THE SABBATH AT CREATION.
By H. Wren
When God made the world and set it in motion it constituted a complete system. The materials of nature had been produced by an exertion of Omnipotence, and so arranged and combined as to meet the approval of the Divine Mind. Light was separated from darkness, land from water; and order made to reign over the realm of general chaos. The principle of life had been imparted to many organic forms, and motion to the planetary orbs. Man was at the head of the marvelous production—“the noblest work of God.” He possessed all the powers necessary to his high station. The earth itself was fitted up and adorned in a manner worthy of the end for which it had been called into being. Marriage had been instituted by the creation of woman and her gift to man. Provision had been made for the perpetuation of life in all its forms. And a divine glory and perfection were given to the whole system by the appointment of the Sabbath. Gen. 2: 1–3. The beauty and life of the young world were in this manner linked to the throne of God and to the whole universe which revolves about that throne. Ex. 31: 16, 17. Universal recognition was given. God pronounced it all good. The stars sang a welcome to the new orb, and all the sons of God shouted, All hail! to Adam and Eve. Thus this world, and all them therein, began its march of ages. Who can show that the Sabbath was not an integral part,—a constituent element of “the creation,” without which the world would hardly have been a constituent in the universe; and that it was not intended to exist parallel with the world and the universe? But a change came. Man fell. He lost his innocence and his hold on immortality. But did he lose his status as a subject of the throne of God, and as a citizen of his dominions? Was that golden chain which bound him and his world to those dominions broken? Was the Sabbath destroyed? No. That divine institution survived the fall. Man is fallen, but is not a hopeless exile from the dominion of his God. God pitied him, and gave him another chance to seize immortality and hold his place in the universe. First, God sent the promise of a Saviour; and for four thousand years caused that promise to be often repeated and expanded. At last, he sent the Saviour himself to fulfill the promise; and it was fulfilled by him in all its parts. Luke 24: 44. His mission culminated in his death. This was the climax of all he came to accomplish. Now, what effect did all this have on the Sabbath? It is plain to see that the promise, either when originally made or afterward enlarged, did not affect the Sabbath. The very prophets who spoke beforehand of the “sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow” were the most devoted friends of that institution; and, when they had all passed from the stage of action, it still remained. So much for the effect of the promise on the Sabbath. Did, or could, the fulfillment accomplish in this direction what the promise had not done? Not unless the fulfillment embraced more than was included in the scope of the promise. But it did not. Reason and logic, then, would lead to the conclusion that our Lord would not attempt to overthrow the Sabbath. This conclusion is amply supported by Scripture. He certainly did not abolish it by his teaching; Matt. 12: 1–12; nor by his death, Luke 23: 54–56. But what his death did not abolish has never been abolished. Eph. 2: 15, 16; Col. 2: 14; Heb. 8: 13; and 9: 16, 17. We accordingly find the Sabbath in existence all through the subsequent parts of the New Testament. Acts 18: 1–4; Rev. 1: 10. Nothing, then, that Christ did while in this world overthrew the Sabbath. Does his work in Heaven destroy it? Can we tell? Let us see. The result of all his work on earth and in Heaven is the formation of a “new heaven and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness.” But the Sabbath is to be in force in the new earth. Isa. 66: 22, 23. Thus, when the fall and curse are passed, the earth restored and man redeemed, that golden chain still binds all to the throne of God and to the universe. A second jubilee is held, Rev. 5: 13, and immortality without a cloud lies before every being in the universe.