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EXTRACTS

FROM THE

DIARY

OF THE LATE

FREDERIC JAMES POST.

F

DIARY.

1830, 3mo. 18th. Oh! that I

may be enabled to say with the Prophet-"Though the fig-tree should not blossom, and there be no increase in the vines; the work of the olive-tree fail, and food be not yielded by the fields; the flock be cut off from the fold, and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will triumph through the Lord, will rejoice through the God of my salvation." 1

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1831, 3 mo. 20th." We raise our thoughts. to Thee, O Lord, desiring that our lips may shew forth Thy praise. All the blessings we receive are from Thy bountiful hand; and Thou alone canst relieve all our wants.

Oh! may Thy mercy

1 Habakkuk, iii. 17, 18: Purver's Translation.-ED.

and compassion never fail! but grant that we may continually be the objects of Thy regard! We deplore our many transgressions, and the various defilements of our corrupt nature: but we have nothing to offer unto Thee as an atonement; no lamb without blemish to bring for a burnt-offering; no goat to offer in sacrifice for our sins, like the Israelites of old. But, in deep humility, we approach Thee in a degree of faith, that, through Thy mercy in Jesus Christ, who gave himself to be a propitiation for the sins of the whole world, we shall experience our repentance to be availing; and that, through him, we shall find redemption and salvation. Grant us, we pray Thee, O Lord, an increase of faith, and so influence our hearts that we may grow in love to Thee, and our obedience become more and more perfect; that, assisted by Thy Holy Spirit, we may be conformed to the example and precepts of our blessed Saviour and Redeemer; and, at the conclusion of time, be acknowledged as his disciples, and receive the welcome sentence of,

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Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world."- Margaret Woods' Journal.

1831, 10 mo. 2d. -The Sabbath was ordained by the Creator of man, on the seventh day, as a day of rest; for "God rested on the seventh day, and hallowed it." But man, after a lapse of many years, unadvisedly ordered that the Sabbath should be held on the first day, on the plea that on that day Christ rose from the dead. I say unadvisedly, because I think it wrong, without an express injunction, so to profane the day which the Lord had hallowed, as to work on the day when he commanded them to rest. From whence they had this injunction it would be difficult to say; but I think it is not put upon divine record, at least, I do not remember a passage bearing that interpretation. As the Sabbath has been held on the first day so long, and as it was so held in the primitive ages of Christianity, it would, perhaps, be now unadvisable to alter it. Early Christians had, probably, some particular reasons.

2 If this idea be correct, may we not view the alteration with considerable regret, as proving one great stumbling-block to the conversion of the Jews, who regard the seventh day as having been sanctified by the Creator, and irrevocably ordained to be the Sabbath?-ED.

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