which he contemplated the peculiar work of blessing his creation which lay before him, a work which also had its foreshadowings in the benedictions pronounced on the Jiving creatures of the fifth day, and on man on the sixth. 3. Beneficent activit?J. Even man, unless where his intellectual and moral faculties are dormant, finds it difficult to rest in indolence and inactivity. Absence of motion, with cornpleto negation of effort, may constitute the refreshment of the physical system. The mind seeks its rest in change of occupation. Still less can the supreme Intelligence, who is pure Spirit, rest in absolute inaction; only the Divine energy is now directed towards the happiness of his creatures (Pa. cxlv. 9). Having finished his creative labours, what else could Elohim do but outpour his own blessedness upon his creatures, in proportion to their capacities to receive it? His nature as God neces- sitated such communication of good to his creatures (Ps. =iv. 8; James i. 5, 17). The capacities of his creatures for such blessing required it. Hence God's rest may be said to have been man's birthright. He was created in that rest, as the sphere of his existence. 4. Continuous duration. That which secures its perpetuity is the Divine resolution to bless it, i. e. constitute it an era of blessing for man, and in par- ticular to sanctify it, or devote it to the interests of holiness. And in this Divine determination lies the pledge of man's salvation. Without it God's rest might have been broken into by man's sin, and the era of blessing ended. But, because of it, man's sin could not change the character of God's seventh day, so as to prevent it from dropping down gifts and exercising holy influences on the creature for whose sake it was appointed. Tlie seC'ltrity of the worlcl as a cosmos may also be said to be involved in the permanence of God's sabbath. So long as it continues nothing shall occur to resolve the present goodly· framework of this globe into another lightless, formless, lifeless chaos, at least until the Divine purpose with the human race has been fulfilled. II. THE SADDATH OF MAN. 1. Of Divine in$titution (Exod. xx. 8; Levit. xix. 30; Pa. cxviii. 24). That God had a rig·ht to enact a weekly sabbath for man is implie,l in his relation to man as Creator and Lawgiver. For man, therefore, to withhohl the seventh portion of his time is to be guilty of disobedience against God as ,1 moral Governor, ingratitude towards God as Creator 1rnd Preserver, robbery of God as the original Proprietor of both man's powers and time's days. As an institution of God's appointing, the sabbath deserves our honour and esteem. To neglect to render this God counts a sin (Isa. )viii. 13). 2. Of sacred character. Among the Israelites its sanctity was to be recognised by abstinence from bodily labour (Exod. xx. 10; xxxiv. 21, &c.) and holy convocations (Levit. xxiii. 3). That this wn~ the manner of its observance prior to the giving of the law may be judged from the regulations concerning the manna (Exod. xvi. 22). That from the bcginnin!,; it wns a day of rest and religious wor8hip may be reasonably inferred. That it wa~ ao used by Christ nnd his apostles the Gospels nttest (Luke iv. lG). That the s:inu; 1:harncter was held to nttach to the first clay of the week aftP.r Cliri~t's rest11Tection 38 THE nooK OF GENESIS. Lr,11, JI. 1-3,
may ~e deduced from the practice of the apostolic Church (Acts xx. 7). The sancbty_ o~ the sabbnth m~r. be profaned 1_positively, by prosecuting one's ordinary labours m 1_ts_ hours (Is.a. lvm. 1~ ;_ Jer. ;1v11. 24); negatively, by neglecting to devote them to D1vme worship and spmtual 1mpro-vemcnt (Ezek. xliv. 24). Christianity has not obliterated the distinction between the sabbath and the other days of the "'eck _; not even by elevating them to the position of holy days. An nttempt to eqnahse the seven days always reRults in the degradation of the seventh never in !he elevation of the other six. 3. Of ben_eficent <f:esi,gn (Mark ii. 27). Th~ snbbath 1s adapted to the wants of man physically, mtellectually, socially politically. Innumerable facts and testimonies establish the beneficial influence ~f 11. seventh day's rest from toil upon the manual labourer, the professional thinker tho social fabric, the body politic, in respect of health, ,vealth, streugth, happin~ss. It is howe,er, chiefly man's elevation as a religious being at which it aims. In th~ riaradisaiacal state it was designed to hedge him round and, if possible, prevent his fall ; since t.he trngedy in Eden it has been seeking his reinstatement in that rinrity from which he fell. 4. Of permanent obligation. • Implied in the terms of its institution, its permanence would not be affected by the abolition of the Decalogue. 'l'he Decalogue presupposed its previous appointment. Christianity takes it up, just as Judaism took it up, as on6 :if God's existing ordinances for the good of man, and seeks through it to bring its higher influences to bear on man, just as Judaism tsought, through it, to operate with its inferior agency. Till it merges in the rest of "·hich it is a shadow by the accomplishment of its grand design, it must abide. III. Tm: CONNECTION OF THE TWO. God's rest is-I. The reaso1i of man's sabbath. The Almigl1ty could have no higher reason for enjoining a seventh day's rest upon l,is creature than that by so resting that cr~ature would be like himself. 2. The 1Jatlern of man's sabbath. A.s God worked through six of his days and rested on the se,enth, so should man toil through six of his days and rest on the_ seventh, As God did all his work in the six creative days, so should all man's labour be performed in the six days of the week. As God employs his rest in contemplation of his finished work and in blessing his creature man, so should man devote his sabbath to pious meditation on his past life and to a believing reception of God's gi:Cis of grace and salvation. 3. The life of man's sabbath. Whatever blessing comes to man on his weekly day of rest has its primal fountain in the rest of God. As man himself is God's image, so is man's sabbath the image of God's rest; and as man lives and moves and has his being in God, so does man's sabbath live and mov~ and have its being in God's rest. 4. The end of man's sabbath. The reinstatemen~ of man in God's rest is the purpose at which man's sabbath aims, the goal towards wl1ich it is tending. God's rest remains on high (Hcb. iv. 9), drawing men towards it. Man's weekly sabbath will ultimately lose itself in God's eternal rest.