Himself, excelling in glory all that had
preceded. In this simple expression, Scripture reveals to us the
character of God as the Holy One, who _makes holy_; the way in which He
makes holy, by entering in and _resting_; and the power of _blessing_
with which God's making holy is ever accompanied. These three lessons we
shall find it of the deepest importance to study well, as containing the
root-principles of all the Scripture will have to teach us in our
pursuit of Holiness.

1. God _sanctified_ the Sabbath day. Of the previous six days the
keyword was, from the first calling into existence of the heaven and the
earth, down to the making of man: _God created_. All at once a new word
and a new work of God, is introduced: _God sanctified_. Something higher
than creation, that for which creation is to exist, is now to be
revealed; God Almighty is now to be known as God Most Holy. And just as
the work of creation shows His Power, without that Power being
mentioned, so His making holy the seventh day reveals His character as
the Holy One. As Omnipotence is the chief of His natural, so Holiness is
the first of His moral attributes. And just as He alone is Creator, so
He alone is Sanctifier; to make holy is His work as truly and
exclusively as to create. Blessed is the child of God who truly and
fully believes this!

God sanctified the Sabbath day. The word can teach us what the nature
is of the work God does when He makes holy. Sanctification in Paradise
cannot be essentially different from Sanctification in Redemption. God
had pronounced all His works, and man the chief of them, very good. And
yet they were not holy. The six days' work had nought of defilement or
sin, and yet it was not holy. The seventh day needed to be specially
made holy, for the great work of making holy man, who was already very
good. In Exodus, God says distinctly that He sanctified the Sabbath day,
with a view to man's sanctification. 'That ye may know that I am the
Lord that doth _sanctify you_.' Goodness, innocence, purity, freedom
from sin, is not Holiness. Goodness is the work of omnipotence, an
attribute of nature, as God creates it: holiness is something infinitely
higher. We speak of the holiness of God as His infinite moral
perfection; man's moral perfection could only come in the use of his
will, consenting freely to and abiding in the will of God. Thus alone
could he become holy. The seventh day was made holy by God as a pledge
that He wo