Page:The Parable of Creation.djvu/157

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The Sabbath of Rest.
153

descriptive of some added principle, newer thought, freshly developed capacity, holier affection, diviner love, brought forth on the field of the mind.

And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made. As all allusions here are spiritual, the work of God is his work of recreating or regenerating the human mind. When that is complete his work is ended. But we must here avoid the idea of work which pertains to the labors of man. It is not a wrestling with a perverse human understanding and heart. It is not toil and strife and strained exertion. The Lord's energies proceed in quietness. They go forth after the gentle manner of sunbeams, and they develop minds with the noiseless methods by which plants grow and buds expand and fruits ripen. Whatever of unrest there is, whatever of wrestle and toil and strife, is on the man's part.

While regeneration is progressing there is more or less inward opposition to the hoped-for change. The earthly nature rebels against spiritual views of things, spiritual methods of action, the government of the nature by the spiritual law of right and wrong. The regenerative influences of the Lord are often, as it were, swept back. The good and the bad enter into a struggle for the mastery. Or, it would be better to say, the bad struggles to prevent the good from assuming the control. All