The Sabbath.

Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.

And on the seventh day God ended His work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made.

And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it He had rested from all His work which God created and made." Gen. ii. 1-3.

We have, in as many lectures, indicated the meaning of the six days of creation according to the science of correspondences as understood in the New Church. I say indicated, for nothing more was attempted or was possible in the time and space -which limited the elucidation of each day in the record to a single lecture. And I cannot but think that those who have given their attention so far will be ready to admit that whatever may be the difficulties in the way of an intelligent acceptance of the record as a history of the creation of the natural things named, it does, in fact, contain within the letter, in the correspondential significance of its terms, a most perfect history of the spiritual development of primitive man from natural to spiritual and celestial states, and of the regeneration of fallen man in all ages.

In these several days we have traced the successive steps in this process of development and regeneration, until man, from his natural state of ignorance and darkness, and from the state into which he fell,—a state in which the will and the understanding are perverted and again darkened by selfish and evil loves in the affections, and errors and fallacies in the intellect,—to that state of moral and spiritual excellency in which he became a spiritual man, a new creature, the image in his finite measure of his Infinite and Divine Creator.

But this did not complete the purpose of the divine love, which was not only to make man into His image, but also after His likeness. And this crowning glory is the work of the seventh day, or Sabbath. That the work was not completed in the six days is evident, for it reads : And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had made; and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it He had rested from all His work which God created and made.

We have seen that the work described as done on the six days is not the creation of the natural universe, for of this the record was not given to be a history, but the regeneration of man; the making of him in the divine image. The six days of labor were the successive states in the process of this regeneration in which man is in combat with his evils; and when these evils are subdued and this combat ceases man comes into a state of peace and rest; not rest from the activities of a useful life, but from the internal warfare through which he has passed. And because it is God that has worked in man and enabled him to conquer, when man comes into that state it is said that God rested from all His work, and blessed, sanctified, and hallowed the seventh day. We have abundantly demonstrated that day in these records does not mean time, but state; and therefore it is this state to which the regenerate man has arrived,—a state of holy and loving accordance with the divine will and providence that God blesses; and it is from conflict which now ceases that he rests.

While the Christian Church still clings, in some sort, to the belief that the record is a history of the natural creation, it has so modified that belief, and endeavored to adapt its interpretation to the advance of science, as effectually to destroy it as a literal history, but without supplying its place with any rational interpretation. That God, about six thousand years ago, worked six literal days in making the natural universe, and then rested literally the seventh day, and for that reason hallowed it, is no longer believed by any person of any degree of rationality. I do not suppose that a minister or layman of any intelligence could be found in any sect of the Christian Church who would be willing, in the light of this day, to affirm a belief in the literal meaning of the record as it was held and understood even fifty years ago. But when the literal construction of the language is thus given up, the danger is apparent that the record itself will come to be neglected, and finally denied, unless it can be shown that it has a divinely true and important meaning of vital interest to all men, which was not seen by those who mistook it for a literal history in the times of darkness and ignorance of the natural sciences. And such is the fact to an extent that is alarming to the theologians of the day. Throughout all Europe the Bible, as a divine book, has practically lost its hold upon the educated classes. They do not, as a general thing, denounce it as the infidels of the last century did; they simply ignore it, as a thing in which they have no interest. They simply do not believe it, and therefore they do not investigate it. They see that the interpretation given to it forages is not only in conflict with natural science, but that its friends, by their new expositions, fully admit the fact. And when they look at the new interpretation they find that it not only departs from the literal meaning of the record, but is in itself hardly more satisfactory than the old.

And this statement is nearly as true of this country as it is of Europe. Take our own New England. How many of her ministers deny any divinity to the Bible! They preach its high moral precepts, and doubtless cultivate thereby a high state of natural refinement in society. But the same effects would follow if they took their texts from the maxims of Confucius or Plato. The whole tendency is to undermine the authority of the Bible as the absolute word and wisdom of God. But while this state of the public mind has some features to be deplored, yet it carries with it the promise and the prophecy of a glorious future. It is emancipating mens minds from the trammels of mere dogmatic authority, and many are seeking for a clearer light, and will not be satisfied with what does not meet the wants of their highest rationality. That want will eventually be supplied for such minds by the science of correspondences, which unites God with His creation, His Word with His works, and philosophy with religion in an everlasting marriage, and at the wedding-feast mans highest reason will be the most honored guest.

