Among the brief records of the ante-diluvian world, and in the lives of the Patriarchs before Moses, which are given us by the sacred historian, we find traces of a weekly division of time, and intimations that every seventh day was observed as a time of rest and religious worship. The sons of Adam are described as each making an offering unto GOD: “And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground, an offering unto the LORD; and Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock, and of the fat thereof.” Now the words, “process of time,” literally mean “at the end of the days,” that is, at the end of a certain number of days,—a very natural expression for the end of a week. And they seem to convey an intimation of the original command to keep the Sabbath as a day of religious worship. The account of the gift of the manna, {7} which took place in the second month of the Exodus from Egypt, is a very remarkable proof that the seventh day was kept holy, and regarded as a day of rest before the giving of the Law. Every seventh day the Israelites were commanded to gather twice as much manna as on ordinary days, as none fell upon the seventh day; and, contrary to what usually took place, the double quantity which they gathered was miraculously preserved in a state fit for food. Now, in the whole of this account, no precept is given for the observance of the Sabbath day; but it proceeds upon the supposition that the Israelites were well acquainted, both with the institution itself, and with the purposes for which it had been originally given. 2. We now come to what is said upon the Sabbath in the law of the Ten Commandments, which were given by GOD to Moses, and which are referred to in Scripture as the sum of the moral precepts of GOD to man. The obligation to keep holy the Sabbath day is repeated in the fourth Commandment. We shall find, from the writings of the New Testament, that our SAVIOUR and His Apostles never allude to the Ten Commandments but as of permanent and universal obligation. “Think not,” says CHRIST, “that I am come to destroy the Law, or the Prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.” {8a} And not only is the perpetual obligation of the Sabbath to be inferred from such general expressions of our LORD but we have His own direct authority for it, when He says, “The Sabbath was made _for man_,” {8b}—for the race, and so is binding upon all to the end of time. We might, if it were needful, refer you to the numerous threatenings which are denounced against those who shall violate the Sabbath, and to the blessings which are promised to those who shall keep it holy, which are scattered through the prophetic parts of Scripture, and to the latter of which the words of my text belong; but enough has been said to show that the perpetual obligation to observe a seventh day rests upon no less an authority than that of a Divine command.