This scripture has manifest reference to the Saviour’s act of becoming the head of the New-Testament church; and consequently it pertains to the opening of the gospel dispensation. The day in which the people of God rejoice, in view of this relation to the Redeemer, can therefore be understood of no one day of the week; for they are commanded to “rejoice EVERMORE;”[332] but of the whole period of the gospel dispensation. Our Lord uses the word day in the same manner when he says:— “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day; and he saw it, and was glad.”[333] To assert the existence of what is termed the Christian Sabbath on the ground that this text is the prediction of such an institution, is to furnish a fourth pillar for the first-day temple quite as substantial as those already tested. The seventieth week of Daniel’s prophecy extends three and a half years beyond the death of the Redeemer, to the commencement of the great work for the Gentiles. This period of seven years through which we have been passing is the most eventful period in the history of the Sabbath. It embraces the whole history of the Lord of the Sabbath as connected with that institution: His miracles and teaching, by which it is affirmed that he weakened its authority; his death, at which many affirm that he abrogated it; and his resurrection, at which a still larger number declare that he changed it to the first day of the week. We have had the most ample evidence, however, that each of these positions is false; and that the opening of the great work for the Gentiles witnessed the Sabbath of the fourth commandment neither weakened, abrogated, nor changed. CHAPTER XI. THE SABBATH DURING THE MINISTRY OF THE APOSTLES. The knowledge of God preserved in the family of Abraham—The call of the Gentiles—The new covenant puts the law of God into the heart of each Christian—The new covenant has a temple in Heaven; and an ark containing the great original of that law which was in the ark upon earth—And before that ark a priest whose offering can take away sin—The Old and New Testaments compared—The human family in all ages amenable to the law of God—The good olive tree shows the intimate relation between the church of the New Testament and the Hebrew church—The apostolic church observed the Sabbath—Examination of Acts 13—The assembly of the apostles at Jerusalem—Sabbatarian origin of the church at Philippi—Of the church of the Thessalonians—Of the church of Corinth—The churches in Judea and in many cases among the Gentiles began with Sabbath-keepers—Examination of 1 Cor. 16:1, 2—Self-contradiction of Dr. Edwards—Paul at Troas—Examination of Rom. 14:1-6—Flight of the disciples from Judea—The Sabbath of the Bible at the close of the first century.