THIS command, to remember the Sabbath-day, in order to keep it holy, was given by Almighty God himself to the Jews. I say, it was given by himself. He did not order any prophet, or other holy man, to give it in _his_ name; He gave it himself in his own person; He spoke it aloud, in the ears of all the people, with his own voice. And this voice, as we are told, was so terrible, that the hearers of it were smitten with intolerable fear and trembling, and began to entreat, with the most humble and urgent supplications, that God would vouchsafe, in future, to make known his will to them by the voice of Moses rather than by his own. No doubt, _we_ also, who are assembled here, should think it a very awful thing, and should tremble in our whole frame, if we were to hear the voice of the great God of heaven and earth speaking to us from a cloud, or from a mountain-top; and we should naturally desire to hear the gentler, the more familiar voice of a man, like one of ourselves; to whom also we might listen, and with whom we might talk and reason, without any dismay, or even alarm. However, in this case, we may presume, the mighty terror of God’s voice was increased tenfold to those who heard it, by the accompanying hoarse blast of the brazen trumpet, waxing louder and louder; by the continual crash of tremendous thunderings; and by the red, fiery flashes of direful lightnings, which burst around them, whilst God was speaking, out of the thick, dark smoke that covered the top of the mountain “where God was;” the whole mountain itself, too, shook from its very foundations, and seemed to be all in a flame, burning with fire. Now, what was the reason of this unusual manifestation of the Divine Majesty, but that God wished to give the command in the most striking, impressive manner, so that it should never be forgotten by _that_ generation of men; and to show them a terrific instance of his power also, that they might tremble at the very thought of disobeying him, and of profaning, or neglecting, the Sabbath-day, which he _thus_ commanded them to remember, to keep it holy. But this was not all. God was not satisfied that He had done enough, even when He had uttered this command with his own voice, and with all that show of his terrible power and majesty; He wrote it also on a tablet of stone with his own finger; and He ordered the sacred tablet to be preserved with the utmost care, in the most sacred place—in the very ark where his whole covenant with his chosen people was preserved also. One generation alone could have heard that voice, and have seen those miraculous signs; but many succeeding generations, to remote times, might see the tablet of stone, and read the writing of God’s finger, and learn the Divine will for themselves with a more reverential awe; whilst every other supernatural circumstance of the history was taught by one generation to another, and was handed down from father to son through _all_ generations.