Space forbids my further entrance upon this interesting subject. It has been gone into elsewhere, as already intimated, in the earlier pages of this volume. I shall close these remarks by pointing out, in one or two particulars, the contrast between "the Sabbath" and "the Lord's day."
1. The Sabbath was the _seventh_ day; the Lord's day is the _first_.
2. The Sabbath was a _test_ of Israel's condition; the Lord's day is the _proof_ of the Church's acceptance, on wholly unconditional grounds.
S. The Sabbath belonged to the old creation; the Lord's day belongs to the new.
4. The Sabbath was a day of _bodily_ rest for the Jew; the Lord's day is a day of _spiritual_ rest for the Christian.
5. If the Jew worked on the Sabbath, he was to be put to _death_: if the Christian does not work on the Lord's day, he gives little proof of _life_;--that is to say, if he does not work for the benefit of the souls of men, the extension of Christ's glory, and the spread of His truth. In point of fact, the devoted Christian who possesses any gift is generally more fatigued on the evening of the Lord's day than on any other in the week, for how can he rest while souls are perishing around him?
6. The Jew was _commanded_ by the _law_ to abide in his tent; the Christian is _led_ by the spirit of the _gospel_ to go forth, whether it be to attend the public assembly or to minister to the souls of perishing sinners.
The Lord enable us, beloved reader, to rest more artlessly _in_, and labor more vigorously _for_, the name of the Lord Jesus Christ! We should _rest_ in the spirit of a _child_, and _labor_ with the energy of a _man_.
We have now to contemplate something very different from that which has hitherto engaged our attention. "The patterns of things in the heavens" has been before us--Christ in His glorious Person, gracious offices, and perfect work, as set forth in the tabernacle and all its mystic furniture. We have been, in spirit, on the mount, hearkening to God's own words--the sweet utterances of Heaven's thoughts, affections, and counsels, of which Jesus is "the Alpha and Omega--the beginning and the ending--the first and the last."
Now, however, we are called down to earth, to behold the melancholy wreck which man makes of every thing to which he puts his hand. "And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron, and said unto him, 'Up, make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him.'" What degradation is here! _Make us gods!_ They were abandoning Jehovah, and placing themselves under the conduct of manufactured gods--gods of man's making. Dark clouds and heavy mists had gathered round the mount. They grew weary of waiting for the absent one, and of hanging on an unseen but real arm. They imagined that a god formed by "graving tool" was better than Jehovah,--that a calf which they could _see_ was better than the invisible, yet every-where-present, God,--a visible counterfeit, than an invisible reality.