Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 26, 1915.djvu/295

 ObeaJi in the West Indies. 285

A LETTER OF JESUS CHRIST.

Whosoever worketh on the Sabbath day shall be cursed; I command you to go to Church, and keep the Lord's day holy, without doing any manner of work. You shall not idly spend your time in bedecking yourself with any superfluities and costly apparel, or vain dresses, for that I have ordained a day of rest ; " I will have that day kept holy, that your sins may be forgiven you." You shall not break my commandments, but observe and keep them written with my own hands, and spoken with my own mouth. You shall not only go to Church yourself, but also your menservants and maidservants, and observe my words, and learn my commandments. You shall finish your labour every Saturday by 6 o'clock, at which hour the preparation of the Sabbath begins ; I advise you to fast FIVE FRIDAYS in every year, beginning with GOOD-FRIDAY, and to continue the four Fridays immed- iately following, in remembrance of the five bloody wounds which I received for all mankind ; you shall diligently and peaceably labour in your respective callings, " wherein it has pleased God to call you." You shall love one another with brotherly love, and cause them that are baptised to come to Church and receive the Sacrament, Baptism, and the Lord's Supper, and be made members of the Church, in so doing, I will give you a long life and many blessings ; your lands shall flourish and your cattle shall bring forth in abundance ; and I will give you many blessings and comforts in the greatest temptations ; and he that doeth to the contrary, shall be unprofitable ; I will also send a hardness of heart upon them, till I see them, but especially upon impenitent unbelievers. He that hath given to the poor shall not be unprofitable.

Remember to keep holy the Sabbath day, for the seventh day I have taken to rest myself; and he that hath a copy of this my letter, written with my own hands, and spoken with my own mouth, and keepeth it without publishing it to others, shall not prosper ; but he that publisheth it to others, shall be blessed of me ; and although his sins be in number as the stars of the sky, he that believes in this shall be pardoned, and if he believes not this writing, and the commandments I will send many plagues upon