The Intellectual Repository, October 1, 1862.

440

THE CHRISTIAN AS DISTINGUISHED FROM THE JEWISH SABBATH.

God, as described in Genesis, consisted in bringing the earth from a state of chaotic darkness and confusion into a state of light and order. But, even taking the literal view, God did not then rest absolutely; for preservation is perpetual creation. The labour or work which man has to perform before he can enter on the Sabbath, is that which brings his mind out of spiritual darkness into light, out of confusion into order; and when this work is effected, he enters on his Sabbath of rest, when his regenerated mind, like the created earth, with all its garniture, begins the work of reproduction by spontaneous growth. The same power is still operative in it, and a like activity prevails; but action is not now a struggle between conflicting principles, but a peaceful and delightful operation, resulting in the production of fruit whose seed is in itself.

The strict injunctions to keep holy the Sabbath, and to do no work and carry no burden on the Sabbath-day, were designed to mark the necessity for the cessation of all conflict to constitute a state of spiritual rest. But many of the prohibitions implied also the cessation of the activity of our own self-love and self-intelligence. When Isaiah exhorts the Israelite to "turn away his foot from the sabbath, from doing his pleasure on the Lord's holy day, and speaking his own words," he instructs us that the true spiritual Sabbath is a state in which the natural mind, with its will and wisdom, are deprived of all self-activity and indulgence, a state in which the delights of the spiritual mind are alone active, and have entire control over the affections and thoughts, words and works, of the natural mind below. So when Jeremiah exhorts the people to "bring no burden through the gates into the city on the Sabbath-day," he intimates that to constitute the Sabbath of the spiritual life, it is necessary that there be no intrusion into the holy state of our own worldly and selfish ends, our worldly cares and anxieties. The Sabbath of the soul can only exist when these selfish and worldly ends are subdued. Their activity is inconsistent with the very idea of a state of spiritual rest, since their quiescence is the soul's repose. It is the conflict of self-love with the love of God, of the love of the world with the love of the neighbour, of the flesh with the spirit, that makes the six days' toil; and this state lasts while the conflict endures: its cessation, therefore, is the Sabbath; and any renewal of that antagonism disturbs the peace which is only the result of conquered selfishness.

To those who allow no profane burden to enter into the gates of Jerusalem, it is promised that "there shall enter into the gates of the city kings and princes sitting upon the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they, and their princes, and the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and the city shall remain for ever." The city of

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God, like the kingdom of God, is within us. If we close the avenues of the mind against self and the world, love to God and the neighbour will enter. The city also shall remain for ever; the church and kingdom of heaven established in the mind shall be confirmed, and endure.

But the Word of God has its warnings as well as its promises. and they are frequently given together. "But if ye will not hearken unto me to hallow the Sabbath-day, and not to bear a burden, even entering in at the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath-day; then will I kindle a fire in the gates thereof, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and it shall not be quenched." This entering in from without, from the world and the flesh, into the interiors of the mind, where holy states have been formed, and thus mingling the profane with the holy, kindles the fire that shall not be quenched. And what is this fire but the concupiscence of selfish and worldly love, which, once kindled in the gates, penetrates into the inmost of the mind, devouring the intellectual principles in which Divine Truth resides, as a king in his palace, and completing the destruction of the spiritual life.

To avert this evil, and secure the promised good, we have only to follow where the Lord leads. In His life on earth, the Lord Jesus eminently laboured for the salvation of man, and He became, in the supreme sense, the Sabbath of eternal rest. This He did, not by a pharisaical observance of the Sabbath. It was His wont, indeed, on that day to go into the synagogue, showing by His example that the day is to be kept holy by attending on His service in His house of instruction and prayer. But He did not observe the Sabbath as the rigid Jew considered He should have done. Besides performing cures, He went through the corn-fields on the Sabbath-day; and in both He was condemned by those who paid tithe of mint and annise and cummin, but neglected the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and truth.

The more we labour for and realise a holy state, the more perfectly will we keep holy the Sabbath-day. Differences will long, and may perhaps always exist among the members of the church, as to the precise mode in which the outward Sabbath should be kept; but if we all strive after the Sabbath of the soul or inner man-to have a pure heart, the Sabbath of the body or outer man will be observed with the truest sanctity. Heaven as a place would be nothing without heaven as a state. Separate from a holy state, the Sabbath, as a day, would have no true holiness.

442

BLESSEDNESS THE REWARD OF OBEDIENCE.

By the late Mr. JAMES MITCHELL, of Leicester.*

"Blessed are they that do His commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city."—Rev. xxii. 14.

