The Israelites were told to remember the Sabbath day; that is, the well-known day of rest, the same day which was instituted as a day of rest in connection with the manna. On five days they collected one omer of the manna, on the sixth day two omers for each person; on the seventh day no manna was collected nor was any found, and the Israelites were commanded to bake and to cook on the sixth day not only for the sixth day, but also for the seventh, on which day baking and cooking was not to be done. This same seventh day we are told in the fourth commandment to remember to keep holy, that we should not forget it, or choose another day instead of it. It is the same seventh day on which God rested after the six days of the Creation, and which “he blessed and sanctified.” It is to be a day of rest not only for ourselves; we must not have work done for us by our children, or by our servants, or by strangers; even our cattle must rest. After six days of work we enjoy the blessing of one day’s rest, and are rendered more fit to work another six days. The harder we work on six days, the more welcome is the rest of the seventh day to us. When Moses repeated the commandments, he laid special stress on the rest of the servants, reminding the Israelites that they themselves had once been slaves, and must therefore recognise the necessity of granting a day of rest to their servants. It is not to be a day of mere idleness. Complete idleness leads to evil thoughts and evil deeds. Whilst our body rests our mind should be occupied with holy thoughts; we should commune with God, reflect on His works, learn from them the power, wisdom, and goodness of God, study the Word of God, listen to the instruction of our teachers and preachers, and altogether try to raise ourselves into a loftier sphere. On the day of rest we reflect on the works of God, on the work of Creation which He completed in six days, and thus by keeping the Sabbath we testify to our belief in God as the Creator of the Universe. On this account it is that the Creation is referred to in this commandment as the reason why rest was enjoined for the seventh day. “For in six days,” &c. “Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day;” the rest on the seventh day is a blessing to those who have worked hard during the preceding six days; it is a blessing to those who spend the Sabbath in a proper manner. “And he hallowed it” by giving man an opportunity to sanctify himself by more frequent communion with the Most Holy. The fourth commandment tells us— (1.) To remember to keep the same day as Sabbath which has been set apart as such from the beginning. (2.) To abstain on that day from all kind of work. (3.) To devote part of the day to our sanctification. FIFTH COMMANDMENT. “Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.”