Why, therefore, contend for that which has no foundation in the Word? Love, honor, and celebrate the Lord's day as much as possible; seek, like the apostle, to be "in the Spirit" thereon; let your retirement from secular matters be as profound as ever you can make it; but while you do all this, call it by its proper name; give it its proper place; understand its proper principles; attach to it its proper characteristics; and, above all, do not bind down the Christian, as with an iron rule, to observe the seventh day, when it is his high and holy privilege to observe the first. Do not bring him down from heaven, where he can rest, to a cursed and bloodstained earth, where he cannot. Do not ask him to keep a day which his Master spent in the tomb, instead of that blessed day on which he left it. (See, carefully, Matt. xxviii. 1–6; Mark xvi. 1–2; Luke xxiv. 1; John xx. 1, 19, 26; Acts xx. 7; 1 Cor. xvi. 2; Rev. i. 10; Acts xiii. 14; xvii. 2; Col. ii. 16.)
But let it not be supposed that we lose sight of the important fact that the sabbath will again be celebrated, in the land of Israel, and over the whole creation. It assuredly will. "There remaineth a rest (σαββατισμος) for the people of God." (Heb. iv. 9.) When the Son of Abraham, Son of David, and Son of Man, shall assume his position of government over the whole earth, there will be a glorious sabbath—a rest which sin shall never interrupt. But now, he is rejected, and all who know and love him are called to take their place with him in his rejection; they are called to "go forth to him without the camp bearing his reproach." (Heb. xiii. 13.) If earth could keep a sabbath, there would be no reproach; but the very fact of the professing church's seeking to make the first day of the week the sabbath, reveals a deep principle. It is but the effort to get back to an earthly standing, and to an earthly code of morals.
Many may not see this. Many true Christians may, most conscientiously, observe the sabbath day, as such; and we are bound to honor their consciences, though we are perfectly warranted in asking them to furnish a scriptural basis for their conscientious convictions. We would not stumble or wound their conscience, but we would seek to instruct it. However, we are not now occupied with conscience or its convictions, but only with the principle which lies at the root of what may be termed the sabbath question; and I would only put the question to the Christian reader, which is more consonant with the entire scope and spirit of the New Testament, the celebration of the seventh day or sabbath, or the celebration of the first day of the week or the Lord's day?[3]
We shall now consider the connection between the sabbath, and the river flowing out of Eden. There is much interest in this. It is the first notice we get of "the river of God," which is, here, introduced in connection with God's rest. When God was resting in his works, the whole world felt the blessing and refreshment thereof. It was impossible for God to keep a sabbath, and earth not to feel its sacred influence. But, alas! the streams which flowed forth from Eden—the scene of earthly rest—were speedily interrupted, because the rest of creation was marred by sin.
Yet, blessed be God, sin did not put a stop to his activities, but only gave them a new sphere; and wherever he is seen acting, the river is seen flowing. Thus, when we find him, with a strong hand, and an outstretched arm, conducting his ransomed hosts across the sterile sand of the desert, there we see the stream flowing forth, not from Eden, but from the smitten Rock—apt and beautiful expression of the ground on which sovereign grace ministers to the need of sinners! This was redemption, and not merely creation. "That rock was Christ," Christ smitten to meet his people's need. The smitten Rock was connected with Jehovah's place in the tabernacle; and truly there was moral beauty in the connection. God dwelling in curtains, and Israel drinking from a smitten rock, had a voice for every opened ear, and a deep lesson for every circumcised heart. (Exod. xvii. 6.)
Passing onward, in the history of God's ways, we find the river flowing in another channel. "In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood, and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water." (John vii. 37, 38.) Here, then, we find the river emanating from another source, and flowing through another channel; though, in one sense, the source of the river was ever the same, being God himself; but, then, it was God, known in a new relationship and upon a new principle. Thus in the passage just quoted, the Lord Jesus was taking his place, in spirit, outside of the whole existing order of things, and presenting himself as the source of the river of living water, of which river the person of the believer was to be the channel. Eden, of old, was constituted a debtor to the whole earth, to send forth the fertilizing streams. And in the desert, the rock, when smitten, became a debtor to Israel's thirsty hosts. Just so, now, every one who believes in Jesus, is a debtor to the scene around him, to allow the streams of refreshment to flow forth from him.
The Christian should regard himself as the channel through which the manifold grace of Christ may flow out to a needy world; and the more freely he communicates, the more freely will he receive, "for there is that scattereth, and yet increaseth; and there is that withholdeth more than is meet, and it tendeth to poverty." This places the believer in a place of sweetest privileges, and, at the same time, of the most solemn responsibility. He is called to be the constant witness and exhibiter of the grace of him on whom he believes.
Now, the more he enters into the privilege, the more will he answer the responsibility. If he is habitually feeding upon Christ, he cannot avoid exhibiting him. The more the Holy Spirit keeps the Christian's eye fixed on Jesus, the more will his heart be occupied with his adorable Person, and his life and character bear unequivocal testimony to his grace. Faith is, at once, the power of ministry, the power of testimony, and the power of worship. If we are not living "by the faith of the Son of God, who loved us, and gave himself for us," we shall neither be effectual servants, faithful witnesses, nor true worshippers. We may be doing a great deal; but it will not be service to Christ. We may be saying a great deal, but it will not be testimony for Christ. We may exhibit a great deal of piety and devotion; but it will not be spiritual and true worship.
Finally, we have the river of God, presented to us in the last chapter of the Apocalypse.[4] "And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb." "There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the Most High." This is the last place in which we find the river. Its source can never again be touched—its channel never again interrupted. "The throne of God" is expressive of eternal stability; and the presence of the Lamb marks it as based upon the immediate ground of accomplished redemption. It is not God's throne in creation; nor in providence: but in redemption. When I see the Lamb, I know its connection with me as a sinner. "The throne of God," as such, would but deter me; but when God reveals himself in the Person of the Lamb, the heart is attracted, and the conscience tranquillized.
The blood of the Lamb cleanses the conscience from every speck and stain of sin, and sets it, in perfect freedom, in the presence of a holiness which cannot tolerate sin. In the cross, all the claims of divine holiness were perfectly answered; so that the more I understand the latter, the more I appreciate the former. The higher our estimate of holiness, the higher will be our estimate of the work of the cross. "Grace reigns, through righteousness, unto eternal life, by Jesus Christ our Lord." Hence the Psalmist calls on the saints to give thanks at the remembrance of God's holiness. This is a precious fruit of a perfect redemption. Before ever a sinner can give thanks at the remembrance of God's holiness, he must look at it by faith, from the resurrection side of the cross.
Having thus traced the river, from Genesis to Revelation, we shall briefly look at Adam's position in Eden. We have seen him as a type of Christ; but he is not merely to be viewed typically, but personally; not merely as absolutely shadowing forth "the second man, the Lord from heaven," but also as standing in the place of personal responsibility. In the midst of the fair scene of creation, the Lord God set up a testimony, and this testimony