicable to fires for the erection of churches now, as it was in the wilderness for the erection of the tabernacle. In a word, the law rules all cases similar to that for which it was first made and applied.

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But even if we admit all that can be alleged, that this precept is to be understood as prohibiting ordinary cooking on the Sabbath, which, we believe, was the opinion of the Pharisees; yet where, in this, would there be anything unduly rigorous? Viewed in this light, it seems full of mercy and kindness. The rest of the Sabbath was graciously intended by the Almighty for the benefit of all-for the poor as well as the rich

for the man-servant and the maidservant, as well as for the master and the mistress; and, by the prohibition of all unnecessary domestic labour, that merciful design would be more fully gained. Some men may declaim philanthropically on the rigour of a Jewish Sabbath; but that which they decry so vehemently, secured for the Jewish domestic what their servants long for, but what their pampered appetites will not afford them -one day in seven as a rest for the body and the mind. "Thou, O Lord, art good and ever doing good;" thy "yoke is easy, and thy burden is light."

With regard to the severity of the penalty for the public violation of the Sabbath, it is to be observed, that the Jewish people stood in a peculiar relation to God. He was their national sovereign, and the Sabbath was a peculiar sign between him and them. This seems to be the ground on which, to a great extent, the penalty of death is made to rest. (See Ex. xxxi. 14). Whatever deliberately and flagrantly militated against the Sovereign Authority, was regarded as high treason, and being directly destructive of the very constitution, was regarded as a capital crime, and was punished as such. The Sabbath was intimately connected with the fundamental principles of the Mosaic constitution, as it is still intimately connected with the very being of religion in the world. God did severely punish the Jews for the violation of it, and though he may not now so visibly and signally punish us as individuals, yet we are not to suppose we pass with impunity. As individuals, families, and nations, we still suffer at the hand of the Lord of the Sabbath for the profanation of the holy day.

But it ought to be observed that the penalty of death formed no part of the general sabbath-law. It is a special enactment suited to the circumstances in which, at the time, the Jewish people were placed. In point of fact, the statute in which the capital penalty exists, is part of that judicial code given by Moses which was intended to be only temporary in its duration, and limited in its application. By this code, the violation of the first as well as the fourth command was punishable with death; yet no one on this account cries out against the law which prohibits idolatry. Idolatry and sabbath-violation were at that time inseparably associated, and to have allowed either to make progress, would have defeated the whole object for which that people had been selected by God from the nations of the earth.

The observance of each of the statutes was essential to their distinction from all other people, and this distinction was necessary for the ultimate development of the plans of Divine mercy to the whole human race. Hence the care with which these statutes were watched, and the scverity with which, especially in the infancy of the Hebrew commonwealth, their violation was punished. But though the penalty of death exists in the temporary judicial code, yet neither the first nor the fourth, nor indeed any, of the precepts, as they stand in the Decalogue, designed for all ages and nations, has any penalty whatever attached, which can be inflicted by the hand of man. Though in the judicial code of all nations, ancient and modern, some of these precepts have been enforced under the penalty of death, yet the marked absence of all humanly inflicted penalty from the Decalogue leaves the much agitated question of capital punishment, inflicted by a mere human magistrate, untouched. It may be added, that the extraordinary mildness of the judicial code of Moses, is such as will favourably bear comparison with the code of Britain and of all the other nations of Christendom.

We have thought proper to call special attention to the distinction between the general law, and the particular application of it. The distinction is, indeed, broad and very obvious, but nevertheless it is frequently overlooked; and hence many of the misrepresentations of the sabbath-law.

We cannot at present follow the subject farther; but we may repeat our conviction, that the sabbath-law, so far from being, as it is sometimes represented, rigorous and gloomy, is one of the most pleasant, mild, and benevolent precepts which God ever gave to man. If there be in it one feature more benevolent, and compassionate, and tenderly affecting, than another, it is that in which God so conspicuously appears as the protector

of the weak-the guardian of the poor the shield of the oppressed and the asserter of the rights and liberties of the working man. How mildly, yet majestically, he displays himself as the stay of the dependentas their protector from the caprice, passion, avarice, and tyranny of their fellow-men! Even the brute creation share in the sympathies of this glorious law "That thine ox and thine ass may rest; and the son of thine handmaid and the stranger may be refreshed." These, then, are the accents of Deity! Never since Adam fell, has the heart of man originated such pathos. Yet this is what some men call the rigour of the Jewish Sabbath!

The due observance of such a law must be eminently conducive to physical life and health; to the enlargement of the intellect; the refinement of the heart; the happiness of the individual; the welfare and prosperity of the whole community. A nation observing such a law, never could be slaves-never could be politically degraded. No. They would, of necessity, stand forth in the dignity of Heaven's freemen. No tyrant would ever be able to put his foot on the necks of such a people.

