man, that polygamy never was God's design, nor was it meant for man. It was not God's purpose; for Adam was created, and Eve was brought to him, and it is said that a man shall "leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife (not wives); and they shall be one flesh." And, as if nature itself would testify against the infraction of the Divine ordinance, wherever polygamy exists, as in Mahometan countries, there the human race rapidly degenerates; and only where the Christian sanctions, and the Christian law, and the Christian principles are developed and carried into practice, is it seen that society reaches to its culminating grandeur, and man, instead of retrograding down to the brutes that perish, approximates to God in moral, in intellectual, and even in physical state; and society ceases to be a drove, and becomes a nation. I might give the very simple illustration of the truth, that polygamy is not designed, in the very simple fact that the sexes are very nearly equal in number. There is a slight preponderance of the female sex; but the proportion of male to female is, what it has ever been, very nearly equal.

It is the religious sanction that gives the wife her proper dignity, her true place and relationship. In some countries the wife is regarded merely as an elegant and sensuous toy. In other countries she is made a domestic servant. In Hindoo countries she is degraded to the lowest possible level to which so beautiful a fragment of humanity can be driven. Only in Christian, primarily in Protestant, countries I say, primarily and chiefly in Protestant countries, does she become the companion, the confidant, the friend, the equal of man. Beautifully, though rather quaintly, is it remarked by Henry, but not less truly, that she was not taken from man's head, to govern him, nor from man's foot, to be trampled on by him, but from man's side, to indicate companionship, coequality, and mutual friendship. That

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she is of the same original rank and dignity as man, is plain from her very name. She was called Isha. The Hebrew for a man is Ish; for a woman it is Isha; just as we say, "lion," "lioness." Here it is "man," and " manness," which words would be the literal translation of the Hebrew. Thus it is shown that she has the same rank, and the same gifts, and the same powers in her own sphere that man has. Woman only loses power when she steps from the sphere that she adorns into one that she was not meant for; just as man loses his finest tone and temperament when he degrades her from the position that she should occupy, and sinks her into one for which she was never meant. You will find that it is by each keeping to his own place, that each will excel. There is a sphere where woman is sure to fail, and the reaction will be her own degradation; and there is a sphere where man is sure not to excel, and the result will be only his own ruin. It is by each holding his own place, invested with his original attributes, and fulfilling the duties that God has assigned, that each receives his true lustre, and both are felt useful one to the other.

This union, which is here indicated, is to death. There is no law in the Scriptures indicating any sanction of separation, unless for the violation of the very essence of the holy compact. What God has joined let no man put asunder. And, except on the strength of this testimony, I cannot see any ground for the perpetuity of the marriage compact.

The next remarkable fact in connection with the history of man, is the institution of the Christian Sabbath. I state these things as preparatory to a parallel which is based upon these facts. God, it is said, rested on the seventh day. This does not mean, of course, and few would suppose it, that God was weary and took rest. The simple mean fact is, that God rested from creation work on the Sabbath day. This is plain from our Lord's own words, "My

Father worketh hitherto, and I work," meaning that on the Sabbath day God carries on his work of providence just as much as on the other days of the week. And therefore all that is meant is, that he ceased from one kind of work. The new dynasty was introduced, and God therefore ceased from creation work. But providential work he still carries on. For instance, the sap rising from the roots of plants and trees to the stem, the earth marching in its orbit, the sun and the moon and the stars pursuing their courses, are all by the immediate power of God put forth upon the seventh day just as it is put forth on the rest of the days of the week. And therefore, we are now to understand by our resting on the Sabbath, not simply the staying of the water-wheel, the hushing of the whistle of the railway engine, and the shutting up of the shop-windows, and so much of the same kind that is right and proper, but also that that day is to be spent in active work also, namely, in enlightening our minds, in ministering to each other's comfort, and to each other's spiritual, intellectual, and moral good, and in doing every thing within our reach to make society around us more holy and happy. The Sabbath plainly is not a mere Jewish institution. The evidence of that is, Adam was not a Jew, perhaps I might say he was not a Gentile; he was neither; but the Sabbath was instituted for the use of Adam as the father of the human race, not as the first link in the ancient Jewish or Levitical economy. Therefore, the original institution of the Sabbath is evidence that it is not a Jewish institution, merely for the Jews, and to pass away with their economy, but that it is for all mankind, and the right of all mankind; so that each man has just as great a right to have his Sabbath as he has to have his Bible. It is true toleration to prevent anybody keeping the Bible from you, and it is true toleration to prevent anybody keeping the Sabbath from you. It

is your right; God has given it to you as his own precious. gift; use it, sanctify it, devote it to the holiest of purposes, and allow all men within your reach the enjoyment that you yourselves have.

The Sabbath thus instituted was a patriarchal observance before the giving of the law. The ceasing of the manna on the seventh day, which was also before the law, is evidence that the Sabbath was then observed. The fourth commandment says, "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy," which shows that instead of its being the institution of it, it was only a reference to its prior institution. It says, "Remember the Sabbath day," a day that they knew, only to be recollected, not to be instituted in order to be observed.

It is said, God blessed that day. He blessed it just in the same manner as our Saviour blessed the bread at the communion table. Just as he set apart that bread, instead of being a common meal, to be a sacramental thing; so God set apart this day from being a day for common work, to be a day for sequestered purposes, and for holy work.

If the Sabbath were needful for man in Paradise, how much more needful is it for man now! If then he needed some day to remind him more vividly of what he owed to God, how much more do we need it now! Let us, therefore, value the Sabbath; let us defend the Sabbath from all aggression that would taint, pollute, or destroy it. When a nation loses its Sabbaths, it loses the firmest pillars of its stability, its grandeur, and its power. The real secrets of a nation's strength are not what we hear, nor what we see, but they are its religion, its Sabbaths, its Bibles. These are like the piers sunk in the flood below the tide mark, invisible to us, but upon them rests the whole superstructure of national greatness and national strength.

It has, however, been objected, that we had no right to

change this day from the seventh, on which day it was originally instituted, to the first. I answer, there are two parts in the Sabbath; there is the ceremonial part, which is the day which is to be observed; there is the moral part, which is the seventh portion of our time: it is not the seventh day, but it is the seventh portion of our time consecrated to Sabbath work, and to Sabbath objects. Now the ceremonial of the Jewish religion is altered, and the ceremonial of the Christian religion alters according to circumstances, but the moral and spiritual remain. So the mere ceremonial of the Sabbath varies with varying circumstances, but the moral remains. For instance, at the Antipodes it is now Saturday with them, whereas it is Sabbath with us; and if you go half-way to the Antipodes, they. have half of our Sabbath and a portion of our Saturday. It follows, then, that the exact day cannot be observed over the whole earth, for it is Sabbath with us and Saturday at the Antipodes; and thus it varies over the whole surface of the globe. And, therefore, we have evidence that the ceremonial is adapted to circumstances, but the moral or ever recurring seventh day, constituted and observed as the Sabbath, is of absolute obligation. And then we read that the reason of the change was, that he who proclaimed himself Lord of the Sabbath, he, mind you, not who was called so, but who proclaimed himself Lord of the Sabbath, assigned the first day of the week to be the Christian Sabbath. And every seventh day still recurring is still the Sabbath, only it is the first, in order to remind us not only of creation, but to lead us to anticipate the world that shall be restored to the righteousness and love of Christ Jesus.

We have thus seen the leading incidents in another chapter of Genesis. It is now said that Adam, thus surrounded, thus invested, was a type, or a figure, for the word is the