Because man, in the process of his regeneration, passes through six states of combat or spiritual labor before he reaches his highest state, in which, as a conqueror, all conflict ceases, and as this completes the work and makes him into the likeness of God, or holy, therefore the number six in the Word means combat, and seven what is full and perfect, and also what is holy. All numbers in the Word have a spiritual signification wherever they occur. And this signification always has a profoundly scientific basis, either in natural or spiritual processes. It was because of this spiritual process, and to symbolize it in outward life, that time was divided by the most ancient church or people into weeks of seven days, in which men engaged in natural labor for six days to represent this state of combat, and rested on the seventh, or Sabbath, to represent the state of peace and tranquillity of the regenerate state. For we know that the Sabbath was not an original institution with Moses, although enjoined upon the Jews by him. Like the whole of the Jewish economy and the ceremonials of their worship, it was selected from existing customs because of its ability to represent spiritual things. They were too natural a people to constitute a spiritual church, or even to comprehend in any degree spiritual things. They did not, therefore, know anything of the real significance of their gorgeous ceremonials. But they could, from that very fact, be formed into a most perfect representative of a true church, observing with the most exact particularity external forms and ceremonies which served the purpose of correspondences for containing the spiritual principles which these forms symbolized. They thus furnished a basis for the Divine Word, that it might be written according to correspondences for the use of men when they should arrive at a state of spiritual development in which they could receive its spiritual sense; the Word, in the mean time, from its internal sanctity and divinity, serving to conjoin the spiritual and natural worlds by correspondence, although men were not in a state to perceive it.

Because the number six, for the reasons given, means combat, and because the number ten, with its multiples, as a hundred and a thousand, means all there is of the subject referred to, and because the multiplication of two numbers gives in the product the combined meaning of both, as was stated in former lectures, therefore it is recorded that Noah was six hundred years old when he entered the ark. The story of the flood, as the record of a literal event, is given up by all the Christian Church, at least by the intelligent portion of it. It means not a flood of literal waters, but of spiritual temptations. And the ark does not mean a natural ship to save Noah from a natural flood, but true doctrine formed of divine truths which constitutes the Lords true church, or the kingdom of heaven with man. This ark saved him from the flood of spiritual evil which overwhelmed all who were not within its protection. But Noah could not come into that ark and be safe until he had lived just six hundred years,—that is, until he had passed through the states of combat signified by the number six, and through all of them, as signified by six hundred, being the product of six and a hundred multiplied together. Of course we do not mean by Noah any individual man of that name, but an ancient church called Noah, as the most ancient was called Adam, and a subsequent one was called Israel.

Because six signifies combat, and to represent it, it was ordained in the Jewish law that the servant should serve six years and then go free; and also that the land itself should be cultivated six years, and rest or remain wholly uncultivated the seventh. And because by a king, in the Word, is meant truth ruling, and by the throne on which he sat is signified judgment according to truth, and because such judgment is only possible by those who have overcome all selfish and evil purposes, it was provided that the throne upon which Solomon and the kings of Israel sat in judgment should have six steps, to signify that all internal combats must cease before absolute truth reigns. For the same reason it is recorded by Matthew that at the crucifixion of the Lord there was darkness over all the earth from the sixth to the ninth hour, and that at the ninth hour Jesus yielded up the ghost. As six signifies combat, and nine is the product of three multiplied by itself, and as three means what is full, and its square or nine, fulness in the highest degree, it means that the Lords combat with evil, or the hells, was plenary and complete. Many other instances might be quoted, but it is unnecessary.

And that the number seven signifies what is perfect and holy, from the perfect and holy state of man when he becomes regenerated in the celestial degree and is made into the likeness of God, may be seen from the many instances in which that number is used in the Word. Indeed, so manifest is this that all commentators have had a perception that the number had a figurative meaning and a sense not apparent in the letter; but not understanding anything of the science of correspondences, their guesses at its real meaning have been conflicting and fantastic.

