The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1881-08-17

Va en0 AsuluSu Idrtu-d NeW OTedtlOu
where Death had thrown down the
original edifce. Man comes upon the
scene again-the browning feature of
the creative work-and all is restored;
through the second Adam Gods Rest
spreads out before man again. 1t was
greater creation than the first, and
therefore, as Jesus rose from the dead
emerged from the shadows of the realm
OF darkness-on the first day of the
week-opening the kingdom of heaven to
all believers,-therefore, we keep the first
day to commemorate this life from the
dead, just as the Jews kept the seventh.
to commemorate the first creation Of the
world. This is no modern thought we
find in the Epistle of Barnabas (about A.
D. 1907: "Your present Sabbaths are not
acceptable unto me, but the Sabbath
which have made, in the which when l
have finished all things, will make the
beginning of the eighth day, schich IS the
beginning of the nep ,0orld."
The day mast have been changed, and
how grand is the manner of the Bible; it
leaves 1T, as it were, to the Christian con-
seriousness to find this out, without any
formal proclamation The early Church
glided from the old to the new silently
and noiselessly and we perceive now that
the Real Creation was the thing to be COM
memorated-the Possession, not the Ru-
ined Paradise.
| Gods Rest, we say, continues. Christ
led US into that Rest which is called ex-
plicitly Gods Sabbath, the very same
Sabbath spoken of in Gen. ii 2. This is
the Rest that remaineth for the people
of God (the original Divine Sabbath OF
God).
If we interpret wrongly, then our in
depreciation will not harmonise with the
following passage from the fourth chapter
of the Epistle to the Hebrews Eve shall
quote from the Revised Version, as the
sense is brought out rather more clear.
ly):
l Let us fear therefore, lest haply, a promise
being left of entering into his rest any one O.
you should seem to have come short of it
For indeed we have had good tidings preach
/, ed unto us, even as also they: but the wore
OF hearing did not profit them, because they
t were not united by faith with them that heard
For we which have believed do enter into
that rest; even as he hath said,
J. AS L sware in my wrath,
They shall not enter into my rest: although
the works were finished from the foundation
: of the world. The idea is his: We that
O believe shall enter into this Rest while those
who believed not were not permitted to dc
q so)-although the work of creation was lonp
q ago finished, and Gods Rest ordained from
4the beginning of the world For he hath
] said somewhere of the seventh day on this
wise, And God rested the seventh day
6 from all his works; and In this place again,
They shall not enter into my rest
e Seeing therefore it remaineth that some
should enter thereinto, and they to whom the
good tidings were before preached failed tc
7enter in because of dlsobedience, he again de-
! tneth certain day, saying in David, after SC
long time, To day as it hath been before
e said,
To-day if we shall hear his voice,
Harden not your hearts
For if Joshua had given them rest, he would
] not have spoken afterward of another day
: 9There remaineth therefore Sabbath rest for
lOthe people of God. For he that is entered
t into his rest hath himself also rested from his
, give diligence to enter into that rest, that nc
man fall after the same example of disobe
dience.
Observe that in the Sd verse the writer
, speaks of the continued existence of Gods
{ Rest from the foundation of the world
and then Immediately, in the 4th and 18th
, verses, he Identifies the seventh day with
} this Rest; that is, the seventh day in
! which God rested (not the seventh day Of
the week. is identified with the continu-
ing rest of God; showing that it had a
long duration.
The Jews, as we have said, conceived
that Joshua would lead them into this
Rest; but the writer points out that in
David's time the promise was still unful-
filled, and he draws the conclusion that
there remaineth some other rest for the
people of Coda Sabbath Rest, into
which Christ entered when he finished
his work; for Christ, he tells u.s. rested
from his works, as God did from his
Let us, therefore" he adds, "seek to
enter into that rest" 1t is Jesus (of
whom Joshua was the type) that leads us