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the Sabbath stillness of perfect trust, God comes to keep His Sabbath
holy; and the soul where He rests He sanctifies. Whether we speak of His
own day, 'He sanctified it,' or His own people 'sanctified in Christ,'
the secret of Holiness is ever the same: 'He sanctified because he
rested.'

3. And then we read, '_He blessed_ and sanctified it.' As used in the
first chapter and throughout the book of Genesis, the word 'God blessed'
is one of great significance. 'Be fruitful and multiply' was, as to
Adam, so later to Noah and Abraham, the Divine exposition of its
meaning. The blessing with which God blessed Adam and Noah and Abraham
was that of fruitfulness and increase, the power to reproduce and
multiply. When God blessed the seventh day, He filled it so with the
living power of His Holiness, that in it that Holiness might increase
and reproduce itself in those who, like Him, seek to enter into its rest
and sanctify it. The seventh day is that in which we are still living.
Of each of the creation days it is written, up to the last, 'There was
evening, and there was morning, the sixth day.' Of the seventh the
record has not yet been made; we are living in it now, God's own day of
rest and holiness and blessing. Entering into it in a very special
manner, and taking possession of it, as the time for His rejoicing in
His creature, and manifesting the fulness of His love in sanctifying
him, He has made the dispensation we now live in one of Divine and
mighty blessing. And He has at the same time taught us what the blessing
is. Holiness is blessedness. Fellowship with God in His holy rest is
blessedness. And as all God's blessings in Christ have but one fountain,
God's Holiness, so they all have but one aim, making us partakers of
that Holiness. God created, _and blessed_; with the creation blessing.
God sanctified, _and blessed_; with the Sabbath blessing of His rest.
The Creation blessing, of goodness and fruitfulness and dominion, is to
be crowned by the Sabbath blessing of rest in God and holiness in
fellowship with Him.

God's finished work of Creation was marred by sin, and our fellowship
with Him in the blessing of His holy rest cut off. The finished work of
redemption opened for us a truer rest and a surer entrance into the
Holiness of God. As He rested in His holy day, so He now rests in His
Holy Son. In Him we now can enter fully into the rest of God. 'Made holy
in Christ,' let us rest in Him. Let us rest, becaus