joy-God rejoicing over the work of His hands, and over man, His image; and man rejoicing in the love and beneficence of his God. Such was the joy with which Adam's life commenced. Walking in the light of God, and in communion with Him, he saw in every object of creation some revelation of God's glory, all uniting to lead him to the full knowledge of Him in whom all his affections were centred.

The observance of this day is solemnly enjoined by God in one of the ten commandments, delivered by Him on Mount Sinai, as we read in Exodus xx., "Remember the Sabbathday, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour and do all thy work: but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day ; wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath-day and hallowed it." Here reference is clearly made to the original institution of the Sabbath. It is no new thing enjoined, but given by way of commandment, and as a witness against His people that they had not kept it. "The law was added because of transgression"—to show men their sin, and to shut them up to the faith, and to the hope of deliverance through the promised Seed, even Christ. The law being written on tables of stone, showed that it was not written on their hearts; and it also directed them to the faith of Christ, through whom they

should be restored to the image and likeness of God, in righteousness and true holiness. The reason assigned for keeping this day is the same as that expressed in Genesis ii., viz., because God rested on that day from all His works, and had blessed and hallowed it. God- did not rest because He was weary and needed rest; as He saith by the prophet, "He fainteth not, neither is wearied;" but He rested for man's sake, and to give him the example of resting from his own work, as God did from His. Thus the Sabbath, or day of rest, was instituted and made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. And the fact that the Sabbath was made for man is the proof, if we needed any, that God would have man to keep it as He had kept it. We are called to cease from our own works, and to rejoice in God and rest in Him. This example of rejoicing and resting is referred to in this chapter, that, seeing God Himself hath thus hallowed and blessed it, we may never presume to depart therefrom. How many such Sabbaths were kept before the fall we are not told; but if there was only one, it is sufficient to justify the saying of our Lord, that "the Sabbath was made for man"-i. e., for man as man, and not for the Jew as a Jew.

The Sabbath is therefore binding on all men who will acknowledge God as their CREATOR, and worship HIM from whom they derive their existenceHIM in whom they live, and move, and have their being, and the Author of every good and perfect gift. The acknowledgment of God as our CREATOR involves the observance of this day unto the Lord,

and that we should keep it holy, as the Lord our God hath commanded. Not to do so is virtually to deny that God is our Creator-that we are the work of His hands and that all things in heaven and earth were made by Him! It is to pass by His glory revealed in His handiwork; wherein He is seen, even now, by the eye of faith, so that men are without excuse who know Him not by the things which He has made-" because that which may be known of God is manifested in them; for God hath showed it unto them-even the invisible things of God-even His eternal power and Godhead."* And is not this the sad condition of those who neglect the Sabbath? Are they not willingly ignorant of God? And do they not live without Him in the world? If we believe in Him as we ought, we shall most gladly and thankfully unite with His whole creation in giving Him praise and glory-yea, we shall fall down and worship Him that liveth for ever and ever, saying, "Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory, and honour, and power; for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created."

But God's work of creation is only a type or shadow of His work of redemption. And in this still more exalted and glorious point of view, and looking forward to the day of eternal redemption—the rest which remaineth to the people of God-did the Psalmist say, "This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it." As God rested on the seventh day from all His work which

*Rom. i. 19, 20.

He created and made, so did He rest from His work of redemption on the morning of that same day; for our Lord rose from the dead on the morning of the creation Sabbath-a fact which may be clearly deduced from the Scriptures, as I shall presently show. And as God beheld all His works completed on that day, and rejoiced therein, so did He on that day behold the work of redemption completed in the person of His Son Jesus Christ. "Ye are complete in Him (saith the apostle), which is the Head of all principality and power." And from Him, our righteous Head, "the whole body, by joints and bands having nourishment ministered and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God;" and "when Christ, who is our life, shall appear, we shall also appear with Him in glory." That the creation Sabbath was a type of the redemption Sabbath, and of that rest which still remaineth unto the people of God, is evident from St. Paul's remarks in his Epistle to the Hebrews, where he speaks of that rest as future, "though the works were finished from the foundation of the world." What glory does this cast upon the Christian Sabbath, as another great step in bringing out the eternal purpose of God, which He purposed in Christ Jesus before the world was that it is the day on which the Lord Jesus Christ rose from the dead, as the HEAD of His body the Church, and rested from His work of redemption that then God saw His work of grace and salvation completed in the person of His Son, even in the Man Christ Jesus-that then He beheld *Heb. iv. 3-5.

in man His own image restored, and man resting and rejoicing in God. Therefore is it called "THE LORD'S-DAY"-a day which bringeth us far more glory than the creation Sabbath, inasmuch as our standing in Christ, the second Adam, is so much more glorious than it was in the first for through Him we are made partakers of the Divine nature, and have received the Spirit of adoption, crying, "Abba, Father!" And what a pledge, too, and earnest, does this day afford of the coming of that morning when we shall attain unto "the fulness of joy which is at God's right hand for evermore"when the mystic Eve, the Church of the living God, shall be presented, as a chaste virgin without spot or wrinkle, unto her Lord, made of His flesh and of His bones; even as Eve was taken out of the man, and God called them, not separately, but conjointly, as one, Adam.* St. Paul shows that this typical history will receive its fulfilment in Christ and His Church in that day.†

As the first day of Adam's being was a holy Sabbath, and a day of great rejoicing, so is the Christian Sabbath unto us. It is the beginning of our spiritual joy, and the earnest of future glory. It is a day in which God reveals Himself more fully unto us, and gives us the most sacred pledges and gracious tokens of His more immediate presence, filling our hearts with joy and gladness. What holy joy and consolation did He not pour into the hearts of His disconsolate disciples on that day! With what unutterable joy was not Mary's heart filled when He * Gen. v. 2. + Eph. v. 32.