But the maintenance of personal piety is another of the ends for which the Sabbath was instituted. We are placed upon earth that we may prepare for eternity, and these pauses in our lives, these intervals of rest, are intended by GOD as a means of bringing eternal things from time to time more forcibly before us. Hence a more than ordinary portion of our time should then be devoted to private prayer, to meditation, to the reading of GOD’S Word. We should be striving so to employ these blessed opportunities that they may not at last become swift witnesses against us. We should seek to place ourselves before “the great white throne,” and to dwell in thought on “Him who sitteth on it.” So will the tumults of passion be stilled in our inmost hearts, and a more than earthly peace be breathed upon our spirits. We shall learn more clearly the great truth, which outward objects are ever hiding from our view, that “the world passeth away, and the lust thereof; but that he that doeth the will of GOD abideth for ever.” {21a} The Sabbath is an emblem of Heaven, and a type of its joys, and so it is in it that we must acquire a taste for those enjoyments. The unregenerate man is unfit for Heaven. It would be no Paradise to him. It is only “the pure in heart” who “shall see GOD.” {21b} Hence the Christian is here meetening for its happiness. From time to time the veil is lifted, and he is permitted to behold faint glimpses of its glories. In the service of an earthly sanctuary, he hears an echo of the music of Heaven. In his seasons of prayer and Communion with GOD, and in his freedom from earthly care and toil, he learns something of that “rest” which “remaineth for the people of GOD.” {22a} The earthly Sabbath is but an earnest and foretaste of the heavenly one. Here it is succeeded by the struggles and anxieties of life. Here thoughts of worldly care often interrupt its happiness. Here there is but the offering of an earthly service, and the devotion of an earthly heart. But there all shall be changed. For His Saints “shall serve Him day and night in His temple: they shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more, neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat.” {22b} No “tears” shall dim the eye. No “death” shall enter the home, and take away from us those whom we love. No “sorrow nor crying,” no “pain” shall be there, “for the former things will have passed away.” {22c}