We purpose to trace out a little the Sabbath rest spoken of in Gen. 2:2, 3, and Heb. 4:1-9; for, we believe, the thoughts of Scripture as to this are vague in the minds of many, and that any light and help from the Scriptures will be welcomed by many lovers of the truth. "All Scripture is profitable," and we believe the lessons of Gen. 2:2, 3 and what they foreshadow, are seasonable and wholesome for our study and meditation.

The lessons we have in Heb. 4:open up the blessings God has in store for us, and are worthy of our careful inquiry; and the lessons, when read aright and compared with other lines of truth, are seen to harmonize and form a part of a complete, perfect whole.

The Word will bear searching:yea, we are blessed if we search it prayerfully and carefully with one thought before us-to acquire the knowledge of His will, to learn His truth. And as we open the precious volume, we feel there is much of this good land not yet possessed, though the whole land flows with milk and honey, and drinketh in the rain from heaven. Let us who have been privileged with much light, still approach the Book thus, and great and fuller blessing will be ours.

We will examine the subject before us under the following heads, which, we believe, give us the main lessons of the entire subject:

First-The historic Sabbath.

Second-The prophetic Sabbath.

Third-The typical lessons of the Sabbath-the full answer to the Sabbath type.

Fourth-The eighth day, and the place it occupies,

First.-In the opening of Genesis (chaps, 1:, 2:) we get the account of the six days' work, and at the close of all that vast work a seventh day, in which God rested. His work of creating and making was all finished, and He rested from all His work; then He blessed and sanctified that day.

This is the first Sabbath rest:but sin soon entered the world (Gen. 3:) and God's rest was broken; therefore the testimony of our Lord in healing on the Sabbath is, "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work" (John 5:17).

In Gen. 2:we have the first stage of the Sabbath history-" God rested; " that is a thing of the past; for since sin entered, God does not and cannot rest- He "worketh," and so does our Lord Jesus Christ.

In Ex. 16:we have another stage of the historic Sabbath. In bringing His people Israel out of Egypt, and in the wilderness, God gave the Sabbath day to them for rest, and commanded them to observe and keep it sacred. It was a sign between Jehovah and Israel (Ex. 20:8-10; 31:12-17), and for them a day of rest-reminding them continually of God's rest (Gen. 2:1-3). But Israel failed (as did Adam in Gen. 3:) in this respect as in all else:from Num. 15:32-41 down through the prophecies we are reminded of this fact again and again. This Sabbath day (the seventh day) was never given to the Gentiles ; and we never read in the pages of the New Testament that such was given to the Church or the Christian:they observe another day-"the first day of the week "-the "Lord's day."

With these outlines of the historic seventh day, or Sabbath rest of the Old Testament, we may now further proceed:-

Second.-Israel failed, as we have said, to observe all that Jehovah had enjoined upon them; hence, the blessings promised them under law they lost by their disobedience. The golden calf shows how soon and how far they went astray, and other things follow.

But God abides faithful, notwithstanding all their failures and their sins. He sends His servants, the prophets, and they prophesy of a Deliverer, a Saviour, to deliver them from their sins ; and this places in their hands "the prophetic Scriptures." In them the dawn of a new day appears, and those who loved those sacred prophecies ever looked for this "day-dawn," when the shadows would pass away; yea, "the bright morning without clouds" (2 Sam. 23:3, 4; Sol. Song 2:17).

At the present time they are passing through the night of their sorrow; but the prophetic Scriptures are as a lamp that shineth in a dark place until the day dawn, and "the Sun of Righteousness arise" (Mal. 4:2). They look for this. The Church looks for " the Morning Star ; " and so heaven, not Palestine, is our hope (Rev. 2:28; chap. 22:16).

This new day that prophecy opens up for Israel and the earth, is called "the day of the Lord." The siege of Jerusalem (a. d. 70) was the beginning of sorrows (Matt. 24:8). The "great tribulation"
by and by will be, for "the remnant," their closing sorrows.

When "the Sun of Righteousness " arises, and His feet stand upon the Mount of Olives (Zech. 14:4), the sorrows of the nation will pass away (Isa. 35:10; Ix. 18-22), and "the day of the Lord,"the bright day of Millennial glory, will begin. Let us pause here a little, and examine those scriptures, lest we misapprehend what that "day" shall be.

The Millennial age is the great period kept in view for Israel and the earth in the prophecies; but this is not the eternal state. We get the Millennium in Rev. 20:; after that, the eternal state in Rev. 21:1-5-a very different thing. Israel and the earth look for "the day of the Lord, " of which the prophets speak very fully:but the New Testament carries us further, and tells us of another day-" the day of God."They look for the first; we Christians really look on to the latter. See 2 Peter 3:10-12.To distinguish them in 2 Peter 3:is a great help.

The Millennium is " the age to come" but the eternal state will be the "age of the ages,"Eph. 1:21, and Heb. 2:5, refer to "the age to come;" Eph. 3:21, to the eternal state.(See J. N. D.'s translation.) The Millennium will be the day when the Lord Jesus will rule and put down all His enemies-hence, "the day of the Lord."The eternal state will be the age that will have no end, when "God shall be all in all," and God shall rest-hence, "the day of God," "the day of eternity " (2 Pet. 3:18, J. N. D.'s
translation).