"GOOD Master," said a young ruler of the Jews to our Lord on a certain occasion, "what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?" to which the Lord replied-"Thou knowest the commandments;-if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments." And here, in the words just read, we have the same truth stated by the same authority, at the close of the Divine Revelation. The Lord God of the holy prophets, the Root and the Offspring of David, the Bright and Morning Star, the Alpha and Omega,-the Beginning and the End,the First and the Last, describing by His servant John the glory and felicity of the heavenly Jerusalem, most decidedly and unequivocally declares that felicity or bliss to be inseparably connected with obedience to the Divine commandments—"Blessed are they that do His commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city."

In these words we have several points of the highest importance presented for our consideration, and shall take them in the order in which they lie before us.

I. And in the first place, we are here most plainly taught that real happiness is only to be found in the path of obedience to the will of God. This fundamental doctrine pervades the whole of Divine Revelation. God alone is perfectly happy, because He is perfectly good; and He desires to render His creatures as happy as their finite capacities will admit, but this can only be effected by the removal from them of evil, the grand source of all sorrow. Whatever duties, therefore, the Lord imposes on man, it is only that such duties may become the medium through which He may confer on him unbounded happiness,-blessings beyond the utmost bounds of the everlasting hills.

Thus it was under the old dispensation, as we might readily shew from numerous portions of the Old Testament; quotation, however, is unnecessary, and it may be sufficient to state, in few words, that while Israel obeyed the Lord, they were crowned with abundance of blessings; but when they disobeyed, they brought upon themselves the most direful calamities.

* For many years a contributor to the Repository under the signature (in Greek) of Jacobus.

This important truth we see fully verified in the frequent lamentations of the Divine Love over their folly in acting contrary to the salutary precepts laid down for them by the Divine Lawgiver. Thus in Moses"O that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end! How should one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight!" And in Isaiah-"O that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments! then had thy peace been as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea." Precisely of the same nature was the lamentation of the Lord in person over that people, when they had so perverted the Divine Truth as to render the commandments of God of none effect, and were about to fill up the measure of their iniquity by crucifying the Lord of glory:-"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem! thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them who are sent unto thee! how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate!"

From these and very numerous other passages of Scripture, we see clearly the misery which disobedience to the Divine commands entails on man; but let us just notice, in few words, the testimony to the truth of the words of our text by those whose experience entitles them to our regard. And for this purpose we select the testimony of David and John. David assures us that he found the law of the Lord to be perfect, converting the soul, making wise the simple; rejoicing the heart; enlightening the eyes; more to be desired than gold, yea, than much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and the honey-comb; and that in keeping its precepts he found a great reward;—he found that it was not a vain thing for him, but his very life, as any one may see who will carefully peruse that remarkable and truly instructive production of his, the 119th Psalm.

The testimony of the apostle John is to the same effect. John dwelt much on the love of God, and, in harmony with the teaching of his Divine Master, informs us that this is the love of God—that we keep His commandments, and His commandments are not grievous;-His yoke is easy, and His burden is light;-great peace have they who love His law; they are in the enjoyment of that which is really good ;--they walk in wisdom's ways, and her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace. She is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her; and happy is every one that retaineth her.

II. In the second place, our attention is directed to the real nature of this blessedness or felicity, and it is said to consist of two things, namely, having a right to the tree of life, and entering in through the gates into

the holy city, the heavenly Jerusalem. And here it will be necessary to ascertain the precise meaning of the terms made use of; and first, as to what is meant by "the tree of life."

The first mention made of it in this book is in chap. ii. 7, where it is said—“To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God." Again, in chap. xxii. 2, we read-"In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations." Now on reading these passages our thoughts naturally revert to the account given in Gen. ii. 9 of the garden of Eden, where it is said—" And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil." Here, at a single glance, we have in the beautifully signi ficant, symbolical language of Scripture placed vividly before our view, on the one hand the felicity from which man by disobedience fell, and on the other, the felicity to which by obedience he may be raised.

What then is--what can be—meant by the tree of life but that, and that only, by which man is restored to the Divine favour? And need we say that this is simply the salvation which is in Jesus Christ,-the salvation of which He is the Author and Finisher, and which consists in His delivering them from the evils of their fallen nature, and imparting to them those qualifications of truth and goodness which can alone fit them for the society of the spirits of the just made perfect, for the enjoyment of the realities of the world to come, the pleasures which are at His right hand for evermore?

But this will more clearly appear from our ascertaining what is meant by having a right to the tree of life. To have a right to anything, in the common acceptation of the term, is to claim it as one's own on the ground of merit or purchase; but certainly this can never be the case with respect to a sinful man in regard to the felicities of the celestial world, for after he has done all that is commanded him to be done, he must confess himself to be an unprofitable servant.

The word which in the text is rendered right, literally signifies power, and is so translated in the following passages, viz. :—“As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name;" again, the Lord speaking of laying down His life, says—“I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again;" and again, in reply to Pilate, who said to Him,-" Knowest thou not that I have power to crucify thee, and have power to release