To quote the passages wherein the number seven occurs would be to weary your patience, as every reader of the Word is aware of the frequency of its use. It occurs throughout the whole Word, from our text in Genesis to the close of the Revelation. But to show that it means a holy and regenerate state in man it will be sufficient to refer you to the twenty-first and twenty-second verses of the eighteenth chapter of Matthew, which read : Then came Peter to Him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times? Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven. Which means that state of entire regeneration which brings man into the likeness of God, who is love and forgiveness itself. The Lord has authorized us to pray for forgiveness only as we forgive others. And it is manifest that when the mind is brought into that state in which it can freely and spontaneously forgive all injuries, there can be no further internal conflict. Such a mind will be a Sabbath to the Lord.

Any one will see by reading the record that there is not the slightest authority for giving to the seventh day any other meaning as to time than to either of the preceding days. The transition sometimes attempted from geological periods in the six days to literal time in the seventh is violent, unauthorized, and is clearly a desperate effort by this expedient and after-thought to uphold a mistaken theory that was adopted in times of great mental and spiritual darkness. There is not the slightest intimation in the whole history that all the days are not to be taken in the same sense as to time. Therefore, if the six days do not mean respectively a revolution of the earth, neither does the seventh. And therefore those who adopt the theory of indefinite geological eras for the six days must in consistency give up the literal understanding of the seventh day also. And now a need is felt for an intelligible interpretation of the record which no natural learning or ingenuity can supply. This being so, I would earnestly ask those of candid minds—and this in the kindest spirit of charity and good-will—at least to examine the explanation furnished by the science of correspondences, which makes the whole record consistent, rational, and divine. I make this appeal the more readily because of the fact that the New Church interpretation was given before the natural sciences had disturbed the general acceptance of the old interpretation, and without the purpose of avoiding these difficulties, while the theory commonly accepted to-day was adopted solely and avowedly to meet the exigency which arose from the utter overthrow of its former interpretation by the development of the natural sciences.

A careful consideration of the various reasons assigned in the Word for the institution of the Sabbath, or seventh day, as a day of rest will satisfy any candid inquirer that something more must be meant than appears in the mere natural sense of the letter. Here in our text the seventh day is said to be blessed and sanctified, because that in it God ended all His work and rested. But no rational mind at this day can be so gross as to contend that God was really fatigued with manual labor on the six days, and needed to rest on the seventh, as a toiling man does. But if it does not mean just that, then it does not mean what the letter expresses, and we are not only at liberty but are in duty bound to seek for its true meaning. And as the idea that God was weary and needed rest is wholly inadmissible, so it is equally irrational to suppose that He ceased His divine operations, as it manifestly requires the same power and providence to preserve and sustain that it does to create. The true meaning, therefore, of the expressions that God ended His work and rested on the seventh day is to be found in the states of man, and not of his immutable and Divine Creator.

In the twentieth chapter of Exodus we have the ten commandments, among which is the ordinance of the Sabbath, and the reason assigned for its institution is expressed in these words : For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it. This, it will be seen, is the same reason as that assigned in the text. But we have seen in our lectures on those days that it was the creation of man into the image of God, and not of the natural universe, that the record in Genesis treats; and it therefore means the same thing here, for the Word is consistent and divine throughout in its internal sense. Consequently it is here, as it is there, man in his regenerate state that is the Sabbath which the Lord sanctifies and blesses, and of which the rest of the Sabbath was a type.

In the fifth chapter of Deuteronomy we have the ten commandments again recited before the assembled multitude of Israel, in the most solemn and imposing manner, but here all reference to creation is omitted from the third, and a wholly different reason is assigned for the institution and observance of the Sabbath. In Exodus, before referred to, the reason assigned is, For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it. But here in Deuteronomy the reason is assigned in these words: And remember 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 by a stretched-out arm: therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the Sabbath day.

