The subject, as you are aware, is now occupying a large share of public attention, from the fact that an attempt is being made to infringe the sanctity of the Sabbath, as it is now by the law of this country protected, and in fact to legalize its desecration. Hence it becomes the plain and manifest duty of every Christian man to be well informed as to the obligation which GOD has laid upon him to observe and keep holy this day, as also to know the especial purposes for which it was set apart. And I have thought that it may not be an unprofitable subject for our meditation this evening, if I briefly lay before you the Scripture grounds for the observance of the Sabbath; and then, as far as I may be able to do so, endeavour to show you in what manner it should be kept holy. I. And here I would set out with the remark, that the proof of the obligation of the Sabbath is to be sought for entirely from the Scriptures. The whole rests upon a Divine Revelation. And it becomes the more needful to examine what is said upon the subject, in that Revelation, as an attempt has frequently been made to prove that the Christian Sabbath, especially, is not a Divine institution, and that the fact of its sanctity rests only upon the authority of the Church, and not upon that of GOD Himself. 1. And, first, with respect to the original institution of the Sabbath. It was one of the two great ordinances, “instituted of God in the time of man’s innocency;” and it was consequently given at a very early period in the history of the world. The record of the command, and of the purposes for which it was designed, is found in Gen. ii. 1–3. Several things are apparent from a consideration of this passage. We see that the Sabbath was given to the whole race of mankind, because it was given to our first parents; that GOD “blessed it,” that is, designed it to be the source of especial blessings to Adam and his descendants; and that He sanctified it, that is, “set it apart,” which is the literal meaning of the words, for sacred purposes. We find no reference made to any particular people, but it was evidently designed as an example from the Divine Creator to the whole human family. The work of creation had occupied six days, and on the seventh “GOD rested from all His work which He created and made.”