The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1877-1885, 1879-01-09
Thirty-eight

If is translated so comfort Wilson,
in his Hebrew Concordance, recon-
Giles thess two apparently contradlc-
tory meanings, thus This word
seems to denote some strong impulse
of the mind and is applied to those
acts by which it finds ease for itself
hence to console ones SELF The
world was under a curse, and suffered
sorely from the consequences OF that
curse and God promised it relief. We
may call the seventh day a day OF re-
lief we may call the Sabbath year
Gas observed by the Jews) a year of
relief we may call the eliminating
Sabbath (the Jubilee) a browning re-
lief and we may call the approaching
millennium, an endless relief. They
are all Sabbaths, and had the Jews
observed these Sabbaths, on entering
the land of promise, they would have
been restored to Edenic happiness.
But, they entered not into their Sab
bath rest, because of unbelief."
l listened to these latter remarks of
Chesney's with a vague feeling of n
easiness. 1t seemed to me that he was
trying to work out some new interpre-
tation of Gods plan of salvation. |
unused silently for a moment, and
then said. You surely do not think
we can be restored to Edenic happi-
ness without the intervention Of
Christ" His eye flashed, and he rose
from his seat to give emphasis to his
next remark. "Ah, there you touch
the lever, which alone can raise us out
of the pit of misery into which we
have fallen. No human motives, no
human inducements, no human wis
dom or power, have been of any avail
to persuade or drive us into this
Edenic rest. We lost it by want of
faith we "a only regain it by the
humble, child-like exercise of that
faith which is the ''gift of God
Faith must have an object, and it
must be the greatest of objects. In
order to win entire human love, Christ
must be one of our human brother
hood one of ourselves and to make
for us, II Of the greatest human
sacrifices, the giving up of his own
life. In order to win human conf
dence, he shows himself stronger
than humankind strong with the
strength of the Goihead. In order to
make himself an example for us to
initiate, he shows himself sinless.
There is nothing in human history SO
grand, SO true, SO beautiful, SO alb
sOrbing in its interest, as the life and
death of the God-Man. His atoning
death took place in the year which
prophecy pointed out in many passa-
ges of Scripture and one of the Won
derful prophecies was the "sign" of
the Sabbath. The multiform Sabbath
points to Christ with the unerring
precision of the magnet to the pole.
Suppose you were to see upon the sea
beach a quantity of pebbles arranged
in groups of seven. And every sew
enth pebble a pearl. After counting
seven groups complete, leach with its
pearD you find a sapphire. Seven of
these sapphires, and you find a ruby.
Seven of these rubies and you find an
emerald. Seven of these emeralds,
and you find a topaz seven of these
groups are completed and you will
find a diamond, the most precious
OF gems. Would you say tina.
this wonderful grouping was &C
cidental? Seven days form oul
week call six of them pebbles, and
the Sabbath a pearl. Seven of these
weeks are completed, and we come tc
their holy day, the fiftieth, the pente-
cost. This pentecost we will call a
sapphire. Seven of these fifty DAYS
are completed, and it brings us to the
end of the Jewish year, and we will
call it a ruby. Seven years are com
pleted, and the Seventh is their Sab.
batic year, and we viii call it an en-
erald;-Seven Sabbatic years are COM
pleted, and we will call the next a
topaz-it is the year of Jubilee;-seven
Jubilees are completed, and we call il
a diamond:-it is the year of the birth
of Christ Learned men, who have
investigated the subject, state that
Gods covenant with Noah was made
10 the year B. G.. 246S. Learned men
also state that the crucifiXion took
place in the year A. ID. SO. Add