Chap. IV.]

OBSERVANCE OF SUNDAY.

89

ten commandments ; of which the injunction to keep the Sabbath-day holy, is one. This distinction is seen in the origin of theten commandments, and in the manner in which they are recog-nised in the New Testament, as well as in their intrinsic value.The greater part of the Mosaic law consists of ceremonialobservances, transitory in their nature, and manifestly designedto pass away ; the ten commandments make a part of fixed andunchangeable truth, destined to survive to the end of time, and toperish only when all things else shall perish. It is in vain toattempt to separate, as has sometimes been done,* the command-ment respecting the Sabbath from the other nine, promulgated,as it was, under like circumstances with them, and recognised bythe same authority.

The origin of the commandments is worthy of their impor-tance, in the code of eternal truth. The circumstances were ofthe most imposing kind. The Hebrews, just rescued by the armof Omnipotence from an oppressive servitude, were encampedat the foot of Mount Sinai; they had been led by a pillar ofcloud by day and a pillar of fire by night, and their subsistence inthe midst of a dreary desert had been miraculous. Three days’notice was given by Moses, that “ the Lord would come downin the sight of all the people upon Mount Sinai ” ; and in themean time, they were required specially to sanctify themselves.On the morning of the third day, there was a thick cloud uponthe mountain, with thunders and lightnings; and the Lord de-scended upon Mount Sinai in fire, and the smoke thereof as-cended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quakedgreatly. The majestic scene was heightened, too, by the declara-tion, that, if either man or beast presumed to touch the mount,thus sanctified by the presence of the Almighty, he should surelybe put to death. Then, amid thunders and lightnings and smoke,the ten commandments were proclaimed by the voice of theAlmighty.

The material, moreover, on which the ten commandmentswere written, the immediate author (God himself) of the writing,and the means used to preserve them, were worthy of the sacred

* Paley’s Moral and Political Philosophy, p. 962.12