JESUS CHRIST, the Son of God, was with the Father before the world was. He himself says: "And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was." John 17:5. JESUS CHRIST was the direct Creator of the heavens and earth. "Without him was not anything made that was made." John 1:3. "For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers; all things were created by him, and for him." Col. 1:16. "To us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him." 1 Cor. 8:6. The world was therefore created by God through Jesus Christ. CREATIVE power is preëminently the distinguishing mark of the true God. The Psalmist contrasts the idols worshiped by the nations with the true God in the following language: "Our God is in the heavens; he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased. Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men's hands." "Ye are blessed of the Lord which made heaven and earth." Ps. 115:3, 4, 15. "The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, even they shall perish from the earth, and from under these heavens. He [the true God] hath made the earth by his power, he hath established the world by his wisdom, and hath stretched out the heavens by his discretion." Jer. 10:11, 12. THE same thought is emphasized in the New Testament. When Paul and Barnabas would turn men from idolatry to the worship of the one true God, they appeal to the creative works of God as evidence of his existence. When the men of Lystra were about to render them worship, the apostles exclaimed: "Sirs, why do you these things? We also are men of like passions with you [and so were the heathen gods], and preach unto you that ye should turn from these vanities unto the living God, which made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all things that are therein," and the same God had not left himself without witness, but had given rain from heaven, with fruitful seasons. See Acts 14:11-17. And also at Athens Paul proclaimed the true God with the same characteristics. It was the "God that made the world and all things therein," the "Lord of heaven and earth," who "giveth to all life and breath and all things," in contrast to the multitude of gods worshiped by the Athenians. Throughout the Scriptures it is the same,—the God who created the heavens and the earth is the only true God. IT would be most natural that this characteristic of the true God should be embodied in some memorial or institution which would constantly keep before his people and the world his true character. And such we have. Says the Psalmist, "He hath made his wonderful works to be remembered" (Ps. 111:4); and this memorial, we are told, is "throughout all generations." Ps. 135:13. But what is this memorial by which God has made his wonderful works to be remembered, which calls to mind the only true God, the Creator of the heaven and the earth? It is his holy Sabbath, the law of which shows its memorial character, as also the characteristics of the God who gave it:— "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work; but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God; in it thou shalt not do any work; . . . for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day; wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day [the day of the Sabbath, the seventh] and hallowed it." HERE was the memorial of God. Around and in that institution as it came from his hand in the beginning (Gen. 2:1-3) clustered all of the great facts of creation, all of the attributes of the Godhead—his love to man, and his wisdom and power exercised because of his love. Every recurring Sabbath would bring to man in an especial sense God's wondrous goodness in the life, home, and blessings which God had given; would reveal the wondrous wisdom of means to end, of perfect adaption of part to part, manifested in the unfolding revelation of God's will; would continually impress man with the wondrous power bestowed in creating and upholding all the rolling worlds: and this not only on the Sabbath day; for God is ever the same, and his immutable law demands a remembrance of the Sabbath day all through the week. As soon as one Sabbath was past the next one was to be remembered, and all plans laid with that in view, in order that it might be kept holy. And therefore all the days of the week were named or numbered with respect to the Sabbath, "Day One to [or into] the Sabbath," "Day Two to the Sabbath," etc. The Sabbath was the crown of the week, and the only reason for the week's existence. THUS much for creation, the Creator and the memorial of his work. Man sinned, and lost his dominion, his purity, his life. Only Divine power, only Creative power, can restore what has been lost through sin; and therefore we have the two thoughts so frequently conjoined in Scripture. "In six days Jehovah made the heaven and the earth." Ex. 20:11. "I have made the earth, and created man upon it; I, even my hands, have stretched out the heavens." "Israel shall be saved in Jehovah with an everlasting salvation; ye shall not be ashamed nor confounded world without end. For thou saith Jehovah that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited; I am Jehovah, and there is none else." "Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is none else." "In Jehovah shall all the seed of Israel be justified, and shall glory." Isa. 45:12, 17, 18, 22, 25. "For I am Jehovah thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour." Isa. 43:3. "Thus saith Jehovah, thy Redeemer, and he that formed thee from the womb, I am Jehovah that maketh all things." Isa. 44:24. The above passages unmistakably declare that Creator and Redeemer and Saviour are one, and that God's creative power is pledged to redeem and save his people. Such proofs could be multiplied indefinitely. THAT the salvation of man demands creative power is further evident from the fact that those who are saved are recreated, or created anew, by the very One who created the heavens and the earth. "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them" (Eph. 2:10); "And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness [or sanctification]" (4:24); "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature [creation]" (2 Cor. 5:17). Therefore redemption is crea-162tion; the same power which was exercised to bring man into existence is exercised to redeem and save; for the gospel is "the power of God unto salvation." Rom. 1:16. THEREFORE as God has "made his wonderful works to be remembered" (Ps. 111:4), as the memorial of those works is the seventh day, his Sabbath day (Ex. 20: 8-11), as that memorial is "throughout all generations" (Ps. 135:13), and as a part of the wonderful works of God is the recreation and restoration of what has been lost through sin, it follows that the Sabbath is the sign-token of God's power in redemption, the ever-present memorial of regeneration in him, "a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable." And this the Lord expressly declares: "And hallow my Sabbaths; and they shall be a sign between me and you, that ye may know that I am Jehovah your God." "Moreover also I gave them my Sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am Jehovah that sanctify them." Eze. 20: 20, 12. Here again is presented not only the thought that the Lord, the Creator, is the sanctifier of his people, but that he who sanctifies the Sabbath also sanctifies his people. Christ sanctifies his people by dwelling within them (Eph. 3:17; Gal. 2:20; John 17:17-19), and he sanctifies the seventh day by putting into it in an especial manner his own presence, making it holy unto the Lord (Isa. 58:13; Ex. 20:11). The Sabbath is, therefore, not only a memorial of creation but of recreation, a sign-token not only of the Lord Jesus Christ the Creator, but of the Lord Jesus Christ the Redeemer. And he who comes to know Christ for what Christ wants to be to his people will observe the memorial which Christ has given, and will turn from every counterfeit which Satan has sought to pass current. Reader, how do you stand?