The law within the ark was that which demanded an atonement; the ceremonial law which ordained the Levitical priesthood and the sacrifices for sin, was that which taught men how the atonement could be made. The broken law was beneath the mercy-seat; the blood of sin-offering was sprinkled upon its top, and pardon was extended to the penitent sinner. There was actual sin, and hence a real law which man had broken; but there was not a real atonement, and hence the need of the great antitype to the Levitical sacrifices. The real atonement when it is made must relate to that law respecting which an atonement had been shadowed forth. In other words, the shadowy atonement related to that law which was shut up in the ark, indicating that a real atonement was demanded by that law. It is necessary that the law which demands atonement, in order that its transgressor may be spared, should itself be perfect, else the fault would in part at least rest with the Law-giver, and not wholly with the sinner. Hence, the atonement when made does not take away the broken law, for that is perfect, but is expressly designed to take away the guilt of the transgressor.[116] Let it be remembered then that the fourth commandment is one of the ten precepts of God’s broken law; one of the immutable holy principles that made the death of God’s only Son necessary before pardon could be extended to guilty man. These facts being borne in mind, it will not be thought strange that the Law-giver should reserve the proclamation of such a law to himself; and that he should intrust to no created being the writing of that law which should demand as its atonement the death of the Son of God. CHAPTER VI. THE SABBATH DURING THE DAY OF TEMPTATION. General history of the Sabbath in the wilderness—Its violation one cause of excluding that generation from the promised land—Its violation by their children in the wilderness one of the causes of their final dispersion from their own land—The statute respecting fires upon the Sabbath—Various precepts relative to the Sabbath—The Sabbath not a Jewish feast—The man who gathered sticks upon the Sabbath—Appeal of Moses in behalf of the decalogue—The Sabbath not derived from the covenant at Horeb—Final appeal of Moses in behalf of the Sabbath—The original fourth commandment—The Sabbath not a memorial of the flight from Egypt—What words were engraven upon stone—General summary from the books of Moses.