With many, much of the argument turns on this word “formal” breach. It is worth while to consider more fully its meaning, and to inquire into the real notions of Sabbath observance which prevail in the Christian church. We are all agreed, that the highest kind of good was contemplated by God in the institution of the Sabbath; we are not all agreed that, failing the highest good, a lesser good which is within our reach may lawfully be secured. Many good people reason thus:—“The Sabbath is God’s day. It is the portion of man’s time which He has cut off and consecrated to himself; the mere time is His, as well as the spirit of the worshipper; to recognize any secular employment of such time, is to recognize a robbery of God.” “_Remember thou keep holy the Sabbath day_.” To this view of Sabbath observance it may be objected—1. It recognizes a distinction in _kind_ between the common day and the sacred day, which has no warrant in the New Testament Scripture. Is not “work” a command, as well as “worship?” And is not every commandment holy, and obedience holy? Is it only on the first day that we are to be fervent in spirit? Are we not to be serving the Lord by diligence in business, with fervent spirit, every day in the week, in our places of business, and the haunts of men? The idea that the Sabbath is a kind of tribute paid to God, to allow us to go free to work on week-days—a sort of composition—is foreign both to the spirit and the letter of the teaching of the New Testament. The Lord’s day is to be a day of refreshing, of renewing of soul, that every day may be a day of Divine service, and have more, not less, of the sacred element infused into it. The idea of a tribute of one day out of seven, false as it is, rules very much of the feeling of the religious public on this question, and perhaps in a measure affects all our hearts. But a second objection, and a plainer one, to this view of the law of Sabbath observance, is this:—there is hardly a Christian to be found who professes practically to carry it out. How much of our Sabbath is literally spent in devotion, how much in cheerful converse with the family circle, how much in meals, how much in criticism of the sermon, not always of a highly spiritual cast, how much in passing references to the leading topics of the day? Let us be honest and single-minded, and answer from our consciences these questions. If we were to try our Sabbath observance by that law which _did_ consecrate the time in its unity and completeness, which of us could stand? Do we regard this as a sin? By no means; because we feel that Christian Sabbath observance is in the spirit, and not in the letter; in the direction of our thoughts and desires without hindrance from the work-day world to God; in the feeling of rest—of Sabbath calm—of holy peace and joy—which has possessed us, and made our Sabbath more a thing to be measured by the Spirit’s