But let it not be supposed that we lose sight of the important fact that the sabbath will again be celebrated, in the land of Israel, and over the whole creation. It assuredly will. "There remaineth a rest ([Greek: sabbatismos]) for the people of God." (Heb. iv. 9.) When the Son of Abraham, Son of David, and Son of Man, shall assume his position of government over the whole earth, there will be a glorious sabbath,--a rest which sin shall never interrupt. But now, he is rejected, and all who know and love him are called to take their place with him in his rejection; they are called to "go forth to him without the camp bearing his reproach." (Heb. xiii. 13.) If earth could keep a sabbath, there would be no reproach; but the very fact of the professing church's seeking to make the first day of the week the sabbath, reveals a deep principle. It is but the effort to get back to an earthly standing, and to an earthly code of morals.
Many may not see this. Many true Christians may, most conscientiously, observe the sabbath day, as such; and we are bound to honor their consciences, though we are perfectly warranted in asking them to furnish a scriptural basis for their conscientious convictions. We would not stumble or wound their conscience, but we would seek to instruct it. However, we are not now occupied with conscience or its convictions, but only with the principle which lies at the root of what may be termed the sabbath question; and I would only put the question to the Christian reader, which is more consonant with the entire scope and spirit of the New Testament, the celebration of the seventh day or sabbath, or the celebration of the first day of the week or the Lord's day?[3]
We shall now consider the connection between the sabbath, and the river flowing out of Eden. There is much interest in this. It is the first notice we get of "the river of God," which is, here, introduced in connection with God's rest. When God was resting in his works, the whole world felt the blessing and refreshment thereof. It was impossible for God to keep a sabbath, and earth not to feel its sacred influence. But, alas! the streams which flowed forth from Eden--the scene of earthly rest--were speedily interrupted, because the rest of creation was marred by sin.
Yet, blessed be God, sin did not put a stop to his activities, but only gave them a new sphere; and wherever he is seen acting, the river is seen flowing. Thus, when we find him, with a strong hand, and an outstretched arm, conducting his ransomed hosts across the sterile sand of the desert, there we see the stream flowing forth, not from Eden, but from the smitten Rock,--apt and beautiful expression of the ground on which sovereign grace ministers to the need of sinners! This was redemption, and not merely creation. "That rock was Christ," Christ smitten to meet his people's need. The smitten Rock was connected with Jehovah's place in the tabernacle; and truly there was moral beauty in the connection. God dwelling in curtains, and Israel drinking from a smitten rock, had a voice for every opened ear, and a deep lesson for every circumcised heart. (Exod. xvii. 6.)
Passing onward, in the history of God's ways, we find the river flowing in another channel. "In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood, and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water." (John vii. 37, 38.) Here, then, we find the river emanating from another source, and flowing through another channel; though, in one sense, the source of the river was ever the same, being God himself; but, then, it was God, known in a new relationship and upon a new principle. Thus in the passage just quoted, the Lord Jesus was taking his place, in spirit, outside of the whole existing order of things, and presenting himself as the source of the river of living water, of which river the person of the believer was to be the channel. Eden, of old, was constituted a debtor to the whole earth, to send forth the fertilizing streams. And in the desert, the rock, when smitten, became a debtor to Israel's thirsty hosts. Just so, now, every one who believes in Jesus, is a debtor to the scene around him, to allow the streams of refreshment to flow forth from him.
The Christian should regard himself as the channel through which the manifold grace of Christ may flow out to a needy world; and the more freely he communicates, the more freely will he receive, "for there is that scattereth, and yet increaseth; and there is that withholdeth more than is meet, and it tendeth to poverty." This places the believer in a place of sweetest privileges, and, at the same time, of the most solemn responsibility. He is called to be the constant witness and exhibiter of the grace of him on whom he believes.