These two different promulgations of the commandments, and the totally different reasons assigned for the giving of the third, or the institution of the Sabbath, has presented a difficulty to the commentators which they have never been able to overcome. I need not weary you with reciting their conflicting and unsatisfactory attempts at explanation and reconciliation. It is simply impossible to reconcile them in the mere letter. In one instance the reason assigned is that God ended His work of creation on that day, and therefore sanctified it; and in the other the reason is that God brought Israel out of bondage in Egypt, and therefore instituted and sanctified it There is no conflict in the spiritual sense of these reasons. We have seen that the six days of creation signify the combats with evil through which man passes in the process of regeneration, and the seventh the state of holy rest which he enjoys when he has overcome, and the conflict ceases. And the bondage of Israel in Egypt signifies precisely the same thing. The Lord brought them from a state of labor and conflict to a land of freedom, in which they were delivered from their severe servitude. This deliverance, since all we have of Jewish history in the Word is given for the sake of the spiritual sense which that history symbolizes, signifies the regeneration of man and his deliverance from servitude to his baser propensities signified by Egypt, and his elevation to that state of holy freedom and rest symbolized by the Sabbath, which means rest.

That this is the meaning of the Sabbath, a regenerated state of man, and not merely one day in seven of natural time that the Lord blesses, is most plainly declared by the Lord through Moses in another place. If you will turn to the thirty-first chapter of Exodus, the twelfth and thirteenth verses, you will find these most significant words: And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily my Sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you.

Here is the distinct declaration that the Sabbath is a sign, or symbol, or representative, or correspondent, of the work of the Lord in sanctifying or regenerating His people.

In Genesis and Exodus, which I have quoted, it is declared that the Lord sanctified the Sabbath because on it He ended His work and rested. In Deuteronomy, which I have likewise quoted, it is declared that the Sabbath was sanctified because He had brought Israel out of bondage in Egypt. And here it is declared that the Sabbath is a sign by which it may be known that it is the Lord that sanctifies His people. It is seen that the literal sense is in irreconcilable conflict, and could yield us no possible spiritual instruction if it could be reconciled. For suppose it was admitted by all that God did really work six literal days in making the world, and did really rest on the seventh day, and for that reason did command and require men to rest on every seventh day, can any one conceive what possible spiritual instruction it would convey ? It might be a very good reason why we should obey the command if we had no higher conception of God than of an all-powerful ruler whose arbitrary orders it would not be safe to disobey. But would not that be all? And is not that the reason that is assigned by many even yet for keeping the Sabbath ? Do we not: hear it proclaimed that God will be angry, just as an arbitrary ruler would be, at the disregard of His commands, and will pour out His wrath and fury upon the disobedient ? It is well for those who see nothing spiritual in the Divine Word to accept it even in this merely natural light, for it is to them a restraint upon their outward conduct, which is a natural good to society even when fear alone is the motive. And if it is only seen in the sense of the letter, and only as an arbitrary command, yet if it is respected even in this low conception of it, because it is held to be the will of the Lord, and with the desire to do His will, the observance will have a spiritual and elevating effect upon the mind that so regards it although unconscious of its higher significance.

But suppose the other reason assigned—namely, that the Lord, with a mighty hand and an out-stretched arm, brought the children of Israel out of bondage in Egypt, and therefore commanded them to keep the Sabbath—should be adopted by common consent as the ground of its institution, would that furnish any spiritual instruction to aid us in our conflicts with our own evils ? It might add so much to our knowledge of the literal history of the Jews some three or four thousand years ago ; but would it have any more sanctity or divinity than the same fact if it was found in Herodotus or Strabo, unless it has an internal, spiritual sense above mere human history, a sense that brings it home to us in our every-day life and duty ? Every one sees that it would not.

But if it is understood, as it is declared to be, a sign throughout all generations, that it is the Lord that sanctifies or regenerates His people, and the true nature and processes of that regeneration are understood by means of the science of correspondences as portrayed in the spiritual sense of the six days of labor and the seventh of rest in the one case, and in the bondage in Egypt and deliverance therefrom in the other; and when it is seen that all men in all times and in all countries must pass through precisely the same labor and bondage before the rest and freedom of the regenerate state can be enjoyed, the institution of the Sabbath comes home to us with a personal application and interest of infinite moment. It is seen to be no longer the dry record of a literal fact in the history of a strange people of remote antiquity, but the divinely-inspired message of infinite wisdom embodying a spiritual philosophy as broad as humanity, as all-embracing as Gods providence, as enduring as eternity itself.

