Page:The Parable of Creation.djvu/165

Rh seventh day represents the celestial state the state of rest and peace, when evil no longer tempts and the spirits of sin seduce no more, unquestionably it is blessed. Certainly it is sanctified or made holy. We must understand that no natural thing is holy in itself. It is sanctified by reason of the spiritual principle within. No one day, in itself considered, is more holy than another. It becomes so only by virtue of what it represents. It remains so only in consideration of the holy use to which, by virtue of that representation, it is put. There are six successive states or stages during which the work or struggle or combat of regeneration is performed. The seventh state is holy because combat has ceased and the man has surrendered himself to the Lord.

It was not, therefore, because the earth was literally created in six days, which it was not, and God rested on the seventh, that the Sabbath was instituted. The spiritual meaning of the seventh day of creation is carried over consistently into the Sabbath commandment. It is because the seventh day is the type and representation of a finished regenerate nature that the Sabbath was proclaimed. All memorial days are sacred because of that which they commemorate. As mere arbitrary holidays they would be valueless. But put a meaning into them and they become something. They are then