Transcribed from the 1853 George Bell edition ,email ccx074@pgaf.org
THE SABBATH.
A SERMON,
PREACHED IN HOLY TRINITY CHURCH,
HURDSFIELD.
ON
SUNDAY EVENING,JANUARY, 30, 1853,
IN REFERENCETO THE PROPOSED OPENING OF THE
CRYSTAL PALACE ON THE LORD’SDAY.
BY
JOHN MARTINDALE FARRAR,M.A.,
CURATE OF HURDSFIELD.
LONDON:
GEORGE BELL, 186, FLEET STREET.
MACCLESFIELD:
SWINNERTON AND BROWN.
1853.
p. 3THESABBATH.
ISAIAH LVIII. 13,14.
“If thou turn away thy foot from theSabbath, from doing thy pleasure on myholy day; and call the Sabbath adelight, the holy of the Lord,honourable; andshalt honour him, not doing thine ownways, nor finding thine ownpleasure, nor speaking thine ownwords: then shalt thou delight thyselfin the Lord; and I will cause thee toride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thyfather: for the mouth of the Lord hathspoken it.”
There is no belief so universal asthat of a future state of existence. Men are born into theworld, appear for a brief space upon the stage of life, and thensink into the grave. But the human mind has looked beyondthis to a distant and unknown Future. Those who weredestitute of a Divine Revelation had necessarily very vague andimperfect notions respecting it. Hence the many differenttheories, the belief in which has prevailed from time to time, inthe heathen world; and, in all of these, the certainty of rewardsand punishments, and of future happiness or misery, wasadmitted. Their heaven, indeed, was peopled with strangedivinities, and the enjoyments which they anticipated p. 4were generallyof an earthly and sensual nature; yet their belief in it seemednaturally to suggest the necessity of some preparation bythemselves. The two things appeared to beinseparable. The entrance to the heathen Elysium was to beobtained only by piety towards the gods. Hence the gorgeoustemples which rose to their honour in the cities of ancientGreece and Italy; the sacrifices daily made at their altars; theprayers and costly offerings at their shrines. And not onlyso, but particular portions of time seem from the earliestperiods to have been regarded as sacred, and set apart for holypurposes; and it is remarkable, that the consecration of one dayin seven appears to have been almost universal in the heathenworld. This may, perhaps, be attributed to some fa