HOW TO HALLOW THE SABBATH.
We must not spend the six days of labor in the spirit of the world, if we hope to keep the Sabbath in a manner that God can accept. Begin the week in the spirit of consecration to God. Carry on your business in such a manner that you will be willing to have it inspected in the day of Judgment. Do to others as you would have them do to you. Watch unto prayer. Never get so much in a hurry that you cannot find some time to read the word of God, to pray in secret, to attend family prayer, and to attend also the prayer-meeting of the church. Keep your heart in the love of God. Let your path through the week be strewn, all the way behind you, with good deeds. When the Sabbath comes to such persons, they will not find it difficult to enter into its spirit. They will not be so weary that they will fall asleep the moment they sit down. They will not be so full of the spirit of the world, that they can hardly refrain from worldly conversation. They will be able, in truth, to say with the Psalmist, “I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord.” Ps. cxvii, 1, 2. They will not have occasion to spend the Sabbath in sleep, because they have done seven days’ labor in the six days assigned by God for the business of this life. To them the Sabbath of the Lord will be a delight, and they will honor, with grateful worship, the God that made heaven, and earth, and sea.