And be it observed, that this is the true character of a sabbath. This is the only sabbath which God ever celebrated, so far as the inspired record instructs us. After this, we read of God's commanding man to keep the sabbath, and man utterly failing so to do; but we never read again the words, "God rested:" on the contrary, the word is, "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work." (John v. 17.) The sabbath, in the strict and proper sense of the term, could only be celebrated when there really was nothing to be done. It could only be celebrated amid an undefiled creation,--a creation on which no spot of sin could be discerned. God can have no rest where there is sin; and one has only to look around him in order to learn the total impossibility of God's enjoying a rest in creation _now_. The thorn and the thistle, together with the ten thousand other melancholy and humiliating fruits of a groaning creation, rise before us, and declare that God must be at _work_ and not at _rest_. Could God rest in the midst of thorns and briers? Could he rest amid the sighs and tears, the groans and sorrows, the sickness and death, the degradation and guilt of a ruined world? Could God sit down, as it were, and celebrate a sabbath in the midst of such circumstances? Whatever answer may be given to these questions, the word of God teaches us that God has had no sabbath, as yet, save the one which the 2d of Genesis records. "The seventh day," and none other, was the sabbath. It showed forth the completeness of creation-work; but creation-work is marred, and the seventh-day rest interrupted; and thus, from the fall to the incarnation, God was working; from the incarnation to the cross, God the Son was working; and from Pentecost until now, God the Holy Ghost has been working. Assuredly, Christ had no sabbath when he was upon this earth. True, he finished his work,--blessedly, gloriously finished it,--but where did he spend the Sabbath-day? _In the tomb!_ Yes, my reader, the Lord Christ, God manifest in the flesh, the Lord of the Sabbath, the maker and sustainer of heaven and earth, spent the seventh day in the dark and silent tomb. Has this no voice for us? Does it convey no teaching? Could the Son of God lie in the grave on the seventh day, if that day were to be spent in rest and peace; and in the full sense that nothing remained to be done? Impossible! We want no further proof of the impossibility of celebrating a sabbath than that which is afforded at the grave of Jesus. We may stand beside that grave amazed to find it occupied by such an one on the seventh day; but, oh! the reason is obvious. Man is a fallen, ruined, guilty creature. His long career of guilt has ended in crucifying the Lord of glory; and not only crucifying him, but placing a great stone at the mouth of the tomb, to prevent, if possible, his leaving it.