This was the day of rest instituted by God in Gen. 2, hence before the Jewish law, and thus belonging to man at large. The Jewish Sabbath under the law, was surrounded with the strictest rules, to prevent its sanctity and rest being brokers (Ex. 20:10; Neh. 10:31; 13:19); and those who transgressed it were rigorously punished (Ex. 16:27; Num. 15:32). When the Lord of the Sabbath (Mark 2:28) carne, he showed that sin having come in, there was no longer any rest for Him who, as Creator (Col. 1.) had rested in Gen. 2 He must finish the work He was sent to do (Matt. 12:12; Luke 13:16). After the resurrection, the Sabbath gradually ceased to be observed by Christians as far as its legal enactments, which passed away with the Jewish religion they belonged to. In place of the Sabbath however, still carrying out the divine principle of one day in the seven being set apart from worldly affairs, the first (instead of the last) day of the week was observed as the Lord’s day, being the day on which Christ rose from the dead. On this day the disciples used to assemble to break bread (not on the first of the month or year), Acts 20:7. The Lord’s day, however, is not a day of rest in the sense the Sabbath was; on the contrary, it is often a day of hard toil’ but always in the Lord’s service. For the world at large, it is a merciful and wise provision, that God has led governments to enact the public observance of this day in a general way, as a day of rest. For although the injunction for this cannot be found in Scripture, the principle is clearly embodied in Gen. 2 and Mark 2:27, that the Sabbath was instituted for the benefit of man at large; and now, Judaism having passed away, the Lord’s day is observed instead.