The 1000 years will begin by judgment and close with judgment:at the beginning, the Lord judges the quick, and at the close He judges the dead. The remnant of Israel delivered will be blessed on the earth during the 1000 years.

The nations converted at that time will also be blessed under Christ's rule, and enjoy the days of heaven upon the earth (Deut. 11:21).

Yet this Millennial Age does not give the full sum of blessing; there will not be perfection then, and therefore not perfect rest. This "day of the Lord" will be rather & preparatory age, preceding the eternal state, or "the age of the ages."

During the 1000 years there will be minor judgments also, whenever sin appears (see Psa. 101:6-8; Isa. 26:9; 28:17-19; Zeph. 3:5; Zech. 14:17-19). In view of this we could not rightly say God had His rest-the rest that Heb. 4:speaks of, and which Gen. 2:foreshadows.

In the Millennium righteousness will reign, and Christ will hold the rod of iron; yet some indeed will give but "feigned obedience" (Psa. 18:44; I 16:3, marg.). But in the eternal state ("the day of God," "the day of eternity," the "age of ages") we view a new heaven and a new earth, in which righteousness will dwell-not merely reign, as in the Millennium. In this new heaven and new earth sin shall never enter to break or disturb that rest of God.

In the Millennium Satan will be bound, shut up in the abyss; but in the eternal state he shall be cast into the lake of fire. In the Millennium sin will yet be in men's natures, on earth. In the eternal state there will be no more sin in either the new heavens or the new earth.

In that great and glorious scene, when all will be peace, joy, rest, righteousness, holiness, perfection, we will know better the value of two passages, John 1:29, and Isa. 9:6-"The Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world," and "The Father of Eternity."

As "the Lamb of God," He shall cleanse away the sin of the world on the basis of His work of atonement.

As "the Father of Eternity," He shall bring in the new and blessed scene, and fill it with those who shall be to His own praise and glory. Here, and here only, could God rest, and rest forever.

A careful reading of the prophecies will be a great help here. Rev. 20:gives us the 1000 years of Christ's reign. Then follows "the little season" when "Satan shall be loosed out of his prison," and men again break out in open rebellion, closed up by fiery judgment from heaven:then the last enemy- death itself-will be destroyed.

Let us now pass on to the seventh day of Gen. 2:-the Sabbath rest.

Third.-The typical lessons of the seventh day are now before us, and Hebrews 4:will open the subject. Whatever rest Israel enjoyed in Canaan in the days of Joshua, it was not what the seventh day of Gen. 2:foreshadows. Heb. 4:, quoting from Psa. 95:, is proof of this :'' There remaineth therefore a rest (Sabbath rest) for the people of God."

This verse carries us on to the end of all labor in a world where sin is, to that rest when creation shall rest with God forever.

And it is clear that Heb. 4:does not point to the Millennium (that was the theme of prophecies for Israel); but now we have, in this epistle, the Christian's blessings-and they are eternal. In Hebrews
we read of eternal salvation, eternal redemption, eternal inheritance, eternal covenant, eternal judgment, etc.; and if chap. 4:is read aright, it is the unbroken, undisturbed rest of God for all eternity which, in contrast with the present labor and toil, God's people are to enjoy with Him forever.

Now, to get the proper lay of these lessons, we will examine Gen. 1:and 2:more carefully. If those days in Genesis are carefully noted, we will see a contrast between the sixth day and the seventh. It closes the previous five, and contrasts with the seventh:it is, we believe, the first Millennial type of the Bible.

In the sixth day Adam got dominion over the whole earth:Adam is a figure of Christ (Rom. 5:14), whose dominion over the earth in the Millennial day we have in Psa. 8:He is the true Adam, the Head. His bride is with him the sixth day, and they receive dominion, and together are the beings of note that day. The seventh day, when all work is finished, God rests. And here looms up before us the first type of God's rest-eternity itself. There is no need of pressing the seventh day in Gen. 2:as a Millennial type-it strains the lesson out of shape, and will not fit.

But if the sixth day is taken as it is given, then we see a beautiful type of Christ, the last Adam in dominion and rule, and His companion-bride with Him over the whole earth; this is "the day of the Lord."

In the seventh day it is "God" who is foremost:He is the one who appears, and He rests. It was Adam in dominion on the sixth day; but God resting on the seventh.

The sixth day was the day of Adam.

The seventh day was "the day of God." One foreshadowed the Millennium; the other, the "day of God"-the eternal state. The Millennium will be partial .blessing; the eternal state, complete and perfect. The seventh day points to perfection as well as rest; the sixth does not.

Then again it will be noted that the sixth day (as the other five) has an evening and a morning (a beginning and an end); but when we read of the seventh, the typical day of eternity, there is no evening nor morning mentioned. Can we say this omission has no meaning when we see inspiration at every step and upon every line-yea, with every jot and tittle ? The omissions of the sacred Scriptures are for a purpose as well as what is given.

As we meditate on the seventh day, and look at the lessons there given, we think of the vastness of eternity ! There never was a morning there-never a beginning; and the sun will never set there- never a nightfall; it is " the perfect day" and has no end. A. E. B.

(To be concluded in our next.)