DISCUSSION ON SUNDAY OBSERVANCE. 



115 



side is first of all in that it contains God's demand upon man. 

 God made man. God is man's Creator, and He claims one- 

 seventh of our time whether we are Christians or not. I let a 

 house and say to the man, " You may live in the house, but 

 must pay a rent "; and God demands one-seventh of man's time. 

 Then it also deals with God's desire — God's desire is that man 

 should be iii^e God. God rests one day, and He desires man to 

 rest one day in seven; and I believe in that measure in which we 

 recognise that, we too shall grow like God. But then there is the 

 human side of Creation in that it meets man's spiritual need first : 

 " God knew how busy man would be, how seldom from this 

 world set free ; and so He gave one day in seven, that man might 

 think of God and heaven. " Then it meets man's temporal need of 

 rest ; we have heard a great deal about that ; I need not enlarge 

 on it. We come to the Sabbath under Law. Many people make 

 the mistake of thinking that the Sabbath was introduced at Sinai ; 

 it was not. It was re-enacted there, in beautiful keeping with the 

 dispensation teaching of the Word of God. If we had time I 

 would suggest that you should study the composition of the Ten 

 Commandments ; and you would find how wonderfully it is 

 arranged. The Fourth Commandment, dealing with the Sabbath 

 Day, is not numerically the centre, but doctrinally it is the centre. 

 You will find this wonderful fact about the Ten Commandments ; 

 the first three are all relating to God, and three is God's number. 

 The last six are all in relation to man ; six is the number of man ; 

 that is why Anti-Christ's number is 666. The Sabbath Command- 

 ment in the centre looks both ways ; God claims it from man ; 

 man needs it for himself and his fellow creatures as well. It is 

 a most wonderful system of arrangement, and that it is not merely 

 Jewish is clearly shown by the fact that the Sixth Commandment 

 begins with the word " Eemember. " Why call it a Jewish com- 

 mand? Why pick out one of ten? What about the others, are 

 they Jewish ? What about, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not 

 bear false witness? You don't call them Jewish. It is a re-enact- 

 ment of an original law applied in the Word of God in perfect 

 keeping with the dispensational teaching of that Word. We come 

 to the Sabbath under grace. There is no doubt the day w^as 

 altered in New Testament times ; but it was only going back to 

 the original law of grace. Adam was made on the sixth day, and 

 the first morning he woke up was the day of rest. The first day 

 he lived was the rest day, and in the New Testament idea of the 

 Sabbath as being the first day, we ^o back to the original. There 

 are four sides enclosing this consideration : In the first place it 

 seems clear that the Apostles did rest and recognise the First Day ; 

 secondly, they would never have thoujSfht of it themselves ; thirdly, 

 they would never have dared to make such an alteration. There- 

 fore, it must have been introduced by our Lord Himself — no one 



