rinds slowly, but for
that reason grinds small. What is the inference? Surely it is that the
Sabbath rest still remains for the true people of God. This Sabbath rest
St. Paul prayed that the true Israel, who glory, not in their
circumcision, but in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, might receive:
"_Peace_ be upon them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God."[52]

The faithfulness of God to fulfil His promise in its higher form is
proved by His having accomplished it in its more elementary forms to
every one that believed. "For he that entered into God's rest did
actually rest from his works"[53]--that is to say, received the
blessings of the Sabbath--as truly as God rested from the work of
creation. The Apostle's practical inference is couched in language
almost paradoxical: "Let us _strive_ to enter into God's _rest_"--not
indeed into the rest of the Old Testament, but into the better rest
which God now offers in His Son.

The oneness of the dispensations has been proved. They are one in their
design, in their threatenings, in their promises. If we seek the
fundamental ground of this threefold unity, we shall find it in the fact
that both dispensations are parts of a Divine revelation. God has
spoken, and the word of God does not pass away. "Think not," said our
Lord, "that I came to destroy the Law or the prophets; I came not to
destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth
pass away, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass away from the Law
till all things be accomplished."[54] On another occasion He says,
"Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass
away."[55] These passages teach us that the words of God through Moses
and in the Son are equally immutable. Many features of the old covenant
may be transient; but, if it is a word of God, it abides in its
essential nature through all changes. For "the word of God is
living,"[56] because He Who speaks the word is the living God. It acts
with mighty energy,[57] like the silent laws of nature, which destroy
or save alive according as men obey or disobey them. It cuts like a
sword whetted on each side of the blade, piercing through to the place
where the natural life of the soul divides[58] from, or passes into, the
supernatural life of the spirit. For it is revelation that has made
known to man his possession of the spiritual faculty. The word "spirit"
is used by heathen writers. But in their books it means only the air