The First Sabbath Day

BY C. GUTHERZ, A CONTEMPORARY SWISS

AMERICAN ARTIST.

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"And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.”—Gen., 2, 3.

N this great religious devotional painting is shown

I

the culmination of the creation of the world. For

six days God labored; and under His hand the earth became a completed whole, marvelously and wonderfully complete. But the earth had not been made for the mere earthly pleasure of man. He, as God's creature, was to take his place in the great choir of the angels worshipping the Almighty.

Upon that first Sabbath day the work was ended; and man, the last created being, was summoned to join in the divine pæan of peace and joy and rest. "And God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good." So the Master reached forth His hand and blessed the whole, and Adam and Eve began their life in that primeval happiness and intimacy with God, of which their sin was so soon to deprive them and the world.