In this view of the subject it is seen that the controversy as to what particular day of the week should be kept as the Sabbath is wholly irrelevant to the real question ; for it is not any particular portion of natural time that the Lord sanctifies. To Him all days are alike. His infinite Divine Providence is never suspended. And if the command really required us to keep the seventh day from the beginning of the creation of natural things, and for the reason that God attached a peculiar sanctity to that and to every subsequent seventh day, it is clear to every one that some more explicit instruction would have been given to enable us to select the true Sabbath for observance, lest all mankind should desecrate the right day for want of this knowledge. Moreover, the people on the different parts of the earth could not keep the same day at the same time, for while it is sunrise in one place it is sunset at another, and when it is noon with us it is midnight with those on the opposite side of the earth. And with those living in extreme northern and southern latitudes the day extends to weeks, and even to months, of our time. If the sanctity applied to the time, therefore, the command to keep it is simply impracticable. It must, therefore, have some spiritual significance, or it means nothing of practical value to us.

Again, if it was required of the Jews to keep the Sabbath simply as a memorial of their deliverance from bondage in Egypt, then it would seem from the letter that it could apply only to the Jews, as they alone were so delivered in a natural sense. And if they, by divine direction, or otherwise, were enabled to select the correct day for observance, then it is certain that nearly all Christians are wrong, for the Jewish Sabbath was, and still is, kept upon our Saturday. And so evident is this that some Christians, as the Seventh-day Baptists, believing that the sanctity really attaches to the day, and that the Jews have the right day, conscientiously keep the seventh day, or Saturday, for their Sabbath. And if sanctity attaches to the day, they are certainly more nearly in accord with the letter of the Word than other Christians. For there is no direct command, either in the Old Testament or in the New, to change the Sabbath from Saturday under the Jewish, to Sunday under the Christian dispensation.

If asked, therefore, if we repudiate the Sabbath, we answer emphatically, No ! We establish it upon the enduring basis of mans spiritual nature and the divine philosophy of our Lord when He answered the like cavil of the Pharisees, as recorded in the twenty-seventh and twenty-eighth verses of the second chapter of Mark, And He said unto them, The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath : therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath. If the Lords declaration be true, that the Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath, then its uses, if rightly understood, will be found to be in harmony with mans essential qualities, and to be an appropriate means, in Gods providential dealings with him, in working out his final destiny. Its sanctity will not depend on the particular day, or portion of natural time, but on the uses it is capable of serving in mans combats with his evils, and his deliverance from bondage to the low and sensual principles of his nature, in his regeneration and preparation for that state of tranquillity and rest which the word Sabbath signifies.

It is, therefore, not essential how the observance of it came to be changed from Saturday with the Jews to Sunday with the Christians. But as the Lord arose on the first day of the Jewish week, it seems, from all the intimations we have in the New Testament or the history of the early church, that the disciples met on that day in commemoration of the Lords resurrection. On that day the Lord came to them, and again, an eight days after, He was with them. The day became associated with His presence, and was called the Lords day. Whether they had any authority by direct revelation for letting this day take the place of the Jewish Sabbath we are not told, but doubtless they were either consciously or unconsciously led to that practice by the Lords providence, from its peculiar appropriateness. The Lord on that day arose triumphant, having conquered all the powers of evil, and glorified His humanity. He was forever beyond the assaults of infernal principles, the Prince of Peace, the Lord of the Sabbath, the Way, the Truth, the Life, the everlasting Rest of those who should follow Him in the regeneration.

