And what was man doing while the Son of God was in the grave? He was observing the Sabbath-day! What a thought! Christ in his grave to repair a broken sabbath, and yet man attempting to keep the sabbath as though it were not broken at all! It was _man's_ sabbath, and not God's. It was a sabbath without Christ,--an empty, powerless, worthless, because Christless and Godless, form. But some will say, "the day has been changed, while all the principles belonging to it remain the same." I do not believe that scripture furnishes any foundation for such an idea. Where is the divine warrant for such a statement? Surely if there is scripture authority, nothing can be easier than to produce it. But the fact is, there is none; on the contrary, the distinction is most fully maintained in the New Testament. Take one remarkable passage, in proof: "In the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn towards the first day of the week." (Matt. xxviii. 1.) There is, evidently, no mention here of the seventh day being changed to the first day; nor yet of any transfer of the Sabbath from the one to the other. The first day of the week is not the Sabbath changed, but altogether a new day. It is the first day of a new period, and not the last day of an old. The seventh day stands connected with earth and earthly rest: the first day of the week, on the contrary, introduces us to heaven and heavenly rest. This makes a vast difference in the principle; and when we look at the matter in a practical point of view, the difference is most material. If I celebrate the seventh day, it marks me as an earthly man, inasmuch as that day is, clearly, the rest of earth--creation-rest; but if I am taught by the Word and Spirit of God to understand the meaning of the first day of the week, I shall at once apprehend its immediate connection with that new and heavenly order of things, of which the death and resurrection of Christ form the everlasting foundation. The seventh day appertained to Israel and to earth. The first day of the week appertains to the Church and to heaven. Further, Israel was _commanded_ to observe the sabbath day; the Church is _privileged_ to enjoy the first day of the week. The former was the _test_ of Israel's moral condition; the latter is the significant _proof_ of the Church's eternal acceptance. That made manifest what Israel _could do_ for God; this perfectly declares what God _has done_ for us.