It is no part of our present object to remark on the perpetuity of the sabbath-law. Yet it might easily be shown, that all the reasons which ever existed for such a law still exist. The ox and the ass, the man-servant and the maid-servant, of Europe, stand as much in need of rest as did those of Palestine. What a blessing still would this rest be to the industrious working classes who are wearied and depressed in mind, and well nigh worn-out in body, by the cares and toils of this troubled and busy world!

Our mental and moral, as well as our physical powers, need the continued refreshment of the Sabbath. So far, then, as rest is concerned, the ground for the perpetuity of the Sabbath is undiminished. The want of it debases our higher nature, and produces a world of individual and social wretchedness.

Other reasons for the Sabbath remain in all their force. We need it as a season for social religious worship. It is to us as vividly commemorative as it was to the Jews. Its associations and services fix the mind on the greatest of beings, and the grandest of events. Every breath of the sacred day wafts to the ear of the mourner the cheering sound'your dead shall live again." Thus it wipes the tear from the sorrowing eye, and heals the heart which death had lacerated. To us, as to the Jews, it is gloriously anticipative of that rest that remains for the people of God, "where the wicked trouble not, and the weary are at rest.”

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"Rich day of holy thoughtful rest," how sweet is thy refreshment to the weary and heavy laden children of men! How grand are thy recollections-how ennobling thine exercises -how enchanting thine enjoyments, uniting man to man, and earth to heaven-how divinely glorious those hopes, which thou inspirest, of that land whence fragrance is brought to earth by thy return! There, in the enjoyment of eternal Sabbath, we shall never again know sin nor sorrow, disappointment nor care; there no friend deceives, no enemy injures; there everlasting glory dwells, and everlasting joy abounds!

"How sweet a Sabbath thus to spend, In hope of one that ne'er shall end." C.

like a bombshell among the supporters of the Established Church, producing great excitement and consternation. Their newspaper organs are anathematising, in no measured terms, the combined movement that has begun in favour of an unsectarian system of education. Their church courts are passing resolutions, denouncing the "measures now demanded touching the existing relations between the Established Church and the parochial schools of Scotland, as a violation of the principles and rights of the church, and in themselves illegal and unconstitutional." And their education committee is sending, far and wide, copies of the General Assembly's "Protest, Declaration, and Testimony on the subject of national education," and has even condescended to address a coaxing circular to the parochial teachers, entreating them to withstand the "novations" now threatened, and to lend their aid in averting the dangers to which the highest and holiest interests of the country are now exposed.

Of the various productions to which the controversy has already given rise, the pamphlet entitled "Lord Melgund and the Parish Schools,"* is both the ablest and the most temperate. We consider not a few of the author's statements incorrect, and dissent altogether from the conclusions at which he has arrived; but we bear willing testimony to the general fairness with which his argument is conducted; and this all the more readily, on account of its rarity. He frankly admits that, while a strictly national system of education is on many accounts desirable, the connection between the parish schools and the Established Church is, in the present state of opinion in the country, an insuperable obstacle to any such material extension of the present machinery as would constitute a strictly national educational * Lord Melgund and the Parish Schools. By a Churchman. Edin. : Blackwood & Sons.

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system. But he affirms, that no practical injustice is suffered by Dissenters, from the present constitution of the parochial system, and that " national system of education for Scotland, of a more general description than the one already in operation, is at least, in present circumstances, wholly impracticable, on any conditions or terms—after any fashion, or mode, or plan whatever.” In proof of the averment, that Dissenters suffer no practical grievance from the present management of the parish schools, the author quotes the admission of Lord Melgund, that "teachers and presbyteries appear to have dealt liberally by all classes of Dissenters in religious matters; and the evidence of Dr Taylor, before the Committee of the House of Lords in 1845, that the teachers "do not generally attempt to proselytise or interfere with the religious opinions of the children;" and the statement of Mr Gordon, the Government inspector, that not only the children of orthodox Dissenters, but even Roman Catholic children, find these schools non-sectarian. We have no reason to question the accuracy of the statements referred to; but the author falls into a grievous mistake when he imagines that they are sufficient to prove his point. To say: nothing of the fact, of which he is fully aware, that "Dissenters consider it a grievance, a badge of inferiority, and an act of injustice, that they should be excluded from holding office in schools which are national institutions," we must remind him of the great change which has taken place since 1845, through the combined operation of the government scheme and the Free Church system of education. We have reason to believe that, at an early period, some, at least, of the leaders of the Free Church, saw clearly the advantages which they would obtain by the establishment of a complete educational system, consisting of a