perpetual dower. To keep the sabbath, then, would imply a denial or forgetfulness of this our privilege and blessedness. Nor are we members of that outward world which was completed in the six days; we, regenerate Christians, belong to the new heaven and the new earth, the creation of which is not yet completed. We glory, not in the finished work of the old frame of things which waxeth old and is ready to perish, but in the beginning of the new creation-the first day of the eternal week-the morning of the Resurrection.

4. AND GOD SAW THE LIGHT, THAT IT WAS GOOD.

This did the Almighty Father testify of the true Light of the world, "when there came such a voice to Him from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased." God saw

h2 St. Peter i. 17.

the Light that it was good, God accepted His beloved Son, in the form which He had assumed, of a creature. And in Him and through Him alone, did He declare that anything was good which He had made. In the phrase, "God said," we are taught to recognise the operation of the Almighty through His Eternal Word; and in the expression, "God saw," we are led to the thought of the true Lightfor the expression is adapted to human notions, men see objects only when the light is thrown upon them-and it is only when the true Light is thrown upon it, when it is beheld, so to say, in His Son, that the Everlasting Father pronounces His creation good. The Holy Church, Christ's body, receives the abundance of heavenly blessing, because she is viewed. in union with her Head. She is in the Light, is one with the Light, and God hath seen the Light that it is good.

AND GOD DIVIDED THE LIGHT FROM THE DARKNESS.

5. AND GOD CALLED THE LIGHT DAY, AND THE DARKNESS HE CALLED NIGHT. AND THE EVENING AND THE MORNING WERE THE FIRST DAY.

All-pervading as is the heavenly light, in its own nature, it does not, as we too plainly see, permanently enlighten all. Though it "lighteth every man that cometh into the world," there are who will not receive it. It shineth in the darkness, but the darkness comprehendeth it not, and becometh, so to speak, still darker by encountering it, as it is said, "if the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness." And therefore one effect of that light's shining is to make a great and permanent division between mankind; between those who walk in the light, and those who Iwalk in the darkness. The revelation of the truth is given for "the fall" as

i St. Matt. vi. 23.

well as the

it is to some

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"rising again of many;"

a savour of life unto life," and to others, "of death unto death." The light has shone from the beginning, and from the beginning has God been dividing the light from the darkness; but these things shall both be done more fully in the end.

For the work of God is one, and harmonious throughout. In a sense, the beginning of it is also the ending. In what we are told of the first day, we are told of what shall be in the last. The one is a shadow of the other, or if the expression might be allowed, the first day is the last day anticipated. For in the last day shall God say, in the most awful sense, "Let there be light." And the true Light, till then in a manner shrouded, shall be visibly and personally revealed; the great manifestation shall take place; the world of sin, without form and void,

shall be displayed as it is; and God shall divide the light from the darkness for

ever.

6. AND GOD SAID, LET THERE BE A FIRMAMENT IN THE MIDST OF THE WATERS, AND LET IT DIVIDE THE WATERS FROM THE WATERS.

7. AND GOD MADE THE FIRMAMENT, AND DIVIDED THE WATERS WHICH WERE UNDER THE FIRMAMENT FROM THE WATERS WHICH WERE ABOVE THE FIRMAMENT; AND IT WAS SO.

8. AND GOD CALLED THE FIRMAMENT HEAVEN. AND THE EVENING AND THE MORNING WERE THE SECOND DAY.

Water is, with the exception of light, the only thing yet spoken of as created; a division of the waters from the waters is consequently a division, into two parts, of the whole creation; the firmament, or solid barrier, being interposed between the two. In this we may perhaps recognise the division between the Angels and celestial powers, and inhabitants of what we call heaven, on the one hand, and man, with the creatures of this our visible

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