Exodus 20:11

For in six days... and rested on the seventh day.

This verse explains why the day is the Lord's Sabbath and why he insisted on the observance of the day. The weekly Sabbath was "a shadow of things to come,". foretaste of the life in which there is to be no more toilsome fatigue, that life which is the true keeping of Sabbath, into which our Savior entered as our forerunner when he ceased from his works on earth, as God had ceased from his works on the seventh day (Hebrews 4:9-10).-- Canon Cook.

PRACTICAL AND SUGGESTIVE.

THE LORD THY GOD.--A friend, calling on the Rev. Ebenezer Erskine, during his last illness, said to him, "Sir, you have given us many good advices; pray, what are you now doing with your own soul?" "I am doing with it," said be, "what. did forty years ago.. am resting on that word, 'I am the Lord thy God'; and on this. mean to die." To another he said, "The covenant is my charter, and if it had not been for that blessed word, 'I am the Lord thy God,' my hope and strength had perished from the Lord." The night on which he died his eldest daughter was reading in the room where he was, to whom he said, "What book is that you are reading, my dear?" "It is one of your sermons, sir." "What one is it?" "It is the sermon on that text, 'I am the Lord thy God.'" "Oh, woman!" said he, "that is the best sermon. ever preached." And it was, most probably, the best to his soul.-- Gray.

N. O THER GOD.--Whatever it be that sets up. rival interest in our souls, absorbing that love and service which belongs to the true God, that is another god before him. Consequently, the proud man, who idolizes himself; the ambitious man, who pays homage to popular applause; the covetous man who deifies his wealth; the sensualist who lives to gratify his low appetites; the doting lover, husband, father, mother, who suffer their hearts to be supremely absorbed in the love of the creature, all come under the charge of transgressing the first commandment.-- Bush.

IDOL GODS.--A little boy, who lived in the house of. heathen, one day took. stick and broke all the images except the largest, into the hands of which he put the stick. When the man discovered it, he was furious, and exclaimed, "Who has done this?" "Perhaps," said the boy, "the big idol has been beating his little brothers." "Nonsense," said the man, "don't talk such stuff as that. Do you think. am. fool? You know as well as. do that the thing cannot even raise its hand. It was you, you little rascal. It was you, and to pay you for your labor of wickedness, I'll beat you to death with the same stick." And seizing the stick he approached him. "But," said the boy, gently, "how can you trust to. God so weak that. child's hand can destroy him? Do you suppose that if he can't take care of himself or his companions he can of you and the world, let alone making you?" The heathen stopped to think, for it was. new idea. Then he broke his great idol and went and kneeled down to pray to the true God, and called him "my Father."

THE LAW AND GOSPEL.--Two things have perplexed Christians. 1. It is universally admitted that. part of the Jewish law is not in force, while other portions, including the commands, are supposed to be. Inspiration has not drawn the line to indicate what part is abolished and what part in force. 2. The fifth commandment requires the observance of the seventh day as. Sabbath, while Christendom, in professed obedience to this commandment observes the first day. How shall this be explained? The true solution is as follows: The law, both moral and ceremonial, belongs to the old covenant; it was the national constitution given to the Jewish race; it was for. nation, not for mankind. Moses was, under God, the lawgiver. It continued in force until the "handwriting of ordinances was nailed to the cross." "The ministration of death written and engraven on stones was done away," until the "old covenant was taken away to give place to the new." It was an old constitution that entirely subserved its purpose and then gave place to. new constitution established by Christ. When. state adopts. new constitution the old ceases to be of force. Yet the principles of the old one may be mostly found in the new. They are then of force because they are reaffirmed. So the old Jewish constitution was entirely done away, but much of it has been reaffirmed in the new one. The ten commands, changed and modified, are found there. In the change the Lord's day has taken the place of the old Jewish Sabbath.

POINTS FOR TEACHERS.

1. Note the circumstances; Fifty days after the passover; Israel before Sinai;. nation with Jehovah as God and King, but without. law. 2. Bring out the terrors which invested the declaration of the Ten Commandments. 3. Show that five of these commands relate to duties to God. 4. Point out what is implied in the Lord thy God; Jehovah, the Covenant God, not any idol. 5. Show what it implies "to have no other gods before me," and how that command is violated now. 6. Bring out the meaning of making no graven image and Show how it is violated in the name of religion. 7. Show how God is. jealous God and what this means. 8. Show how the name of the Lord is taken in vain and the sin of it. Inconsistent with worship or adoration. 9. Bring out the basis of the Sabbath command; why it was to be kept by the Jews, the modification under the Gospel, and the authority for that modification. 10. Show that obedience to the spirit of these commands must follow from. loving reverence for God.