186 OBLIGATION OF THE SABBATH. 



The day of Pentecost— the first day. Jewish feelings respected. 



Saviour reserved the final, public, decisive proof of His being 

 in possession of His tbrone of Glory. {John vii. 39, xvi. 7 — 

 15.) On this day, therefore, and not till it was " fully come," 

 the disciples at Jerusalem " assembled with one accord in one 

 place." Wliy not on the Jewish Sabbath, which was always 

 the day before the Pentecost ? Should any choose to say they 

 met daily, both before and after, that only heightens the dis- 

 tinguishing glory put on this first day of the week by the 

 Saviour; for this, and no other. He certainly selected, on 

 which to bestow the richest baptism of His spirit, and the 

 richest harvest of regenerated souls that was ever gathered in 

 one day into His Church. When God established the Jewish 

 Sabbath (Exod. xvi. 27), no manna fell on the seventh day, 

 because it was the day of Holy Rest ; but, on the First day, 

 from the Pentecost onward, what showers of spiritual manna 

 have fallen on the Church of Christ ! The blessing of God 

 originally rested on the seventh day. Beyond all dispute, the 

 day has heen changed, and the Divine hlessing has since rested 

 on the First Day, in everyage, onward to our oivn. It is worthy 

 of remark, too, that the day of Pentecost was always a second 

 Sabbath to the Jews, a day of holy convocation, and rest from 

 servile work. How fit a day of pmZ>/<c transition to the 

 Christian Sabbath ! How inofifensive, how smooth, how beau- 

 tiful a transition ! How worthy of the condescending love 

 and admirable wisdom of our ascended Lord, that the Christian 

 " Lord's day" should thus begin, amid the most glorious and 

 unmistakable tokens of His power ! For forty years after, 

 as long as Jerusalem stood, no wanton wound was ever inflicted 

 on Jewish feeling by refusing to observe the old abrogated 

 day ; but everywhere advantage was tåken of it by the Apos- 

 tles to introduce in the Jewish Synagogues the Gospel of 

 Jesus Christ. It was only when Gentile Christians weakly 

 conformed to it as a part of the Jewish ritual necessary to sal- 

 va tion, thus sacrificing the substance of the Gospel to the 

 shadow, that Paul liftcd up the voice of warning and remon- 



