The Bible Echo, vol. 13

17/23

August 29, 1898

“A Blessing on the Man and a Blessing on the Day” The Bible Echo 13, 35, p. 274.

ATJ

WHEN God had created man “in his own image,” then “God bless them.” This was on the sixth day. BEST August 29, 1898, page 274.1

Then came the seventh: “and God blessed the seventh day.” BEST August 29, 1898, page 274.2

God blessed the man, and God bless the seventh day. BEST August 29, 1898, page 274.3

That blessing upon man was a reality. It was a substantial thing which was put upon the man by the Lord for the benefit of the man. BEST August 29, 1898, page 274.4

That blessing upon the seventh day was likewise, and just as certainly, a reality. That, too, was a substantial thing which was put upon that day by the Lord. BEST August 29, 1898, page 274.5

That blessing upon the seventh day was also for the benefit of man; because the seventh day is the Sabbath, the Sabbath was made for man, and that blessing is one of the things that made the seventh day the Sabbath for man. BEST August 29, 1898, page 274.6

No one who knows that there is such a thing as the blessing of God, can deny that the blessing with which God blessed the man was a reality. No one who knows what God’s blessing is can deny that when he blessed the man, there entered the life of the man a substantial good,—one which the man could not possibly disregard without substantial loss. BEST August 29, 1898, page 274.7

And the blessing with which God blessed the seventh day was just as real, just as substantial, and just as much for the good of man, as was the blessing with which he blessed the man. This can not possibly be denied. BEST August 29, 1898, page 274.8

In that blessing which God put upon the seventh day, there was a substantial good for the man, which the man could not possibly disregard or forfeit, any more than he could the blessing upon himself; and forfeited also the blessing of the seventh day, because only the blessed man can share the blessing of the blessed day. BEST August 29, 1898, page 274.9

Yet the Lord did not leave the man in his lost condition. He creates him new in Christ Jesus again, “after the image of him that created him.” And man, being again “in the image of God,” is blessed of God. Acts 3:26; Ephesians 1:3. BEST August 29, 1898, page 274.10

And the blessed day “remaineth” for this blessed man. Hebrews 4:3-9. The blessed man can enjoy the blessed day. And only the blessed man can enjoy the blessed day, because that blessed day “remaineth” “to the people of God.” BEST August 29, 1898, page 274.11

Yet said it is that so many people who claim to be, and who indeed are, such blessed men, and to enjoy the blessings of the blessed man, utterly disregard, and even reject, the blessed day, which was made, and which “remaineth,” for these very blessed men. They wholly lose, and seem content, and even determined, to lose, the blessing of the blessed day, which was made, and which “remaineth,” especially for blessed men. Surely, they know not what they do. They know not what they are losing. BEST August 29, 1898, page 274.12

Why will blessed people, why will any people, reject the blessing of God because he placed it for them upon the seventh day? BEST August 29, 1898, page 274.13

A. T. JONES.

“We Would See Jesus,” 1 The Bible Echo 13, 35, p. 281.

ATJ

We Would See Jesus.—We would see Him coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory, and would hear His might voice saying to His angels, “Gather My Saints together unto Me, those that have made a covenant with Me by sacrifice.” And then and there in the midst of the church would we see Him and hear His glorious voice singing that song of promised praise to the Father. Hebrews 2:12. Oh, ‘tis thus that “we would see Jesus”! BEST August 29, 1898, page 281.1

And we thank God, not only for the hope that we shall see Him as He is, but also that the signs are abundant all about us that show this “blessed hope” shall be fulfilled. BEST August 29, 1898, page 281.2

A. T. JONES.