The ancient churches down to the time of Moses observed the Sabbath as a memorial of the tranquillity and rest of the regenerate state, after the combats signified by the six days of labor had ceased. The Jewish Church observed it as a memorial of their deliverance from bondage in Egypt, which spiritually signified the same combat and rest. The Christian Church observed it as a memorial of the resurrection of the Lord, which was the filling out of all previous types in the conquest of all evil by means of the Lords combats therewith, and His opening thereby a new and living way to the rest, or spiritual Sabbath, of which He declares Himself the Lord. And the New Church observes it, not as a memorial of any natural event, for with her all its significance is spiritual; and not as a type, for all types were exhausted in her Divine Redeemer; but as a providential means to the divinest use, the spiritual elevation and regeneration of man. It is not, therefore, to the New Church what it was to the Jew, a day for a man to afflict his soul. It is not to her what a mistaken view made it to the stern and conscientious Christians, an arbitrary command hedged around with fearful penalties that appalled the heart and paled the cheek lest Gods fury should break forth upon them for some unconscious omission to observe with the appropriate gloom and solemnity the awful sanctity of the hallowed time. But it is to her a glorious privilege, a time of joy and gladness, a rest from worldly care, an opportunity to receive and impart spiritual instruction, and a means of release from worldly bondage and of elevation to the spiritual possibilities of life.

Our Lord performed many of His miracles upon the Sabbath, especially the healing of the diseased, which all represented the dispersion of spiritual disorders and the restoration of man to that state of order and purity in which alone true happiness can be enjoyed. But His disciples were not then prepared to look beyond the literal fact of the bodily healing to the spiritual principles which His miracles represented. They were not able to bear the full unveiled glories of the spirit and life of His words and His works. They were not able to rise above the natural degree of the mind. They looked at all things in a natural light. They expected a temporal kingdom, and were offended when He spoke of things of a higher nature, and many, we are told, when His language was such that it could not be appropriated by the natural mind in its literal sense, went back and walked no more with Him. They could understand the fact of the miracle wrought before their eyes, but could see nothing in it but the fact itself and the power which the Lord possessed, and trusted that He was to be the great earthly prince that was to deliver Israel from their Roman bondage and make them a great nation. Often had lie endeavored to teach them the grander object of His mission, but they could not comprehend it. The fourteenth chapter of John is a most touching condescension to their state, in which He soothes, encourages, instructs, and sympathizes with their feebleness of perception with a Divine compassion. He had been teaching them that His kingdom was not of this world, but they could not understand. He had been teaching them that He was about to go away from them, and that as they knew whither He went, and the way, they need not be afflicted; but they protested that they knew not whither He was going, and how could they know the way? He had been teaching them that He and the Father were one; but they could not comprehend it, and asked Him to show them the Father. With tenderest pity and appeal He says, Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me : or else believe me for the very works sake. As if He had said, If you cannot comprehend that I am one with the Father; if you cannot see the spirit and life of my teaching ; if you cannot rise above the sphere of the mere senses, then believe me on that low and sensuous ground of the cures I have performed, for the sake of the external works that I have done. But, Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do ; because I go unto my Father.

The Lords works, as well as His words, are, in their essential nature and significance, spirit and life; but they were not seen to be such by the disciples to whom He was talking. To them, neither His works nor His words meant anything more than appeared in externals. But the divine promise is that he that believeth shall do the works that He performed, in their spiritual sense, and these would be greater works than the mere healing of bodily infirmities. Bodily diseases are but types and correspondences of spiritual infirmities, the cure of which is as much greater, or more important, than the cure of physical maladies, as the spirit and its eternal happiness is of greater value than the body and its temporary welfare. These miracles of spiritual healing, even to the raising of the dead, every believer performs in the work of regeneration. As a means and an aid to this great work, the Sabbath is of inconceivable importance. But without entering into this subject, I leave it for the reflection of each one of you.

Our Lord says the Sabbath was made for man. As a mere civil institution, it is necessary to mans physical development that he should be released from labor and toil at least that proportion of his time. Without this release man would inevitably degenerate physically. He needs just such an institution to develop his social nature. A lazy stupefaction and isolation is not a useful observance of the day. It is better that friends meet in mere social reunions, if they cannot use the day for higher purposes. He needs such an institution for his mental development. The great mass of mankind are so circumstanced that their mental faculties have but little exercise in their weekly toil. And without this blessed institution a mental stagnation must be the sure result. But pre-eminently he needs the day to cultivate and develop his spiritual and religious nature. All can see that without it spiritual progress would be difficult, if not impossible, and mankind would settle back into a state of mere sensualism, if not into barbarism itself.

Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.

And on the seventh day God ended His work which he had made; and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made.

And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it He had rested from all His work which God created and made.