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I fully expect that these views will be objected to as weakening the 
Scriptural authority for the observance of the Sabbath. I think, however, 
that the reasons I am about to urge will show that this inference is altogether 
without foundation. There is not in Scripture a tittle of evidence that the 
Sabbath was commanded to be observed, or was observed, before the passage 
of the Israelites through the Red Sea. Soon after that miracle the Sabbath 
is first mentioned (Exod. xvi.) in connection with another miracle, the 
gathering of manna in six days, and the double supply on the sixth day to 
serve for that and the seventh. Then follows its institution from Mount 
Sinai as one of the commandments of the Decalogue ; and lastly, when 
Moses rehearsed the Ten Commandments before the people, as recorded in 
Deut. v., he concluded the Fourth Commandment in these words : “Re- 
member that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the Lord 
thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and a stretched out 
arm ; therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the Sabbath 
day.” It is to be noticed that in the reason here given for keeping the 
Sabbath no mention whatever is made of the six days of creation. 
Putting all these statements together, any one, I think, only a little 
versed in Scriptural symbolism might see that the institution of the Sabbath 
is in no respect commemorative, but typical, having the character of a 
covenant whereby God undertakes to deliver His believing people from the 
bondage of the present evil world, “ spiritually called Sodom and Egypt, 
where also our Lord was crucified ” (Rev. xi. 8), and to give them rest and 
eternal life (signified by the manna) in the seventh day yet to come. Thus, 
the reason for the observance of the Sabbath, as given in Deut. v., is in per- 
fect accordance with that given in Exod. xx., always supposing that the 
antitype of the seventh day of observance is that day of eternal rest which 
supervenes at the end of this world, and which all the faithful of all times 
have looked forward to. Hence it may be concluded that there is just the 
same reason in the Christian dispensation that there was in the Jewish for 
observing a seventh day. 
From this argument, it would appear that the institution of the Sabbath 
was delayed till, by God’s miraculous dealings with the Israelites, it could 
receive a spiritual signification, and be observed acceptably with faith. To 
observe it with the accompaniment of faith, is to regard it as a symbol of 
the covenant of everlasting rest and life which God has made, through 
Christ His Son, with all the faithful, and to wait in hope for the fulfilment 
of that covenant. By a formal observance without such faith, in the strict 
manner of the Pharisees which our Lord condemned, it is not possible to 
please God. 
I have now only one more remark to make relative to the views contained 
in Mr. Titcomb’s paper. If it has been rightly argued that the period during 
which the race of man has existed on the earth (which, to take the lowest 
computation, is very nearly 6,000 years) is but a portion— possibly a very 
small portion — of the sixth day of creation, it will follow that that day, and, 
consequently, all the days, are periods of long duration. And whereas 
