that those over whom power was given thee, should not believe in the Saviour, should not even know that he died for their sins, and rose again for their justification." Where are the souls over whom thou hast exercised an almost unbounded controul, while with their bodies they were serving thee those whom human laws made thy slaves, yet who are by creation and by redemption thy brethren? The man whose conscience tells him, that those who were dependent on him, have, through his wilful neglect, died in utter ignorance of Christ and his religion, may well tremble at questions such as these. But among those who now hear me, many, I would hope very many, will be able to reply, 'Lord here are thine own. We have made them acquainted with thy Holy Word. We have ourselves taught them, or have carefully provided that others should teach them, in whom they were to believe, and what they were to do, to obtain eternal life. If any have been lost, the fault is not ours; for we were willing that they should be saved.' My prayer is, that every proprietor or agent in the management of slave property may be able thus faithfully to account for the trust reposed in him. May the word of God, through their instrumentality, have free course where before it was impeded, and be glorified in this, and in every neighbouring colony. LECTURE III. THE OBSERVANCE OF THE LORD'S DAY IN THE WEST INDIES. (Preached at the Cathedral, Barbados, Feb. MARK XI. 27. The Sabbath was made for man. THIS declaration of the divine author and finisher of our faith, implies that the observance of the sabbath, that is, of a day of rest from worldly employment, and of devotion to the service of the Almighty, is of universal and immutable obligation. The sabbath was not made, or set apart as peculiarly holy, for the Jews alone, but for MAN of every kindred and tongue and nation. When solemnly promulgated to the assembled Israelites from Mount Sinai, it was only a renewal of the command already required; for before it pleased God to call Abraham from beyond the river, to make him the father of a peculiar people, and even in Paradise before the fall, it was enjoined to the common progenitor of us all, not only as a law but as a privilege. It is an institution for the benefit, of every human being, and this benefit, as far as their nature permits their participation in it, is mercifully permitted to extend to the brute creation. On this day no manner of work, unless proceeding from the call of piety, charity, or absolute necessity, is to be done by the master, or by the servant; and even the cattle are included within the enjoined respite from labour. The objects of this divine institution are clearly the glory of God, and the good of man. After the Almighty had finished his six days' work of creation, he rested on the seventh day, and because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made, he blessed the seventh day and sanctified it. The blessing and the hallowing of the seventh day were therefore intended to commemorate the goodness of the Almighty in forming the world, and giving existence to all that is therein. We are reminded by the sacred rest of the sabbath, that the life which we at present enjoy, and every thing that supports this life, are to be referred to the first exercise of God's creative power upon earth. Even the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy, when the foundations of the earth were fastened and the corner stone thereof laid: 2 and is it fitting that MAN, for whom this vast and beautiful fabric was raised, and to whom dominion was given over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth, that 2 Job xxxviii. 7. 1 Gen. ii. 3. |