Lessons for Bible Students.
(History of the Sabbath, pp. 158-166.) How far have we now traced the Sabbath? To what does the termination of the seventy weeks bring us? What did the Messiah, during his ministry, solemnly affirm? What did he do at his death? What commission did he leave to his disciples? With the expiration of the seventieth week, what did the apostles do? From what does the new covenant or testament date? How long was it confined to them? Who then were admitted to a full participation with the Hebrews in its blessings? Did God now enter into covenant with his people as a nation, or as individuals? What two great points do the promises of this covenant embrace? When were these promises made? What law was it, then, which, under the new covenant, was to be written in the hearts of God's people? Upon what, therefore, is the new covenant based? Instead of abrogating the law, what does it do? The old covenant had a sanctuary, an ark containing the ten commandments, a priesthood, &c.; does the new covenant have the same? Instead of the tabernacle erected by Moses, what is the sanctuary of the new covenant? The great central point in the earthly sanctuary was the ark containing the law which man had broken; how is it with the heavenly? What scripture proves that there is a temple and an ark in heaven? Before what does our great High Priest, Jesus Christ, minister in the temple in heaven? Is the ark before which he ministers, empty? If not, what does it contain? To what does the death of the Redeemer, and his work before the ark, have direct reference? As the atonement and priesthood of Christ have reference to the law within the ark, what is thus proved in reference to that law? Did this law, then, originate with the New Testament? Where must we, therefore, look for a revelation of that law? To what does the New Testament in its quotations from the law, cite us? Going back to the Old Testament for the original of this law, what do we find? That this Old Testament law was identical with the law now in the ark in heaven can be readily shown; first, what was the mercy seat, and where placed? Second, what had made the atonement necessary? Third, was there any atonement under the old covenant that could take away sin? Fourth, was there any actual sin, and a real law which man had broken? Fifth, what kind of an atonement, therefore, must there be, to take away sin, and to what must it pertain? Sixth, what was the law under the Old Testament which demanded an atonement? Seventh, what was the death of Christ designed to accomplish? To recapitulate, what kind of a law does the Old Testament give us? What kind of an atonement does it provide? Does the New Testament respond to this want? Are all mankind amenable to the law of God? After the Gentiles were given up to their own ways and left without a written law, what did they still have? What advantage had the family of Abraham in being taken as the heritage of God? Why were they, then, no better than the Gentiles? By what language does Paul show that the law has jurisdiction over all mankind? Can the law save any one? What is the great means by which God can justify those who seek pardon, and yet remain just himself? How, then, does the sentence which the law pronounces upon the guilty, and the offer of pardon through the gospel, compare in extent? From all this, what is the office of the law shown to be? Of what is the church of the present dispensation a continuation? What does the proclamation of the gospel to the Gentiles do? In Paul's illustration of the olive-tree, from what point must that tree date? What constituted its branches? What does the ingrafting of the wild olive-tree represent? How are the Old-Testament and New-Testament churches respectively described?