THE SEVENTH DAY SET APART AS THE SABBATH FOR AN EARTHLY PEOPLE IN RELATIONSHIP WI TH GOD.

I would offer a few thoughts on the above subject, which are new to myself, but received by me in meditation on the word of God, avoiding reference to human authority.

It is very clear that the inspired Word speaks of an earthly people, and a heavenly people. When God took up the Israelites as a nation, and brought them into relationship with Himself, their calling, was earthly, and they were to be blessed with all temporal blessings in earthly places on condition of obedience to the law. The same Word treats of a heavenly people,-of a people who are blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, and they are to walk worthy of this calling. Unless this distinction is seen there must be confusion as to the sabbath, as well as to some other subjects.

It is plain also that Adam and Eve as they came from the hand of their Creator, though innocent, and in relationship with Him, yet their calling was earthly. "The Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there He put the man whom He had formed;" and the man was "to dress it; and to keep it." And when the woman was created and brought unto the man, she had her place with him in the earthly paradise. Thus their calling, like the nation of Israel, was earthly, not heavenly; and as such the seventh day was sanctified or set apart as a sabbath for them. It is written, "God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it, because that in it He had rested from all His work " (Gen. 2:3). We cannot suppose that God sanctified a sabbath for Himself, or for the angels, but for "man" whom He had formed, and given dominion on the earth. And doubtless if a seventh day passed after it was sanctified, and the man and his wife remained unfallen, he did not "dress" the "garden" on that day. He and his "help meet" rested in happy obedience to God.

Alas, by man, so favored, sin came into the world. His relationship to God was broken. Paradise was lost. Creation was under the curse. Death reigned. God's rest was interrupted. He had to go to work again, though in a new way. To this the Lord doubtless referred when He said to those who charged Him with breaking the sabbath, "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work." God cannot rest in a scene like this. As soon as the fall had taken place, He, in grace, opened a door of hope, by announcing that the Seed of the woman should bruise the serpent's head:and those who took their true place as sinners, and in faith recognized the truth that "without the shedding of blood is no remission," as did Abel, were divinely accounted righteous. But their calling was not earthly; no "garden of delights" was "planted" for them here;-their calling was heavenly. Though Enoch walked with God 300 years, yet He did not-open a "garden eastward in Eden " to him, but translated him to the heavenly paradise. Of others who lived sometime later, it is said, "They desire a better country, that is a heavenly:wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; for He hath prepared for them a city."

Not only did God thus at once announce grace and act upon it, accounting those righteous who took refuge in its provision; but they were under grace as to their walk. In its power Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, and others lived holy lives. It is clear that "from Adam to Moses" there was no law. And during that interval of over 2,000 years, the sacred record, covering that interval, gives no history of the sabbath nor even mentions it.

But as soon as Israel as a nation is brought into relationship as God's earthly people, the sabbath comes up again (Ex. 16:23,26); and when the law was given at Sinai the keeping of the sabbath was enjoined (Ex. 20:8-11). After this the mentioning of the sabbath is of frequent occurrence in the books of the Old Testament. And when the people got away from God, He raised up prophets and others to warn them, charging them among other things with profaning the sabbath, and recalling them to obedience (Isa. 56:2-6; 58:13, 14; Amos 8:4-6; Neh. 13:15-22).

But as soon as Christianity was fully introduced, and Israel as a nation was manifestly set aside for the time being, believers in Jesus came to the front as God's heavenly people. Of Jewish believers it was affirmed that they were "partakers of the heavenly calling" (Heb. 3:i). And Gentile believers were addressed as seated "in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus" (Eph. 2:6). This being their calling, they were "not under the law, but under grace," (Rom. 6:14) and were taught to walk worthy of the new position into which grace had just brought them. In the apostolic epistles, Christians are not once exhorted to keep the sabbath. In the Acts of the apostles we have no mention made of the Church coming together on that day for worship. The apostles would go into a Jewish synagogue on that day, so as to have an opportunity to preach Christ (Acts 13:14-5-2; 18:4-6). That is a work which can be done on any day, or in any place. The only day specified in" the Acts "when the disciples came together to break bread," was "upon the first day of the week " (Acts 20:7).

