intellectual powers, by directing them to things above the world; and thus for the purpose of cherishing and strengthening that spiritual growth, which is the only real end of his being on earth, as it is the fulfilment of the will of God concerning him. For this purpose we say the Sabbath was ordained. In this sense we can say that it was made for man, for we here perceive its merciful adaptation to the complicated wants of his mixed and mysterious nature. In the Sabbath, therefore, thus understood, and thus applied, we see the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the goodness of God, and we adore the mercy which provided alleviations for a life doomed to labour, and cheered the burdened traveller on his way, by the pledge of a rest eternal in the heavens. With this view of the Sabbath before us,—with this picture of its purpose and its end,—while we thus gaze on the glorious destiny unfolded to man in the institutions of the Sabbath, and see the steps by which he is prepared to inherit it in its sanctifying influences,—we must feel that all the temporal advantages offered to him here—the refinement of tastes, the enlargement of knowledge, are but a mockery of his woe, if they are proposed as the blessings connected with the ordinance; and we wonder at the audacity that can present such a petty allurement to the inheritor of the kingdom, as worthy of his acceptance. But the real character of the Sabbath may be inferred, with greater confidence, from considering the character of the Being by whom it was ordained; for if the Sabbath was made for man, and made for man by Him who created man, it surely is reasonable that we should collect the character of the institution from the known will of the Institutor, and learn the way in which it should be observed from what we know of His general purpose. If the Sabbath, then, was made for man, let us remember, that it was made for man by Him who not only formed man from the dust, and breathed into him the breath of life, so that man became a living soul, but who likewise opened heaven to his view, raised him above the earth by the word of promise, and who, finally, sent his own blessed Son into the world to accomplish his restoration, Luke xix. 10.