Canst thou, reader, contend with the Almighty? It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God, when he shall lay judgment to the line, and righteousness to the plummet, and shall _sweep away the refuge of lies_. Isaiah 28:17. The _true principle_, reader, and the only _safe principle_, is, to "_let God be true_, though it _make every man a liar_." Rom. 3:4. "Ye are my friends," says Christ, "if ye do whatsover I command you." John 14:15. "He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him." 1 John 2:4. "In vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrine the commandments of men." Matt. 15:9. "What thing soever I command you, observe to do it; thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it." Deut. 13:32. "Turn not from it to the right hand or to the left." Josh. 1:7. "Add not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar." Prov. 30:6. "If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book; and if any man shall take away from the words of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things that are written in this book." Rev. 22:18, 19. Ponder well this subject, reader, and render unto God the things that are God's, that it may be well with thee, and thou be admitted into the rest reserved for those who "delayed not to keep the commandments"--for those who keep his covenant and walk in the way of the Lord. [11] The Sabbath was no type of Christ--a _shadow_, of which Christ was to be the _body_. It was instituted before the _transgression_; consequently, the term _Sabbath-days_, here, has no relevancy if applied to the _weekly_ Sabbath; but it evidently alludes to the _festival days_ among the Jews, usually called _Sabbaths_, as all the Israelites had at those periods to _refrain from labor_--"such as the festivals of the Passover, Pentecost, the Feast of Tabernacles, &c., &c., which are alluded to in Leviticus, 19:3-30. _Keep my Sabbaths._"--CALMET. [12] _Within_ does not imply that they were assembled at any public place _for worship_, or to celebrate a _holy day_. _Within_ may simply mean, that they were together in the place of their common lodgment--where they abode together. [13] The History of the Christian Religion and Church during the First Three Centuries. By Dr. Augustus Neander. Translated by Henry John Rose, B. D. New York, 1848, p. 186. No. 14. DELAYING OBEDIENCE.