It may be noticed that in the epistles to the seven churches of Asia, though they are nearly all charged with departure from God, and some of them with introducing positive evil, yet none of them are reminded of the sabbath, or charged with breaking it, as certainly they would have been if the law of the sabbath had been divinely in force. The way the Lord spoke to these backsliding Christians is very different from the way He spoke to backsliding Israel.

But when the present interval is past,-when the Church-period is over, and the heavenly people are gone to meet the Lord, and to the Father's house, God will take up Israel, and will, in the riches of His grace, bring them into relationship with Himself as His earthly people; or as Isaiah expresses it, " The Lord shall set His hand again the second time to recover the remnant of His people" (Isa. 11:ii). And when this occurs the sabbath will apply, and be observed. The "great tribulation " (Matt. 24:31) is after the Lord has come into the "air" to gather His heavenly saints to Him, and before He comes "in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory." And the sabbath will be in force with His earthly people even during that interval. The Lord referring to that time said, " Pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day."

The sabbath is to be in force, and be kept during the Millennial age when Israel will be God's firstborn, that is having the first place in earthly blessing. It is written, "They shall bring all your brethren for an offering unto the Lord, out of all nations … to My holy mountain Jerusalem, as the children of Israel bring an offering in a clean vessel into the house of the Lord. And I will also take of them for priests, and for Levites, saith the Lord. For as the new heavens, and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before Me, saith the Lord, so shall your seed and your name remain. And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before Me, saith the Lord" (Isa. 66:20-23). The following, found in the same prophecy, will be fulfilled in that day, as never of old in Israel, "If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on My holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable; and shalt honor Him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words:then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father:for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it" (Isa. 58:13, 14).

In completing this simple outline on the sabbath, it should be added, that as Adam "is the figure of Him that was to come," so God resting "on the seventh day from all His work "-all being finished, and very good-was doubtless "a figure" or type of His rest when the new creation is finished, and all things are according to His mind. This is the sabbath at which He has ever been aiming, and "worketh hitherto" to bring in, and will work till His blessed purpose is fully carried out. Then He will cease from His" work. In the new creation there will be no sin, therefore His holiness can rest; there will be no sorrow, therefore His love can rest. And His rest, His sabbath, will be forever:and all that are His will enter that rest-"There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God." The Greek word here rendered "rest" is sabbatismos, given in the margin, "keeping a sabbath." The Revised renders it "a sabbath-rest." Thus more than intimating that God resting on the seventh day was a figure of His eternal sabbath-rest when all things are made new, and "the former things are passed away." So when the Millennial age is over, having accomplished its purpose, and the new creation is fully come in, "Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father," (Matt. 13:43) "and they shall reign forever and ever" (Rev. 22:5). Nothing can ever mar that sabbatic rest.

As Christians we are strangers here, and are on our way to a heavenly climb; and not being under the law, we have nothing to do with the sabbath, which was for a nation whose calling was earthly; but we have something more suited to a calling which is heavenly,-we have "the first day of the week,"-"the Lord's day,"-the day of the week on which the Lord arose from the dead. In observing this day we are reminded, not of the finishing of the old creation, but the beginning of the new, He, as risen, being that beginning, and a sure pledge of its completion, when all things will be made new, and God be all in all, and His people enjoy an endless sabbath rest. Of course, "the first day "is to be observed in a manner worthy of the risen Lord, ceasing from ordinary work as far as possible, and coming together as the first Christians did, and for the same purpose (Acts 20:7). Beside this, we are not limited to "a sabbath day's journey," but may journey in the Lord's work as far as we like; that is to preach His Word, or give out tracts, or to visit some sick or lonely ones, to administer spiritual help. In thus doing, we are imitators of the Father and the Son,- " My Father worketh hitherto, and I work." R. H.
" WE MAY NOT BE HERE LONG."